Famous Bashful Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed

...ibe her Arts
To recollect the scatter'd Parts?
Or show the Anguish, Toil, and Pain,
Of gath'ring up herself again? 
The bashful Muse will never bear
In such a Scene to interfere.
Corinna in the Morning dizen'd,
Who sees, will spew; who smells, be poison'd....Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan


Balin and Balan

...his lad, whose lightest word 
Is mere white truth in simple nakedness, 
Saw them embrace: he reddens, cannot speak, 
So bashful, he! but all the maiden Saints, 
The deathless mother-maidenhood of Heaven, 
Cry out upon her. Up then, ride with me! 
Talk not of shame! thou canst not, an thou would'st, 
Do these more shame than these have done themselves.' 

She lied with ease; but horror-stricken he, 
Remembering that dark bower at Camelot, 
Breathed in a dismal whisper 'It is t...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Dickinson Poems by Number

...—a Sparrow—build there
Sweet of twigs and twine
My perennial nest.

211

Come slowly—Eden!
Lips unused to Thee—
Bashful—sip thy Jessamines—
As the fainting Bee—

Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums—
Counts his nectars—
Enters—and is lost in Balms.

213

Did the Harebell loose her girdle
To the lover Bee
Would the Bee the Harebell hallow
Much as formerly?

Did the "Paradise"—persuaded—
Yield her moat of pearl—
Would the Eden be an Eden,
O...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

from On the Equality of the Sexes Part I

...
Their eager gaze surveys the path of light,
Confessed it stood to Newton's piercing sight,
     Deep science, like a bashful maid retires,
And but the ardent breast her worth inspires;
By perseverance the coy fair is won,
And Genius, led by Study, wears the crown.
     But some there are who wish not to improve,
Who never can the path of knowledge love,
Whose souls almost with the dull body one,
With anxious care each mental pleasure shun.
Weak is the leveled, ener...Read more of this...
by Murray, Judith Sargent

From Pent-up Aching Rivers

...O it, more than all else, you
 delighting!)
—From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day; 
From native moments—from bashful pains—singing them; 
Singing something yet unfound, though I have diligently sought it, many a long year; 
Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random; 
Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeem’d her, the faithful one, even the
 prostitute, who detain’d me when I went to the city;
Singing the song of prostitutes; 
Renascent with grossest N...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Funny -- to be a Century

...ut then -- I'm not so staid -- as He --

He keeps His Secrets safely -- very --
Were He to tell -- extremely sorry
This Bashful Globe of Ours would be --
So dainty of Publicity --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Last Instructions to a Painter

...Surveyed their crystal streams and banks so green 
And beauties ere this never naked seen. 
Through the vain sedge, the bashful nymphs he eyed: 
Bosoms, and all which from themselves they hide. 
The sun much brighter, and the skies more clear, 
He finds the air and all things sweeter here. 
The sudden change, and such a tempting sight 
Swells his old veins with fresh blood, fresh delight. 
Like am'rous victors he begins to shave, 
And his new face looks in the English wave. 
...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Love

...d bending back her head, looked up,
And gazed upon my face.

‘Twas partly love, and partly fear,
And partly ’twas a bashful art,
That I might rather feel, than see,
The swelling of her heart.

I calmed her fears, and she was calm,
And told her love with virgin pride;
And so I won my Genevieve,
My bright and beauteous Bride....Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Love

...nbsp; And gaz'd upon my face.   'Twas partly Love, and partly Fear,  And partly 'twas a bashful Art  That I might rather feel than see    The Swelling of her Heart.   I calm'd her Tears; and she was calm,  And told her love with virgin Pride.  And so I won my Genevieve,    My bright and beauteous Bride! The MAD MOTHER.   Her eye...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

Ode to Reflection

...and mocks Affliction's smart; 
Unmov'd he marks the bitter tear, 
In vain the plaints of woe his thoughts assail, 
The bashful mourner's pitious tale 
Nor melts his flinty soul, nor vibrates on his ear, 

O blest REFLECTION ! let thy magic pow'r 
Awake his torpid sense, his slumb'ring thought, 
Tel1 him ADVERSITY'S unpitied hour 
A brighter lesson gives, than Stoics taught: 
Tell him that WEALTH no blessing can impart 
So sweet as PITY'S tear­that bathes the wounded Heart. 
...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

Rinaldo to Laura Maria

...
Dart from his car the burning ray, 
And rush a hero to the fight, 
Across the pendant plains of light: 
I've seen the bashful Moon aspire 
To bind her brow with mimic fire, 
And o'er the calm translucent air 
Diffusive shake her silver hair. 
I've paus'd enraptur'd at the tone 
That from the Evening Copse is thrown 
By the wild Poet of the glade, 
Who rests his wing beneath the shade, 
And I have prov'd th' unequal bliss 
That burns upon the crimson kiss, 
When true adoring...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

Solitude

...ce
With dreams, or labors, or recalls;
To whom the fate sends friends in score,
Who hides himself by Savior's back
From bashful fools, which lull and bore,
And from the impudent ones, which wake....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander

Song of Myself

...invited—the venerealee is invited: 
There shall be no difference between them and the rest. 

This is the press of a bashful hand—this is the float and odor of hair;
This is the touch of my lips to yours—this is the murmur of yearning; 
This is the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face; 
This is the thoughtful merge of myself, and the outlet again. 

Do you guess I have some intricate purpose? 
Well, I have—for the Fourth-month showers have, and the mica on...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Spontaneous Me

...at only privileged feelers may be
 intimate where they are,
The curious roamer, the hand, roaming all over the body—the bashful withdrawing of
 flesh where the fingers soothingly pause and edge themselves, 
The limpid liquid within the young man, 
The vexed corrosion, so pensive and so painful, 
The torment—the irritable tide that will not be at rest, 
The like of the same I feel—the like of the same in others,
The young man that flushes and flushes, and the young woman that ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Bride Of Corinth

...erns he now

How, in veil and garment white array'd,
With a black and gold band round her brow,

Glides into the room a bashful maid.

But she, at his sight,

Lifts her hand so white,

And appears as though full sore afraid.

"Am I," cries she, "such a stranger here,

That the guest's approach they could not name?
Ah, they keep me in my cloister drear,

Well nigh feel I vanquish'd by my shame.

On thy soft couch now

Slumber calmly thou!

I'll return as swiftly as I came."

"...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

The Deserted Village

...o tire each other down!
The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,
While secret laughter tittered round the place;
The bashful virgin's sidelong look of love,
The matron's glance that would those looks reprove:
These were thy charms, sweet village; sports like these,
With sweet succession, taught even toil to please;
These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,
These were thy charms—But all these charms are fled.

Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sp...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver

The Lady of the Lake

...I lost!'
     XXIV.

     Delightful praise!—like summer rose,
     That brighter in the dew-drop glows,
     The bashful maiden's cheek appeared,
     For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard.
     The flush of shame-faced joy to hide,
     The hounds, the hawk, her cares divide;
     The loved caresses of the maid
     The dogs with crouch and whimper paid;
     And, at her whistle, on her hand
     The falcon took his favorite stand,
     Closed his dark wing, re...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Marriage Of Geraint

...ss love, 
Told Enid, and they saddened her the more: 
And day by day she thought to tell Geraint, 
But could not out of bashful delicacy; 
While he that watched her sadden, was the more 
Suspicious that her nature had a taint. 

At last, it chanced that on a summer morn 
(They sleeping each by either) the new sun 
Beat through the blindless casement of the room, 
And heated the strong warrior in his dreams; 
Who, moving, cast the coverlet aside, 
And bared the knotted column ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Upon Appleton House to My Lord Fairfax

...r would it, had the Tree not fed
A Traitor-worm, within it bred.
(As first our Flesh corrupt within
Tempts impotent and bashful Sin.
And yet that Worm triumphs not long,
But serves to feed the Hewels young.
While the Oake seems to fall content,
Viewing the Treason's Punishment.

Thus I, easie Philosopher,
Among the Birds and Trees confer:
And little now to make me, wants
Or of the Fowles, or of the Plants.
Give me but Wings as they, and I
Streight floting on the Air shall fly...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd

...nk, as where you, sad orb,
Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone. 

9
Sing on, there in the swamp! 
O singer bashful and tender! I hear your notes—I hear your call; 
I hear—I come presently—I understand you; 
But a moment I linger—for the lustrous star has detain’d me;
The star, my departing comrade, holds and detains me. 

10
O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved? 
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone? 
A...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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