Famous Affectionate Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Ballad Of The Long-Legged Bait

...
Boat with its anchor free and fast
As a bird hooking over the sea,
High and dry by the top of the mast,

Whispered the affectionate sand
And the bulwarks of the dazzled quay.
For my sake sail, and never look back,
Said the looking land.

Sails drank the wind, and white as milk
He sped into the drinking dark;
The sun shipwrecked west on a pearl
And the moon swam out of its hulk.

Funnels and masts went by in a whirl.
Good-bye to the man on the sea-legged deck
To the gold gut ...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan


Beowulf (Old English)

...and her lord probably distrust Hrothulf; but she bids the king to be of good cheer, and, turning to the suspect, heaps affectionate assurances on his probity. “My own Hrothulf” will surely not forget these favors and benefits of the past, but will repay them to the orphaned boy.

{19a} They had laid their arms on the benches near where they slept.

{20a} He surmises presently where she is.

{20b} The connection is not difficult. The words of mourning, of acute grief, a...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Death and Fame

...xception, for some reason he pleased me."
"I forgot whether I was straight gay ***** or funny, was myself, tender 
 and affectionate to be kissed on the top of my head,
my forehead throat heart & solar plexus, mid-belly. on my prick, 
 tickled with his tongue my behind"
"I loved the way he'd recite 'But at my back allways hear/ time's winged 
 chariot hurrying near,' heads together, eye to eye, on a 
 pillow --"
Among lovers one handsome youth straggling the rear
"I studied h...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

Emotional Idiot

...ho is she? 
Come on, 
aren't I enough for you?

God,
You're so cold.
I never know what you're thinking.
You're not very affectionate.

I mean, 
you're clinging to me, 
DON'T TOUCH ME,
what am I, your fucking cat?
Don't rub me like that. 

Don't you have anything better to do
than sit there fawning over me?

Don't you have any interests?
Hobbies?
Sailing Fly fishing
Archeology?

There's an archeology expedition leaving tomorrow
why don't you go?
I'll loan you the money,
my mon...Read more of this...
by Estep, Maggie

Endymion: Book IV

...olour to my cheek,
Trembling or stedfastness to this same voice,
And of three sweetest pleasurings the choice:
And that affectionate light, those diamond things,
Those eyes, those passions, those supreme pearl springs,
Shall be my grief, or twinkle me to pleasure.
Say, is not bliss within our perfect seisure?
O that I could not doubt?"

 The mountaineer
Thus strove by fancies vain and crude to clear
His briar'd path to some tranquillity.
It gave bright gladness to his lady's ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John


Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...to bless them.
Reverend walked he among them; and up rose matrons and maidens,
Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate welcome.
Then came the laborers home from the field, and serenely the sun sank
Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from the belfry
Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village
Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending,
Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and contentment.
Thus dwelt toget...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Fit the Fifth ( Hunting of the Snark )

...
And he wept with delight in attempting to say 
He considered the Beaver his friend. 

While the Beaver confessed, with affectionate looks 
More eloquent even than tears, 
It had learned in ten minutes far more than all books 
Would have taught it in seventy years. 

They returned hand-in-hand, and the Bellman, unmanned 
(For a moment) with noble emotion, 
Said "This amply repays all the wearisome days 
We have spent on the billowy ocean!" 

Such friends, as the Beaver and Bu...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Gertrude of Wyoming

....

It seem'd as if those scenes sweet influence had
On Gertrude's soul, and kindness like their own
Inspired those eyes affectionate and glad,
That seem'd to love whate'er they look'd upon;
Whether with Hebe's mirth her features shone,
Or if a shade more pleasing them o'ercast,
(As if for heavenly musing meant alone;)
Yet so becomingly th' expression past,
That each succeeding look was lovelier than the last.

Nor guess I, was that Pennsylvanian home,
With all its picturesque...Read more of this...
by Campbell, Thomas

In The Naked Bed In Platos Cave

...e white wall.
The bird called tentatively, whistled, called,
Bubbled and whistled, so! Perplexed, still wet
With sleep, affectionate, hungry and cold. So, so,
O son of man, the ignorant night, the travail
Of early morning, the mystery of the beginning
Again and again,
 while history is unforgiven....Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore

Marriage

...an experiment,
a duty or as merely recreation.
One must not call him ruffian
nor friction a calamity --
the fight to be affectionate:
"no truth can be fully known
until it has been tried
by the tooth of disputation."
The blue panther with black eyes,
the basalt panther with blue eyes,
entirely graceful --
one must give them the path --
the black obsidian Diana
who "darkeneth her countenance
as a bear doth,
causing her husband to sigh,"
the spiked hand
that has an affection fo...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

On Receipt Of My Mothers Picture

...ful remembrancer of one so dear,
Oh welcome guest, though unexpected, here!
Who bidd'st me honour with an artless song,
Affectionate, a mother lost so long,
I will obey, not willingly alone,
But gladly, as the precept were her own;
And, while that face renews my filial grief,
Fancy shall weave a charm for my relief--
Shall steep me in Elysian reverie,
A momentary dream, that thou art she.

My mother! when I learn'd that thou wast dead,
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I ...Read more of this...
by Cowper, William

Ox Tamer The

...n the farms hereabout, a hundred oxen, young and old—and he is the man who
 has
 tamed them; 
They all know him—all are affectionate to him; 
See you! some are such beautiful animals—so lofty looking!
Some are buff color’d—some mottled—one has a white line running along his
 back—some are brindled, 
Some have wide flaring horns (a good sign)—See you! the bright hides; 
See, the two with stars on their foreheads—See, the round bodies and broad backs; 
See, how straight and squ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Sea Dreams

...n and ten)
Were open'd, I should find he meant me well;
And then began to bloat himself, and ooze
All over with the fat affectionate smile
That makes the widow lean. "My dearest friend,
Have faith, have faith! We live by faith," said he;
"And all things work together for the good
Of those"--it makes me sick to quote him--last
Gript my hand hard, and with God-bless-you went.
I stood like one that had received a blow:
I found a hard friend in his loose accounts,
A loose one in ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Sleepers The

...equited,
 the
 money-maker, 
The actor and actress, those through with their parts, and those waiting to commence, 
The affectionate boy, the husband and wife, the voter, the nominee that is chosen, and the
 nominee
 that has fail’d,
The great already known, and the great any time after to-day, 
The stammerer, the sick, the perfect-form’d, the homely, 
The criminal that stood in the box, the judge that sat and sentenced him, the fluent
 lawyers,
 the
 jury, the audience, 
The...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

So Long

...ce a man or woman coming—perhaps you are the one, (So long!) 
I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate,
 fully
 armed. 

I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold; 
I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation; 
I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweet-blooded;
I announce a race of splendid and savage old men. 

3
O thicker and faster! (So long!) 
O crowding too clo...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of Myself

...so.

Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in
 the beams, 
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, 
I and this mystery, here we stand. 

Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul. 

Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,
Till that becomes unseen, and receives proof in its turn. 

Showing the best, and dividing it from the worst, age vexes age; 
Knowing the per...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Sonnet XVIII

...igh: and I who knowHer chaste anxiety and earnest prayer,In whispers sweet, affectionate, and low,Train, at her will, my acts and wishes there:And find such sweetness in her words aloneAs with their power should melt the hardest stone. Macgregor....Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

The Comedian As The Letter C

...145 Of seeds grown fat, too juicily opulent, 
146 Expanding in the gold's maternal warmth. 
147 So much for that. The affectionate emigrant found 
148 A new reality in parrot-squawks. 
149 Yet let that trifle pass. Now, as this odd 
150 Discoverer walked through the harbor streets 
151 Inspecting the cabildo, the fa?ade 
152 Of the cathedral, making notes, he heard 
153 A rumbling, west of Mexico, it seemed, 
154 Approaching like a gasconade of drums. 
155 The white...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Good Man

...The good man.
He is still enhancer, renouncer.
In the time of detachment,
in the time of the vivid heather and affectionate evil,
in the time of oral
grave grave legalities of hate - all real
walks our prime registered reproach and seal.
Our successful moral.
The good man.

Watches our bogus roses, our rank wreath, our
love's unreliable cement, the gray
jubilees of our demondom.
Coherent
Counsel! Good man.
Require of us our terribly excluded blue.
Constrain, repair a...Read more of this...
by Brooks, Gwendolyn

The Hunting Of The Snark

...,
And he wept with delight in attempting to say
 He considered the Beaver his friend.

While the Beaver confessed, with affectionate looks
 More eloquent even than tears,
It had learned in ten minutes far more than all books
 Would have taught it in seventy years.

They returned hand-in-hand, and the Bellman, unmanned
 (For a moment) with noble emotion,
Said "This amply repays all the wearisome days
 We have spent on the billowy ocean!"

Such friends, as the Beaver and Butche...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

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