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Famous Printing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Lowell, Amy
...yellow wall
Aflare in the sunlight,
Chequered with shadows,
Shadows of vine leaves,
Shadows of masks.
Masks coming, printing themselves for an instant,
Then passing on,
More masks always replacing them.
Masks with tricorns and rapiers sticking out behind
Pursuing masks with plumes and high heels,
The sunlight shining under their insteps.
One,
One, two,
One, two, three,
There is a thronging of shadows on the hot wall,
Filigreed at the top with moving leaves.
Ye...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...n First, which he cancelled when he came to print the price in his Kilmarnock volume. Seven of these he restored in printing his second edition, as noted on p. 174. The following are the verses which he left unpublished.]


 Note 1. Duan, a term of Ossian’s for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his Cath-Loda, vol. 2 of M’Pherson’s translation.—R. B. [back]
Note 2. The seven stanzas following this were first printed i...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...The King, displeased, at York himself absents.
181 They humbly beg return, shew their intents.
182 The writing, printing, posting to and fro,
183 Shews all was done; I'll therefore let it go.
184 But now I come to speak of my disaster.
185 Contention's grown 'twixt Subjects and their Master,
186 They worded it so long they fell to blows,
187 That thousands lay on heaps. Here bleeds my woes.
188 I that no wars so many years have known
189 Am now destroy...Read more of this...

by Viorst, Judith
...ore liver.My dad could decide that I needed less TV.Miss Brearly could say that I have to write script and stop printing. (I'm better at printing.)Chris could decide to stop being friends with me.The world could maybe come to an end on next Tuesday.The ceiling could maybe come crashing on my head.I maybe could run out of things for me to worry about.And then I'd have to do my homework instead....Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...ubdued by Cæsar became such Grecians at Rome. 

For the Gaullic manuscripts fell into the hands of the inventors of printing. 

For all the inventions of man, which are good, are the communications of Almighty God. 

For all the stars have satellites, which are terms under their respective words. 

For tiger is a word and his satellites are Griffin, Storgis, Cat and others. 

For my talent is to give an Impression upon words by punching, that when the read...Read more of this...



by Graves, Robert
...hem. 
You’ll see where in old Roman days, 
Before Revivals changed our ways, 
The Virgin ’scaped the Devil’s grab, 
Printing her foot on a stone slab
With five clear toe-marks; and you’ll find 
The fiendish thumbprint close behind. 
You’ll see where Math, Mathonwy’s son, 
Spoke with the wizard Gwydion 
And bad him from South Wales set out
To steal that creature with the snout, 
That new-discovered grunting beast 
Divinely flavoured for the feast. 
No traveller yet...Read more of this...

by Butler, Ellis Parker
...he least concern
To any one. For, Oh! and Oh!
I want to know! I WANT TO KNOW!

I want to know, and know I will—
The printing press is never still,
For me it prints such facts as these!
I am the Public, if you please!...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...d, with paved streets, with iron and
 stone edifices, ceaseless vehicles, and commerce; 
See, the many-cylinder’d steam printing-press—See, the electric
 telegraph, stretching across the Continent, from the Western Sea to Manhattan; 
See, through Atlantica’s depths, pulses American, Europe
 reaching—pulses of Europe, duly return’d; 
See, the strong and quick locomotive, as it departs, panting, blowing the
 steam-whistle; 
See, ploughmen, ploughing farms—See, miners, digging m...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...e story down. 

On a golden day in summer, when the sunrays were aslant, 
Brown arrived in Cambaroora with a little printing plant 
And his worldly goods and chattels -- rather damaged on the way -- 
And a weary-looking woman who was following the dray. 
He had bought an empty humpy, and, instead of getting tight, 
Why, the diggers heard him working like a lunatic all night: 
And next day a sign of canvas, writ in characters of tar, 
Claimed the humpy as the office of...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...my Madeira;
It has given, alas! a mortal shock
To that old friend--my Steinberg hock!

If Faust had really any hand
In printing, I can understand
The fate which legends more than hint;--
The devil take all hands that print!

And what my thanks for all?--a pout--
Sour looks--deep sighs; but what about?
About! O, that I well divine--
That such a pearl should fall to swine--
That such a literary ruby
Should grace the finger of a booby!

Spring comes;--behold, sweet mead and lea...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...enjoyment.
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his
soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the
infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and
medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the
infinite which was hid.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear to man as it is: infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro'
narrow chinks of his cavern.
...Read more of this...

by Borges, Jorge Luis
...to set the bookshelves back in gloom;
Innocent, ruthless, bloodstained, sleek
It wanders through its forest and its day
Printing a track along the muddy banks
Of sluggish streams whose names it does not know
(In its world there are no names or past
Or time to come, only the vivid now)
And makes its way across wild distances
Sniffing the braided labyrinth of smells
And in the wind picking the smell of dawn
And tantalizing scent of grazing deer;
Among the bamboo's slanting stri...Read more of this...

by Heaney, Seamus
...e cool at your neck.

And suddenly you're out,
Back again, intent as ever,
Heavy and frisky in your freshened pelt,
Printing the stones....Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...food,
Then Alois cried, Thank God, the news is good! 

Then 'twas on the first day after Alois came home,
He began the printing of the Sprig of Moss on the stone;
And by taking the impressions of watch-cases he discovered, one day,
What is now called the art of Lithography. 

So Alois plodded on making known his great discovery,
Until he obtained the notice of the Royal Academy,
Besides, he obtained a gold Medal, and what was more dear to his heart,
He lived to see the w...Read more of this...

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