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Famous Target Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...brewed to cure or ease
Humanity's confessed disease,
But the spirit-wine of a singing line,
[Pg 127]Or a dew-drop in a honey cup!
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul



...metal-point on stone.
But this we know, the obstacle that checked
And tripped the body, shot the spirit on
Further than target ever showed or shone....Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...resinous odor, the plenteous moss, the
 cypress
 tree,
 and the juniper tree; 
—Northward, young men of Mannahatta—the target company from an excursion
 returning
 home at
 evening—the musket-muzzles all bear bunches of flowers presented by women; 
Children at play—or on his father’s lap a young boy fallen asleep, (how his lips
 move! how
 he smiles in his sleep!) 
The scout riding on horseback over the plains west of the Mississippi—he ascends a
 knoll
 and
 sweeps his eye ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...ousand times three, 
Will cry hoigh! for the bonnet of Bonny Dundee. 
Come fill up my cup, etc. 

‘There’s brass on the target of barkened bull-hide; 
There’s steel in the scabbard that dangles beside;
The brass shall be burnished, the steel shall flash free, 
At the toss of the bonnet of Bonny Dundee. 
Come fill up my cup, etc. 

‘Away to the hills, to the caves, to the rocks— 
Ere I own an usurper, I’ll couch with the fox; 
And tremble, false Whigs, in the midst of your gle...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...Mammy's in de kitchen, an' de do' is shet;
All de pickaninnies climb an' tug an' sweat,[Pg 242]
Gittin' to de winder, stickin' dah lak flies,
Evah one ermong us des all nose an' eyes.
"Whut's she cookin', Isaac?"
"Whut's she cookin', Jake?"
"Is it sweet pertaters? Is hit pie er cake?"
But we couldn't mek out even whah we stood
Whut was mammy cookin' dat could smell so good.
Mammy spread de winder, an' she fro...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul



...ld wield the soldier's sword and lance
Must be prepared to take the soldier's chance.
She who would shoot must serve as target, too; 
The battle-frenzied men, infuriate now pursue.



XXIV.
And blood of warrior, woman and papoose, 
Flow free as waters when some dam breaks loose; 
Consuming fire, the wanton friend of war
(Whom allies worship and whom foes abhor) 
Now trails her crimson garments through the street, 
And ruin marks the passing of her feet.
Full three-score lodge...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
... http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21700/21700-h/21700-h.htm...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...ow creeps 
 To follow him; and superstition keeps 
 Such hold that Corbus as a terror reigns; 
 Folks say the Fort a target still remains 
 For the Black Archer—and that it contains 
 The cave where the Great Sleeper still sleeps sound. 
 The country people all the castle round 
 Are frightened easily, for legends grow 
 And mix with phantoms of the mind; we know 
 The hearth is cradle of such fantasies, 
 And in the smoke the cotter sees arise 
 From low-thatched ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor
...ness of his rest. 

Hark, my merry comrades call me, sounding on the bugle-horn,
They to whom my foolish passion were a target for their scorn: 

Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder'd string?
I am shamed thro' all my nature to have loved so slight a thing. 

Weakness to be wroth with weakness! woman's pleasure, woman's pain--
Nature made them blinder motions bounded in a shallower brain: 

Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match'd with mine,
Are...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...hat did it cost for our fathers to gain!
Bought at the price of the heart's dearest treasure,
[Pg 23]Born out of travail and sorrow and pain;
Born in the battle where fleet Death was flying,
Slaying with sabre-stroke bloody and fell;
Born where the heroes and martyrs were dying,
Torn by the fury of bullet and shell.
Ah, but the day is past: silent the rattle,
And the confusion that followed the fight.
Peace to the he...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
....
Since when, you may by night or day,
Dispute the sway of elf-folk gay;
But, hear me, stay![Pg 252]
I've learned the way to find Queen
Mab and elf and fay.
Where e'er by streams, the moonlight gleams,
Or on a meadow softly beams,
There, footing round on dew-lit ground,
The fairy folk may all be found.
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
..., there's its face! 
 Frightful! they saw the lion! Not one pace 
 Further stirred any man; but bolt and dart 
 Made target of the beast. He, on his part, 
 As calm as Pelion in the rain or hail, 
 Bristled majestic from the teeth to tail, 
 And shook full fifty missiles from his hide, 
 But no heed took he; steadfastly he eyed, 
 And roared a roar, hoarse, vibrant, vengeful, dread, 
 A rolling, raging peal of wrath, which spread, 
 Making the half-awakened thunder ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor
...http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6130/6130-h/6130-h.html...Read more of this...
by Homer,
...stag's huge antlers swung;
     For all around, the walls to grace,
     Hung trophies of the fight or chase:
     A target there, a bugle here,
     A battle-axe, a hunting-spear,
     And broadswords, bows, and arrows store,
     With the tusked trophies of the boar.
     Here grins the wolf as when he died,
     And there the wild-cat's brindled hide
     The frontlet of the elk adorns,
     Or mantles o'er the bison's horns;
     Pennons and flags defaced and s...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...pack their equipment in silence.

Last night they played the Police Academy Ball and
all the officers slow-danced with target range silhouettes.



This year the theme for the prom is the Tetragrammaton.

A yellow Corsair sails through the disco parking lot
and swaying palms presage the lot of young libertines.

Inside the car a young lady wears a corsage of bullet-sized rodents.
Her date, the handsome cornerback, stretches his talons over the
molded steering wheel.

They pa...Read more of this...
by Berman, David
...e
to the roofs below; I have only one theme:
The bowsprit, the arrow, the longing, the lunging heart - 
the flight to a target whose aim we'll never know,
vain search for an island that heals with its harbor
and a guiltless horizon, where the almond's shadow
doesn't injure the sand. There are so many islands!
As many islands as the stars at night
like falling fruit around the schooner Flight.
But things must fall, and so it always was,
on one hand Venus, on the other Mars;
fa...Read more of this...
by Walcott, Derek
...ush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi’
Translated by Sharam Shiva NEXT Poem Links Ru...Read more of this...
by Rumi, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad
...its noiseless onset --
There is its victory!
Behold the keenest marksman!
The most accomplished shot!
Time's sublimest target
Is a soul "forgot!"...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...Tower,
I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists
was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. "You see
that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there's an arch
from the Roman period. Just right of his head." "But he's moving, he's moving!"
I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them,
"You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next to it,
left and down a bit, there sits a man who...Read more of this...
by Amichai, Yehuda
...g him; he rushed,

though we didn't think those blocky legs
could hurry-- then ambled back
to the center of the road, a target
for kids who'd delight in the crush
of something slow with the look
of primeval invulnerability. He turned

the blunt spear point of his jaws,
puffing his undermouth like a bullfrog,
and snapped at your shoe,
vising a beakful of-- thank God--
leather. You had to shake him loose. We left him
to his own devices, talked on the way home

of what must lead...Read more of this...
by Doty, Mark

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things