Famous Concealed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Gleam Of Sunshine

...
Subdue the light of noon, and breathe
A low and ceaseless sigh;

This memory brightens o'er the past,
As when the sun, concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs
Shines on a distant field....Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth


A Lovers Complaint

...ish'd luxury,
He preach'd pure maid, and praised cold chastity.

'Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd;
That th' unexperient gave the tempter place,
Which like a cherubin above them hover'd.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
Ay me! I fell; and yet do question make
What I should do again for such a sake.

'O, that infected moisture of his eye,
O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
O, that forced thunder from ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

An Enigma

...ansparent- 
But this is, now- you may depend upon it- 
Stable, opaque, immortal- all by dint 
Of the dear names that he concealed within 't....Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan

Comus

...eastern scout,
The nice Morn on the Indian steep,
From her cabined loop-hole peep,
And to the tell-tale Sun descry
Our concealed solemnity.
Come, knit hands, and beat 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...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Courage

...all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.

Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
comver your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it w...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne


Emblems of Love

...t with music are, in love,
Bodily senses; and as flame hath light,
Spirit this nature hath imagined round it,
No way concealed therein, when love comes near,
Nor in the perfect wedding of desires
Suffering any hindrance.

She

Ah, but now,
Now am I given love’s eternal secret!
Yea, thou and I who speak, are but the joy
Of our for ever mated spirits; but now
The wisdom of my gladness even through Spirit
Looks, divinely elate. Who hath for joy
Our Spirits? Who ha...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...of the island,
But by the opposite bank, and behind a screen of palmettos,
So that they saw not the boat, where it lay concealed in the willows,
All undisturbed by the dash of their oars, and unseen, were the sleepers,
Angel of God was there none to awaken the slumbering maiden.
Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on the prairie.
After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance,
As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, and the maiden
Sai...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Eviradnus

..., 
 So Eviradnus now before them stood, 
 Opening his visor, which at once revealed 
 The snowy beard it had so well concealed. 
 Thin Sigismond was still as dog at gaze, 
 But Ladisläus leaped, and howl did raise, 
 And laughed and gnashed his teeth, till, like a cloud 
 That sudden bursts, his rage was all avowed. 
 "'Tis but an old man after all!" he cried. 
 
 Then the great knight, who looked at both, replied, 
 "Oh, kings! an old man of my time can cope 
 Wi...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Last Instructions to a Painter

...s off the piece wheres'e'er she close the jaw, 
Else swallows all down her indented maw. 
She stalks all day in streets concealed from sight 
And flies, like bats with leathern wings, by night; 
She wastes the country and on cities preys. 
Her, of a female harpy, in dog days, 
Black Birch, of all the earth-born race most hot 
And most rapacious, like himself, begot, 
And, of his brat enamoured, as't increased, 
Buggered in incest with the mongrel beast. 

Say, Muse, for nothi...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Mementos

...panse revealed 
The world, the pleasures, she could prize; 
On free hill-side, in sunny field, 
In quiet spots by woods concealed, 
Grew wild and fresh her chosen joys, 
Yet Nature's feelings deeply lay 
In that endowed and youthful frame; 
Shrined in her heart and hid from day, 
They burned unseen with silent flame; 
In youth's first search for mental light, 
She lived but to reflect and learn, 
But soon her mind's maturer might 
For stronger task did pant and yearn; 
And st...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

My Comforter

...w;
Thou hast but roused a latent thought,
A cloud-closed beam of sunshine, brought 
To gleam in open view. 

Deep down, concealed within my soul,
That light lies hid from men;
Yet, glows unquenched - though shadows roll,
Its gentle ray cannot control,
About the sullen den. 

Was I not vexed, in these gloomy ways
To walk alone so long?
Around me, wretches uttering praise,
Or howling o'er their hopeless days,
And each with Frenzy's tongue; - 

A brotherhood of misery,
Their smi...Read more of this...
by Brontë, Emily

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
Consent or custom, and his regal state 
Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed-- 
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. 
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, 
So as not either to provoke, or dread 
New war provoked: our better part remains 
To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 
What force effected not; that he no less 
At length from us may find, who overcomes 
By force hath overcome but half his ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...asting groans, 
Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 
Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse. 
War, therefore, open or concealed, alike 
My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile 
With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 
Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's height 
All these our motions vain sees and derides, 
Not more almighty to resist our might 
Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 
Shall we, then, live thus vile--the race of Heaven 
Thus t...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, 
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. 
Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed; 
Then was not guilty shame, dishonest shame 
Of nature's works, honour dishonourable, 
Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind 
With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure, 
And banished from man's life his happiest life, 
Simplicity and spotless innocence! 
So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight 
Of God or Angel; for they thought no...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...ise. 
Hail, universal Lord, be bounteous still 
To give us only good; and if the night 
Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed, 
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark! 
So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts 
Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted calm. 
On to their morning's rural work they haste, 
Among sweet dews and flowers; where any row 
Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far 
Their pampered boughs, and needed hands to check 
Fruitless embraces: or the...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Artists

...ad!

Ere to the world proportion ye revealed,
That every being joyfully obeys,--
A boundless structure, in night's veil concealed,
Illumed by naught but faint and languid rays,
A band of phantoms, struggling ceaselessly,
Holding his mind in slavish fetters bound,
Unsociable and rude as be,
Assailing him on every side around,--
Thus seemed to man creation in that day!
United to surrounding forms alone
By the blind chains the passions had put on,
Whilst Nature's beauteous spiri...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The City Planners

...t is where the City Planners
with the insane faces of political conspirators
are scattered over unsurveyed
territories, concealed from each other,
each in his own private blizzard;


guessing directions, they sketch
transitory lines rigid as wooden borders
on a wall in the white vanishing air


tracing the panic of suburb
order in a bland madness of snows...Read more of this...
by Atwood, Margaret

The Comedian As The Letter C

...ispin, magister of a single room, 
444 Latched up the night. So deep a sound fell down 
445 It was as if the solitude concealed 
446 And covered him and his congenial sleep. 
447 So deep a sound fell down it grew to be 
448 A long soothsaying silence down and down. 
449 The crickets beat their tambours in the wind, 
450 Marching a motionless march, custodians. 

451 In the presto of the morning, Crispin trod, 
452 Each day, still curious, but in a round 
453 Less p...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Lady of the Lake

...bright as snow.
      The boat had touched this silver strand
     Just as the Hunter left his stand,
     And stood concealed amid the brake,
     To view this Lady of the Lake.
      The maiden paused, as if again
     She thought to catch the distant strain.
     With head upraised, and look intent,
     And eye and ear attentive bent,
     And locks flung back, and lips apart,
     Like monument of Grecian art,
     In listening mood, she seemed to stand,
    ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift

...his friend Oxford's crimes,
To praise Queen Anne, nay more, defend her,
As never fav'ring the Pretender;
Or libels yet concealed from sight,
Against the court to show his spite;
Perhaps his Travels, part the third,
A lie at every second word,
Offensive to a loyal ear;
But not one sermon, you may swear."

"His friendships there, to few confined,
Were always of the middling kind:
No fools of rank, a mongrel breed,
Who fain would pass for lords indeed.
Where titles give no righ...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

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