Famous 16 Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous 16 poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous 16 poems. These examples illustrate what a famous 16 poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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75. Halloween

...
 I wat they did na weary;
And unco tales, an’ funnie jokes—
 Their sports were cheap an’ cheery:
Till butter’d sowens, 16 wi’ fragrant lunt,
 Set a’ their gabs a-steerin;
Syne, wi’ a social glass o’ strunt,
 They parted aff careerin
 Fu’ blythe that night.


 Note 1. Is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are abroad on their baneful midnight errands; particularly those aerial people, the fairies, are said on that night to hold a grand...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A Dialogue between Old England and New

...a child, a Limb, and dost not feel
14 My weak'ned fainting body now to reel?
15 This physic-purging-potion I have taken
16 Will bring Consumption or an Ague quaking,
17 Unless some Cordial thou fetch from high,
18 Which present help may ease my malady.
19 If I decease, dost think thou shalt survive?
20 Or by my wasting state dost think to thrive?
21 Then weigh our case, if 't be not justly sad.
22 Let me lament alone, while thou art glad. 

New England. 

23 And thus, alas, y...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...tle sense severe—with the naked sword in your hand,
I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with individuals.) 

16
Underneath all, nativity, 
I swear I will stand by my own nativity—pious or impious, so be it; 
I swear I am charm’d with nothing except nativity, 
Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.

Underneath all is the need of the expression of love for men and women, 
I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Beowulf (Modern English)

...
but he might never approach that gift-seat
or its treasures because of the Measurer—
he did not know his love. (ll. 164-69)

That was a mighty wrack for the Scyldings’ friend,
a breaking of his heart. Often many sat,
the capable at council, stewing upon a course
what best to do by the much-spirited
against terror’s ferocity. (ll. 170-74)

Sometimes they offered at heathen fanes
honoring wooden gods, worshipping wordfully
so that the soul-slayer might give solace...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Contemplations

...chly dight.
14 More Heaven than Earth was here, no winter and no night. 

3 

15 Then on a stately Oak I cast mine Eye,
16 Whose ruffling top the Clouds seem'd to aspire.
17 How long since thou wast in thine Infancy?
18 Thy strength and stature, more thy years admire,
19 Hath hundred winters past since thou wast born?
20 Or thousand since thou brakest thy shell of horn?
21 If so, all these as nought, Eternity doth scorn. 

4 

22 Then higher on the glistering Sun I gaz'd,
23 ...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne


Essay on Man

...roscopic eye? 
For this plain reason, Man is not a Fly. 
Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 
T' inspect a mite,(16) not comprehend the heav'n? 
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 
To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore? 
Or quick effluvia(17) darting thro' the brain, 
Die of a rose in aromatic pain? 
If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears, 
And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres, 
How would he wish that Heav'n had left him still 
The whisp'ring Zephyr,(18) a...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Poem of Joys

...deals—the Divine Wife—the sweet,
 eternal, perfect Comrade? 
Joys all thine own, undying one—joys worthy thee, O Soul.

16
O, while I live, to be the ruler of life—not a slave, 
To meet life as a powerful conqueror, 
No fumes—no ennui—no more complaints, or scornful criticisms. 

O me repellent and ugly! 
To these proud laws of the air, the water, and the ground, proving my interior Soul
 impregnable,
And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me. 

O to attract by more ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Sleepers The

...ter are in the dreams—the farmer goes with his thrift, 
The droves and crops increase, and the barns are well-fill’d. 

16
Elements merge in the night—ships make tacks in the dreams, 
The sailor sails—the exile returns home, 
The fugitive returns unharm’d—the immigrant is back beyond months and years,
The poor Irishman lives in the simple house of his childhood, with the well-known
 neighbors and
 faces, 
They warmly welcome him—he is barefoot again, he forgets he is well off...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of Myself

...e one and all tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them;
And such as it is to be of these, more or less, I am. 

16
I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise; 
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, 
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, 
Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse, and stuff’d with the stuff that
 is fine;
One of the Great Nation, the nation of many nations, the smallest the same, and
 the largest the same; ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of the Open Road

...s, 
Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of itself,
Speaking of anything else, but never of itself. 

16
Allons! through struggles and wars! 
The goal that was named cannot be countermanded. 

Have the past struggles succeeded? 
What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? nature?
Now understand me well—It is provided in the essence of things, that from any fruition of
 success,
 no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary. ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Bride of Abydos

...as mix'd 
The Persian Atar-g?l's perfume, [15] 
And sprinkled all its odours o'er 
The pictured roof and marble floor: [16] 
The drops, that through his glittering vest 
The playful girl's appeal address'd, 
Unheeded o'er his bosom flew, 
As if that breast were marble too. 
"What sullen yet? it must not be — 
Oh! gentle Selim, this from thee!" 
She saw in curious order set 
The fairest flowers of Eastern land — 
"He loved them once; may touch them yet 
If offer'd by Zuleika's...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Comedian As The Letter C

...porpoises, whose snouts 
14 Dibbled in waves that were mustachios, 
15 Inscrutable hair in an inscrutable world. 

16 One eats one pat¨¦, even of salt, quotha. 
17 It was not so much the lost terrestrial, 
18 The snug hibernal from that sea and salt, 
19 That century of wind in a single puff. 
20 What counted was mythology of self, 
21 Blotched out beyond unblotching. Crispin, 
22 The lutanist of fleas, the knave, the thane, 
23 The ribboned stick, the bellowing b...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The General Prologue

...s loud, as doth the chapel bell,
There as this lord was keeper of the cell.
The rule of Saint Maur and of Saint Benet, 
Because that it was old and somedeal strait
This ilke* monk let olde thinges pace, *same
And held after the newe world the trace.
He *gave not of the text a pulled hen,* *he cared nothing
That saith, that hunters be not holy men: for the text*
Ne that a monk, when he is cloisterless;
Is like to a fish that is waterless;
This is to say, a monk out of his ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Growth of Love

...r crew, love, diligence and wit
With justice, courage, temperance come aboard,
And at her helm the master reason sit. 

16
This world is unto God a work of art,
Of which the unaccomplish'd heavenly plan
Is hid in life within the creature's heart,
And for perfection looketh unto man.
Ah me! those thousand ages: with what slow
Pains and persistence were his idols made,
Destroy'd and made, ere ever he could know
The mighty mother must be so obey'd. 
For lack of knowledge and thr...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Knights Tale

...der or great sickness.
And some man would out of his prison fain,
That in his house is of his meinie* slain. *servants 
Infinite harmes be in this mattere.
We wot never what thing we pray for here.
We fare as he that drunk is as a mouse.
A drunken man wot well he hath an house,
But he wot not which is the right way thither,
And to a drunken man the way is slither*. *slippery
And certes in this world so fare we.
We seeke fast after felicity,
But we go wrong full often true...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Man of Laws Tale

...e I done certain."
The messenger tormented* was, till he *tortured
Muste beknow,* and tell it flat and plain, *confess 
From night to night in what place he had lain;
And thus, by wit and subtle inquiring,
Imagin'd was by whom this harm gan spring.

The hand was known that had the letter wrote,
And all the venom of the cursed deed;
But in what wise, certainly I know not.
Th' effect is this, that Alla, *out of drede,* *without doubt*
His mother slew, that may men plainly r...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

..., and took the forms of books & were arranged in
libraries.
____________________________________________________

PLATE 16

The Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence
and now seem to live in it in chains; are in truth. the causes
of its life & the sources of all activity, but the chains are,
the cunning of weak and tame minds. which have power to resist
energy. according to the proverb, the weak in courage is strong
in cunning.
Thus one portion of being, is t...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Millers Tale

...shode*. *head of hair
His rode* was red, his eyen grey as goose, *complexion
With Paule's windows carven on his shoes 
In hosen red he went full fetisly*. *daintily, neatly
Y-clad he was full small and properly,
All in a kirtle* of a light waget*; *girdle **sky blue
Full fair and thicke be the pointes set,
And thereupon he had a gay surplice,
As white as is the blossom on the rise*. *twig 
A merry child he was, so God me save;
Well could he letten blood, and clip, an...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts)

...schemes oppress'd,
14 When vengeance listens to the fool's request.
15 Fate wings with ev'ry wish th' afflictive dart,
16 Each gift of nature, and each grace of art,
17 With fatal heat impetuous courage glows,
18 With fatal sweetness elocution flows,
19 Impeachment stops the speaker's pow'rful breath,
20 And restless fire precipitates on death.

21 But scarce observ'd the knowing and the bold,
22 Fall in the gen'ral massacre of gold;
23 Wide-wasting pest! that rages unconfin...Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel

The Wife of Baths Tale

...might they stand,
Yet tickled I his hearte for that he
Ween'd* that I had of him so great cherte:** *though **affection16
I swore that all my walking out by night
Was for to espy wenches that he dight:* *adorned
Under that colour had I many a mirth.
For all such wit is given us at birth;
Deceit, weeping, and spinning, God doth give
To women kindly, while that they may live. *naturally
And thus of one thing I may vaunte me,
At th' end I had the better in each degree,
By sleig...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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