Famous Aesthetic Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Kosmos

by Walt Whitman
 WHO includes diversity, and is Nature, 
Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sexuality of the earth, and the
 great
 charity of the earth, and the equilibrium also, 
Who has not look’d forth from the windows, the eyes, for nothing, or whose brain held
 audience with messengers for nothing; 
Who contains believers and disbelievers—Who is...Read more of this...

The Genius With The Inverted Torch

by Friedrich von Schiller
 Lovely he looks, 'tis true, with the light of his torch now extinguished;
But remember that death is not aesthetic, my friends!...Read more of this...

Toilet Seats

by Robert William Service
 While I am emulating Keats
My brother fabrics toilet seats,
The which, they say, are works of art,
Aesthetic features of the mart;
So exquisitely are they made
With plastic of a pastel shade,
Of topaz, ivory or rose,
Inviting to serene repose.

Rajahs I'm told have seats of gold,--
(They must, I fear, be very cold).
But Tom's have thermostatic heat,
With sympathy your grace to greet.
Like silver they...Read more of this...

Pretty Halcyon Days

by Ogden Nash
 How pleasant to sit on the beach,
On the beach, on the sand, in the sun,
With ocean galore within reach,
And nothing at all to be done!
 No letters to answer,
 No bills to be burned,
 No work to be shirked,
 No cash to be earned,
It is pleasant to sit on the beach
With nothing at all to be done!

How pleasant to...Read more of this...

To a Steam Roller

by Marianne Moore
 The illustration
is nothing to you without the application.
You lack half wit. You crush all the particles down
into close conformity, and then walk back and forth on them. 

Sparkling chips of rock
are crushed down to the level of the parent block.
Were not 'impersonal judment in aesthetic
matters, a metaphysical impossibility,' you 

might fairly achieve
it. As for butterflies, I can hardly conceive
of...Read more of this...

Says

by Walt Whitman
 1
I SAY whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect person, that is finally right. 
2
I say nourish a great intellect, a great brain; 
If I have said anything to the contrary, I hereby retract it. 

3
I say man shall not hold property in man; 
I say the least developed person on earth is just as important and sacred to...Read more of this...

Tourist

by Robert William Service
 To Italy a random tour
I took to crown my education,
Returning relatively poor
In purse yet rich in conversation.
Old Rome put up a jolly show,
But I am not a classic purist,
Preferring to Mike Angelo
The slim stems of a lady tourist.

Venice, they say, was built on piles;
I used to muse, how did they do it?
I tramped the narrow streets for miles,
Religiously I...Read more of this...

A Suggestion

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 As I go and shop, sir!
If a car I stop, sir!
Where you chance to sit,
And you want to read, sir!
Never mind or heed, sir!
I’ll not care a bit.

For it’s now aesthetic
To be quite athletic.
That’s our fad, you know.
I can hold the strap, sir!
And keep off your lap, sir!
As we jolting go.

If you read on blindly,
I shall take it kindly,
All...Read more of this...

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