Famous Calms Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Former Life

..., 
Solemn and mystic, with the colours which 
The setting sun reflected in my eyes. 

And there I lived amid voluptuous calms, 
In splendours of blue sky and wandering wave, 
Tended by many a naked, perfumed slave, 

Who fanned my languid brow with waving palms. 
They were my slaves--the only care they had 
To know what secret grief had made me sad....Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles


A Poem Upon The Death Of O.C

...comprehend
How on each other both their Fates depend.
With her each day the pleasing Hours he shares,
And at her Aspect calms her growing Cares;
Or with a Grandsire's joy her Children sees
Hanging about her neck or at his knees.
Hold fast dear Infants, hold them both or none;
This will not stay when once the other's gone.
A silent fire now wasts those Limbs of Wax,
And him with his tortur'd Image racks.
So the Flowr with'ring which the Garden crown'd,
The sad Root pines in se...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

An Ode in Time of Hesitation

...d sluggish glaciers downward creep 
To fling their icebergs thundering from the steep, 
And Mariposa through the purple calms 
Gazes at far Hawaii crowned with palms 
Where East and West are met, -- 
A rich seal on the ocean's bosom set 
To say that East and West are twain, 
With different loss and gain: 
The Lord hath sundered them; let them be sundered yet. 


IV 

Alas! what sounds are these that come 
Sullenly over the Pacific seas, -- 
Sounds of ignoble battle, striking ...Read more of this...
by Moody, William Vaughn

Corn

...From antique ashes, whose departed flame
In thee has finer life and longer fame;
From wounds and balms,
From storms and calms,
From potsherds and dry bones
And ruin-stones.
Into thy vigorous substance thou hast wrought
Whate'er the hand of Circumstance hath brought;
Yea, into cool solacing green hast spun
White radiance hot from out the sun.
So thou dost mutually leaven
Strength of earth with grace of heaven;
So thou dost marry new and old
Into a one of higher mould;
So thou ...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

Enoch Arden

...day by day,
Scarce-rocking, her full-busted figure-head
Stared o'er the ripple feathering from her bows:
Then follow'd calms, and then winds variable,
Then baffling, a long course of them; and last
Storm, such as drove her under moonless heavens
Till hard upon the cry of `breakers' came
The crash of ruin, and the loss of all
But Enoch and two others. Half the night,
Buoy'd upon floating tackle and broken spars,
These drifted, stranding on an isle at morn
Rich, but loneliest ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord


Honors - Part I

...d learn.
"'For me the bounding in of tides; for me
  The laying bare of sands when they retreat;
The purple flush of calms, the sparkling glee
      When waves and sunshine meet.'
"So, after gazing, homeward turn, and mount
  To that long chamber in the roof; there tell
Your heart the laid-up lore it holds to count
      And prize and ponder well.
"The lookings onward of the race before
  It had a past to make it look behind;
Its reverent wonder, and its doubting s...Read more of this...
by Ingelow, Jean

Human Life's Mystery

...great beauty?—exaltations 
From His great glory?—strong previsions 
Of what we shall be?—intuitions 
Of what we are—in calms and storms, 
Beyond our peace and passions? 

Things nameless! which, in passing so, 
Do stroke us with a subtle grace. 
We say, ‘Who passes?’—they are dumb. 
We cannot see them go or come: 
Their touches fall soft, cold, as snow 
Upon a blind man’s face. 

Yet, touching so, they draw above 
Our common thoughts to Heaven’s unknown, 
Our daily joy and p...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

Lament

...ff place

To a hill-top where the wind is my succour,

Its blow and howl and rage

Over the springing turf and heather

Calms as the song of a mother

And the last light’s glimmer....Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

November

...eart 'twas summer-time again.

Thus wears the month along, in checker'd moods,
Sunshine and shadows, tempests loud, and calms;
One hour dies silent o'er the sleepy woods,
The next wakes loud with unexpected storms;
A dreary nakedness the field deforms—
Yet many a rural sound, and rural sight,
Lives in the village still about the farms,
Where toil's rude uproar hums from morn till night
Noises, in which the ears of Industry delight.

At length the stir of rural labour's still,...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen

Snowbound a Winter Idyl

...y martyrdom, 
Or Chalkley's Journal, old and quaint, -- 
Gentlest of skippers, rare sea-saint! -- 
Who, when the dreary calms prevailed, 
And water-butt and bread-cask failed, 
And cruel, hungry eyes pursued 
His portly presence, mad for food, 
With dark hints muttered under breath 
Of casting lots for life or death, 
Offered, if Heaven withheld supplies, 
To be himself the sacrifice. 
Then, suddenly, as if to save 
The good man from his living grave, 
A ripple on the water g...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

Song of the Open Road

...retarded—passing impediments large or small,

Committers of crimes, committers of many beautiful virtues, 
Enjoyers of calms of seas, and storms of seas, 
Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,
Habitués of many distant countries, habitués of far-distant dwellings, 
Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers, 
Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore, 
Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song. Murdering Beauty

...more on her bewitching face, 
Since ruin harbours there in every place ; 
For my enchanted soul alike she drowns 
With calms and tempests of her smiles and frowns. 
I’ll love no more those cruel eyes of hers, 
Which, pleased or anger’d, still are murderers : 
For if she dart, like lightning, through the air 
Her beams of wrath, she kills me with despair : 
If she behold me with a pleasing eye, 
I surfeit with excess of joy, and die....Read more of this...
by Carew, Thomas

The Female Vagrant

...t view:  The parting signal streamed, at last the land withdrew.   But from delay the summer calms were past.  On as we drove, the equinoctial deep  Ran mountains-high before the howling blast.  We gazed with terror on the gloomy sleep  Of them that perished in the whirlwind's sweep,  Untaught that soon such anguish must ensue,  Our hopes such harvest of affliction reap,  That we ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Present

...ht have grinned 
when at last he learned that love leads 
even the body beloved to a moment 
in the present when desire calms, the skin 
glows, the soul takes the light of day, 
even a working day in 1944. 
For Baharozian at seventeen the present 
was a gift. Seeing my ashen face, 
the cold sweats starting, he seated me 
in a corner of the boxcar and did 
both our jobs, stacking the full cases 
neatly row upon row and whistling 
the songs of Kate Smith. In the bathroom 
that ...Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

The Rat Of Faith

...ity 
of beauty I thought I'd lost 
when I lost my faith that one day 
we would come into our lives. 
The wind gusts and calms 
shaking this miniature budding 
apple tree that in three months 
has taken to the hard clay 
of our front yard. In one hop 
the jay turns his back on me, 
dips as though about to drink 
the air itself, and flies....Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

The Seasons: Winter

...oo, Inspirer of the toiling Swain!
Fair AUTUMN, yellow rob'd! I'll sing of thee,
Of thy last, temper'd, Days, and sunny Calms;
When all the golden Hours are on the Wing, 
Attending thy Retreat, and round thy Wain,
Slow-rolling, onward to the Southern Sky.

BEHOLD! the well-pois'd Hornet, hovering, hangs,
With quivering Pinions, in the genial Blaze;
Flys off, in airy Circles: then returns, 
And hums, and dances to the beating Ray.
Nor shall the Man, that, musing, walks alone,
...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Symphony

...moans,
And night's unearthly under-tones;
All placid lakes and waveless deeps,
All cool reposing mountain-steeps,
Vale-calms and tranquil lotos-sleeps; --
Yea, all fair forms, and sounds, and lights,
And warmths, and mysteries, and mights,
Of Nature's utmost depths and heights,
-- These doth my timid tongue present,
Their mouthpiece and leal instrument
And servant, all love-eloquent.
I heard, when `"All for love"' the violins cried:
So, Nature calls through all her system wi...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts)

...man the laws of Heav'n ordain,
364 These goods he grants, who grants the pow'r to gain;
365 With these celestial wisdom calms the mind,
366 And makes the happiness she does not find....Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel

To A Fallen Elm

...Old Elm that murmured in our chimney top
The sweetest anthem autumn ever made
And into mellow whispering calms would drop
When showers fell on thy many coloured shade
And when dark tempests mimic thunder made
While darkness came as it would strangle light
With the black tempest of a winter night
That rocked thee like a cradle to thy root
How did I love to hear the winds upbraid
Thy strength without while all within was mute
It seasoned comfort to our hearts des...Read more of this...
by Clare, John

Wood Rides

...Who hath not felt the influence that so calms
The weary mind in summers sultry hours
When wandering thickest woods beneath the arms
Of ancient oaks and brushing nameless flowers
That verge the little ride who hath not made
A minutes waste of time and sat him down
Upon a pleasant swell to gaze awhile
On crowding ferns bluebells and hazel leaves
And showers of lady smocks so called by toil
When boys...Read more of this...
by Clare, John

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