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Famous Rug Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...e "praste" cried aloud in his haste,
 "Come out and be christened, you divil!" 

But he lay there as snug as a bug in a rug,
 And his parents in vain might reprove him,
Till his reverence spoke (he was fond of a joke)
 "I've a notion," says he, "that'll move him." 

"Poke a stick up the log, give the spalpeen a prog;
 Poke him aisy—don't hurt him or maim him,
'Tis not long that he'll stand, I've the water at hand,
 As he rushes out this end I'll name him. 

"Here he c...Read more of this...



by Frost, Robert
...I've seen it done before
I can't pretend to tell the way it's done.
It looks as if some magic of the sun
Lifted the rug that bred them on the floor
And the light breaking on them made them run.
But if I though to stop the wet stampede,
And caught one silver lizard by the tail,
And put my foot on one without avail,
And threw myself wet-elbowed and wet-kneed
In front of twenty others' wriggling speed,--
In the confusion of them all aglitter,
And birds that joined in the...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...nd swooping, in the wake of the fighting tug, 
And the luggers afloat in Hell's water – Oh, "tourist", with cushion and rug! – 
Think of the freezing fury, without one minute's relief, 
When they stood all night in the blackness by the wreck of the Indian Chief! 

Lashed to their seats, and crouching, to the spray that froze as it flew, 
Twenty-six hours in midwinter! That was the lifeboat's crew. 
Twice she was swamped, and she righted, in the rush of the heavy seas, 
An...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...I'm sitting by the fire tonight,
 The cat purrs on the rug;
The room's abrim with rosy light,
 Suavely soft and snug;
And safe and warm from dark and storm
 It's cosiness I hug.

Then petulant the window pane
 Quakes in the tempest moan,
And cries: "Forlornly in the rain
 There starkly streams a stone,
Where one so dear who shared your cheer
 Now lies alone, alone.

Go forth! Go forth into the gale
 And ...Read more of this...

by Jong, Erica
...will have filled whatever gap it is
that makes us wander, discontented
from ourselves.

The room will not change:
a rug, or armchair, or new coat of paint
won't make much difference;
our eyes are fickle
but we remain the same beneath our suntans,
pale, frightened,
dreaming ourselves backward and forward in time,
dreaming our dreaming selves.

I look forward and see myself looking back....Read more of this...



by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...rching his with pity, is now no matter. 
My glance at him was brief, turning itself 
To the familiar pattern of his rug, 
Wherein I may have sought a consolation—
As one may gaze in sorrow on a shell, 
Or a small apple. So it had come, I thought; 
And heard, no longer with a wonderment, 
The faint recurring footsteps of his wife, 
Who, knowing less than I knew, yet knew more.
Now I could read, I fancied, through the fear 
That latterly was living in her eyes, 
To ...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...br>
The moon, though slight, was moon enough to show
On every tree a bucket with a lid,
And on black ground a bear-skin rug of snow.
The sparks made no attempt to be the moon.
They were content to figure in the trees
As Leo, Orion, and the Pleiades.
And that was what the boughs were full of soon....Read more of this...

by Murray, Les
...blossom.
Bees still at work up there tack
around their exploded furry likeness

and the lawn underneath's a napped rug
of eyelash drift, of blooms flared
like a sneeze in a redhaired nostril,

minute urns, pinch-sized rockets
knocked down by winds, by night-creaking
fig-squirting bats, or the daily

parrot gang with green pocketknife wings.
Bristling food tough delicate
raucous life, each flower comes

as a spray in its own turned vase,
a taut starbust, honeyed model...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...swered, an' a bitter laugh he laughed -- 
There were brighter days an' better when he always travelled aft -- 
With his rug an' gladstone, aft, 
With his cap an' spyglass, aft -- 
A careless, rovin', gay young spark as always travelled aft. 

There's a notice by the gangway, an' it seems to come amiss, 
For it says that second-classers `ain't allowed abaft o' this'; 
An' there ought to be a notice for the fellows from abaft -- 
But the smell an' dirt's a warnin' to the fi...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...at they
Were children of her breed.
Upon the roof we see her creep
And howl with fiendish tone,
While on the hearth-rug softly sleep
Three kittens on their own.

And such is nature's way, it seems,
And maybe right at that;
So Mother, drop your foolish dreams
And emulate the Cat.
And when your offspring well are grown,
And strong and swift and tall,
Just turn them out upon their own
And let them fight - or fall....Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...nted band is very grand, playing allegro and leading the 
infantry on
at the double quick. The tassel of the hearth-rug has 
flung down
the bass-drum, and he and his dapple-grey horse lie overtripped,
slipped out of line, with the little lead drumsticks glistening
to the fire's shine.
The fire burns and crackles, and tickles the tripped 
bass-drum
with its sparkles.
The marching army hitches its little green platforms 
valiantly, and steadily
approaches the door.<...Read more of this...

by Orlovsky, Peter
...bugs around my face would 
 disappear forever.
The holes in my shues are only temporary, I understand that.
My rug is dirty but whose that isent?
There comes a time in life when everybody must take a piss in 
 the sink -here let me paint the window black for a minute.
Thro a plate & brake it out of naughtiness-or maybe just 
 innocently accidentally drop it wile walking around the 
 tabol.
Before the mirror I look like a sahara desert gost, 
 or on the bed I ...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...placencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead,
Winding across wide water, without sound.
The day is like wide water, wi...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...hat ponderings and proud ideas you had!
What visions of a shrine of peace and rest!
For there's his easy-chair upon the rug,
His reading-lamp, his pipe-rack on the wall,
All that you could devise to make him snug --
And yet you could not hold him with it all.

Ah, patient heart, what homelike joys you planned
To stay him by the dull domestic flame!
Those silken cushions that you worked by hand
When you had time, before the baby came.
Oh, how you wove around him cozy s...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...an setting
His saddle on my own nag of Berold's begetting,
(Not that I meant to be obtrusive)
She stopped me, while his rug was shifting,
By a single rapid finger's lifting,
And, with a gesture kind but conclusive,
And a little shake of the head, refused me,---
I say, although she never used me,
Yet when she was mounted, the Gipsy behind her,
And I ventured to remind her,
I suppose with a voice of less steadiness
Than usual, for my feeling exceeded me,
---Something to the eff...Read more of this...

by Edson, Russell
...into the floor, my attention bleeding into 
the cracks of the floor.

 Dear horizontal place, I do not wish to be a rug. 
Do not pull at the difficult head, this teetering 
bulb of dread and dream . . ....Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...d of the mighty fire,
Where wise Newfoundland Fan foreknew
The heaven that Christian dogs desire --

Stretched o'er the rug, serene and grave,
Huge nose on heavy paws reclined,
With never a drowning boy to save,
And warmth of body and peace of mind.

And, as our happy circle sat,
The fire well capp'd the company:
In grave debate or careless chat,
A right good fellow, mingled he:

He seemed as one of us to sit,
And talked of things above, below,
With flames more winsome th...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...the sink board.

He didn't eat me, tho I regretted him starving in my presence.
Next week he wasted away a sick rug full of bones wheaten hair falling out
enraged and reddening eye as he lay aching huge hairy head on his paws
by the egg-crate bookcase filled up with thin volumes of Plato, & Buddha.

Sat by his side every night averting my eyes from his hungry motheaten
 face
stopped eating myself he got weaker and roared at night while I had 
 nightmares
Eaten by ...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...contest,
the black chair, a dog coffin made of Naugahyde,
the sockets on the wall
waiting like a cave of bees,
the gold rug
a conversation of heels and toes,
the fireplace
a knife waiting for someone to pick it up,
the sofa, exhausted with the exertion of a whore,
the phone
two flowers taking root in its crotch,
the doors
opening and closing like sea clams,
the lights
poking at me,
lighting up both the soil and the laugh.
The windows,
the starving windows
that drive the t...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...horse
He will come by to see,
And later on the couch
He sits and waits for me
And with a short spore
He tears the rug in two.
Now the brief smile of mine
The mirror will not view.



x x x

Bow of moon I see, I see
Through dense canopy of groves,
Level sound I hear, I hear
Of the free horse's hooves.

What? And you don't want to sleep,
In a year could you forget
Me, nor are you used to find
Empty and unmade your bed?

Not with you then do...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs