Famous 30 Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous 30 poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous 30 poems. These examples illustrate what a famous 30 poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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A Dream of the Unknown

...lilies, broad and bright, 
Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge 
With moonlight beams of their own watery light; 30 
And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green 
As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen. 

Methought that of these visionary flowers 
I made a nosegay, bound in such a way 
That the same hues, which in their natural bowers 35 
Were mingled or opposed, the like array 
Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours 
Within my hand,¡ªand then, elate ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe


A Psalm of Life

...ave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time; 

Footprints that perhaps another  
Sailing o'er life's solemn main 30 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother  
Seeing shall take heart again. 

Let us then be up and doing  
With a heart for any fate; 
Still achieving still pursuing 35 
Learn to labor and to wait. ...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Beowulf (Modern English)

...urrents
the wood winding-necked, unto Wederish marches,
as it is given to escape, unharmed, the battle-rush.” (ll.286-300)

So they turned themselves to go. Their float awaited them
in its mooring, swaying on the sea, fast at anchor,
the broad-bosomed boat. Helmets shone boar-fashioned
over cheek-guards, adorned with gold,
flecked and fire-hardened—the masked man,
war-minded held the life-warden. The men hurried
advancing in step, until they could perceive
the timb...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Give All to Love

...for love; 
Yet hear me yet  
One word more thy heart behoved  
One pulse more of firm endeavour¡ª 
Keep thee to-day 30 
To-morrow for ever  
Free as an Arab 
Of thy beloved. 

Cling with life to the maid; 
But when the surprise 35 
First vague shadow of surmise  
Flits across her bosom young  
Of a joy apart from thee  
Free be she fancy-free; 
Nor thou detain her vesture's hem 40 
Nor the palest rose she flung 
From her summer diadem. 

Though thou loved h...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Haunted

...d him round his legs, 
And he floundered over snags and hidden stumps. 
Mumbling: ¡®I will get out! I must get out!¡¯ 30 
Butting and thrusting up the baffling gloom, 
Pausing to listen in a space ¡¯twixt thorns, 
He peers around with peering, frantic eyes. 

An evil creature in the twilight looping, 
Flapped blindly in his face. Beating it off, 35 
He screeched in terror, and straightway something clambered 
Heavily from an oak, and dropped, bent double, 
To shamb...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried


Ode on a Grecian Urn

...g human passion far above  
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd  
A burning forehead and a parching tongue. 30 

Who are these coming to the sacrifice? 
To what green altar O mysterious priest  
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies  
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? 
What little town by river or sea-shore 35 
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel  
Is emptied of its folk this pious morn? 
And little town thy streets for evermore 
...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Ode to a Nightingale

...
And leaden-eyed despairs; 
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, 
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow. 30 

Away! away! for I will fly to thee, 
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, 
But on the viewless wings of Poesy, 
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: 
Already with thee! tender is the night, 35 
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, 
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays 
But here there is no light, 
Save what from heaven is w...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Song of Myself

...ake and accumulate—stand by the curb prolific and vital: 
Landscapes, projected, masculine, full-sized and golden. 

30
All truths wait in all things;
They neither hasten their own delivery, nor resist it; 
They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon; 
The insignificant is as big to me as any; 
(What is less or more than a touch?) 

Logic and sermons never convince;
The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul. 

Only what proves itself to every man...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Bride of Abydos

...h a vain deceit 
That yet a like return may meet. 
He rear'd me, not with tender help, 
But like the nephew of a Cain; [30] 
He watch'd me like a lion's whelp, 
That gnaws and yet may break his chain. 
My father's blood in every vein 
Is boiling; but for thy dear sake 
No present vengeance will I take; 
Though here I must no more remain. 
But first, beloved Zuleika! hear 
How Giaffir wrought this deed of fear. 

XIII. 

"How first their strife to rancour grew, 
If love or env...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Comedian As The Letter C

...s, now beheld himself, 
28 A skinny sailor peering in the sea-glass. 
29 What word split up in clickering syllables 
30 And storming under multitudinous tones 
31 Was name for this short-shanks in all that brunt? 
32 Crispin was washed away by magnitude. 
33 The whole of life that still remained in him 
34 Dwindled to one sound strumming in his ear, 
35 Ubiquitous concussion, slap and sigh, 
36 Polyphony beyond his baton's thrust. 

37 Could Crispin stem verbosenes...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Day is Done

...he 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 to quiet 
The restless pulse of care  
And come like the benediction 35 
That follows after prayer. 

Then read from the treasured volume 
The poem of thy choice  
And lend to the rhyme of the poet 
The beauty of thy voice. 40 

And the night shall be filled w...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Deserted Garden

...old gardener prided him 
On these the most of all. 

Some Lady, stately overmuch, 
Here moving with a silken noise, 30 
Has blush'd beside them at the voice 
That liken'd her to such. 

Or these, to make a diadem, 
She often may have pluck'd and twined; 
Half-smiling as it came to mind, 35 
That few would look at them. 

O, little thought that Lady proud, 
A child would watch her fair white rose, 
When buried lay her whiter brows, 
And silk was changed for shr...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

The Dream

...so thou deal'st with me. 
Thou cam'st to kindle go'st to come: then I 
Will dream that hope again but else would die. 30 ...Read more of this...
by Donne, John

The Growth of Love

...is eternal life, which doth forbid
Mortal detraction to the exalted soul,
And from her inward eye all fate hath hid. 

30
My lady pleases me and I please her;
This know we both, and I besides know well
Wherefore I love her, and I love to tell
My love, as all my loving songs aver.
But what on her part could the passion stir,
Tho' 'tis more difficult for love to spell,
Yet can I dare divine how this befel,
Nor will her lips deny it if I err. 
She loves me first because I love ...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Knights Tale

...e him as his squier poorely.
And yet doth Juno me well more shame,
For I dare not beknow* mine owen name, *acknowledge 
But there as I was wont to hight Arcite,
Now hight I Philostrate, not worth a mite.
Alas! thou fell Mars, and alas! Juno,
Thus hath your ire our lineage all fordo* *undone, ruined
Save only me, and wretched Palamon,
That Theseus martyreth in prison.
And over all this, to slay me utterly,
Love hath his fiery dart so brenningly* *burningly
Y-sticked throug...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of Shalott

...
The Lady of Shalott? 

Only reapers, reaping early 
In among the bearded barley, 
Hear a song that echoes cheerly 30 
From the river winding clearly, 
Down to tower'd Camelot: 
And by the moon the reaper weary, 
Piling sheaves in uplands airy, 
Listening, whispers ''Tis the fairy 35 
Lady of Shalott.' 

PART II
There she weaves by night and day

A magic web with colours gay. 
She has heard a whisper say, 
A curse is on her if she stay 40 
To look down to C...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Millers Tale

...thou not heard," quoth Nicholas, "also
The sorrow of Noe, with his fellowship,
That he had ere he got his wife to ship?
*Him had been lever, I dare well undertake,
At thilke time, than all his wethers black,
That she had had a ship herself alone.* *see note 
And therefore know'st thou what is best to be done?
This asketh haste, and of an hasty thing
Men may not preach or make tarrying.
Anon go get us fast into this inn* *house
A kneading trough, or else a kemelin*, *b...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Most Beautiful Woman In Town

...felt like moving anyhow, and when I got back i
figured she'd be gone, but I had been sitting in the West End Bar about 30 minutes when
she walked in and sat down next to me.
"Well, bastard, I see you've come back." 
I ordered her a drink. Then I looked at her. She had on a high- necked dress. I had
never seen her in one of those. And under each eye, driven in, were 2 pins with glass
heads. All you could see were the heads of the pins, but the pins were driven down into
her f...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

The Wife of Baths Tale

...stories,
As clerkes have within their oratories,
They would have writ of men more wickedness
Than all the mark of Adam 30 may redress
The children of Mercury and of Venus,31
Be in their working full contrarious.
Mercury loveth wisdom and science,
And Venus loveth riot and dispence.* *extravagance
And for their diverse disposition,
Each falls in other's exaltation.
As thus, God wot, Mercury is desolate
In Pisces, where Venus is exaltate,
And Venus falls where Mercury is raise...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

To Autumn

...r sallows borne aloft 
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 30 
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft 
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft; 
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

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