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Famous Careless Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
And true to bondage would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a ri...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William



...t Excursions tries:
Content, if hence th' Unlearned their Wants may view,
The Learn'd reflect on what before they knew:
Careless of Censure, not too fond of Fame,
Still pleas'd to praise, yet not afraid to blame,
Averse alike to Flatter, or Offend,
Not free from Faults, nor yet too vain to mend....Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...the doings of men correspond with the broadcast doings of the day and night, 
Here is what moves in magnificent masses, careless of particulars, 
Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combativeness, the Soul loves, 
Here the flowing trains—here the crowds, equality, diversity, the Soul loves. 

6
Land of lands, and bards to corroborate!
Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face, 
To him the hereditary countenance bequeath’d, both mother’...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...e one another more.” 

“Avon,” I said, now in my chair again, 
“Although I may not be here to be happy, 
If you are careless, I may have to laugh. 
I have disliked a few men in my life,
But never to the scope of wishing them 
To this particular pedestrian hell 
Of your affection. I should not like that. 
Forgive me, for this time it was your fault.” 

He drummed with all his fingers on his chair,
And, after a made smile of acquiescence, 
Took up again the ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...shady valley by the well-built city stood;

And sought a little stream, which well he knew,
For oftentimes with boyish careless shout
The green and crested grebe he would pursue,
Or snare in woven net the silver trout,
And down amid the startled reeds he lay
Panting in breathless sweet affright, and waited for the day.

On the green bank he lay, and let one hand
Dip in the cool dark eddies listlessly,
And soon the breath of morning came and fanned
His hot flushed cheeks,...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar



...had fallen; gentle, good, 
 Alas! she held the sceptre like a flower; 
 Timid yet gay, imprudent for the hour, 
 And careless too. With Europe all in throes, 
 Though twenty years she now already knows, 
 She has refused to marry, although oft 
 Entreated. It is time an arm less soft 
 Than hers—a manly arm—supported her; 
 Like to the rainbow she, one might aver, 
 Shining on high between the cloud and rain, 
 Or like the ewe that gambols on the plain 
 Between th...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor
...sun
as his paws, the size
of catcher's mitts,
crackle into the distance.

He is sick of dispensing
warnings to the careless,
the half-wit camper,
the dumbbell hiker.

He is going to show them
how a professional does it....Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy
...rtemisium, till he saw Thermopylae

Its steep ravine spanned by a narrow wall,
And on the nearer side a little brood
Of careless lions holding festival!
And stood amazed at such hardihood,
And pitched his tent upon the reedy shore,
And stayed two days to wonder, and then crept at midnight o'er

Some unfrequented height, and coming down
The autumn forests treacherously slew
What Sparta held most dear and was the crown
Of far Eurotas, and passed on, nor knew
How God had staked ...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...last, 
And spake of passions, but of passion past; 
The pride, but not the fire, of early days, 
Coldness of mien, and carelessness of praise; 
A high demeanour, and a glance that took 
Their thoughts from others by a single look; 
And that sarcastic levity of tongue, 
The stinging of a heart the world hath stung, 
That darts in seeming playfulness around, 
And makes those feel that will not own the wound: 
All these seem'd his, and something more beneath 
Than glance could ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...e forth to deeds of war.
Weary of life, thou liest in silent sleep,
As one who marks the lengthening shadows creep,
Careless of all the hurrying hours that run,
Mourning some day of glory, for the sun
Of Freedom hath not shewn to thee his face,
And thou hast caught no flambeau in the race.

Yet wake not from thy slumbers, - rest thee well,
Amidst thy fields of amber asphodel,
Thy lily-sprinkled meadows, - rest thee there,
To mock all human greatness: who would dare
To...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...ales were sheathed and bound. 
But were it not that high command 
Spake in his eye, and tone, and hand, 
All that a careless eye could see 
In him was some young Galiong?e. [28] 

X. 

"I said I was not what I seem'd; 
And now thou see'st my words were true: 
I have a tale thou hast not dream'd, 
If sooth — its truth must others rue. 
My story now 'twere vain to hide, 
I must not see thee Osman's bride: 
But had not thine own lips declared 
How much of that yo...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...CARRYING bouquet, and handkerchief, and gloves, 
Proud of her height as when she lived, she moves 
With all the careless and high-stepping grace, 
And the extravagant courtesan's thin face. 

Was slimmer waist e'er in a ball-room wooed? 
Her floating robe, in royal amplitude, 
Falls in deep folds around a dry foot, shod 
With a bright flower-like shoe that gems the sod. 

The swarms that hum about her collar-bones 
As the lascivious streams caress the stones, ...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...past!

Sweet was the sound when oft at evening's close
Up yonder hill the village murmur rose;
There, as I passed with careless steps and slow,
The mingling notes came softened from below;
The swain responsive as the milkmaid sung,
The sober herd that lowed to meet their young;
The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool,
The playful children just let loose from school;
The watchdog's voice that bayed the whisp'ring wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind;
These a...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver
...lue and swollen on each side...
Has he fished in storm and lightning,
Or committed suicide?
Could this be a careless drunkard,
Or a mermaid-seeking monk,
Or a merchandizer, conquered
By some bandits, robbed and sunk?

To the peasant, what's it matter!
Quick: he grabs the dead man's hair,
Drags his body to the water,
Looks around: nobody's there:
Good... relieved of the concern he
Shoves his paddle at a loss,
While the stiff resumes his journey
Down the...Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander
...ng round with busy glee,  Of looks where common kindness had no part.  Of service done with careless cruelty,  Fretting the fever round the languid heart,  And groans, which, as they said, would make a dead man start.   These things just served to stir the torpid sense,  Nor pain nor pity in my bosom raised.  Memory, though slow, returned with strength: and thence ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
..., my sweet melancholy, my distress,
My pain, my doubt, my trouble, my despair,
My only folly and unhappiness,
And in my careless moments still my care:
O love, sweet love, earthly love, love difvine,
Say'st thou to-day, O love, that thou art mine? 

61
The dark and serious angel, who so long
Vex'd his immortal strength in charge of me,
Hath smiled for joy and fled in liberty
To take his pastime with the peerless throng.
Oft had I done his noble keeping wrong,
Wounding his...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...bsp; Which thunders down with headlong force,  Beneath the moon, yet shining fair,  As careless as if nothing were,  Sits upright on a feeding horse?   Unto his horse, that's feeding free,  He seems, I think, the rein to give;  Of moon or stars he takes no heed;  Of such we in romances read,  —Tis Johnny! Johnny! as I live.   And tha...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...hed
     When on the floor he saw displayed,
     Cause of the din, a naked blade
     Dropped from the sheath, that careless flung
     Upon a stag's huge antlers swung;
     For all around, the walls to grace,
     Hung trophies of the fight or chase:
     A target there, a bugle here,
     A battle-axe, a hunting-spear,
     And broadswords, bows, and arrows store,
     With the tusked trophies of the boar.
     Here grins the wolf as when he died,
     And the...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...! 
Wish'd, wint'ry, Horrors, hail! -- With frequent Foot,
Pleas'd, have I, in my cheerful Morn of Life,
When, nurs'd by careless Solitude, I liv'd,
And sung of Nature with unceasing Joy,
Pleas'd, have I wander'd thro' your rough Domains; 
Trod the pure, virgin, Snows, my self as pure:
Heard the Winds roar, and the big Torrent burst:
Or seen the deep, fermenting, Tempest brew'd,
In the red, evening, Sky. -- Thus pass'd the Time,
Till, thro' the opening Chambers of the Sout...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James
...explain,
She simply said it all again. 

Wrenched with an agony intense,
He spake, neglecting Sound and Sense,
And careless of all consequence: 

"Mind - I believe - is Essence - Ent -
Abstract - that is - an Accident -
Which we - that is to say - I meant - " 

When, with quick breath and cheeks all flushed,
At length his speech was somewhat hushed,
She looked at him, and he was crushed. 

It needed not her calm reply:
She fixed him with a stony eye,
And he could nei...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry