Famous Ashamed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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O Khayyam! Time is ashamed of him who allows his

by Omar Khayyam
O Khayyam! Time is ashamed of him who allows his
heart to be saddened by vicissitudes below; drink, then,
to the sound of the harp, drink some wine from the
crystal, before the crystal broken be upon a stone.
342...Read more of this...

Kinky

by Denise Duhamel
 They decide to exchange heads.
Barbie squeezes the small opening under her chin 
over Ken's bulging neck socket. His wide jaw line jostles
atop his girlfriend's body, loosely,
like one of those novelty dogs
destined to gaze from the back windows of cars.
The two dolls chase each other around the orange Country Camper 
unsure what they'll do when they're within touching distance. 
Ken...Read more of this...

The Cornfields

by Vachel Lindsay
 The cornfields rise above mankind, 
Lifting white torches to the blue, 
Each season not ashamed to be 
Magnificently decked for you. 

What right have you to call them yours, 
And in brute lust of riches burn 
Without some radiant penance wrought, 
Some beautiful, devout return?...Read more of this...

52. Epitaph on John Rankine

by Robert Burns
 AE day, as Death, that gruesome carl,
Was driving to the tither warl’
A mixtie-maxtie motley squad,
And mony a guilt-bespotted lad—
Black gowns of each denomination,
And thieves of every rank and station,
From him that wears the star and garter,
To him that wintles in a halter:
Ashamed himself to see the wretches,
He mutters, glowrin at the bitches,
“By G—d I’ll not be seen behint them,
Nor...Read more of this...

The Albatross

by Charles Baudelaire
 Often, to amuse themselves, the crew of the ship
Would fell an albatross, the largest of sea birds,
Indolent companions of their trip
As they slide across the deep sea's bitters.

Scarcely had they dropped to the plank
Than these blue kings, maladroit and ashamed
Let their great white wings sink
Like an oar dragging under the water's plane.

The winged visitor, so awkward and weak!
So recently...Read more of this...

What Soft -- Cherubic Creatures

by Emily Dickinson
 What Soft -- Cherubic Creatures --
These Gentlewomen are --
One would as soon assault a Plush --
Or violate a Star --

Such Dimity Convictions --
A Horror so refined
Of freckled Human Nature --
Of Deity -- ashamed --

It's such a common -- Glory --
A Fisherman's -- Degree --
Redemption -- Brittle Lady --
Be so -- ashamed of Thee --...Read more of this...

To Mr James Scrymgeour Dundee

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Success to James Scrymgeour,
He's a very good man,
And to gainsay it,
There's few people can; 

Because he makes the hearts
Of the poor o'erjoyed
By trying to find work for them
When they're unemployed. 

And to their complaints
He has always an attentive ear,
And ever ready to help them
When unto him they draw near. 

And no matter what your occupation is.
Or what is your...Read more of this...

Do not be ashamed

by Wendell Berry
 You will be walking some night
in the comfortable dark of your yard
and suddenly a great light will shine
round about you, and behind you
will be a wall you never saw before.
It will be clear to you suddenly
that you were about to escape,
and that you are guilty: you misread
the complex instructions, you are not
a member, you lost your card
or never had...Read more of this...

An Epitaph

by Walter de la Mare
 ENOUGH; and leave the rest to Fame! 
'Tis to commend her, but to name. 
Courtship which, living, she declined, 
When dead, to offer were unkind: 
Nor can the truest wit, or friend, 
Without detracting, her commend. 

To say--she lived a virgin chaste 
In this age loose and all unlaced; 
Nor was, when vice is so allowed, 
Of virtue or...Read more of this...

Trickle Drops

by Walt Whitman
 TRICKLE, drops! my blue veins leaving! 
O drops of me! trickle, slow drops, 
Candid, from me falling—drip, bleeding drops, 
From wounds made to free you whence you were prison’d, 
From my face—from my forehead and lips,
From my breast—from within where I was conceal’d—press forth, red drops—confession drops;

Stain every page—stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops;...Read more of this...

I am ashamed -- I hide

by Emily Dickinson
 I am ashamed -- I hide --
What right have I -- to be a Bride --
So late a Dowerless Girl --
Nowhere to hide my dazzled Face --
No one to teach me that new Grace --
Nor introduce -- my Soul --

Me to adorn -- How -- tell --
Trinket -- to make Me beautiful --
Fabrics of Cashmere --
Never a Gown of...Read more of this...

Grandpa Is Ashamed

by Ogden Nash
 A child need not be very clever
To learn that "Later, dear" means "Never."...Read more of this...

Lillies in the Fire

by D. H. Lawrence
I

Ah, you stack of white lilies, all white and gold,
I am adrift as a sunbeam, and without form
Or having, save I light on you to warm
Your pallor into radiance, flush your cold

White beauty into incandescence: you
Are not a stack of white lilies to-night, but a white
And clustered star transfigured by me to-night,
And lighting these ruddy leaves like a star dropped...Read more of this...

I cannot be ashamed

by Emily Dickinson
 I cannot be ashamed
Because I cannot see
The love you offer --
Magnitude
Reverses Modesty

And I cannot be proud
Because a Height so high
Involves Alpine
Requirements
And Services of Snow....Read more of this...

Her Losses make our Gains ashamed --

by Emily Dickinson
 Her Losses make our Gains ashamed --
She bore Life's empty Pack
As gallantly as if the East
Were swinging at her Back.
Life's empty Pack is heaviest,
As every Porter knows --
In vain to punish Honey --
It only sweeter grows....Read more of this...

Contrast

by Robert William Service
 "Carry your suitcase, Sir?" he said.
I turned away to hide a grin,
For he was shorter by a head
Than I and pitiably thin.
I could have made a pair of him,
So with my load I stoutly legged;
But his tenacity was grim:
"Please let me help you, sir," he begged.

I could not shake the fellow off,
So let him shoulder my valise;
He tottered with...Read more of this...

Archibald Higbie

by Edgar Lee Masters
 I loathed you, Spoon River. I tried to rise above you,
I was ashamed of you. I despised you
As the place of my nativity.
And there in Rome, among the artists,
Speaking Italian, speaking French,
I seemed to myself at times to be free
Of every trace of my origin.
I seemed to be reaching the heights of art
And to breathe the air that the...Read more of this...

A Vindication

by Li Po
 If heaven loved not the wine,
A Wine Star would not be in heaven;
If earth loved not the wine,
The Wine Spring would not be on the earth.
Since heaven and earth love the wine,
Need a tippling mortal be ashamed?
The transparent wine, I hear,
Has the soothing virtue of a sage,
While the turgid is rich, they say,
As the fertile mind of the wise.
Both...Read more of this...

To One that Desired Me Not to Name Him

by Ben Jonson
LXXVII. ? TO ONE THAT DESIRED ME NOT TO NAME HIM.          Be safe, nor fear thyself so good a fame,  That, any way, my book should speak thy name :  For, if thou shame, rank’d with my friends, to go,  I am more ashamed to have thee thought my foe. ...Read more of this...

For every Bird a Nest

by Emily Dickinson
 For every Bird a Nest --
Wherefore in timid quest
Some little Wren goes seeking round --

Wherefore when boughs are free --
Households in every tree --
Pilgrim be found?

Perhaps a home too high --
Ah Aristocracy!
The little Wren desires --

Perhaps of twig so fine --
Of twine e'en superfine,
Her pride aspires --

The Lark is not ashamed
To build upon the ground
Her modest house --

Yet who...Read more of this...

Art not ashamed to give thyself to corruption?—to

by Omar Khayyam
Art not ashamed to give thyself to corruption?—to
neglect thus both what is commanded and what is forbidden?
Even if you succeed in appropriating all the
goods of the earth to yourself, what can you do with
them except to abandon them in your turn?...Read more of this...

Perhaps you think me stooping

by Emily Dickinson
 Perhaps you think me stooping
I'm not ashamed of that
Christ -- stooped until He touched the Grave --
Do those at Sacrament

Commemorative Dishonor
Or love annealed of love
Until it bend as low as Death
Redignified, above?...Read more of this...

So proud she was to die

by Emily Dickinson
 So proud she was to die
It made us all ashamed
That what we cherished, so unknown
To her desire seemed --
So satisfied to go
Where none of us should be
Immediately -- that Anguish stooped
Almost to Jealousy --...Read more of this...

Pilates Wifes Dream

by Charlotte Bronte
 I've quenched my lamp, I struck it in that start
Which every limb convulsed, I heard it fall­
The crash blent with my sleep, I saw depart
Its light, even as I woke, on yonder wall;
Over against my bed, there shone a gleam
Strange, faint, and mingling also with my dream. 

It sunk, and I am wrapt in utter gloom; 
How far is...Read more of this...

Bastard

by Robert William Service
 The very skies wee black with shame,
As near my moment drew;
The very hour before you cam
I felt I hated you.

But now I see how fair you are,
How divine your eyes,
It seems I step upon a star
To leap to Paradise.

What care I who your father was:
('Twas better no to know);

You're mine and mine alone because
I love and love you so.

What...Read more of this...

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