Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Norm Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Yeats, William Butler
...set eyes on nothing
But what the great and passionate have used
Throughout so many varying centuries
We take it for the norm; yet should I dream
Sinbad the sailor's brought a painted chest,
Or image, from beyond the Loadstone Mountain,
That dream is a norm; and should some limb of the Devil
Destroy the view by cutting down an ash
That shades the road, or setting up a cottage
Planned in a government office, shorten his life,
Manacle his soul upon the Red Sea bottom....Read more of this...



by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...t level,
 climbing from the workers’ bunks:
in the Union
 of Republics
 the understanding of verse
now tops
 the prewar norm …”


Transcribed: by Mitch Abidor....Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...Earth and water without form, 
change, or pause: as if the third 
day had not come, this calm norm 
of chaos denies the Word. 

One sees only a surface 
pocked with rushes, the starved clumps 
pressed between water and space -- 
rootless, perennial stumps 

fixed in position, entombed 
in nothing; it is too late 
to bring forth branches, to bloom 
or die, only the long wait 

lies ahead, a parody 
of perfection. Who denies 
this is creation, ...Read more of this...

by Crowley, Aleister
...hat is my loss.
Life and death, two and one,
Hate and love, moon and sun,
Light and darkness, never swerve
From the norm, note the nerve,
Name the name, exceed the excess
Of thy lamp of loveliness,
Living snake of lazy love,
Ithyphallic that uprears
Its Palladium above
The enchantment of the years!...Read more of this...

by Lehman, David
...s genuine weather
which is always unusually bad, unusually
good, or unusually indifferent,
since there isn't really any norm for weather
When he was a boy his mother met a friend
who said, "Isn't this funny weather?"

It was one of his earliest memories...Read more of this...



by Davidson, John
...ve,
Wane and wither; I have seen them die.

Trust me, masters, crystals have their day,
Eager to attain the perfect norm,
Lit with purpose, potent to display
Facet, angle, colour, beauty, form.

Water-crystals need for flower and root
Sixty clear degrees, no less, no more;
Snow, so fickle, still in this acute
Angle thinks, and learns no other lore:

Such its life, and such its pleasure is,
Such its art and traffic, such its gain,
Evermore in new conjunctions this
Admi...Read more of this...

by Jeffers, Robinson
...clouds,
Across the glades of the wood and the green lakes of shade.

These live their felt natures; they know their norm
And live it to the brim; they understand life.
While men moulding themselves to the anthill have choked
Their natures until the souls the in them;
They have sold themselves for toys and protection:
No, but consider awhile: what else? Men sold for toys.

Uneasy and fractional people, having no center
But in the eyes and mouths that surround them,...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...d 
 Of her I called my queen. 

- "O faultless is her dainty form, 
 And luminous her mind; 
She is the God-created norm 
 Of perfect womankind!" 

A shape whereon one star-blink gleamed 
 Glode softly by my side, 
A woman's; and her motion seemed 
 The motion of my bride. 

And yet methought she'd drawn erstwhile 
 Adown the ancient leaze, 
Where once were pile and peristyle 
 For men's idolatries. 

- "O maiden lithe and lone, what may 
 Thy name and lineage be,...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...ime outgave the deedful word
Whereby all life is stirred:
"Let one be born and throned whose mould shall constitute
The norm of every royal-reckoned attribute,"
No mortal knew or heard.
But in due days the purposed Life outshone -
Serene, sagacious, free;
--Her waxing seasons bloomed with deeds well done,
And the world's heart was won . . .
Yet may the deed of hers most bright in eyes to be
Lie hid from ours--as in the All-One's thought lay she -
Till ripening...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Norm poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs