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Famous Totter Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...derson, my jo, John,
 We clamb the hill thegither;
And mony a cantie day, John,
 We’ve had wi’ ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John,
 And hand in hand we’ll go,
And sleep thegither at the foot,
 John Anderson, my jo....Read more of this...



by Poe, Edgar Allan
...the secrets of thy embassy
To the proud orbs that twinkle- and so be
To ev'ry heart a barrier and a ban
Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!"

Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,
The single-mooned eve!- on Earth we plight
Our faith to one love- and one moon adore-
The birth-place of young Beauty had no more.
As sprang that yellow star from downy hours
Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,
And bent o'er sheeny mountains and dim plain
Her way, but left n...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...
I creep into an Arctic cave
for the rectal temperature of the biggest bear,
hibernating—in my left hand sugar.
I totter to the lip of the cliff....Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...d so on, until the judgment day!

O'er thee fortune still may juggle on,
For her minions blindly look around,--
Man now totter on his staggering throne,
And in dreary puddles now be found!
Blest art thou, within thy narrow cell!
To this stir of tragi-comedy,
To these fortune-waves that madly swell,
To this vain and childish lottery,
To this busy crowd effecting naught,
To this rest with labor teeming o'er,
Brother!--to this heaven with devils--fraught,
Now thine eyes have clo...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...His voice decrepit was with Joy --
Her words did totter so
How old the News of Love must be
To make Lips elderly
That purled a moment since with Glee --
Is it Delight or Woe --
Or Terror -- that do decorate
This livid interview --...Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...How brittle are the Piers
On which our Faith doth tread --
No Bridge below doth totter so --
Yet none hath such a Crowd.

It is as old as God --
Indeed -- 'twas built by him --
He sent his Son to test the Plank,
And he pronounced it firm....Read more of this...

by Thomas, Dylan
...ght bursts in their throats.
O see the pulse of summer in the ice.


II

But seasons must be challenged or they totter
Into a chiming quarter
Where, punctual as death, we ring the stars;
There, in his night, the black-tongued bells
The sleepy man of winter pulls,
Nor blows back moon-and-midnight as she blows.

We are the dark derniers let us summon
Death from a summer woman,
A muscling life from lovers in their cramp
From the fair dead who flush the sea
The bright...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...n Anderson, my jo John,
We clamb the hill thegither,
And mony a canty day, John,
We've had wi' ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John,
But hand in hand we'll go,
And sleep thegither at the foot,
John Anderson my jo....Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...rd-song;

in petrified gardens

Hyacinth tongues lip the wall.

Leaf mould muffles my heel-taps

the enormous trees totter

In the hyaline air; I hear the

Sunday strollers in their

Mist-making walks, pressing through them

like some voiceless ghost....Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...leap with hiss of thousand snakes where Tiber writhes and raves. 
 
 All's lost! in jasper, marble, gold, the statues totter—crash! 
 Spite of the names divine engraved, they are but dust and ash. 
 The victor-scourge sweeps swollen on, whilst north winds sound the horn 
 To goad the flies of fire yet beyond the flight forlorn. 
 
 Proud capital! farewell for e'er! these flames nought can subdue— 
 The Aqueduct of Sylla gleams, a bridge o'er hellish brew. 
 'Tis Nero...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...e do not find the living spark
Where no spark ever was; and thus we die,
Still searching, like poor old astronomers
Who totter off to bed and go to sleep,
To dream of untriangulated stars. 

XII 

With conscious eyes not yet sincere enough
To pierce the glimmered cloud that fluctuates
Between me and the glorifying light
That screens itself with knowledge, I discern
The searching rays of wisdom that reach through
The mist of shame's infirm credulity,
And infinitely wonder ...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...immortal wrath?
Shall mercy ne'er return?

The terror of one frown of thine
Melts all our strength away;
Like men that totter drunk with wine,
We tremble in dismay.

Great Britain shakes beneath thy stroke
And dreads thy threat'ning hand;
O heal the island thou hast broke,
Confirm the wav'ring land.

Lift up a banner in the field
For those that fear thy name;
Save thy beloved with thy shield,
And put our foes to shame.

Go with our armies to the fight,
Like a con...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...ner dies.

The heav'ns his rightful power proclaim,
The idol-gods around
Fill their own worshippers with shame,
And totter to the ground.

Adoring angels at his birth
Make the Redeemer known:
Thus shall he come to judge the earth,
And angels guard his throne.

His foes shall tremble at his sight,
And hills and seas retire;
His children take their unknown flight,
And leave the world in fire.

The seeds of joy and glory sown
For saints in darkness here,
Shall ri...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...,
Go, worship where the Savior lies;
Angels and kings before him bow,
Those gods on high and gods below.

Let idols totter to the ground,
And their own worshippers confound
But Judah shout, but Zion sing,
And earth confess her sovereign King....Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...the stars,--
The Virgin Mother standing with her child
High up on one of those dark minster-fronts--
Till she began to totter, and the child
Clung to the mother, and sent out a cry
Which mixt with little Margaret's, and I woke,
And my dream awed me:--well--but what are dreams?
Yours came but from the breaking of a glass,
And mine but from the crying of a child.' 

`Child? No!' said he, `but this tide's roar, and his,
Our Boanerges with his threats of doom,
And loud-lung'...Read more of this...

by Kinnell, Galway
...ich dance of solitude I attempt, 
which gravity-clutched leap, 
which trudge, which groan. 

6
Until one day I totter and fall -- 
fall on this 
stomach that has tried so hard to keep up, 
to digest the blood as it leaked in, 
to break up 
and digest the bone itself: and now the breeze 
blows over me, blows off 
the hideous belches of ill-digested bear blood 
and rotted stomach 
and the ordinary, wretched odor of bear, 

blows across 
my sore, lolled tong...Read more of this...

by Morris, William
...r yet:
Consider, Jehane, which to take
Of life or death!"

So, scarce awake,
Dismounting, did she leave that place,
And totter some yards: with her face
Turn'd upward to the sky she lay,
Her head on a wet heap of hay,
And fell asleep: and while she slept,
And did not dream, the minutes crept
Round to the twelve again; but she,
Being waked at last, sigh'd quietly,
And strangely childlike came, and said:
"I will not." Straightway Godmar's head,
As though it hung on strong w...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...,

Intense as the first frost hardening

Stubble grass to a tacky ice-blanket

Listen! In bed we hear the swollen trees totter,

Dropsical-limbed, murmuring outside the window

Like Catherine’s insistent ghost-voice

"Let me in, let me in!"...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...here the sun sets
Ere he sets, ere old age
Seizeth me in the morass,
Ere my toothless jaws mumble,
And my useless limbs totter;
While drunk with his farewell beam
Hurl me,--a fiery sea
Foaming still in mine eye,--
Hurl me, while dazzled and reeling,
Down to the gloomy portal of hell.

Blow, then, gossip, thy horn,
Speed on with echoing trot,
So that Orcus may know we are coming;
So that our host may with joy
Wait at the door to receive us.

 1774....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things