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Best Famous Renounce Poems

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Written by Adrienne Rich | Create an image from this poem

Stepping Backward

 Good-by to you whom I shall see tomorrow,
Next year and when I'm fifty; still good-by.
This is the leave we never really take.
If you were dead or gone to live in China The event might draw your stature in my mind.
I should be forced to look upon you whole The way we look upon the things we lose.
We see each other daily and in segments; Parting might make us meet anew, entire.
You asked me once, and I could give no answer, How far dare we throw off the daily ruse, Official treacheries of face and name, Have out our true identity? I could hazard An answer now, if you are asking still.
We are a small and lonely human race Showing no sign of mastering solitude Out on this stony planet that we farm.
The most that we can do for one another Is let our blunders and our blind mischances Argue a certain brusque abrupt compassion.
We might as well be truthful.
I should say They're luckiest who know they're not unique; But only art or common interchange Can teach that kindest truth.
And even art Can only hint at what disturbed a Melville Or calmed a Mahler's frenzy; you and I Still look from separate windows every morning Upon the same white daylight in the square.
And when we come into each other's rooms Once in awhile, encumbered and self-conscious, We hover awkwardly about the threshold And usually regret the visit later.
Perhaps the harshest fact is, only lovers-- And once in a while two with the grace of lovers-- Unlearn that clumsiness of rare intrusion And let each other freely come and go.
Most of us shut too quickly into cupboards The margin-scribbled books, the dried geranium, The penny horoscope, letters never mailed.
The door may open, but the room is altered; Not the same room we look from night and day.
It takes a late and slowly blooming wisdom To learn that those we marked infallible Are tragi-comic stumblers like ourselves.
The knowledge breeds reserve.
We walk on tiptoe, Demanding more than we know how to render.
Two-edged discovery hunts us finally down; The human act will make us real again, And then perhaps we come to know each other.
Let us return to imperfection's school.
No longer wandering after Plato's ghost, Seeking the garden where all fruit is flawless, We must at last renounce that ultimate blue And take a walk in other kinds of weather.
The sourest apple makes its wry announcement That imperfection has a certain tang.
Maybe we shouldn't turn our pockets out To the last crumb or lingering bit of fluff, But all we can confess of what we are Has in it the defeat of isolation-- If not our own, then someone's, anyway.
So I come back to saying this good-by, A sort of ceremony of my own, This stepping backward for another glance.
Perhaps you'll say we need no ceremony, Because we know each other, crack and flaw, Like two irregular stones that fit together.
Yet still good-by, because we live by inches And only sometimes see the full dimension.
Your stature's one I want to memorize-- Your whole level of being, to impose On any other comers, man or woman.
I'd ask them that they carry what they are With your particular bearing, as you wear The flaws that make you both yourself and human.


Written by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot | Create an image from this poem

Ash Wednesday

 I

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is
nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still.
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
II Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree In the cool of the day, having fed to sateity On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained In the hollow round of my skull.
And God said Shall these bones live? shall these Bones live? And that which had been contained In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping: Because of the goodness of this Lady And because of her loveliness, and because She honours the Virgin in meditation, We shine with brightness.
And I who am here dissembled Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions Which the leopards reject.
The Lady is withdrawn In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them.
As I am forgotten And would be forgotten, so I would forget Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose.
And God said Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only The wind will listen.
And the bones sang chirping With the burden of the grasshopper, saying Lady of silences Calm and distressed Torn and most whole Rose of memory Rose of forgetfulness Exhausted and life-giving Worried reposeful The single Rose Is now the Garden Where all loves end Terminate torment Of love unsatisfied The greater torment Of love satisfied End of the endless Journey to no end Conclusion of all that Is inconclusible Speech without word and Word of no speech Grace to the Mother For the Garden Where all love ends.
Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other, Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand, Forgetting themselves and each other, united In the quiet of the desert.
This is the land which ye Shall divide by lot.
And neither division nor unity Matters.
This is the land.
We have our inheritance.
III At the first turning of the second stair I turned and saw below The same shape twisted on the banister Under the vapour in the fetid air Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears The deceitul face of hope and of despair.
At the second turning of the second stair I left them twisting, turning below; There were no more faces and the stair was dark, Damp, jaggèd, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair, Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.
At the first turning of the third stair Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown, Lilac and brown hair; Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair, Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair Climbing the third stair.
Lord, I am not worthy Lord, I am not worthy but speak the word only.
IV Who walked between the violet and the violet Whe walked between The various ranks of varied green Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour, Talking of trivial things In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour Who moved among the others as they walked, Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour, Sovegna vos Here are the years that walk between, bearing Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring With a new verse the ancient rhyme.
Redeem The time.
Redeem The unread vision in the higher dream While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.
The silent sister veiled in white and blue Between the yews, behind the garden god, Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down Redeem the time, redeem the dream The token of the word unheard, unspoken Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew And after this our exile V If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the centre of the silent Word.
O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Where shall the word be found, where will the word Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence Not on the sea or on the islands, not On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land, For those who walk in darkness Both in the day time and in the night time The right time and the right place are not here No place of grace for those who avoid the face No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice Will the veiled sister pray for Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee, Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray For children at the gate Who will not go away and cannot pray: Pray for those who chose and oppose O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Will the veiled sister between the slender Yew trees pray for those who offend her And are terrified and cannot surrender And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks In the last desert before the last blue rocks The desert in the garden the garden in the desert Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.
O my people.
VI Although I do not hope to turn again Although I do not hope Although I do not hope to turn Wavering between the profit and the loss In this brief transit where the dreams cross The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying (Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things From the wide window towards the granite shore The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying Unbroken wings And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices And the weak spirit quickens to rebel For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell Quickens to recover The cry of quail and the whirling plover And the blind eye creates The empty forms between the ivory gates And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth This is the time of tension between dying and birth The place of solitude where three dreams cross Between blue rocks But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden, Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still Even among these rocks, Our peace in His will And even among these rocks Sister, mother And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea, Suffer me not to be separated And let my cry come unto Thee.
Written by Anne Bronte | Create an image from this poem

Music on Christmas Morning

 Music I love -­ but never strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine -­
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
Upon the wintry breezes borne.
Though Darkness still her empire keep, And hours must pass, ere morning break; From troubled dreams, or slumbers deep, That music kindly bids us wake: It calls us, with an angel's voice, To wake, and worship, and rejoice; To greet with joy the glorious morn, Which angels welcomed long ago, When our redeeming Lord was born, To bring the light of Heaven below; The Powers of Darkness to dispel, And rescue Earth from Death and Hell.
While listening to that sacred strain, My raptured spirit soars on high; I seem to hear those songs again Resounding through the open sky, That kindled such divine delight, In those who watched their flocks by night.
With them, I celebrate His birth -­ Glory to God, in highest Heaven, Good-will to men, and peace on Earth, To us a Saviour-king is given; Our God is come to claim His own, And Satan's power is overthrown! A sinless God, for sinful men, Descends to suffer and to bleed; Hell must renounce its empire then; The price is paid, the world is freed, And Satan's self must now confess, That Christ has earned a Right to bless: Now holy Peace may smile from heaven, And heavenly Truth from earth shall spring: The captive's galling bonds are riven, For our Redeemer is our king; And He that gave his blood for men Will lead us home to God again.
Written by John Donne | Create an image from this poem

Elegy VI

 Oh, let me not serve so, as those men serve
Whom honour's smokes at once fatten and starve;
Poorly enrich't with great men's words or looks;
Nor so write my name in thy loving books
As those idolatrous flatterers, which still
Their Prince's styles, with many realms fulfil
Whence they no tribute have, and where no sway.
Such services I offer as shall pay Themselves, I hate dead names: Oh then let me Favourite in Ordinary, or no favourite be.
When my soul was in her own body sheathed, Nor yet by oaths betrothed, nor kisses breathed Into my Purgatory, faithless thee, Thy heart seemed wax, and steel thy constancy: So, careless flowers strowed on the waters face The curled whirlpools suck, smack, and embrace, Yet drown them; so, the taper's beamy eye Amorously twinkling beckons the giddy fly, Yet burns his wings; and such the devil is, Scarce visiting them who are entirely his.
When I behold a stream which, from the spring, Doth with doubtful melodious murmuring, Or in a speechless slumber, calmly ride Her wedded channels' bosom, and then chide And bend her brows, and swell if any bough Do but stoop down, or kiss her upmost brow: Yet, if her often gnawing kisses win The traiterous bank to gape, and let her in, She rusheth violently, and doth divorce Her from her native, and her long-kept course, And roars, and braves it, and in gallant scorn, In flattering eddies promising retorn, She flouts the channel, who thenceforth is dry; Then say I, That is she, and this am I.
Yet let not thy deep bitterness beget Careless despair in me, for that will whet My mind to scorn; and Oh, love dulled with pain Was ne'er so wise, nor well armed as disdain.
Then with new eyes I shall survey thee, and spy Death in thy cheeks, and darkness in thine eye.
Though hope bred faith and love: thus taught, I shall, As nations do from Rome, from thy love fall.
My hate shall outgrow thine, and utterly I will renounce thy dalliance: and when I Am the recusant, in that resolute state, What hurts it me to be excommunicate?
Written by Vachel Lindsay | Create an image from this poem

Our Mother Pocahontas

 (Note: — Pocahontas is buried at Gravesend, England.
) "Pocahontas' body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in November or a pawpaw in May — did she wonder? does she remember — in the dust — in the cool tombs?" CARL SANDBURG.
I Powhatan was conqueror, Powhatan was emperor.
He was akin to wolf and bee, Brother of the hickory tree.
Son of the red lightning stroke And the lightning-shivered oak.
His panther-grace bloomed in the maid Who laughed among the winds and played In excellence of savage pride, Wooing the forest, open-eyed, In the springtime, In Virginia, Our Mother, Pocahontas.
Her skin was rosy copper-red.
And high she held her beauteous head.
Her step was like a rustling leaf: Her heart a nest, untouched of grief.
She dreamed of sons like Powhatan, And through her blood the lightning ran.
Love-cries with the birds she sung, Birdlike In the grape-vine swung.
The Forest, arching low and wide Gloried in its Indian bride.
Rolfe, that dim adventurer Had not come a courtier.
John Rolfe is not our ancestor.
We rise from out the soul of her Held in native wonderland, While the sun's rays kissed her hand, In the springtime, In Virginia, Our Mother, Pocahontas.
II She heard the forest talking, Across the sea came walking, And traced the paths of Daniel Boone, Then westward chased the painted moon.
She passed with wild young feet On to Kansas wheat, On to the miners' west, The echoing cañons' guest, Then the Pacific sand, Waking, Thrilling, The midnight land.
.
.
.
On Adams street and Jefferson — Flames coming up from the ground! On Jackson street and Washington — Flames coming up from the ground! And why, until the dawning sun Are flames coming up from the ground? Because, through drowsy Springfield sped This red-skin queen, with feathered head, With winds and stars, that pay her court And leaping beasts, that make her sport; Because, gray Europe's rags august She tramples in the dust; Because we are her fields of corn; Because our fires are all reborn From her bosom's deathless embers, Flaming As she remembers The springtime And Virginia, Our Mother, Pocahontas.
III We here renounce our Saxon blood.
Tomorrow's hopes, an April flood Come roaring in.
The newest race Is born of her resilient grace.
We here renounce our Teuton pride: Our Norse and Slavic boasts have died: Italian dreams are swept away, And Celtic feuds are lost today.
.
.
.
She sings of lilacs, maples, wheat, Her own soil sings beneath her feet, Of springtime And Virginia, Our Mother, Pocahontas.


Written by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi | Create an image from this poem

This is to Love

This is love: to fly to heaven, every moment to rend a hundred veils; At first instance, to break away from breath – first step, to renounce feet; To disregard this world, to see only that which you yourself have seen I said,

  “Heart, congratulations on entering the circle of lovers, “On gazing beyond the range of the eye, on running into the alley of the breasts.
” Whence came this breath, O heart? Whence came this throbbing, O heart? Bird, speak the tongue of birds: I can heed your cipher! The heart said, “I was in the factory whilst the home of water and clay was abaking.
“I was flying from the workshop whilst the workshop was being created.
“When I could no more resist, they dragged me; how shall I tell the manner of that dragging?”

“Mystical Poems of Rumi 1?, A.
J.
Arberry The University of Chicago Press, 1968

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Written by Erica Jong | Create an image from this poem

Middle Aged Lovers II

 You open to me
a little,
then grow afraid
and close again,
a small boy
fearing to be hurt,
a toe stubbed
in the dark,
a finger cut
on paper.
I think I am free of fears, enraptured, abandoned to the call of the Bacchae, my own siren, tied to my own mast, both Circe and her swine.
But I too am afraid: I know where life leads.
The impulse to join, to confess all, is followed by the impulse to renounce, and love-- imperishable love-- must die, in order to be reborn.
We come to each other tentatively, veterans of other wars, divorce warrants in our hands which we would beat into blossoms.
But blossoms will not withstand our beatings.
We come to each other with hope in our hands-- the very thing Pandora kept in her casket when all the ills and woes of the world escaped.
Written by Emily Dickinson | Create an image from this poem

I taste a liquor never brewed

 I taste a liquor never brewed --
From Tankards scooped in Pearl --
Not all the Vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of Air -- am I --
And Debauchee of Dew --
Reeling -- thro endless summer days --
From inns of Molten Blue --

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door --
When Butterflies -- renounce their "drams" --
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats --
And Saints -- to windows run --
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the -- Sun --
Written by Mary Darby Robinson | Create an image from this poem

The Adieu to Love

 LOVE, I renounce thy tyrant sway,
I mock thy fascinating art,
MINE, be the calm unruffled day,
That brings no torment to the heart; 
The tranquil mind, the noiseless scene, 
Where FANCY, with enchanting mien, 
Shall in her right-hand lead along 
The graceful patroness of Song;
Where HARMONY shall softly fling 
Her light tones o'er the dulcet string; 
And with her magic LYRE compose 
Each pang that throbs, each pulse that glows; 
Till her resistless strains dispense, 
The balm of blest INDIFFERENCE.
LOVE, I defy thy vaunted pow'r! In still Retirement's sober bow'r I'll rest secure;­no fev'rish pain Shall dart its hot-shafts thro' my brain, No start'ling dreams invade my mind No spells my stagnate pulses bind; No jealous agonies impart Their madd'ning poisons to my heart But sweetly lull'd to placid rest, The sensate tenant of my breast Shall one unshaken course pursue, Such as thy vot'ries never knew.
­ SWEET SOLITUDE ! pure Nature's child, Fair pensive daughter of the wild; Nymph of the Forest; thee I press My weary sick'ning soul to bless; To give my heart the dear repose, That smiles unmov'd at transient woes; That shelter'd from Life's trivial cares, Each calm delicious comfort shares; While conscious rectitude of mind, Blends with each thought a bliss refin'd, And scorning fear's soul-chilling pow'r, Dares court REFLECTION'S dang'rous hour, To scrutinize with cautious art, Each hidden channel of the heart.
­ Ah, gentle maiden, let me stray, Where Innocence for ever gay, Shall lead me to her loveliest bow'rs And crown my brow with thornless flow'rs; And strew the weedy paths of time With Resignation's balm sublime; While Rosy SPRING, shall smiling haste, On light steps o'er the dewy waste, Eager her brightest gems to shed Around my verdant perfum'd bed; And in her train the glowing hours Shall bathe their wings in scented show'rs; And shake the fost'ring drops to earth, To nurse meek blossoms into birth; And when autumnal zephyrs fly Sportive, beneath the sapphire sky, Or in the stream their pinions lave, Or teach the golden sheaves to wave; I'll watch the ruby eye of day In awful lustre glide away, And closing sink to transient rest, On panting Ocean's pearly breast.
O SOLITUDE ! how blest the lot Of her who shares thy silent cot! Who with celestial peace, pursues The pensive wand'rings of the MUSE; To stray unseen where'er she leads, O'er grassy hills and sunny meads, Or at the still of Night's cold noon To gaze upon the chilly Moon, While PHILOMELA'S mournful Song Meanders fairy haunts among, To tell the hopeless LOVER'S ear, That SYMPATHY'S FOND BIRD is near; Whose note shall soothe his aching heart, Whose grief shall emulate his smart; And by its sadly proud excess, Make every pang he suffers less; For oft in passion's direst woes, The veriest wretch can yield repose; While from the voice of kindred grief, We gain a sad, but kind relief.
AH LOVE! thou barb'rous fickle boy, Thou semblance of delusive joy, Too long my heart has been thy slave: For thou hast seen me wildly rave, And with impetuous frenzy haste, Heedless across the thorny waste, And drink the cold dews, ere they fell On my bare bosom's burning swell; When bleak the wintry whirlwinds blew; And swift the sultry meteors flew; Yes, thou hast seen me, tyrant pow'r, At freezing midnight's witching hour, Start from my couch, subdu'd, oppres'd, While jealous anguish wrung my breast, While round my eager senses flew, Dark brow'd Suspicion's wily crew, Taunting my soul with restless ire, That set my pulsate brain on fire.
What didst thou then ? Inhuman Boy! Didst thou not paint each well-feign'd joy, Each artful smile, each study'd grace That deck'd some sordid rival's face; Didst thou not feed my madd'ning sense With Love's delicious eloquence, While on my ear thy accents pour'd The voice of him my soul ador'd, His rapt'rous tones­his strains divine, And all those vows that once were mine.
But mild Reflection's piercing ray, Soon chas'd the fatal dream away, And with it all my rending woes, While in its place majestic rose The Angel TRUTH !­her stedfast mien Bespoke the conscious breast serene; Her eye more radiant than the day Beam'd with persuasion's temper'd ray; Sweet was her voice, and while she sung Myriads of Seraphs hover'd round, Eager to iterate the sound, That on her heav'n-taught accents hung.
Wond'ring I gaz'd! my throbbing breast, Celestial energies confest; Transports, before unfelt, unknown, Throng'd round my bosom's tremb'ling throne, While ev'ry nerve with rapture strange, Seem'd to partake the blissful change.
Now with unmov'd and dauntless Eye, I mark thy winged arrows fly; No more thy baneful spells shall bind The purer passions of my mind; No more, false Love, shall jealous fears Inflame my check with scalding tears; Or shake my vanquish'd sense, or rend My aching heart with poignant throes, Or with tumultuous fevers blend, Self-wounding, visionary woes.
­ No more I'll waste the midnight hour In expectation's silent bow'r; And musing o'er thy transcripts dear, Efface their sorrows with a tear.
No more with timid fondness wait Till morn unfolds her glitt'ring gate, When thy lov'd song's seraphic sound, Wou'd on my quiv'ring nerves rebound With proud delight;­no more thy blush Shall o'er my cheek unbidden rush, And scorning ev'ry strong controul, Unveil the tumults of my soul.
No more when in retirement blest, Shalt thou obtrude upon my rest; And tho' encircled with delight, Absorb my sense, obscure my sight, Give to my eye the vacant glance, The mien that marks the mental trance; The fault'ring tone­the sudden start, The trembling hand, the bursting heart; The devious step, that strolls along Unmindful of the gazing throng; The feign'd indiff'rence prone to chide; That blazons­what it seeks to hide.
Nor do I dread thy vengeful wiles, Thy soothing voice, thy winning smiles, Thy trick'ling tear, thy mien forlorn, Thy pray'r, thy sighs, thy oaths I scorn; No more on ME thy arrows show'r, Capricious Love­! I BRAVE THY POW'R.
Written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Create an image from this poem

FINNISH SONG

 IF the loved one, the well-known one,
Should return as he departed,
On his lips would ring my kisses,
Though the wolf's blood might have dyed them;
And a hearty grasp I'd give him,
Though his finger-ends were serpents.
Wind! Oh, if thou hadst but reason, Word for word in turns thou'dst carry, E'en though some perchance might perish 'Tween two lovers so far distant.
All choice morsels I'd dispense with, Table-flesh of priests neglect too, Sooner than renounce my lover, Whom, in Summer having vanquish'd, I in Winter tamed still longer.
1810.

Book: Shattered Sighs