Famous Courtship Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Oh! Doubt Me Not

by Thomas Moore
 Oh! doubt me not -- the season 
Is o'er when Folly made me rove, 
And now the vestal, Reason, 
Shall watch the fire awaked by Love. 
Although this heart was early blown, 
And fairest hands disturb'd the tree, 
They only shook some blossoms down -- 
Its fruit has all been kept for thee. 
Then doubt me not -- the...Read more of this...

Three Songs

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 LOVE, thou art best of Human Joys, 
Our chiefest Happiness below;
All other Pleasures are but Toys,
Musick without Thee is but Noise, 
And Beauty but an empty Show. 
Heav'n, who knew best what Man wou'd move, 
And raise his Thoughts above the Brute;
Said, Let him Be, and let him Love;
That must alone his Soul improve, 
Howe'er Philosophers dispute. 


II

Quickly, Delia,...Read more of this...

In Memoriam 131: O Living Will That Shalt Endure

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 O living will that shalt endure
When all that seems shall suffer shock,
Rise in the spiritual rock,
Flow thro' our deeds and make them pure, 

That we may lift from out of dust
A voice as unto him that hears,
A cry above the conquer'd years
To one that with us works, and trust, 

With faith that comes of self-control,
The truths that never can...Read more of this...

Upon a Little Lady Under the Discipline of an Excellent Person

by Anne Killigrew
 I. 
HOw comes the Day orecast ? the Flaming Sun
Darkn'd at Noon, as if his Course were run ? 
He never rose more proud, more glad, more gay, 
Ne're courted Daphne with a brighter Ray ! 
 And now in Clouds he wraps his Head, 
As if not Daphne, but himself were dead ! 
 And all the little...Read more of this...

Courtship

by Mark Strand
 There is a girl you like so you tell her
your ***** is big, but that you cannot get yourself
to use it. Its demands are ridiculous, you say,
even self-defeating, but to be honored, somehow,
briefly, inconspicuously in the dark.

When she closes her eyes in horror,
you take it all back. You tell her you're almost
a girl yourself and can understand why she...Read more of this...

An Epitaph

by Walter de la Mare
 ENOUGH; and leave the rest to Fame! 
'Tis to commend her, but to name. 
Courtship which, living, she declined, 
When dead, to offer were unkind: 
Nor can the truest wit, or friend, 
Without detracting, her commend. 

To say--she lived a virgin chaste 
In this age loose and all unlaced; 
Nor was, when vice is so allowed, 
Of virtue or...Read more of this...

Restlessness

by D. H. Lawrence
 At the open door of the room I stand and look at the night,
Hold my hand to catch the raindrops, that slant into sight,
Arriving grey from the darkness above suddenly into the light of the room.
I will escape from the hollow room, the box of light, 
And be out in the bewildering darkness, which is always fecund, which might
Mate...Read more of this...

Spiders

by Delmore Schwartz
 Is the spider a monster in miniature?
His web is a cruel stair, to be sure,
Designed artfully, cunningly placed,
A delicate trap, carefully spun
To bind the fly (innocent or unaware)
In a net as strong as a chain or a gun.

There are far more spiders than the man in the street
 supposes
And the philosopher-king imagines, let alone knows!
There are six hundred kinds...Read more of this...

Certain Maxims Of Hafiz

by Rudyard Kipling
  I.
If It be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai,
Does not the Young Man try Its temper and pace ere he buy?
If She be pleasant to look on, what does the Young Man say?
"Lo! She is pleasant to look on, give Her to me to-day!"

 II.
Yea, though a Kafir die, to him is remitted Jehannum
If he...Read more of this...

The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo

by Edward Lear
 I 

On the Coast of Coromandel
Where the early pumpkins blow,
In the middle of the woods
Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-B?.
Two old chairs, and half a candle,--
One old jug without a handle,--
These were all his worldly goods:
In the middle of the woods,
These were all the worldly goods,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-B?,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-B?.

II 

Once, among the Bong-trees walking
Where the early pumpkins blow,
To a little heap...Read more of this...

To My Dear Friend Mr. Congreve On His Commedy Calld The Double Dealer

by John Dryden
 Well then; the promis'd hour is come at last;
The present age of wit obscures the past:
Strong were our sires; and as they fought they writ,
Conqu'ring with force of arms, and dint of wit;
Theirs was the giant race, before the Flood;
And thus, when Charles return'd, our empire stood.
Like Janus he the stubborn soil manur'd,
With rules of husbandry the rankness cur'd:
Tam'd...Read more of this...

To One Persuading A Lady To Marriage

by Katherine Philips
 Forbear, bold youth; all 's heaven here,
 And what you do aver
To others courtship may appear,
 'Tis sacrilege to her.
She is a public deity;
 And were 't not very odd
She should dispose herself to be
 A petty household god? 

First make the sun in private shine
 And bid the world adieu,
That so he may his beams confine
 In compliment...Read more of this...

A Panegyric To Sir Lewis Pemberton

by Robert Herrick
 Till I shall come again, let this suffice,
I send my salt, my sacrifice
To thee, thy lady, younglings, and as far
As to thy Genius and thy Lar;
To the worn threshold, porch, hall, parlour, kitchen,
The fat-fed smoking temple, which in
The wholesome savour of thy mighty chines,
Invites to supper him who dines:
Where laden spits, warp'd with large ribs of beef,
Not represent, but...Read more of this...

A Motor Courtship

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Into her presence he gaily pranced, 
A very fat spark, and a bit advanced. 
With a Samson tread on the earth he trod, 
He was stayed and gaitered, and fifty odd. 

And she was a tulip just unfurled, 
The sweetest thing in the motor world. 

Her body was one of which poets dreamed; 
Eighteen -- twenty, or so she...Read more of this...

To Kate. (In Lieu Of A Valentine)

by Ellis Parker Butler
 Sweet Love and I had oft communed;
 We were, indeed, great friends,
And oft I sought his office, near
 Where Courtship Alley ends.

I used to sit with him, and smoke,
 And talk of your blue eyes,
And argue how I best might act
 To make your heart my prize.

He always seemed to have much time
 To hear me tell my joy,
So...Read more of this...

God is a distant -- stately Lover

by Emily Dickinson
 God is a distant -- stately Lover --
Woos, as He states us -- by His Son --
Verily, a Vicarious Courtship --
"Miles", and "Priscilla", were such an One --

But, lest the Soul -- like fair "Priscilla"
Choose the Envoy -- and spurn the Groom --
Vouches, with hyperbolic archness --
"Miles", and "John Alden" were Synonym --...Read more of this...

In Memoriam A. H. H.: 131. O living will that shalt endure

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 O living will that shalt endure
When all that seems shall suffer shock,
Rise in the spiritual rock,
Flow thro' our deeds and make them pure,
That we may lift from out of dust
A voice as unto him that hears,
A cry above the conquer'd years
To one that with us works, and trust,
With faith that comes of self-control,
The truths that never can be proved
Until...Read more of this...

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