Famous Aspirations Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Gods

by Walt Whitman
 1
THOUGHT of the Infinite—the All! 
Be thou my God. 

2
Lover Divine, and Perfect Comrade! 
Waiting, content, invisible yet, but certain, 
Be thou my God.

3
Thou—thou, the Ideal Man! 
Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving, 
Complete in Body, and dilate in Spirit, 
Be thou my God. 

4
O Death—(for Life has served its turn;)
Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion! 
Be thou...Read more of this...

King Trisanku

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Viswamitra the Magician,
By his spells and incantations,
Up to Indra's realms elysian
Raised Trisanku, king of nations. 

Indra and the gods offended
Hurled him downward, and descending
In the air he hung suspended,
With these equal powers contending. 

Thus by aspirations lifted,
By misgivings downward driven,
Human hearts are tossed and drifted
Midway between earth and heaven....Read more of this...

The German Parnassus

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 in the wares before you spread,
Types of all things may be read.

'NEATH the shadow

Of these bushes,
On the meadow

Where the cooling water gushes.
Phoebus gave me, when a boy,
All life's fullness to enjoy.
So, in silence, as the God
Bade them with his sov'reign nod,
Sacred Muses train'd my days
To his praise.--
With the bright and silv'ry flood
Of Parnassus stirr'd my blood,
And the seal so...Read more of this...

Dedication

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 The morn arrived; his footstep quickly scared

The gentle sleep that round my senses clung,
And I, awak'ning, from my cottage fared,

And up the mountain side with light heart sprung;
At every step I felt my gaze ensnared

By new-born flow'rs that full of dew-drops hung;
The youthful day awoke with ecstacy,
And all things quicken'd were, to quicken me.

And as I mounted, from the...Read more of this...

An answer to Various Bards

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Well, I've waited mighty patient while they all came rolling in, 
Mister Lawson, Mister Dyson, and the others of their kin, 
With their dreadful, dismal stories of the Overlander's camp, 
How his fire is always smoky, and his boots are always damp; 
And they paint it so terrific it would fill one's soul with gloom -- 
But you know...Read more of this...

Night on The Prairies

by Walt Whitman
 NIGHT on the prairies; 
The supper is over—the fire on the ground burns low; 
The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blankets: 
I walk by myself—I stand and look at the stars, which I think now I never realized
 before.


Now I absorb immortality and peace,
I admire death, and test propositions. 

How plenteous! How spiritual! How resumé! 
The same Old...Read more of this...

Mystic Trumpeter The

by Walt Whitman
 1
HARK! some wild trumpeter—some strange musician, 
Hovering unseen in air, vibrates capricious tunes to-night. 

I hear thee, trumpeter—listening, alert, I catch thy notes, 
Now pouring, whirling like a tempest round me, 
Now low, subdued—now in the distance lost.

2
Come nearer, bodiless one—haply, in thee resounds 
Some dead composer—haply thy pensive life 
Was fill’d with aspirations high—unform’d ideals, 
Waves, oceans musical,...Read more of this...

Prayer of Columbus

by Walt Whitman
 A BATTER’D, wreck’d old man, 
Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home, 
Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months, 
Sore, stiff with many toils, sicken’d, and nigh to death, 
I take my way along the island’s edge,
Venting a heavy heart. 

I am too full of woe! 
Haply, I may not live another day;...Read more of this...

O Star of France

by Walt Whitman
 1
O STAR of France! 
The brightness of thy hope and strength and fame, 
Like some proud ship that led the fleet so long, 
Beseems to-day a wreck, driven by the gale—a mastless hulk; 
And ’mid its teeming, madden’d, half-drown’d crowds,
Nor helm nor helmsman. 

2
Dim, smitten star! 
Orb not of France alone—pale symbol of my soul, its dearest hopes, 
The...Read more of this...

Desiderata

by Max Ehrmann
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the...Read more of this...

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