Famous Trudging Poems by Famous Poets

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

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An Apple-Gathering

...t the selfsame track:
My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass
So empty-handed back.

Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,
Their heaped-up basket teazed me like a jeer;
Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,
Their mother's home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
A stronger hand than hers helped it along;
A voice talked with her thro' the shadows cool
More sweet to me than song.

Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
Than apples wit...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina


Harlem Shadows

...the last snow-flake
Has dropped from heaven upon the earth's white breast,
The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet
Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street.

Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way
Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace,
Has pushed the timid little feet of clay,
The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!
Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet
In Harlem wandering from street to street....Read more of this...
by McKay, Claude

On such a night or such a night

...early task to do?

There was a little figure plump
For every little knoll --
Busy needles, and spools of thread --
And trudging feet from school --

Playmates, and holidays, and nuts --
And visions vast and small --
Strange that the feet so precious charged
Should reach so small a goal!...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Barefoot Boy

...s once a barefoot boy!
Prince thou art, - the grown-up man
Only is republican.
Let the million-dollared ride!
Barefoot, trudging at his side,
Thou hast more than he can buy
In the reach of ear and eye, -
Outward sunshine, inward joy:
Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!

Oh for boyhood's painless play,
Sleep that wakes in laughing day,
Health that mocks the doctor's rules,
Knowledge never learned of schools,
Of the wild bee's morning chase,
Of the wild-flower's time and place,
Fl...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

The Beggar Lad -- dies early --

...The Beggar Lad -- dies early --
It's Somewhat in the Cold --
And Somewhat in the Trudging feet --
And haply, in the World --

The Cruel -- smiling -- bowing World --
That took its Cambric Way --
Nor heard the timid cry for "Bread" --
"Sweet Lady -- Charity" --

Among Redeemed Children
If Trudging feet may stand
The Barefoot time forgotten -- so --
The Sleet -- the bitter Wind --

The Childish Hands that teased for Pence
Lifted adoring --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


The King

...very sea;
The dull-returning wind and tide
 Heave up the wharf where we would be;
The known and noted breezes swell
Our trudging sail. Romance, farewell!"

"Good-bye, Romance!" the Skipper said;
 "He vanished with the coal we burn;
Our dial marks full steam ahead,
 Our speed is timed to half a turn.
Sure as the ferried barge we ply
'Twixt port and port. Romance, good-bye!"

"Romance!" the season-tickets mourn,
 "He never ran to catch his train,
But passed with coach and guard...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Negro Mother

...n. I couldn't write. 
I had nothing, back there in the night. 
Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears, 
But I kept trudging on through the lonely years. 
Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun, 
But I had to keep on till my work was done: 
I had to keep on! No stopping for me -- 
I was the seed of the coming Free. 
I nourished the dream that nothing could smother 
Deep in my breast -- the ***** mother. 
I had only hope then , but now through you, 
Dark ones of today, m...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

The White Cliffs

...n.

I saw the Dioscuri— two black kittens,
Stalking relentlessly an empty spool;
I saw a little girl in scarlet mittens
Trudging through snow to school. 

XXVII 
John read the letter with his lovely smile. 
'Your father has a vigorous English style, 
And what he says is true, upon my word; 
But what's this war of which I never heard? 
We didn't fight in 1812.' 'Yes, John, 
That was the time when you burnt Washington.' 
'We couldn't have, my dear. . .' 'I mean the city.' 
'We ...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

Trudging to Eden looking backward

...Trudging to Eden, looking backward,
I met Somebody's little Boy
Asked him his name -- He lisped me "Trotwood" --
Lady, did He belong to thee?

Would it comfort -- to know I met him --
And that He didn't look afraid?
I couldn't weep -- for so many smiling
New Acquaintance -- this Baby made --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Two Hundred Years After

...Trudging by Corbie Ridge one winter's night,
(Unless old hearsay memories tricked his sight)
Along the pallid edge of the quiet sky
He watched a nosing lorry grinding on,
And straggling files of men; when these were gone,
A double limber and six mules went by,
Hauling the rations up through ruts and mud
To trench-lines digged two hundred years ago.
Then dark...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried

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