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Famous Brightened Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Verhaeren, Emile
...Alas! the days of the crimson phlox and of the proud roses that brightened its gates are far away, but however faded and withered it may be—what matters!—I love our garden still with all my heart.
Its distress is sometimes dearer and sweeter to me than was its gladness in the burning summer days. Oh! the last perfume slowly rendered up by its last flower on its last mosses!
I wandered this evening among its winding pat...Read more of this...



by Dyke, Henry Van
...walks,
There's a voice that talks
Of the human hopes that bloomed and withered here
Year by year,--
Dreams of joy, that brightened all the labouring hours,
Fading as the flowers.

Yet the whispered story does not deepen grief;
But relief
For the loneliness of sorrow seems to flow
From the Long-Ago,
When I think of other lives that learned, like mine,
To resign,
And remember that the sadness of the fall
Comes alike to all.

What regrets, what longings for the lost were...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...unconcern.
Their spirits looked upon my torture;
They drank it as it were the water of life;
With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes,
The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt,
Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.
And they cried to me for life, life, life.
But in taking life for myself,
In seizing and crushing their souls,
As a child crushes grapes and drinks
From its palms the purple juice,
I came to this wingless void,
Where ne...Read more of this...

by Hughes, Ted
...of himself

And attacked. 

At his battle cry trees grew suddenly old, 
Shadows flattened. 

But the sun brightened-
It brightened, and Crow returned charred black. 

He opened his mouth but what came out was charred black. 

"Up there," he managed, 
"Where white is black and black is white, I won." ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...e shining river darkens 
When the clouds drop shadows on it!
"When thou smilest, my beloved, 
Then my troubled heart is brightened, 
As in sunshine gleam the ripples 
That the cold wind makes in rivers.
"Smiles the earth, and smile the waters, 
Smile the cloudless skies above us, 
But I lose the way of smiling 
When thou art no longer near me!
"I myself, myself! behold me! 
Blood of my beating heart, behold me! 
Oh awake, awake, beloved! 
Onaway! awake, beloved!"
Thus the...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...nail of the hand. 

For it was broad, thick and strong so as to serve for defence as well as ornament. 

For it brightened to the Glory of God, which came upon the human face at morning prayer. 

For it was largest and brightest in the best men. 

For it was taken away all at once from all of them. 

For this was done in the divine contempt of a general pusillanimity. 

For this happened in a season after their return from the Babylonish captivity....Read more of this...

by Riley, James Whitcomb
...high above them, gleaming bright,
The dear old flag remained in sight,
And lighted up their dying eyes
With smiles that brightened paradise.
O Liberty, it is thy power
To gladden us in every hour
Of gloom, and lead us by thy hand
As little children through a land
Of bud and blossom; while the days
Are filled with sunshine, and thy praise
Is warbled in the roundelays
Of joyous birds, and in the song
Of waters, murmuring along
The paths of peace, whose flowery fringe
Has ro...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...nicorns, the eyes of aquamarine,
The quivering half-closed eyelids, the rags of cloud or of lace,
Or eyes that rage has brightened, arms it has made lean,
Give place to an indifferent multitude, give place
To brazen hawks. Nor self-delighting reverie,
Nor hate of what's to come, nor pity for what's gone,
Nothing but grip of claw, and the eye's complacency,
The innumerable clanging wings that have put out the moon.

I turn away and shut the door, and on the stair
Wonde...Read more of this...

by Doty, Mark
...Over the terminal,
 the arms and chest
 of the god

brightened by snow.
 Formerly mercury,
 formerly silver,

surface yellowed
 by atmospheric sulphurs
 acid exhalations,

and now the shining
 thing's descendant.
 Obscure passages,

dim apertures:
 these clouded windows
 show a few faces

or some empty car's
 filmstrip of lit flames
 --remember them

from school,
 how they were supposed
 to teach us s...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...d souls in vision,
And the keen ecstasy of faded strife,
And divination of the loss as gain,
And reading mysteries with brightened eyes
In fiery shock and dazzling pain before
The orient splendour of the face of Death,
As a great light beside a shadowy sea;
And in a high will's strenuous exercise,
Where the warmed spirit finds its fullest strength
And is no more afraid, and in the stroke
Of azure lightning when the hidden essence
And shifting meaning of man's spiritual worth
...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...joy alone, 
Or, all enjoying, what contentment find? 
Thus I presumptuous; and the Vision bright, 
As with a smile more brightened, thus replied. 
What callest thou solitude? Is not the Earth 
With various living creatures, and the air 
Replenished, and all these at thy command 
To come and play before thee? Knowest thou not 
Their language and their ways? They also know, 
And reason not contemptibly: With these 
Find pastime, and bear rule; thy realm is large. 
So sp...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...I stood upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch
Was glorious with the sun's returning march,
And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.
The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light,
They gathered mid-way round the wooded height,
And, in their fading glory, shone
Like hosts in battle overthrown.
As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance.
Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance,
And rocking on the cliff...Read more of this...

by Goldsmith, Oliver
...calm desires that asked but little room,
Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene,
Lived in each look, and brightened all the green;
These, far departing, seek a kinder shore,
And rural mirth and manners are no more.

Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour,
Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power.
Here as I take my solitary rounds,
Amidst thy tangling walks and ruined grounds,
And, many a year elapsed, return to view
Where once the cottage stood,...Read more of this...

by Russell, George William
...s:
The heavenly city we could mark,
Its mountain light, its jewel dark,
Its pinnacles and starry piles.


The glory brightened: “Do not fear;
For we are real, though what seems
So proudly built above the waves
Is but one mighty spirit’s dreams.


“Our Father’s house hath many fanes;
Yet enter not and worship not,
For thought but follows after thought
Till last consuming self it wanes.


“The Fount of Shadowy Beauty flings
Its glamour o’er the light of day:
A music...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...
Now their broad black beaks they lifted,
Now they plunged beneath the water,
Now they darkened in the shadow,
Now they brightened in the sunshine.
"Pishnekuh!" cried Pau-Puk-Keewis,
"Pishnekuh! my brothers!" said he,
"Change me to a brant with plumage,
With a shining neck and feathers,
Make me large, and make me larger,
Ten times larger than the others."
Straightway to a brant they changed him,
With two huge and dusky pinions,
With a bosom smooth and rounded,
With a ...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...ve never deemed it sin to gladden
This vale of sorrows with a wholesome laugh.

If word of mine another's gloom has brightened,
Through my dumb lips the heaven-sent message came;
If hand of mine another's task has lightened,
It felt the guidance that it dares not claim.

But, O my gentle sisters, O my brothers,
These thick-sown snow-flakes hint of toil's release;
These feebler pulses bid me leave to others
The tasks once welcome; evening asks for peace.

Time clai...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...mebody's bank; 
And I feel satisfaction that mother is free 
From the sinister task of attending to me. 

They have brightened our room, that is spacious and cool, 
With diagrams used in the Idiot School, 
And Books for the Blind that will teach us to see; 
But mother is happy, for mother is free. 
For mother is dancing up forty-eight floors, 
For love of the Leeds International Stores, 
And the flame of that faith might perhaps have grown cold, 
With the care of a ba...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...r man stood before him and stretched forth his hand for alms. As he looked at the beggar, his lips parted, his eyes brightened with a softness, and his face radiated kindness. It was as if the yesterday he had lamented by the lake had come to greet him. He embraced the pauper with affection and filled his hands with gold, and with a voice sincere with the sweetness of love he said, "Come back tomorrow and bring with you your fellow sufferers. All your possessi...Read more of this...

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