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Famous Celestial Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...ds rejoice. 


This is that light which purifies the soul, 
From mist obscure, of envy, hate, and pride; 
Bids love celestial in the bosom glow, 
Fresh kindling up the intellectual eye 
Of faith divine, in beatific view 
Of that high glory and seraphic bliss, 
Which he who reigns invisible, shall give 
To wait on virtue in the realms of day. 


This is that light which from remotest times 
Shone to the just; gave sweet serenity, 
And sunshine to the soul, of each wise...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...his deep wound,
In slumber soft, and on the ground
Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.
But far above, in spangled sheen,
Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced
Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced
After her wandering labours long,
Till free consent the gods among
Make her his eternal bride,
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.
 But now my task is smoothly done:
I can fly, or I can run,
Quickly to the gre...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...lden time from France, and since, as an heirloom,
Handed down from mother to child, through long generations.
But a celestial brightness--a more ethereal beauty--
Shone on her face and encircled her form, when, after confession,
Homeward serenely she walked with God's benediction upon her.
When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.

Firmly builded with rafters of oak, the house of the farmer
Stood on the side of a hill commanding the sea; ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...g the pain Mnemosyne upheld
Her arms as one who prophesied. At length
Apollo shriek'd;---and lo! from all his limbs
Celestial....Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...d sweeter still across the starlit gulf of night.

Music, in thee we float,
And lose the lonely note
Of self in thy celestial-ordered strain,
Until at last we find
The life to love resigned
In harmony of joy restored again;
And songs that cheered our mortal days
Break on the coast of light in endless hymns of praise....Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...e clime," 
Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat 
That we must change for Heaven?--this mournful gloom 
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he 
Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid 
What shall be right: farthest from him is best 
Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, 
Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, 
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, 
Receive thy new possessor--one who bring...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...within her gulf can hold 
Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen, 
I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent 
Celestial Virtues rising will appear 
More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
And trust themselves to fear no second fate!-- 
Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven, 
Did first create your leader--next, free choice 
With what besides in council or in fight 
Hath been achieved of merit--yet this loss, 
Thus far at least recovered, hath mu...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...the angelick guards, awaiting night; 
About him exercised heroick games 
The unarmed youth of Heaven, but nigh at hand 
Celestial armoury, shields, helms, and spears, 
Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold. 
Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even 
On a sun-beam, swift as a shooting star 
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired 
Impress the air, and shows the mariner 
From what point of his compass to beware 
Impetuous winds: He thus began in haste.Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...l Father, and fulfilled 
All justice: Nor delayed the winged Saint 
After his charge received; but from among 
Thousand celestial Ardours, where he stood 
Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light, 
Flew through the midst of Heaven; the angelick quires, 
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way 
Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate 
Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide 
On golden hinges turning, as by work 
Divine the sovran Architect had frame...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...tune's ire, or Juno's, that so long 
Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son: 

If answerable style I can obtain 
Of my celestial patroness, who deigns 
Her nightly visitation unimplor'd, 
And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires 
Easy my unpremeditated verse: 
Since first this subject for heroick song 
Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late; 
Not sedulous by nature to indite 
Wars, hitherto the only argument 
Heroick deem'd chief mastery to dissect 
With long and ted...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...unwelcome news 
From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased 
All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare 
That time celestial visages, yet, mixed 
With pity, violated not their bliss. 
About the new-arrived, in multitudes 
The ethereal people ran, to hear and know 
How all befel: They towards the throne supreme, 
Accountable, made haste, to make appear, 
With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance 
And easily approved; when the Most High 
Eternal Father, from his secr...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...for
 me, 
This is not my true country, I have lived banish’d from my true country—I now go back
 there,
I return to the celestial sphere, where every one goes in his turn. 

7
I see the battle-fields of the earth—grass grows upon them, and blossoms and corn; 
I see the tracks of ancient and modern expeditions. 

I see the nameless masonries, venerable messages of the unknown events, heroes, records of
 the
 earth. 

I see the places of the sagas;
I see pine-trees ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...s and all such as honour Truth;
He all thir Ammunition
And feats of War defeats
With plain Heroic magnitude of mind
And celestial vigour arm'd, 
Thir Armories and Magazins contemns,
Renders them useless, while
With winged expedition
Swift as the lightning glance he executes
His errand on the wicked, who surpris'd
Lose thir defence distracted and amaz'd.
But patience is more oft the exercise
Of Saints, the trial of thir fortitude,
Making them each his own Deliverer,
And Vi...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...be Angels of Light, are augmented not only by the Divine light of the Sun, but also by our common Wood Fire: and as the Celestial Fire drives away dark spirits, so also this our fire of Wood doth the same." 
Cor. Agrippa, Occult Philosophy, Book I, ch. v.


"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, 
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, 
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air 
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven, 
And veils the farm-hou...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...he roots of all that has grown. 

Did you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging pregnancy? 
Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be work’d over and rectified? 

I find one side a balance, and the antipodal side a balance;
Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine; 
Thoughts and deeds of the present, our rouse and early start. 

This minute that comes to me over the past decillions, 
There is no better than it and now. 

What behaved wel...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...
It might be only that the night 
Disguised things seen by better light: 
That brazen lamp but dimly threw 
A ray of no celestial hue: 
But in a nook within the cell 
Her eye on stranger objects fell. 
There arms were piled, not such as wield 
The turban'd Delis in the field; 
But brands of foreign blade and hilt, 
And one was red — perchance with guilt! 
Ah! how without can blood be spilt? 
A cup too on the board was set 
That did not seem to hold sherbet. 
What may ...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...le parasols, 
65 Beetled, in chapels, on the chaste bouquets. 
66 Against his pipping sounds a trumpet cried 
67 Celestial sneering boisterously. Crispin 
68 Became an introspective voyager. 

69 Here was the veritable ding an sich, at last, 
70 Crispin confronting it, a vocable thing, 
71 But with a speech belched out of hoary darks 
72 Noway resembling his, a visible thing, 
73 And excepting negligible Triton, free 
74 From the unavoidable shadow of h...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...times of state I've also been.
5.29 I've seen a Kingdom flourish like a tree
5.30 When it was rul'd by that Celestial she,
5.31 And like a Cedar others so surmount
5.32 That but for shrubs they did themselves account.
5.33 Then saw I France, and Holland sav'd, Calais won,
5.34 And Philip and Albertus half undone.
5.35 I saw all peace at home, terror to foes,
5.36 But ah, I saw at last those eyes to close,
5.37 And then, me thoug...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...nly these teachers of 'great moral lessons' are apt to be found in strange company. 




I 

Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate: 
His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull, 
So little trouble had been given of late; 
Not that the place by any means was full, 
But since the Gallic era 'eight-eight' 
The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 
And 'a pull altogether,' as they say 
At sea — which drew most souls another way. 

II 

The angels all were singing out ...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...skill shall try for you:
But sure those strong and golden dies
Dipp'd in the radiance of the skies,
Those folds of gay celestial dress,
No mortal colours can express.
Not spread triumphal o'er the plain,
The rainbow boasts so fair a train,
Nor e'en the morning sun so bright,
Who robes his face in heav'nly light.
To view that form of angel make,
Again Ixion would mistake,[2]
And justly deem so fair a prize,
The sovereign Mistress of the skies,"


He said, and drew a m...Read more of this...

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