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Famous Begins Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...ona's oaks, 
In sacred grove give prophecy no more. 
Th' infernal deities retire abash'd, 
Our God himself on earth begins his reign; 
Pure revelation beams on ev'ry land, 
On ev'ry heart exerts a sov'reign sway, 
And makes the human nature grow divine. 


Now hideous war forgets one half her rage, 
And smoothes her visage horible to view. 
Celestial graces better sooth the soul, 
Than vocal music, or the charming sound 
Of harp or lyre. More than the golden l...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...
And sweetly melt into just Shade and Light,
When mellowing Years their full Perfection give,
And each Bold Figure just begins to Live;
The treach'rous Colours the fair Art betray,
And all the bright Creation fades away!

Unhappy Wit, like most mistaken Things,
Attones not for that Envy which it brings.
In Youth alone its empty Praise we boast,
But soon the Short-liv'd Vanity is lost!
Like some fair Flow'r the early Spring supplies,
That gaily Blooms, but ev'n in blooming...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...it was like this. 
Some tales will have a deal of going back .
In them before they are begun. But this one 
Begins in the beginning—when he came. 
I was a boy at school, sixteen years old, 
And on my way, in all appearances, 
To mark an even-tempered average
Among the major mediocrities 
Who serve and earn with no especial noise 
Or vast reward. I saw myself, even then, 
A light for no high shining; and I feared 
No boy or man—having, in truth, no cause.Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ing to me,
And all my story that much passion slew me;
Do smile upon the evening of my days:
And, for my tortur'd brain begins to craze,
Be thou my nurse; and let me understand
How dying I shall kiss that lily hand.--
Dost weep for me? Then should I be content.
Scowl on, ye fates! until the firmament
Outblackens Erebus, and the full-cavern'd earth
Crumbles into itself. By the cloud girth
Of Jove, those tears have given me a thirst
To meet oblivion."--As her he...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...or its skin. 
the pond is waiting for its leather. 
The pond is waiting for December and its Novocain. 

It begins: 

Interrogator: 
What can you say of your last seven days? 

Anne: 
They were tired. 

Interrogator: 
One day is enough to perfect a man. 

Anne: 
I watered and fed the plant. 

* 

My undertaker waits for me. 
he is probably twenty-three now, 
learning his trade. 
He'll stitch up the gren, 
he'll fasten the bones down 
lest they ...Read more of this...



by Keats, John
...here, one there,
Lay vast and edgeways; like a dismal cirque
Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor,
When the chill rain begins at shut of eve,
In dull November, and their chancel vault,
The Heaven itself, is blinded throughout night.
Each one kept shroud, nor to his neighbour gave
Or word, or look, or action of despair.
Creus was one; his ponderous iron mace
Lay by him, and a shatter'd rib of rock
Told of his rage, ere he thus sank and pined.
Iapetus another; in h...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...whom they weigh 
May hear the rest, nor venture to gainsay 
The wondrous tale no doubt thy tongue can tell, 
Which thus begins courteously and well. 
Let Otho cherish here his polish'd guest, 
To him my thanks and thoughts shall be express'd." 
And here their wondering host hath interposed — 
"Whate'er there be between you undisclosed, 
This is no time nor fitting place to mar 
The mirthful meeting with a wordy war. 
If thou, Sir Ezzelin, hast ought to show 
Which...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...n 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. 
His sporting navy all about him swim 
And witness their complacence in their trim. 
Their streaming silks play through the weather fair 
And with inveigling colours court the air, 
While the red flags breathe on their topmasts high 
Terror and war, but want an enemy. 
Among the shroud...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...appears, and from the walls of Heaven 
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, 
As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 
With tumult less and with less hostile din; 
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 
Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; 
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...sacred silence to be heard; 
And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun 
Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins 
His other half in the great zone of Heaven. 
Thus Adam made request; and Raphael, 
After short pause assenting, thus began. 
High matter thou enjoinest me, O prime of men, 
Sad task and hard: For how shall I relate 
To human sense the invisible exploits 
Of warring Spirits? how, without remorse, 
The ruin of so many glorious once 
And perfect...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...nimals, mountains, trees; 
With inscrutable purpose—some hidden, prophetic intention; 
Now, first, it seems, my thought begins to span thee. 

Down from the gardens of Asia, descending, radiating, 
Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning, curious—with restless explorations, 
With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish—with never-happy hearts, 
With that sad, incessant refrain, Wherefore, unsatisfied Soul? and Whither, O
 mocking
 ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...y any, and the best rule to all who
endeavour to write Tragedy. The circumscription of time wherein
the whole Drama begins and ends, is according to antient rule, and
best example, within the space of 24 hours.



The ARGUMENT.


Samson made Captive, Blind, and now in the Prison at Gaza, there
to labour as in a common work-house, on a Festival day, in the
general cessation from labour, comes forth into the open Air, to a
place nigh, somewhat retir'd there to sit a...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...m's blood?

"Meeting may be of war-men,
Where the best war-man wins;
But all this carrion a man shoots
Before the fight begins."

And stopping in his onward strides,
He snatched a bow in scorn
From some mean slave, and bent it on
Colan, whose doom grew dark; and shone
Stars evil over Caerleon,
In the place where he was born.

For Colan had not bow nor sling,
On a lonely sword leaned he,
Like Arthur on Excalibur
In the battle by the sea.

To his great gold ear-ring...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...d we shall find  A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.   And hark! the Nightingale begins its song  "Most musical, most melancholy" [4] Bird!  A melancholy Bird? O idle thought!  In nature there is nothing melancholy.  —But some night wandering Man, whose heart was pierc'd  With the remembrance of a grievous wrong,  Or slow distemper or neglected love,&...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...led the bench into the settle, 
I banged the table on the kettle, 
I sent Joe's quart of cider spinning. 
"Lo, here begins my second inning." 
Each bottle, mug, and jug and pot 
I smashed to crocks in half a tot; 
And Joe, and Si, and Nick, and Percy 
I rolled together topsy versy. 
And as I ran I heard 'em call, 
"Now damn to hell, what's gone with Saul?" 
Out into street I ran uproarious 
The devil dancing in me glorious. 
And as I ran I yell and shriek 
"Co...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...s short and brain is dry.
5.67 My Almond-tree (gray hairs) doth flourish now,
5.68 And back, once straight, begins apace to bow.
5.69 My grinders now are few, my sight doth fail,
5.70 My skin is wrinkled, and my cheeks are pale.
5.71 No more rejoice, at music's pleasant noise,
5.72 But do awake at the cock's clanging voice.
5.73 I cannot scent savours of pleasant meat,
5.74 Nor sapors find in what I drink or eat.
5.75 My...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...'s neither horse nor man abroad,  And Betty's still at Susan's side.   And Susan she begins to fear  Of sad mischances not a few,  That Johnny may perhaps be drown'd,  Or lost perhaps, and never found;  Which they must both for ever rue.   She prefaced half a hint of this  With, "God forbid it should be true!"  At the first word that Susa...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...Iyres,
     Nor one of all the race was known
     But prized its weal above their own.
     With the Chief's birth begins our care;
     Our harp must soothe the infant heir,
     Teach the youth tales of fight, and grace
     His earliest feat of field or chase;
     In peace, in war, our rank we keep,
     We cheer his board, we soothe his sleep,
     Nor leave him till we pour our verse—
     A doleful tribute!—o'er his hearse.
     Then let me share his capti...Read more of this...

by Thomson, James
...ft-gliding, sweep along the Sky.
All Nature reels. -- But hark! the Almighty speaks:
Instant, the chidden Storm begins to pant,
And dies, at once, into a noiseless Calm.

AS yet, 'tis Midnight's Reign; the weary Clouds, 
Slow-meeting, mingle into solid Gloom:
Now, while the drousy World lies lost in Sleep,
Let me associate with the low-brow'd Night,
And Contemplation, her sedate Compeer;
Let me shake off th'intrusive Cares of Day,
And lay the medling Senses all as...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...n
of Nineteen City Churches (P. S. King & Son, Ltd.).
266. The Song of the (three) Thames-daughters begins here.
From line 292 to 306 inclusive they speak in turn.
V. Gutterdsammerung, III. i: the
Rhine-daughters.
279. V. Froude, Elizabeth, Vol. I, ch. iv,
letter of De Quadra
to Philip of Spain:
"In the afternoon we were in a barge, watching the games on the river.
(The queen) was alone with Lord Robert and myself on...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things