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Famous Wild Thing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Levy, Amy
...d bar.

I cannot remember my country,
The land whence I came;
Whence they brought me and chained me and made me
Nor wild thing nor tame.

This only I know of my country,
This only repeat :--
It was free as the forest, and sweeter
Than woodland retreat.

When the chain shall at last be broken,
The window set wide;
And I step in the largeness and freedom
Of sunlight outside ;

Shall I wander in vain for my country?
Shall I seek and not find?
Shall I cry for the bars...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...e had not dared to do it, 
Except he surely knew my lord was dead,' 
Sent forth a sudden sharp and bitter cry, 
As of a wild thing taken in the trap, 
Which sees the trapper coming through the wood. 

This heard Geraint, and grasping at his sword, 
(It lay beside him in the hollow shield), 
Made but a single bound, and with a sweep of it 
Shore through the swarthy neck, and like a ball 
The russet-bearded head rolled on the floor. 
So died Earl Doorm by him he counted...Read more of this...

by Meredith, George
...n her mother tends her before the laughing mirror,
Tying up her laces, looping up her hair,
Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,
More love should I have, and much less care.
When her mother tends her before the lighted mirror,
Loosening her laces, combing down her curls,
Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,
I should miss but one for many boys and girls.

Heartless she is as the shadow in the meadows
Flying to the hills on a blue and breezy noon.Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...I never saw a wild thing 
sorry for itself. 
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ered, shell-like, under his blow?
Was it his saint, that strumpet, dishevelled and cowering low?
Was it her lover, that wild thing, that twisted and gouged and tore?
Was it a man he was crushing, whose head he beat on the floor?
Laughing the while at its weakness, till sudden he stayed his hand--
Through the red ring of his madness flamed the thought of the Brand.

Then bound he the naked Philo with thongs that cut in the flesh,
And the wife of his bosom, fear-frantic, he...Read more of this...



by Chesterton, G K
...r>

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame o...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...my body springs alive,
And the life that is polarised in my eyes,
That quivers between my eyes and mouth,
Flies like a wild thing across my body,
Leaving my eyes half-empty, and clamorous,
Filling my still breasts with a flush and a flame, 
Gathering the soft ripples below my breast
Into urgent, passionate waves, 
And my soft, slumbering belly
Quivering awake with one impulse of desire,
Gathers itself fiercely together; 
And my docile, fluent arms 
Knotting themselves with w...Read more of this...

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