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Famous Soaking Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Murray, Les
...br>
The faded rings around the loose bulk shirt
are of five lines each, a musical lineation
and the shirt is apple-red, soaking in salt birth-sheen
more liquid than the river. My cap is a teal mask
pushed back so far that I can pretend it is headgear.
In the middle of the river are cobweb cassowary trees
of the South Pacific, and on the far shore rise
dark hills of the temperate zone. To these, at this
moment in the painting's growth, my course is slant 
but my ey...Read more of this...



by Pinsky, Robert
...er into the blaze.
In the morning, smoking pilasters and beams.
Black smell of char for weeks, the ruin already
Soaking back into the river. After you die
You hover near the ceiling above your body
And watch the mourners awhile. A few days more
You float above the heads of the ones you knew
And watch them through a twilight. As it grows darker
You wander off and find your way to the river
And wade across. On the other side, night air,
Willows, the smel...Read more of this...

by Thomas, Dylan
...own with barley,
The cattle graze on the covered foam,
The hills have footed the waves away,

With wild sea fillies and soaking bridles
With salty colts and gales in their limbs
All the horses of his haul of miracles
Gallop through the arched, green farms,

Trot and gallop with gulls upon them
And thunderbolts in their manes.
O Rome and Sodom To-morrow and London
The country tide is cobbled with towns

And steeples pierce the cloud on her shoulder
And the streets that the...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...l burn, 
Or rain that it will drench him? Break fire's law, 
Sin against rain, although the penalty 
Be just a singe or soaking? "No," he smiles; 
"Those laws are laws that can enforce themselves." 

The sum of all is--yes, my doubt is great, 
My faith's still greater, then my faith's enough. 
I have read much, thought much, experienced much, 
Yet would die rather than avow my fear 
The Naples' liquefaction may be false, 
When set to happen by the palace-clock 
Accord...Read more of this...

by Sutphen, Joyce
...a deep
well and old letters into the grate.

The second half of my life will be ice
breaking up on the river, rain
soaking the fields, a hand
held out, a fire,
and smoke going
upward, always up....Read more of this...



by Gregory, Rg
...scratch on my hand
turned the green water red but not a
thick peasant came to be in on the wonder
and i had to go home soaking wet
to a tongue that had blisters and a belt
round the head from my dad - but i lived

which is more than daft icarus did...Read more of this...

by Bosselaar, Laure-Anne
...Look at this storm, the idiot,
pouring its heart out here, of all places,
an industrial suburb on a Sunday, 
soaking nothing but cinder-block
and parking lots,

 wasting its breath on smokeless 
smoke-stacks, not even a trash can 
to send rumbling through the streets.
And that lightning bolt, forking itself 
to death, to hit 

 nothing — what a waste. 
What if I hadn’t been here, lost too,
four in the morning, driving around
in a jean-shirt over my night-go...Read more of this...

by Rich, Adrienne
...t of sight
even the boards that had to absorb
year upon year, so many human sounds

so many depths of vomit, tears
slow-soaking blood
had not offered themselves for this
The trees didn't volunteer to be cut into boards
nor the thorns for tearing flesh
Look around at all of it

and ask whose signature 
is stamped on the orders, traced
in the corner of the building plans
Ask where the illiterate, big-bellied
women were, the drunks and crazies,
the ones you fear most of all: ask...Read more of this...

by Fu, Du
...> The boy draws shining water from the well, He nimbly lifts the bucket to his hand. He sprinkles water without soaking the earth, And sweeps so well as if no broom had passed. The rosy dawn again lights the pagoda, The clearing mist lifts from the higher windows. Leaning blossoms cover over the path, Dancing willow leaves reach down to the steps. I'm driven by these troublesome affairs, Retirement from the world must be put off. We've ...Read more of this...

by García Lorca, Federico
...s the waves 
raising their tender riddle arms, 
to avoid being caught by lying stone 
which loosens their limbs without soaking their blood. 

For stone gathers seed and clouds, 
skeleton larks and wolves of penumbra: 
but yields not sounds nor crystals nor fire, 
only bull rings and bull rings and more bull rings without walls. 

Now, Ignacio the well born lies on the stone. 
All is finished. What is happening! Contemplate his face: 
death has covered him wit...Read more of this...

by Mackeller, Dorothea
...
We see the cattle die 
But then the grey clouds gather, 
And we can bless again 
The drumming of an army, 
The steady soaking rain. 

Core of my heart, my country! 
Land of the rainbow gold, 
For flood and fire and famine 
She pays us back threefold. 
Over the thirsty paddocks, 
Watch, after many days, 
The filmy veil of greenness 
That thickens as we gaze ... 

An opal-hearted country, 
A wilful, lavish land 
All you who have not loved her, 
You will no...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...ou, and

the next time it rained, all the newspapers she had been sav-

ing for seventeen years to start fires with got soaking wet.

From then on out, I received a sour look every time I

passed her house. I was lucky I wasn't lynched.

 I didn't work for the old lady in the winter. I'd finish the

year by the last of October, raking up leaves or somethin

or transporting the last muttering gartersnake to winter

quarters in the old ladies' toothbrush Valhall...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...histle
fall on thistle
jump in air
pond there
shocked scream
can't swim
hold breath
certain death
police leap
foot deep
soaking wet
vow they'll get
sam swill
off up hill
put in prison
doesn't listen
wooded park
hide till dark
cold and damp
sees tramp
teasing goat
steals coat
ten bob note
leaps with glee
cracks knee
old tree stump
painful lump
limps to town
knocked down
world spins
jabbing pins
dark wins
vague voices
harsh noises
throbbing head 
in bed
swaying forms
bees in sw...Read more of this...

by Sassoon, Siegfried
...erd shakes his gleaming staff 
And foots with angry tidings down the slope. 
Drip, drip; the rain steals in through soaking thatch
By cob-webbed rafters to the dusty floor. 
Drums shatter in the tumult; wrathful Chaos 
Points pealing din to the zenith, then resolves 
Terror in wonderment with rich collapse. 

II

Now from drenched eaves a swallow darts to skim 
The crystal stillness of an air unveiled 
To tremulous blue. Raise your bowed heads, and let 
Your h...Read more of this...

by Kinnell, Galway
...br>
And perhaps also by a flush rising into my face,
for a word -- one with a thick sound,
as if a porous vowel had sat soaking up
saliva while waiting to get spoken,
possibly the name of some flower
that hummingbirds love, perhaps
"honeysuckle" or "hollyhock"
or "phlox" -- just then shocked me
with its suddenness, and this time
apparently did burst the insulation,
letting the word sound in the open
where all could hear, for these tiny, irascible,
nectar-addicted puritans jum...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...ist
  sucking still and still flushing
  with suggestive slurp
  plop slap
  sluggishly upwards
  unctuous lugubrious
  soaking and enjoying
  with spongy gestures
  the swallowed wallowing
  body - the succulence
  of soft shoulder
  squirming
  elbow
  wrist
  then
  all.......

  but no
  his desperate palm
  struggling to forsake
  the clutches of the swamp
  finds one stark branch overhanging
  to fix glad fingers to and out of the maw
  of th...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...The dawn which pass and never passes.

"It's dawn," I said, "And chimney's smoking, 
And all the blessed fields are soaking.' 
It's dawn, and there's an engine shunting; 
And hounds, for huntsman's going hunting. 
It's dawn, and I must wander north 
Along the road Christ led me forth."

So up the road I wander slow 
Past where the snowdrops used to grow 
With celandines in early springs, 
When rainbows were triumphant things 
And dew so bright and flowers so g...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...nd a shave and he was easy and imperturbable though the government weather bureau thermometer said 96 and children were soaking their heads at bubbling fountains on the street corners.
And I said good-by to the Mayor of Gary and I went out from the city hall and turned the corner into Broadway.
And I saw workmen wearing leather shoes scruffed with fire and cinders, and pitted with little holes from running molten steel,
And some had bunches of specialized muscles arou...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...ng wain. 
An engine pants and hums 
In the farm hard by: 
Its lowering smoke is lost 
In the lowering sky. 
The soaking branches drip, 
And all night through 
The dropping will not cease 
In the avenue. 
A tall man there in the house 
Must keep his chair: 
He knows he will never again 
Breathe the spring air: 
His heart is worn with work; 
He is giddy and sick 
If he rise to go as far 
As the nearest rick: 
He thinks of his morn of life, 
His hale, strong years; 
...Read more of this...

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