Famous Chastened Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Sense of Humor

...weet song thereon, 
With dandified importance, 
His sense of humor gone.

Nay, let us don the motley cap, 
The jester's chastened mien, 
If we would woo that looking-glass 
And see what should be seen.

O mirror on fair Heaven's wall, 
We find there what we bring. 
So, let us smile in honest part 
And deck our souls and sing.

Yea, by the chastened jest alone 
Will ghosts and terrors pass, 
And fays, or suchlike friendly things, 
Throw kisses through the glass....Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel


An Emu Hunt

...like glee 
With a kick that lifted him off the ground. 

And when, with an injured rib or two, 
He made for home with a chastened mind, 
An old dog told him, "I thought you knew 
An emu kicks like a kangaroo, 
And you can't get hurt -- if you keep behind."...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

Beyond The Years

...Beyond the years the answer lies,
Beyond where brood the grieving skies
And Night drops tears.
Where Faith rod-chastened smiles to rise
And doff its fears,
And carping Sorrow pines and dies—
Beyond the years.
Beyond the years the prayer for rest
Shall beat no more within the breast;
The darkness clears,
And Morn perched on the mountain's crest
Her form uprears—
The day that is to come is best,
Beyond the years.
Beyond the years the soul shall find
That en...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

Dirge

...ear,
Do your weeping now;
All you loved of her lies here.

Brought to earth the arrogant brow,
And the withering tongue
Chastened; do your weeping now.

Sing whatever songs are sung,
Wind whatever wreath,
For a playmate perished young,

For a spirit spent in death.
Boys and girls that held her dear,
All you loved of her lies here....Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Humanitad

...n us! The old Greek serenity

Which curbs the passion of that level line
Of marble youths, who with untroubled eyes
And chastened limbs ride round Athena's shrine
And mirror her divine economies,
And balanced symmetry of what in man
Would else wage ceaseless warfare, - this at least within the span

Between our mother's kisses and the grave
Might so inform our lives, that we could win
Such mighty empires that from her cave
Temptation would grow hoarse, and pallid Sin
Would wa...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar


jerusalem and redcurrants

...uit
my want at the first sherd
for the full-bosomed bowl

my jerusalem
my sinewy prayer
where dust and the dry rock
are chastened by the cool red juice

my jerusalem
my revolving love
as the year bends and the fruit's 
pangs purchase my lips...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

Love's Chastening

...Was darkened with the storm of inward strife;
Thrice smote he Love as only he might dare,
And Love, pride purged, was chastened all his life.
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

My Triumph lasted till the Drums

...My Triumph lasted till the Drums
Had left the Dead alone
And then I dropped my Victory
And chastened stole along
To where the finished Faces
Conclusion turned on me
And then I hated Glory
And wished myself were They.

What is to be is best descried
When it has also been --
Could Prospect taste of Retrospect
The tyrannies of Men
Were Tenderer -- diviner
The Transitive toward.
A Bayonet's contrition
Is nothing to the Dead....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Natures Questioning

...WHEN I look forth at dawning, pool,
Field, flock, and lonely tree,
All seem to look at me
Like chastened children sitting silent in a school;

Their faces dulled, constrained, and worn,
As though the master's ways
Through the long teaching days
Their first terrestrial zest had chilled and overborne.

And on them stirs, in lippings mere
(As if once clear in call,
But now scarce breathed at all)--
"We wonder, ever wonder, why we find us here!

"Has some...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

Psalm 73 part 1

...slanders rise,
While saints in silence weep.

"In vain I lift my hands to pray,
And cleanse my heart in vain;
For I am chastened all the day,
The night renews my pain."

Yet while my tongue indulged complaints,
I felt my heart reprove,-
"Sure I shall thus offend thy saints,
And grieve the men I love."

But still I found my doubts too hard,
The conflict too severe,
Till I retired to search thy word,
And learn thy secrets there.

There, as in some prophetic glass,
I saw the si...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Psalm LXXIII: Now Im Convinced the Lord Is Kind

...slanders rise,
While saints in silence weep.

"In vain I lift my hands to pray,
And cleanse my heart in vain;
For I am chastened all the day,
The night renews my pain."

Yet while my tongue indulged complaints,
I felt my heart reprove,
"Sure I shall thus offend thy saints,
And grieve the men I love."

But still I found my doubts too hard,
The conflict too severe,
Till I retired to search thy word,
And learn thy secrets there.

There, as in some prophetic glass,
I saw the sin...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Sonnet 10

...hue than sweet within. 
Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment 
Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil, 
There only, chastened by fatigue and toil, 
I knew what came the nearest to content. 
For there at least my troubled flesh was free 
From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so; 
Discord and Strife were what I used to know, 
Heartaches, deception, murderous jealousy; 
By War transported far from all of these, 
Amid the clash of arms I was at peace....Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

Sonnet III

...ne lifetime's garnered store -
Old pleasures crowned with sorrow for a zest,
Old sorrow grown a joy, old penance blest,
Chastened remembrance of the sins of yore
That, like a new evangel, more and more
Supports our halting will toward the best.
Ah! what to us the barren after years
May bring of joy or sorrow, who can tell?
O, knowing not, who cares? It may be well
That we shall find old pleasures and old fears,
And our remembered childhood seen thro' tears,
The best of Heaven...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Butterfly in honored Dust

...The Butterfly in honored Dust
Assuredly will lie
But none will pass the Catacomb
So chastened as the Fly --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Dance At The Phoenix

...m war had come, 
 The King's Own Cavalry. 

She turned aside, and bowed her head 
 Anigh Saint Peter's door; 
"Alas for chastened thoughts!" she said; 
 "I'm faded now, and hoar, 
And yet those notes--they thrill me through, 
And those gay forms move me anew 
 As in the years of yore!"... 

--'Twas Christmas, and the Phoenix Inn 
 Was lit with tapers tall, 
For thirty of the trooper men 
 Had vowed to give a ball 
As "Theirs" had done (fame handed down) 
When lying in the sel...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

The Eternal Goodness

...is hate, - I know
His goodness and His love.

I dimly guess from blessings known
Of greater out of sight,
And, with the chastened Psalmist, own
His judgments too are right.

I long for household voices gone.
For vanished smiles I long,
But God hath led my dear ones on,
And He can do no wrong.

I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death
His mercy underlies.

And if my heart and flesh are weak
To bear an untried pain,
The bruised re...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

The Post That Fitted

...returned his ring,
Told him his "unhappy weakness" stopped all thought of marrying.

Sleary bore the information with a chastened holy joy, --
Epileptic fits don't matter in Political employ, --
Wired three short words to Carrie -- took his ticket, packed his kit --
Bade farewell to Minnie Boffkin in one last, long, lingering fit.

Four weeks later, Carrie Sleary read -- and laughed until she wept --
Mrs. Boffkin's warning letter on the "wretched epilept." . . .
Year by year,...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Rhyme of the Three Greybeards

...he put it, "broke". 

She sought Joe in the hospital and took the choicest food; 
She went there very modestly and in a chastened mood, 
And timid and respectful-like – because she was no good. 

She sat the death-watch out alone on the verandah dim; 
And after all was past and gone she dried her eyes abrim, 
And sought the head-nurse timidly, and asked "May I see him?" 

And then she went back to her bar, where she'd not been for weeks, 
To practise there her barmaid's smile...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Theres the Battle of Burgoyne --

...hat Man and Beast
Put their work away
"Sunset" sounds majestic --
But that solemn War
Could you comprehend it
You would chastened stare --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Went up a year this evening!

...well!
Amid no bells nor bravoes
The bystanders will tell!
Cheerful -- as to the village --
Tranquil -- as to repose --
Chastened -- as to the Chapel
This humble Tourist rose!
Did not talk of returning!
Alluded to no time
When, were the gales propitious --
We might look for him!
Was grateful for the Roses
In life's diverse bouquet --
Talked softly of new species
To pick another day;
Beguiling thus the wonder
The wondrous nearer drew --
Hands bustled at the moorings --
The cro...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

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