Famous By The Hour Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Hour of the King

by George William Russell
 WHO would think this quiet breather
From the world had taken flight?
Yet within the form we see there
Wakes the Golden King to-night.


Out upon the face of faces
He looked forth before his sleep:
Now he knows the starry races
Haunters of the ancient deep.


On the Bird of Diamond Glory
Floats in mystic floods of song:
As he lists Time’s triple story
Seems but as a day...Read more of this...

Hast Never Come to Thee an Hour

by Walt Whitman
 HAST never come to thee an hour, 
A sudden gleam divine, precipitating, bursting all these bubbles, fashions, wealth? 
These eager business aims—books, politics, art, amours, 
To utter nothingness?...Read more of this...

This that would greet -- an hour ago --

by Emily Dickinson
 This that would greet -- an hour ago --
Is quaintest Distance -- now --
Had it a Guest from Paradise --
Nor glow, would it, nor bow --

Had it a notice from the Noon
Nor beam would it nor warm --
Match me the Silver Reticence --
Match me the Solid Calm --...Read more of this...

The Hour Before Dawn

by William Butler Yeats
 A cursing rogue with a merry face,
A bundle of rags upon a crutch,
Stumbled upon that windy place
Called Cruachan, and it was as much
As the one sturdy leg could do
To keep him upright while he cursed.
He had counted, where long years ago
Queen Maeve's nine Maines had been nursed,
A pair of lapwings, one old sheep,
And not a house to the plain's...Read more of this...

Villanelle: The Psychological Hour

by Ezra Pound
 I had over prepared the event,
that much was ominous.
With middle-ageing care
I had laid out just the right books.
I had almost turned down the pages.

Beauty is so rare a thing.
So few drink of my fountain.

So much barren regret,
So many hours wasted!
And now I watch, from the window,
the rain, the wandering busses.

"Their little cosmos is shaken" - 
the air is alive...Read more of this...

The Hour of Twilight

by George William Russell
 WHEN the unquiet hours depart
And far away their tumults cease,
Within the twilight of the heart
We bathe in peace, are stilled with peace.


The fire that slew us through the day
For angry deed or sin of sense
Now is the star and homeward ray
To us who bow in penitence.


We kiss the lips of bygone pain
And find a secret sweet in them:
The thorns...Read more of this...

From This Hour the Pledge is Given

by Thomas Moore
 From this hour the pledge is given, 
From this hour my soul is thine: 
Come what will, from earth of heaven, 
Weal or woe, thy fate be mine. 
When the proud and great stood by thee, 
None dared thy rights to spurn; 
And if now they're false and fly thee, 
Shall I, too, falsely turn? 
No; -- whate'er the...Read more of this...

Farewell! -- But Whenever You Welcome the Hour

by Thomas Moore
 Farewell! but whenever you welcome the hour 
That awakens the night-song of mirth in your bower, 
Then think of the friend who once welcomed it too, 
And forgot his own griefs to be happy with you. 
His griefs may return, not a hope may remain 
Of the few that have brighten'd his pathway of pain, 
But he ne'er will...Read more of this...

The Happiest Day The Happiest Hour

by Edgar Allan Poe
 The happiest day- the happiest hour
My sear'd and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride and power,
I feel hath flown.

Of power! said I? yes! such I ween;
But they have vanish'd long, alas!
The visions of my youth have been-
But let them pass.

And, pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may even inherit
The venom thou hast pour'd on me
Be...Read more of this...

To wait an Hour -- is long --

by Emily Dickinson
 To wait an Hour -- is long --
If Love be just beyond --
To wait Eternity -- is short --
If Love reward the end --...Read more of this...

At That Hour

by James Joyce
 At that hour when all things have repose, 
O lonely watcher of the skies, 
Do you hear the night wind and the sighs 
Of harps playing unto Love to unclose 
The pale gates of sunrise? 

When all things repose, do you alone 
Awake to hear the sweet harps play 
To Love before him on his way, 
And the night...Read more of this...

An Hour is a Sea

by Emily Dickinson
 An Hour is a Sea
Between a few, and me --
With them would Harbor be --...Read more of this...

Neer Ask the Hour

by Thomas Moore
 Ne'er ask the hour -- what is it to us 
How Time deals out his treasures? 
The golden moments lent us thus 
Are not his coin, but Pleasure's. 
If counting them o'er could add to their blisses, 
I'd number each glorious second: 
But moments of joy are, like Lesbia's kisses, 
Too quick and sweet to be reckon'd. 
Then fill...Read more of this...

Skunk Hour

by Robert Lowell
(for Elizabeth Bishop)

Nautilus Island's hermit
heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage;
her sheep still graze above the sea.
Her son's a bishop. Her farmer
is first selectman in our village;
she's in her dotage.

Thirsting for
the hierarchic privacy
of Queen Victoria's century
she buys up all
the eyesores facing her shore
and lets them fall.

The season's ill--
we've lost our summer millionaire
who seemed to leap from an L....Read more of this...

Oh honey of an hour

by Emily Dickinson
 Oh, honey of an hour,
I never knew thy power,
Prohibit me
Till my minutest dower,
My unfrequented flower,
Deserving be....Read more of this...

Solemn Hour

by Rainer Maria Rilke
 Whoever now weeps somewhere in the world,
weeps without reason in the world,
weeps over me.

Whoever now laughs somewhere in the night,
laughs without reason in the night,
laughs at me.

Whoever now wanders somewhere in the world,
wanders without reason out in the world,
wanders toward me.

Whoever now dies somewhere in the world,
dies without reason in the world,
looks at me....Read more of this...

My Hour

by Robert William Service
 Day after day behold me plying
My pen within an office drear;
The dullest dog, till homeward hieing,
Then lo! I reign a king of cheer.
A throne have I of padded leather,
A little court of kiddies three,
A wife who smiles whate'er the weather,
A feast of muffins, jam and tea.

The table cleared, a romping battle,
A fairy tale, a "Children, bed,"
A kiss, a hug,...Read more of this...

It Is the Hour

by George (Lord) Byron
 It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour -- when lover's vows
Seem sweet in every whisper'd word;
And gentle winds and waters near,
Make music to the lonely ear.
Each flower the dews have lightly wet,
And in the sky the stars are met,
And on the wave is deeper blue,
And on the leaf a browner...Read more of this...

At the Mid Hour of Night

by Thomas Moore
 At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly 
To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye; 
And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air, 
To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there, 
And tell me our love is remember'd, even in...Read more of this...

At Midnight Hour

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 [Goethe relates that a remarkable situation 
he was in one bright moonlight night led to the composition of this 
sweet song, which was "the dearer to him because he could not say 
whence it came and whither it would."]

AT midnight hour I went, not willingly,

A little, little boy, yon churchyard past,
To Father Vicar's house; the stars on high

On all...Read more of this...

How Dear to Me the Hour

by Thomas Moore
 How dear to me the hour when daylight dies, 
And sunbeams melt along the silent sea, 
For then sweet dreams of other days arise, 
And memory breathes her vesper sigh to thee. 

And, as I watch the line of light, that plays 
Along the smooth wave toward the burning west, 
I long to tread that golden path of rays,...Read more of this...

A Word for the Hour

by John Greenleaf Whittier
 The firmament breaks up. In black eclipse
Light after light goes out. One evil star,
Luridly glaring through the smoke of war,
As in the dream of the Apocalypse,
Drags others down. Let us not weakly weep
Nor rashly threaten. Give us grace to keep
Our faith and patience; wherefore should we leap
On one hand into fratricidal fight,
Or, on the other, yield eternal right,
Frame lies...Read more of this...

Damayante To Nala In The Hour Of Exile

by Sarojini Naidu
 SHALT thou be conquered of a human fate 
My liege, my lover, whose imperial head 
Hath never bent in sorrow of defeat? 
Shalt thou be vanquished, whose imperial feet 
Have shattered armies and stamped empires dead? 
Who shall unking thee, husband of a queen? 
Wear thou thy majesty inviolate. 
Earth's glories flee of human eyes unseen, 
Earth's kingdoms fade...Read more of this...

The Hour-glass

by Robert Herrick
 That hour-glass which there you see
With water fill'd, sirs, credit me,
The humour was, as I have read,
But lovers' tears incrystalled.
Which, as they drop by drop do pass
From th' upper to the under-glass,
Do in a trickling manner tell,
By many a watery syllable,
That lovers' tears in lifetime shed
Do restless run when they are dead....Read more of this...

I think the longest Hour of all

by Emily Dickinson
 I think the longest Hour of all
Is when the Cars have come --
And we are waiting for the Coach --
It seems as though the Time

Indignant -- that the Joy was come --
Did block the Gilded Hands --
And would not let the Seconds by --
But slowest instant -- ends --

The Pendulum begins to count --
Like little Scholars -- loud --
The...Read more of this...

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