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Famous Quicksand Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Piercy, Marge
...rm
the mothers, although the fathers ogled
me. I was exactly what mothers had warned

their sons against. I was quicksand
I was trouble in the afternoon. I was
the alley cat you don't bring home.

I was the dirty book you don't leave out
for your mother to see. I was the center-
fold you masturbate with then discard.

Where I came from, the nights I had wandered
and survived, scared them, and where
I would go they never imagined.

Ah, what you want...Read more of this...



by Roethke, Theodore
...inding upward toward the stream with its sharp stones,
The upland of alder and birchtrees,
Through the swamp alive with quicksand,
The way blocked at last by a fallen fir-tree,
The thickets darkening,
The ravines ugly....Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither, 
Your schemes, politics, fail—lines give way—substances mock and elude me; 
Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess’d Soul, eludes not; 
One’s-self must never give way—that is the final substance—that out of all
 is
 sure; 
Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life—what at last finally remains?
Whe...Read more of this...

by Hayden, Robert
...
 Catch them if you can, but it won't be easy.
 They'll dart underground when you try to catch them, 
 plunge into quicksand, whirlpools, mazes, 
 torn into scorpions when you try to catch them.

And before I'll be a slave 
I'll be buried in my grave

 North star and bonanza gold
 I'm bound for the freedom, freedom-bound 
 and oh Susyanna don't you cry for me

 Runagate

 Runagate


II.
Rises from their anguish and their power,

 Harriet Tubman,

 woman of earth,...Read more of this...

by Thomas, Dylan
...nto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And...Read more of this...



by Brecht, Bertolt
...pon nature with impatience.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.

In my time streets led to the quicksand.
Speech betrayed me to the slaughterer.
There was little I could do. But without me
The rulers would have been more secure. This was my hope.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.

3.

You, who shall emerge from the flood
In which we are sinking,
Think --
When you speak of our weaknesses,
Also of the dark ...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs