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Subject: INSANITY
Matches Found: 231

UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` 302 ARREST WARRANT, by ELLEN MCGRATH SMITH    Poem Source                    
First Line: The first thing she does is pour cereal for
Last Line: The skin on her face reverberates in bass. You can really hear it
Subject(s): Insanity; Office Employees


A HAT TRIMMED BY A MADWOMAN, by RUTH MASON RICE    Poem Text                    
First Line: I saw she'd trimmed the straw hat with avid care
Last Line: Not knowing she had sewed her madness there.
Subject(s): Hats; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


A LATTER-DAY SAINT, by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A gray old man, with a descending beard
Last Line: Giving the law, like zeno or zamolxis.
Subject(s): Prophecy & Prophets; Insanity; Beards


A LIFE, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Touch it: it won't shrink like an eyeball,
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Life; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


A MAN PROSPECTING, by J. E. LIDDLE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A man prospecting for the gold
Last Line: He weakened, raved, and soon he died.
Alternate Author Name(s): Kodak; Liddle, John Edward
Subject(s): Aborigines, Australian; Death; Deserts; Food & Eating; Gold Mines & Miners; Insanity; Pain; Dead, The; Madness; Mental Illness; Suffering; Misery


AFTER VISITING A HOME FOR DISTURBED CHILDREN, by LOU LIPSITZ    Poem Source                    
First Line: Broken lamps! %their faces shine with a destroyed light
Last Line: And bits of light shine out of the dark, %intense, searching%like the eyes of a girl who is buried a
Subject(s): Insanity


ALL MAD, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He is mad as a hare, poor fellow
Last Line: We are all of us -- all of us mad.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Death; Insanity; Life; Pain; Thought; Youth; Dead, The; Madness; Mental Illness; Suffering; Misery; Thinking


ALL THAT TIME, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: After the killing, tommy antrim
Last Line: Assassinating his ears
Subject(s): Aging; Insanity; Murder


ANOTHER POEM ABOUT THE MADNESS OF WOMEN, by TOM WAYMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: It began as a joke: she did not like to leave the house
Last Line: She knows there is a woman in each one
Subject(s): Insanity; Women


ART OF THE INSANE, by EMILY FRAGOS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The good doctor prinzhorn says it was the patent
Last Line: We are wind gone. We are kingdom come
Subject(s): Art And Artists; Insanity


ASYLUM, by RICK CHRISTMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: The asylum was in the most hotly contested area of bien-hoa province
Last Line: #name?
Subject(s): Insanity; Soldiers; Vietnam


ASYLUM OPHELIA: SURREY, 1848, by JENNIFER FRANKLIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: By day, I sort colored beans
Last Line: In the fierce swinging arms of waves
Subject(s): Insanity; Surrey, England


BACK WARD, by JUANITA BROWN TOBIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Miss pittipat wears eight gowns
Last Line: As regular as good morning
Subject(s): Insanity


BEANS, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: If I weren't a stranger to myself, he said
Last Line: Hell, o, let me not spill the beans
Subject(s): Fear; Home; Insanity; Solitude; Strangers


BOGY MAN, by FREDERICK MUNDLE    Poem Source                    
First Line: She knows I know
Last Line: That's left of me in her is fear
Subject(s): Fear; Imagination; Insanity


BRIGHT, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Sunlight on the cathedral
Last Line: Looking at this?
Subject(s): Churches; Insanity; Light; Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)


BUSHED, by CHARLES LILLARD    Poem Source                    
First Line: This morning we found him
Last Line: From nowhere to nowhere across %our faces that lonely stunned look
Subject(s): Insanity


BUTCH IS BACK, by EARL GENE BOX    Poem Source                    
First Line: You went away %and came back
Subject(s): Insanity; Prisons And Prisoners


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 2. SOLITUDE, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: And now, a child, there on the floor, quiet
Last Line: Eyes watering, lips wondering: 'jesus.'
Subject(s): Children; Insanity


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 3. WHITENESS, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: Closer to gods I enter my limp, carefully
Last Line: Rat-bloodied hand, like my sacred heart
Subject(s): Heaven; Insanity


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 4. ON THE ALBINO FARM, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: The artisans assume their human shape
Last Line: They eat. They burn. They harbor all the deaf
Subject(s): Insanity


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 5. FIRST LIGHT, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: Smoke travels from a burning house
Last Line: Not dark but lusterless, and deep
Subject(s): Fire; Insanity


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 6. DER ERLKONIG, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: I see you now, lit by my body: evening's
Last Line: Saintlike and febrile at dusk
Subject(s): Insanity


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 7. TO THE BODY, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: It is you they want. We have never been
Last Line: Be puncture and breath, and you will like that
Subject(s): Bodies; Insanity


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 8. THAT THE NIGHT PLEASE US, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: Tha'ts when I woke into the dark white owls
Last Line: Rising, a sound in the crowd of the dark
Subject(s): Insanity; Night


CASPAR HAUSER SONGS: 9. ICH WILL EIN REITER WERDEN, by NEIL AZEVEDO    Poem Source                    
First Line: The more you see, the more you will return
Last Line: Of night: black hurrying hooves
Subject(s): Insanity; Memory


CERTAIN ASYMMETRY, by RAFAEL ESTRADA    Poem Source                    
First Line: The tiny schizophrenic had a certain asymmetry to her face
Last Line: Life, I tell myself, can't be trusted
Subject(s): Death; Insanity


CHILD SUPPER, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: I am packing your things again
Last Line: I have never been your child
Subject(s): Daughters; Hospitals; Insanity; Mothers And Daughters


CHRISTOPHER SMART, by STANLEY SHAW    Poem Text                    
First Line: Mad is the poet men call kit
Last Line: Mad as his faith is strong.
Subject(s): Insanity; Smart, Christopher (1722-1771); Madness; Mental Illness


COR INSURGENS, by H. COLUMBUS ISAACS    Poem Text                    
First Line: At last I've 'scaped those prison walls
Last Line: Oh god, let madness return again!
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


COUNTING THE MAD, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: This one was put in a jacket
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Humanity; Insanity; Social Protest; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness


COUNTING THE MAD, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This one was put in a jacket
Last Line: And cried and cried no no no no %all day long
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Humanity; Insanity; Social Protest


CRAZY CHRISTOPHER, by ALICE CARY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Neighbored by a maple wood
Last Line: That could half believe him wise.
Subject(s): Solitude; Human Behavior; Insanity; Wisdom


CRAZY LADY SPEAKING, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was the one in the irt tunnel
Last Line: From each of their graves I rise, daughter. Embrace me
Subject(s): Insanity; Talk; Women


CRAZY QUILT, by SUSAN KELLY-DEWITT    Poem Source                    
First Line: #name?
Last Line: Applique, a tree of life behind her eyes
Subject(s): Family Life; Insanity; Life


CRAZY TENANT, by NOVICA TADIC    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He drags his feet on the floor till the day breaks
Last Line: Shrieks and barks like a dog who has swallowed %a living chicken
Subject(s): Insanity


DAILIES: TOO MUCH POETRY NOT ENOUGH SNOW, by TIM DAVIS    Poem Source                    
First Line: I'll take mental heath refugee with
Last Line: Now is the winter of our content
Subject(s): Insanity; Winter


DARK DAUGHTER, by NICOLE BLACKMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: I am not of this family, I know now
Last Line: Mother, I'm already gone
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Insanity; Love - Loss Of; Mothers And Daughters; Psychoanalysis; Self-hate; Suicide


DAY ROOM: ST. ELIZABETHS HOSPITAL, by MICHAEL S. HARPER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Back on medication / he takes inventory
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


DAY ROOM: ST. ELIZABETHS HOSPITAL, by MICHAEL S. HARPER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Back on medication %he takes inventory
Last Line: I love the sun %in this room, %cold, cold, hot, hot
Subject(s): Insanity


DISADVANTAGE, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Any man who has not had
Last Line: The sudden, sourceless ferocities %of a lover's rage
Subject(s): Ancestors And Ancestry; Anger; Insanity


DIVISION, by JOHN RATTI    Poem Source                    
First Line: During the winter she began
Last Line: Out and could hear each color they said
Subject(s): Insanity


DOC HOLLIDAY, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The silences grow taller
Last Line: Of the once happy beast
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


DON QUIXOTE, by HANNELORE JOSEPH    Poem Text                    
First Line: So you died sane, oh jester of the universe
Last Line: Of all humanity -- we're all in vain.
Subject(s): Death; Don Quixote; Insanity; Knights & Knighthood; Dead, The; Madness; Mental Illness


ENOUGH, by IRENE SHERLOCK    Poem Source                    
First Line: I like to cut circles out of wax paper
Last Line: Isn't it enough the cake rose today?
Subject(s): Cooking And Cooks; Insanity; Learning


ENVOI: MANIC DEPRESSION IN THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR, by WILLIAM WITHERUP    Poem Source                    
First Line: See bill in big sur, about to quaff
Last Line: Into a nest of rattlesnakes.'
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Insanity


EVENING IN THE SANITARIUM, by LOUISE BOGAN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The free evening fades, outside windows fastened with decorative iron grilles
Alternate Author Name(s): Holden, Raymond, Mrs.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


EVENING IN THE SANITARIUM, by LOUISE BOGAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The free evening fades, outside windows fastened with decorative iron grilles
Last Line: Miss r. Looks at the mantel-piece, which must mean something
Alternate Author Name(s): Holden, Raymond, Mrs.
Subject(s): Insanity


EVERY STEP, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Cold, at the edges of the flesh, the stranger
Last Line: And with every step he takes, home changes.
Subject(s): Home; Insanity; Strangers


EXPERT, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: He scratches, giggles, sneers, looks, looks away
Last Line: Again and he smells the bed where his mother bleeds
Subject(s): Blood; Insanity; Mothers And Sons


FLEE ON YOUR DONKEY, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Because there was no other place
Subject(s): God; Insanity; Religion; Madness; Mental Illness; Theology


FLEE ON YOUR DONKEY, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Because there was no other place
Last Line: Those I loved best died of it - %the fool's disease
Subject(s): God; Insanity; Religion


FOR SILVIA, MY DAUGHTER, CHICAGO READ MENTAL HEALTH CENTER, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: There is a plain cruelty of light
Last Line: Her grief has turned hard as amber
Subject(s): Insanity; Mothers And Daughters


FOR THE MAD, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You will be alone at last
Last Line: They will say you are well
Subject(s): Anger; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


FOR THE MAD, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You will be alone at last
Last Line: You will not be better but %they will say you are well
Subject(s): Anger; Insanity


FRANK SINATRA, by MICHAEL WATERS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I love to listen to men in bars, %the lonely drinkers
Last Line: Where frank sinatra sang %only for them
Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Insanity; Marriage; Men; Sinatra, Frank (1915-1998); Singing And Singers


GENERAL PARESIS, by LOUIS J. KARNOSH    Poem Source                    
First Line: A mental tapestry I spin
Subject(s): Insanity; Physicians


GEO-BESTIARY: 17, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was sent far from my land of bears
Last Line: And learned to bob like an apple on the river's surface.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


GOD IS A COWBOY WHO RIDES A LAME HORSE, by SUZANNE OWENS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Burroughs fondled me in the store's back room
Last Line: Recuperate my straggling hair, my breached life
Subject(s): Crime And Criminals; Insanity; Jealousy; Justice; Murder; Trials; Unfaithfulness


HAMLET, by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Who's there?
Last Line: Of ordnance is shot off.
Subject(s): Insanity; Love; Revenge; Supernatural; Tragedy; Madness; Mental Illness


HARD ROCK RETURNS TO PRISON FROM THE HOSPITAL FOR THE CRIMINAL INSANE, by ETHERIDGE KNIGHT    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hard rock / was / 'known not to take no shit
Subject(s): African Americans; Insanity; Korean War, 1950-1953; Prisons & Prisoners; Surgery; Negroes; American Blacks; Madness; Mental Illness; Convicts


HARD ROCK RETURNS TO PRISON FROM THE HOSPITAL FOR THE CRIMINAL INSANE, by ETHERIDGE KNIGHT    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hard rock / was / 'known not to take no shit
Last Line: Had cut deep bloody grooves %across our backs
Subject(s): African Americans; Insanity; Korean War, 1950-1953; Prisons And Prisoners; Surgery


HATTERS, by NAN MCDONALD    Poem Source                    
First Line: The hut in the bush of bark or rusty tin
Subject(s): Insanity


HEARD IN A VIOLENT WARD, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In heaven, too, %you'd be institutionalized
Last Line: And that sweet man, john clare
Subject(s): Insanity; Poetry And Poets


IDIOT, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So what if he tears off a dog's head
Last Line: Twin with the weird eyes
Subject(s): Children; Insanity


IN A DARK TIME, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In a dark time, the eye begins to see
Subject(s): Despair; Insanity; Night; Madness; Mental Illness; Bedtime


IN A DARK TIME, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In a dark time, the eye begins to see
Last Line: And one is one, free in the tearing wind
Subject(s): Despair; Insanity; Night


IN A RACK OF PAIN, by JUANITA BROWN TOBIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: This morning ora was secluded
Last Line: But it's a long way to go for a cigarette
Subject(s): Insanity; Pain


IN THE DAYROOM, by JUANITA BROWN TOBIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: There's a squabble over which rocker is whose. Every time any-
Last Line: Enough hallelujahs in here without heads hitting the floor, too
Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity


IN THE MADHOUSE, by MARILYN HORTON-BARRIOS    Poem Source                    
First Line: I carry bits of twig
Last Line: That I gathered %when I could fly
Subject(s): Insanity; Language


IN THE SUBWAY, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Chaos is tamed and ordered as we ride
Last Line: Reading their papers calmly, leisurely.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Chaos; Insanity; Social Protest; Madness; Mental Illness


INEXPLICABLE, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: To look suddenly at eyes
Last Line: Shifting havoc through my head.
Subject(s): Eyes; Gratitude; Insanity


INSANITY, by EDA LOU WALTON    Poem Text                    
First Line: My mind is dark with shadows of a sea
Last Line: My mind is dark with shadows of a sea.
Subject(s): Insanity; Love; Madness; Mental Illness


INVISIBLE WOMAN, by ROBIN MORGAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: The invisible woman in the asylum corridor
Last Line: Only the strong can know that
Subject(s): Insanity


JACARANDA, by RAFAEL ESTRADA    Poem Source                    
First Line: He was addicted to the tree. No one had ever loved a tree
Last Line: Girl. But mostly he would dream he was being stalked by an %arrogant psychiatrist
Subject(s): Insanity; Psychiatry


KING ME, by MICHAEL LIEBERMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Goldin opened the drawstring
Last Line: Don't you have anything to say?'
Subject(s): Insanity


LABOR, by THEODOSIA (PICKERING) GARRISON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a potion of forgetfulness
Last Line: Saved the first man, perchance, from going mad.
Alternate Author Name(s): Faulks, Frederick J., Mrs.
Subject(s): Insanity; Labor & Laborers; Madness; Mental Illness; Work; Workers


LAST ON EARTH, by MARY RUEFLE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is said that many have been cured of madness by drinking
Subject(s): Christianity; God; Drinks & Drinking; Insanity; Wine; Madness; Mental Illness


LEAVING THE ASYLUM, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The metal harps of the high gates
Last Line: I love its glint among the dust and stones.
Subject(s): Change; Hospitals; Insanity; Introspection; Self-reliance; Madness; Mental Illness


LETTER FROM A STATE HOSPITAL, by FRANK MUNDORF    Poem Source                    
First Line: Have you noticed the docile appeal
Subject(s): Insanity


LOWCOUP, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Craziness is no / act
Last Line: To speak / for god
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


LOWCOUP, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Craziness is no %act
Last Line: Not to %act %is crazinezz
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): Insanity


MAD, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: When she was but a little child
Last Line: Even for her afflicted face.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MAD JUDY, by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When the hamlet hailed a birth
Last Line: Judy was insane, we knew.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MAD POLL, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: There goes mad poll, dressed in wild flowers
Last Line: Ha, ha!' poll laughs, and skips away.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MAD SONG, by WILLIAM BLAKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The wild winds weep
Last Line: With frantic pain.
Subject(s): Bible; Grief; Insanity; Mythology; Sorrow; Sadness; Madness; Mental Illness


MAD SONG, by DENISE LEVERTOV    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My madness is dear to me
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MAD SONG, by DENISE LEVERTOV    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My madness is dear to me
Subject(s): Insanity


MAD SONG, by EMILE VERHAEREN    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The black toad on the white ground indubitably stares at me with
Last Line: Madwomen on the dune in the moonlight
Subject(s): Insanity


MAD TALK, by KAREN APPEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Mad is mad
Last Line: Mad mad mad
Subject(s): Cobra Artists; Insanity


MAD TOM TATTERMAN, by JOHN DRINKWATER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Old man, grey man, good man scavenger,
Last Line: "flocks are whiter than the flocks that all your shepherds keep."
Subject(s): Babylon; Insanity; Sleep; Madness; Mental Illness


MAD TOM'S SONG, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: From the hag and hungry goblin
Last Line: And I will love beneath or above %the dirty earth that hides her
Subject(s): Insanity


MAD WANDERER; A BALLAD, by AMELIA OPIE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There came to grasmere's pleasant vale
Last Line: And with that dreadful groan expired
Alternate Author Name(s): Alderson, Amelia
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN, by MARIAN NEVIN FUNK    Poem Text                    
First Line: He said he was afraid
Last Line: In his brain.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MADMAN, by KAHLIL GIBRAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN, by ANTONIO MACHADO RUIZ    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It is a murky and disturbing afternoon
Last Line: The terrible wisdom, of the idiot
Alternate Author Name(s): Machado, Antonio; Machado Y Ruiz, Antonio
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN, by LEONARD ALFRED GEORGE STRONG    Poem Source                    
First Line: I think I'll do a fearful deed
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN GOES TO A PARTY, by RICHARD LOURIE    Poem Source                    
First Line: First I ritual %myself (naked) clean as fire
Last Line: Then I'll say 'how's your new lover?'
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN IN SOLITARY, by AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The clouds suggested themselves
Last Line: Swallowed a vital thread of my dreams; %I beat my pregnant head for the wise child
Alternate Author Name(s): Weaver, Michael S.
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN IN TREATMENT, by AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: On thorazine constellations go
Last Line: As I lie awake in the day, afraid of dreams. %there's a blue-hot fire in my soul
Alternate Author Name(s): Weaver, Michael S.
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN LOOKS AT HIS FORTUNE, by RICHARD LOURIE    Poem Source                    
First Line: The radiator knocked and hissed
Last Line: Is only a sweet smell
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN'S RESUME, by TOM HOUSE    Poem Source                    
First Line: Left to his wits
Subject(s): Insanity


MADMAN'S SONG, by JOHN MASEFIELD    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You have not seen what I have seen
Alternate Author Name(s): Masefield, John Edward
Subject(s): Insanity


MADNESS, by MARJORIE AGOSIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Deranged, %with mistry litanies she
Last Line: Everything is water. %wild. %alive
Subject(s): Insanity


MADNESS, by JAMES DICKEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Lay in the house mostly living
Last Line: Help help madness help
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MADNESS, by JAMES DICKEY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Lay in the house mostly living
Last Line: With freedom saying bringing %help help madness help
Subject(s): Insanity


MADNESS FREQUENTLY DISCOVERS ITSELF IN LOVE, by JASON SHINDER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In august the salt-spray of the sea-town
Variant Title(s): Madness Frequently Discovers Itself
Subject(s): Insanity; Summer; Madness; Mental Illness


MADNESS FREQUENTLY DISCOVERS ITSELF IN LOVE, by JASON SHINDER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In august the salt-spray of the sea-town
Last Line: Do not move me. I buy some tea and cookies, %talk to no one
Variant Title(s): Madness Frequently Discovers Itsel
Subject(s): Insanity; Summer


MAJESKI PLAYS THE SAXOPHONE, by MARTIN ESPADA    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He killed his parents
Last Line: And forced out the mouth, %jazz
Subject(s): Hispanic Americans; Insanity; Jazz; Music And Musicians; Saxophones


MANIA, by MARY WINTERS    Poem Source                    
First Line: I was forced to give up reading because I couldn't stop
Last Line: I am rebuilding my life a day at a time
Subject(s): Books; Insanity


MANIAC, by THOMAS RUSSELL (1762-1788)    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tho' grief had nipp'd her early bloom
Subject(s): Insanity


MANIAC'S SONG, by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I can but smile when others weep
Last Line: Than all the smiles I ever knew.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MARY TODD ON HER DEATHBED, by JULIANNA BAGGOTT    Poem Source                    
First Line: I can hear them, choking on spoons, screaming
Last Line: In my handmade girlhood hoop-skirt snapping
Subject(s): Death; Insanity; Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865); Presidents, United States


MASTERPIECE OF PROPHYLACTICS (SCHIZOPHRENIC), by ISHLE YI PARK    Poem Source                    
First Line: Socks a field of blue and white...Like that chess game you home-made at the
Last Line: It is their very nature to trust plastic
Subject(s): Chaos; Insanity; Reason


MAYBE THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF MADNESS, by OSIP EMILYEVICH MANDELSTAM    Poem Source     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Read it to me quietly, quietly
Alternate Author Name(s): Mandelshtam, Osip Emilievich
Subject(s): Conscience; Human Rights; Insanity


MAZORRA, by VIRGIL SUAREZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Before the days of shock treatment
Subject(s): Havana, Cuba; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


MEETING AND A MEMORY, by HABBERTON LULHAM    Poem Source                    
First Line: And you are 'mad' poor friend? Aye, so we say
Subject(s): Insanity; Physicians


MENTAL, by WILLIAM KULIK    Poem Source                    
First Line: The maple's twisted branch
Last Line: At the end of his endless life
Subject(s): Death; Insanity


MENTAL CASES, by WILFRED OWEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?
Last Line: Pawing us who dealt them war and madness.
Subject(s): Insanity; Soldiers' Writings; War Injuries; World War I; Madness; Mental Illness; First World War


MENTAL CASES, by LLOYD SCHWARTZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: --and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love
Subject(s): Insanity; Nursing Homes; Voices; Madness; Mental Illness; Old Age Homes; Assisted Living


MENTAL MOMMY, by LIAM RECTOR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Home from school at six years old, first grade,
Subject(s): Mothers; Coming Of Age; Prisons & Prisoners; Insanity; Hospitals; Convicts; Madness; Mental Illness


MENTAL PATIENT MAULED BY POLAR BEAR IN VILAS PARK ZOO, by B. J. BUHROW    Poem Source                    
First Line: Father stood in the doorway
Last Line: And I taste iron in my mouth %and my feet grow wings
Subject(s): Animals; Bears; Fathers; Insanity


MENTAL-HEALTH WORKERS, by JAMES TATE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mostly we were able to ignore the hairy thing
Subject(s): Insanity; Labor & Laborers; Madness; Mental Illness; Work; Workers


MENTAL-HEALTH WORKERS, by JAMES TATE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mostly we were able to ignore the hairy thing
Last Line: There anymore, not lost but gone before
Subject(s): Insanity; Labor And Laborers


MERGER, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Two things, merging, seem
Last Line: Reason when you write.
Subject(s): Insanity; Reason; Writing And Writers


MISS DRAKE PROCEEDS TG SUPPER, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: No novice / in those elaborate rituals
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Insanity; Hospitals; Madness; Mental Illness


MODERN ENDYMION, by MARJORIE LOWRY CHRISTIE PICKTHALL    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You! %you stealing violets where the snail-tracks glisten
Subject(s): Insanity


MOMMY IS A SCARY NARCISSIST, by STEPHANIE BROWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: C'mon, I shouldn't need to mention blepharoplasty
Last Line: Candlelight so soft on all her faces! %hide! %run!
Subject(s): Insanity


MOOD, by THEODORE ANTHONY STANFORD    Poem Text                    
First Line: To dream - and so to watch the wan moon glimmer
Last Line: But only waste and molten sky and pain!
Subject(s): Dreams; Insanity; Moon; Sea; Nightmares; Madness; Mental Illness; Ocean


MORNING ROUNDS, by JUANITA BROWN TOBIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Mrs. A touches the walls
Last Line: You are so strong %just like my mother
Subject(s): Insanity


MUCH MADNESS IS DIVINEST SENSE, by EMILY DICKINSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: And handled with a chain
Subject(s): Insanity


MY DAUGHTER'S MATTRESS, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: My daughter disappeared three years ago. She has been in
Last Line: Shake out the scrap rugs on the floor. I keep putting things away
Subject(s): Insanity; Mothers And Daughters


NEBUCHADNEZZAR, by ELINOR WYLIE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My body is weary to death of my mischievous brain
Alternate Author Name(s): Benet, William Rose, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Insanity; Religion; Madness; Mental Illness; Theology


NEBUCHADNEZZAR, by ELINOR WYLIE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My body is weary to death of my mischievous brain
Last Line: And the dandelion is gall in a thin green pipe, %but the clover is honey and sun and the smell of sl
Alternate Author Name(s): Benet, William Rose, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Insanity; Religion


NEWBERRY CHAIR, by JOHN REINHARD    Poem Source                    
First Line: When he says, 'sit,' I do, because
Last Line: Carved out, at last, for me
Subject(s): Insanity


NOTE IN A SANITORIUM, by RAY AMOROSI    Poem Source                    
First Line: After he sledged wife the man %sliced his hand off in factory meat cutter
Last Line: The mistake out with my stump %blue halo. Me. No hand, no wife, no song
Subject(s): Insanity


OH WHAT A WRECK! HOW CHANGED IN MIEN AND SPEECH!, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: In them—in her our sins and sorrows past
Subject(s): Insanity


OLD AND CRAZY, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: Though rising early with the lark
Last Line: Who blames the poor old owl? Not I.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


ON A PAINTING BY PATIENT B, by MICHAEL COLLINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Today I'll paint some places outside my room
Subject(s): Insanity


ON A PAINTING BY PATIENT B OF INDEPENDENCE STATE HOSPITAL, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These seven houses have learned to face one another
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


ON A PAINTING BY PATIENT B OF INDEPENDENCE STATE HOSPITAL, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These seven houses have learned to face one another
Last Line: Not public like mountains' but private like companions
Subject(s): Insanity


ON A PRETTY MADWOMAN, by MATTHEW PRIOR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: While mad ophelia we lament
Last Line: Or a dead-ebb of grief.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


OTHER WAY, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Who turns in the street
Last Line: I never lie
Subject(s): Cities; Insanity


OUTING, by ELIZABETH ZELVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Then there was the day I took them to the zoo
Last Line: And presenting me with a rose-colored t-shirt %that said we're all crazy about you!
Subject(s): Insanity; Psychoanalysis; Relationships


PAX VOBISCUM, by JOHN COWPER POWYS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh eyelids of the dying day
Last Line: And her madness passed away.
Subject(s): Crucifixion; Insanity; Night; Pain; Sleep; Soul; Sun; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion; Madness; Mental Illness; Bedtime; Suffering; Misery


PLAYING PINOCHLE AT LAFAYETTE CLINIC, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: In the distinct, harsh days
Last Line: Here are the exulting, monstrous translations %of the night
Subject(s): Card Games; Hospitals; Insanity


PRIEST AND PEASANT, by RONALD STUART THOMAS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You are ill, davies, ill in mind
Last Line: And seal my lips as job's were sealed %imperiously in the old days
Alternate Author Name(s): Thomas, R. S.
Subject(s): Insanity


PROM NIGHT AT GROSSE POINTE HIGH AND LAFAYETTE CLINIC, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: The boys wear tuxedos
Last Line: You're a sweet girl,' he says
Subject(s): Insanity; Proms; Youth


QUERY, by ALICE MONKS MEARS    Poem Text                    
First Line: What holds the swift enquiring mind
Last Line: Murmured a spell to guard the soul.
Subject(s): Insanity; Reason; Shadows; Wandering & Wanderers; Madness; Mental Illness; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


RINGING THE BELLS, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: And this is the way they ring
Subject(s): Bells; Depression, Mental; Insanity; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness


RINGING THE BELLS, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And this is the way they ring
Last Line: They tell you to go. And you do
Subject(s): Bells; Depression, Mental; God; Insanity; Religion


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Most people from idaho are crazed rednecks
Last Line: Lives to curse your blessed plaster bleeding heart.
Subject(s): Christianity; Discontent; Idaho; Insanity; Montana; Washington (state); West (u.s.); Women; Women's Rights; Dissatisfaction; Madness; Mental Illness; Southwest; Pacific States; Feminism


SARA, by JAMES GALVIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sara stays at home. / her looks are plain
Last Line: A white cloth against the glass
Subject(s): Beauty; Grief; Insanity; Paintings & Painters; Suicide; Voices; Sorrow; Sadness; Madness; Mental Illness


SCHIZOPHRENIC, by EDWARD K. MICUS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Split? Like a chromosome
Last Line: It tells the others to never love me
Subject(s): Insanity


SEELE IN RAUM, by RANDALL JARRELL    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It sat between my husband and my children
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


SEELE IN RAUM, by RANDALL JARRELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It sat between my husband and my children
Last Line: Rich with a kind of longing satisfaction: %'to own an eland ! That's what I call life!'
Subject(s): Insanity


SEIZURE RHAPSODY, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: A seizure is the body's tantrum
Last Line: Like the phosphorus zeroes %of the air
Subject(s): Insanity


SELF-AUTOPSY OF A CRAZED MAN, by WILLIAM JAMES KING    Poem Source                    
First Line: I was living through a breakdown
Last Line: Too many others to bleed
Subject(s): Depressions, Economic; Insanity; Psychoanalysis


SEQUENCE: 1, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The mad have black roots in their brains
Last Line: The beating shriller.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


SISTER MARY APPASSIONATA ON THE HISTORY OF MADNESS, by DAVID CITINO    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It all began in water
Last Line: Fluttering near time's fierce cat
Subject(s): Faith; Insanity


SOLEDAD POEMS: ROAD TO THE YELLOW PRISON, by WILLIAM WITHERUP    Poem Source                    
First Line: Are you going %to souldead tonight?'
Last Line: Of stone maggots %for teeth
Subject(s): Crime And Criminals; Insanity; Murder; Prisons And Prisoners; Solitude


SOMEWHAT DISTURBED, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: He knows damn well he's not afraid
Last Line: To be out of his mind
Subject(s): Fear; Insanity; Nudity; Silence


SONG: SCENE IN A MADHOUSE, by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: She sings her wild dirges, and smiles 'mid the strain
Last Line: Your meekness who taught you? -- 'the willow.'
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


SONNET FOUND IN A DESERTED MAD HOUSE, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Oh that my soul a marrow-bone might seize!
Last Line: Like a potato riding on the blast
Subject(s): Insanity;nonsense; Madness;mental Illness


SPARROW BONES, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He told the secrets of his life
Last Line: Before he flew.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


STATE OF THE UNION: 8. A PARABLE, by JOHN PEPPER CLARK    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: By the road outside a convent
Last Line: To him by hand of the insane
Alternate Author Name(s): Clark-bekederemo, J. P.; Clark, J. P.
Subject(s): Insanity


STOCKTON STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL, 1962, by UNKNOWN+8    Poem Source                    
First Line: Shirley standing on the table
Last Line: Her beasts hurt when I touched them
Subject(s): Insanity


STONEHENGE, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Each morning he'd anoint the room's four corners
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


STONEHENGE, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Each morning he'd anoint the room's four corners
Last Line: A pyramid roof, and a real smoking chimney
Subject(s): Insanity


STRIKERS, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the mud and scum of things
Last Line: Nothing shall keep us dumb!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Insanity; Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes; Madness; Mental Illness; Labor Disputes; Lockouts


SUNDAY, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was sunday-/ eleven in the morning; people were at / church
Last Line: It was sunday!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Insanity; Marching & Marches; Sabbath; Social Protest; Madness; Mental Illness; Sunday


SUNDAY AT THE STATE HOSPITAL, by DAVID IGNATOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am sitting across the table
Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Men; Madness; Mental Illness


SUNDAY AT THE STATE HOSPITAL, by DAVID IGNATOW    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am sitting across the table
Last Line: And trying with almost no success %to bring the present to its mouth
Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Men


SWEETIE AT LEICESTER COURT, by NATALIE KENVIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Up woodward on leicester court
Last Line: She tells me: 'you were never crazy, just %too much alone.'
Subject(s): Comfort; Insanity; Relationships; Solitude


TAKE YOUR CHOICE: AS EDGAR LEE MASTERS WOULD HANDLE IT. HILDA HYDE, by BERTON BRALEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The town thought me a model woman
Last Line: What a horrid thing I was when I got started.
Subject(s): Insanity; Masters, Edgar Lee (1869-1950); Murder; Orphans; Madness; Mental Illness; Foundlings


TAP, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: The man beating the drum learned rhythm
Last Line: Makes tribal dancing other than you might think
Subject(s): Drums; Insanity; Musical Instruments; Race Awareness


THAT DAY AT BOILING DOWNS, by JACK MATHIEU    Poem Text                    
First Line: He was driving irish tandem, but perhaps I talk at random
Last Line: "for my nerves were much affected that day out on boiling downs."
Subject(s): Insanity; Murder; Story-telling; Madness; Mental Illness


THE ANOMALY, by WALT MASON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: While riding in my buzz-buzz cart, I hit
Last Line: That swiftly hies, I'll always try to run him down in preference to other guys.
Subject(s): Curiosities & Wonders; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE BEDLAMITE, by THOMAS MOZEEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Tis not on the face displayed, / what I suffer, cruel maid!
Last Line: An angel, now in heaven.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE BRIDE'S TRAGEDY, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now eve has strewn the sun's wide billowy couch
Last Line: Dies.
Subject(s): Betrayal; Bigamy; Brides; Capital Punishment; Conscience; Courts & Courtiers; Debt; Deception; Family Life; Grief; Guilt; Insanity; Love; Marriage; Murder; Secrets; Suicide; Tragedy; Hanging; Executions; Death Penalty; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Q


THE CRAZY LADY SPEAKING, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was the one in the irt tunnel
Last Line: From each of their graves I rise, daughter. Embrace me
Subject(s): Insanity; Talk; Women; Madness; Mental Illness


THE FEAR OF MADNESS; FRAGMENT, by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: There is something which I dread
Last Line: (final poem)
Subject(s): Fear; Grief; Insanity; Sickness; Sorrow; Sadness; Madness; Mental Illness; Illness


THE HAUNTED PALACE, by EDGAR ALLAN POE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the greenest of our valleys / by good angels tenanted
Last Line: And laugh -- but smile no more.
Subject(s): Castles; Ghosts; Grief; Haunted Houses; Insanity; Mysticism; Supernatural; Sorrow; Sadness; Madness; Mental Illness


THE HURRY OF THE SPIRITS, IN A FEVER AND NERVOUS DISORDERS, by ISAAC WATTS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My frame of nature is a ruffled sea
Last Line: And pay their duties to the ruling mind?
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE IDIOT GIRL, by MARY F. JOHNSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Start not at her, who, in fantastic guise
Last Line: "they both are in, and will come out no more."
Alternate Author Name(s): Moncrieff, Mary F. Johnson
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE IMPROVISATORE: ALBERT AND EMILY, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Twas on the evening of a summer day
Last Line: A downy perfume whispers in the air.
Subject(s): Death; Despair; Insanity; Lightning; Love; Nature; Rain; Sleep; Storms; Summer; Dead, The; Madness; Mental Illness; Lightning Rods


THE IMPROVISATORE: RODOLPH THE WILD, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a massy cloud of dismal hue
Last Line: Up to the hillock found him dead and cold.
Subject(s): Change; Death; Decay; Deception; Despair; Evil; Insanity; Love; Lust; Shepherds & Shepherdesses; Singing & Singers; Dead, The; Rot; Decadence; Madness; Mental Illness; Songs


THE LOCKED WARD: O.T., by JEAN VALENTINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Poster paints, big brushes
Last Line: Sir … none
Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Mothers


THE MAD GARDENER'S SONG, by CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Just the place for a snark! The bellman cried,
Last Line: "extinquishes all hope!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Carroll, Lewis
Variant Title(s): Some Hallucinations;the Gardener's Song;the Strange Wild Song
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE MAD MAID'S SONG, by ROBERT HERRICK    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Good morrow to the day so fair
Last Line: That I shall never find him!
Subject(s): Insanity; Love; Madness; Mental Illness


THE MAD PHILOSOPHER, by CALE YOUNG RICE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They let him wander as he will
Last Line: Of his poor mind's imaginings.
Subject(s): God; Insanity; Love; Philosophy & Philosophers; Madness; Mental Illness


THE MADMAN, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: His eye was stern and wild - his cheek was pale and cold as clay
Last Line: "and ere I could arrest his hands, he had -- begun to shave!"
Subject(s): Insanity;shaving; Madness;mental Illness


THE MANIAC, by MARY BRYAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My own maria! -- ah my own -- my own!
Last Line: In memory's tenderest thoughts, I have been all thine own!
Subject(s): Despair; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE MANIAC, by MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Stay, jailer, stay, and hear my woe!
Last Line: Your task is done,—I 'm mad! I 'm mad!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Monk
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE MANIAC, by MARY DARBY ROBINSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah! What art thou, whose eye-balls roll
Last Line: And with soft pity's balm enchant thee to repose.
Subject(s): Insanity; Pain; Madness; Mental Illness; Suffering; Misery


THE MANIAC, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I saw them sitting in the shade
Last Line: Oh, hide me! Hide me! Hide me!
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Insanity; Jealousy; Murder; Madness; Mental Illness


THE PARENTS OF PSYCHOTIC CHILDREN, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They renounce the very idea
Last Line: Like the crazy birds, to their offspring.
Subject(s): Children; Insanity; Parents; Childhood; Madness; Mental Illness; Parenthood


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 223, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: People can't explain / the reason they're so crazy
Last Line: Homage to the buddha
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Buddhism; Chinese Literature; Insanity; Buddha; Buddhists; Madness; Mental Illness


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 234, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Cold mountain speaks these words
Last Line: And karma holds the reins
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Chinese Literature; Insanity; Wisdom; Madness; Mental Illness


THE PULSE, by ARTHUR SZE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A woman in a psychiatric ward
Last Line: In the acequia never returns.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE SUPREMER SACRIFICE, by FRANK WILMOT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Close now the door; shut down the light
Last Line: When next I see the sun.
Alternate Author Name(s): Maurice, Furnley
Subject(s): Conscientious Objectors; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


THE SYMBOL OF MADNESS, by HEINRICH HEINE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We'll now begin to sing the song
Last Line: "above the reach of vulgarity."
Subject(s): Grief; Insanity; Nations; Nature; Sorrow; Sadness; Madness; Mental Illness


THERE WAS A MAN AND HE WAS MAD, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
Last Line: And there he cut his nose off / and flung it at the people
Subject(s): Insanity;noses; Madness;mental Illness


THOUGHTS WHILE DRIVING MY SCHIZOPHRENIC NEIGHBOR TO THE LIQUOR STORE, by CALEB WHITAKER    Poem Source                    
First Line: He drew a picture of the machine
Last Line: Those are my thoughts exactly %give them back
Subject(s): Insanity


TIRIEL, by WILLIAM BLAKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And aged tiriel stood before the gates of his beautiful palace
Last Line: He ceast outstretchd at har & hevas feet in awful death
Subject(s): Bible; Insanity; Mythology; Tyranny & Tyrants; Madness; Mental Illness; Dictators


TO A YOUNG LADY, WHOSE MOTHER WAS INSANE FROM HER BIRTH, by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: And thou hast never, never known
Last Line: Than thus to see them languish.
Subject(s): Insanity; Mothers; Madness; Mental Illness


TO F ---, by WILLIAM BLAKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You call me mad tis folly to do so
Last Line: If you do not you are but what you was
Subject(s): Bible; Flaxman, John (1755-1826); Insanity; Mythology; Madness; Mental Illness


TO ONE IN BEDLAM, by ERNEST CHRISTOPHER DOWSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars
Last Line: The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


TOM O' BEDLAM'S SONG, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: From the hagg and hungrie goblin
Last Line: "yet will I sing, etc."
Variant Title(s): Loving Mad Tom
Subject(s): Insanity;night; Madness;mental Illness;bedtime


TOM THE LUNATIC, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sand old tom the lunatic
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


TROPICAL DELIRIUM, by RAYMOND FARINA    Poem Source                    
First Line: We are having tea
Last Line: Insists again %late in the day
Subject(s): Insanity


TWILIGHT, by NICOLE BLACKMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: I'm the crazy girl you've been looking for. I'm the one on the phone that
Last Line: Think I was a princess because my blood was blue. See?
Subject(s): Insanity; Self-criticism; Self-hate


VIETNAMESE GIRL IN THE MADHOUSE, by DAVID FISHER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Someone's youngest daughter %has lost her mind, there is
Last Line: Is she ever silent, can she ever be silent, %and we are too poor for her madness
Subject(s): Insanity


VIEWPOINT, by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When dante in old florence walked the / street
Last Line: "whispered with laughter, ""yon's a crazy man!"
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


VISITORS' PARKING, by ANNE SZUMIGALSKI    Poem Source                    
First Line: O mary mary lying on the wheel
Last Line: Are off them what's the difference?
Subject(s): Insanity


VISITS TO ST. ELIZABETHS, by ELIZABETH BISHOP    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the house of bedlam
Last Line: That lies in the house of bedlam
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


VISITS TO ST. ELIZABETHS, by ELIZABETH BISHOP    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the house of bedlam
Last Line: That lies in the house of bedlam
Subject(s): Insanity


WAITING ROOMS: MASS. MENTAL HEALTH, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The mad are mad for cigarettes
Last Line: Murder to out; when women crack sex
Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


WAITING ROOMS: MASS. MENTAL HEALTH, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The mad are mad for cigarettes
Last Line: Murder to out; when women crack, sex
Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity


WAKING IN THE BLUE, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The night attendant, a b. U. Sophomore
Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Waking In The Blue
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Insanity; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness


WAKING IN THE BLUE, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The night attendant, a b. U. Sophomore
Last Line: Each of us holds a locked razor
Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Waking In The Blu
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Insanity


WANTING, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: When the sickness struck, the words died
Last Line: Or fling it all to the mad, vicious winds of god.
Subject(s): Insanity


WAR, by EDITH MEDBERY FITCH    Poem Text                    
First Line: Relentless mars, indulging insane wrath
Last Line: Unleashed the lusts of men, and called it—war!
Subject(s): Child Molesting; Cruelty; Death; Insanity; War; Women Immigrants - United States; Child Abuse; Dead, The; Madness; Mental Illness


WHAT REWARD?, by WINIFRED MARY LETTS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You gave your life, boy
Last Line: O god, for such a sacrifice %say, what reward for him?
Subject(s): Insanity; Women; World War I


WHEN THE EVENING LIGHT BURNS, by MARJORIE AGOSIN    Poem Source                    
Last Line: And I begin to dream with %my photo
Subject(s): Disappeared Persons - Argentina; Human Rights - Argentina; Insanity; Love; Memory


WITCH BURNING, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Witchcraft & Witches; Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


WORDS IN THE VIOLENT WARD, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In heaven, too
Subject(s): Insanity; Poetry & Poets; Madness; Mental Illness


WRITTEN IN NORTHAMPTON COUNTY ASYLUM, by JOHN CLARE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am: yet what I am none cares or knows
Last Line: The grass below -- above the vaulted sky.
Variant Title(s): His Last Verses
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Death; Depression, Mental; Insanity; Religion; Solitude; Estrangement; Outcasts; Dead, The; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness; Theology; Loneliness


WRITTEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DELIRIUM, by WILLIAM COWPER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion
Last Line: Buried above ground.
Variant Title(s): Lines Written During A Period Of Insanity;lines Written Under The Influence Of Delirium
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


YOU, DOCTOR MARTIN, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You, doctor martin, walk
Subject(s): God; Insanity; Religion; Madness; Mental Illness; Theology


YOU, DOCTOR MARTIN, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You, doctor martin, walk
Last Line: Waiting on the silent shelf
Subject(s): God; Insanity; Religion