Famous Vileness Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Ode To Joy

by Anonymous
Wild and fearful in his cavern
Hid the naked troglodyte,
And the homeless nomad wandered
Laying waste the fertile plain.
Menacing with spear and arrow
In the woods the hunter strayed ...
Woe to all poor wreteches stranded
On those cruel and hostile shores!

From the peak of high Olympus
Came the mother Ceres down,
Seeeking in those savage regions
Her lost daughter Prosperine.
But the Goddess found no refuge,
Found no kindly...Read more of this...

Modern Love XXXVIII: Give to Imagination

by George Meredith
 Give to imagination some pure light 
In human form to fix it, or you shame 
The devils with that hideous human game: 
Imagination urging appetite! 
Thus fallen have earth's greatest Gogmagogs, 
Who dazzle us, whom we can not revere: 
Imagination is the charioteer 
That, in default of better, drives the hogs. 
So, therefore, my dear Lady, let me love!...Read more of this...

The Pangolin

by Marianne Moore
 Another armored animal--scale
 lapping scale with spruce-cone regularity until they
form the uninterrupted central
 tail-row! This near artichoke with head and legs and grit-equipped
 gizzard,
the night miniature artist engineer is,
 yes, Leonardo da Vinci's replica--
 impressive animal and toiler of whom we seldom hear.
 Armor seems extra. But for him,
 the closing ear-ridge--
 or bare ear lacking even this small
...Read more of this...

Contemplation Of The Sword

by Robinson Jeffers
 Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel, 
 formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. The sword: that is: the storms 
 and counter-storms of general destruction; killing 
 of men,
Destruction of all goods and materials; massacre, more or 
 less intentional, of...Read more of this...

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