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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Well I Have Lost You

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;
In my own way, and with my full consent.
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...Read more of this...

My Worthiness is all my Doubt --

by Emily Dickinson
 My Worthiness is all my Doubt --
His Merit -- all my fear --
Contrasting 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...Read more of this...

Faith

by George Herbert
 Lord, how couldst thou so much appease
Thy wrath for sin, as when man's sight was dim, 
And could see little, to regard his ease, 
And bring by Faith all things to him? 

Hungry I was, and had no meat: 
I did conceit a most delicious feast; 
I had it straight, and did as truly eat, 
As ever did a...Read more of this...

Sojourns in the Parallel World

by Denise Levertov
 We live our lives of human passions,
cruelties, 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...Read more of this...

The Days Ration

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 When I was born,
From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice,
Saying, This be thy portion, child; this chalice,
Less than a lily's, thou shalt daily draw
From my great arteries; nor less, nor more.
All substances the cunning chemist Time
Melts down into that liquor of my life,
Friends, foes, joys, fortunes, beauty, and disgust,
And whether I am angry or content,
Indebted or...Read more of this...

A Hermit Thrush

by Amy Clampitt
 Nothing's certain. Crossing, on this longest day, 
the low-tide-uncovered isthmus, scrambling up 
the scree-slope of what at high tide
will be again an island,

to where, a decade since well-being staked 
the slender, unpremeditated claim that brings us 
back, year after year, lugging the 
makings of another picnic—

the cucumber sandwiches, the sea-air-sanctified
fig newtons—there's no knowing what the slamming 
seas, the gales...Read more of this...

girl (three) and the black horse

by Rg Gregory
 i want to hold the horse's string
cried the girl (three) stamping her foot
told by adults she was much too young
the black horse stood staring at the wall

it worries us you may get hurt
the adults whispered - meaning to offer
comfort to the little madam (not convinced)
the black horse stood staring at the wall

i'm stronger than any old black horse
the child...Read more of this...

To Death

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 O King of Terrors, whose unbounded Sway 
All that have Life, must certainly Obey; 
The King, the Priest, the Prophet, all are Thine, 
Nor wou'd ev'n God (in Flesh) thy Stroke 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...Read more of this...

Sonnet XII: That Learned Father

by Michael Drayton
 To the Soul

That learned Father, who so firmly proves 
The Soul of man immortal and divine, 
And doth the several offices define: 
Anima - Gives her that name, as she the Body moves; 
Amor - Then is she Love, embracing charity; 
Animus - Moving a Will in us, it is the Mind 
Mens - Retaining knowledge, still the same...Read more of this...

An Apprehension

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 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 knowledge; I should fear
Some...Read more of this...

Metro North

by Mark Doty
 Over the terminal,
 the arms and chest
 of the god

brightened by snow.
 Formerly mercury,
 formerly silver,

surface yellowed
 by atmospheric sulphurs
 acid exhalations,

and now the shining
 thing's descendant.
 Obscure passages,

dim apertures:
 these clouded windows
 show a few faces

or some empty car's
 filmstrip of lit flames
 --remember them

from school,
 how they were supposed
 to teach us something?--

waxy light hurrying
 inches away...Read more of this...

The Retired Cat

by William Cowper
 A poet's cat, sedate and grave
As poet well could wish to have,
Was much addicted to inquire
For nooks to which she might retire,
And where, secure as mouse in chink,
She might repose, or sit and think.
I know not where she caught the trick--
Nature perhaps herself had cast her
In such a mould [lang f]philosophique[lang e],
Or else she learn'd it of her master.
Sometimes...Read more of this...

Air has no Residence no Neighbor

by Emily Dickinson
 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...

Memorabilia of Last Week

by Thomas Moore
 Monday, March 13, 1826 

The Budget - quite charming and witty - no hearing,
For plaudits and laughs, the good things that were in it; --
Great comfort to find, though the Speech isn't cheering,
That all its gay auditors were, every minute.

What, still more prosperity! - mercy upon us,
"This boy'll be the death of me" - oft as, already,
Such smooth Budgeteers...Read more of this...

Destiny

by Gregory Corso
 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 telephone

When the Messenger-Spirit

comes to your door

though locked

It'll enter like an electric midwife

and...Read more of this...

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