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Famous Tongs Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...glee 
To think where once my fancy strayed, 
I muse on what the years may be 
Whose coming tales are all unsaid, 
Till tongs and shovel, snugly laid 
Within their shadowed niches, grow 

By grim degrees to pick and spade, 
As one by one the phantoms go. 

But then, what though the mystic Three 
Around me ply their merry trade? -- 
And Charon soon may carry me 
Across the gloomy Stygian glade? -- 

Be up, my soul! nor be afraid 
Of what some unborn year may show; 
But min...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...they gave at Florence,--what's its name?) 
While the mad houseful's plaudits near out-bang 
His orchestra of salt-box, tongs and bones, 
He looks through all the roaring and the wreaths 
Where sits Rossini patient in his stall. 

Nay, friend, I meet you with an answer here-- 
That even your prime men who appraise their kind 


Are men still, catch a wheel within a wheel, 
See more in a truth than the truth's simple self, 
Confuse themselves. You see lads walk the str...Read more of this...

by Hirsch, Edward
...y hour of lamentation,
the void's turn, mournful and absolute.

Lay these words on the dead man's lips
like burning tongs, a tongue of flame.
A scouring eagle wheels and shrieks.
Let God pray to us for this man....Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
..., by Bacchus led,
Threw bottles at each other's head;
And these arms failing in their scuffles,
Attack'd with andirons, tongs and shovels:
So clubs and billets, staves and stones
Met fierce, encountering every sconce,
And cover'd o'er with knobs and pains
Each void receptacle for brains;
Their clamours rend the skies around,
The hills rebellow to the sound;
And many a groan increas'd the din
From batter'd nose and broken shin.
M'Fingal, rising at the word,
Drew forth his ...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...s to be no answer.

I shall ask the next banana peddler the who and the why of it.

Or—the iceman with his iron tongs gripping a clear cube in summer sunlight—maybe he will know....Read more of this...



by Spenser, Edmund
...
Whether they fare on foot, or fly aloft, 
Or arméd be with claws, or scaly crests; 
What fell Erynnis with hot burning tongs, 
Did grip your hearts, with noisome rage imbew'd, 
That each to other working cruel wrongs, 
You blades in your own bowels you embrew'd? 
Was this (ye Romans) your hard destiny? 
Or some old sin, whose unappeased guilt 
Power'd vengeance forth on you eternally? 
Or brother's blood, the which at first was spilt 
Upon your walls, that God might not endu...Read more of this...

by Lear, Edward
...S  was the sugar-tongs,Nippity-nee,To take up the sugarTo put in our tea. s Nippity-nee!...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
..., there are the miners; 
The forge-furnace is there, the melt is accomplish’d; the hammers-men are at hand with
 their
 tongs
 and hammers; 
What always served, and always serves, is at hand.

Than this, nothing has better served—it has served all: 
Served the fluent-tongued and subtle-sensed Greek, and long ere the Greek: 
Served in building the buildings that last longer than any; 
Served the Hebrew, the Persian, the most ancient Hindostanee; 
Served the mound-raiser on...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...I was worse than dead
Wi' them crump-crumps hustlin' over me head.
Sure I thought 'twas the dirty spot,
Hammer and tongs till the air was hot.
And mind you, water up to your knees.
And cold! A monkey of brass would freeze.
And if we ventured our noses out
A "typewriter" clattered its pills about.
The Field of Glory! Well, I don't think!
I'd sooner be safe and snug in clink.

Then Micky, he goes and he cops one bad,
He always was having ill-luck, poor ...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...in surgeing
Sulphureous fluid his phantasies.
The Eternal Prophet heavd the dark bellows, 
And turn'd restless the tongs; and the hammer
Incessant beat; forging chains new & new
Numb'ring with links. hours, days & years

3. The eternal mind bounded began to roll
Eddies of wrath ceaseless round & round, 
And the sulphureous foam surgeing thick
Settled, a lake, bright, & shining clear:
White as the snow on the mountains cold.

4. Forgetfulness, dumbness, ne...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...e inventive son of Zeus;
Fashioner of vessels fair
Skilled in clay and brass's use.
'Tis from him the art man knows
Tongs and bellows how to wield;
'Neath his hammer's heavy blows
Was the ploughshare first revealed.

With projecting, weighty spear,
Front of all, Minerva stands,
Lifts her voice so strong and clear,
And the godlike host commands.
Steadfast walls 'tis hers to found,
Shield and screen for every one,
That the scattered world around
Bind in loving uniso...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ve so "high"
(A little bit of broken roof between us and the sky);
Upon the forge of art we toiled with hammer and with tongs;
You told me all your rippling yarns, I sang to you my songs.
Our hats were frayed, our jackets patched, our boots were down at heel,
But oh, the happy men were we, although we lacked a meal.
And if I sold a bit of rhyme, or if you placed a tale,
What feasts we had of tenderloins and apple-tarts and ale!
And yet how often we would dine as cheer...Read more of this...

by Thoreau, Henry David
...They who prepare my evening meal below
Carelessly hit the kettle as they go
With tongs or shovel,
And ringing round and round,
Out of this hovel
It makes an eastern temple by the sound.
At first I thought a cow bell right at hand
Mid birches sounded o'er the open land,
Where I plucked flowers
Many years ago,
Spending midsummer hours
With such secure delight they hardly seemed to flow....Read more of this...

by Goose, Mother
...Long legs, crooked thighs,Little head, and no eyes....Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...runt and groan; 
Misfortunes never come alone, 
But tread each other's heels in throngs, 
For the next day she lost the tongs; 
The salt box, colander, and pot 
Soon shar'd the same untimely lot. 
In vain she vails and wages spent 
On new ones--for the new ones went. 
There'd been (she swore) some dev'l or witch in, 
To rob or plunder all the kitchen. 
One night she to her chamber crept 
(Where for a month she had not slept; 
Her master being, to her seeming, 
A b...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs