Famous All Poetry by Famous Poets

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

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Here below, we are only the puppets with which the

by Omar Khayyam
Here below, we are only the puppets with which the
Wheel of Heaven is amused. This is a truth and not a
metaphor. We are in fact the playthings upon this human
checkerboard, which finally we leave to enter one
by one the coffin of annihilation....Read more of this...

Clothes chapter X

by Kahlil Gibran
 And the weaver said, "Speak to us of Clothes." 

And he answered: 

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. 

And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain. 

Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your...Read more of this...

The Pattern

by Russell Edson
 A women had given birth to an old man.

 He cried to have again been caught in the pattern.

 Oh well, he sighed as he took her breast to his mouth.

 The woman is happy to have her baby, even if it is old.

 Probably it got mislaid in the baby place, and when they 
found it and saw...Read more of this...

You ask me what is this phantasmagoria of things here

by Omar Khayyam
You ask me what is this phantasmagoria of things here
below. To tell you the whole truth regarding it would
be too long: it is a fantastic image which comes out of
a vast sea, and which re-enters, later, the same vast sea.
337...Read more of this...

If I have eaten during the days of Ramazan, do not

by Omar Khayyam
If I have eaten during the days of Ramazan, do not
believe I did it through inadvertence. The fatiguing
hardships of the fast have so turned about my days and
nights [the one for the other] that I have always believed
in eating the morning repast....Read more of this...

In the region of hope, form as many friends as you

by Omar Khayyam
In the region of hope, form as many friends as you
can; in the time of existence, bind yourself to a perfect
friend, for, know well that a hundred Kaabas, made
of earth and water, are not worth one heart. Leave,
then, thy Kaabas and rather seek a heart....Read more of this...

Let us both sit down on the old worm-eaten bench

by Emile Verhaeren
Let us both sit down on the old worm-eaten bench near the path; and let my hand remain a long while within your two steadfast hands.
With my hand that remains a long while given up to the sweet consciousness of being on your knees, my heart also, my earnest, gentle heart, seems to rest between your two kind hands.
And we...Read more of this...

False money is not current among us. The broom has

by Omar Khayyam
False money is not current among us. The broom has
rid our joyous dwelling of it completely. An old man,
returning from the tavern, said to me: Drink wine, my
friend, for other lives shall follow yours in your long
sleep....Read more of this...

The Westerner

by Badger Clark
  My fathers sleep on the sunrise plains,
    And each one sleeps alone.
  Their trails may dim to the grass and rains,
    For I choose to make my own.
  I lay proud claim to their blood and name,
    But I lean on no dead kin;
  My name...Read more of this...

Those who, through knowledge, are the cream of the

by Omar Khayyam
Those who, through knowledge, are the cream of the
world; who, with intelligence scan the heights of the
heavens, they also, like the firmament, have their heads
turned in their search for divine knowledge, and are
taken with vertigo and dimness of sight.
309...Read more of this...

On Boot Hill

by Badger Clark
  Up from the prairie and through the pines,
  Over your straggling headboard lines
    Winds of the West go by.
  You must love them, you booted dead,
  More than the dreamers who died in bed--
  You old-timers who took your lead
    Under the open sky!

  Leathery knights of...Read more of this...

Ars Poetica?

by Czeslaw Milosz
 I have always aspired to a more spacious form
that would be free from the claims of poetry or prose
and would let us understand each other without exposing
the author or reader to sublime agonies.

In the very essence of poetry there is something indecent:
a thing is brought forth which we didn't know we had in us,
so we blink our eyes, as...Read more of this...

You said to me, one evening

by Emile Verhaeren
You said to me, one evening, words so beautiful that doubtless the flowers that leaned towards us suddenly loved us, and one among them, in order to touch us both, fell upon our knees.
You spoke to me of a time nigh at hand when our years like over-ripe fruit would be ready for the gathering, how the knell of destiny...Read more of this...

Dainty flowers

by Emile Verhaeren
Dainty flowers, like a froth of foam, grew along the borders of our paths; the wind fell and the air seemed to brush your hands and hair with plumes.
The shade was kindly to us as we walked in step beneath the leafage; a child's song reached us from a village, and filled all the infinite.
Our ponds were outspread in their...Read more of this...

Thinking Ahead To Possible Options And A Worst-Case Scenario

by Edward Taylor
 I swerved to avoid hitting a squirrel
in the center of the road and that's when
the deer came charging out of the forest
and forced me to hit the brakes for all I
was worth and I careened back to the other
side of the road just as a skunk came toddling
out of Mrs. Bancroft's front yard and I swung
back perhaps just grazing...Read more of this...

Sense of love

by Ehsan Sehgal
"The world of love is so strange, where is capability to reach, there is no sense of love and where is no capability to get, there is deep sense of love."
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...

The Colonel

by Carolyn Forche
 What you have heard is true. I was in his house. 
His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His 
daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the 
night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol 
on the cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on 
its black cord over the house. On the television...Read more of this...

He who has had the intelligence to sow joy in his

by Omar Khayyam
He who has had the intelligence to sow joy in his
heart has not lost a single day in sorrow; he has employed
his faculties in seeking the will of God, or has procured
repose for his soul by taking a cup of wine....Read more of this...

Sometimes Thou art concealed, showing Thyself to

by Omar Khayyam
Sometimes Thou art concealed, showing Thyself to
none; sometimes Thou revealest Thyself in all things
created. It is for Thyself, without doubt, and for Thy
pleasure that Thou hast produced these marvellous effects,
for Thou art at once the maker of the spectacle we see
and Thine own beholder....Read more of this...

When the starry sky covers our dwelling

by Emile Verhaeren
When the starry sky covers our dwelling, we hush for hours before its intense and gentle fire, so that we may feel a greater and more fervent stirring within us.
The great silver stars follow their courses high up in the heavens; beneath the flames and the gleams, night spreads out its depths, and the calm is so great that the...Read more of this...

Beauty XXV

by Kahlil Gibran
 And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty." 

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide? 

And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech? 

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle. 

Like a young mother...Read more of this...

Eating and Drinking chapter VI

by Kahlil Gibran
 Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, "Speak to us of Eating and Drinking." 

And he said: 

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light. 

But since you must kill to eat, and rob the young of its mother's milk to quench your...Read more of this...

On Love

by Kahlil Gibran
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with...Read more of this...

The Trail O' Love

by Badger Clark
  My love was swift and slender
    As an antelope at play,
  And her eyes were gray and tender
    As the east at break o' day,
  And I sure was shaky hearted
    And her flower face was pale
  On that silver night we parted,
   ...Read more of this...

In the mosque, in the medresseh (school annexed to

by Omar Khayyam
In the mosque, in the medresseh [school annexed to
the mosque], in the church, and in the synagogue, they
have a horror of Hell and seek for Paradise, but the seed
of such disquiet never germinates in the hearts of those
who penetrate the secrets of the All-Powerful....Read more of this...

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