Famous Sniffs Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Break of Day

...till darkness brims 
And roars into their heads, and they can hear 
Old childish talk, and tags of foolish hymns. 

He sniffs the chilly air; (his dreaming starts),
He’s riding in a dusty Sussex lane 
In quiet September; slowly night departs; 
And he’s a living soul, absolved from pain. 
Beyond the brambled fences where he goes 
Are glimmering fields with harvest piled in sheaves,
And tree-tops dark against the stars grown pale; 
Then, clear and shrill, a distant farm-cock c...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried


Cruelty and Love

...fine wire is round my throat, 
I only know I let him finger there 
My pulse of life, letting him nose like a stoat 
Who sniffs with joy before he drinks the blood: 
And down his mouth comes to my mouth, and down 
His dark bright eyes descend like a fiery hood 
Upon my mind: his mouth meets mine, and a flood 
Of sweet fire sweeps across me, so I drown 
Within him, die, and find death good....Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

Cruelty and Love

...fine wire is round my throat,
I only know I let him finger there
My pulse of life, letting him nose like a stoat
Who sniffs with joy before he drinks the blood:
And down his mouth comes to my mouth, and down
His dark bright eyes descend like a fiery hood
Upon my mind: his mouth meets mine, and a flood
Of sweet fire sweeps across me, so I drown
Within him, die, and find death good.
...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

In Me Past Present Future meet

...ed feet.

In me the cave-man clasps the seer,
And garlanded Apollo goes
Chanting to Abraham’s deaf ear.
In me the tiger sniffs the rose.
Look in my heart, kind friends, and tremble,
Since there your elements assemble....Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried

Old Man

...aits there, snipping the tips and shrivelling
The shreds at last on to the path, 
Thinking perhaps of nothing, till she sniffs
Her fingers and runs off. The bush is still
But half as tall as she, though it is not old; 
So well she clips it. Not a word she says; 
And I ca only wonder how much hereafter
She will remember, with that bitter scent, 
Of garden rows, and ancient damson trees
Topping a hedge, a bent path to a door
A low thick bush beside the door, and me
Forbidding h...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Edward


Our Hired Girl

...Th' Raggedy Man 'at mows our lawn;
An' he says, "Whew!" an' nen leans on
His old crook-scythe, and blinks his eyes,
An' sniffs all 'round an' says, "I swawn!
Ef my old nose don't tell me lies,
It 'pears like I smell custard-pies!"
An' nen he'll say,
"Clear out o' my way!
They's time fer work, an' time fer play!
Take yer dough, an' run, child, run!
Er she cain't git no cookin' done!"

Wunst our hired girl, when she
Got the supper, an' we all et,
An' it wuz night, an' Ma an' me...Read more of this...
by Riley, James Whitcomb

Purple Martins

...ver count your slinging ciphers,
 your sliding figure eights,

A man on a green paint iron bench,
Slouches his feet and sniffs in a book,
And looks at you and your loops and slip-knots,
And looks at you and your sheaths of satin blue,
And slouches again and sniffs in the book,
And mumbles: It is an idle and a doctrinaire exploit.
Go on tumbling half over in the water mirrors.
Go on tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun.
 Be water birds, be air birds.
 Be these purp...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Ragetty Doll

...re
 At its pathetic grin!
Yet Marie Rose can lover it,
 And with her kisses cover it.

Rosemary is a pampered pet;
 She sniffs a dainty nose
Of scorn at ragged dolls, and yet
 My love's with Marie Rose,
In garret corner shy and sweet,
 With rag doll Marguerite.

Though kin they are, a gulf will grow
 Between them with the years;
For one a life of love will know,
 The other toil and tears:
Perhaps that shabby rag doll knows
 The rue of Marie Rose....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Schizophrenic

...n guy?
Am I the starchy front who rants
As round his weight he throws,
or just old Pop with patchy pants,
Who sings and sniffs a rose?...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Song of Myself

...ng, slight shock of the soothe of waves, 
Black and impassive guns, litter of powder-parcels, strong scent, 
Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass and fields by the shore,
 death-messages given in charge to survivors, 
The hiss of the surgeon’s knife, the gnawing teeth of his saw,
Wheeze, cluck, swash of falling blood, short wild scream, and long, dull,
 tapering groan; 
These so—these irretrievable. 

37
O Christ! This is mastering me! 
In at the co...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Moose

...se has come out of 
the impenetrable wood
and stands there, looms, rather,
in the middle of the road.
It approaches; it sniffs at
the bus's hot hood.

Towering, antlerless,
high as a church,
homely as a house
(or, safe as houses).
A man's voice assures us
"Perfectly harmless. . . ."

Some of the passengers
exclaim in whispers,
childishly, softly,
"Sure are big creatures."
"It's awful plain."
"Look! It's a she!"

Taking her time,
she looks the bus over,
grand, otherworldly.
Wh...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth

The Rum Tum Tugger

...m fish then he always wants a feast;
When there isn't any fish then he won't eat rabbit.
If you offer him cream then he sniffs and sneers,
For he only likes what he finds for himself;

So you'll catch him in it right up to the ears,
If you put it away on the larder shelf.
The Rum Tum Tugger is artful and knowing,
The Rum Tum Tugger doesn't care for a cuddle;
But he'll leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing,
For there's nothing he enjoys like a horrible muddle.
Yes the ...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

To Urania

...or does a grill abandon
a leaf. One may rattle the keys, gurgle down a swallow.
Loneless cubes a man at random.
A camel sniffs at the rail with a resentful nostril;
a perspective cuts emptiness deep and even. 
And what is space anyway if not the
body's absence at every given
point? That's why Urania's older sister Clio! 
in daylight or with the soot-rich lantern,
you see the globe's pate free of any bio,
you see she hides nothing, unlike the latter. 
There they are, blueberry...Read more of this...
by Brodsky, Joseph

To Urania To I.K

...does a grill abandon
a leaf. One may rattle the keys gurgle down a swallow.
Loneless cubes a man at random.
A camel sniffs at the rail with a resentful nostril;
a perspective cuts emptiness deep and even.
And what is space anyway if not the
body's absence at every given
point? That's why Urania's older sister Clio!
in daylight or with the soot-rich lantern 
you see the globe's pate free of any bio 
you see she hides nothing unlike the latter.
There they are bluebe...Read more of this...
by Brodsky, Joseph

Work Gangs

...anings, stories, stars.
 The stuff of it runs like this:
A long way we come; a long way to go; long rests and long deep sniffs for our lungs on the way.
Sleep is a belonging of all; even if all songs are old songs and the singing heart is snuffed out like a switchman’s lantern with the oil gone, even if we forget our names and houses in the finish, the secret of sleep is left us, sleep belongs to all, sleep is the first and last and best of all.

People singing; people with s...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

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