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Famous Chaste Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Smart, Christopher
...to tempt the taste; 
And while the luscious zest invites, 
The sense, that in the scene delights, 
 Commands desire be chaste. 

 LXX 
For ADORATION, all the paths 
Of grace are open, all the baths 
 Of purity refresh; 
And all the rays of glory beam 
To deck the man of God's esteem, 
 Who triumphs o'er the flesh. 

 LXXI 
For ADORATION, in the dome 
Of Christ, the sparrows find a home; 
 And on His olives perch: 
The swallow also dwells with thee, 
O man of God's hu...Read more of this...



by Wilde, Oscar
...and when nine suns
Passed down the long and laddered way of gold,
And nine pale moons had breathed their orisons
To the chaste stars their confessors, or told
Their dearest secret to the downy moth
That will not fly at noonday, through the foam and surging froth

Came a great owl with yellow sulphurous eyes
And lit upon the ship, whose timbers creaked
As though the lading of three argosies
Were in the hold, and flapped its wings and shrieked,
And darkness straightway stole ac...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...the ground
In a light fantastic round.

 The Measure.

 Break off, break off! I feel the different pace
Of some chaste footing near about this ground.
Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees;
Our number may affright. Some virgin sure
(For so I can distinguish by mine art)
Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms,
And to my wily trains: I shall ere long
Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed
About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl
My dazzling ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...herhood, the harmony
Of living in the healthful air, the swift
Clean beauty of strong limbs when men are free
And women chaste, these are the things which lift
Our souls up more than even Agnolo's
Gaunt blinded Sibyl poring o'er the scroll of human woes,

Or Titian's little maiden on the stair
White as her own sweet lily and as tall,
Or Mona Lisa smiling through her hair, -
Ah! somehow life is bigger after all
Than any painted angel, could we see
The God that is within us! Th...Read more of this...

by Homer,
...the Slayer of Argus whose wand is of gold to Erebus, so that having won over Hades with soft words, he might lead forth chaste Persephone to the light from the misty gloom to join the gods, and that her mother might see her with her eyes and cease from her anger. And Hermes obeyed, and leaving the house of Olympus, straightway sprang down with speed to the hidden places of the earth. And he found the lord Hades in his house seated upon a couch, and his shy mate with h...Read more of this...



by Marvell, Andrew
...se yet right, 
Fill up thy space with a redoubled night. 
When ag?d Thames was bound with fetters base, 
And Medway chaste ravished before his face, 
And their dear offspring murdered in their sight, 
Thou and thy fellows held'st the odious light. 
Sad change since first that happy pair was wed, 
When all the rivers graced their nuptial bed, 
And Father Neptune promised to resign 
His empire old to their immortal line! 
Now with vain grief their vainer hopes they rue,...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...r blame, 
Or think thee unbefitting holiest place, 
Perpetual fountain of domestick sweets, 
Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced, 
Present, or past, as saints and patriarchs used. 
Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights 
His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings, 
Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile 
Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared, 
Casual fruition; nor in court-amours, 
Mixed dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball, 
Or seren...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ant less 
Seemed their petition, than when the ancient pair 
In fables old, less ancient yet than these, 
Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore 
The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine 
Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers 
Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds 
Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they passed 
Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then clad 
With incense, where the golden altar fumed, 
By their great intercessour, came in sight 
Be...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...I announce a man or woman coming—perhaps you are the one, (So long!) 
I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate,
 fully
 armed. 

I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold; 
I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation; 
I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweet-blooded;
I announce a race of splendid and savage old men. 

3
O thicker and faster! (So long!) 
O ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ng man and woman—the roof over the
 well-married
 young man and woman, 
The roof over the supper joyously cook’d by the chaste wife, and joyously eaten by the
 chaste
 husband, content after his day’s work.

The shapes arise! 
The shape of the prisoner’s place in the court-room, and of him or her seated in the
 place; 
The shape of the liquor-bar lean’d against by the young rum-drinker and the old
 rum-drinker; 
The shape of the shamed and angry stairs, trod by sneaking f...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...et not abstracting one particle of it; 
To take the best of the farmer’s farm and the rich man’s elegant villa, and the chaste
 blessings
 of the well-married couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens, 
To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through, 
To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go,
To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them—to gather the love
 out of
 their hearts, 
To take your l...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...ort scornfully;
Her path of light, though fairer far it winds,
Sinks in the sun-track of morality.
Those who in her chaste service still remain,
No grovelling thought can tempt, no fate affright;
The spiritual life, so free from stain,
Freedom's sweet birthright, they receive again,
Under the mystic sway of holy might.

The purest among millions, happy they
Whom to her service she has sanctified,
Whose mouths the mighty one's commands convey,
Within whose breasts she ...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...Was not the sun because it never shone 
64 With bland complaisance on pale 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 A...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...elected for His company, 
And from the adulteress turn’d away 
God’s righteous law, that lost its prey.’ 
Was Jesus chaste? or did He 
Give any lessons of chastity? 
The Morning blush?d fiery red: 
Mary was found in adulterous bed; 
Earth groan’d beneath, and Heaven above 
Trembled at discovery of Love. 
Jesus was sitting in Moses’ chair. 
They brought the trembling woman there. 
Moses commands she be ston’d to death. 
What was the sound of Jesus’ breath? ...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...ith bits out of the "Maid of Gloster." 
And fifteen arms went round her waist. 
(And then men ask, Are Barmaids chaste?} 

O young men, pray to be kept whole 
from bringing down a weaker soul. 
Your minute's joy so meet in doin' 
May be the woman's door to ruin; 
The door to wandering up and down, 
A painted whore with half a crown. 
The bright mind fouled, the beauty gay 
All eaten out and fallen away, 
By drunken days and weary tramps 
From pub to pub by cit...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...cil painted was this story,
In redouting* of Mars and of his glory. *reverance, fear

Now to the temple of Dian the chaste
As shortly as I can I will me haste,
To telle you all the descriptioun.
Depainted be the walles up and down
Of hunting and of shamefast chastity.
There saw I how woful Calistope,
When that Dian aggrieved was with her,
Was turned from a woman to a bear,
And after was she made the lodestar*: *pole star
Thus was it painted, I can say no far*;...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-defying swan,
Le...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...t Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the Fields of Air.

Know farther yet; Whoever fair and chaste
Rejects Mankind, is by some Sylph embrac'd:
For Spirits, freed from mortal Laws, with ease
Assume what Sexes and what Shapes they please. 
What guards the Purity of melting Maids,
In Courtly Balls, and Midnight Masquerades,
Safe from the treach'rous Friend, and daring Spark,
The Glance by Day, the Whisper in the Dark;
When kind Occasion prompts th...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...PAN>That god which doth the world with terror bind,Using no armour but her own chaste mind;A fair aspect, coy thoughts, and words well weigh'd,Sweet modesty to these gave friendly aid.It was a miracle on earth to seeThe bow and arrows of the deity,And all his armour broke, who erst had slainRead more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ved*
Blessed be God that I have wedded five!
Welcome the sixth whenever that he shall.
For since I will not keep me chaste in all,
When mine husband is from the world y-gone,
Some Christian man shall wedde me anon.
For then th' apostle saith that I am free
To wed, *a' God's half,* where it liketh me. *on God's part*
He saith, that to be wedded is no sin;
Better is to be wedded than to brin.* *burn
What recketh* me though folk say villainy** *care **evil
Of shr...Read more of this...

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