Famous Abstracted Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Astrophel and Stella

...o oft fore-see my after-following race,
By only those two starres in Stellaes face. 
XXVII 

Because I oft in darke abstracted guise
Seeme most alone in greatest company,
With dearth of words, or answers quite awrie,
To them that would make speech of speech arise;
They deeme, and of their doome the runour flies,
That poison foul of bubbling pride doth lie
So in my swelling breast, that only I
Fawne on my selfe, and others do despise.
Yet pride I thinke doth not my...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip


Canzone XIV

...could my spirit findA stiller port after the stormy wind;Nor in more calm, abstracted bourne,Slip from my travail'd flesh, and from my bones outworn. Perhaps, some future hour,To her accustom'd bowerMight come the untamed, and yet the gentle she;And where she saw me first,Might ...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Comete

...n't fly her at all,
only itself, loosely, and her spirits.
 A largesse 
of life and self, brushed all calm and out,
its abstracted attempts on her mouth weren't seen,
not its showering, its tenting. Just the detail
that swam in its flow-lines, glossing about--
as she paced on, comet-like, face to the sun....Read more of this...
by Murray, Les

In The Beginning

...k
The secret oils that drive the grass.

In the beginning was the word, the word
That from the solid bases of the light
Abstracted all the letters of the void;
And from the cloudy bases of the breath
The word flowed up, translating to the heart
First characters of birth and death.

In the beginning was the secret brain.
The brain was celled and soldered in the thought
Before the pitch was forking to a sun;
Before the veins were shaking in their sieve,
Blood shot and scattered...Read more of this...
by Rilke, Rainer Maria

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...d 
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved 
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought: 
That space the Evil-one abstracted stood 
From his own evil, and for the time remained 
Stupidly good; of enmity disarmed, 
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge: 
But the hot Hell that always in him burns, 
Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight, 
And tortures him now more, the more he sees 
Of pleasure, not for him ordained: then soon 
Fierce hate he recollects, and all hi...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Parlez-Vous Francais?

...
Good and evil, who is Gentile, weakness and command.

And now who enters quietly? Who is this one
Shy, pale, and quite abstracted? Who is he?
It is the writer merely, with a three-day beard,
His tiredness not evident. He wears no tie.
And now he hears his enemy and trembles,
Resolving, speaks: "Ecoutez! La plupart des hommes
Vivent des vies de desespoir silenciuex,
Victimes des intentions innombrables. Et ca
Cet homme sait bien. Les mots de cette voix sont
Des songes et des ...Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore

Passing Through

...oof
that I exist. You are the first, 
my dear, to bully me
into these festive occasions.

Sometimes, you say, I wear
an abstracted look that drives you
up the wall, as though it signified
distress or disaffection.
Don't take it so to heart.
Maybe I enjoy not-being as much
as being who I am. Maybe
it's time for me to practice
growing old. The way I look 
at it, I'm passing through a phase:
gradually I'm changing to a word.
Whatever you choose to claim
of me is always yours:
no...Read more of this...
by Kunitz, Stanley

Shower

...le-hole'
this ecstatic partner, dreamy to dance in slow embrace with
after factory-floor rock, or even to meet as Lot's abstracted
merciful wife on a rusty ship in dog latitudes,
sweetest dressing of the day in the dusty bush, this persistent,
time-capsule of unwinding, this nimble straight well-wisher.
Only in England is its name an unkind word;
only in Europe is it enjoyed by telephone....Read more of this...
by Murray, Les

Sonnet XXVII: Because I Oft

...Because I oft in dark abstracted guise 
Seem most alone in greatest company, 
With dearth of words, or answers quite awry, 
To them that would make speech of speech arise, 

They deem, and of their doom the rumor flies, 
That poison foul of bubbling pride doth lie 
So in my swelling breast that only I 
Fawn on myself, and others do despise: 

Yet pride I think doth not my soul po...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip

The Book of Urizen (excerpts)

...lling: what demon
Hath form'd this abominable void,
This soul-shudd'ring vacuum? Some said
"It is Urizen." But unknown, abstracted,
Brooding, secret, the dark power hid. 

CHAPTER 2 

Times on times he divided and measur'd
Space by space in his ninefold darkness,
Unseen, unknown; changes appear'd
Like desolate mountains, rifted furious
By the black winds of perturbation. 

CHAPTER 3 

For he strove in battles dire,
In unseen conflictions with shapes
Bred from his forsaken wil...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Book of Urizen: Chapter I

...lling: what Demon
Hath form'd this abominable void
This soul-shudd'ring vacuum?--Some said
"It is Urizen", But unknown, abstracted
Brooding secret, the dark power hid.

2. Times on times he divided, & measur'd
Space by space in his ninefold darkness
Unseen, unknown! changes appeard 
In his desolate mountains rifted furious
By the black winds of perturbation

3. For he strove in battles dire
In unseen conflictions with shapes
Bred from his forsaken wilderness,
Of beast, bird, ...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Light Wraps You

...The light wraps you in its mortal flame. 
Abstracted pale mourner, standing that way 
against the old propellers of the twighlight 
that revolves around you. 

Speechless, my friend, 
alone in the loneliness of this hour of the dead 
and filled with the lives of fire, 
pure heir of the ruined day. 

A bough of fruit falls from the sun on your dark garment. 
The great roots of night 
grow suddenly fr...Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo

The Pleasures of Melancholy

...' bewild'ring Fancy's magic maze,
To the fell house of Busyrane, he led
Th' unshaken Britomart; or Milton knew,
When in abstracted thought he first conceiv'd
All heav'n in tumult, and the Seraphim
Come tow'ring, arm'd in adamant and gold.
Let others love soft Summer's evening smiles,
As listening to the distant waterfall,
They mark the blushes of the streaky west';
I choose the pale December's foggy glooms.
Then, when the sullen shades of evening close,
Where through the room...Read more of this...
by Warton, Thomas

The Scholar Gypsy

...ar
Sitting upon the river bank o'ergrown;
Marked thine outlandish garb, thy figure spare,
Thy dark vague eyes, and soft abstracted air— 
But, when they came from bathing, thou wast gone!

At some lone homestead in the Cumner hills,
Where at her open door the housewife darns,
Thou hast been seen, or hanging on a gate
To watch the threshers in the mossy barns.
Children, who early range these slopes and late
For cresses from the rills,
Have known thee eyeing, all an April-day,
T...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew

Toad Dreams

...am of toads: we rarely 
credit what we consider lesser 
life with emotions big as ours, 
but we are easily distracted, 
abstracted. People sit nibbling 
before television's flicker watching 
ghosts chase balls and each other 
while the skunk is out risking grisly 
death to cross the highway to mate; 
while the fox scales the wire fence 
where it knows the shotgun lurks 
to taste the sweet blood of a hen. 
Birds are greedy little bombs 
bursting to give voice to appetite. 
I h...Read more of this...
by Piercy, Marge

Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

...; 
I am of the same style, for I am their friend, 
I love them quits and quits—I do not halt, and make salaams. 

I lie abstracted, and hear beautiful tales of things, and the reasons of things;
They are so beautiful, I nudge myself to listen. 

I cannot say to any person what I hear—I cannot say it to myself—it is very
 wonderful. 

It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe, moving so exactly in its orbit
 forever
 and ever, without one jolt, or the untruth of a ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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