Famous Not Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Not poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous not poems. These examples illustrate what a famous not poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
George (Lord) Byron
There was a time, I need not name,
Since it will ne'er forgotten be,
When all our feelings were the same
As still my soul hath been to thee.
And from that hour when first thy tongue
Confess'd a love which equall'd mine,
Though many a grief my heart hath wrung,
Unknown, and thus unfelt, by thine,
None, none hath sunk so deep as this---
To think how...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Not One by Heaven defrauded stay --
Although he seem to steal
He restitutes in some sweet way
Secreted in his will --...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Crave not of worldly sweets to take your fill,
Nor wait on turns of fortune, good or ill;
Be of light heart, as are the skies above,
They roll a round or two, and then lie still....Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
We knew not that we were to live --
Nor when -- we are to die --
Our ignorance -- our cuirass is --
We wear Mortality
As lightly as an Option Gown
Till asked to take it off --
By his intrusion, God is known --
It is the same with Life --...Read more of this...
by
Vachel Lindsay
A little colt — broncho, loaned to the farm
To be broken in time without fury or harm,
Yet black crows flew past you, shouting alarm,
Calling "Beware," with lugubrious singing...
The butterflies there in the bush were romancing,
The smell of the grass caught your soul in a trance,
So why be a-fearing the spurs and the traces,
O broncho that would not be broken...Read more of this...
by
Jane Taylor
What is it that makes little Emily cry?
Come then, let mamma wipe the tear from her eye:
There -- lay down your head on my bosom -- that's right,
And now tell mamma what's the matter to-night.
What! Emmy is sleepy, and tired with play?
Come, Betty, make haste then, and fetch her away;
But do not be fretful,...Read more of this...
by
Robert Louis Stevenson
I KNOW not how, but as I count
The beads of former years,
Old laughter catches in my throat
With the very feel of tears....Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Love's devotees, not Moslems here you see,
Not Solomons, but ants of low degree;
Here are but faces wan and tattered rags,
No store of Cairene cloth or silk have we....Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Since things are not allowed to come to pass as we desire,
to what purpose are our designs and our efforts?
We are constantly tormenting ourselves, speaking to ourselves
with sighs of regret. Ah! we have arrived too late;
too soon will it be necessary for us to depart!...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Let me not mar that perfect Dream
By an Auroral stain
But so adjust my daily Night
That it will come again.
Not when we know, the Power accosts --
The Garment of Surprise
Was all our timid Mother wore
At Home -- in Paradise....Read more of this...
by
William Stafford
The light along the hills in the morning
comes down slowly, naming the trees
white, then coasting the ground for stones to nominate.
Notice what this poem is not doing.
A house, a house, a barn, the old
quarry, where the river shrugs--
how much of this place is yours?
Notice what this poem is not doing.
Every person gone has taken a stone
to hold, and catch...Read more of this...
by
William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
One need not be a Chamber -- to be Haunted --
One need not be a House --
The Brain has Corridors -- surpassing
Material Place --
Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting
External Ghost
Than its interior Confronting --
That Cooler Host.
Far safer, through an Abbey gallop,
The Stones a'chase --
Than Unarmed, one's a'self encounter --
In lonesome Place --
Ourself behind ourself, concealed --
Should startle most --
Assassin...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
The lonesome for they know not What --
The Eastern Exiles -- be --
Who strayed beyond the Amber line
Some madder Holiday --
And ever since -- the purple Moat
They strive to climb -- in vain --
As Birds -- that tumble from the clouds
Do fumble at the strain --
The Blessed Ether -- taught them --
Some Transatlantic Morn --
When Heaven -- was too...Read more of this...
by
Rabindranath Tagore
Do not keep to yourself the secret of
your heart, my friend!
Say it to me, only to me, in secret.
You who smile so gently, softly
whisper, my heart will hear it, not my
ears.
The night is deep, the house is
silent, the birds' nests are shrouded
with sleep.
Speak to me through hesitating
tears, through faltering smiles, through
sweet shame and pain, the secret of
your heart!...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Facts will not change to humour man's caprice,
So vaunt not human powers, but hold your peace;
Here must we stay, weighed down with grief for this,
That we were born so late, so soon decease....Read more of this...
by
Rainer Maria Rilke
What birds plunge through is not the intimate space,
in which you see all Forms intensified.
(In the Open, denied, you would lose yourself,
would disappear into that vastness.)
Space reaches from us and translates Things:
to become the very essence of a tree,
throw inner space around it, from that space
that lives in you. Encircle it with restraint.
It has no limits. For the first...Read more of this...
by
George Meredith
'I play for Seasons; not Eternities!'
Says Nature, laughing on her way. 'So must
All those whose stake is nothing more than dust!'
And lo, she wins, and of her harmonies
She is full sure! Upon her dying rose,
She drops a look of fondness, and goes by,
Scarce any retrospection in her eye;
For she the laws of...Read more of this...
by
Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine...Read more of this...
by
Walt Whitman
SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries,
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill’d shelves, yet needed most, I bring;
Forth from the army, the war emerging—a book I have made,
The words of my book nothing—the drift of it everything;
A book separate, not link’d with the rest, nor felt by the intellect,
But you, ye...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
It did not surprise me --
So I said -- or thought --
She will stir her pinions
And the nest forgot,
Traverse broader forests --
Build in gayer boughs,
Breathe in Ear more modern
God's old fashioned vows --
This was but a Birdling --
What and if it be
One within my bosom
Had departed me?
This was but a story --
What and if indeed
There were just such coffin
In...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
I had not minded -- Walls --
Were Universe -- one Rock --
And far I heard his silver Call
The other side the Block --
I'd tunnel -- till my Groove
Pushed sudden thro' to his --
Then my face take her Recompense --
The looking in his Eyes --
But 'tis a single Hair --
A filament -- a law --
A Cobweb -- wove in Adamant...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
How grow the nights without which we could not
close our eyes, and before which a cruel fate comes first
to sadden us! Arise, and let us breathe an instant ere
the breath of the morning stirs, for, very long, alas!
will this Dawn breathe when we no longer breathe!...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Not "Revelation" -- 'tis -- that waits,
But our unfurnished eyes --...Read more of this...
by
Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
[To the memory of Edwin B. Foster, a member of the Howards, who nobly sacrificed his own life for others, and in remembrance of those unknown to fame or friends who have silently followed in the steps of our Saviour.]
The shadow of death is around us all,
And life is a sorrowful thing;
For the winds sweep by with a...Read more of this...
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