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Famous Suggestion Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...It seems wrong that out of this bird,
Black, bold, a suggestion of dark 
Places about it, there yet should come
Such rich music, as though the notes'
Ore were changed to a rare metal
At one touch of that bright bill.

You have heard it often, alone at your desk
In a green April, your mind drawn
Away from its work by sweet disturbance
Of the mild evening outside your room.

A slow singer, but loading ea...Read more of this...
by Thomas, R S



...It seems wrong that out of this bird,
Black, bold, a suggestion of dark 
Places about it, there yet should come
Such rich music, as though the notes'
Ore were changed to a rare metal
At one touch of that bright bill.

You have heard it often, alone at your desk
In a green April, your mind drawn
Away from its work by sweet disturbance
Of the mild evening outside your room.

A slow singer, but loading ea...Read more of this...
by Thomas, R S
...As I go and shop, sir!
If a car I stop, sir!
Where you chance to sit,
And you want to read, sir!
Never mind or heed, sir!
I’ll not care a bit.

For it’s now aesthetic
To be quite athletic.
That’s our fad, you know.
I can hold the strap, sir!
And keep off your lap, sir!
As we jolting go.

If you read on blindly,
I shall take it kindly,
All t...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...pping out against the scrim
Or a wobbly flat daubed with a landscape,
A scribble of leaves, a hint of flowers,
The bare suggestion of a garden....Read more of this...
by Wagoner, David
...pper,
I bought a penny copy-book
 And blued the other copper.

I spent it on a sausage roll
 Gulped down with guilt suggestion,
To the damnation of my soul
 And awful indigestion.
Poor Dad! His job was hard to hold;
 His mouths to feed were many;
Were he alive a millionfold
 I'd pay him for his penny.

Now nigh the grave I think with grief,
 Though other sins are many,
I am a liar and a thief
 'Cause once I stole a penny:
Yet be he pious as a friar
 It is my firm ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William



...little inward noise, 
Midway between a chuckle and a laugh, 
And that was all his answer: not a word 
Of explanation or suggestion came
From those tight-smiling lips. And when I left, 
I wondered, as I trod the creaking snow 
And had the world-wide air to breathe again,— 
Though I had seen the tremor of his mouth 
And honored the endurance of his hand—
Whether or not, securely closeted 
Up there in the stived haven of his den, 
The man sat laughing at me; and I felt 
My t...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...its dreaded source became a bastion
too holy to be doubted - mum flipped a gear

she sought revenge on dad for his lewd suggestion
taking too long of course - things went nuclear
the scale of the damage was too much to ingest when
 dad pointed with his sexual gear

(ii)
she sat with her flowing skirt spread out on the earth
and tore the garment into strips from toe to waist
laying them to point around the wide world's girth
 my way the truth flows best

dad laughed his head o...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg
...lowers : Richer than Time, and as time's virtue rare                 Who, blest with such high chance Would, at suggestion of a steep desire,                  Cast himself from the spire Of all his happiness ?   But soft :  I hear                  Some vicious fool draw near, That cries, we dream, and swears there's no such thing,                   As this chaste love we sing. Peace, Luxury, thou art like one of those                 No, Vi...Read more of this...
by Jonson, Ben
...seem happy somehow, 
So he said "Well, there's no harm in paying a call,
And I needn't say owt about plough."

This suggestion that he were afraid of the Squire
Were most deeply resented by Joe; 
He said "Right! I'll show you... I'll go up at once,
At the worst he can only say 'No.''

Then he said "After all as I've done in the past
He would have a nerve to decline; 
He ought to be thankful to give me his plough, 
Seein'' damage his rock did to mine.

...Read more of this...
by Edgar, Marriott
...Barbie's toes between his lips, 
take off one of her legs and force his whole arm inside her.
With only the vaguest suggestion of genitals,
all the alluring qualities they possess as fashion dolls, 
up until now, have done neither of them much good. 
But suddenly Barbie is excited looking at her own body 
under the weight of Ken's face. He is part circus freak,
part thwarted hermaphrodite. And she is imagining 
she is somebody else-- maybe somebody middle clas...Read more of this...
by Duhamel, Denise
...o longer high enough.
Whereas I never had a good idea
About improving people in the world,
Here I am overfertile in suggestion,
And cannot rest from planning day or night
How high I'd thrust the peaks in summer snow
To tap the upper sky and draw a flow
Of frosty night air on the vale below
Down from the stars to freeze the dew as starry.

The more the sensibilitist I am
The more I seem to want my mountains wild;
The way the wiry gang-boss liked the logjam. 
After ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...ment, trodden gold, 
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed 
In vision beatific. By him first 
Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 
Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands 
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth 
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew 
Opened into the hill a spacious wound, 
And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best 
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 
Who boast in mort...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ngeable, eternal, which ordain'd 
$THeir freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall. 
The first sort by their own suggestion fell, 
Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: Man falls, deceiv'd 
By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace, 
The other none: In mercy and justice both, 
Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel; 
But Mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine. 
Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill'd 
All Heaven, and in the blessed Spirits...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
....
You are a person of some interest, one comes to you
And takes strange gain away:
Trophies fished up; some curious suggestion;
Fact that leads nowhere; and a tale for two,
Pregnant with mandrakes, or with something else
That might prove useful and yet never proves,
That never fits a corner or shows use,
Or finds its hour upon the loom of days:
The tarnished, gaudy, wonderful old work;
Idols and ambergris and rare inlays,
These are your riches, your great store; and yet
F...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra
...! 
Let faces and theories be turn’d inside out! let meanings be freely criminal, as well
 as
 results! 
Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of drudgery!
Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say! do you know your destination?) 
Let men and women be mock’d with bodies and mock’d with Souls! 
Let the love that waits in them, wait! let it die, or pass stillborn to other spheres! 
Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait! or let it also pass, a dwarf, to ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...heart with chatter'd fears. How easy it is 
For a stiff mind to hold itself upright 
Against the cords of devilish suggestion 
Tackled about it, though kept downward strained 
With sly, masterful winches made of fear. 
Yea, when the mind is warned what engines mean 
To ply it into grovelling, and thought set firm, 
The tugging strings fail like a cobweb-stuff. 
Not as in Baghdad is it with me now; 
Nor canst thou, Satan, by a prating mouth, 
Fell my tall purpose ...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles
...-- I'll lay six to four! 
He rolls in his stride; he's done, there's no question!" 
But here the old Rabbi brought up a suggestion. 
('Twas strange that in racing he showed so much cunning), 
"It's a hard race," said he, "and I think it would be 
A good thing for someone to take up the running." 
As soon said as done, they started to run -- 
The priests and the deacons, strong runners and weak 'uns 
All reckoned ere long to come up with the brute, 
And so the whole bo...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...
And the slant spirits trooping by
In streams and cross- and counter-streams
Can but give ear to that sweet cry
For its suggestion of what dreams!

And the more loitering are turned
To view once more the sacrifice
Of those who for some good discerned
Will gladly give up paradise.
And a white shimmering concourse rolls
Toward the throne to witness there
The speeding of devoted souls
Which God makes his especial care.

And none are taken but who will,
Having first heard...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...consort with ugly night,
And never wound the heart with looks again;
Who, like a king perplexed in his throne,
By their suggestion gives a deadly groan,

Whereat each tributary subject quakes;
As when the wind, imprison'd in the ground,
Struggling for passage, earth's foundation shakes,
Which with cold terror doth men's minds confound.
This mutiny each part doth so surprise
That from their dark beds once more leap her eyes;

And, being open'd, threw unwilling light
Upon t...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...Human soul
By failure of irreverence
Is guilty of the whole.

As guileless as a Bird
As graphic as a star
Till the suggestion sinister
Things are not what they are --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry