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Famous Overturned Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Atwood, Margaret
...ld.

My darling, when it comes
right down to it
and the light fails and the fog rolls in
and you're trapped in your overturned body
under a blanket or burning car,

and the red flame is seeping out of you
and igniting the tarmac beside you head
or else the floor, or else the pillow,
none of us is;
or else we all are....Read more of this...



by Merwin, W S
...Naturally it is night.
Under the overturned lute with its
One string I am going my way
Which has a strange sound.

This way the dust that way the dust.
I listen to both sides
But I keep right on.
I remember the leaves sitting in judgment
And then winter.

I remember the rain with its bundles of roads.
The rain taking all its roads.
Nowhere.

Young a...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...fear for one hour.
And held it like a diamond ring that should not escape.
These days even the devil is getting overturned
and held up to the light like a glass of water....Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...l sparkle in the blood 
Break into furious flame; being repulsed 
By Yniol and yourself, I schemed and wrought 
Until I overturned him; then set up 
(With one main purpose ever at my heart) 
My haughty jousts, and took a paramour; 
Did her mock-honour as the fairest fair, 
And, toppling over all antagonism, 
So waxed in pride, that I believed myself 
Unconquerable, for I was wellnigh mad: 
And, but for my main purpose in these jousts, 
I should have slain your father, seized ...Read more of this...

by Lux, Thomas
...furnished rooms, flats, a hayloft,
a tent, motels, under a table,
under an overturned rowboat, in a villa (briefly) but not,
as yet, a yurt. In these places
he has slept, eaten,
put his forehead to the window glass,
looking out. He's in a stilt-house now,
the water passing beneath him half the day;
the other half it's mud. The tides
do this: they come, they go,
while he sleeps, eats, puts his forehead
to the window glas...Read more of this...



by Khayyam, Omar
...ss! Chant the refrain and bring the wine;
for [you know it], the constant sequence of these months
of Tir and Di have overturned upon the earth a thousand
potentates like Djem, a hundred thousand like to Kai....Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...etrazol electricity hydrotherapy psycho- 
 therapy occupational therapy pingpong & 
 amnesia, 
who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic 
 pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia, 
returning years later truly bald except for a wig of 
 blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible mad 
 man doom of the wards of the madtowns of the 
 East, 
Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid 
 halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rock- 
 ing and rolling ...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...ming
and hypocrisy. I have employed every ruse, the strongest
that the human mind can invent, but destiny has always
overturned my projects....Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...parkles.
The marching army hitches its little green platforms 
valiantly, and steadily
approaches the door. The overturned bass-drummer, lying 
on the hearth-rug,
melting in the heat, softens and sheds tears. The song 
jeers
at his impotence, and flaunts the glory of the martial and still 
upstanding,
vaunting the deeds it will do. For are not Tommy's soldiers
all bright and new?

Tommy's leaden soldiers we,
Glittering with efficiency.
Not a button's out o...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...out 
Entered, and foul disorder; all the ground 
With shivered armour strown, and on a heap 
Chariot and charioteer lay overturned, 
And fiery-foaming steeds; what stood, recoiled 
O'er-wearied, through the faint Satanick host 
Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surprised, 
Then first with fear surprised, and sense of pain, 
Fled ignominious, to such evil brought 
By sin of disobedience; till that hour 
Not liable to fear, or flight, or pain. 
Far otherwise the inviolabl...Read more of this...

by Williams, William Carlos (WCW)
...
in spite of all they'd say— 

Rain and light, mountain and rain,
rain and river. Will you love me always? 
—A car overturned and two crushed bodies 
under it.—Always! Always! 
And the white moon already up. 
White. Clean. All the colors. 
A good head, backed by the eye—awake!
backed by the emotions—blind— 
River and mountain, light and rain—or
rain, rock, light, trees—divided: 
rain-light counter rocks-trees or 
trees counter rain-light-rocks or— 

M...Read more of this...

by Amichai, Yehuda
...stones
Oh, the poem of thrown stones.
Is there in this land
A stone that was never thrown
And never built and never overturned
And never uncovered and never discovered
And never screamed from a wall and never discarded by the builders
And never closed on top of a grave and never lay under lovers
And never turned into a cornerstone?

Please do not throw any more stones,
You are moving the land,
The holy, whole, open land,
You are moving it to the sea
And the sea doesn't wa...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...rrier after barrier soon was passed;
And the brave men no doubt felt a little harassed,
But they fought desperately and overturned their foes at every point,
And put the rebels to flight by shot and bayonet conjoint. 

The Sheiks and the Horse Guards behaved right well--
Because beneath their swords, by the score, the Sepoys fell;
And their beautiful war steeds did loudly neigh and roar,
While beneath their hoofs they trampled them all o'er. 

And as for John McLeod--...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...low from my eyes. The disquiet
which possesses me keeps the bowl of my head from
filling itself with wine, can a bowl overturned ever be
filled?...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...This firmament is a porringer overturned upon our
heads. Wise men, thereat, humble and unpresumptuous
are. But see the friendship which obtains between the
cup and the flask. Lip against lip are they, and twixt
them ever flows the blood....Read more of this...

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