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Famous Confessed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...e pay or what it is we buy.” 
He waited, gazing at me as if asking 
The worth of what the universe had for sale
For one confessed remorse. Avon, I knew, 
Had driven the wheels too fast, and not for gold. 

“If you had given him then your hand,” I said, 
“And spoken, though it strangled you, the truth, 
I should not have the melancholy honor
Of sitting here alone with you this evening. 
If only you had shaken hands with him, 
And said the truth, he would have gone his way. 
An...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington



...lects myself-- 
My shade's so much more potent than your flesh. 
What's your reward, self-abnegating friend? 
Stood you confessed of those exceptional 
And privileged great natures that dwarf mine-- 
A zealot with a mad ideal in reach, 
A poet just about to print his ode, 
A statesman with a scheme to stop this war, 
An artist whose religion is his art-- 


I should have nothing to object: such men 
Carry the fire, all things grow warm to them, 
Their drugget's worth my purpl...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...I hope that he might die as we. 
But let them write is praise that love him best, 
It grieves me sore to have thus much confessed.' 

Pardon, great Prince, if thus their fear of spite 
More than our love and duty do thee right. 
I yield, nor further will the prize contend, 
So that we both alike may miss our end: 
While thou thy venerable head dost raise 
As far above their malice as my praise, 
And as the Angel of our commonweal, 
Troubling the waters, yearly mak'st them hea...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...some great spirits soar,
With inborn strength mysterious depths explore;
Their eager gaze surveys the path of light,
Confessed it stood to Newton's piercing sight,
     Deep science, like a bashful maid retires,
And but the ardent breast her worth inspires;
By perseverance the coy fair is won,
And Genius, led by Study, wears the crown.
     But some there are who wish not to improve,
Who never can the path of knowledge love,
Whose souls almost with the dull body one...Read more of this...
by Murray, Judith Sargent
...e ware."
Thenn loyghe that other leude and luflyly sayde:
"I halde hit hardily hole, the harme that I hade.
Thou art confessed so clene, beknowen of thy mysses,
And hatz the penaunce apert of the poynt of myn egge,
I halde the polysed of that plyyght, and pured as clene
As thou hadez neuer forfeted sythen thou watz fyrst borne;
And I gif the, sir, the gurdel that is golde-hemmed,
For hit is grene as my goune. Sir Gawayn, yghe maye
Thenk vpon this ilke threpe, ther th...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)



...creek
How merrily flutters the sail, --
And lo, in the East! Will the East unveil?
The East is unveiled, the East hath confessed
A flush: 'tis dead; 'tis alive: 'tis dead, ere the West
Was aware of it: nay, 'tis abiding, 'tis unwithdrawn:
Have a care, sweet Heaven! 'Tis Dawn.

Now a dream of a flame through that dream of a flush is uprolled:
To the zenith ascending, a dome of undazzling gold
Is builded, in shape as a bee-hive, from out of the sea:
The hive is of gold undazzl...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney
...hanced the page to turn 
 Where Galahad tells the tale of Lancelot, 
 How love constrained him. Oft our meeting eyes, 
 Confessed the theme, and conscious cheeks were hot, 
 Reading, but only when that instant came 
 Where the surrendering lips were kissed, no less 
 Desire beat in us, and whom, for all this pain, 
 No hell shall sever (so great at least our gain), 
 Trembling, he kissed my mouth, and all forgot, 
 We read no more." 
 As thus did one confess 
 Their happier d...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...one, Powell that could not ride, 
Led the French standard, weltering in his stride. 
He, to excuse his slowness, truth confessed 
That 'twas so long before he could be dressed. 
The Lord's sons, last, all these did reinforce: 
Cornb'ry before them managed hobby-horse. 

Never before nor since, an host so steeled 
Trooped on to muster in the Tothill Field: 
Not the first cock-horse that with cork were shod 
To rescue Albemarle from the sea-cod, 
Nor the late feather-men, whom...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...order and in might: 
The rest were long to tell; though far renowned 
Th' Ionian gods--of Javan's issue held 
Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
Their boasted parents;--Titan, Heaven's first-born, 
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove, 
His own and Rhea's son, like measure found; 
So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 
Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 
The...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ss remorse: they, forthwith to the place 
Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell 
Before him reverent; and both confessed 
Humbly their faults, and pardon begged; with tears 
Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air 
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign 
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek. 
Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood 
Praying; for from the mercy-seat above 
Prevenient grace descending had removed 
The stony from their hea...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...d mouths;
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'st to truth! all oracles 
By thee are given, and what confessed more true
Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers? what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
Which they who asked have seldom understood,
And, not well understood, as good not known?
Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,
Returned the wiser, or the more i...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ly I remark
An English countess goes upon the stage.
A Greek was murdered at a Polish dance,
Another bank defaulter has confessed.
I keep my countenance,
I remain self-possessed
Except when a street piano, mechanical and tired
Reiterates some worn-out common song
With the smell of hyacinths across the garden
Recalling things that other people have desired.
Are these ideas right or wrong?

III

The October night comes down; returning as before
Except for a slight sensation of ...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...nny as a summer day;

Marie was kind, sedate, and sweet,
With gentle ways and manners neat.

Each was so dear that John confessed
He could not tell which he liked best.

He studied them for quite a year,
And still found no solution near,

And might have studied two years more
Had he not, walking on the shore,

Conceived a very simple way
Of ending his prolonged delay--

A way in which he might decide
Which of the maids should be his bride.

He said, "I'll toss into the air
A ...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker
...in any book of Eastern travels. That it possesses a charm peculiar to itself, cannot be denied. A young French renegado confessed to Chateaubriand, that he never found himself alone, galloping in the desert, without a sensation approaching to rapture, which was indescribable. 

(39) "Jannat al Aden," the perpetual abode, the Mussulman paradise. 

(40) A turban is carved in stone above the graves of men only. 

(41) The death-song of the Turkish women. The "silent slaves" are ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...have I.
N'ere* mine extortion, I might not live, *were it not for
For of such japes* will I not be shrive.** *tricks **confessed
Stomach nor conscience know I none;
I shrew* these shrifte-fathers** every one. *curse **confessors
Well be we met, by God and by St Jame.
But, leve brother, tell me then thy name,"
Quoth this Sompnour. Right in this meane while
This yeoman gan a little for to smile.

"Brother," quoth he, "wilt thou that I thee tell?
I am a fiend, my dwelling is in...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Lesson must end,
And he wept with delight in attempting to say
 He considered the Beaver his friend.

While the Beaver confessed, with affectionate looks
 More eloquent even than tears,
It had learned in ten minutes far more than all books
 Would have taught it in seventy years.

They returned hand-in-hand, and the Bellman, unmanned
 (For a moment) with noble emotion,
Said "This amply repays all the wearisome days
 We have spent on the billowy ocean!"

Such friends, as the B...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...e;
      Not Katrine in her mirror blue
     Gives back the shaggy banks more true,
     Than every free-born glance confessed
     The guileless movements of her breast;
     Whether joy danced in her dark eye,
     Or woe or pity claimed a sigh,
     Or filial love was glowing there,
     Or meek devotion poured a prayer,
     Or tale of injury called forth
     The indignant spirit of the North.
     One only passion unrevealed
     With maiden pride the maid c...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...sway, 
Forsaken of that hope, he shifts his sail, 
Drives down the current with the popular gale, 
And shows the fiend confessed without a veil. 
He preaches to the crowd that power is lent, 
But not conveyed to kingly government, 
That claims successive bear no binding force, 
That coronation oaths are things of course; 
Maintains the multitude can never err, 
And sets the people in the papal chair. 
The reason's obvious, interest never lies; 
The most have still their inte...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
..., for our hearts are with thee, take no rest!
 Loud-voiced ambassador, from sea to sea
Proclaim the blessing, mainfold, confessed.
 Of those in darkness by her hand set free.
 Then very softly to her presence move,
 And whisper: "Lady, lo, they know and love!"...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...ers set not up for beaux.
True genuine dulness moved his pity,
Unless it offered to be witty.
Those who their ignornace confessed
He ne'er offended with a jest;
But laughed to hear an idiot quote
A verse from Horace learned by rote.
Vice, if it e'er can be abashed,
Must be or ridiculed or lashed.
If you resent it, who's to blame?
He neither knew you nor your name.
Should vice expect to 'scape rebuke,
Because its owner is a duke?"
"He knew an hundred pleasant stories,
With all...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things