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Famous Cry Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set;
Like usury, applying wet to wet,
Or monarch's hands that let not bounty fall
Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.

Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack'd many a ring of posie...Read more of this...



by Ginsberg, Allen
...ns 
 of Los Alamos wailed them down, and wailed 
 down Wall, and the Staten Island ferry also 
 wailed, 
who broke down crying in white gymnasiums naked 
 and trembling before the machinery of other 
 skeletons, 
who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight 
 in policecars for committing no crime but their 
 own wild cooking pederasty and intoxication, 
who howled on their knees in the subway and were 
 dragged off the roof waving genitals and manu- 
 scripts, 
wh...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...s to see the moon; across the meads
Limps the poor frightened hare, a little speck;
And a stray seamew with its fretful cry
Flits like a sudden drift of snow against the dull grey sky.

Full winter: and the lusty goodman brings
His load of faggots from the chilly byre,
And stamps his feet upon the hearth, and flings
The sappy billets on the waning fire,
And laughs to see the sudden lightening scare
His children at their play, and yet, - the spring is in the air;

Already ...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...n themselves." 

 And I, 
 "Master, what grievance hath their failure cost, 
 That through the lamentable dark they cry?" 

 He answered, "Briefly at a thing not worth 
 We glance, and pass forgetful. Hope in death 
 They have not. Memory of them on the earth 
 Where once they lived remains not. Nor the breath 
 Of Justice shall condemn, nor Mercy plead, 
 But all alike disdain them. That they know 
 Themselves so mean beneath aught else constrains 
 The e...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...'d moment of his mind's disease. 
Was it a dream? was his the voice that spoke 
Those strange wild accents; his the cry that broke 
Their slumber? his the oppress'd o'er-labour'd heart 
That ceased to beat, the look that made them start? 
Could he who thus had suffer'd, so forget 
When such as saw that suffering shudder yet? 
Or did that silence prove his memory fix'd 
Too deep for words, indelible, unmix'd 
In that corroding secresy which gnaws 
The heart to shew the eff...Read more of this...



by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...e way you mean,—the little night,
And the long empty day,—never to see
Again the angry light,
Or hear the hungry noises cry my brain!
Ah, but she,
Your other sister and my other soul,
She shall again be mine;
And I shall drink her from a silver bowl,
A chilly thin green wine,
Not bitter to the taste,
Not sweet,
Not of your press, oh, restless, clamorous nine,—
To foam beneath the frantic hoofs of mirth—
But savoring faintly of the acid earth,
And trod by pensive feet
From per...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...O I cruise my old cruise again! 
I feel the ship’s motion under me—I feel the Atlantic breezes fanning me, 
I hear the cry again sent down from the mast-head—There—she blows! 
—Again I spring up the rigging, to look with the rest—We see—we descend,
 wild
 with excitement, 
I leap in the lower’d boat—We row toward our prey, where he lies,
We approach, stealthy and silent—I see the mountainous mass, lethargic, basking, 
I see the harpooneer standing up—I see the weapon dart fr...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...ear something else?”

“Not talking.”
“No.”

“Why, yes, I hear—what is it?”

“What do you say it is?”

“A baby’s crying!
Frantic it sounds, though muffled and far off.”

“Its mother wouldn’t let it cry like that,
Not if she’s there.”

“What do you make of it?”

“There’s only one thing possible to make,
That is, assuming—that she has gone out.
Of course she hasn’t though.” They both sat down
Helpless. “There’s nothing we can do till morning.”

“F...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ave’e’yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves—the
 refrain of the anchor-lifters; 
The ring of alarm-bells—the cry of fire—the whirr of swift-streaking
 engines and hose-carts, with premonitory tinkles, and color’d lights; 
The steam-whistle—the solid roll of the train of approaching cars;
The slow-march play’d at the head of the association, marching two and two,

(They go to guard some corpse—the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.) 

I hear the viol...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...elf unopen’d! 
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d! 
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge
 expound
 the
 law. 

Mon enfant! I give you my hand! 
I give you my love, more precious than money, 
I give you myself, before preaching or law; 
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we l...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...blanched with fear all beasts and birds,
As death and a shock of evil words
Blast a man's hair with white.

And the cry of the palms and the purple moons,
Or the cry of the frost and foam,
Swept ever around an inmost place,
And the din of distant race on race
Cried and replied round Rome.

And there was death on the Emperor
And night upon the Pope:
And Alfred, hiding in deep grass,
Hardened his heart with hope.

A sea-folk blinder than the sea
Broke all about his ...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...r he could know
The mighty mother must be so obey'd. 
For lack of knowledge and thro' little skill
His childish mimicry outwent his aim;
His effort shaped the genius of his will;
Till thro' distinction and revolt he came,
True to his simple terms of good and ill,
Seeking the face of Beauty without blame. 

17
Say who be these light-bearded, sunburnt faces
In negligent and travel-stain'd array,
That in the city of Dante come to-day,
Haughtily visiting her holy places?
...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...pair of boots--but the worst of it was,
 He had wholly forgotten his name.

He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry,
 Such as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!"
To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!"
 But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!"

While, for those who preferred a more forcible word,
 He had different names from these:
His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends,"
 And his enemies "Toasted-cheese."

"His form in ungainly--his intellect small--"
 (So th...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...there kneeled in the highe way
A company of ladies, tway and tway,
Each after other, clad in clothes black:
But such a cry and such a woe they make,
That in this world n'is creature living,
That hearde such another waimenting* *lamenting 
And of this crying would they never stenten*, *desist
Till they the reines of his bridle henten*. *seize
"What folk be ye that at mine homecoming
Perturben so my feaste with crying?"
Quoth Theseus; "Have ye so great envy
Of mine hono...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...ought but this,
Harmonious dews of sober bliss? 

"What boots it? Shall his fevered eye
Through towering nothingness descry
The grisly phantom hurry by? 

"And hear dumb shrieks that fill the air;
See mouths that gape, and eyes that stare
And redden in the dusky glare? 

"The meadows breathing amber light,
The darkness toppling from the height,
The feathery train of granite Night? 

"Shall he, grown gray among his peers,
Through the thick curtain of his tears
Catch glimpses o...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ichael, 'Don't forget 
To call George Washington, and John Horne Tooke, 
And Franklin;' — but at this time was heard 
A cry for room, though not a phantom stirr'd. 

LXXXV 

At length with jostling, elbowing, and the aid 
Of cherubim appointed to that post, 
The devil Asmodeus to the circle made 
His way, and look'd as if his journey cost 
Some trouble. When his burden down he laid, 
'What's this?' cried Michael; 'why, 'tis not a ghost?' 
'I know it,' quoth the incubu...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...ary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson!
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! 
"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
"You! hypocrite lecteur! - mon semblable, - mon frere!"
II.<...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...stars
That rivet in place abyss after abyss.

THIRD VOICE:
I see her in my sleep, my red, terrible girl.
She is crying through the glass that separates us.
She is crying, and she is furious.
Her cries are hooks that catch and grate like cats.
It is by these hooks she climbs to my notice.
She is crying at the dark, or at the stars
That at such a distance from us shine and whirl.

I think her little head is carved in wood,
A red, hard wood, eyes shut...Read more of this...

by Angelou, Maya
...ings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,

I cry....Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...
Like my brother very own
And everywhere I hear the sound
Of the steppe song.
Here I am at home like home --
I cry and I am in rue
Answer to me, my stranger,
I am looking for you!



x x x

How I love, how I loved to stare
At the ironclad shores,
On the balcony, where forever
No foot stepped, not mine, not yours.
And in truth you are -- a capital
For the mad and luminous us;
But when over Nieva sail
Those special, pure hours
And the winds of May...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs