Famous News Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

My Mother

by Claude McKay
 I 

Reg wished me to go with him to the field, 
I paused because I did not want to go; 
But in her quiet way she made me yield 
Reluctantly, for she was breathing low. 
Her hand she slowly lifted from her lap 
And, smiling sadly in the old sweet way, 
She pointed to the nail where hung my...Read more of this...

Additions

by Thomas Hardy
 The Fire at Tranter Sweatley's

THEY had long met o' Zundays--her true love and she--
And at junketings, maypoles, and flings;
But she bode wi' a thirtover uncle, and he
Swore by noon and by night that her goodman should be
Naibor Sweatley--a gaffer oft weak at the knee
From taking o' sommat more cheerful than tea--
Who tranted, and moved people's things.

She cried, "O pray...Read more of this...

Last News About The Little Box

by Vasko Popa
 The little box which contains the world
Fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box

The little box of the little box
Also fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box

And so it went on forever

The world from the little box
Ought to be inside
The last offspring of the little box

But not one of the little boxes
Inside the little box in...Read more of this...

This is my letter to the World

by Emily Dickinson
 This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me --
The simple News that Nature told --
With tender Majesty

Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see --
For love of Her -- Sweet -- countrymen --
Judge tenderly -- of Me...Read more of this...

On Receiving News of the War

by Isaac Rosenberg
 Snow is a strange white word.
No ice or frost
Has asked of bud or bird
For Winter's cost.

Yet ice and frost and snow
From earth to sky
This Summer land doth know.
No man knows why.

In all men's hearts it is.
Some spirit old
Hath turned with malign kiss
Our lives to mould.

Red fangs have torn His face.
God's blood is shed.
He mourns from His lone place
His children...Read more of this...

News Item

by Dorothy Parker
 Men seldom make passes 
At girls who wear glasses....Read more of this...

I heard as if I had no Ear

by Emily Dickinson
 I heard, as if I had no Ear
Until a Vital Word
Came all the way from Life to me
And then I knew I heard.

I saw, as if my Eye were on
Another, till a Thing
And now I know 'twas Light, because
It fitted them, came in.

I dwelt, as if Myself, were out,
My Body but within
Until a Might detected me
And set my kernel...Read more of this...

I sued the News -- yet feared -- the News

by Emily Dickinson
 I sued the News -- yet feared -- the News
That such a Realm could be --
"The House not made with Hands" it was --
Thrown open wide to me --...Read more of this...

The News

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Whut dat you whisperin' keepin' f'om me?
Don't shut me out 'cause I 's ol' an' can't see.
Somep'n's gone wrong dat 's a-causin' you dread,—
Don't be afeared to tell—Whut! mastah dead?
Somebody brung de news early to-day,—
One of de sojers he led, do you say?
Did n't he foller whah ol' mastah lead?
How kin he live w'en his leadah is dead?
Let me lay...Read more of this...

The Only News I know

by Emily Dickinson
 The Only News I know
Is Bulletins all Day
From Immortality.

The Only Shows I see --
Tomorrow and Today --
Perchance Eternity --

The Only One I meet
Is God -- The Only Street --
Existence -- This traversed

If Other News there be --
Or Admirable Show --
I'll tell it You --...Read more of this...

Write My News To Your Agency

by Ahmet Yalcinkaya
i lost my mind
since the moment i have seen you
i found me a way
go and go
you have the scope, you have the light
you have the compass
to where i do not know

some will say mad
Saint some will say
the look like penetrating souls
of the gloom in my eyes
has a meaning or is going to have
be one knowing my sorrow
may not have a...Read more of this...

Her News

by Hugo Williams
 You paused for a moment and I heard you smoking
on the other end of the line.
I pictured your expression,
one eye screwed shut against the smoke
as you waited for my reaction.
I was waiting for it myself, a list of my own news
gone suddenly cold in my hand.
Supposing my wife found out, what would happen then?
Would I have to leave her...Read more of this...

Like Flowers that heard the news of Dews

by Emily Dickinson
 Like Flowers, that heard the news of Dews,
But never deemed the dripping prize
Awaited their -- low Brows --
Or Bees -- that thought the Summer's name
Some rumor of Delirium,
No Summer -- could -- for Them --

Or Arctic Creatures, dimly stirred --
By Tropic Hint -- some Travelled Bird
Imported to the Wood --

Or Wind's bright signal to the Ear --
Making that homely,...Read more of this...

Morning News

by Marilyn Hacker
 Spring wafts up the smell of bus exhaust, of bread
and fried potatoes, tips green on the branches,
repeats old news: arrogance, ignorance, war.
A cinder-block wall shared by two houses
is new rubble. On one side was a kitchen
sink and a cupboard, on the other was
a bed, a bookshelf, three framed photographs.

Glass is shattered across the photographs;
two half-circles of hardened pocket bread
sit...Read more of this...

A Song of Peach-Blossom River

by Wang Wei
 A fisherman is drifting, enjoying the spring mountains, 
And the peach-trees on both banks lead him to an ancient source. 
Watching the fresh-coloured trees, he never thinks of distance 
Till he comes to the end of the blue stream and suddenly- strange men! 
It's a cave-with a mouth so narrow that he has to crawl through; 
But then it...Read more of this...

John Rouat the Fisherman

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Margaret Simpson was the daughter of humble parents in the county of Ayr,
With a comely figure, and face of beauty rare,
And just in the full bloom of her womanhood,
Was united to John Rouat, a fisherman good. 

John's fortune consisted of his coble, three oars, and his fishing-gear,
Besides his two stout boys, John and James, he loved most dear.
And no...Read more of this...

Real Estate News

by Carl Sandburg
 ARMOUR AVENUE was the name of this street and door signs on empty houses read “The Silver Dollar,” “Swede Annie” and the Christian names of madams such as “Myrtle” and “Jenny.”
Scrap iron, rags and bottles fill the front rooms hither and yon and signs in Yiddish say Abe Kaplan & Co. are running junk shops in whore houses of...Read more of this...

How News must feel when travelling

by Emily Dickinson
 How News must feel when travelling
If News have any Heart
Alighting at the Dwelling
'Twill enter like a Dart!

What News must think when pondering
If News have any Thought
Concerning the stupendousness
Of its perceiveless freight!

What News will do when every Man
Shall comprehend as one
And not in all the Universe
A thing to tell remain?...Read more of this...

543. Song—News lassies news

by Robert Burns
 THERE’S news, lassies, news,
 Gude news I’ve to tell!
There’s a boatfu’ o’ lads
 Come to our town to sell.


Chorus.—The wean wants a cradle,
 And the cradle wants a cod:
I’ll no gang to my bed,
 Until I get a nod.


Father, quo’ she, Mither, quo she,
 Do what you can,
I’ll no gang to my bed,
 Until I get a man.
 The...Read more of this...

News Of The Gold World Of May

by Delmore Schwartz
 News of the Gold World of May in Holland Michigan:
"Wooden shoes will clatter again
 on freshly scrubbed streets--"

The tulip will arise and reign again from awnings and
 windows
 of all colors and forms
 its vine, verve and valentine curves

 upon the city streets, the public grounds 
 and private lawns
 (wherever it is conceivable
 that a bulb might take...Read more of this...

How They Brought The Good News From Ghent To Aix

by Robert Browning
 I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
Neck by neck, stride by...Read more of this...

What News

by Walter Savage Landor
 Here, ever since you went abroad,
If there be change, no change I see,
I only walk our wonted road,
The road is only walkt by me.

Yes; I forgot; a change there is;
Was it of that you bade me tell?
I catch at times, at times I miss
The sight, the tone, I know so well.

Only two months since you stood here!
Two shortest months!...Read more of this...

News For The Delphic Oracle

by William Butler Yeats
 I

There all the golden codgers lay,
There the silver dew,
And the great water sighed for love,
And the wind sighed too.
Man-picker Niamh leant and sighed
By Oisin on the grass;
There sighed amid his choir of love
Tall pythagoras.
plotinus came and looked about,
The salt-flakes on his breast,
And having stretched and yawned awhile
Lay sighing like the rest.

 II

Straddling each a dolphin's back
And steadied by a...Read more of this...

Thought Of Ph---a At News Of Her Death

by Thomas Hardy
 NOT a line of her writing have I,
Not a thread of her hair,
No mark of her late time as dame in her dwelling, whereby
I may picture her there;
And in vain do I urge my unsight
To conceive my lost prize
At her close, whom I knew when her dreams were upbrimming with light,
And with laughter her eyes.

What scenes spread around her...Read more of this...

And with what body do they come? --

by Emily Dickinson
 "And with what body do they come?" --
Then they do come -- Rejoice!
What Door -- What Hour -- Run -- run -- My Soul!
Illuminate the House!

"Body!" Then real -- a Face and Eyes --
To know that it is them!
Paul knew the Man that knew the News --
He passed through Bethlehem --...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member News poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace