10 Examples of Poems in a Literal Sense

The literal poems are poetic texts whose words have a linear sense and explicit, that is, they refer to what they name. For example: A rose grew in my garden. (it is a verse that literally means that flower grew)

Statements in the literal sense must be interpreted according to the dictionary definition of the words and differ from those in figurative sense, because in the latter the language is used with a metaphorical meaning, that is, different from the ordinary one.

The poems can be written in verse or prose and they usually express feelings, emotions, reflections or thoughts. Most of these compositions must be interpreted figuratively, because they include rhetorical figures, that is, literary devices that modify the meaning of words.

However, there are poetic compositions or parts of them that are interpreted literally. It is easier to understand these poems, because the content is expressed in a direct way.

Examples of poems in the literal sense

1. "XLII", by Antonio Machado

You say that nothing is lost?
If this glass cup
it breaks on me, never on it
I will drink, never again.

1. "Winter Song", by Juan Ramón Jiménez

They sing. They sing.
Where do the birds sing that sing?
It rained. still the branches
they are without new leaves. They sing. They sing
birds. Where birds sing singing?
I don't have birds in cages.
No children sell them. They sing.
The valley is very far away. Any…
I don't know where they sing
the birds — they sing, they sing —
the birds that sing.

1. "Oh Yeah" by Charles Bukowski

There are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
realize it
and more often
when this happens
It's too late
and there is nothing worse
that
a too late

1. Excerpt from "The Bronze Horseman" by Alexander Pushkin

So, when Eugenio returned home
after taking off his coat, he went to bed,
but he took a long time to fall asleep,
shaken by several reflections.
What was he thinking about? in that he was poor,
that he had to work if he wanted
reach an honorable independence;
in that God could not have given him
more talent and money —that there are lazy
who are happy without any talent
and whose life is easy for them—
that he has already been in service for two years...
He also thinks that the weather does not improve,
that the river is rising, that the bridges
they are going to cut them and that a couple of days
he will be unable to see Parasha…

1. Fragment of "The happiness of life in the countryside", by Francisco Agustín de Cisneros

Other, when you suspend
Your attention on the scalloped margin
Of the gentle stream
That descends to water a glen,
Forming an islet here, a backwater there,
And washing in its crystal clear waters
The moss, the grass, and Chinese giblets.
Another pleasure causes him very different
A cultivated orchard, in which they flourish
the delicate rose and hyacinth,
and the jasmines between murtas grow,
mingling with salvias and wallflowers,
white lilies, crimson carnations.

1. "At Least" by Raymond Carver

I want to get up early once again,
before sunrise. Before the birds, even.
I want to throw cold water on my face
and sit at my desk
when the sky begins to light up and appears
the smoke in the chimneys
from neighboring houses.
I want to see how the waves break between the rocks, not only
hear them like at night while I sleep.
I want to see the boats again
who come from anywhere in the world
and cross the strait,
the dirty old freighters that barely move,
and new cargo ships
painted every color under the sun
so fast that they cut through the water in their path.
I don't want to lose sight of them
nor the small boat that advances
among them
or the pilot station next to the lighthouse.
I want to see how they take a man off the ship
and get another on board.
I want to spend the day looking at these things
and draw my own conclusions.
I hate to seem selfish - I have many
reasons to be thankful—
but I want to get up early one more time, at least.
Approach my site with a coffee and wait.
Just waiting to see what happens.

1. “Here”, by Octavio Paz

My steps on this street
resonate
on another street
Where
I hear my footsteps
pass on this street
Where
Only the fog is real.

1. “The paper boat”, by Amado Nervo

With half a newspaper
I made a paper boat
in the fountain of my house
I made him navigate very well.

My sister with her fan
blow, and blow on it.
Good trip, very good trip,
paper boat!

1. "XVIII", by Joaquin Maria Bartrina

This coin and that sword, I think
that they are the most notable of the museum;
both antiques
they are remnants of the barbaric ages.
Its origin the catalog already clarifies:
pity to say also can not
which of the two more crimes will cause,
the sword or the coin.

1. “La barraca” fragment, anonymous

I have it under a fig tree,
next to the cieca and Meana,
the birds sing to him during the day
and at night the frogs;
It's cool if it's hot
and in winter it is a blanket;
and neither is the king's palace
is worth more than my barrack.*

*It is transcribed as it appears in the original. The entire poem can be interpreted literally, except for the line “and in winter it is a blanket”, because it is a metaphor that refers to the fact that the house is warm in winter.

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