Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Quickness Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Sexton, Anne
...erhaps I was born kneeling,
born coughing on the long winter,
born expecting the kiss of mercy,
born with a passion for quickness
and yet, as things progressed,
I learned early about the stockade
or taken out, the fume of the enema.
By two or three I learned not to kneel,
not to expect, to plant my fires underground
where none but the dolls, perfect and awful,
could be whispered to or laid down to die.

Now that I have written many words,
and let out so many loves, fo...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...kind. 
Wise Wretch! with Pleasures too refin'd to please; 
With too much Spirit to be e'er at ease; 
With too much Quickness ever to be taught; 
With too much Thinking to have common Thought: 
You purchase Pain with all that Joy can give, 
And die of nothing but a Rage to live. 

Turn then from Wits; and look on Simo's Mate, 
No Ass so meek, no Ass so obstinate. 
Or her, that owns her Faults, but never mends, 
Because she's honest, and the best of Friends. 
O...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...ry of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up b...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...ry of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up b...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...ry of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up b...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...of God in the East he worships in his way. 

For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness. 

For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer. 

For he rolls upon prank to work it in. 

For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself. 

For this he performs in ten degrees. 

For first he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean. 

For secondly ...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...o Lahore,
Hong-Kong and Peshawur,
Lucknow and Etawah,
And fifty-five more all endin' in "pore".
Black Death and his quickness, the depth and the thickness,
Of sorrow and sickness I've known on my way,
But I'm old and I'm nervis,
I'm cast from the Service,
And all I deserve is a shillin' a day.
 (Chorus) Shillin' a day,
 Bloomin' good pay --
 Lucky to touch it, a shillin' a day!

Oh, it drives me half crazy to think of the days I
Went slap for the Ghazi, my sword at my...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...chess master, the footwork of a dancer,

The patience of a scholar and a saint’s humility,

While I have only a poet’s quickness, a journalist’s 

Ability to speed-read and the clumsiness 

Of a circus clown....Read more of this...

by Pinsky, Robert
...
Thank you, for I watched, I watched
Sid Caesar speaking French and Japanese not
Through knowledge but imagination,
His quickness, and Thank You, I watched live
Jackie Robinson stealing

Home, the image--O strung shell--enduring
Fleeter than light like these words we
Remember in, they too winged
At the helmet and ankles....Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...de,
When poets are by too much force betrayed.
Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime,
Still showed a quickness; and maturing time
But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme.
Once more, hail and farewell! farewell, thou young,
But ah too short, Marcellus of our tongue!
Thy brows with ivy and with laurels bound;
But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around....Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...
When poets are by too much force betrayed.
Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime,
Still showed a quickness, and maturing time
But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme.
Once more, hail and farewell; farewell, thou young,
But ah too short, Marcellus of our tongue;
Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound;
But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around.
...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Quickness poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs