Famous Out With The Old Poems by Famous Poets

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

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There was an old person of Pisa

by Edward Lear
There was an old person of Pisa,Whose daughters did nothing to please her;She dressed them in gray, and banged them all day,Round the walls of the city of Pisa. ...Read more of this...

Old Tom

by Robert William Service
 The harridan who holds the inn
 At which I toss a pot,
Is old and uglier than sin,--
 I'm glad she knows me not.
Indeed, for me it's hard to think,
 Although my pow's like snow,
She was the lass so fresh and pink
 I courted long ago.

I wronged her, yet it's sadly true
 She wanted to be wronged:
They mostly do, although...Read more of this...

There was an Old Lady whose folly

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Lady whose follyInduced her to sit in a holly;Whereon, by a thorn her dress being torn,She quickly became melancholy. ...Read more of this...

The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water

by William Butler Yeats
 I heard the old, old men say,
'Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away.'
They had hands like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn-trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say,
'All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.'...Read more of this...

A mouthful of old wine is of more worth than a new

by Omar Khayyam
A mouthful of old wine is of more worth than a new
empire. The wise man will reject all that is not wine.
A cup of this nectar is a hundred times preferable to
the kingdom of Feridoun. The lid which covers the wine-jar
is more precious than the diadem of Kai-Khosrou....Read more of this...

An Old Man

by R S Thomas
 Looking upon this tree with its quaint pretension
Of holding the earth, a leveret, in its claws,
Or marking the texture of its living bark,
A grey sea wrinkled by the winds of years,
I understand whence this man's body comes,
In veins and fibres, the bare boughs of bone,
The trellised thicket, where the heart, that robin,
Greets with a song the seasons of the...Read more of this...

There was an Old Person of Tartary

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Person of Tartary,Who divided his jugular artery;But he screeched to his Wife, and she said, "Oh, my life!Your death will be felt by all Tartary!" ...Read more of this...

The Old Song

by G K Chesterton
 A livid sky on London
And like the iron steeds that rear
A shock of engines halted
And I knew the end was near:
And something said that far away, over the hills and far away
There came a crawling thunder and the end of all things here.
For London Bridge is broken down, broken down, broken down,
As digging lets the daylight on the suken...Read more of this...

There Was an Old Man in a Tree

by Edward Lear
 There was an Old Man in a tree,
Who was horribly bored by a bee.
When they said "Does it buzz?"
He replied "Yes, it does!
It's a regular brute of a bee!"...Read more of this...

There was an Old Person of Gretna

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Person of Gretna,Who rushed down the crater of Etna;When they said, "Is it hot?" he replied, "No, it's not!"That mendacious Old Person of Gretna. ...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...

There was an Old Man who said Hush!

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Man who said, "Hush!I perceive a young bird in this bush!"When they said, "Is it small?" he replied, "Not at all;It is four times as big as the bush!" ...Read more of this...

There was an old man at a Station

by Edward Lear
There was an old man at a Station,Who made a promiscuous oration;But they said, "Take some snuff!—You have talk'd quite enough,You afflicting old man at a Station!" ...Read more of this...

There was an Old Man of Dundee

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Man of Dundee,Who frequented the top of a tree;When disturbed by the Crows, he abruptly arose,And exclaimed, "I'll return to Dundee!" ...Read more of this...

The Wild Old Wicked Man

by William Butler Yeats
 Because I am mad about women
I am mad about the hills,'
Said that wild old wicked man
Who travels where God wills.
'Not to die on the straw at home.
Those hands to close these eyes,
That is all I ask, my dear,
From the old man in the skies.
 Daybreak and a candle-end.

'Kind are all your words, my dear,
Do not the rest withhold.
Who can...Read more of this...

Old Dr. Valentine To His Son

by Ogden Nash
 Your hopeless patients will live,
Your healthy patients will die.
I have only this word to give:
Wonder, and find out why...Read more of this...

Song Of An Old General

by Wang Wei
When he was a youth of fifteen or twenty, 
He chased a wild horse, he caught him and rode him, 
He shot the white-browed mountain tiger, 
He defied the yellow-bristled Horseman of Ye. 
Fighting single- handed for a thousand miles, 
With his naked dagger he could hold a multitude. 
...Granted that the troops of China were as swift as heaven's...Read more of this...

For My Son Noah Ten Years Old

by Robert Bly
Nigh and day arrive and day after day goes by 
And what is old remains old and what is young remains young and grows old.
The lumber pile does not grow younger nor the two-by-fours lose their darkness 
but the old tree goes on the barn stands without help so many years;
the advocate of darkness and night is not lost.

The horse...Read more of this...

Old and New

by Dejan Stojanovic
If an ancient man saw planes two thousand years ago 
He would've thought they were birds 
Or angels from another world 
Or messengers from other planets. 

Every new machine would have surprised him— 
The car, TV, radio, phone, camera. 
He would've thought he was a savage 
Who didn't understand. 

If he saw a computer, 
Watching people talking on the internet,...Read more of this...

A Man Young And Old: V. The Empty Cup

by William Butler Yeats
 A crazy man that found a cup,
When all but dead of thirst,
Hardly dared to wet his mouth
Imagining, moon-accursed,
That another mouthful
And his beating heart would burst.
October last I found it too
But found it dry as bone,
And for that reason am I crazed
And my sleep is gone....Read more of this...

There was an Old Person of Ems

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Person of EmsWho casually fell in the Thames;And when he was found, they said he was drowned,That unlucky Old Person of Ems. ...Read more of this...

Old And New

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 Long have the poets vaunted, in their lays, 
Old times, old loves, old friendships, and old wine
Why should the old monopolise all praise? 
Then let the new claim mine.

Give me strong new friends, when the old prove weak, 
Or fail me in my darkest hour of need; 
Why perish with the ship that springs a leak, 
Or lean upon...Read more of this...

A Man Young And Old: VII. The Friends Of His Youth

by William Butler Yeats
 Laughter not time destroyed my voice
And put that crack in it,
And when the moon's pot-bellied
I get a laughing fit,
For that old Madge comes down the lane,
A stone upon her breast,
And a cloak wrapped about the stone,
And she can get no rest
With singing hush and hush-a-bye;
She that has been wild
And barren as a breaking wave
Thinks that the stone's a child.

And...Read more of this...

Old Osawatomie

by Carl Sandburg
 JOHN BROWN’S body under the morning stars.
Six feet of dust under the morning stars.
And a panorama of war performs itself
Over the six-foot stage of circling armies.
Room for Gettysburg, Wilderness, Chickamauga,
On a six-foot stage of dust....Read more of this...

The Death of the Old Mendicant

by William Topaz McGonagall
 There was a rich old gentleman
Lived on a lonely moor in Switzerland,
And he was very hard to the wandering poor,
'Tis said he never lodged nor served them at his door. 

'Twas on a stormy night, and Boreas blew a bitter blast,
And the snowflakes they fell thick and fast,
When a poor old mendicant, tired and footsore,
Who had travelled that day...Read more of this...

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