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Famous Charon Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Ginsberg, Allen
...me to our silent 
cottage? 
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage- 
teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit 
poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank 
and stood watching the boat disappear on the black 
waters of Lethe? ...Read more of this...



by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...
As one by one the phantoms go. 

But then, what though the mystic Three 
Around me ply their merry trade? -- 
And Charon soon may carry me 
Across the gloomy Stygian glade? -- 

Be up, my soul! nor be afraid 
Of what some unborn year may show; 
But mind your human debts are paid, 
As one by one the phantoms go. 

ENVOY

Life is the game that must be played: 
This truth at least, good friend, we know; 
So live and laugh, nor be dismayed 
As one by one the phantoms go...Read more of this...

by Landor, Walter Savage
...Stand close around, ye Stygian set,
With Dirce in one boat conveyed,
Or Charon, seeing, may forget
That he is old and she a shade....Read more of this...

by Baudelaire, Charles
...WHEN Juan sought the subterranean flood, 
And paid his obolus on the Stygian shore, 
Charon, the proud and sombre beggar, stood 
With one strong, vengeful hand on either oar. 

With open robes and bodies agonised, 
Lost women writhed beneath that darkling sky; 
There were sounds as of victims sacrificed: 
Behind him all the dark was one long cry. 

And Sganarelle, with laughter, claimed his pledge; 
Don Luis, with trembling finger in...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...> Yea, forbear! 
 A different passage and a lighter fare 
 Is destined thine." 
 But here my guide replied, 
 "Nay, Charon, cease; or to thy grief ye chide. 
 It There is willed, where that is willed shall be, 
 That ye shall pass him to the further side, 
 Nor question more." 
 The fleecy cheeks thereat, 
 Blown with fierce speech before, were drawn and flat, 
 And his flame-circled eyes subdued, to hear 
 That mandate given. But those of whom he spake 
 In b...Read more of this...



by Alighieri, Dante
...aron, non ti crucciare: 
vuolsi cos? col? dove si puote 
ci? che si vuole, e pi? non dimandare ». 

My guide then: "Charon, don't torment yourself: 
our passage has been willed above, where One 
can do what He has willed; and ask no more." 


Quinci fuor quete le lanose gote 
al nocchier de la livida palude, 
che 'ntorno a li occhi avea di fiamme rote . 

Now silence fell upon the wooly cheeks 
of Charon, pilot of the livid marsh, 
whose eyes were ringed about wit...Read more of this...

by Padel, Ruth
...thorn by thorn 
For the exit aria. For fade-out. Suddenly there he is
In the avenue, the man she's written to - Charon
Gazing at her with blazing eyes! Darth Vader
From Star Wars. She's trapped, in a house she didn't realize
Was burning. Her letter was a gate to the inferno.
........
(This poem appeared in Pushkin: An Anthology, ed. E. Feinstein, Carcanet 1999)...Read more of this...

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