Famous Macbeth Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Macbeth poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous macbeth poems. These examples illustrate what a famous macbeth poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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An Argument

...t our clerks shall venture scorns and death,
That future ant-hills will not be too good
For Henry Fifth, or Hotspur, or Macbeth.
Promise that through to-morrow's spirit-war
Man's deathless soul will hack and hew its way,
Each flaunting Caesar climbing to his fate
Scorning the utmost steps of yesterday.
Never a shallow jester any more!
Let not Jack Falstaff spill the ale in vain.
Let Touchstone set the fashions for the wise
And Ariel wreak his fancies through the rain.


II. T...Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel


Beautiful Nairn

...of Lochloy,
And visitors when they see it will it heartily enjoy;
And a little further on there's the blasted heath of Macbeth,
And a hillock where the witches are wont to dance till out of breath. 

And as the visitors to Nairn walk along the yellow sand,
They can see, right across the Moray Firth, the Black Island so grand,
With its productive fields and romantic scenery,
And as the tourist gazes thereon his heart fills with ecstasy. 

And Darnaway Castle is well worthy of...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

Behind the Scenes

...a zest 
And practise hard to learn his trade. 
So, whether on the actor's form 
The stately robes of Hamlet sit, 
Or as Macbeth he rave and storm, 
Or plays burlesque to please the pit, 

'Tis each and all a work of art, 
That constant care and practice means -- 
The actor who creates a part 
Has done his work behind the scenes....Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

Keeping Going

...down
You broke your arm. I shared the dread
When a strange bird perched for days on the byre roof.

*

That scene, with Macbeth helpless and desperate
In his nightmare--when he meets the hags agains
And sees the apparitions in the pot--
I felt at home with that one all right. Hearth,
Steam and ululation, the smoky hair
Curtaining a cheek. 'Don't go near bad boys
In that college that you're bound for. Do you hear me?
Do you hear me speaking to you? Don't forget!'
And then the ...Read more of this...
by Heaney, Seamus

Lines in Praise of the Lyric Club Banquet

...y kind to me,
And the entertainment I gave them filled their hearts with glee;
Especially the Recital I gave them from "Macbeth",
They were so much fascinated they almost lost their breath. 

The audience were orderly and all went well,
As cheerily and as smoothly as a marriage bell.
Mr James Speedie was the chairman, and behaved right manfully,
And sang a beautiful song, which filled our hearts with glee. 

But when I sang my "Rattling Boy from Dublin Town",
The audience wer...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz


Ode to Gumbo

...roux dark and mean as a horse’s breath, 
you remind me of some strange, mystical stew 
spawned from a muddy version of Macbeth.
Only someone’s replaced the spells with spices, 
the witches with a Cajun chef.

Maybe you’re a recipe torn from Satan’s Cookbook, 
a kind of dumb-downed devil’s brew
where evil stirs its wicked spoon
in a swampy sacrificial hue.
Maybe God damned the okra that thickens
your soup, the muddy bones that haunt your stew.

Maybe this is why, when we smel...Read more of this...
by Tusa, Chris

Old Trouper

...oned - "hams" maybe,
Yet we Young Arrogance could teach.
"Out, out brief candle!" There are gone
My Lear, my Hamlet and MacBeth;
And now by ashes cold and wan
I wait my cue, my prompter Death.

This life of ours is just a play;
Its end is fashioned from the start;
Fate writes each word we have to say,
And puppet-like we strut our part.
Once I wore laurels on my brow,
But now I wait, a sorry clown,
To make my furtive, farewell bow . . .
Haste Time! Oh, ring the Curtain down....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Abnormal Is Not Courage

...and with form. They rode in sunlight, 
Were mangled. But I say courage is not the abnormal. 
Not the marvelous act. Not Macbeth with fine speeches. 
The worthless can manage in public, or for the moment. 
It is too near the whore's heart: the bounty of impulse, 
And the failure to sustain even small kindness. 
Not the marvelous act, but the evident conclusion of being. 
Not strangeness, but a leap forward of the same quality. 
Accomplishment. The even loyalty. But fresh. 
Not...Read more of this...
by Gilbert, Jack

The Craftsman

...liet
 Rail at the dawning.

How at Bankside, a boy drowning kittens
Winced at the business; whereupon his sister--
Lady Macbeth aged seven--thrust 'em under,
 Sombrely scornful.

How on a Sabbath, hushed and compassionate--
She being known since her birth to the townsfolk--
Stratford dredged and delivered from Avon
 Dripping Ophelia

So, with a thin third finger marrying
Drop to wine-drop domed on the table,
Shakespeare opened his heart till the sunrise--
 Entered to hear him...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Heatherblend Club Banquet

...e blackbird's musical song,
While the sun shines bright in the month of May,
'Twill help to drive dull care away. 

And Macbeth's Castle is grand to be seen,
Situated on Castle Hill, which is beautiful and green.
'Twas there Macbeth lived in days of old,
And a great tyrant he was, be it told. 

I wish the Heatherblend members every success,
Hoping God will prosper them and bless;
Long May Dame Fortune smile upon them,
For all of them I've met are kind gentlemen. 

And in conc...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

The Super

...it haply, Guildenstern.

Alas! I might have spared by breath,
I never played the noble Dane;
And yet when Irving staged Macbeth
I bore a tree of Dunsinane,
And yearned for that barn-storming day,
Of hopes and dreams and patchy pants,
When Guildenstern I'd proudly play -
Or was, maybe, Rosenkrantz?...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

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