Famous Tumble Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

The lonesome for they know not What

by Emily Dickinson
 The lonesome for they know not What --
The Eastern Exiles -- be --
Who strayed beyond the Amber line
Some madder Holiday --

And ever since -- the purple Moat
They strive to climb -- in vain --
As Birds -- that tumble from the clouds
Do fumble at the strain --

The Blessed Ether -- taught them --
Some Transatlantic Morn --
When Heaven -- was too...Read more of this...

Frying Pans Theology

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Shock-headed blackfellow, 
Boy (on a pony). 
Snowflakes are falling 
Gentle and slow, 
Youngster says, "Frying Pan 
What makes it snow?" 

Frying Pan, confident, 
Makes the reply -- 
"Shake 'im big flour bag 
Up in the sky!" 

"What! when there's miles of it? 
Surely that's brag. 
Who is there strong enough 
Shake such a bag?" 

"What parson tellin' you, 
Ole...Read more of this...

Four Quartets 2: East Coker

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 I

In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and...Read more of this...

The Rapture of the Year

by James Whitcomb Riley
 While skies glint bright with bluest light 
Through clouds that race o'er fields and town, 
And leaves go dancing left and right, 
And orchard apples tumble down; 
While school-girls sweet, in lane or street, 
Lean 'gainst the wind and feel and hear 
Its glad heart like a lover's beat,-- 
So reigns the rapture of the year.

The ho! and hey!...Read more of this...

Mortua Est

by Mihai Eminescu
Two candles, tall sentry, beside an earth mound, 
A dream with wings broken that trail to the ground,  
Loud flung from the belfry calamitous chime... 
'Tis thus that you passed o'er the bound'ries of time. 

Gone by are the hours when the heavens entire 
Flowed rivers of milk and grew flowers of fire, 
When the thunderous clouds were but...Read more of this...

The Poets Of The Tomb

by Henry Lawson
 The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead, 
'Tis time the people passed a law to knock 'em on the head, 
For 'twould be lovely if their friends could grant the rest they crave -- 
Those bards of `tears' and `vanished hopes', those poets of the grave. 
They say that life's an awful thing,...Read more of this...

The Outlaw

by Badger Clark
  When my rope takes hold on a two-year-old,
    By the foot or the neck or the horn,
  He kin plunge and fight till his eyes go white
    But I'll throw him as sure as you're born.
  Though the taut ropes sing like a banjo string
    And the...Read more of this...

The Grog-anGrumble Steeplechase

by Henry Lawson
 'Twixt the coastline and the border lay the town of Grog-an'-Grumble 
In the days before the bushman was a dull 'n' heartless drudge, 
An' they say the local meeting was a drunken rough-and-tumble, 
Which was ended pretty often by an inquest on the judge. 
An' 'tis said the city talent very often caught a tartar 
In the Grog-an'-Grumble sportsman,...Read more of this...

The Seed-At-Zero

by Dylan Thomas
 The seed-at-zero shall not storm
That town of ghosts, the trodden womb,
With her rampart to his tapping,
No god-in-hero tumble down
Like a tower on the town
Dumbly and divinely stumbling
Over the manwaging line.

The seed-at-zero shall not storm
That town of ghosts, the manwaged tomb
With her rampart to his tapping,
No god-in-hero tumble down
Like a tower on the town
Dumbly and divinely leaping
Over the warbearing line.

Through...Read more of this...

Girl in a Cage

by Carl Sandburg
 HERE in a cage the dollars come down.
 To the click of a tube the dollars tumble.
 And out of a mouth the dollars run.

 I finger the dollars,
 Paper and silver,
 Thousands a day.

 Some days it’s fun
 to finger the dollars.
Some days…
 the dollars keep on
 in a sob or a whisper:
 A flame of rose in...Read more of this...

The Bumblebee

by James Whitcomb Riley
 You better not fool with a Bumblebee! --
Ef you don't think they can sting -- you'll see!
They're lazy to look at, an' kind o' go
Buzzin' an' bummin' aroun' so slow,
An' ac' so slouchy an' all fagged out,
Danglin' their legs as they drone about
The hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in
'Ithout ist a-tumble-un out ag'in!
Wunst I watched one climb clean 'way
In...Read more of this...

Expectans Expectavi

by Charles Sorley
 From morn to midnight, all day through,
 I laugh and play as others do,
 I sin and chatter, just the same
 As others with a different name.
 And all year long upon the stage
 I dance and tumble and do rage
 So vehemently, I scarcely see
 The inner and eternal me.
 I have a temple I do not
 Visit,...Read more of this...

Five Bells

by Kenneth Slessor
 Time that is moved by little fidget wheels 
Is not my time, the flood that does not flow. 
Between the double and the single bell 
Of a ship's hour, between a round of bells 
From the dark warship riding there below, 
I have lived many lives, and this one life 
Of Joe, long dead, who lives between five bells....Read more of this...

The Maple

by Bob Hicok
 The Maple

is a system of posture for wood. 
A way of not falling down 
for twigs that happens 
to benefit birds. I don't know. 
I'm staring at a tree, 
at yellow leaves 
threshed by wind and want you 
reading this to be staring 
at the same tree. I could 
cut it down and laminate it 
or ask you to...Read more of this...

Nymphidia The Court Of Fairy (excerpts)

by Michael Drayton
 But let us leave Queen Mab a while,
Through many a gate, o'er many a stile,
That now had gotten by this wile,
Her dear Pigwiggen kissing;
And tell how Oberon doth fare,
Who grew as mad as any hare,
When he had sought each place with care,
And found his queen was missing.
By grisly Pluto he doth swear,
He rent his clothes, and tore his hair,
And...Read more of this...

A Rhyme About an Electrical Advertising Sign

by Vachel Lindsay
 I LOOK on the specious electrical light 
Blatant, mechanical, crawling and white, 
Wickedly red or malignantly green 
Like the beads of a young Senegambian queen. 
Showing, while millions of souls hurry on, 
The virtues of collars, from sunset till dawn, 
By dart or by tumble of whirl within whirl, 
Starting new fads for the shame-weary girl, 
By maggotry motions...Read more of this...

There was an old man of Spithead

by Edward Lear
There was an old man of Spithead,Who opened the window, and said,—"Fil-jomble, fil-jumble, fil-rumble-come-tumble!"That doubtful old man of Spithead. ...Read more of this...

The Faerie Queene Book VI Canto X

by Edmund Spenser
Calidore sees the Graces daunce,
To Colins melody:
The whiles his Pastorell is led,
[I]nto captiuity.
 

W Ho now does follow the foule Blatant Beast,
Whilest Calidore does follow that faire Mayd,
Vnmyndfull of his vow and high beheast,
Which by the Faery Queene was on him layd,
That he should neuer leaue, nor be delayd
From chacing him, till he had it attchieued?
But now entrapt of loue,...Read more of this...

Security

by William Stafford
 Tomorrow will have an island. Before night
I always find it. Then on to the next island.
These places hidden in the day separate
and come forward if you beckon.
But you have to know they are there before they exist.

Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.
So far, I haven't let that happen, but after
I'm gone others may become faithless...Read more of this...

His Boys

by Robert William Service
 "I'm going, Billy, old fellow. Hist, lad! Don't make any noise.
There's Boches to beat all creation, the pitch of a bomb away.
I've fixed the note to your collar, you've got to get back to my Boys,
You've got to get back to warn 'em before it's the break of day."

The order came to go forward to a trench-line traced on...Read more of this...

The Assassin

by Anne Sexton
 The correct death is written in.
I will fill the need.
My bow is stiff.
My bow is in readiness.
I am the bullet and the hook.
I am cocked and held ready.
In my sights I carve him
like a sculptor. I mold out
his last look at everyone.
I carry his eyes and his
brain bone at every position.
I know his male sex and I do
march over...Read more of this...

Many People Come to Visit and Bring Wine After I Fell Off My Horse, Drunk

by Du Fu
 Fu (this) duke old guest Finish wine drunk sing open gold halberd Ride horse suddenly remember youth time Scatter hoof pour fall Qutang stone Baidicheng gate water cloud outside Lower body straight down eight thousand feet Whitewashed battlements lightning pass purple loose reins East gain level ridge out heaven cliff River village country hall fight enter eye...Read more of this...

Nadia

by Obi Nwakanma
Marrakech: the grey hairs of 
Atlas, streaks of the light of years, 
like truth accompanied by a bodyguard. 

It is not war: the fast tumble 
is no war, Nadia. 

Two pendants, each of hearts, and 
the silvery lock leashed unto time; 

Is no war: but the travesty of distance, 
And this moment, a full breast glistening 
out of the moon,...Read more of this...

The Painted Ceiling

by Amy Lowell
 My Grandpapa lives in a wonderful house
With a great many windows and doors,
There are stairs that go up, and stairs that go down,
And such beautiful, slippery floors.
But of all of the rooms, even mother's and mine,
And the bookroom, and parlour and all,
I like the green dining-room so much the best
Because of its ceiling and wall.
Right over your head is...Read more of this...

Hendecasyllabics

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 O you chorus of indolent reviewers,
Irresponsible, indolent reviewers,
Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem
All composed in a metre of Catullus,
All in quantity, careful of my motion,
Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him,
Lest I fall unawares before the people,
Waking laughter in indolent reviewers.
Should I flounder awhile without a tumble
Thro' this metrification of Catullus,
They should speak to...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Tumble 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