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Famous Count Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...e at ease,
We cried, we quarrelled; all the rocks and trees
For twenty miles could tell how lovers played,
And we could count a kiss for every glade.
Worry, starvation, illness and distress?
Each moment was a mine of happiness.

Then we grew tired of being country mice,
Came up to Paris, lived our sacrifice
There, giving holy berries to the moon,
July's thanksgiving for the joys of June.

And you are gone away --- and how shall I
Make August sing the raptures of J...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister



...Let's count the bodies over again.

If we could only make the bodies smaller 
The size of skulls 
We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight!

If we could only make the bodies smaller 
Maybe we could get
A whole year's kill in front of us on a desk!

If we could only make the bodies smaller 
We could fit
A body into a finger-rin...Read more of this...
by Bly, Robert
...
But took the morn—
I chose this single star
From out the wide night's numbers—
Sue—forevermore!

67

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory

As he defeated—dying—
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!

84

Her breast is fit for pearls,
But I ...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height 
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. 
I love thee to the level of every day's 
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. 
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; 
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. 
I love w...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...rtue, 
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
If all men count with you, but none too much: 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, 
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard



...s, and his alone; 
Prying and dark, a stranger's by his mien, 
Who still till now had gazed on him unseen; 
At length encountering meets the mutual gaze 
Of keen inquiry, and of mute amaze; 
On Lara's glance emotion gathering grew, 
As if distrusting that the stranger threw; 
Along the stranger's aspect fix'd and stern 
Flash'd more than thence the vulgar eye could learn. 

XXII. 

"'Tis he!" the stranger cried, and those that heard 
Re-echo'd fast and far the whisper...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...! 

Draw next a pair of tables opening, then 
The House of Commons clattering like the men. 
Describe the Court and Country, both set right 
On opp'site points, the black against the white. 
Those having lost the nation at tric-trac, 
These now adventuring how to win it back. 
The dice betwixt them must the fate divide 
(As chance doth still in multitudes decide). 
But here the Court does its advantage know, 
For the cheat Turner for them both must throw. ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...nal, and superiour voice 
Of their great Potentate; for great indeed 
His name, and high was his degree in Heaven; 
His countenance, as the morning-star that guides 
The starry flock, allured them, and with lies 
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host. 
Mean while the Eternal eye, whose sight discerns 
Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount, 
And from within the golden lamps that burn 
Nightly before him, saw without their light 
Rebellion rising; saw in w...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...d, Christ suffering. This is mention'd to
vindicate Tragedy from the small esteem, or rather infamy, which
in the account of many it undergoes at this day with other common
Interludes; hap'ning through the Poets error of intermixing Comic
stuff with Tragic sadness and gravity; or introducing trivial and
vulgar persons, which by all judicious hath bin counted absurd; and
brought in without discretion, corruptly to gratifie the people. And
though antient Tragedy use no ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...river
He was broken to his knee:
And he read, writ with an iron pen,
That God had wearied of Wessex men
And given their country, field and fen,
To the devils of the sea.

And he saw in a little picture,
Tiny and far away,
His mother sitting in Egbert's hall,
And a book she showed him, very small,
Where a sapphire Mary sat in stall
With a golden Christ at play.

It was wrought in the monk's slow manner,
From silver and sanguine shell,
Where the scenes are little and te...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K
...
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.

A time there was, ere England's griefs began,
When every rood of ground maintained its man;
For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
Just gave what life required, but gave no more:
His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

But times are al...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver
...24 (As that fond age, doth most of all desire),
1.25 His Suit of Crimson, and his Scarf of Green.
1.26 In's countenance, his pride quickly was seen.
1.27 Garland of Roses, Pinks, and Gillyflowers
1.28 Seemed to grow on's head (bedew'd with showers).
1.29 His face as fresh, as is Aurora fair,
1.30 When blushing first, she 'gins to red the Air.
1.31 No wooden horse, but one of metal try'd:
1.32 He seems to fly, or swim, and not to...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne
...ngel-song that faith hath ken'd
Fancy pourtray'd, above recorded oath
Of Israel's God, or light of poem pen'd;
The very countenance of plighted troth
'Twixt heaven and earth, where in one moment blend
The hope of one and happiness of both. 

8
For beauty being the best of all we know
Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims
Of nature, and on joys whose earthly names
Were never told can form and sense bestow;
And man hath sped his instinct to outgo
The step of science; and...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...thy with wandering lines of mount and mere, 
Where Arthur finds the brand Excalibur. 
And also one to the west, and counter to it, 
And blank: and who shall blazon it? when and how?-- 
O there, perchance, when all our wars are done, 
The brand Excalibur will be cast away. 

`So to this hall full quickly rode the King, 
In horror lest the work by Merlin wrought, 
Dreamlike, should on the sudden vanish, wrapt 
In unremorseful folds of rolling fire. 
And in he rode, ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ver after that sorrowful day,
 Whenever the Butcher was by,
The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,
 And appeared unaccountably shy.


II.--THE BELLMAN'S SPEECH.

Fit the Second.

THE BELLMAN'S SPEECH.


The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies--
 Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!
Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,
 The moment one looked in his face!

He had bought a large map representing the sea,
 Without the least vestig...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...emale Train,
Pensive, and wet. Mean while, the Cottage-Swain
Hangs o'er th'enlivening Blaze, and, taleful, there,
Recounts his simple Frolic: Much he talks, 
And much he laughs, nor recks the Storm that blows
Without, and rattles on his humble Roof.

AT last, the muddy Deluge pours along,
Resistless, roaring; dreadful down it comes
From the chapt Mountain, and the mossy Wild, 
Tumbling thro' Rocks abrupt, and sounding far:
Then o'er the sanded Valley, floating, spread...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James
...ot? Of this remark
The bearings are profoundly dark." 

"Her speech," he said, "hath caused this pain.
Easier I count it to explain
The jargon of the howling main, 

"Or, stretched beside some babbling brook,
To con, with inexpressive look,
An unintelligible book." 

Low spake the voice within his head,
In words imagined more than said,
Soundless as ghost's intended tread: 

"If thou art duller than before,
Why quittedst thou the voice of lore?
Why not endure, exp...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...rd there, engine-hung. 
He too amongst my ancestors! I hate 
The despot, but the dastard I despise. 
Was he our countryman?' 
'Alas, O king! 
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst 
Inclement winds blew blighting from north-east.' 
'He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the gods?' 
'Gebir, he fear'd the demons, not the gods, 
Though them indeed his daily face adored: 
And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives 
Squander'd, as stones to exercise a sling, 
And the tame ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...r in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defence; 
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference.
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows one final patronising kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .
 She tu...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...ng
My thoughts are sinless to true God above.
The sleeplessness has gone to other places,
I do not on grey ashes count my sorrow,
And the skewed arrow of the clock face
Does not look to me like a deadly arrow.
How past over the heart is losing power!
Freedom is near. I will forgive all yet,
Watching, as ray of sun runs up and down
The springtime vine that with spring rain is wet.



x x x

He was jealous, fearful and tender,
He loved me like ...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things