Famous Affect Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lost Dream

...Ah, I have changed, I do not know
Why lonely hours affect me so.
In days of yore, this were not wont,
No loneliness my soul could daunt.
For me too serious for my age,
The weighty tome of hoary sage,
Until with puzzled heart astir,
One God-giv'n night, I dreamed of her.
I loved no woman, hardly knew
More of the sex that strong men woo
Than cloistered monk within his cell;
But now the dream is lost,...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul


Air And Angels

...Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name,
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worship'd be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtile than the parent is,
Love must not be, but take a body too,
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body...Read more of this...
by Donne, John

Aurora Leigh (excerpts)

...work
Until the day 's out and the labour done,
Then bring your gauges. If the day's work 's scant,
Why, call it scant ; affect no compromise ;
And, in that we have nobly striven at least,
Deal with us nobly, women though we be.
And honour us with truth if not with praise....Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

Charmides

...once at least
Let me drink deep of passion's wine, and slake
My parched being with the nectarous feast
Which even gods affect! O come, Love, come,
Still we have time to reach the cavern of thine azure home.'

Scarce had she spoken when the shuddering trees
Shook, and the leaves divided, and the air
Grew conscious of a god, and the grey seas
Crawled backward, and a long and dismal blare
Blew from some tasselled horn, a sleuth-hound bayed,
And like a flame a barbed reed flew w...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

EPISTLE II: TO A LADY (Of the Characters of Women)

...him. 
Why then declare Good-nature is her scorn, 
When 'tis by that alone she can be borne? 
Why pique all mortals, yet affect a name? 
A fool to Pleasure, yet a slave to Fame: 
Now deep in Taylor and the Book of Martyrs, 
Now drinking citron with his Grace and Chartres: 
Now Conscience chills her, and now Passion burns; 
And Atheism and Religion take their turns; 
A very Heathen in the carnal part, 
Yet still a sad, good Christian at her heart. 

See Sin in State, majestical...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander


Eviradnus

...s here? 
 
 Horses and horsemen that make gazers fear 
 Are only empty armor. But erect 
 And haughty mien they all affect 
 And threatening air—though shades of iron still. 
 Are they strange larvae—these their statues ill? 
 No. They are dreams of horror clothed in brass, 
 Which from profoundest depths of evil pass 
 With futile aim to dare the Infinite! 
 Souls tremble at the silent spectre sight, 
 As if in this mysterious cavalcade 
 They saw the weird and m...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Hero and Leander: The First Sestiad

...wo are stript, long ere the course begin,
170 We wish that one should lose, the other win;
171 And one especially do we affect
172 Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
173 The reason no man knows, let it suffice,
174 What we behold is censur'd by our eyes.
175 Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
176 Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?...Read more of this...
by Marlowe, Christopher

Jubilate Agno: Fragment C

...and assisted in the spirit. 

For he play'd upon the harp in the spirit by breathing upon the strings. 

For this will affect every thing that is sustaind by the spirit, even every thing in nature. 

For it is the business of a man gifted in the word to prophecy good. 

For it will be better for England and all the world in a season, as I prophecy this day. 

For I prophecy that they will obey the motions of the spirit descended upon them as at this day. 

For they have seen...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Manhattan Streets I Saunter'd Pondering

...nce to what ensues; 
All that a person does, says, thinks, is of consequence; 
Not a move can a man or woman make, that affects him or her in a day, month, any part of
 the
 direct
 life-time, or the hour of death, but the same affects him or her onward afterward through
 the
 indirect life-time. 

3
The indirect is just as much as the direct, 
The spirit receives from the body just as much as it gives to the body, if not more.

Not one word or deed—not venereal sore, discolo...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Merlin

...nadir's floor 
To the zenith's top can soar, 
The roaring orbit of the muse exceeds that journey's length. 
Nor profane affect to hit 
Or compass that, by meddling wit, 
Which only the propitious mind 
Publishes when 'tis inclined. 
There are open hours 
When the God's will sallies free, 
And the dull idiot might see 
The flowing fortunes of a thousand years; 
Sudden, at unawares, 
Self-moved, fly-to the doors, 
Nor sword of angels could reveal 
What they conceal. 

II
The rh...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

MFingal - Canto II

...ye sprung;
And scorn the debt and obligation,
You justly owe the British nation,
Which, since you cannot pay, your crew
Affect to swear was never due.


"Did not the deeds of England's primate
First drive your fathers to this climate,
Whom jails and fines and every ill
Forced to their good against their will?
Ye owe to their obliging temper
The peopling your new-fangled empire,
While every British act and canon
Stood forth your causa sine qua non.
Who'd seen, except for these...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

Paradise Lost: Book 06

...arms 
Not to be overpowered, Companions dear, 
Found worthy not of liberty alone, 
Too mean pretence! but what we more affect, 
Honour, dominion, glory, and renown; 
Who have sustained one day in doubtful fight, 
(And if one day, why not eternal days?) 
What Heaven's Lord had powerfullest to send 
Against us from about his throne, and judged 
Sufficient to subdue us to his will, 
But proves not so: Then fallible, it seems, 
Of future we may deem him, though till now 
Omnisci...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...hem several charge, 
As sorted best with present things. The sun 
Had first his precept so to move, so shine, 
As might affect the earth with cold and heat 
Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call 
Decrepit winter; from the south to bring 
Solstitial summer's heat. To the blanc moon 
Her office they prescribed; to the other five 
Their planetary motions, and aspects, 
In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite, 
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join 
In synod unbenign; ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The Third Book

...ain thy prowess, or subsist
In battle, though against thy few in arms. 
These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hide?
Affecting private life, or more obscure
In savage wilderness, wherefore deprive
All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself
The fame and glory—glory, the reward
That sole excites to high attempts the flame
Of most erected spirits, most tempered pure
AEthereal, who all pleasures else despise,
All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,
And dignities and powers,...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Samson Agonistes

...drew
In the perverse event then I foresaw)
My penance hath not slack'n'd, though my pardon
No way assur'd. But conjugal affection
Prevailing over fear, and timerous doubt 
Hath led me on desirous to behold
Once more thy face, and know of thy estate.
If aught in my ability may serve
To light'n what thou suffer'st, and appease
Thy mind with what amends is in my power,
Though late, yet in some part to recompense
My rash but more unfortunate misdeed.

Sam: Out, out Hyaena; these ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sorry I Missed You

...undred

Lyrics in his quiver.’



Pete Stifled a cough which dipped into a gurgle and sank into a mire

Of strangulated affect which almost became a convulsion until finally

He shrieked, “I have to go, the cat’s under the Christmas tree, ripping

Open all the presents, the central heating boiler’s on the blink,

The house is on fucking fire!”



So I was left with the offer of being raffle-ticket tout as a special favour,

Some recompense for giving over two entire newslette...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

The Princess (part 2)

...hat, 
But '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; ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Upon Appleton House to My Lord Fairfax

...he Languages as hers;
Not yet in those her self imployes
But for the Wisdome, not the Noyse;
Nor yet that Wisdome would affect,
But as 'tis Heavens Dialect.

Blest Nymph! that couldst so soon prevent
Those Trains by Youth against thee meant;
Tears (watry Shot that pierce the Mind;)
And Sighs (Loves Cannon charg'd with Wind;)
True Praise (That breaks through all defence;)
And feign'd complying Innocence;
But knowing where this Ambush lay,
She scap'd the safe, but roughest Way....Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Who Ever Loved That Loved Not at First Sight?

...hen two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should love, the other win;

And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
The reason no man knows; let it suffice
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?...Read more of this...
by Marlowe, Christopher

Wittgensteins Ladder

...d steel), he 
gave away his money, not to the poor, whom 
it would corrupt, but to relations so rich 
it would not thus affect them. 

3. 

On leave in Vienna in August 1918 
he assembled his notebook entries 
into the Tractatus, Since it provided 
the definitive solution to all the problems 
of philosophy, he decided to broaden 
his interests. He became a schoolteacher, 
then a gardener's assistant at a monastery 
near Vienna. He dabbled in architecture. 

4. 

He returned t...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David

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