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Famous Cords Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...
Seemed wandering into sound.

O solemn-beating heart
Of nature! I have knowledge that thou art
Bound unto man's by cords he cannot sever---
And, what time they are slackened by him ever,
So to attest his own supernal part,
Still runneth thy vibration fast and strong,
The slackened cord along.

For though we never spoke
Of the grey water **** the shaded rock,---
Dark wave and stone, unconsciously, were fused
Into the plaintive speaking that we used,
Of absent friends ...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...a hostage for his people.
With his prisoner-string he bound him,
Led him captive to his wigwam,
Tied him fast with cords of elm-bark
To the ridge-pole of his wigwam.
"Kahgahgee, my raven!" said he,
"You the leader of the robbers,
You the plotter of this mischief,
The contriver of this outrage,
I will keep you, I will hold you,
As a hostage for your people,
As a pledge of good behavior!"
And he left him, grim and sulky,
Sitting in the morning sunshine
On the summit of...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...the sea,
And the cloud-shadow on the lea,
The soothing lapse of morn to mirk,
And the cheerful round of work.
Their cords of love so public are,
They intertwine the farthest star.
The throbbing sea, the quaking earth,
Yield sympathy and signs of mirth;
Is none so high, so mean is none,
But feels and seals this union.
Even the tell Furies are appeased,
The good applaud, the lost are eased.

Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond,
Bound for the just, but not b...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...elf hast there written,
And, to gladden the eye, placest her wonders in groups;--
Since o'er her boundless expanses thy cords to extend thou art able,
Thou dost think that thy mind wonderful Nature can grasp.
Thus the astronomer draws his figures over the heavens,
So that he may with more ease traverse the infinite space,
Knitting together e'en suns that by Sirius-distance are parted,
Making them join in the swan and in the horns of the bull.
But because the firmament...Read more of this...

by Mueller, Lisel
...ght hand, lifted
an exact century ago,
completes its downward arc
to the kitchen boy's left ear;
the boy's tensed vocal cords
finally let go
the trapped, enduring whimper,
and the fly, arrested mid-plunge
above the strawberry pie
fulfills its abiding mission
and dives into the sweet, red glaze.

As a child I had a book
with a picture of that scene.
I was too young to notice
how fear persists, and how
the anger that causes fear persists,
that its trajectory can't be ch...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...,
But yet he swerved as from a blow;
And, starting to each accent, sprang
As from a sudden trumpet's clang:
Meantime my cords were wet with gore,
Which, oozing through my limbs, ran o'er;
And in my tongue the thirst became
A something fierier far than flame.

XII

'We neared the wild wood - 'twas so wide,
I saw no bounds on either side;
'Twas studded with old sturdy trees,
That bent not to the roughest breeze
Which howls down from Siberia's waste,
And strips the forest in...Read more of this...

by Komunyakaa, Yusef
...swelling go down.
His carpenter's apron always bulged
With old nails, a claw hammer
Looped at his side & extension cords
Coiled around his feet.
Words rolled from under the pressure
Of my ballpoint: Love,
Baby, Honey, Please.
We sat in the quiet brutality
Of voltage meters & pipe threaders,
Lost between sentences . . .
The gleam of a five-pound wedge
On the concrete floor
Pulled a sunset
Through the doorway of his toolshed.
I wondered if she laugh...Read more of this...

by Wyatt, Sir Thomas
...e sail apace
Of forced sighs and trusty fearfulness.
A rain of tears, a cloud of dark disdain,
Hath done the weared cords great hinderance;
Wreathèd with error and eke with ignorance.
The stars be hid that led me to this pain;
Drownèd is Reason that should me comfort,
And I remain despairing of the port....Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...ned like the captain of a submarine in a

 dark basement ocean during the winter.

 In the summer I'd throw endless cords of wood into her

 basement until I was silly in the head and everything looked

 like wood, even clouds in the sky and cars parked on the

 street and cats.

 There were dozens of little tiny things that I did for her.

Find a lost screwdriver, lost in 1911. Pick her a pan full of

pie cherries in the spring, and pick the rest of the cherr...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...n some conditions came
Into thir hands, and they as gladly yield me
To the uncircumcis'd a welcom prey, 
Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threds
Toucht with the flame: on thir whole Host I flew
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd
Thir choicest youth; they only liv'd who fled.
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole Tribe,
They had by this possess'd the Towers of Gath,
And lorded over them whom now they serve;
But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
And...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...this is the night of the drawing of swords,
And the tainted tower of the heathen hordes
Leans to our hammers, fires and cords,
Leans a little and falls.

"Follow the star that lives and leaps,
Follow the sword that sings,
For we go gathering heathen men,
A terrible harvest, ten by ten,
As the wrath of the last red autumn--then
When Christ reaps down the kings.

"Follow a light that leaps and spins,
Follow the fire unfurled!
For riseth up against realm and rod,
A thing...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...evil spirits from their shrines, 
And turn’d fishermen to divines; 
O’erturn’d the tent of secret sins, 
And its golden cords and pins, 
In the bloody shrine of war 
Pour’d around from star to star,— 
Halls of justice, hating vice, 
Where the Devil combs his lice. 
He turn’d the devils into swine 
That He might tempt the Jews to dine; 
Since which, a pig has got a look 
That for a Jew may be mistook. 
“Obey your parents.”—What says He? 
“Woman, what have I to do w...Read more of this...

by Gray, Thomas
...weights that play below,
Each a gasping warrior's head. 

Shafts for shuttles, dipped in gore,
Shoot the trembling cords along.
Sword, that once a monarch bore,
Keep the tissue close and strong. 

Mista, black, terrific maid,
Sangrida, and Hilda, see,
Join the wayward work to aid;
'Tis the woof of victory. 

Ere the ruddy sun be set,
Pikes must shiver, javelins sing,
Blade with clattering buckler meet,
Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. 

(Weave the crimson ...Read more of this...

by Thompson, Francis
...utanist.
Even the linked fantasies in whose blossomy twist,
I swung the Earth, a trinket at my wrist,
Have yielded, cords of all too weak account,
For Earth, with heavy grief so overplussed.
Ah! is thy Love indeed a weed,
albeit an Amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! must, Designer Infinite,
Ah! must thou char the wood 'ere thou canst limn with it ?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust.
And now my heart is as a broken ...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...n my selfish rage so strong,
     My sense of public weal so low,
     That, for mean vengeance on a foe,
     Those cords of love I should unbind
     Which knit my country and my kind?
     O no! Believe, in yonder tower
     It will not soothe my captive hour,
     To know those spears our foes should dread
     For me in kindred gore are red:
     'To know, in fruitless brawl begun,
     For me that mother wails her son,
     For me that widow's mate expires,
...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...t now so mighty, melts away--
That earth no life which earth has known
From the last silence can delay!

Slowly now the cords upheave her!
From her earth-grave soars the bell;
Mid the airs of heaven we leave her!
In the music-realm to dwell!
Up--upwards yet raise--
She has risen--she sways.
Fair bell to our city bode joy and increase,
And oh, may thy first sound be hallowed to peace!...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...
"Springs ardently to thee,--impatient of controul.


XVI. 

"Again the lightning flashes white--
"The rattling cords among!
"Now, by the transient vivid light,
"I mark the frantic throng!
"Now up the tatter'd shrouds my DRACO flies--
While o'er the plunging prow, the curling billows rise.


XVII. 

"The topmast falls--three shackled slaves--
"Cling to the Vessel's side!
"Now lost amid the madd'ning waves--
"Now on the mast they ride--
"See ! on the forecastle...Read more of this...

by Jeffers, Robinson
...imself helpless, on all 
 dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in. They hardly feel the cords drawing, yet 
 they shine already. The inevitable mass-disasters
Will not come in our time nor in our children's, but we 
 and our children
Must watch the net draw narrower, government take all 
 powers--or revolution, and the new government
Take more than all, add to kept bodies kept souls--or anarchy, 
 the mass-disasters.
 These things are P...Read more of this...

by Abercrombie, Lascelles
...ou art, to sap 
My heart with chatter'd fears. How easy it is 
For a stiff mind to hold itself upright 
Against the cords of devilish suggestion 
Tackled about it, though kept downward strained 
With sly, masterful winches made of fear. 
Yea, when the mind is warned what engines mean 
To ply it into grovelling, and thought set firm, 
The tugging strings fail like a cobweb-stuff. 
Not as in Baghdad is it with me now; 
Nor canst thou, Satan, by a prating mouth, 
Fel...Read more of this...

by Neruda, Pablo
...e are mirrors
that ought to have wept from shame and terror,
there are umbrellas everywhere, and venoms, and umbilical
 cords.

I stroll along serenely, with my eyes, my shoes,
my rage, forgetting everything,
I walk by, going through office buildings and orthopedic
 shops,
and courtyards with washing hanging from the line:
underwear, towels and shirts from which slow
dirty tears are falling....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs