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Famous Switched Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Hope, Alec Derwent (A D)
...ouse loudspeakers with a bray 
Of raucous and triumphant argument 
Broke out the wedding march from Lohengrin. 

He switched the engine off: "We must turn back." 
She heard his voice break, though he had to shout 
Against a din that made their senses reel, 
And felt his hand, so tense in hers, go slack. 
But suddenly she laughed and said: "Get out! 
Change seatsl Be quickl" and slid behind the wheel. 

And drove the car straight at them with a harsh, 
Dry crun...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...I opened wide the bath-room door,
And all at once switched on the light,
When moving swift across the floor
I saw a streak of ebon bright:
Then quick, with slipper in my hand,
Before it could escape,--I slammed.
I missed it once, I missed it twice,
But got it ere it gained its lair.
I fear my words were far from nice,
Though d----s with me are rather rare:
Then lo! I thought that dying roach
Regarde...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...n I awoke I found beneath the door 
Only the invoice from the liquor store. 
The grape-vine brought the word. I switched to beer: 
She had become a civil engineer. 
When I went walking birds and children fled. 
I took my love, myself, behind the shed; 
The shed burned down. I switched to milk and eggs. 
At night a dream ran up and down my legs. 

I have endured, as Godless Nazarite, 
Life like a bone even a dog would slight; 
All that the dog would...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...s jaw or a horse’s skull whitening in the sun? Is the red heart of man only ashes? Is the flame of it all a white light switched off and the power house wires cut?

Why do the prairie roses answer every summer? Why do the changing repeating rains come back out of the salt sea wind-blown? Why do the stars keep their tracks? Why do the cradles of the sky rock new babies?...Read more of this...

by Betjeman, John
...re the requisites all in the toilet?
The frills round the cutlets can wait
Till the girl has replenished the cruets
And switched on the logs in the grate.

It's ever so close in the lounge dear,
But the vestibule's comfy for tea
And Howard is riding on horseback
So do come and take some with me

Now here is a fork for your pastries
And do use the couch for your feet;
I know that I wanted to ask you-
Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

Milk and then just as it comes dear?
I'm...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...rified the problem of Kathleen.
I thought a lot, then like a shot the remedy I found:
I jest unhitched her rope and switched the loving creature round.
No more her moo will trouble you, you'll sleep right restful now.
Look, Lady, look! - I'm giving you... the tail end of the cow."...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...s 
curling and blurring 
into death, and took away 
the book still unfinished 
of a man more confused 
even than I, and switched off 
the light, and left me alone. 

III 

In June of 1975 I wakened 
one late afternoon in Amsterdam 
in a dim corner of a library. 
I had fallen asleep over a book 
and was roused by a young girl 
whose hand lay on my hand. 
I turned my head up and stared 
into her brown eyes, deep 
and gleaming. She was crying. 
For a second I...Read more of this...

by Brodsky, Joseph
...and foul dreams. Munched the bread of exile; it's stale and warty.
Granted my lungs all sounds except the howl;
switched to a whisper. Now I am forty.
What should I say about my life? That it's long and abhors transparence.
Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelette, though, makes me vomit.
Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx,
only gratitude will be gushing from it....Read more of this...

by Brodsky, Joseph
...foul
dreams. Munched the bread of exile; it's stale and warty.
Granted my lungs all sounds except the howl;
switched to a whisper. Now I am forty.
What should I say about my life? That it's long and abhors transparence.
Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelette though makes me vomit.
Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx 
only gratitude will be gushing from it.
...Read more of this...

by Blunden, Edmund
...he night,
    The sun returned and long abode; but then

    Hoarse drooping darkness hung me with a shroud
    And switched at me with shrivelled leaves in scorn.
    Red morning stole beneath a grinning cloud,
    And suddenly clambering over dike and thorn

    A half-moon host of churls with flags and sticks
    Hallooed and hurtled up the partridge brood,
    And Death clapped hands from all the echoing thicks,
    And trampling envy spied me where I stood...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...eir beliefs a blue spot came slowly
out of the green

nobody expected such a thing to occur
on a thursday

the watchers switched over from their electronic
eye to their notes

the evidence undeniably placed thursday as the day
of the pink circle

they recorded having seen another pink circle
in a strange light

which had (explainably) created the illusion of
being a blue spot

(blue from green on a thursday meaning disaster)
no one need panic

to ease minds they laid a compla...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...rgin shape
In a scabbard of wood baffles pursuers,
Whether goat-thighed or god-haloed. Ever since that first Daphne
Switched her incomparable back

For a bay-tree hide, respect's
Twined to her hard limbs like ivy: the puritan lip
Cries: 'Celebrate Syrinx whose demurs
Won her the frog-colored skin, pale pith and watery
Bed of a reed. Look:

Pine-needle armor protects
Pitys from Pan's assault! And though age drop
Their leafy crowns, their fame soars,
Eclipsing Eva, Cleo...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things