Famous Basking Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Light Woman

...assions, (love, in chief)
 "And be loyal to one's friends!"

 IX.

And she,—she lies in my hand as tame
 As a pear late basking over a wall;
Just a touch to try and off it came;
 'Tis mine,—can I let it fall?

 X.

With no mind to eat it, that's the worst!
 Were it thrown in the road, would the case assist?
'Twas quenching a dozen blue-flies' thirst
 When I gave its stalk a twist.

 XI.

And I,—what I seem to my friend, you see:
 What I soon shall seem to his love, you guess:...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert


Autumn Perspective

...er,
and looking for the Good Life we have made.

I see myself then: tense, solemn,
in high-heeled shoes that pinch,
not basking in the light of goals fulfilled,
but looking back to now and seeing
a lazy, sunburned, sandaled girl
in a bare room, full of promise
and feeling envious.

Now we plan, postponing, pushing our lives forward
into the future--as if, when the room
contains us and all our treasured junk
we will have filled whatever gap it is
that makes us wander, disconte...Read more of this...
by Jong, Erica

Bridge Over The Aire Book 5

...der the

Giant red, green and yellow umbrellas of Monet.



In the Aire’s clear waters salmon dart and

Giant trout are basking in the sun;

There is abundant clay for potters’ wheels

With haptic stone for sculptors’ hands

And the surrounding water is lapis lazuli and ochre.



The steps to the moorings have been carved

Out of indigenous rock and the bridge itself,

Arch by arch, was made of Hunslet iron and brought

On drays two hundred yards from the foundry where

They ...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Goblin Market

...pples
Russet and dun,
Bob at our cherries
Bite at our peaches,
Citrons and dates,
Grapes for the asking,
Pears red with basking
Out in the sun,
Plums on their twigs;
Pluck them and suck them,
Pomegranates, figs."

"Good folk," said Lizzie,
Mindful of Jeanie,
"Give me much and many"; --
Held out her apron,
Tossed them her penny.
"Nay, take a seat with us,
Honor and eat with us,"
They answered grinning;
"Our feast is but beginning.
Night yet is early,
Warm and dew-pearly,
Wakef...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

Honors - Part I

...e would smite her wings;—
"Go there, I say; stand at the water's brink,
  And shoals of spotted barbel you shall see
Basking between the shadows—look, and think
      'This beauty is for me;
"'For me this freshness in the morning hours,
  For me the water's clear tranquillity;
For me the soft descent of chestnut flowers;
      The cushat's cry for me.
"'The lovely laughter of the wind-swayed wheat
  The easy slope of yonder pastoral hill;
The sedgy brook whereby th...Read more of this...
by Ingelow, Jean


Letter to S.S. from Mametz Wood

...rn to smile 
With easier lips; we’ll stretch our legs, 
And live on bilberry tart and eggs,
And store up solar energy, 
Basking in sunshine by the sea, 
Until we feel a match once more 
For anything but another war. 

So then we’ll kiss our families,
And sail across the seas 
(The God of Song protecting us) 
To the great hills of Caucasus. 
Robert will learn the local bat 
For billeting and things like that,
If Siegfried learns the piccolo 
To charm the people as we go. 

The...Read more of this...
by Graves, Robert

My Last Will

...ast, you have never done 
Since you first beheld the sun: 
If you came upon your own 
Blind to light and deaf to tone, 
Basking in the great release 
Of unconsciousness and peace, 
You would never, while you live, 
Shatter what you cannot give; 
-- Faithful to the watch you keep, 
You would never break their sleep. 

Clouds will sail and winds will blow 
As they did an age ago 
O'er us who lived in little towns 
Underneath the Berkshire downs. 
When at heart you shall be sad,...Read more of this...
by Raleigh, Sir Walter

Mystic Trumpeter The

...ss, the moist air, and the roses; 
Thy song expands my numb’d, imbonded spirit—thou freest, launchest me, 
Floating and basking upon Heaven’s lake.

4
Blow again, trumpeter! and for my sensuous eyes, 
Bring the old pageants—show the feudal world. 

What charm thy music works!—thou makest pass before me, 
Ladies and cavaliers long dead—barons are in their castle halls—the troubadours
 are
 singing; 
Arm’d knights go forth to redress wrongs—some in quest of the Holy Grail:
I se...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Ode to Valour

...
Thy glorious attributes have shone!
Thy influence soothes the soldier's pain, 
Whether beneath the freezing pole, 
Or basking in the torrid zone, 
Upon the barren thirsty plain. 
Led by thy firm and daring hand, 
O'er wastes of snow, o'er burning sand, 
INTREPID TARLETON chas'd the foe, 
And smil'd in DEATH's grim face, and brav'd his with'ring blow! 

When late on CALPE's rock, stern VICT'RY stood, 
Hurling swift vengeance o'er the bounding flood; 
Each winged bolt illum'd...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

Poem of Joys

...r’d boat—We row toward our prey, where he lies,
We approach, stealthy and silent—I see the mountainous mass, lethargic, basking, 
I see the harpooneer standing up—I see the weapon dart from his vigorous arm: 
O swift, again, now, far out in the ocean, the wounded whale, settling, running to
 windward,
 tows me; 
—Again I see him rise to breathe—We row close again, 
I see a lance driven through his side, press’d deep, turn’d in the wound,
Again we back off—I see him settle aga...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Ryton Firs

...
That was the last hail-storm to trouble spring:
He came in gloomy haste,
Pusht in front of the white clouds quietly basking,
In such a hurry he tript against the hills 
And stumbling forward spilt over his shoulders 
All his black baggage held,
Streaking downpour of hail.
Then fled dismayed, and the sun in golden glee
And the high white clouds laught down his dusky ghost.

For all that's left of winter
Is moisture in the ground.
When I came down the valley last,...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles

The Arbour

...years
As one mild, beaming, autumn day; 

And soaring on to future scenes,
Like hills and woods, and valleys green,
All basking in the summer's sun,
But distant still, and dimly seen. 

Oh, list! 'tis summer's very breath
That gently shakes the rustling trees -­
But look! the snow is on the ground -­
How can I think of scenes like these? 

'Tis but the frost that clears the air,
And gives the sky that lovely blue;
They're smiling in a winter's sun,
Those evergreens of sombre ...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Anne

The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde

...purple cup."
But Sister Clotilde said nothing at all,
She looked up and down the old grey wall
To see if a lizard were basking there.
She looked across the garden to where
A sycamore
Flanked the garden door.
She was restless, although her little feet danced,
And quite unsatisfied, for it chanced
Her morning's work had hung in her mind
And would not take form. She could not find
The beautifulness
For the Virgin's dress.
Should it be of pink, or damasked blue?
Or perhaps lilac...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Burden Of Itys

...g butterflies that take
Yon creamy lily for their pavilion
Are monsignores, and where the rushes shake
A lazy pike lies basking in the sun,
His eyes half shut, - he is some mitred old
Bishop in PARTIBUS! look at those gaudy scales all green and gold.

The wind the restless prisoner of the trees
Does well for Palaestrina, one would say
The mighty master's hands were on the keys
Of the Maria organ, which they play
When early on some sapphire Easter morn
In a high litter red as ...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The English Flag

...fold o'er the dying, adrift in a hopeless sea;
I have hurled it swift on the slaver, and seen the slave set free.

"My basking sunfish know it, and wheeling albatross,
Where the lone wave fills with fire beneath the Southern Cross.
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my reefs to dare,
Ye have but my seas to furrow. Go forth, for it is there!"

The East Wind roared: -- "From the Kuriles, the Bitter Seas, I come,
And me men call the Home-Wind, for I bring the English home...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Female of the Species

...us accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
'...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Growth of Love

...age inn provides. 

38
An idle June day on the sunny Thames,
Floating or rowing as our fancy led,
Now in the high beams basking as we sped,
Now in green shade gliding by mirror'd stems;
By lock and weir and isle, and many a spot
Of memoried pleasure, glad with strength and skill,
Friendship, good wine, and mirth, that serve not ill 
The heavenly Muse, tho' she requite them not: 
I would have life--thou saidst--all as this day,
Simple enjoyment calm in its excess,
With not a g...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Progress of Spring

...ir silent tops 
The steaming marshes of the scarlet cranes, 
The slant seas leaning oll the mangrove copse, 
And summer basking in the sultry plains 
About a land of canes; 

'Then from my vapour-girdle soaring forth 
I scaled the buoyant highway of the birds, 
And drank the dews and drizzle of the North, 
That I might mix with men, and hear their words 
On pathway'd plains; for--while my hand exults 
Within the bloodless heart of lowly flowers 
To work old laws of Love to fr...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Voices in the Dream (Ryton Firs)

...
That was the last hail-storm to trouble spring:
He came in gloomy haste,
Pusht in front of the white clouds quietly basking,
In such a hurry he tript against the hills
And stumbling forward spilt over his shoulders
All his black baggage held,
Streaking downpour of hail.
Then fled dismayed, and the sun in golden glee
And the high white clouds laught down his dusky ghost.

For all that's left of winter
Is moisture in the ground.
When I came down the valley last, t...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles

two crocodiles gossip by the banks of the thames at abingdon

...two old lazy crocodiles are basking by the water
they get round to talk about the macdonalds' daughter

gemini gemini
have you ever set eyes on young stephanie

jiminy jiminy
who lives here in abingdon - the one who is two

gemini gemini
everyone knows she's a smart one that stephanie

jiminy jiminy
oh ever so smart - there's just nothing she can't do

gemini gemini
so smart - she coul...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

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