Famous Ached Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lay Made About the Year Of The City CCCLX

...ain.

               XVIII

     I wis, in all the Senate,
          There was no heart so bold,
     But sore it ached, and fast it beat,
          When that ill news was told.
     Forthwith up rose the Consul,
          Up rose the Fathers all;
     In haste they girded up their gowns,
          And hied them to the wall.

               XIX

     They held a council standing,
          Before the River-Gate;
     Short time was there, ye well may guess,
...Read more of this...
by Horace,


A Poetry Reading At West Point

...poems to be hard,
unless the truth is, if there is
a truth." Silence hung in the hall
like a heavy fabric. My own
head ached. "Sir," he yelled. "Thank you. Sir."...Read more of this...
by Matthews, William

Bride Song

...Though toss'd of down; 
She little heeded what she wore, 
 Kirtle, or wreath, or gown; 
We think her white brows often ached 
 Beneath her crown, 
Till silvery hairs show'd in her locks 
 That used to be so brown. 

We never heard her speak in haste: 
 Her tones were sweet, 
And modulated just so much 
 As it was meet: 
Her heart sat silent through the noise 
 And concourse of the street. 
There was no hurry in her hands, 
 No hurry in her feet; 
There was no bliss drew nigh...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

Clover

..., quick pains? To this no-end that ends,
These Masters wrought, and wept, and sweated blood,
And burned, and loved, and ached with public shame,
And found no friends to breathe their loves to, save
Woods and wet pillows? This was all? This Ox?
"Nay," quoth a sum of voices in mine ear,
"God's clover, we, and feed His Course-of-things;
The pasture is God's pasture; systems strange
Of food and fiberment He hath, whereby
The general brawn is built for plans of His
To quality prec...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

Epitaph in a Church-Yard in Charleston South Carolina

...om fog and chilly airs to skies
Clear with deceitful welcome. He had come
With proud resolve, but still his lonely eyes
Ached with fatigue at never seeing home....Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy


Guenevere

...ast I felt a wild, sick pain,
The garden reeled a little, I was weak,
And quick he came behind me, caught my arms,
That ached beneath his touch; and then I swayed,
My head fell backward and I saw his face.

All this grows bitter that was once so sweet,
And many mouths must drain the dregs of it.
But none will pity me, nor pity him
Whom Love so lashed, and with such cruel thongs....Read more of this...
by Teasdale, Sara

Hinged To Forgetfulness Like A Door

...of 
sight, 
and she was the woman I loved, 
but too many times she slept like 
a mechanical deer in my caresses, 
and I ached in the metal silence 
of her dreams....Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Hymn To The Penates

...rd;
It is a mystic circle that surrounds
Comforts and Virtues never known beyond
The hallowed limit. Often has my heart
Ached for that quiet haven; haven'd now,
I think of those in this world's wilderness
Who wander on and find no home of rest
Till to the grave they go! them POVERTY
Hollow-eyed fiend, the child of WEALTH and POWER,
Bad offspring of worse parents, aye afflicts,
Cankering with her foul mildews the chill'd heart--
Them WANT with scorpion scourge drives to the de...Read more of this...
by Southey, Robert

I stood musing in a black world

...t last I looked again.
No radiance in the far sky,
Ineffable, divine;
No vision painted upon a pall;
And always my eyes ached for the light.
Then I cried in despair,
"I see nothing! Oh, where do I go?"
The torrent turned again its faces:
"Look! look! There!"

And at the blindness of my spirit
They screamed,
"Fool! fool! fool!"...Read more of this...
by Crane, Stephen

Let It Enfold You

...oom, weeds growing,
the earth turning,
the toteboard waiting for
me)
I saw the shape of my
wife's head,
she so still,
i ached for her life,
just being there
under the 
covers.

i kissed her in the,
forehead,
got down the stairway,
got outside,
got into my marvelous
car,
fixed the seatbelt,
backed out the
drive.
feeling warm to
the fingertips,
down to my
foot on the gas
pedal,
I entered the world
once
more,
drove down the 
hill
past the houses
full and emptey
of
people,
i saw ...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

My Soul is Dark

...st: 
I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep, 
Or else this heavy heart will burst; 
For it hath been by sorrow nursed, 
And ached in sleepless silence, long; 
And now 'tis doomed to know the worst, 
And break at once - or yield to song....Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

New Years Morning

...ar's crown 
Bloom from the ashes of the dead." 
The Old Year's heart was full of greed; 
With selfishness it longed and ached, 
And cried: "I have not half I need. 
My thirst is bitter and unslaked. 
But to the New Year's generous hand 
All gifts in plenty shall return; 
True love it shall understand; 
By all y failures it shall learn. 
I have been reckless; it shall be 
Quiet and calm and pure of life. 
I was a slave; it shall go free, 
And find sweet pace where I leave stri...Read more of this...
by Jackson, Helen Hunt

Ode On Indolence

...'d they by, and, passing, turn'd
 Each one the face a moment whiles to me;
Then faded, and to follow them I burn'd
 And ached for wings, because I knew the three;
The first was a fair maid, and Love her name;
 The second was Ambition, pale of cheek,
 And ever watchful with fatigued eye;
The last, whom I love more, the more of blame
 Is heap'd upon her, maiden most unmeek,---
 I knew to be my demon Poesy.

They faded, and, forsooth! I wanted wings:
 O folly! What is Love! and ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Paris

...ur souls cried for Love 
As for life-giving rain 
Wan leaves of the grove, 
Withered grass of the plain, 
And our flesh ached for Love-flesh beside it with bitter, intolerable pain. 


Under arbor and trellis, 
Full of flutes, full of flowers, 
What mad fortunes befell us, 
What glad orgies were ours! 
In the days of our youth, 
In our festal attire, 
When the sweet flesh was smooth, 
When the swift blood was fire, 
And all Earth paid in orange and purple to pavilion the bed ...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

Sunday Afternoons

...I sit at home
at my desk alone
as I used to do
on many sunday afternoons
when you came back to me,
your arms ached for me,
and your arms would close me in
though they smelled of other women.

I think of you
on Sunday afternoons.

Your sweet head would bow,
like a child somehow,
down to me -
and your hair and your eyes were wild.

We would embrace on the floor-
You see my back´s still sore.
You knew how easily I bruised,
It´s a soreness I would never lose.

I think ...Read more of this...
by Jong, Erica

The Cremona Violin

...had played his very best to-day,
But afterwards he had been forced to stay
And practise with the stupid ones. His head
Ached furiously, and he must get to bed.

Part Second
Herr Concert-Meister Altgelt 
played,
And the four strings of his violin
Were spinning like bees on a day in Spring.
The notes rose into the wide sun-mote
Which slanted through the window,
They lay like coloured beads a-row,
They knocked together and parted,
And started to dance,
Skipping, tripping, each ...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Flight Of The Duchess

...r a noble falcon-lanner
To flap each broad wing like a banner,
And turn in the wind, and dance like flame!)
Had they broached a white-beer cask from Berlin
---Or if you incline to prescribe mere wine
Put to his lips, when they saw him pine,
A cup of our own Moldavia fine,
Cotnar for instance, green as May sorrel
And ropy with sweet,---we shall not quarrel.

IV.

So, at home, the sick tall yellow Duchess
Was left with the infant in her clutches,
She being the daughter of God k...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Princes Progress (excerpt)

...her,
Though tossed of down;
She little heeded what she wore,
Kirtle, or wreath, or gown;
We think her white brows often ached
Beneath her crown,
Till silvery hairs showed in her locks
That used to be so brown.

"We never heard her speak in haste;
Her tones were sweet,
And modulated just so much
As it was meet:
Her heart sat silent through the noise
And concourse of the street.
There was no hurry in her hands,
No hurry in her feet;
There was no bliss drew nigh to her,
That she...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

The Ruins Of Time

...s withered and more bent,
even my sword was coffined up in rust—
there was no hilt left for the hand to try.
Everything ached, and told me I must die.

II 

You search in Rome for Rome? O Traveller!
in Rome itself, there is no room for Rome,
the Aventine is its own mound and tomb,
only a corpse recieves the worshipper.
And where the Capitol once crowned the forum,
are medals ruined by the hands of time;
they show how more was lost by chance and time
the Hannibal or Ceasar cou...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Robert

Those Winter Sundays

...Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did ...Read more of this...
by Hayden, Robert

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