Famous No Go Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous No Go poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous no go poems. These examples illustrate what a famous no go poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Go thy great way!

by Emily Dickinson
 Go thy great way!
The Stars thou meetst
Are even as Thyself --
For what are Stars but Asterisks
To point a human Life?...Read more of this...

Dream Song 171: Go ill-sped book and whisper to her or

by John Berryman
 Go, ill-sped book, and whisper to her or 
storm out the message for her only ear 
that she is beautiful. 
Mention sunsets, be not silent of her eyes 
and mouth and other prospects, praise her size, 
say her figure is full. 

Say her small figure is heavenly & full, 
so as stunned Henry yatters like a fool 
& maketh...Read more of this...

I Need Not Go

by Thomas Hardy
 I need not go 
Through sleet and snow 
To where I know 
She waits for me; 
She will wait me there 
Till I find it fair, 
And have time to spare 
From company. 

When I've overgot 
The world somewhat, 
When things cost not 
Such stress and strain, 
Is soon enough 
By cypress sough 
To tell my Love 
I am...Read more of this...

Time does go on --

by Emily Dickinson
 Time does go on --
I tell it gay to those who suffer now --
They shall survive --
There is a sun --
They don't believe it now --...Read more of this...

Go travelling with us!

by Emily Dickinson
 "Go travelling with us!"
Her travels daily be
By routes of ecstasy
To Evening's Sea --...Read more of this...

Merry-Go-Round

by Langston Hughes
 COLORED CHILD AT CARNIVAL

Where is the Jim Crow section 
On this merry-go-round, 
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from 
White and colored 
Can't sit side by side. 
Down South on the train 
There's a Jim Crow car. 
On the bus we're put in the back--
But there ain't no back 
To a merry-go-round! 
Where's the horse...Read more of this...

I cannot go to school today!

by Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school today"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.

My mouth is wet, my throat is dry.
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox.

And there's one more - that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is...Read more of this...

As The Poems Go

by Charles Bukowski
 as the poems go into the thousands you
realize that you've created very
little.
it comes down to the rain, the sunlight,
the traffic, the nights and the days of the
years, the faces.
leaving this will be easier than living
it, typing one more line now as
a man plays a piano through the radio,
the best writers have said very
little
and the worst,
far too much.
from ONTHEBUS -...Read more of this...

Perhaps they do not go so far

by Emily Dickinson
 Perhaps they do not go so far
As we who stay, suppose --
Perhaps come closer, for the lapse
Of their corporeal clothes --

It may be know so certainly
How short we have to fear
That comprehension antedates
And estimates us there --...Read more of this...

Song (Go And Catch A Falling Star)

by John Donne
 Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee;
Thou,...Read more of this...

One Song America Before I Go

by Walt Whitman
 ONE song, America, before I go, 
I’d sing, o’er all the rest, with trumpet sound, 
For thee—the Future. 

I’d sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality; 
I’d fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul;
I’d show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish’d. 

(The paths to the House I seek to make, 
But leave to...Read more of this...

Learning to Go Alone

by Ann Taylor
 Come, my darling, come away,
Take a pretty walk to-day; 
Run along, and never fear,
I'll take care of baby dear: 
Up and down with little feet,
That's the way to walk, my sweet. 

Now it is so very near,
Soon she'll get to mother dear. 
There she comes along at last: 
Here's my finger, hold it fast: 
Now one pretty little kiss,
After...Read more of this...

To the Bottle I Go

by J R R Tolkien
 Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
And many miles be still to go
But under a tall tree I will lie,
And let the clouds go sailing by....Read more of this...

Every day, at dawn, I go to the tavern. There I give

by Omar Khayyam
Every day, at dawn, I go to the tavern. There I give
myself to the company of kalendar hypocrites. O Thou,
who art the master of secrets most concealed, give me
faith, if Thou wishest me to apply myself to prayer.
357...Read more of this...

Go, choose bliss, if you are wise, and finally you may

by Omar Khayyam
Go, choose bliss, if you are wise, and finally you may
be able to drink wine from the hand of the drinkers of
eternity, but you are one of the ignorant and joy is not
in you, it is not given to every ignorant one to taste
the sweets that ignorance gives.
387...Read more of this...

Go Little Book - The Ancient Phrase

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 GO, little book - the ancient phrase
And still the daintiest - go your ways,
My Otto, over sea and land,
Till you shall come to Nelly's hand.

How shall I your Nelly know?
By her blue eyes and her black brow,
By her fierce and slender look,
And by her goodness, little book!

What shall I say when I come there?
You shall speak her soft and...Read more of this...

Where Shall We Go?

by Vernon Scannell
 Waiting for her in the usual bar
He finds she's late again.
Impatience frets at him,
But not the fearful, half-sweet pain he knew
So long ago.

That cherished perturbation is replaced
By styptic irritation
And, under that, a cold
Dark current of dejection moves
That this is so.

There was a time when all her failings were
Delights he marvelled at:
It seemed her clumsiness, 
Forgetfulness and wild non-sequiturs
Could never...Read more of this...

We Go Out Together In the Staring Town

by Kenneth Patchen
 We go out together into the staring town
And buy cheese and bread and little jugs with
flowered labels

Everywhere is a tent where we put on our whirling 
show

A great deal has been said of the handless serpents
Which war has set loose in the gay milk of our
heads

But because you braid your hair and taste like
honey of heaven
We go together into...Read more of this...

23. I'll go and be a Sodger

by Robert Burns
 O WHY the deuce should I repine,
 And be an ill foreboder?
I’m twenty-three, and five feet nine,
 I’ll go and be a sodger!


I gat some gear wi’ mickle care,
 I held it weel thegither;
But now it’s gane, and something mair—
 I’ll go and be a sodger!...Read more of this...

205. Song—Go on Sweet Bird and Soothe my Care

by Robert Burns
 FOR thee is laughing Nature gay,
For thee she pours the vernal day;
For me in vain is Nature drest,
While Joy’s a stranger to my breast....Read more of this...

In Memoriam A. H. H.: 22. The path by which we twain did go

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 The path by which we twain did go,
Which led by tracts that pleased us well,
Thro' four sweet years arose and fell,
From flower to flower, from snow to snow:
And we with singing cheer'd the way,
And, crown'd with all the season lent,
From April on to April went,
And glad at heart from May to May:
But where the path we walk'd began
To slant...Read more of this...

I want to go with the one I love..

by Bertolt Brecht
 [Original]

Ich will mit dem gehen, den ich liebe.
Ich will nicht ausrechnen, was es kostet.
Ich will nicht nachdenken, ob es gut ist.
Ich will nicht wissen, ob er mich liebt.
Ich will mit ihm gehen, den ich liebe.

[Translation]

I want to go with the one I love.
I do not want to calculate the cost.
I do not want to think about whether it's good.
I...Read more of this...

Dont Go Far Off Not Even For A Day

by Pablo Neruda
 Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -- 
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long 
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station 
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. 

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because 
then the little drops of anguish...Read more of this...

Go, book: go, vessel laden with the mind

by Hafez
Go, book: go, vessel laden with the mind
That builded thee, go now & bear thy freight
Of man’s old messaging to all mankind.

Say first:—Such oft-told things as I relate,
Such pond’rous words strung on unperish’d thought,
Such pearly praises worn by countless queens,
Such temper’d swords wherewith heroes have fought,
Such sceptres that have ruled all earth’s demesnes,
Such broider’d robes, such antique jewelry,
Such orbs, such...Read more of this...

Roads Go Ever On

by J R R Tolkien
 Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star.
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that...Read more of this...

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