Famous Endless Poems by Famous Poets

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

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An Essay On Criticism

...Short Views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But more advanc'd, behold with strange Surprize
New, distant Scenes of endless Science rise!
So pleas'd at first, the towring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the Vales, and seem to tread the Sky;
Th' Eternal Snows appear already past,
And the first Clouds and Mountains seem the last:
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing Labours of the lengthen'd Way,
Th' increasing Prospect tires our wandering Eyes,
Hills peep o'er Hill...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander


As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...ctions, slavery, are you and me,
Its Congress is you and me—the officers, capitols, armies, ships, are you and me, 
Its endless gestations of new States are you and me, 
The war—that war so bloody and grim—the war I will henceforth forget—was
 you and
 me, 
Natural and artificial are you and me, 
Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,
Past, present, future, are you and me. 

18
I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself, 
Not any part of America, good or bad,...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Beowulf (Modern English)

.... 144-58)

Yet the monster was persecuting young and old,
the dark shadow of death, lurking and entrapping them.
In endless night he ruled the misty moors—
Us humans don’t even know how to trace
the turnings of such hellish secrets. (ll. 159-63)

So many enormities the enemy of mankind,
loathsome lone-stalker, often perpetrated
a shaming more severe. He inhabited Heorot,
the dear-studded hall by the darkest night—
but he might never approach that gift-seat
or its...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...cyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!
To him an heir was afterward born,
a son in his halls, whom heaven sent
to favor the folk, feeling their woe
that erst they had lacked an ea...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Dickinson Poems by Number

...—
Not all the Vats on the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of Air—am I—
And Debauchee of Dew—
Reeling—thro endless summer days—
From inns of Molten Blue—

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out the Foxglove's door—
When Butterflies—renounce their "drams"—
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats—
And Saints—to windows run—
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the—Sun—

249

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...kes of snow, when the wind from the northeast
Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland.
Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city,
From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern savannas,--
From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where the Father of Waters
Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to the ocean,
Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the mammoth.
Friends they sought and homes; a...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Howl

...h, or purgatoried their torsos night after night
with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,
incomparable blind streets of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind leaping toward poles of Canada & Paterson, illuminating all the motionless world of Time between,
Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefront boroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light, sun ...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

Humanitad

...ead crowned with thorn!
O chalice of all common miseries!
Thou for our sakes that loved thee not hast borne
An agony of endless centuries,
And we were vain and ignorant nor knew
That when we stabbed thy heart it was our own real hearts we slew.

Being ourselves the sowers and the seeds,
The night that covers and the lights that fade,
The spear that pierces and the side that bleeds,
The lips betraying and the life betrayed;
The deep hath calm: the moon hath rest: but we
Lords ...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Inferno (English)

...s, 
 One after one descending, leave the bough, 
 Or doves come downward to the call, so now 
 The evil seed of Adam to endless night, 
 As Charon signalled, from the shore's bleak height, 
 Cast themselves downward to the bark. The brown 
 And bitter flood received them, and while they passed 
 Were others gathering, patient as the last, 
 Not conscious of their nearing doom. 

 "My son," 
 - Replied my guide the unspoken thought - "is none 
 Beneath God's wrath who dies in ...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Let America Be America Again

...plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the *****, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today des...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...highest place exposes 
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
Of endless pain? Where there is, then, no good 
For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
From faction: for none sure will claim in Hell 
Precedence; none whose portion is so small 
Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
Will covet more! With this advantage, then, 
To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, 
More than can be in Heaven, we now return ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Song at Sunset

...er I have been, I have charged myself with contentment and triumph. 

I sing the Equalities, modern or old, 
I sing the endless finales of things; 
I say Nature continues—Glory continues;
I praise with electric voice; 
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe; 
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe. 

O setting sun! though the time has come, 
I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration....Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of Myself

...ell to-day, is not such a wonder;
The wonder is, always and always, how there can be a mean man or an infidel. 

23
Endless unfolding of words of ages! 
And mine a word of the modern—the word En-Masse. 

A word of the faith that never balks; 
Here or henceforward, it is all the same to me—I accept Time, absolutely.

It alone is without flaw—it rounds and completes all; 
That mystic, baffling wonder I love, alone completes all. 

I accept reality, and dare not que...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of the Open Road

...adth of the universe, 
Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death. 

13
Allons! to that which is endless, as it was beginningless, 
To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights,
To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights they tend to, 
Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys; 
To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it, 
To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and pass it...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Day is Done

...cho 
Through the corridors of Time. 20 

For like strains of martial music  
Their mighty thoughts suggest 
Life's endless toil and endeavor; 
And to-night I long for rest. 

Read from some humbler poet 25 
Whose songs gushed from his heart  
As showers from the clouds of summer  
Or tears from the eyelids start; 

Who through long days of labor  
And nights devoid of ease 30 
Still heard in his soul the music 
Of wonderful melodies. 

Such songs have power ...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Growth of Love

...nd thro' might
Of everlasting love ye did excel. 
Now ye are starry names, above the storm
And war of Time and nature's endless wrong
Ye flit, in pictured truth and peaceful form,
Wing'd with bright music and melodious song,--
The flaming flowers of heaven, making May-dance
In dear Imagination's rich pleasance. 

20
The world still goeth about to shew and hide,
Befool'd of all opinion, fond of fame:
But he that can do well taketh no pride,
And see'th his error, undisturb'd by...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Idiot Boy

...bsp; On Johnny vile reflections cast:  "A little idle sauntering thing!"  With other names, an endless string.  But now that time is gone and past.   And Betty's drooping at the heart.  That happy time all past and gone,  "How can it be he is so late?  The Doctor he has made him wait,  Susan! they'll both be here anon."   And Susan's growing worse and worse,  ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Lady of the Lake

...Their shadows o'er Clan-Alpine's grave,
     And, answering Lomond's breezes deep,
     Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep.
     The Cross thus formed he held on high,
     With wasted hand and haggard eye,
     And strange and mingled feelings woke,
     While his anathema he spoke:—
     IX.

     'Woe to the clansman who shall view
     This symbol of sepulchral yew,
     Forgetful that its branches grew
     Where weep the heavens their holiest dew
 ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Tables Turned

...lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your Teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by heal...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Waste Land

...de of you?
 What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth 
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal
 A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light 
Whi...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

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