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Famous Qualm Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Yevtushenko, Yevgeny
...en made a jingle of your purest name. 
I know the goodness of my land. 
How vile these anti-Semites-
 without a qualm 
they pompously called themselves 
the Union of the Russian People! 
I seem to be
 Anne Frank 
transparent 
 as a branch in April. 
And I love.
 And have no need of phrases. 
My need 
 is that we gaze into each other. 
How little we can see
 or smell! 
We are denied the leaves, 
 we are denied the sky. 
Yet we can do so much --
 ten...Read more of this...



by Gregory, Rg
...wer (the triumph of the meek)
though evidence was mocking (less song than threnody)
i savoured the impossible without a qualm

(ii)
and sought to make it practical – to bed worn earth
with a seed that tried to answer those dire conundrums
(making of every longed-for scene a landscape bleak)
to bring exciting prospects to a life of humdrums
reveal the spirit-ordinary in its dancing worth

yet the visions my dreams gave voice to failed to speak
they fell foul (inevitably) of pa...Read more of this...

by Pessoa, Fernando
...world we see

Or some aught-else whose being-unknown doth rot

Its use for our thought's use. Whence taketh me

A qualm-like ache of life, a body-deep

Soul-hate of what we seek and what we weep....Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...ightless, seeing and visionless,
Reptile mistress.

Taking bread in her curved, gaping, toothless mouth,
She has no qualm when she catches my finger in her steel overlapping gums,
But she hangs on, and my shout and my shrinking are nothing to her.
She does not even know she is nipping me with her curved beak.
Snake-like she draws at my finger, while I drag it in horror away.

Mistress, reptile mistress,
You are almost too large, I am almost frightened.

He...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...ked hard at him: 
“If I be too familiar with a fool, 
I’m on the way to be another fool,” 
He mused, and owned a rueful qualm within him:
“Yes, Dagonet,” he ventured, with a laugh, 
“Men tell me that his beard has vanished wholly, 
And that he shines now as the Lord’s anointed, 
And wears the valiance of an ageless youth 
Crowned with a glory of eternal peace.”

Dagonet, smiling strangely, shook his head: 
“I grant your valiance of a kind of youth 
To Merlin, but your cro...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...ounted with the Great,
Have tummies with a shameless bulge,
 And so I think I'll still indulge
In eats I like without a qualm,
 And damn my diaphragm!'...Read more of this...

by Auden, Wystan Hugh (W H)
...e rostrum unafraid:Indeed, 'twere damnable to askIf I am overpaid. Spirit is willing to repeatWithout a qualm the same old talk,But Flesh is homesick for our snugApartment in New York. A sulky fifty-six, he findsA change of mealtime utter hell,Grown far too crotchety to likeA luxury hotel. The Bible is a goodly bookI always can peruse with zest,But really cannot say the sameFor Hilton's Be My Guest. Nor bear w...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...feasted: then it went 
 Back to its rocky couch and slept content. 
 Sudden, loud cries and clamors! striking out 
 Qualm to the heart of the quiet, horn and shout 
 Causing the solemn wood to reel with rout. 
 Terrific was this noise that rolled before; 
 It seemed a squadron; nay, 'twas something more— 
 A whole battalion, sent by that sad king 
 With force of arms his little prince to bring, 
 Together with the lion's bleeding hide. 
 
 Which here was right or ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ierce Outrage; *Outcry
The carrain* in the bush, with throat y-corve**, *corpse **slashed
A thousand slain, and not *of qualm y-storve*; *dead of sickness*
The tyrant, with the prey by force y-reft;
The town destroy'd, that there was nothing left.
Yet saw I brent* the shippes hoppesteres,  *burnt
The hunter strangled with the wilde bears:
The sow freting* the child right in the cradle; *devouring 
The cook scalded, for all his longe ladle.
Nor was forgot, *by ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...and nations quake.

Fain would I, dear, find some shut plot
Of earth's wide wold for thee, where not
One tear, one qualm,
Should break the calm.
But I am weak as thou and bare;
No man can change the common lot to rare.

Must come and bide. And such are we --
Unreasoning, sanguine, visionary --
That I can hope
Health, love, friends, scope
In full for thee; can dream thou'lt find
Joys seldom yet attained by humankind!...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...y thise olde wyves,
And treweliche eek augurie of thise foules; 
For fere of which men wenen lese her lyves,
As ravenes qualm, or shryking of thise oules.
To trowen on it bothe fals and foul is.
Allas, allas, so noble a creature
As is a man, shal drede swich ordure! 

'For which with al myn herte I thee beseche,
Un-to thy-self that al this thou foryive;
And rys up now with-oute more speche,
And lat us caste how forth may best be drive
This tyme, and eek how freshly we...Read more of this...

by Riley, James Whitcomb
...Faces defeat full patiently, 
And lifts a mirthful roundelay, 
However poor his fortunes be,-- 
He will not fail in any qualm 
Of poverty -- the paltry dime 
It will grow golden in his palm, 
Who bides his time.

Who bides his time -- he tastes the sweet 
Of honey in the saltest tear; 
And though he fares with slowest feet, 
Joy runs to meet him, drawing near; 
The birds are hearalds of his cause; 
And, like a never-ending rhyme, 
The roadsides bloom in his applause, 
Who...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs