Famous Tigers Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Sonnet XIX

by William Shakespeare
 Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve...Read more of this...

Whether or Not

by D. H. Lawrence
I

Dunna thee tell me its his'n, mother,
      Dunna thee, dunna thee.
--Oh ay! he'll be comin' to tell thee his-sèn
      Wench, wunna he?

Tha doesna mean to say to me, mother,
      He's gone wi that--
--My gel, owt'll do for a man i' the dark,
   ...Read more of this...

The Lost Legion

by Rudyard Kipling
 1895

There's a Legion that never was listed,
 That carries no colours or crest,
But, split in a thousand detachments,
 Is breaking the road for the rest.
Our fathers they left us their blessing --
 They taught us, and groomed us, and crammed;
But we've shaken the Clubs and the Messes
 To go and find out and be damned
 (Dear boys!),
 To go...Read more of this...

Fact Or Fable?

by Victor Hugo
 (BISMARCK AND NAPOLEON III.) 
 
 ("Un jour, sentant un royal appétit.") 
 
 {Bk. III. iii., Jersey, September, 1852.} 


 One fasting day, itched by his appetite, 
 A monkey took a fallen tiger's hide, 
 And, where the wearer had been savage, tried 
 To overpass his model. Scratch and bite 
 Gave place, however, to mere...Read more of this...

The New World

by Philip Levine
 A man roams the streets with a basket
of freestone peaches hollering, "Peaches,
peaches, yellow freestone peaches for sale."

My grandfather in his prime could outshout
the Tigers of Wrath or the factory whistles
along the river. Hamtramck hungered

for yellow freestone peaches, downriver
wakened from a dream of work, Zug Island danced
into the bright day glad to be alive.

Full-figured women in their negligees
streamed into the...Read more of this...

Panthea

by Oscar Wilde
 Nay, let us walk from fire unto fire,
From passionate pain to deadlier delight, -
I am too young to live without desire,
Too young art thou to waste this summer night
Asking those idle questions which of old
Man sought of seer and oracle, and no reply was told.

For, sweet, to feel is better than to know,
And wisdom is a childless heritage,
One pulse...Read more of this...

The Lion and the Lamb

by Elinor Wylie
 I saw a Tiger's golden flank, 
I saw what food he ate, 
By a desert spring he drank; 
The Tiger's name was Hate.

Then I saw a placid Lamb 
Lying fast asleep; 
Like a river from its dam 
Flashed the Tiger's leap.

I saw a lion tawny-red, 
Terrible and brave; 
The Tiger's leap overhead 
Broke like a wave.

In sand below or...Read more of this...

Travel

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 I should like to rise and go 
Where the golden apples grow;-- 
Where below another sky 
Parrot islands anchored lie, 
And, watched by cockatoos and goats, 
Lonely Crusoes building boats;-- 
Where in sunshine reaching out 
Eastern cities, miles about, 
Are with mosque and minaret 
Among sandy gardens set, 
And the rich goods from near and far 
Hang for sale...Read more of this...

Wheres the Poet?

by John Keats
 Where's the Poet? show him! show him,
Muses nine! that I may know him.
'Tis the man who with a man
Is an equal, be he King,
Or poorest of the beggar-clan
Or any other wonderous thing
A man may be 'twixt ape and Plato;
'Tis the man who with a bird,
Wren or Eagle, finds his way to
All its instincts; he hath heard
The Lion's roaring, and...Read more of this...

Mad Blake

by William Rose Benet
 Blake saw a treeful of angels at Peckham Rye, 
And his hands could lay hold on the tiger's terrible heart. 
Blake knew how deep is Hell, and Heaven how high, 
And could build the universe from one tiny part. 
Blake heard the asides of God, as with furrowed brow 
He sifts the star-streams between the Then and the Now,...Read more of this...

Sonnets XIX: Devouring Time blunt thou the lions paws

by William Shakespeare
 Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-liv'd Phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one more heinous crime:
O, carve...Read more of this...

Sonnet XLIV

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XLIV. Mie venture al venir son tarde e pigre. FEW ARE THE SWEETS, BUT MANY THE BITTERS OF LOVE.  Ever my hap is slack and slow in coming,Desire increasing, ay my hope uncertainWith doubtful love, that but increaseth pain;For, tiger-like, so swift it is in parting.Alas! the snow black shall...Read more of this...

Aunt Jennifers Tigers

by Adrienne Rich
 Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, 
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green. 
They do not fear the men beneath the tree; 
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty. 

Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool 
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull. 
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band 
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand. 

When...Read more of this...

Tiger

by Alec Derwent (A D) Hope
 At noon thepaper tigers roar 
-- Miroslav Holub

The paper tigers roar at noon; 
The sun is hot, the sun is high. 
They roar in chorus, not in tune, 
Their plaintive, savage hunting cry.

O, when you hear them, stop your ears 
And clench your lids and bite your tongue. 
The harmless paper tiger bears 
Strong fascination for the young.

His forest...Read more of this...

The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Ye sons of Great Britain, come join with me,
And sing in praise of Sir Garnet Wolseley;
Sound drums and trumpets cheerfully,
For he has acted most heroically. 

Therefore loudly his praises sing
Until the hills their echoes back doth ring;
For he is a noble hero bold,
And an honour to his Queen and country, be it told. 

He has gained for himself fame...Read more of this...

Mr. Philosopher

by Robert Graves
 Old Mr. Philosopher 
Comes for Ben and Claire, 
An ugly man, a tall man, 
With bright-red hair. 

The books that he’s written
No one can read. 
“In fifty years they’ll understand: 
Now there’s no need. 

“All that matters now 
Is getting the fun.
Come along, Ben and Claire; 
Plenty to be done.” 

Then old Philosopher, 
Wisest man alive, 
Plays at Lions...Read more of this...

Disillusionment of Ten o Clock

by Wallace Stevens
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigers
In red weather....Read more of this...

Alberts Return

by Marriott Edgar
 You've `eard `ow young Albert Ramsbottom 
At the zoo up at Blackpool one year 
With a stick with an `orse's `ead `andle
Gave a lion a poke in the ear? 

The name of the lion was Wallace, 
The poke in the ear made `im wild 
And before you could say "Bob's yer uncle" 
E'd upped and `e'd swallowed the child....Read more of this...

Incendiary

by Vernon Scannell
 That one small boy with a face like pallid cheese 
And burnt-out little eyes could make a blaze 
As brazen, fierce and huge, as red and gold 
And zany yellow as the one that spoiled 
Three thousand guineas' worth of property 
And crops at Godwin's Farm on Saturday 
Is frightening---as fact and metaphor: 
An ordinary match intended for 
The...Read more of this...

The Other Tiger

by Jorge Luis Borges
 A tiger comes to mind. The twilight here
Exalts the vast and busy Library
And seems to set the bookshelves back in gloom;
Innocent, ruthless, bloodstained, sleek
It wanders through its forest and its day
Printing a track along the muddy banks
Of sluggish streams whose names it does not know
(In its world there are no names or past
Or time to come, only the vivid...Read more of this...

Here in this palace, where Bahram held sway,

by Omar Khayyam
Here in this palace, where Bahram held sway,
The wild roes drop their young, and tigers stray;
And that great hunter king—ah! well-a-day!
Now to the hunter death is fallen a prey....Read more of this...

The Indian Gipsy

by Sarojini Naidu
 IN tattered robes that hoard a glittering trace 
Of bygone colours, broidered to the knee, 
Behold her, daughter of a wandering race, 
Tameless, with the bold falcon's agile grace, 
And the lithe tiger's sinuous majesty. 


With frugal skill her simple wants she tends, 
She folds her tawny heifers and her sheep 
On lonely meadows when the daylight ends, 
Ere...Read more of this...

The Return of Albert

by Marriott Edgar
 You've 'eard 'ow young Albert Ramsbottom,
In the Zoo up at Blackpool one year,
With a stick and 'orse's 'ead 'andle,
Gave a lion a poke in the ear.

The name of the lion was Wallace,
The poke in the ear made 'im wild;
And before you could say 'Bob's your Uncle,'
'E'd up and 'e'd swallered the child.

'E were sorry the moment 'e'd done it,
With...Read more of this...

At the Zoo

by Alan Alexander (A A) Milne
There are lions and roaring tigers,
and enormous camels and things,
There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons,
and a great big bear with wings.
There's a sort of a tiny potamus,
and a tiny nosserus too -
But I gave buns to the elephant
when I went down to the Zoo!

There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers,
and a Super-in-tendent's House,
There are masses of goats, and a Polar,
and different kinds of...Read more of this...

Sonnet 19: Devouring Time blunt thou the lions paws

by William Shakespeare
 Devouring Time blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood,
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix, in her blood,
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt swift-footed Time
To the wide world and all her fading sweets.
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O carve...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Tigers poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace