Famous Abstraction Poems by Famous Poets

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

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260. Sketch in Verse inscribed to the Right Hon. C. J. Fox

...me,
Though like as was ever twin brother to brother,
Possessing the one shall imply you’ve the other.


 But truce with abstraction, and truce with a Muse
Whose rhymes you’ll perhaps, Sir, ne’er deign to peruse:
Will you leave your justings, your jars, and your quarrels,
Contending with Billy for proud-nodding laurels?
My much-honour’d Patron, believe your poor poet,
Your courage, much more than your prudence, you show it:
In vain with Squire Billy for laurels you struggle:
H...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


Captain Craig

...dry pipes
While Morgan fiddled, with obnoxious care, 
Things that I wished he wouldn’t. Killigrew, 
Drowsed with a fond abstraction, like an ass, 
Lay blinking at me while he grinned and made 
Remarks. The learned Plunket made remarks.

It may have been for smoke that I cursed cats 
That night, but I have rather to believe 
As I lay turning, twisting, listening, 
And wondering, between great sleepless yawns, 
What possible satisfaction those dead leaves
Could find in sending ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton

...me future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
 But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Lara

...hion to attest 
My words, so may I mingle with the blest!" 

What answers Lara? to its centre shrunk 
His soul, in deep abstraction sudden sunk; 
The words of many, and the eyes of all 
That there were gather'd, seem'd on him to fall; 
But his were silent, his appear'd to stray 
In far forgetfulness away — away — 
Alas! that heedlessness of all around 
Bespoke remembrance only too profound. 

XXIV. 

"To-morrow! — ay, to-morrow!" — further word 
Than those repeated none from ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Painted Head

...distinct from tart 
Heads with crowns and guilty gallery heads; 

Wherefore the extravagant device of art 
Unhousing by abstraction this once head 
Was capital irony by a loving hand 
That knew the no treason of a head like this; 

Makes repentance in an unlovely head 
For having vinegarly traduced the flesh 
Till, the hurt flesh recusing, the hard egg 
Is shrunken to its own deathlike surface; 

And an image thus. The body bears the head 
(So hardly one they terribly are two...Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe


The Book of Annandale

...calm. And he was left
Unanswered and unsatisfied: there came 
No clearer meaning to him than had come 
Before; the old abstraction was the best 
That he could find, the farthest he could go; 
To that was no beginning and no end—
No end that he could reach. So he must learn 
To live the surest and the largest life 
Attainable in him, would he divine 
The meaning of the dream and of the words 
That he had written, without knowing why,
On sheets that he had bound up like a book...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

The Princess (part 2)

...ut 'Thanks,' she answered 'Go: we have been too long 
Together: keep your hoods about the face; 
They do so that affect abstraction here. 
Speak little; mix not with the rest; and hold 
Your promise: all, I trust, may yet be well.' 

We turned to go, but Cyril took the child, 
And held her round the knees against his waist, 
And blew the swollen cheek of a trumpeter, 
While Psyche watched them, smiling, and the child 
Pushed her flat hand against his face and laughed; 
And th...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The River of Rivers in Connecticut

...istening and Haddam shines and sways.

It is the third commonness with light and air,
A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction . . .
Call it, one more, a river, an unnamed flowing,

Space-filled, reflecting the seasons, the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it, again and again,
The river that flows nowhere, like a sea....Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

Womens Rights

...household roof,--
From the great world's harsh strife, and jarring voices,
To stand aloof;--

Not in a dreamy and inane abstraction
To sleep our life away,
But, gathering up the brightness of home sunshine,
To deck our way.

As humble plants by country hedgerows growing,
That treasure up the rain,
And yield in odours, ere the day's declining,
The gift again;

So let us, unobtrusive and unnoticed,
But happy none the less,
Be privileged to fill the air around us
With happiness;...Read more of this...
by Walker, Annie Louisa

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