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Famous Calvary Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Chesterton, G K
...r any curse of mine cut down a flower. 

Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had 
Thought it beat brightly, even on—Calvary: 
And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree 
Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad....Read more of this...



by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...
Faint for the flesh, but for the spirit free, 
Stung by the mob that came to see the show, 
The Master toiled along to Calvary; 
We gibed him, as he went, with houndish glee, 
Till his dimmed eyes for us did overflow; 
We cursed his vengeless hands thrice wretchedly, -- 
And this was nineteen hundred years ago. 

But after nineteen hundred years the shame 
Still clings, and we have not made good the loss 
That outraged faith has entered in his name. 
Ah, when shall c...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...and hold."
"Nay!" said the Baron, kneeling in his hall,
"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of men all!
Iron out of Calvary is master of men all!"...Read more of this...

by Cohen, Leonard
...
And everybody knows that you're in trouble 
Everybody knows what you've been through 
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary 
To the beach of Malibu 
Everybody knows it's coming apart 
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart 
Before it blows 
And everybody knows 
Everybody knows, everybody knows 
That's how it goes 
Everybody knows 
Oh everybody knows, everybody knows 
That's how it goes 
Everybody knows 
Everybody knows...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...finish—what has just passed here 
 Demands thick shrouding, and the time is near. 
 Th' accursed dice that rolled at Calvary 
 You rolled a woman's murder to decree 
 It was a dark disastrous game to play; 
 But not for me a moral to essay. 
 This moment to the misty grave is due, 
 And far too vile and little human you 
 To see your evil ways. Your fingers lack 
 The human power your shocking deeds to track. 
 What use in darkness mirror to uphold? 
 What use you...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...o have called these---Christians, had we dared!
``Let defiance to them pay mistrust of Thee,
``And Rome make amends for Calvary!

XIX.

``By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
``By the infamy, Israel's heritage,
``By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace,
``By the badge of shame, by the felon's place,
``By the branding-tool, the bloody whip,
``And the summons to Christian fellowship,---

XX.

``We boast our proof that at least the Jew
``Would wrest Christ's...Read more of this...

by Ingelow, Jean
...rial sod
  And know not whence we come or whose we be,
Comfortless mourners for the mount of God,
      The rocks of Calvary:
Bereft of heaven, and of the long-loved page
  Wrought us by some who thought with death to cope.
Despairing comforters, from age to age
      Sowing the seeds of hope:
Gracious deceivers, who have lifted us
  Out of the slough where passed our unknown youth.
Beneficent liars, who have gifted us
      With sacred love of truth!
Farewell to ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...body seemed to blend in mystic symphonies.

But we have left those gentle haunts to pass
With weary feet to the new Calvary,
Where we behold, as one who in a glass
Sees his own face, self-slain Humanity,
And in the dumb reproach of that sad gaze
Learn what an awful phantom the red hand of man can raise.

O smitten mouth! O forehead crowned with thorn!
O chalice of all common miseries!
Thou for our sakes that loved thee not hast borne
An agony of endless centuries,
And...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...r me?

They're here, though; not a creature failed—
No Blossom stayed away
In gentle deference to me—
The Queen of Calvary—

Each one salutes me, as he goes,
And I, my childish Plumes,
Lift, in bereaved acknowledgement
Of their unthinking Drums—...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...e air.

And though I may not guess the kind
   Correctly yet to me
A piercing comfort it affords
   In passing Calvary,

To note the fashions of the cross
   Of those that stand alone
Still fascinated to presume
   That some are like my own....Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...u how I tried to keep
A smile, to show you, when this Deep
All Waded -- We look back for Play,
At those Old Times -- in Calvary,

Forgive me, if the Grave come slow --
For Coveting to look at Thee --
Forgive me, if to stroke thy frost
Outvisions Paradise!...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...

Wild flowers -- kindle in the Woods --
The Brooks slam -- all the Day --
No Black bird bates his Banjo --
For passing Calvary --

Auto da Fe -- and Judgment --
Are nothing to the Bee --
His separation from His Rose --
To Him -- sums Misery --...Read more of this...

by Jeffers, Robinson
...ng to shoal; Point Lobos
Was wounded with that fire; the hills at Point Sur endured it;
 the palace at Thebes; the hill Calvary.

Out of incestuous love power and then ruin. A man forcing the
 imaginations of men,
Possessing with love and power the people: a man defiling his
 own household with impious desire.

King Oedipus reeling blinded from the palace doorway, red tears
 pouring from the torn pits
Under the forehead; and the young Jew writhing on the domed hil...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...One Crucifixion is recorded -- only --
How many be
Is not affirmed of Mathematics --
Or History --

One Calvary -- exhibited to Stranger --
As many be
As persons -- or Peninsulas --
Gethsemane --

Is but a Province -- in the Being's Centre --
Judea --
For Journey -- or Crusade's Achieving --
Too near --

Our Lord -- indeed -- made Compound Witness --
And yet --
There's newer -- nearer Crucifixion
Than That --...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...ned upon that sky, 
It stands up like a column, straight and high. 

I see it all­I know the dusky sign­
A cross on Calvary, which Jews uprear 

While Romans watch; and when the dawn shall shine 
Pilate, to judge the victim will appear, 
Pass sentence­yield him up to crucify; 
And on that cross the spotless Christ must die. 

Dreams, then, are true­for thus my vision ran; 
Surely some oracle has been with me,
The gods have chosen me to reveal their plan, 
To warn an u...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...in thy loss;
In thy shame we stood fast to thee, with thy pangs were moved,
Clung to thy cross.

By the hillside of Calvary we beheld thy blood,
Thy bloodred tears,
As a mother's in bitterness, an unebbing flood,
Years upon years.

And the north was Gethsemane, without leaf or bloom,
A garden sealed;
And the south was Aceldama, for a sanguine fume
Hid all the field.

By the stone of the sepulchre we returned to weep,
From far, from prison;
And the guards by it kee...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...firm that Jephtha vow: 
Shall I retract, or fear, or flee ? 
Did Christ, when rose the fatal tree 
Before him, on Mount Calvary ? 
'Twas a long fight, hard fought, but won, 
And what I did was justly done. 

Yet, Helen ! from thy love I turned,
When my heart most for thy heart burned;
I dared thy tears, I dared thy scorn­
Easier the death-pang had been borne.
Helen ! thou mightst not go with me,
I could not­dared not stay for thee !
I heard, afar, in bonds complain
Th...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...tanies of Lead --

On here and there -- a creature --
They'd modify the Glee
To fit some Crucifixal Clef --
Some Key of Calvary --...Read more of this...

by Kilmer, Joyce
...(For Cecil Chesterton)

At the foot of the Cross on Calvary
Three soldiers sat and diced,
And one of them was the Devil
And he won the Robe of Christ.
When the Devil comes in his proper form
To the chamber where I dwell,
I know him and make the Sign of the Cross
Which drives him back to Hell.
And when he comes like a friendly man
And puts his hand in mine,
The fervour in his voice is not
From love or ...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...Title divine -- is mine!
The Wife -- without the Sign!
Acute Degree -- conferred on me --
Empress of Calvary!
Royal -- all but the Crown!
Betrothed -- without the swoon
God sends us Women --
When you -- hold -- Garnet to Garnet --
Gold -- to Gold --
Born -- Bridalled -- Shrouded --
In a Day --
Tri Victory
"My Husband" -- women say --
Stroking the Melody --
Is this -- the way?...Read more of this...

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