Famous Criticism Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

...wed the healing of wounds.

I want you to see this before I leave:
the experience of repetition as death
the failure of criticism to locate the pain
the poster in the bus that said:
my bleeding is under control

A red plant in a cemetary of plastic wreaths.

A last attempt: the language is a dialect called metaphor.
These images go unglossed: hair, glacier, flashlight.
When I think of a landscape I am thinking of a time.
When I talk of taking a trip I mean forever.
I could sa...Read more of this...
by Rich, Adrienne


An Essay On Criticism

...they deriv'd from Heav'n
The gen'rous Critick fann'd the Poet's Fire,
And taught the World, with Reason to Admire.
Then Criticism the Muse's Handmaid prov'd,
To dress her Charms, and make her more belov'd;
But following Wits from that Intention stray'd;
Who cou'd not win the Mistress, woo'd the Maid;
Against the Poets their own Arms they turn'd,
Sure to hate most the Men from whom they learn'd
So modern Pothecaries, taught the Art
By Doctor's Bills to play the Doctor's Part,
...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

On The Borders

...not to thought;
it lets me rest from thinking.

I feel no need to interpret it
as if it were art. Too much
of poetry is criticism now.

That hawk, clinging to
the eaves of the wind, beating
its third wing, its tail

isn't mine to sell. And here is
more like the space that needs
to exist aound an image.

This cloud-roof country reminds me
of the character of people
who first encountered roses in soap....Read more of this...
by Murray, Les

On The Critical Attitude

...The critical attitude
Strikes many people as unfruitful
That is because they find the state
Impervious to their criticism
But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude
Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms
And states can be demolished by it.

Canalising a river
Grafting a fruit tree
Educating a person
Transforming a state
These are instances of fruitful criticism
And at the same time instances of art....Read more of this...
by Brecht, Bertolt

Oxford Anthology Of Twentieth Century Poetry'

...ORRISON or MOTION

(to miss that lot I’d swim an ocean)

NO PATERSON, NO BURNSIDE,

NO SWEENEY or O’BRIEN

(triumphs of criticism by omission),

BUT WHY DID PRYNNE REFUSE TO BE IN?

-wilful obscurity, hidden grandiosity-

-what is this Prynne idolatry?

All those New Gen poets

Thwacked by omission

NOT EVEN PAULIN IS IN

NO DUNMORE OR DURCAN

O’DONOGHUE or BHATT

-you can hardly do better than that!

It really made my day

Pity it was too late for you

To review in ERATICA T...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry


Phantasmagoria CANTO III ( Scarmoges )

...a man -
This agonizing witticism!
And nothing could be sweeter than
My temper, till the Ghost began
Some most provoking criticism. 

"Cooks need not be indulged in waste;
Yet still you'd better teach them
Dishes should have SOME SORT of taste.
Pray, why are all the cruets placed
Where nobody can reach them? 

"That man of yours will never earn
His living as a waiter!
Is that ***** THING supposed to burn?
(It's far too dismal a concern
To call a Moderator). 

"The duck was ten...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Proclamation Without Pretension

...ord-replaced by DADA,
PLESIOSAURUS, or handkerchief

The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes the
poet a druggist TODAY the criticism
of balances no longer challenges with resemblances

Hypertrophic painters hyperaes-
theticized and hypnotized by the hyacinths
of the hypocritical-looking muezzins

CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EX-
ACT CALCULATIONS

Hypodrome of immortal guarantees: there is
no such thing as importance there is no transparence 
or appearance

MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INS...Read more of this...
by Tzara, Tristan

Says

...epends on
 physique;
Now I reverse what I said, and affirm that all depends on the æsthetic or
 intellectual, 
And that criticism is great—and that refinement is greatest of all; 
And I affirm now that the mind governs—and that all depends on the mind. 

8
With one man or woman—(no matter which one—I even pick out the lowest,) 
With him or her I now illustrate the whole law;
I say that every right, in politics or what-not, shall be eligible to that one man or
 woman, on
 the ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Dover Bitch: A Criticism Of Life

...So there stood Matthew Arnold and this girl
With the cliffs of England crumbling away behind them,
And he said to her, "Try to be true to me,
And I'll do the same for you, for things are bad
All over, etc., etc."
Well now, I knew this girl. It's true she had read
Sophocles in a fairly good translation
And caught that bitter allusion to the sea,
But all the...Read more of this...
by Hecht, Anthony

The Respectable Burgher on The Higher Criticism

...Since Reverend Doctors now declare 
That clerks and people must prepare 
To doubt if Adam ever were; 
To hold the flood a local scare; 
To argue, though the stolid stare, 
That everything had happened ere 
The prophets to its happening sware; 
That David was no giant-slayer, 
Nor one to call a God-obeyer 
In certain details we could spare, 
But rather was ...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

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