Famous 21 Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous 21 poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous 21 poems. These examples illustrate what a famous 21 poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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A Dialogue between Old England and New

...elp 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, your state you much deplore
24 In general terms, but will not say wherefore.
25 What Medicine shall I seek to cure this woe,
26 If th' wound's so dangerous, I may not know?
27 But you, perhaps, would have me guess it out.
28 What,...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne


As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...re for;
I know not fruition’s success—but I know that through war and peace your work
 goes
 on, and must yet go on.) 

21
.... Thus, by blue Ontario’s shore, 
While the winds fann’d me, and the waves came trooping toward me, 
I thrill’d with the Power’s pulsations—and the charm of my theme was upon
 me, 
Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon me.

And I saw the free Souls of poets; 
The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me, 
Strange, large men, long un...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Autobiography

...lanes and cars
most people don't get the chance
I went to opera
 most people haven't even heard of the opera
and since '21 I haven't gone to the places most people visit
 mosques churches temples synagogues sorcerers
 but I've had my coffee grounds read
my writings are published in thirty or forty languages
 in my Turkey in my Turkish they're banned
cancer hasn't caught up with me yet
and nothing says it will
I'll never be a prime minister or anything like that
and I wouldn't...Read more of this...
by Hikmet, Nazim

Autumn Day

...en
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blatter treiben. 


-- Rainer Maria Rilke, Paris, Sept. 21, 1902...Read more of this...
by Rilke, Rainer Maria

Beowulf (Modern English)

...he sea-wood—
battle-sarks resounding, their war-weavings—
They thanked God that the wave-path was easy for them. (ll. 210-228)

Then from the wall the Scylding warden spotted them,
who must keep watch over the wave-cliffs,
saw bright bosses borne down the gangway,
gear for an army ready for deployment.
The desire broke him, in his mind-thoughts to know
what men these were. Then he turned himself toward the shore,
riding his horse, the thane of Hrothgar, shaking forc...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Bridge Over The Aire Book 1

...hones ripped from

The wall, worn desks on

Their side, creosoted

Palings gone, our last

Game of cricket played.





21



The last coal wagon

Has gone to the tower

At Nevill Hill to be

Hauled high and drenched

And dropped from the sky.





22



Every house-row would

Glow with red and 

Chiaroscuro, walls

Polished by the passage

Of a thousand souls.

The binyards were

White with winter,

Every gable end’s

Attic window

Waited and watched.



The locked petrol

P...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Contemplations

...y 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 Whose beams was shaded by the leafy Tree.
24 The more I look'd, the more I grew amaz'd
25 And softly said, what glory's like to thee?
26 Soul of this world, this Universe's Eye,
27 No wonder some made thee a Deity.
28 Had I not better known (alas) the s...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

Essay on Man

...le's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: 
Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 
And hound sagacious(20) on the tainted(21) green: 
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,(22) 
To that which warbles thro' the vernal(23) wood: 
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! 
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: 
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true 
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew:(24) 
How Instinct varies in the grov'ling swine, 
Compar'd, ha...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Gioconda And Si-Ya-U

...e thick neck
 of a plucked hen
that will be cut
but also
 the long
 thin
 beard of Confucius!


FROM GIOCONDA'S DIARY


21 April

Today my Chinese
 looked my straight 
 in the eye
and asked:
"Those who crush our rice fields
 with the caterpillar treads of their tanks
and who swagger through our cities
 like emperors of hell,
are they of YOUR race,
 the race of him who CREATED you?"
I almost raised my hand
 and cried "No!"


27 April

 Tonight at the blare of an American trump...Read more of this...
by Hikmet, Nazim

Sleepers The

...awake to themselves in condition,
They pass the invigoration of the night, and the chemistry of the night, and awake. 

21
I too pass from the night, 
I stay a while away, O night, but I return to you again, and love you. 

Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you? 
I am not afraid—I have been well brought forward by you;
I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long, 
I know not how I came of you, and I know not where I go with you—but I kno...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of Myself

...old is tenon’d and mortis’d in granite; 
I laugh at what you call dissolution; 
And I know the amplitude of time. 

21
I am the poet of the Body;
And I am the poet of the Soul. 

The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me; 
The first I graft and increase upon myself—the latter I translate into a
 new tongue. 

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man; 
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man;
And I say there is not...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Bride of Abydos

...reluctant hand; 
More ill-got wealth, a meaner soul 
Holds not a Musselim's control: [20] 
Was he not bred in Egripo? [21] 
A viler race let Israel show! 
But let that pass — to none be told 
Our oath; the rest let time unfold. 
To me and mine leave Osman Bey; 
I've partisans for peril's day: 
Think not I am what I appear; 
I've arms, and friends, and vengeance near." 

XIII. 

"Think not thou art what thou appearest! 
My Selim, thou art sadly changed: 
This morn I saw thee ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Comedian As The Letter C

...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 breeches, cloak 
24 Of China, cap of Spain, imperative haw 
25 Of hum, inquisitorial botanist, 
26 And general lexicographer of mute 
27 And maidenly greenhorns, now beheld himself, 
28 A skinny sailor peering in the sea-...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The General Prologue

...farthing ere he went;
His purchase was well better than his rent.
And rage he could and play as any whelp,
In lovedays ; there could he muchel* help. *greatly
For there was he not like a cloisterer,
With threadbare cope as is a poor scholer;
But he was like a master or a pope.
Of double worsted was his semicope*, *short cloak
That rounded was as a bell out of press.
Somewhat he lisped for his wantonness,
To make his English sweet upon his tongue;
And in his harping, when ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Growth of Love

...Him: that is heaven's praise:
And if we look for any praise on earth,
'Tis in man's love: all else is nothing worth. 

21
O flesh and blood, comrade to tragic pain
And clownish merriment whose sense could wake
Sermons in stones, and count death but an ache,
All things as vanity, yet nothing vain:
The world, set in thy heart, thy passionate strain
Reveal'd anew; but thou for man didst make
Nature twice natural, only to shake
Her kingdom with the creatures of thy brain. 
Lo, S...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Knights Tale

...>
And shortly turned was all upside down,
Both habit and eke dispositioun,
Of him, this woful lover Dan* Arcite. *Lord 
Why should I all day of his woe indite?
When he endured had a year or two
This cruel torment, and this pain and woe,
At Thebes, in his country, as I said,
Upon a night in sleep as he him laid,
Him thought how that the winged god Mercury
Before him stood, and bade him to be merry.
His sleepy yard* in hand he bare upright; *rod 
A hat he wore upon his ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...ther, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.

Opposition is true Friendship.

PLATE 21

I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of
themselves as the only wise; this they do with a confident
insolence sprouting from systematic reasoning:
Thus Swedenborg boasts that what he writes is new; tho' it
is only the Contents or Index of already publish'd books
A man carried a monkey about for a shew, & because he was a
little wiser t...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Millers Tale

...and spiced ale,
And wafers* piping hot out of the glede**: *cakes **coals
And, for she was of town, he proffer'd meed.
For some folk will be wonnen for richess,
And some for strokes, and some with gentiless.
Sometimes, to show his lightness and mast'ry,
He playeth Herod  on a scaffold high.
But what availeth him as in this case?
So loveth she the Hendy Nicholas,
That Absolon may *blow the bucke's horn*: *"go whistle"*
He had for all his labour but a scorn.
And thus s...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts)

...tness 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'd,
24 And crowds with crimes the records of mankind,
25 For gold his sword the hireling ruffian draws,
26 For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws;
27 Wealth heap'd on wealth, nor truth nor safety buys,
28 The dangers gathe...Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel

The Wife of Baths Tale

...d,
I say, I in my heart had great despite,
That he of any other had delight;
But he was quit,* by God and by Saint Joce:21 *requited, paid back
I made for him of the same wood a cross;
Not of my body in no foul mannere,
But certainly I made folk such cheer,
That in his owen grease I made him fry
For anger, and for very jealousy.
By God, in earth I was his purgatory,
For which I hope his soul may be in glory.
For, God it wot, he sat full oft and sung,
When that his shoe full b...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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