Famous One Half Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

To Fine Grand

by Ben Jonson
LXXIII. — TO FINE GRAND. What is't, FINE GRAND, makes thee my friendship fly, Or take an Epigram so fearfully, As 'twere a challenge, or a borrower's letter: The world must know your greatness is my debtor.Imprimis, Grand, you owe me for a jest I lent you, on mere acquaintance, at a feast.Item, a tale or two some fortnight after, That...Read more of this...

To A Poor Old Woman

by William Carlos (WCW) Williams
 munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her...Read more of this...

The Disastrous Fire at Scarborough

by William Topaz McGonagall
 'Twas in the year of 1898, and on the 8th of June,
A mother and six children met with a cruel doom
In one of the most fearful fires for some years past
And as the spectators gazed upon them they stood aghast 

The fire broke out in a hairdresser's, in the town of Scarborough,
And as the fire spread it filled the...Read more of this...

Send Me A Leaf

by Bertolt Brecht
 Send me a leaf, but from a bush
That grows at least one half hour
Away from your house, then
You must go and will be strong, and I
Thank you for the pretty leaf....Read more of this...

Turtle Swan

by Mark Doty
 Because the road to our house
is a back road, meadowlands punctuated
by gravel quarry and lumberyard,
there are unexpected travelers
some nights on our way home from work.
Once, on the lawn of the Tool

and Die Company, a swan;
the word doesn't convey the shock
of the thing, white architecture
rippling like a pond's rain-pocked skin,
beak lifting to hiss at my approach.
Magisterial, set down in elegant...Read more of this...

Missis Moriartys Boy

by Robert William Service
 Missis Moriarty called last week, and says she to me, says she:
 "Sure the heart of me's broken entirely now -- it's the fortunate woman you are;
You've still got your Dinnis to cheer up your home, but me Patsy boy where is he?
 Lyin' alone, cold as a stone, kilt in the weariful wahr.
Oh, I'm seein' him now as...Read more of this...

The Daylight is Dying

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 The daylight is dying 
Away in the west, 
The wild birds are flying 
In silence to rest; 
In leafage and frondage 
Where shadows are deep, 
They pass to its bondage— 
The kingdom of sleep. 
And watched in their sleeping 
By stars in the height, 
They rest in your keeping, 
Oh, wonderful night. 
When night doth her glories 
Of starshine...Read more of this...

The Quadroon Girl

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 The Slaver in the broad lagoon
Lay moored with idle sail;
He waited for the rising moon,
And for the evening gale.

Under the shore his boat was tied,
And all her listless crew
Watched the gray alligator slide
Into the still bayou.

Odors of orange-flowers, and spice,
Reached them from time to time,
Like airs that breathe from Paradise
Upon a world of crime.

The Planter, under his roof of...Read more of this...

The Cat With Wings

by Robert William Service
 You never saw a cat with wings,
I'll bet a dollar -- well, I did;
'Twas one of those fantastic things
One runs across in old Madrid.
A walloping big tom it was,
(Maybe of the Angora line),
With silken ears and velvet paws,
And silver hair, superbly fine.

It sprawled upon a crimson mat,
Yet though crowds came to gaze on it,
It was a supercilious cat,
And didn't...Read more of this...

Writing To Onegin

by Ruth Padel
 (After Pushkin) 
Look at the bare wood hand-waxed floor and long 
White dressing-gown, the good child's writing-desk 
And passionate cold feet
Summoning music of the night - tumbrils, gongs
And gamelans - with one neat pen, one candle
Puttering its life out hour by hour. 
Is "Tell Him I love him" never a good idea? You can't wish this
Unlived - this world...Read more of this...

An Excursion Steamer Sunk in the Tay

by William Topaz McGonagall
 'Twas in the year of 1888, and on July the 14th day,
That an alarming accident occurred in the River Tay.
Which resulted in the sinking of the Tay Ferries' Steamer "Dundee,"
Which was a most painful and sickening sight to see. 

The Steamer was engaged by the Independent Order of Rechabites,
And all were resolved to see some rural sights;
And the place...Read more of this...

The Mares Nest

by Rudyard Kipling
 Jane Austen Beecher Stowe de Rouse
 Was good beyond all earthly need;
But, on the other hand, her spouse
 Was very, very bad indeed.
He smoked cigars, called churches slow,
And raced -- but this she did not know.

For Belial Machiavelli kept
 The little fact a secret, and,
Though o'er his minor sins she wept,
 Jane Austen did not understand
That Lilly -- thirteen-two...Read more of this...

A Part of an Ode

by Ben Jonson
A Part of an Ode to the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that noble pair Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison


IT is not growing like a tree 
In bulk doth make man better be; 
Or standing long an oak three hundred year  
To fall a log at last dry bald and sere: 
A lily of a day 5...Read more of this...

Waring

by Robert Browning
 I

What's become of Waring
Since he gave us all the slip,
Chose land-travel or seafaring,
Boots and chest, or staff and scrip,
Rather than pace up and down
Any longer London-town?

Who'd have guessed it from his lip,
Or his brow's accustomed bearing,
On the night he thus took ship,
Or started landward?—little caring
For us, it seems, who supped together,
(Friends of his too, I remember)
And walked home through...Read more of this...

Sonnet CLXXX

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CLXXX. Tutto 'l di piango; e poi la notte, quando. HER CRUELTY RENDERS LIFE WORSE THAN DEATH TO HIM.  Through the long lingering day, estranged from rest,My sorrows flow unceasing; doubly flow,Painful prerogative of lover's woe!In that still hour, when slumber soothes th' unblest.With such deep anguish is my heart...Read more of this...

An Almost Made Up Poem

by Charles Bukowski
 I see you drinking at a fountain with tiny
blue hands, no, your hands are not tiny
they are small, and the fountain is in France
where you wrote me that last letter and
I answered and never heard from you again.
you used to write insane poems about
ANGELS AND GOD, all in upper case, and you
knew famous artists and most of them
were your...Read more of this...

My Indian Summer

by Robert William Service
 Here in the Autumn of my days
My life is mellowed in a haze.
Unpleasant sights are none to clear,
Discordant sounds I hardly hear.
Infirmities like buffers soft
Sustain me tranquilly aloft.
I'm deaf to duffers, blind to bores,
Peace seems to percolate my pores.
I fold my hands, keep quiet mind,
In dogs and children joy I find.
With temper tolerant and mild,
Myself you'd almost think a...Read more of this...

Felicity Quick Of Flight

by Robert Herrick
 Every time seems short to be
That's measured by felicity;
But one half-hour that's made up here
With grief, seems longer than a year....Read more of this...

The Fire Sermon

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
  The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
  Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
  Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
  Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
  The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
  Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
  Or...Read more of this...

On Count Voronstov

by Alexander Pushkin
 One half Milord, one half in trade, 
One half a sage, one half a dunce, 
One half a crook, but here for once 
There's every hope he'll make the grade....Read more of this...

The Thanksgiving

by George Herbert
 Oh King of grief! (a title strange, yet true, 
To thee of all kings only due) 
Oh King of wounds! how shall I grieve for thee, 
Who in all grief preventest me? 
Shall I weep blood? why thou has wept such store
That all thy body was one door.
Shall I be scourged, flouted, boxed, sold? 
'Tis but to tell the...Read more of this...

While Moon and Venus in the sky shall dwell,

by Omar Khayyam
While Moon and Venus in the sky shall dwell,
None shall see aught red grape-juice to excel:
O foolish publicans, what can you buy
One half so precious as the goods you sell?...Read more of this...

The Goblet of Life

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Filled is Life's goblet to the brim;
And though my eyes with tears are dim,
I see its sparkling bubbles swim,
And chant a melancholy hymn
With solemn voice and slow.

No purple flowers,--no garlands green,
Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen,
Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene,
Like gleams of sunshine, flash between
Thick leaves of mistletoe.

This goblet, wrought with curious art,
Is filled with waters, that upstart,
When the...Read more of this...

The Parting

by Anne Bronte
 1 

The chestnut steed stood by the gate
His noble master's will to wait,
The woody park so green and bright
Was glowing in the morning light,
The young leaves of the aspen trees
Were dancing in the morning breeze.
The palace door was open wide,
Its lord was standing there,
And his sweet lady by his side
With soft dark eyes and raven hair.
He smiling took her...Read more of this...

Axe Handles

by Gary Snyder
 One afternoon the last week in April
Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet
One-half turn and it sticks in a stump.
He recalls the hatchet-head
Without a handle, in the shop
And go gets it, and wants it for his own.
A broken-off axe handle behind the door
Is long enough for a hatchet,
We cut it to length and take it
With the hatchet head
And working...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member One Half 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