Famous Commencing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Broadway Pageant

...ces, reborn, refresh’d;

Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic, renew’d, as it must
 be,
Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world. 

6
And you, Libertad of the world! 
You shall sit in the middle, well-pois’d, thousands of years; 
As to-day, from one side, the nobles of Asia come to you; 
As to-morrow, from the other side, the Queen of England sends her eldest son to you.

7
The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed, 
The ring is circl...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Mount Bukaroo

...ejection, 
Care, and sorrow; but we knew 
Happy days on that selection 
Underneath old Bukaroo. 

Then the light of day commencing 
Found us at the gully's head, 
Splitting timber for the fencing, 
Stripping bark to roof the shed. 
Hands and hearts the labour strengthened; 
Weariness we never knew, 
Even when the shadows lengthened 
Round the base of Bukaroo. 

There for days below the paddock 
How the wilderness would yield 
To the spade, and pick, and mattock, 
While we toi...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Phantasmagoria CANTO VI ( Dyscomfyture )

...e end in view
To which I hoped to come,
I strove to prove the matter true
By putting everything I knew
Into an axiom: 

Commencing every single phrase
With 'therefore' or 'because,'
I blindly reeled, a hundred ways,
About the syllogistic maze,
Unconscious where I was. 

Quoth he "That's regular clap-trap:
Don't bluster any more.
Now DO be cool and take a nap!
Such a ridiculous old chap
Was never seen before! 

"You're like a man I used to meet,
Who got one day so furious
In a...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Fury Of Sunrises

...yellower, 
like the yolk of eggs, 
the flies gathering at the windowpane, 
the dog inside whining for good 
and the day commencing, 
not to die, not to die, 
as in the last day breaking, 
a final day digesting itself, 
lighter, lighter, 
the endless colors, 
the same old trees stepping toward me, 
the rock unpacking its crevices, 
breakfast like a dream 
and the whole day to live through, 
steadfast, deep, interior. 
After the death, 
after the black of black, 
the lightness,...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne

The Three Glorious Days

...Oh! of such deeds be ever proud! 
 
 Of patriot sires ye lineage claim, 
 Their souls shone in your eye of flame; 
 Commencing the great work was theirs; 
 On you the task to finish laid 
 Your fruitful mother, France, who bade 
 Flow in one day a hundred years. 
 
 E'en chilly Albion admires, 
 The grand example Europe fires; 
 America shall clap her hands, 
 When swiftly o'er the Atlantic wave, 
 Fame sounds the news of how the brave, 
 In three bright days, h...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor


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