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Famous Apprehension Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Clampitt, Amy
...
for a look at Jupiter,

that vast cinder wheeled unblinking
in a bath of galaxies. Watching, we traveled
toward an apprehension all but impossible
to be held onto—

that no point is fixed, that there's no foothold
but roams untethered save by such snells, 
such sailor's knots, such stays
and guy wires as are

mainly of our own devising. From such an 
empyrean, aloof seraphic mentors urge us
to look down on all attachment,
on any bonding, as

in the end untenable....Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...Air has no Residence, no Neighbor,
No Ear, no Door,
No Apprehension of Another
Oh, Happy Air!

Ethereal Guest at e'en an Outcast's Pillow --
Essential Host, in Life's faint, wailing Inn,
Later than Light thy Consciousness accost me
Till it depart, persuading Mine --...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...IF all the gentlest-hearted friends I know
Concentred in one heart their gentleness,
That still grew gentler till its pulse was less
For life than pity,--I should yet be slow
To bring my own heart nakedly below
The palm of such a friend, that he should press
Motive, condition, means, appliances,

My false ideal joy and fickle woe,
Out full to light and kno...Read more of this...

by Corso, Gregory
...They deliver the edicts of God

without delay

And are exempt from apprehension

from detention

And with their God-given

Petasus, Caduceus, and Talaria

ferry like bolts of lightning

unhindered between the tribunals

of Space & Time


The Messenger-Spirit

in human flesh

is assigned a dependable,

self-reliant, versatile,

thoroughly poet existence

upon its sojourn in life


It does not knock

or ring the bell

or tele...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...s ever did a welcome guest.

There is a rare outlandish root, 
Which when I could not get, I thought it here: 
That apprehension cur'd so well my foot, 
That I can walk to heav'n well near.

I owed thousands and much more.
I did believe that I did nothing owe, 
And liv'd accordingly; my creditor
Believes so too, and lets me go.

Faith makes me any thing, or all
That I believe is in the sacred story: 
And where sin placeth me in Adam's fall, 
Faith sets me high...Read more of this...



by Gregory, Rg
...aring at the wall

well i suppose.....take care ....ok 
the adults muttered full of apprehension
the girl (three) poised - flexing her muscles
the black horse stood staring at the wall

now take the lead and grip it tight
they sighed fluttering hands like pigeons
she scoffed at the soft instructions
the black horse stood staring at the wall

it's easy-peasy lemon-cheesy
she triumphed (but doing as they asked)
the adults tried to swallow the...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...I must have time for this.” 

Lazarus looked about him fearfully, 
And then again at Mary, who discovered
Awakening apprehension in his eyes, 
And shivered at his feet. All she had feared 
Was here; and only in the slow reproach 
Of his forgiveness lived his gratitude. 
Why had he asked if it was all for her
That he was here? And what had Martha meant? 
Why had the Master waited? What was coming 
To Lazarus, and to them, that had not come? 
What had the Master see...Read more of this...

by Moore, Thomas
...ch smooth Budgeteers have genteelly undone us,
For Ruin made easy there's no one like Freddy.

Tuesday 

Much grave apprehension express'd by the Peers,
Lest -- calling to life the old Peachums and Lockitts --
The large stock of gold we're to have in three years,
Should all find its way into highwayman's pockets![1]

Wednesday 

Little doing - for sacred, oh Wednesday, thou art
To the seven-o'-clock joys of full many a table --
When the Members all meet, to make much of t...Read more of this...

by Doty, Mark
...ys not

at home though usually
 in, huddled
 by the smoldering,

and when my eye wandered
 --five-second increments
 of apprehension--I saw

he had a dog!
 Who lay half in
 half out his doghouse

in the rain, golden head
 resting on splayed paws.
 He had a ruined car,

and heaps of clothes,
 and things to read--
 was no emblem,

in other words,
 but a citizen,
 who'd built a citizen's

household, even
 on the literal edge,
 while I watched

from my quick,
 high place, hur...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...asting which, my quality
Do lowlier -- appear --

Lest I should insufficient prove
For His beloved Need --
The Chiefest Apprehension
Upon my thronging Mind --

'Tis true -- that Deity to stoop
Inherently incline --
For nothing higher than Itself
Itself can rest upon --

So I -- the undivine abode
Of His Elect Content --
Conform my Soul -- as 'twere a Church,
Unto Her Sacrament --...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...on his wing. 
I named them, as they passed, and understood 
Their nature, with such knowledge God endued 
My sudden apprehension: But in these 
I found not what methought I wanted still; 
And to the heavenly Vision thus presumed. 
O, by what name, for thou above all these, 
Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher, 
Surpassest far my naming; how may I 
Adore thee, Author of this universe, 
And all this good to man? for whose well being 
So amply, and with hands so ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...is children; evil he may be sure, 
Which neither his foreknowing can prevent; 
And he the future evil shall no less 
In apprehension than in substance feel, 
Grievous to bear: but that care now is past, 
Man is not whom to warn: those few escaped 
Famine and anguish will at last consume, 
Wandering that watery desart: I had hope, 
When violence was ceased, and war on earth, 
All would have then gone well; peace would have crowned 
With length of happy days the race of Man; 
B...Read more of this...

by Levertov, Denise
...ties, dreams, concepts,
crimes and the exercise of virtue
in and beside a world devoid
of our preoccupations, free
from apprehension--though affected,
certainly, by our actions. A world
parallel to our own though overlapping.
We call it "Nature"; only reluctantly
admitting ourselves to be "Nature" too.
Whenever we lose track of our own obsessions,
our self-concerns, because we drift for a minute,
an hour even, of pure (almost pure)
response to that insouciant life...Read more of this...

by Drayton, Michael
...me in kind; 
Memoria - As intellectual, it is Memory; 
Ratio - In judging, Reason only is her name; 
Sensus - In speedy apprehension, it is Sense; 
Conscientia - In right or wrong, they call her Conscience; 
Spiritus - The Spirit, when it to Godward doth inflame. 
These of the Soul the several functions be, 
Which my Heart, lighten'd by thy love, doth see....Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...found delight, 
110 Stopping, on voyage, in a land of snakes, 
111 Found his vicissitudes had much enlarged 
112 His apprehension, made him intricate 
113 In moody rucks, and difficult and strange 
114 In all desires, his destitution's mark. 
115 He was in this as other freemen are, 
116 Sonorous nutshells rattling inwardly. 
117 His violence was for aggrandizement 
118 And not for stupor, such as music makes 
119 For sleepers halfway waking. He perceive...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...es, if one word suffice?
Why need I galleries, when a pupil's draught
After the master's sketch, fills and o'erfills
My apprehension? Why should I roam,
Who cannot circumnavigate the sea
Of thoughts and things at home, but still adjourn
The nearest matters to another moon?
Why see new men
Who have not understood the old?...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...t
For the purse of sleek pine-martin pelt,
Ready to ptlt what he gave in her pouch safe,---
Till, either to quicken his apprehension,
Or possibly with an after-intention,
She was come, she said, to pay her duty
To the new Duchess, the youthful beauty.
No sooner had she named his lady,
Than a shine lit up the face so shady,
And its smirk returned with a novel meaning---
For it struck him, the babe just wanted weaning;
If one gave her a taste of what life was and sorrow,
Sh...Read more of this...

by Cowper, William
...ry cranny but the right.
Forth skipp'd the cat, not now replete
As erst with airy self-conceit,
Nor in her own fond apprehension
A theme for all the world's attention,
But modest, sober, cured of all
Her notions hyperbolical,
And wishing for a place of rest
Anything rather than a chest.
Then stepp'd the poet into bed,
With this reflection in his head:MORAL


Beware of too sublime a sense
Of your own worth and consequence.
The man who dreams himself so great,
And h...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...decline. 
My Name is on thy Roll, and sure I must 
Encrease thy gloomy Kingdom in the Dust. 
My soul at this no Apprehension feels, 
But trembles at thy Swords, thy Racks, thy Wheels; 
Thy scorching Fevers, which distract the Sense, 
And snatch us raving, unprepar'd from hence; 
At thy contagious Darts, that wound the Heads 
Of weeping Friends, who wait at dying Beds. 
Spare these, and let thy Time be when it will; 
My Bus'ness is to Dye, and Thine to Kill. 
G...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...br>
Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely
Went to their deaths more proud than this one went.
Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping
I will confess; but that's permitted me;
Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping
Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.
If I had loved you less or played you slyly
I might have held you for a summer more,
But at the cost of words I value highly,
And no such summer as the one before.
Should I outlive this anguish...Read more of this...

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