Famous Quarterly Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

John Keats

by George (Lord) Byron
 Who killed John Keats? 
'I,' says the Quarterly, 
So savage and Tartarly; 
''Twas one of my feats.' 

Who shot the arrow? 
'The poet-priest Milman 
(So ready to kill man), 
Or Southey or Barrow.'...Read more of this...

Money

by Philip Larkin
 Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me: 
 'Why do you let me lie here wastefully? 
I am all you never had of goods and sex,
 You could get them still by writing a few cheques.'

So I look at others, what they do with theirs:
 They certainly don't keep it upstairs.
By now they've a second house and car and wife:
...Read more of this...

The Son In Old Age

by Victor Hugo
 ("Ma Regina, cette noble figure.") 
 
 {LES BURGRAVES, Part II.} 


 Thy noble face, Regina, calls to mind 
 My poor lost little one, my latest born. 
 He was a gift from God—a sign of pardon— 
 That child vouchsafed me in my eightieth year! 
 I to his little cradle went, and went, 
 And even...Read more of this...

Letter From Leeds

by Barry Tebb
 Would ‘any woman’ find me difficult to live with?

My tastes are simple: space for several thousand books,

The smoke from my pipe stuffed with aromatic Balkan Sobranie, 

A leftover from the Sixties, frequent brief absences to fulfil

My duties as a carer, unending phone calls

And the unenviable reputation as England’s worst or best complainer,

"Treading on toes or keeping people on their...Read more of this...

I Breathe Out - V. a Shoelace or a Zipper

by Razvan Tupa

in the sky above you morning shatters into millions of colored shoelaces;
you could take this as a promise, as the eroticism of space
ablaze high above your head, it would be too much but

otherwise the textile light of the welding torch
would wrap in a package what remains mine
not including the workers by the tramline gesturing obscenely at the women riding

that, too,...Read more of this...

The Giant In Glee

by Victor Hugo
 ("Ho, guerriers! je suis né dans le pays des Gaules.") 
 
 {V., March 11, 1825.} 


 Ho, warriors! I was reared in the land of the Gauls; 
 O'er the Rhine my ancestors came bounding like balls 
 Of the snow at the Pole, where, a babe, I was bathed 
 Ere in bear and in walrus-skin I...Read more of this...

The Watching Angel

by Victor Hugo
 ("Dans l'alcôve sombre.") 
 
 {XX., November, 1831.} 


 In the dusky nook, 
 Near the altar laid, 
 Sleeps the child in shadow 
 Of his mother's bed: 
 Softly he reposes, 
 And his lid of roses, 
 Closed to earth, uncloses 
 On the heaven o'erhead. 
 
 Many a dream is with him, 
 Fresh...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Quarterly poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace