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Famous Waist Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...rom the wild energy of wanton haste
Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;
And zone that clung around her gentle waist
Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.
Within the centre of that hall to breathe,
She paused and panted, Zanthe! all beneath,
The fairy light that kiss'd her golden hair
And long'd to rest, yet could but sparkle there.

Young flowers were whispering in melody
To happy flowers that night- and tree to tree;
Fountains were gushing music as they fell
...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan



...
You disbelieve! Who wonders and who cares? 
Lord So-and-so--his coat bedropped with wax, 
All Peter's chains about his waist, his back 
Brave with the needlework of Noodledom-- 
Believes! Again, who wonders and who cares? 
But I, the man of sense and learning too, 
The able to think yet act, the this, the that, 
I, to believe at this late time of day! 
Enough; you see, I need not fear contempt. 

--Except it's yours! Admire me as these may, 
You don't. But whom at least do y...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...and with hands violate

Undid the cuirass, and the crocus gown,
And bared the breasts of polished ivory,
Till from the waist the peplos falling down
Left visible the secret mystery
Which to no lover will Athena show,
The grand cool flanks, the crescent thighs, the bossy hills of
snow.

Those who have never known a lover's sin
Let them not read my ditty, it will be
To their dull ears so musicless and thin
That they will have no joy of it, but ye
To whose wan cheeks now creeps...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...y abdomen nipple to hips-- "
"All I did was lay back eyes closed, he'd bring me to come with mouth 
 & fingers along my waist"
"He gave great head"
So there be gossip from loves of 1948, ghost of Neal Cassady commin-
 gling with flesh and youthful blood of 1997
and surprise -- "You too? But I thought you were straight!"
"I am but Ginsberg an exception, for some reason he pleased me."
"I forgot whether I was straight gay ***** or funny, was myself, tender 
 and affectionate to...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen
...bed and deepest, where
He threw himself, and just into the air
Stretching his indolent arms, he took, O bliss!
A naked waist: "Fair Cupid, whence is this?"
A well-known voice sigh'd, "Sweetest, here am I!"
At which soft ravishment, with doating cry
They trembled to each other.--Helicon!
O fountain'd hill! Old Homer's Helicon!
That thou wouldst spout a little streamlet o'er
These sorry pages; then the verse would soar
And sing above this gentle pair, like lark
Over his nested...Read more of this...
by Keats, John



...n a thick gray death-soup,
Their million
Gold leaves metal and breathless.

O love, O celibate.
Nobody but me
Walks the waist high wet.
The irreplaceable
Golds bleed and deepen, the mouths of Thermopylae....Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia
...ling fire, 
Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
On either side a formidable Shape. 
The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 
But ended foul in many a scaly fold, 
Voluminous and vast--a serpent armed 
With mortal sting. About her middle round 
A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep, 
If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, 
And kennel there; yet there still...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...m his parted forelock manly hung 
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad: 
She, as a veil, down to the slender waist 
Her unadorned golden tresses wore 
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved 
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied 
Subjection, but required with gentle sway, 
And by her yielded, by him best received, 
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, 
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. 
Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed; 
Then was n...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...
Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast 
With regal ornament; the middle pair 
Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round 
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold 
And colours dipt in Heaven; the third his feet 
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, 
Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood, 
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled 
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands 
Of Angels under watch; and to his state, 
And t...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...: Those leaves 
They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe; 
And, with what skill they had, together sewed, 
To gird their waist; vain covering, if to hide 
Their guilt and dreaded shame! O, how unlike 
To that first naked glory! Such of late 
Columbus found the American, so girt 
With feathered cincture; naked else, and wild 
Among the trees on isles and woody shores. 
Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part 
Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind, 
They sat th...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of ...Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya
...east
with a lost object's half-life, with as much
life as an anecdotal photograph:
me, Kim and Iva, all stripped to the waist,
hiking near Russian River on June first
'79: Iva's five-and-a-half.
While she was almost twenty, wearing black
T-shirts in D.C., where we hadn't met.
You lay your palm, my love, on my flat chest.
In lines alive with what is not regret,
she takes her own path past, doesn't turn back.
Persistently, on paper, we exist.

Persistently, on paper, we exist.
...Read more of this...
by Hacker, Marilyn
...a great heat in
 the fire.) 

From the cinder-strew’d threshold I follow their movements; 
The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms; 
Over-hand the hammers swing—over-hand so slow—over-hand so sure:
They do not hasten—each man hits in his place. 

13
The ***** holds firmly the reins of his four horses—the block swags
 underneath on its tied-over chain; 
The ***** that drives the dray of the stone-yard—steady and tall he stands,
 pois’d on...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...htly round, his temples wore: 
That dagger, on whose hilt the gem 
Were worthy of a diadem, 
No longer glitter'd at his waist, 
Where pistols unadorn'd were braced; 
And from his belt a sabre swung, 
And from his shoulder loosely hung 
The cloak of white, the thin capote 
That decks the wandering Candiote: 
Beneath — his golden plated vest 
Clung like a cuirass to his breast 
The greaves below his knee that wound 
With silvery scales were sheathed and bound. 
But were it not ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...ed, she moves 
With all the careless and high-stepping grace, 
And the extravagant courtesan's thin face. 

Was slimmer waist e'er in a ball-room wooed? 
Her floating robe, in royal amplitude, 
Falls in deep folds around a dry foot, shod 
With a bright flower-like shoe that gems the sod. 

The swarms that hum about her collar-bones 
As the lascivious streams caress the stones, 
Conceal from every scornful jest that flies, 
Her gloomy beauty; and her fathomless eyes 

Are made...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...t. 
Jack chucked her chin, and Jim accost her 
With bits out of the "Maid of Gloster." 
And fifteen arms went round her waist. 
(And then men ask, Are Barmaids chaste?} 

O young men, pray to be kept whole 
from bringing down a weaker soul. 
Your minute's joy so meet in doin' 
May be the woman's door to ruin; 
The door to wandering up and down, 
A painted whore with half a crown. 
The bright mind fouled, the beauty gay 
All eaten out and fallen away, 
By drunken days and wear...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John
...e knelt I to the infant Lord,
And pardon for my sins implored.
Then in the holy fane I placed
My shining armor round my waist,
My right hand grasped my javelin,
The fight then went I to begin;
Instructions gave my squires among,
Commanding them to tarry there;
Then on my steed I nimbly sprung,
And gave my spirit to God's care."

"Soon as I reached the level plain,
My dogs found out the scent amain;
My frightened horse soon reared on high,--
His fear I could not pacify,
For, c...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von
...m in order. The first is the taste,
 Which is meagre and hollow, but crisp:
Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,
 With a flavour of Will-o-the-wisp.

"Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
 That it carries too far, when I say
That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
 And dines on the following day.

"The third is its slowness in taking a jest.
 Should you happen to venture on one,
It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
 And it always ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...not only the most beautiful woman in town but also one of the most beautiful I had
ever seen. I placed my arm about her waist and kissed her once. 
"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked. 
"Yes, of course, but there's something else... there's more than your
looks..." 
"People are always accusing me of being pretty. Do you really think I'm
pretty?" 
"Pretty isn't the word, it hardly does you fair."
Cass reached into her handbag. I thought she was reaching for her handkerchief. ...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles
...all, I trust, may yet be well.' 

We turned to go, but Cyril took the child, 
And held her round the knees against his waist, 
And blew the swollen cheek of a trumpeter, 
While Psyche watched them, smiling, and the child 
Pushed her flat hand against his face and laughed; 
And thus our conference closed. 
And then we strolled 
For half the day through stately theatres 
Benched crescent-wise. In each we sat, we heard 
The grave Professor. On the lecture slate 
The circle roun...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry