Famous Shortest Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

An Elegy

by Ben Jonson
THOUGH beauty be the mark of praise  
And yours of whom I sing be such 
As not the world can praise too much  
Yet 'tis your Virtue now I raise. 

A virtue like allay so gone 5 
Throughout your form as though that move 
And draw and conquer all men's love  
This subjects you to love of...Read more of this...

Absence

by Robert Seymour Bridges
 HERE, ever since you went abroad, 
 If there be change no change I see: 
I only walk our wonted road, 
 The road is only walk'd by me. 

Yes; I forgot; a change there is-- 
 Was it of that you bade me tell? 
I catch at times, at times I miss 
 The sight, the tone, I...Read more of this...

The Story of Mongrel Grey

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 This is the story the stockman told 
On the cattle-camp, when the stars were bright; 
The moon rose up like a globe of gold 
And flooded the plain with her mellow light. 
We watched the cattle till dawn of day 
And he told me the story of Mongrel Grey. 
He was a knock-about station hack, 
Spurred and walloped, and...Read more of this...

What News

by Walter Savage Landor
 Here, ever since you went abroad,
If there be change, no change I see,
I only walk our wonted road,
The road is only walkt by me.

Yes; I forgot; a change there is;
Was it of that you bade me tell?
I catch at times, at times I miss
The sight, the tone, I know so well.

Only two months since you stood here!
Two shortest months!...Read more of this...

owl power

by Rg Gregory
 they say in the local sanctuary
owls are the stupidest creatures
all this wisdom business is
the mythological media at work
but the shortest nosing into books
tells you even the mythic world
is bamboozled by the creature - no
two cultures being able to agree

the bird was cherished by minerva
hebrews loathed it as unclean
buddhists treasure its seclusion
elsewhere night-hag evil omen

the baker's daughter's silly cry
ungrateful chinese...Read more of this...

Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --

by Emily Dickinson
 Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --
Empty the Hearts that purchased you --

--

Sister of Ophir --
Ah, Peru --
Subtle the Sum
That purchase you --

--

Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route
To you....Read more of this...

Mutation

by William Cullen Bryant
 They talk of short-lived pleasure--be it so-- 
Pain dies as quickly; stern, hard-featured pain 
Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go. 
The fiercest agonies have shortest reign; 
And after dreams of horror, comes again 
The welcome morning with its rays of peace. 
Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain, 
Makes the strong secret pangs of pain to cease:

Remorse is virtue's...Read more of this...

Paris

by Alan Seeger
 First, London, for its myriads; for its height, 
Manhattan heaped in towering stalagmite; 
But Paris for the smoothness of the paths 
That lead the heart unto the heart's delight. . . . 


Fair loiterer on the threshold of those days 
When there's no lovelier prize the world displays 
Than, having beauty and your twenty years, 
You have the means...Read more of this...

Whose are the little beds I asked

by Emily Dickinson
 Whose are the little beds, I asked
Which in the valleys lie?
Some shook their heads, and others smiled --
And no one made reply.

Perhaps they did not hear, I said,
I will inquire again --
Whose are the beds -- the tiny beds
So thick upon the plain?

'Tis Daisy, in the shortest --
A little further on --
Nearest the door -- to wake the Ist...Read more of this...

To His Watch

by Gerard Manley Hopkins
 Mortal my mate, bearing my rock-a-heart
Warm beat with cold beat company, shall I
Earlier or you fail at our force, and lie 
The ruins of, rifled, once a world of art? 
The telling time our task is; time’s some part,
Not all, but we were framed to fail and die— 
One spell and well that one. There, ah thereby
Is comfort’s carol...Read more of this...

Lines

by Martha Collins
 Draw a line. Write a line. There.
Stay in line, hold the line, a glance
between the lines is fine but don't
turn corners, cross, cut in, go over
or out, between two points of no
return's a line of flight, between
two points of view's a line of vision.
But a line of thought is rarely
straight, an open line's no party
line, however fine your point.
A...Read more of this...

Poem 15

by Edmund Spenser
 RIng ye the bels, ye yong men of the towne,
And leaue your wonted labors for this day:
This day is holy; doe ye write it dovvne,
that ye for euer it remember may.
This day the sunne is in his chiefest hight,
With Barnaby the bright,
>From whence declining daily by degrees,
He somewhat loseth of his heat and light,
When once the Crab behind his...Read more of this...

On the Wye in May

by Amy Levy
 Now is the perfect moment of the year.
Half naked branches, half a mist of green,
Vivid and delicate the slopes appear;
The cool, soft air is neither fierce nor keen,

And in the temperate sun we feel no fear;
Of all the hours which shall be and have been,
It is the briefest as it is most dear,
It is the dearest as the shortest...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Shortest 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