Famous Beauties Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Drink wine, my friend, for see it makes the perspiration

by Omar Khayyam
Drink wine, my friend, for see it makes the perspiration
flow upon the cheeks of the beauties of Rhei, the
most beautiful creatures in the world! Oh! how long
shall I repeat it to you? Yes, I have broken the
bonds of all my vows. Is it not better to break the
bonds of a thousand vows than to break a pitcher of
wine?...Read more of this...

Pirates' Song

by Victor Hugo
 ("Nous emmenions en esclavage.") 
 
 {VIII., March, 1828.} 


 We're bearing fivescore Christian dogs 
 To serve the cruel drivers: 
 Some are fair beauties gently born, 
 And some rough coral-divers. 
 We hardy skimmers of the sea 
 Are lucky in each sally, 
 And, eighty strong, we send along 
 The dreaded Pirate Galley. 
...Read more of this...

The Litany Of Nations

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 CHORUS

If with voice of words or prayers thy sons may reach thee,
We thy latter sons, the men thine after-birth,
We the children of thy grey-grown age, O Earth,
O our mother everlasting, we beseech thee,
By the sealed and secret ages of thy life;
By the darkness wherein grew thy sacred forces;
By the songs of stars thy sisters in their courses;
By thine own...Read more of this...

O rose! all beauties' charms thou dost excel,

by Omar Khayyam
O rose! all beauties' charms thou dost excel,
As wine excels the pearl within its shell;
O fortune! thou dost ever show thyself
More strange, although I seem to know thee well!...Read more of this...

The Origin of the Harp

by Thomas Moore
 Tis believed that this Harp, which I wake now for thee 
Was a Siren of old, who sung under the sea; 
And who often, at eve, through the bright waters roved, 
To meet, on the green shore, a youth whom she loved. 

But she loved him in vain, for he left her to weep, 
And in tears, all the...Read more of this...

My Mistress Commanding Me to Return Her Letters

by Thomas Carew
 SO grieves th' adventurous merchant, when he throws 
All the long toil'd-for treasure his ship stows 
Into the angry main, to save from wrack 
Himself and men, as I grieve to give back 
These letters : yet so powerful is your sway 
As if you bid me die, I must obey. 
Go then, blest papers, you shall kiss those...Read more of this...

At Loafing-holt

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Since I left the city's heat
For this sylvan, cool retreat,
High upon the hill-side here
Where the air is clean and clear,
I have lost the urban ways.[Pg 264]
Mine are calm and tranquil days,
Sloping lawns of green are mine,
Clustered treasures of the vine;
Long forgotten plants I know,
Where the best wild berries grow,
Where the greens and grasses sprout,
When the elders blossom out.
Now...Read more of this...

i shall imagine life

by Edward Estlin (E E) Cummings
i shall imagine life

is not worth dying if
(and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain

but though mankind persuades
itself that every weed's
a rose roses(you feel
certain)will only smile...Read more of this...

The Talking Oak

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Once more the gate behind me falls; 
Once more before my face 
I see the moulder'd Abbey-walls, 
That stand within the chace. 

Beyond the lodge the city lies, 
Beneath its drift of smoke; 
And ah! with what delighted eyes 
I turn to yonder oak. 

For when my passion first began, 
Ere that, which in me burn'd, 
The love, that...Read more of this...

Sonnet XII

by William Shakespeare
 When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly...Read more of this...

To A. L. Persuasions to Love

by Thomas Carew
 THINK not, 'cause men flattering say
You're fresh as April, sweet as May,
Bright as is the morning star,
That you are so ; or, though you are,
Be not therefore proud, and deem
All men unworthy your esteem :
For, being so, you lose the pleasure
Of being fair, since that rich treasure
Of rare beauty and sweet feature
Was bestow'd on you by nature
To be enjoy'd...Read more of this...

Descriptive Jottings of London

by William Topaz McGonagall
 As I stood upon London Bridge and viewed the mighty throng
Of thousands of people in cabs and 'busses rapidly whirling along,
All furiously driving to and fro,
Up one street and down another as quick as they could go: 

Then I was struck with the discordant sound of human voices there,
Which seemed to me like wild geese cackling in the air:
And...Read more of this...

Sonnet XL

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XL. Quella per cui con Sorga ho cangiat' Arno. HE ATTEMPTS TO PAINT HER BEAUTIES, BUT NOT HER VIRTUES.  She, for whose sake fair Arno I resign,And for free poverty court-affluence spurn,Has known to sour the precious sweets to turnOn which I lived, for which I burn and pine.Though since,...Read more of this...

The Bonnie Sidlaw Hills

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Bonnie Clara, will you go to the bonnie Sidlaw hills
And pu' the blooming heather, and drink from their rills?
There the cranberries among the heather grow,
Believe me, dear Clara, as black as the crow. 

Chorus --

Then, bonnie Clara, will you go
And wander with me to and fro?
And with joy our hearts will o'erflow
When we go to the bonnie Sidlaws O....Read more of this...

The Sorrows of the Blind

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Pity the sorrows of the poor blind,
For they can but little comfort find;
As they walk along the street,
They know not where to put their feet.
They are deprived of that earthly joy
Of seeing either man, woman, or boy;
Sad and lonely through the world they go,
Not knowing a friend from a foe:
Nor the difference betwixt day and night,
For the want of...Read more of this...

Apology To Delia: For Desiring A Lock Of Her Hair

by William Cowper
 Delia, the unkindest girl on earth,
When I besought the fair,
That favour of intrinsic worth
A ringlet of her hair,

Refused that instant to comply
With my absurd request,
For reasons she could specify,
Some twenty score at least.

Trust me, my dear, however odd
It may appear to say,
I sought it merely to defraud
Thy spoiler of his prey.

Yes! when its sister locks shall fade,
As quickly fade...Read more of this...

Spring Beauties

by Ruth Stone
The abandoned campus,
empty brick buildings and early June
when you came to visit me;
crossing the states midway,
the straggled belts of little roads;
hitchhiking with your portable typewriter.
The campus, an academy of trees,
under which some hand, the wind's I guess,
had scattered the pale light
of thousands of spring beauties,
petals stained with pink veins;
secret, blooming for themselves.
We sat among them.
Your long fingers, thin body,
and long...Read more of this...

The Task: Book I The Sofa (excerpts)

by William Cowper
 Thou know'st my praise of nature most sincere,
And that my raptures are not conjur'd up
To serve occasions of poetic pomp,
But genuine, and art partner of them all.
How oft upon yon eminence our pace
Has slacken'd to a pause, and we have borne
The ruffling wind, scarce conscious that it blew,
While admiration, feeding at the eye,
And still unsated, dwelt upon the scene.
Thence...Read more of this...

Dream Song 118: He wondered: Do I love? all this applause

by John Berryman
 He wondered: Do I love? all this applause,
young beauties sitting at my feet & all,
and all.
It tires me out, he pondered: I'm tempted to break laws
and love myself, or the stupid questions asked me
move me to homicide-”

so many beauties, one on either side,
the wall's behind me, into which I crawl
out of my repeating voice-”
the mike folds down, the foolish...Read more of this...

Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear

by William Shakespeare
 Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
These vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
Of mouthèd graves will give thee memory,
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know
Time's thievish progress to eternity.
Look what thy memory cannot contain,
Commit...Read more of this...

Balcony

by Charles Baudelaire
 MOTHER of memories, mistress of mistresses, 
O thou, my pleasure, thou, all my desire, 
Thou shalt recall the beauty of caresses, 
The charm of evenings by the gentle fire, 
Mother of memories, mistress of mistresses! 

The eves illumined by the burning coal, 
The balcony where veiled rose-vapour clings-- 
How soft your breast was then, how sweet your soul! 
Ah,...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXXVII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XXXVII. Il mio avversario, in cui veder solete. LAURA AT HER LOOKING-GLASS.  My foe, in whom you see your own bright eyes,Adored by Love and Heaven with honour due,With beauties not its own enamours you,Sweeter and happier than in mortal guise.Me, by its counsel, lady, from your breast,My chosen...Read more of this...

In Umbria

by Jack Gilbert
 Once upon a time I was sitting outside the cafe
watching twilight in Umbria when a girl came
out of the bakery with the bread her mother wanted.
She did not know what to do. Already bewildered
by being thirteen and just that summer a woman,
she now had to walk past the American.
But she did fine. Went by and around the corner
with style,...Read more of this...

To The Sad Moon

by Sir Philip Sidney
 With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What! May it be that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case:
I read it in thy looks; thy languished grace
To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.
Then,...Read more of this...

Sonnet XVI: In Nature Apt

by Sir Philip Sidney
 In nature apt to like when I did see 
Beauties, which were of many carats fine, 
My boiling sprites did thither soon incline, 
And, Love, I thought that I was full of thee: 

But finding not those restless flames in me, 
Which others said did make their souls to pine, 
I thought those babes of some pin's hurt did...Read more of this...

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