Famous Quilt Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Quilt poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous quilt poems. These examples illustrate what a famous quilt poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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...r voice's pitch
and her stare stains your retina like a gray
bulb when you switch
hemispheres and her knee-length quilt
skirt's cut to catch the squal
I dream of her either loved or killed
because the town's too small....Read more of this...
by
Brodsky, Joseph
...rty
in her flapper gear, skinny legs
and then you knocking on the tight dress.
We hand you down like a prize feather quilt.
You are our female shame and sunburst strength....Read more of this...
by
Piercy, Marge
...nnade
Under the bridge
Margaret and I
Took off our clothes
In wonder and swam
In the crystal river.
A patchwork quilt
Of mossed stones
Crossed beneath
The bridge
Light strobed
Twilight enfolded us
Our tent well hidden
We stood in Eden
With the stars.
7
Causey stones for pack horse roads
Cut and stacked have waited two
Hundred years for the horse sledge
To drag them over Todmorden top
Untouched by hoof or foot they are
Shaped and polished by the ra...Read more of this...
by
Tebb, Barry
...An elephant went to bed and pulled a crazy quilt up under
its tusks.
But just as the great gray head began filling with the gray
wrinkles of sleep it was awakened by the thud of its tail
falling out of bed.
Would you get my tail? said the elephant to another
elephant also tucked up under a crazy quilt.
I was just in the gray wrinkles of my sleep, sighed the other
elephant.
But I can't sle...Read more of this...
by
Edson, Russell
...friends not know?
About what? What friends?
II
She sleeps late each day,
stifling each reason to rise,
choked into the quilt.
III
"I'll never find work."
She swallows this thought with pills,
finds tears in the glass....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
...housand small town New England greens,
the old white churches hold their air
of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags
quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic.
The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier
grow slimmer and younger each year--
wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
and muse through their sideburns . . .
Shaw's father wanted no monument
except the ditch,
where his son's body was thrown
and lost with his "niggers."
The ditch is nearer.
There ...Read more of this...
by
Lowell, Robert
...eeth of flowers, hairnet of dew,
hands of herbs, you, perfect wet nurse,
prepare the earthly sheets for me
and the down quilt of weeded moss.
I am going to sleep, my nurse, put me to bed.
Set a lamp at my headboard;
a constellation; whatever you like;
all are good: lower it a bit.
Leave me alone: you hear the buds breaking through . . .
a celestial foot rocks you from above
and a bird traces a pattern for you
so you'll forget . . . Thank you. Oh, one request:
if he telepho...Read more of this...
by
Storni, Alfonsina
...nosing into the other's
flesh with hot nozzles and wallowing there.
Sometimes we are kids making out, silly
in the quilt, tickling the xylophone spine,
blowing wet jokes, loud as a whole
slumber party bouncing till the bed breaks.
I go round and round you sometimes, scouting,
blundering, seeking a way in, the high boxwood
maze I penetrate running lungs bursting
toward the fountain of green fire at the heart.
Sometimes you open wide as cathedral doors
and yank m...Read more of this...
by
Piercy, Marge
...slips from her, and alarms
her trembling modesty, how eagerly he will leap to cover her, and
blot himself
beneath the quilt, making her laugh and tremble.
Is it guilt to free a lady from her palsied lord,
absent and fighting,
terribly abhorred?
He stirs a booted heel and kicks a rolling coal. His
spur clinks
on the hearth. Overhead, the rain hammers and chinks. She
is so pure
and whole. Only because he has her soul will she resign
herself to him,
for where the soul has...Read more of this...
by
Lowell, Amy
...the postmark.
Am I where I was expected? Did I have at hand
the right denominations of stamps,
or did I make a childish quilt of ones and sevens?
Ah yes, they will have to cancel me twice.
Once to make my words worthless.
Once more to stop me from writing....Read more of this...
by
Bronte, Charlotte
...t horse black horse like spurt jade Not expect one stumble end injure Human life happy much that shame Must now sad lie quilt pillow Situation now late dusk increase bother demand Well know come ask hide my face Stick pigweed strong rise lean servant Speech end still manage open mouth smile Guide support go sweep clear stream bend Wine meat like mountain again one time Start feast sad silk move brave bamboo Together point west sun not together lend Noisy sigh then tip cup in ...Read more of this...
by
Fu, Du
...he air.
They drooped and dripped
With a smell of port wine and brandy,
Closing down, slowly,
Trickling drops on the bed-quilt.
Suddenly the window fell in with a great scatter of glass,
And the moon burst into the room,
Sizzling -- "S-s-s-s-s -- Spruggins! Spruggins!"
It rolled toward him,
A green ball of flame,
With two eyes in the center,
A red eye and a yellow eye,
Dropping their lids slowly,
One after the other.
Mr. Spruggins tried to scream,
But the blackamoor
Leapt off ...Read more of this...
by
Lowell, Amy
...e wind soon calms, and the clouds turn the colour of ink; The autumn sky has turned completely black. My ancient cotton quilt is cold as iron, My darling children sleep badly, and kick it apart. The roof leaks over the bed- there's nowhere dry, The rain falls thick as hemp, and without end. Lost amid disorder, I hardly sleep, Wet through, how can I last the long nights! If I could get a mansion with a thousand, ten thousand rooms, A great shelter for all the world's scholars,...Read more of this...
by
Fu, Du
...and sleek, a river-fish at play.
And then well-dressed, ashore, he sees life spilt.
The river-bank is one bright crazy-quilt
Of patch-work dream, of wrath more red than lust,
Where long-haired feudist Hotspurs bite the dust...
This Huckleberry Finn is but the race,
America, still lovely in disgrace,
New childhood of the world, that blunders on
And wonders at the darkness and the dawn,
The poor damned human race, still unimpressed
With its damnation, all its gamin breast
Cho...Read more of this...
by
Lindsay, Vachel
...Roses of Eighteen,
Practis'd to Lisp, and hang the Head aside,
Faints into Airs, and languishes with Pride;
On the rich Quilt sinks with becoming Woe,
Wrapt in a Gown, for Sickness, and for Show.
The Fair ones feel such Maladies as these,
When each new Night-Dress gives a new Disease.
A constant Vapour o'er the Palace flies;
Strange Phantoms rising as the Mists arise;
Dreadful, as Hermit's Dreams in haunted Shades,
Or bright as Visions of expiring Maids.
Now glaring Fiends,...Read more of this...
by
Pope, Alexander
...es of eighteen,
Practis'd to lisp, and hang the head aside,
Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,
Wrapp'd in a gown, for sickness, and for show.
The fair ones feel such maladies as these,
When each new night-dress gives a new disease.
A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;
Strange phantoms, rising as the mists arise;
Dreadful, as hermit's dreams in haunted shades,
Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.
Now gla...Read more of this...
by
Pope, Alexander
...turned it upside down.
The flames drooped back and sizzled, and all his senses grown
Acute by fear, the Boy grabbed the quilt from his bed
And flung it over all, and then with aching head
He watched the early sunshine glint on the remains
Of his holy offering. The lacquer stand had stains
Ugly and charred all over, and where the golden pear
Had been, a deep, black hole gaped miserably. His dear
Treasures were puffs of ashes; only the stones were there,
Winking in the brightne...Read more of this...
by
Lowell, Amy
...In the wide bed
Under the freen embroidered quilt
With flowers and leaves always in soft motion
She is like a wounded bird resting on a pool.
The hunter threw his dart
And hit her breast,--
Hit her but did not kill.
"O my wings, lift me--lift me!
I am not dreadfully hurt!"
Down she dropped and was still.
Kind people come to the edge of the pool with baskets.
"Of course what the poor bird wants is pl...Read more of this...
by
Mansfield, Katherine
...ut I like this more.
I like all your faults
even your purple moods
when you retreat from everyone
to sit in bed under a quilt.
And when I say 'like'
I mean of course 'love'
but that embarrasses you.
You who feel superior to black and white movies
(coaxed for hours to see Casablanca)
though you were moved
by Creature from the Black Lagoon.
One day I'll come swimming
beside your ship or someone will
and if you hear the siren
listen to it. For if you close your ears
only nothin...Read more of this...
by
Ondaatje, Michael
...houses
angling off kilter, their astigmatic windows
almost all in rows. Lucky the skater
threading the yellow tavern's quilt-sized pond,
the yellow dogs who punctuate the village
where our occupations are chasing
and being chaste, sleighing and sledding
and snowshoeing from house to house
in our conical, flamelike hats.
Even the barns are sliding in snow,
though the birches are all golden
and one maple blazes without being consumed.
Is it from a hill nearby we're watching,...Read more of this...
by
Doty, Mark
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