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Famous Appearances Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...t this one 
Begins in the beginning—when he came. 
I was a boy at school, sixteen years old, 
And on my way, in all appearances, 
To mark an even-tempered average
Among the major mediocrities 
Who serve and earn with no especial noise 
Or vast reward. I saw myself, even then, 
A light for no high shining; and I feared 
No boy or man—having, in truth, no cause.
I was enough a leader to be free, 
And not enough a hero to be jealous. 
Having eyes and ears, I knew...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...ur fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall! cast red and
 yellow
 light
 over the tops of the houses; 
Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are;
You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul; 
About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas; 
Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers; 
Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual; 
Keep your places, objects than w...Read more of this...

by Doty, Mark
...excitation

of minnows boils
and blooms, artifice
made to show us

the lavish wardrobe
of things, the world's
glaze of appearances

worked into the thin
and gleaming stuff
of craft. A story:

at the puppet opera
--where one man animated
the entire cast

while another ghosted
the voices, basso
to coloratura -- Jimmy wept

at the world of tiny gestures,
forgot, he said,
these were puppets,

forgot these wire
and plaster fabrications
were actors at all,

since their pretens...Read more of this...

by McHugh, Heather
...Take rough from seas, and women from the shore,
unmentionables out of mind). We're here
for something rich, beyond

appearances. What do I mean? (What can one say?)
A minute of millenium, unculminating
stint, a stonishment: my god, what's
utterable? Gargah, gatto, goat. Us animals is made

to seine and trawl and drag and gaff
our way across the earth. The earth, it rolls.
We dig, lay lines, book arguably
perfect passages. But earth remains untranslated...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...ld of things, 
And at the same time see yourself. 
You are submerged in the tub of yourself — 
Taboos and rules and appearances, 
Are the staves of your tub. 
Break them and dispel the witchcraft 
Of thinking your tub is life! 
And that you know life!...Read more of this...



by Gregory, Rg
...is back is turned
as if (of who you are) he harbours no conception
so you (of him) though wary cannot be that concerned
appearances appearances (its kudos earned)
the book crows - being too aware of inside-outs
knowing full well the volte-face nature of the scorned
the dullest horses may best play havoc with the touts
nor hillside towns dispel the speeding tourist’s doubts

you have to turn off - want to know what’s their attraction
to nose into narrow ways (climb through str...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...ll of seething, wormy, hollow feelings
rather nasty--
How beastly the bourgeois is!

Standing in their thousands, these appearances, in damp
 England
what a pity they can't all be kicked over
like sickening toadstools, and left to melt back, swiftly
into the soil of England....Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...OF the terrible doubt of appearances, 
Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded, 
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all, 
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only, 
May-be the things I perceive—the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing
 waters,
The skies of day and night—colors, densities, forms—May-be these are, (a...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...to model Heaven 
And calculate the stars, how they will wield 
The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive 
To save appearances; how gird the sphere 
With centrick and eccentrick scribbled o'er, 
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb: 
Already by thy reasoning this I guess, 
Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest 
That bodies bright and greater should not serve 
The less not bright, nor Heaven such journeys run, 
Earth sitting still, when she alone receives 
The benefit: C...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...and theron 
Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers: 
In yonder nether world where shall I seek 
His bright appearances, or foot-step trace? 
For though I fled him angry, yet recalled 
To life prolonged and promised race, I now 
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts 
Of glory; and far off his steps adore. 
To whom thus Michael with regard benign. 
Adam, thou knowest Heaven his, and all the Earth; 
Not this rock only; his Omnipresence fills 
Land, sea,...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...e more prosaic course of simply explaining 
how it happened. 

The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, 
used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be 
revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for 
replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the 
ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to 
appeal to the Bellman about it---he would only refer to his Naval 
Code, a...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...sees the Graces sporting there,
With feeling silent and refined.
Gentle as beauty's lines together linking,
As the appearances that round him play,
In tender outline in each other sinking,
The soft breath of his life thus fleets away.
His spirit melts in the harmonious sea,
That, rich in rapture, round his senses flows,
And the dissolving thought all silently
To omnipresent Cytherea grows.
Joining in lofty union with the Fates,
On Graces and on Muses calm relying...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...re* of his owen sort, *comrade
That loved dice, and riot, and disport;
And had a wife, that held *for countenance* *for appearances*
A shop, and swived* for her sustenance. *prostituted herself
 . . . . . . . 


Notes to the Cook's Tale


1. Cheapside, where jousts were sometimes held, and which
was the great scene of city revels and processions.

2. His paper: his certificate of completion of his apprenticeship.

3. Louk...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...I'll see to that if there is need. He ought of right
To take him in, and might be willing to-
He may be better than appearances.
But have some pity on Silas. Do you think
If he'd had any pride in claiming kin
Or anything he looked for from his brother,
He'd keep so still about him all this time?'
'I wonder what's between them.'
'I can tell you.
Silas is what he is -- we wouldn't mind him--
But just the kind that kinsfolk can't abide.
He never did a thi...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...he more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened. 

The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it--he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...But there is no ferryman.
He could not bend against its propelling force.

It is not to be seen beneath the appearances
That tell of it. The steeple at Farmington
Stands glistening and Haddam shines and sways.

It is the third commonness with light and air,
A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction . . .
Call it, one more, a river, an unnamed flowing,

Space-filled, reflecting the seasons, the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it,...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things