Famous Whimper Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Prayer in Darkness

...madness if I strike me dead, 
Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave. 

If I dare snarl between this sun and sod, 
Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own, 
In sun and rain and fruit in season shown, 
The shining silence of the scorn of God. 

Thank God the stars are set beyond my power, 
If I must travail in a night of wrath, 
Thank God my tears will never vex a moth, 
Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower. 

Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had 
Thought it beat ...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K


By an Autumn Fire

...the lure of our leaping fire. 

But we bar them out with this rose-red splendor 
From our blithe domain, 
And drown the whimper of wind and rain 
With undaunted laughter, echoing long, 
Cheery old tale and gay old song; 
Ours is the joyance of ripe fruition, 
Attained ambition. 
Ours is the treasure of tested loving, 
Friendship that needs no further proving; 

No more of springtime hopes, sweet and uncertain,
Here we have largess of summer in fee­
Pile high the logs till the...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Homers Seeing-Eye Dog

...that
when he'd poured out his work
the best of it was gone and then he died.
He was a great man and I loved him.
Not a whimper about his sex life --
how I detest your prurience --
but here's a farewell literary tip:
I myself am the model for Penelope.
Don't snicker, you hairless moron,
I know so well what faithful means
there's not even a word for it in Dog,
I just embody it. I think you bipeds
have a catchphrase for it: "To thine own self
be true, . . ." though like a blind...Read more of this...
by Matthews, William

Immortality

...letes its downward arc
to the kitchen boy's left ear;
the boy's tensed vocal cords
finally let go
the trapped, enduring whimper,
and the fly, arrested mid-plunge
above the strawberry pie
fulfills its abiding mission
and dives into the sweet, red glaze.

As a child I had a book
with a picture of that scene.
I was too young to notice
how fear persists, and how
the anger that causes fear persists,
that its trajectory can't be changed
or broken, only interrupted.
My attention was...Read more of this...
by Mueller, Lisel

Investigating Flora

...he Professor looked in fright: 
She was six feet high and freckled, 
And her hair was turkey-red. 
The Professor gave a whimper, 
And threw down his bag and fled, 
And the Ladies' Science Circle, 
With a simultaneous rush, 
Travelled after its Professor, 
And went screaming through the bush! 

At the crossing of Lost River, 
On the road to No Man's Land, 
Where the grim and ghostly gumtrees 
Block the view on every hand, 
There they weep and wail and wander, 
Always seeking f...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton


Manitoba Childe Roland

...izzard twenty-four hours, repeating a circle of travel hour after hour—fighting 
the dogs who dig holes in the snow and whimper for sleep—pushing on—running and walking 
five hundred miles to the end of the race—almost a winner—one toe frozen, feet blistered 
and frost-bitten.

And I know why a thousand young men of the Northwest meet him in the finishing miles and 
yell cheers—I know why judges of the race call him a winner and give him a special prize 
even though he is a l...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Official at Stone Moat Village

...night return Urgent should Heyang work Like produce prepare morning meal Night long speech sound exhaust Seem hear sob whimpering Sky bright up before road Alone with old man part  At dusk, I stopped to rest at Stone Moat village, An officer came that night to capture men. The old man escaped by climbing over the wall, The old wife went to look outside the door. How angrily the officer now shouted, How bitterly the wife did weep out loud! I heard ...Read more of this...
by Fu, Du

Pan with Us

...ed his pipes, too hard to teach
A new-world song, far out of reach,
For sylvan sign that the blue jay's screech
And the whimper of hawks beside the sun
Were music enough for him, for one.

Times were changed from what they were:
Such pipes kept less of power to stir
The fruited bough of the juniper
And the fragile bluets clustered there
Than the merest aimless breath of air.

They were pipes of pagan mirth,
And the world had found new terms of worth.
He laid him down on the s...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Phyllis

...
then complain that it's not clear?

    Whether you're favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you're turned away,
you sneer if you've been gratified.

    With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she's bound to lose;
spurning you, she's ungrateful--
succumbing, you call her lewd.

    Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.

    What ...Read more of this...
by Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor

Song of the Open Road

...path before me, leading wherever I choose. 

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune; 
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road. 

The earth—that is sufficient; 
I do not want the constellations any nearer; 
I know they are very well where they are; 
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens; 
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with m...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Comedian As The Letter C

...68 Of many proclamations of the kind, 
169 Proclaiming something harsher than he learned 
170 From hearing signboards whimper in cold nights 
171 Or seeing the midsummer artifice 
172 Of heat upon his pane. This was the span 
173 Of force, the quintessential fact, the note 
174 Of Vulcan, that a valet seeks to own, 
175 The thing that makes him envious in phrase. 

176 And while the torrent on the roof still droned 
177 He felt the Andean breath. His mind was free 
...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Cremation Of Sam McGee

....
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Four Winds

...im.
With the heavy blow bewildered, 
Rose the Great Bear of the mountains; 
But his knees beneath him trembled, 
And he whimpered like a woman, 
As he reeled and staggered forward, 
As he sat upon his haunches; 
And the mighty Mudjekeewis, 
Standing fearlessly before him, 
Taunted him in loud derision, 
Spake disdainfully in this wise:
"Hark you, Bear! you are a coward; 
And no Brave, as you pretended; 
Else you would not cry and whimper 
Like a miserable woman! 
Bear! you kn...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Gold Key

...it will open.
This boy!
Upon finding a string
he would look for a harp.
Therefore he holds the key tightly.
Its secrets whimper
like a dog in heat.
He turns the key.
Presto!
It opens this book of odd tales 
which transform the Brothers Grimm.
Transform?
As if an enlarged paper clip
could be a piece of sculpture.
(And it could.)...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne

The Hollow Men

...the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper....Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

The Lady of the Lake

...
     Yet with main strength his strokes he drew,
     And o'er the lake the shallop flew;
     With heads erect and whimpering cry,
     The hounds behind their passage ply.
     Nor frequent does the bright oar break
     The darkening mirror of the lake,
     Until the rocky isle they reach,
     And moor their shallop on the beach.
     XXV.

     The stranger viewed the shore around;
     'T was all so close with copsewood bound,
     Nor track nor pathway m...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Power of the Dog

...n affair --
But . . . you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit hat answered your every mood
Is gone -- wherever it goes -- for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

When the Dark Comes Down

...When the dark comes down, oh, the wind is on the sea
With lisping laugh and whimper to the red reef's threnody,
The boats are sailing homeward now across the harbor bar
With many a jest and many a shout from fishing grounds afar.
So furl your sails and take your rest, ye fisher folk so brown,
For task and quest are ended when the dark comes down. 

When the dark comes down, oh, the landward valleys fill
Like brimming cups of purple,...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

When The Light Appears

...s
You'll sing & you'll love you'll praise blue heavens above
When the light appears, boy, when the light appears
You'll whimper & you'll cry you'll get yourself sick and sigh
You'll sleep & you'll dream you'll only know what you mean
When the light appears, boy, when the light appears
You'll come & you'll go, you'll wander to and fro
You'll go home in despair you'll wonder why'd you care
You'll stammer & you'll lie you'll ask everybody why
You'll cough and you'll pout you'll ...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

You Men

...ror,
then complain that it's not clear?

Whether you're favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you're turned away,
you sneer if you've been gratified.

With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she's bound to lose;
spurning you, she's ungrateful--
succumbing, you call her lewd.

Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.

What happy mean c...Read more of this...
by Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor

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