Famous Matter Of Course Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Anseo

by Paul Muldoon
 When the master was calling the roll
At the primary school in Collegelands,
You were meant to call back Anseo
And raise your hand 
As your name occurred.
Anseo, meaning here, here and now,
All present and correct,
Was the first word of Irish I spoke.
The last name on the ledger
Belonged to Joseph Mary Plunkett Ward
And was followed, as often as not,
By silence, knowing looks,...Read more of this...

How To Paint A Water Lily

by Ted Hughes
 To Paint a Water Lily

A green level of lily leaves
Roofs the pond's chamber and paves

The flies' furious arena: study
These, the two minds of this lady.

First observe the air's dragonfly
That eats meat, that bullets by

Or stands in space to take aim;
Others as dangerous comb the hum

Under the trees. There are battle-shouts
And death-cries everywhere hereabouts

But inaudible, so the eyes praise
To see...Read more of this...

Woodchucks

by Maxine Kumin
 Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right.
The knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchange
was featured as merciful, quick at the bone
and the case we had against them was airtight,
both exits shoehorned shut with puddingstone,
but they had a sub-sub-basement out of range.

Next morning they turned up again, no worse
for the cyanide than we for our cigarettes
and state-store Scotch, all...Read more of this...

Right in Front of the Army

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 "Where 'ave you been this week or more, 
'Aven't seen you about the war'? 
Thought perhaps you was at the rear 
Guarding the waggons." "What, us? No fear! 
Where have we been? Why, bless my heart, 
Where have we been since the bloomin' start? 
Right in the front of the army, 
Battling day and night! 
Right in the front...Read more of this...

Up At A Villa— Down In The City

by Robert Browning
 (As Distinguished by an Italian Person of Quality)

I

Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare,
The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city-square;
Ah, such a life, such a life, as one leads at the window there!

II

Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear, at least!
There, the whole day long, one's life is a...Read more of this...

Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad?

by William Butler Yeats
 Why should not old men be mad?
Some have known a likely lad
That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
Turn to a drunken journalist;
A girl that knew all Dante once
Live to bear children to a dunce;
A Helen of social welfare dream,
Climb on a wagonette to scream.
Some think it a matter of course that chance
Should starve good men and bad advance,
That if their...Read more of this...

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