Famous Play Out Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Play Out poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous play out poems. These examples illustrate what a famous play out poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Mother Goose
Girls and boys, come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come with your playfellows into the street.
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A half-penny roll will serve us all.
You find milk, and I'll find flour,
And...Read more of this...
by
Barry Tebb
We had a new house
And split the decorating.
You took the piled rolls of paper,
While I stacked the cans of gloss,
One to each corner-white-what else?
And when we began our slow labour
We did not even sigh except in some relief
In being there at last.
There were no spaces for our children’s visits
Nor for the children they would never bring.
All rooms sat square...Read more of this...
by
Anne Sexton
I am the only actor.
It is difficult for one woman
to act out a whole play.
The play is my life,
my solo act.
My running after the hands
and never catching up.
(The hands are out of sight -
that is, offstage.)
All I am doing onstage is running,
running to keep up,
but never making it.
Suddenly I stop running.
(This moves the plot along a bit.)
I give speeches,...Read more of this...
by
Ted Hughes
The swallow of summer, she toils all the summer,
A blue-dark knot of glittering voltage,
A whiplash swimmer, a fish of the air.
But the serpent of cars that crawls through the dust
In shimmering exhaust
Searching to slake
Its fever in ocean
Will play and be idle or else it will bust.
The swallow of summer, the barbed harpoon,
She flings...Read more of this...
by
Eugene Field
Play that you are mother dear,
And play that papa is your beau;
Play that we sit in the corner here,
Just as we used to, long ago.
Playing so, we lovers two
Are just as happy as we can be,
And I'll say "I love you" to you,
And you say "I love you" to me!
"I love you" we both shall say,
All in earnest and...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
It is easy to work when the soul is at play --
But when the soul is in pain --
The hearing him put his playthings up
Makes work difficult -- then --
It is simple, to ache in the Bone, or the Rind --
But Gimlets -- among the nerve --
Mangle daintier -- terribler --
Like a Panter in the Glove --...Read more of this...
by
Jane Taylor
Little sister, come away,
And let us in the garden play,
For it is a pleasant day.
On the grass-plat let us sit,
Or, if you please, we'll play a bit,
And run about all over it.
But the fruit we will not pick,
For that would be a naughty trick,
And very likely make us sick.
Nor will we pluck the...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
She died at play,
Gambolled away
Her lease of spotted hours,
Then sank as gaily as a Turn
Upon a Couch of flowers.
Her ghost strolled softly o'er the hill
Yesterday, and Today,
Her vestments as the silver fleece --
Her countenance as spray....Read more of this...
by
A R Ammons
Fall fell: so that's it for the leaf poetry:
some flurries have whitened the edges of roads
and lawns: time for that, the snow stuff: &
turkeys and old St. Nick: where am I going to
find something to write about I haven't already
written away: I will have to stop short, look
down, look up, look close, think, think, think:
but in what range should...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Play thou on men as on a hárp’s stríng:
Though of themselves they lifeless are
In them thy spirit’s music shall ring.
Breathe thou in them as through a reed
Thy soul’s strong message, through them declare
To the dead world thy living need.
They are to thee as the senseless words
That embody thought’s full-felt commands;
Thy passive tools, obedient hands
To serve thy purpose, thy trusty swords:
They...Read more of this...
by
Francis Thompson
Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play;
Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow:
And some are sung, and that was yesterday,
And some are unsung, and that may be tomorrow.
Go forth; and if it be o'er stony way,
Old joy can lend what newer grief must borrow:
And it was sweet, and that was...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Let Us play Yesterday --
I -- the Girl at school --
You -- and Eternity -- the
Untold Tale --
Easing my famine
At my Lexicon --
Logarithm -- had I -- for Drink --
'Twas a dry Wine --
Somewhat different -- must be --
Dreams tint the Sleep --
Cunning Reds of Morning
Make the Blind -- leap --
Still at the Egg-life --
Chafing the Shell --
When you...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Behold the tricks this wheeling dome doth play,
And earth laid bare of old friends torn away!
O live this present moment, which is thine,
Seek not a morrow, mourn not yesterday!...Read more of this...
by
George Meredith
'I play for Seasons; not Eternities!'
Says Nature, laughing on her way. 'So must
All those whose stake is nothing more than dust!'
And lo, she wins, and of her harmonies
She is full sure! Upon her dying rose,
She drops a look of fondness, and goes by,
Scarce any retrospection in her eye;
For she the laws of...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
We do not play on Graves --
Because there isn't Room --
Besides -- it isn't even -- it slants
And People come --
And put a Flower on it --
And hang their faces so --
We're fearing that their Hearts will drop --
And crush our pretty play --
And so we move as far
As Enemies -- away --
Just looking round to see how far
It...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
She lay as if at play
Her life had leaped away --
Intending to return --
But not so soon --
Her merry Arms, half dropt --
As if for lull of sport --
An instant had forgot --
The Trick to start --
Her dancing Eyes -- ajar --
As if their Owner were
Still sparkling through
For fun -- at you --
Her Morning at the door --
Devising, I...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
We play at Paste --
Till qualified, for Pearl --
Then, drop the Paste --
And deem ourself a fool --
The Shapes -- though -- were similar --
And our new Hands
Learned Gem-Tactics --
Practicing Sands --...Read more of this...
by
Carl Sandburg
THEY all want to play Hamlet.
They have not exactly seen their fathers killed
Nor their mothers in a frame-up to kill,
Nor an Ophelia dying with a dust gagging the heart,
Not exactly the spinning circles of singing golden spiders,
Not exactly this have they got at nor the meaning of flowers—O flowers, flowers slung by a dancing girl—in the saddest play the...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
If this life were indeed an empty play,
Each day would be an 'lid of festal day,
And men might conquer all their hearts' desire,
Fearless of after penalties to pay!...Read more of this...
by
Thomas Hardy
(As sung by Mr. Charles Charrington in the play of "The Three Wayfarers")
O MY trade it is the rarest one,
Simple shepherds all--
My trade is a sight to see;
For my customers I tie, and take 'em up on high,
And waft 'em to a far countree!
My tools are but common ones,
Simple shepherds all--
My tools are no sight to see:
A little hempen...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
I play at Riches -- to appease
The Clamoring for Gold --
It kept me from a Thief, I think,
For often, overbold
With Want, and Opportunity --
I could have done a Sin
And been Myself that easy Thing
An independent Man --
But often as my lot displays
Too hungry to be borne
I deem Myself what I would be --
And novel Comforting
My Poverty and I derive...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
The Bird did prance -- the Bee did play --
The Sun ran miles away
So blind with joy he could not choose
Between his Holiday
The morn was up -- the meadows out
The Fences all but ran,
Republic of Delight, I thought
Where each is Citizen --
From Heavy laden Lands to thee
Were seas to cross to come
A Caspian were crowded --
Too near thou...Read more of this...
by
Robert Louis Stevenson
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of soft pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.
We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, "Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;"--
Which was enough for Tom and...Read more of this...
by
J R R Tolkien
We knew that land once, You and I,
and once we wandered there
in the long days now long gone by,
a dark child and a fair.
Was it on the paths of firelight thought
in winter cold and white,
or in the blue-spun twilit hours
of little early tucked-up beds
in drowsy summer night,
that you and I in Sleep went down
to meet each other there,
your dark...Read more of this...
by
Mother Goose
How many days has my baby to play?
Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday....Read more of this...
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