Famous Twirled Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Paper Windmill

by Amy Lowell
 The little boy pressed his face against the window-pane 
and looked out
at the bright sunshiny morning. The cobble-stones of 
the square
glistened like mica. In the trees, a breeze danced and 
pranced,
and shook drops of sunlight like falling golden coins into the brown 
water
of the canal. Down stream slowly drifted a long string 
of galliots
piled with crimson cheeses. The little...Read more of this...

The River

by Kathleen Raine
 In my first sleep
I came to the river
And looked down
Through the clear water -
Only in dream
Water so pure,
Laced and undulant
Lines of flow
On its rocky bed
Water of life
Streaming for ever.

A house was there
Beside the river
And I, arrived,
An expected guest 
About to explore
Old gardens and libraries -
But the car was waiting
To drive me away.

One last look
Into that bright stream -
Trout there...Read more of this...

The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo

by Edward Lear
 I 

On the Coast of Coromandel
Where the early pumpkins blow,
In the middle of the woods
Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-B?.
Two old chairs, and half a candle,--
One old jug without a handle,--
These were all his worldly goods:
In the middle of the woods,
These were all the worldly goods,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-B?,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-B?.

II 

Once, among the Bong-trees walking
Where the early pumpkins blow,
To a little heap...Read more of this...

The Alarm

by Thomas Hardy
 In Memory of one of the Writer's Family who was a Volunteer during the War
with Napoleon

In a ferny byway
Near the great South-Wessex Highway,
A homestead raised its breakfast-smoke aloft;
The dew-damps still lay steamless, for the sun had made no sky-way,
And twilight cloaked the croft.

'Twas hard to realize on
This snug side the mute horizon
That beyond it hostile armaments might steer,
Save from...Read more of this...

The Equilibrists

by John Crowe Ransom
 Full of her long white arms and milky skin 
He had a thousand times remembered sin. 
Alone in the press of people traveled he, 
Minding her jacinth, and myrrh, and ivory. 

Mouth he remembered: the quaint orifice 
From which came heat that flamed upon the kiss, 
Till cold words came down spiral from the head. 
Grey doves from the...Read more of this...

I asked no other thing --

by Emily Dickinson
 I asked no other thing --
No other -- was denied --
I offered Being -- for it --
The Mighty Merchant sneered --

Brazil? He twirled a Button --
Without a glance my way --
"But -- Madam -- is there nothing else --
That We can show -- Today?"...Read more of this...

Light Hearted William

by William Carlos (WCW) Williams
 Light hearted William twirled 
his November moustaches 
and, half dressed, looked
from the bedroom window
upon the spring weather. 
Heigh-ya! sighed he gaily 
leaning out to see 
up and down the street 
where a heavy sunlight 
lay beyond some blue shadows. 

Into the room he drew 
his head again and laughed
to himself quietly 
twirling his green moustaches....Read more of this...

There was an Old Lady of Chertsey

by Edward Lear
There was an Old Lady of Chertsey,Who made a remarkable curtsey;She twirled round and round, till she sank underground,Which distressed all the people of Chertsey. ...Read more of this...

Tomlinson

by Rudyard Kipling
 Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,
And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair --
A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,
Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar of the Milky Way:
Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way...Read more of this...

Dream Song 117: Disturbed when Henrys love returned with a hubby

by John Berryman
 Disturbed, when Henry's love returned with a hubby,-”
I see that, Henry, I don't put that down,-”
he thought he had to think
or with a razor like a skating-rink
have more to say or more to them downtown
in the Christmas season, like a hobby.

Their letters will, released, shake the mapped world 
at some point, in the National Geographic.
(Friend, that hurt.)
It's horrible how...Read more of this...

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