Famous Short Poems

29 Famous Short Poems - Examples Of Short Poems By Famous Poets

Examples of short famous poems by famous poets such as Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Sara Teasdale.
Short Funny poems by famous poets such as Ogden Nash and Shel Silverstein and short poems for children by famous poets including A. A. Milne and Christina Rossetti.

Hug O' War
- By Shel Silverstein
in Famous Friendship Poems

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins
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If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking
- By Emily Dickinson
in Famous Inspirational Poems

Picture

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
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The poem itself makes me to feel like I am a very important person when I help others.

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Dreams
- By Langston Hughes
in Famous Inspirational Poems

Picture

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
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Always Marry An April Girl
- By Ogden Nash
in Famous Love Poems

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true --
I love April, I love you.
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Snowball
- By Shel Silverstein
in Famous Children Poems

I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.

I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas
And a pillow for its head.
Then last night it ran away,
But first it wet the bed.
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I love the humor, innocence and whimsy of this poem. But there's more here than meets the eye. If you look a bit deeper, you can see how we sometimes don't properly interpret our experiences,...

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Winter Morning Poem
- By Ogden Nash
in Famous Nature Poems

Winter is the king of showmen,
Turning tree stumps into snow men
And houses into birthday cakes
And spreading sugar over lakes.

Winter is the king of showmen,
Turning tree stumps into snow men
And houses into birthday cakes
And spreading sugar over lakes.
Smooth and clean and frosty white,
The world looks good enough to bite.
That's the season to be young,
Catching snowflakes on your tongue!
Snow is snowy when it's snowing.
I'm sorry it's slushy when it's going.
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Now We Are Six
- By A. A. Milne
in Famous Children Poems

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.
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I recited this to my granddaughter on her 6th birthday, and she beamed from ear to ear. Very sweet moment.

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Listen To The MUSTN'TS
- By Shel Silverstein
in Famous Children Poems

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT'S

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT'S
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be
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A Word To Husbands
- By Ogden Nash
in Famous Funny Poems

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
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Featured Shared Story

Interesting. Years ago for our children I made this little rule. They had to periodically repeat it after me.

When you're wrong, admit it.
When you're right, shut up.

I'm an avid...

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The Rainbow
- By Christina Rossetti
in Famous Children Poems

Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.

Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.
There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.
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Nothing Gold Can Stay
- By Robert Frost
in Famous Nature Poems

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
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Fire And Ice
- By Robert Frost
in Famous Life Poems

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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Featured Shared Story

Robert Frost is a poet of great repute. It is not within our jurisdiction to comment on such a literary giant. However, in view of your invitation, I would say that he might have been in...

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A Time To Talk
- By Robert Frost
in Famous Friendship Poems

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, 'What is it?'
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
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Excellent! The case almost unattended in today's crazily hasty waste of morality and spirituality in favor of modernity! A nice moral lesson for those entrapped in the network of virtual...

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A Riddle
- By Christina Rossetti
in Famous Children Poems

There is one that has a head without an eye,
And there's one that has an eye without a head.
You may find the answer if you try;
And when all is said,

There is one that has a head without an eye,
And there's one that has an eye without a head.
You may find the answer if you try;
And when all is said,
Half the answer hangs upon a thread.
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Featured Shared Story

Pins and needles

Try this:

The beginning of eternity,
The end of time and space,
The beginning of every end,
And the end of every place.
-The Guess Book (c. 1820)

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I Shall Not Care
- By Sara Teasdale
in Famous Sad Love Poems

When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.

When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.

I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough,
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Than you are now.
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Ebb
- By Edna St. Vincent Millay
in Famous Sad Love Poems

I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool

I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool
Left there by the tide,
A little tepid pool,
Drying inward from the edge.
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What Are Heavy?
- By Christina Rossetti
in Famous Life Poems

What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow;
What are brief? Today and tomorrow;
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth;
What are deep? The ocean and truth.

What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow;
What are brief? Today and tomorrow;
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth;
What are deep? The ocean and truth.
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Featured Shared Story

Yes, it is perfection! Every line is simple in its truth. Agreed, agreed, this poem has done its deed!

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The Kiss
- By Sara Teasdale
in Famous Sad Love Poems

I hoped that he would love me,
And he has kissed my mouth,
But I am like a stricken bird
That cannot reach the south.

I hoped that he would love me,
And he has kissed my mouth,
But I am like a stricken bird
That cannot reach the south.

For though I know he loves me,
To-night my heart is sad;
His kiss was not so wonderful
As all the dreams I had.
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Yes! Been there! It kinda takes away from the romance. It might be best to keep trying to fly south.
Jac Judy A Campbell

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Harlem
- By Langston Hughes
in Famous Sad Poems

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?
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Underface
- By Shel Silverstein
in Famous Children Poems

Picture

Underneath my outside face
There's a face that none can see.
A little less smiley,
A little less sure,

Underneath my outside face
There's a face that none can see.
A little less smiley,
A little less sure,
But a whole lot more like me
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I have always been what others want me to be. I'm sick of it, but I cannot escape it.

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I'd Love To Be A Fairy's Child
- By Robert Graves
in Famous Children Poems

Children born of fairy stock
Never need for shirt or frock,
Never want for food or fire,
Always get their heart's desire:

Children born of fairy stock
Never need for shirt or frock,
Never want for food or fire,
Always get their heart's desire:
Jingle pockets full of gold,
Marry when they're seven years old.
Every fairy child may keep
Two strong ponies and ten sheep;
All have houses, each his own,
Built of brick or granite stone;
They live on cherries, they run wild--
I'd love to be a Fairy's child.
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Maggie And Milly And Molly And May
- By E.E. Cummings
in Famous Children Poems

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
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The Eagle
- By Alfred Tennyson
in Famous Nature Poems

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
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Still Here
- By Langston Hughes
in Famous Inspirational Poems

I been scarred and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,

I been scarred and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done
Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--
But I don't care!
I'm still here!
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Won't You?
- By Shel Silverstein
in Famous Children Poems

Barbara's eyes are blue as azure,
But she is in love with Freddy.
Karen's sweet, but Harry has her.
Gentle Jane is going steady.

Barbara's eyes are blue as azure,
But she is in love with Freddy.
Karen's sweet, but Harry has her.
Gentle Jane is going steady.
Carol hates me. So does May.
Abigail will not be mine.
Nancy lives too far away...
Won't you be my Valentine?
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May
- By Sara Teasdale
in Famous Sad Love Poems

The wind is tossing the lilacs,
The new leaves laugh in the sun,
And the petals fall on the orchard wall,
But for me the spring is done.

The wind is tossing the lilacs,
The new leaves laugh in the sun,
And the petals fall on the orchard wall,
But for me the spring is done.

Beneath the apple blossoms
I go a wintry way,
For love that smiled in April
Is false to me in May.
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The Sick Rose
- By William Blake
in Famous Sad Love Poems

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
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Morning Prayer
- By Ogden Nash
in Famous Children Poems

Now another day is breaking,
Sleep was sweet and so is waking.
Dear Lord, I promised you last night
Never again to sulk or fight.

Now another day is breaking,
Sleep was sweet and so is waking.
Dear Lord, I promised you last night
Never again to sulk or fight.
Such vows are easier to keep
When a child is sound asleep.
Today, O Lord, for your dear sake,
I'll try to keep them when awake.
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He did an amazing job on this poem.

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Fog
- By Carl Sandburg
in Famous Nature Poems

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

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