Famous Clear Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Hans Sachs Poetical Mission

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 [I feel considerable hesitation in venturing 
to offer this version of a poem which Carlyle describes to be 'a 
beautiful piece (a very Hans Sacks beatified, both in character 
and style), which we wish there was any possibility of translating.' 
The reader will be aware that Hans Sachs was the celebrated Minstrel- 
Cobbler of Nuremberg, who Wrote 208 plays,...Read more of this...

The Clocks Clear Voice Into The Clearer Air

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 THE cock's clear voice into the clearer air
Where westward far I roam,
Mounts with a thrill of hope,
Falls with a sigh of home.

A rural sentry, he from farm and field
The coming morn descries,
And, mankind's bugler, wakes
The camp of enterprise.

He sings the morn upon the westward hills
Strange and remote and wild;
He sings it in the land
Where once I was a child.

He...Read more of this...

In May

by William Henry Davies
 Yes, I will spend the livelong day 
With Nature in this month of May; 
And sit beneath the trees, and share 
My bread with birds whose homes are there; 
While cows lie down to eat, and sheep 
Stand to their necks in grass so deep; 
While birds do sing with all their might, 
As though they felt the earth...Read more of this...

Verse by Taj Mahomed

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Upon the City Ramparts, lit up by sunset gleam,
   The Blue eyes that conquer, meet the Darker eyes that dream.

   The Dark eyes, so Eastern, and the Blue eyes from the West,
   The last alight with action, the first so full of rest.

   Brown, that seem to hold the...Read more of this...

Holy Sonnet XVIII: Show me dear Christ thy Spouse so bright and clear

by John Donne
 Show me, dear Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear.
What! is it She, which on the other shore
Goes richly painted? or which, robbed and tore,
Laments and mourns in Germany and here?
Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year?
Is she self-truth and errs? now new, now outwore?
Doth she, and did she, and shall she evermore
On one, on seven, or...Read more of this...

Gloucester Moods

by William Vaughn Moody
 A mile behind is Gloucester town 
Where the flishing fleets put in, 
A mile ahead the land dips down 
And the woods and farms begin. 
Here, where the moors stretch free 
In the high blue afternoon, 
Are the marching sun and talking sea, 
And the racing winds that wheel and flee 
On the flying heels of June. 

Jill-o'er-the-ground is...Read more of this...

Clear with Light Variable Winds

by Amy Lowell
 The fountain bent and straightened itself
In the night wind,
Blowing like a flower.
It gleamed and glittered,
A tall white lily,
Under the eye of the golden moon.
From a stone seat,
Beneath a blossoming lime,
The man watched it.
And the spray pattered
On the dim grass at his feet.
The fountain tossed its water,
Up and up, like silver marbles.
Is that an arm he sees?
And for one moment
Does...Read more of this...

An American

by Rudyard Kipling
 If the Led Striker call it a strike,
 Or the papers call it a war,
They know not much what I am like,
 Nor what he is, My Avatar.

Throuh many roads, by me possessed,
 He shambles forth in cosmic guise;
He is the Jester and the Jest,
 And he the Text himself applies.

The Celt is in his heart and hand,
 The...Read more of this...

The Cold Clear Spring At Nanyang

by Li Po
 A pity it is evening, yet
I do love the water of this spring
seeing how clear it is, how clean;
rays of sunset gleam on it,
lighting up its ripples, making it
one with those who travel
the roads; I turn and face
the moon; sing it a song, then
listen to the sound of the wind
amongst the pines....Read more of this...

How Clear She Shines

by Emily Brontë
 How clear she shines! How quietly
I lie beneath her guardian light;
While heaven and earth are whispering me,
" Tomorrow, wake, but, dream to-night."
Yes, Fancy, come, my Fairy love!
These throbbing temples softly kiss;
And bend my lonely couch above
And bring me rest, and bring me bliss. 

The world is going; dark world, adieu!
Grim world, conceal thee till the day;
The heart, thou canst...Read more of this...

From doubt to clear assurance is a breath,

by Omar Khayyam
From doubt to clear assurance is a breath,
A breath from infidelity to faith;
O precious breath! enjoy it while you may,
'Tis all that life can give, and then comes death....Read more of this...

A Clear Midnight

by Walt Whitman
 THIS is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, 
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, 
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best. 
Night, sleep, and the stars....Read more of this...

Wants Poems And Has Never Rejected Anyone

by Barry Tebb
 Eamer o’ Keefe with your tinge of brogue

And Irish warmth, Daisy and Debjani 

With your karma and cool verse, I salute you.

( III )

"Ecoutez la voix du vent" – listen to the wind’s voice

As Milosz commands "All your griefs,

My sad ones, are in vain" but offering

In recompense soaring sonatas which remain unread

Untranslated, relegated to the reserve stock

Of the Institut...Read more of this...

I saw fair Fortune, one clear morning, touch

by Hafez
I saw fair Fortune, one clear morning, touch
Like the bright-sceptred sun’s first point of scorn,
With slightest finger my full-ripen’d corn.

I glimps’d her beauty: slender was she, such
As the moon’s waning sickle, paled afar,
Or dawn’s faint star-sheaves that scarce vision’d are.

I said, ‘O my life’s crowning queen, for thee
Have I long toiled without repose or rest;
In hope of thee, my harvest...Read more of this...

Sonnet LXXII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET LXXII. Ripensando a quel ch' oggi il ciel onora. HE WOULD DIE OF GRIEF WERE SHE NOT SOMETIMES TO CONSOLE HIM BY HER PRESENCE.  To that soft look which now adorns the skies,The graceful bending of the radiant head,[Pg 299]The face, the sweet angelic accents fled,That soothed me...Read more of this...

Sonnet LIII: Clear Anker

by Michael Drayton
 Another to the River Anker

Clear Anker, on whose silver-sanded shore 
My soul-shrin'd saint, my fair Idea, lies, 
O blessed brook, whose milk-white swans adore 
The crystal stream refined by her eyes, 
Where sweet myrrh-breathing Zephyr in the Spring 
Gently distils his nectar-dropping showers, 
Where nightingales in Arden sit and sing 
Among the dainty dew-impearled flowers; 
Say thus, fair Brook,...Read more of this...

Arabia

by Walter de la Mare
 Far are the shades of Arabia, 
Where the Princes ride at noon, 
'Mid the verdurous vales and thickets, 
Under the ghost of the moon; 
And so dark is that vaulted purple 
Flowers in the forest rise 
And toss into blossom 'gainst the phantom stars 
Pale in the noonday skies. 

Sweet is the music of Arabia 
In my heart, when...Read more of this...

The Light o the Moon

by Vachel Lindsay
 [How different people and different animals look upon the moon: showing that each creature finds in it his own mood and disposition]


The Old Horse in the City

The moon's a peck of corn. It lies 
Heaped up for me to eat. 
I wish that I might climb the path 
And taste that supper sweet. 

Men feed me straw and scanty...Read more of this...

Intention To Escape From Him

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Edna St. Vincent Millay - Intention To Escape From Him 

I think I will learn some beautiful language, useless for commercial
Purposes, work hard at that.
I think I will learn the Latin name of every songbird, not only in
America but wherever they sing.
(Shun meditation, though; invite the controversial:
Is the world flat? Do bats eat cats?) By digging hard I might
deflect...Read more of this...

I. Peace

by Rupert Brooke
 Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the...Read more of this...

Prayer

by Henry David Thoreau
 Great God, I ask for no meaner pelf 
Than that I may not disappoint myself, 
That in my action I may soar as high 
As I can now discern with this clear eye. 
And next in value, which thy kindness lends, 
That I may greatly disappoint my friends, 
Howe'er they think or hope that it may be, 
They may...Read more of this...

The Black Birds

by Henry Van Dyke
 I 

Once, only once, I saw it clear, --
That Eden every human heart has dreamed
A hundred times, but always far away!
Ah, well do I remember how it seemed,
Through the still atmosphere
Of that enchanted day,
To lie wide open to my weary feet:
A little land of love and joy and rest,
With meadows of soft green,
Rosy with cyclamen, and sweet
With delicate breath...Read more of this...

Beauty Clear and Fair

by John Gould Fletcher
 BEAUTY clear and fair,
 Where the air
Rather like a perfume dwells;
 Where the violet and the rose
 Their blue veins and blush disclose,
And come to honour nothing else:

 Where to live near
 And planted there
Is to live, and still live new;
 Where to gain a favour is
 More than light, perpetual bliss--
Make me live by serving you!

Dear, again back...Read more of this...

Do not be ashamed

by Wendell Berry
 You will be walking some night
in the comfortable dark of your yard
and suddenly a great light will shine
round about you, and behind you
will be a wall you never saw before.
It will be clear to you suddenly
that you were about to escape,
and that you are guilty: you misread
the complex instructions, you are not
a member, you lost your card
or never had...Read more of this...

Dream Song 39: Goodbye sir and fare well. Youre in the clear

by John Berryman
 Goodbye, sir, & fare well. You're in the clear.
'Nobody' (Mark says you said) 'is ever found out.'
I figure you were right,
having as Henry got away with murder
for long. Some jarred clock tell me it's late,
not for you who went straight

but for the lorn. Our roof is lefted off
lately: the shooter, and the bourbon man,
and then you got tired.
I'm afraid...Read more of this...

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