Famous Certain Poems by Famous Poets

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

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An Essay On Criticism

...f Principles, but Notions prize,
And All to one lov'd Folly Sacrifice.

Once on a time, La Mancha's Knight, they say,
A certain Bard encountring on the Way,
Discours'd in Terms as just, with Looks as Sage,
As e'er cou'd Dennis, of the Grecian Stage;
Concluding all were desp'rate Sots and Fools,
Who durst depart from Aristotle's Rules.
Our Author, happy in a Judge so nice,
Produc'd his Play, and beg'd the Knight's Advice,
Made him observe the Subject and the Plot,
The Manners,...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander


Beowulf (Modern English)

...Then the battle-brave soldier showed them
the bright house of heady men, so that they could
aim straight for it. That certain war-veteran
steered his horse away, speaking a word after them:
“It’s time for me to turn back—may the All-wielding Father
keep you all sound with gracious care on your mission.
I wish to resume my watch by the sea against wrathful hosts!” (ll. 312-19)

 

V.

The street was stone-fretted, guiding the way
for the men in rows. Their war-byr...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Charmides

...darkened room, and drawn the curtain,
And with dull eyes and wearied from some dear
And worshipped body risen, they for certain
Will never know of what I try to sing,
How long the last kiss was, how fond and late his lingering.

The moon was girdled with a crystal rim,
The sign which shipmen say is ominous
Of wrath in heaven, the wan stars were dim,
And the low lightening east was tremulous
With the faint fluttering wings of flying dawn,
Ere from the silent sombre shrine his ...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Freedoms Plow

...U.S.A.

A long time ago, but not too long ago, a man said:
 ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL--
 ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR
 WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS--
 AMONG THESE LIFE, LIBERTY
 AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
His name was Jefferson. There were slaves then,
But in their hearts the slaves believed him, too,
And silently too for granted
That what he said was also meant for them.
It was a long time ago,
But not so long ago at that, Lincoln said:
 NO MAN IS GOOD ENOUGH
 TO GOVERN AN...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

Hyperion

...e-air; and barren void;
Spaces of fire, and all the yawn of hell.---
Search, Thea, search! and tell me, if thou seest
A certain shape or shadow, making way
With wings or chariot fierce to repossess
A heaven he lost erewhile: it must---it must
Be of ripe progress---Saturn must be King.
Yes, there must be a golden victory;
There must be Gods thrown down, and trumpets blown
Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival
Upon the gold clouds metropolitan,
Voices of soft proclaim, and sil...Read more of this...
by Keats, John


i shall imagine life

...complain
their beauties are in vain

but though mankind persuades
itself that every weed's
a rose roses(you feel
certain)will only smile...Read more of this...
by Cummings, Edward Estlin (E E)

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...Monarch, and prevented all reply; 
Prudent lest, from his resolution raised, 
Others among the chief might offer now, 
Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 
And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 
Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice 
Forbidding; and at once with him they rose. 
Their rising all at once was as the sound 
Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they be...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...t forbidden! Some cursed fraud 
Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, 
And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee 
Certain my resolution is to die: 
How can I live without thee! how forego 
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, 
To live again in these wild woods forlorn! 
Should God create another Eve, and I 
Another rib afford, yet loss of thee 
Would never from my heart: no, no!I feel 
The link of Nature draw me: flesh of flesh, 
Bone of my bone thou art, and ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Passing Time

...Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk

One paints the beginning
of a certain end.

The other, the end of a
sure beginning....Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya

Poem of Joys

...in a poem. 

O the joy of my spirit! it is uncaged! it darts like lightning! 
It is not enough to have this globe, or a certain time—I will have thousands of
 globes,
 and all time. 

2
O the engineer’s joys!
To go with a locomotive! 
To hear the hiss of steam—the merry shriek—the steam-whistle—the laughing
 locomotive! 
To push with resistless way, and speed off in the distance. 

O the gleesome saunter over fields and hill-sides! 
The leaves and flowers of the commonest wee...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

...In the silence of the studio as he considers
Lifting the pencil to the self-portrait.
How many people came and stayed a certain time,
Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you
Like light behind windblown fog and sand,
Filtered and influenced by it, until no part
Remains that is surely you. Those voices in the dusk
Have told you all and still the tale goes on
In the form of memories deposited in irregular
Clumps of crystals. Whose curved hand controls,
Francesco, th...Read more of this...
by Ashbery, John

Song of Myself

...on—always a breed of life. 

To elaborate is no avail—learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is
 so.

Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in
 the beams, 
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, 
I and this mystery, here we stand. 

Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul. 

Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,
Till that becomes unseen, and receives proof in ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Ballad of the White Horse

...d in all fights we fail?

"Your scalds still thunder and prophesy
That crown that never comes;
Friend, I will watch the certain things,
Swine, and slow moons like silver rings,
And the ripening of the plums."

And Alfred answered, drinking,
And gravely, without blame,
"Nor bear I boast of scald or king,
The thing I bear is a lesser thing,
But comes in a better name.

"Out of the mouth of the Mother of God,
More than the doors of doom,
I call the muster of Wessex men
From gras...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Bride of Abydos

...on condition of service, are called Timariots; they serve as Spahis, according to the extent of territory, and bring a certain number into the field, generally cavalry. 

(8) When a Pacha is sufficiently strong to resist, the single messenger, who is always the first bearer of the order for his death, is strangled instead, and sometimes five or six, one after the other, on the same errand, by command of the refractory patient; if, on the contrary, he is weak or loyal, he bow...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Hunting Of The Snark

...hat, when Pistol uttered the well-known
words--

 "Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!"

Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or Richard, but had not been able to settle which, so that he could not possibly say either name before the other, can it be doubted that, rather than die, he would have gasped out "Rilchiam!"


CONTENTS

Fit the First. The Landing
Fit the Second. The Bellman's Speech
Fit the Third. The Baker's Tale
Fit the Fourth. The Hunt...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Knights Tale

...ar
But that thou shouldest truly farther me
In every case, as I should farther thee.
This was thine oath, and mine also certain;
I wot it well, thou dar'st it not withsayn*, *deny
Thus art thou of my counsel out of doubt,
And now thou wouldest falsely be about
To love my lady, whom I love and serve,
And ever shall, until mine hearte sterve* *die
Now certes, false Arcite, thou shalt not so
I lov'd her first, and tolde thee my woe
As to my counsel, and my brother sworn
To farth...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...a wanderer's woe;
     Remember then thy hap erewhile,
     A stranger in the lonely isle.

     'Or if on life's uncertain main
          Mishap shall mar thy sail;
     If faithful, wise, and brave in vain,
     Woe, want, and exile thou sustain
          Beneath the fickle gale;
     Waste not a sigh on fortune changed,
     On thankless courts, or friends estranged,
     But come where kindred worth shall smile,
     To greet thee in the lonely isle.'
     IV...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Vision of Judgment

...ination, such a School, is he not sufficiently armed against it by his own intense vanity? The truth is, that there are certain writers whom Mr. S. imagines, like Scrub, to have 'talked of him; for they have laughed consumedly.' 

I think I know enough of most of the writers to whom he is supposed to allude, to assert, that they, in their individual capacities, have done more good, in the charities of life, to their fellow-creatures, in any one year, than Mr. Southey has done...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Waste Land

...the
two volumes Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Anyone who is acquainted with
these works will immediately recognise in the poem certain references to
vegetation ceremonies.
 Macmillan Cambridge.

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Line 20. Cf. Ezekiel 2:1.
23. Cf. Ecclesiastes 12:5.
31. V. Tristan und Isolde, i, verses 5-8.
42. Id. iii, verse 24.
46. I am not familiar with the exact constitution of the Tarot
pack
of cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own convenience.
Th...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

The White Cliffs

...ned, just before
We left— the evening papers came;
John, flicking them over to find a score,
Spoke for the first time a certain name—
The name of a town in a distant land
Etched on our hearts by a murderer's hand.

Mother and son exchanged a glance, 
A curious glance of strength and dread. 
I thought: what matter to them if Franz 
Ferdinand dies? One of them said: 
This might be serious.' 'Yes, you're right.' 
The other answered, 'It really might.' 

XIX 
Dear John: I'm going...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

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