Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Minnesota Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Wright, James
...Just off the Highway to Rochester, Minnesota
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...g myself, to sing there arctic songs, 
To Kanada, till I absorb Kanada in myself—to Michigan then, 
To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs, (they are inimitable;)
Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs—to Missouri and Kansas and Arkansas, to sing
 theirs, 
To Tennessee and Kentucky—to the Carolinas and Georgia, to sing theirs, 
To Texas, and so along up toward California, to roam accepted everywhere; 
To sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum, if need be,) 
The ...Read more of this...

by Wright, James
...Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...the trajectory of a 42-centimeter projectile,

I flash to the form of a man to his hips in snow drifts of Manitoba and Minnesota—in the 
sled derby run from Winnipeg to Minneapolis.

He is beaten in the race the first day out of Winnipeg—the lead dog is eaten by four team 
mates—and the man goes on and on—running while the other racers ride—running while the 
other racers sleep—

Lost in a blizzard twenty-four hours, repeating a circle of travel hour after hour—fighting ...Read more of this...

by Emanuel, James A
...on, thermometers—
the bait and time and place all by the rule—
fishing for the masterpiece,
the imperial muskellunge in Minnesota,
the peerless pike in Canada.
I have propped a well-thumbed book
against the butt of my favorite rod
and fished from my heart.

Yet, for my labors,
all I have to show
are tactics, lore—
so little I know
of that pea-sized brain I am casting for,
to think it could swim
with the phantom-words
that lure me to this shore....Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...llers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande—friendly gatherings, the characters
 and
 fun,

Dwellers up north in Minnesota and by the Yellowstone river—dwellers on coasts and off
 coasts,
Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic seamen breaking passages through the ice. 

The shapes arise! 
Shapes of factories, arsenals, foundries, markets; 
Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of railroads; 
Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches;
Shapes of the flee...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...s of the long-running Mississippi, and down to the Mexican sea; 
Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota; 
Chants going forth from the centre, from Kansas, and thence, equi-distant, 
Shooting in pulses of fire, ceaseless, to vivify all. 

4In the Year 80 of The States,
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, 
Born here of parents born here, from parents the same, and their parents the
 same, 
I, now thirty-six years old...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Minnesota poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs