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Famous Wringing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...hat I did fall
To love at all--
Since love so much contents me.

No, no, I'll be
In fetters free;
While others they sit wringing
Their hands for pain,
I'll entertain
The wounds of love with singing.

With flowers and wine,
And cakes divine,
To strike me I will tempt thee;
Which done, no more
I'll come before
Thee and thine altars empty....Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert



...crawl into with a box of Kleenex,
that hole where the fire woman is tied to her chair,
that hole where leather men are wringing their necks,
where the sea has turned into a pond of urine.
There is no place to wash and no marine beings to stir in.

In this hole your mother is crying out each day.
Your father is eating cake and digging her grave.
In this hole your baby is strangling. Your mouth is clay.
Your eyes are made of glass. They break. You are not brave.
You are alone ...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...twist into a living cipher,
And flesh was snipped to cross the lines
Of gallow crosses on the liver
And brambles in the wringing brains.

My throat knew thirst before the structure
Of skin and vein around the well
Where words and water make a mixture
Unfailing till the blood runs foul;
My heart knew love, my belly hunger;
I smelt the maggot in my stool.

And time cast forth my mortal creature
To drift or drown upon the seas
Acquainted with the salt adventure
Of tides that nev...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan
...ies of those who had lost their friends most dear;
Oh, the scene was most painful in the London Inn Square,
To see them wringing their hands and tearing their hair! 

And as the flames spread, great havoc they did make,
And the poor souls fought heroically in trying to make their escape;
Oh, it was horrible to see men and women trying to reach the door!
But in many cases death claimed the victory, and their struggles were o'er. 

Alas! 'twas pitiful the shrieks of the audienc...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz
...rop, Indian pipe,
Little

Stalk without wrinkle,
Pool in which images
Should be grand and classical

Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star....Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia



...red a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.

Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword y...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...ong from the start--

No, hardly, but seeing he had been born
In a half savage country, out of date;
Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;
Capaneus; trout for factitious bait;

Idmen gar toi panth, hos eni troie
Caught in the unstopped ear;
Giving the rocks small lee-way
The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

His true Penelope was Flaubert,
He fished by obstinate isles;
Observed the elegance of Circe's hair
Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.

Unaffe...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra
...he goad of grief, 
Her steps, now fast, now lingering slow, 
In varying motion seek relief 
From the Eumenides of woe.

Wringing her hands, at intervals­ 
But long as mute as phantom dim­ 
She glides along the dusky walls, 
Under the black oak rafters, grim.

The close air of the grated tower 
Stifles a heart that scarce can beat, 
And, though so late and lone the hour, 
Forth pass her wandering, faltering feet;

And on the pavement, spread before 
The long front of the mansi...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte
...g from the start --

No, hardly, but, seeing he had been born
In a half savage country, out of date;
Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;
Capaneus; trout for factitious bait:

"Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie
Caught in the unstopped ear;
Giving the rocks small lee-way
The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

His true Penelope was Flaubert,
He fished by obstinate isles;
Observed the elegance of Circe's hair
Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.

Unaffe...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra
...ead. 

VIII. 

Within that land was many a malcontent, 
Who cursed the tyranny to which he bent; 
That soil full many a wringing despot saw, 
Who work'd his wantonness in form of law; 
Long war without and frequent broil within 
Had made a path for blood and giant sin, 
That waited but a signal to begin 
New havoc, such as civil discord blends, 
Which knows no neuter, owns but foes or friends; 
Fix'd in his feudal fortress each was lord, 
In word and deed obey'd, in soul abho...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...this wonderful creation of yours.

What makes Muskan’s smile so beautiful?
Is it the deep pain and hurt she is hiding?
Wringing the joys from the sadness of life
Throwing away the bland fiber and rinds....Read more of this...
by Matthew, John
...lder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
 To the rain wringing
 Wind blow cold
 In the wood faraway under me.

 Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
 With its horns through mist and the castle
 Brown as owls
 But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
 There could I marvel
 My birthday
...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan
...?"
I rose up, I made no moan, I did not cry nor falter,
  But slowly in the twilight I came to Cromer town.
What can wringing of the hands do that which is ordained to alter?
  He had climbed, had climbed the mountain, he would ne'er come down.
But, O my first, O my best, I could not choose but love thee:
  O, to be a wild white bird, and seek thy rocky bed!
From my breast I'd give thee burial, pluck the down and spread above thee;
  I would sit and sing thy requiem o...Read more of this...
by Ingelow, Jean
...on—I hear the burst as she strikes—I
 hear
 the
 howls of dismay—they grow fainter and fainter. 

I cannot aid with my wringing fingers, 
I can but rush to the surf, and let it drench me and freeze upon me. 

I search with the crowd—not one of the company is wash’d to us alive; 
In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.

12
Now of the older war-days, the defeat at Brooklyn, 
Washington stands inside the lines—he stands on the intrench’d hills, am...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...hin and dirty were the garments that he wore, 
Just a shirt and pair of trousers, and a boot, and nothing more; 
He was wringing-wet, and really in a sad and sinful plight, 
And his hat was in his left hand, and a bottle in his right. 

His brow was broad and roomy, but its lines were somewhat harsh, 
And a sensual mouth was hidden by a drooping, fair moustache; 
(His hairy chest was open to what poets call the `wined', 
And I would have bet a thousand that his pants were gon...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry
...ame-
I that had my name of
Them without a name.

Up and down a mountain
Streeled my silly stock;
Passing by a fountain,
Wringing at a rock;

Devil-gotten sinners,
Throwing back their heads,
Fiddling for their dinners,
Kissing for their beds.

Not a one had seen us
Wouldn't help him flee.
Angry ran between us
Blood of him and me.

How shall I be mating
Who have looked above-
Living for a hating,
Dying of a love?...Read more of this...
by Parker, Dorothy
...he baked potato in drag
here comes nothing to do all day long
here comes another night of no sleep
here comes the phone wringing the wrong tone
here comes a termite with a banjo
here comes a flagpole with blank eyes
here comes a a cat and a dog wearing nylons
here comes a machine gun saying
here comes bacon burning in the pan
here comes a voice saying something dull
here comes a newspaper stuffed with small red birds
with flat brown beaks
here comes a **** carrying a torch
a ...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles
...I am the Smoke King 
I am black! 
I am swinging in the sky, 
I am wringing worlds awry; 
I am the thought of the throbbing mills, 
I am the soul of the soul-toil kills, 
Wraith of the ripple of trading rills; 
Up I’m curling from the sod, 
I am whirling home to God; 
I am the Smoke King 
I am black. 

I am the Smoke King, 
I am black! 
I am wreathing broken hearts, 
I am sheathing love’s light darts; 
Inspirat...Read more of this...
by Du Bois, W. E. B.
...ee corpses lay out on the shining sands
16 In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
17 And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
18 For those who will never come home to the town;
19 For men must work, and women must weep,
20 And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep;
21 And good-bye to the bar and its moaning....Read more of this...
by Kingsley, Charles
...the wounds on egdon heath
its proud moroseness scales across the time
tinting all after-thought - where hardy gloomed
(wringing ironic bloodtones from sublime)
a host of worms have nibbled through belief

faith-riddled souls have other faiths exhumed
a pagan dissonance has reached for rhyme
a void (dismissed) has sprouted from the wreath
that science laid - a self-inflicted crime
unknifes itself and bleaker hope has bloomed

what hardy touched on sombre egdon heath
the waste...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry