Famous Cunningly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Pastoral Dialogue (Melibæus Alcippe Asteria Licida Alcimedon and Amira. )

...his Will
Does all my Words and Looks interpret still: 
But I shall learn at length how to Disdain,
Or at the least more cunningly to feign.
 Alci. No wonder thou Alcimedon art rude, 
When with no Gen'rous Quality endu'd: 
But hop'st by railing Words Vice to defend,
Which Foulers made, by having such a Friend. 
 Amira, thou art warn'd, wisely beware, 
Leap not with Open-Eyes into the Snare: 
The Faith that's given to thee, was given before 
To Nais, Amoret, and many more;
The ...Read more of this...
by Killigrew, Anne


Ay workman make me a dream

...Ay, workman, make me a dream,
A dream for my love.
Cunningly weave sunlight,
Breezes, and flowers.
Let it be of the cloth of meadows.
And -- good workman --
And let there be a man walking thereon....Read more of this...
by Crane, Stephen

By the Aurelian Wall

...n to partake
Before he farther wends;

Who slyly should bestow
The foreign reed-flute they had seen him blow
And finger cunningly,
On one of the dark children standing by,
Then lift his cloak and go.

The years pass. And the child
Thoughtful beyond his fellows, grave and mild,
Treasures the rough-made toy,
Until one day he blows it for clear joy,
And wakes the music wild.

His fondness makes it seem 
A thing first fashioned in delirious dream,
Some god had cut and tried,
And ...Read more of this...
by Carman, Bliss

Craving for Spring

...d cumulus clouds of all imaginable blossom
about our bewildered faces,
though we do not worship.

I wish it were spring
cunningly blowing on the fallen sparks, odds and ends of the old, scattered fire,
and kindling shapely little conflagrations
curious long-legged foals, and wide-eared calves, and naked sparrow-bubs.

I wish that spring
would start the thundering traffic of feet
new feet on the earth, beating with impatience.

I wish it were spring, thundering
delicate, tende...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

Discovery

...w skilfully that man there walks towards you,
Arms hanging, swinging, waiting.
You move the muscles of your cheeks,
How cunningly a smile responds.
And now you are actually speaking
Round sounding words
Magnificent
As that lady's hat!...Read more of this...
by Tessimond, A S J


Holy Sonnet V: I Am A Little World Made Cunningly

...I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements, and an angelic sprite;
But black sin hath betrayed to endless night
My worlds both parts, and (oh!) both parts must die.
You which beyond that heaven which was most high
Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,
Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might
Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,
Or wash it if it must be drow...Read more of this...
by Donne, John

Life

...I smell my remnant out, and tie 
My life within this band. 
But time did becken to the flowers, and they 
By noon most cunningly did steal away
And wither'd in my hand. 

My hand was next to them, and then my heart: 
I took, without more thinking, in good part 
Times gentle admonition: 
Who did so sweetly deaths sad taste convey
Making my minde to smell my fatall day; 
Yet sugring the suspicion. 

Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent, 
Fit, while ye liv'd, for ...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

Master Hugues Of Saxe-Gotha

...off-hand and runningly,
Just now, your masterpiece, hard number twelve?
Here's what should strike, could one handle it cunningly:
HeIp the axe, give it a helve!

VIII.

Page after page as I played,
Every bar's rest, where one wipes
Sweat from one's brow, I looked up and surveyed,
O'er my three claviers yon forest of pipes
Whence you still peeped in the shade.

IX.

Sure you were wishful to speak?
You, with brow ruled like a score,
Yes, and eyes buried in pits on each cheek,
...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Necrological

...youth possessed him then of a crooked blade 
Deep in the belly of a lugubrious wight; 
He fingered it well, and it was cunningly made; 
But strange apparatus was if for a Carmelite. 

Then he sat upon a hill and bowed his head 
As under a riddle, and in deep surmise 
So still that he likened himself unto those dead 
Whom the kites of Heaven solicited with sweet cries....Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe

Samson Agonistes

...strong, inflexible as steel.
If thou in strength all mortals dost exceed,
In uncompassionate anger do not so.

Sam: How cunningly the sorceress displays
Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine! 
That malice not repentance brought thee hither,
By this appears : I gave, thou say'st, th' example,
I led the way; bitter reproach, but true,
I to my self was false e're thou to me,
Such pardon therefore as I give my folly,
Take to thy wicked deed: which when thou seest
Impartial, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sir Richards Song

...will remember his own hour--
 Tell him England hath taken me!

 As for my Mother in her bower,
 That rules my Father so cunningly,
 She will remember a maiden's power--
 Tell her England hath taken me!

 As for my Brother in Rouen City,
 A nimble and naughty' page is he,
 But he will come to suffer and pity--
 Tell him England hath taken me!

 As for my little Sister waiting
 In the pleasant orchards of Normandie,
 Tell her youth is the time for mating--
 Tell her England hat...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Spiders

...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 of spiders and each one
Differs in kind and in unkindness.
In variety of behavior spide...Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore

The Ballad of the White Horse

...p fire
They stood all in a row.

For golden in the firelight,
With a smile carved on his lips,
And a beard curled right cunningly,
Was Guthrum of the Northern Sea,
The emperor of the ships--

With three great earls King Guthrum
Went the rounds from fire to fire,
With Harold, nephew of the King,
And Ogier of the Stone and Sling,
And Elf, whose gold lute had a string
That sighed like all desire.

The Earls of the Great Army
That no men born could tire,
Whose flames anear him or...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Faerie Queene Book I Canto IV (excerpts)

...of the toilesome way,
And also nigh consumed is the lingring day.

iv

A stately Pallace built of squared bricke,
Which cunningly was without morter laid,
Whose wals were high, but nothing strong, nor thick,
And golden foile all over them displaid,
That purest skye with brightnesse they dismaid:
High lifted up were many loftie towres,
And goodly galleries farre over laid,
Full of faire windowes, and delightfull bowres;
And on the top a Diall told the timely howres.

v

It was...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund

The Great Adventure of Max Breuck

...rned the usurer to a ruffian.
"But let me take my ship, with many bales
Of cotton stuffs dyed crimson, green, and blue,
Cunningly patterned, made to suit the taste
Of mandarin's ladies; when my battered sails
Open for home, such stores will I bring you
That all your former ventures will be counted waste.

13
Such light and foamy silks, like crinkled cream,
And indigo more blue than sun-whipped seas,
Spices and fragrant trees, a massive beam
Of sandalwood, and pungent China te...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The House Of Dust: Complete (Long)

...there one day
A wise man, white with age,
Stared at the portrait, and said, 'This Hiroshigi
Knew more than archimage,—

Cunningly drew the body, and called the spirit,
Till partly it entered there . . .
Sometimes, at death, it entered the portrait wholly . .
Do all I say with care,

And she you love may come to you when you call her . . . '
So then this ghost, Tokkei,
Ran in the sun, bought wine of a hundred merchants,
And alone at the end of day

Entered the darkening room, ...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

The Light That Failed

...hand,
 And he is bound by hand and foot
 To the Queen of Fairy Land.

"If I have taken the common clay
 And wrought it cunningly
In the shape of a God that was digged a clod,
 The greater honour to me."

"If thou hast taken the common clay,
 And thy hands be not free
From the taint of the soil, thou hast made thy spoil
 The greater shame to thee."

The lark will make her hymn to God,
 The partridge call her brood,
While I forget the heath I trod,
 The fields wherein I stood....Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Self-Seeker

...he chin to hers 
And says their names, and leaves them where they are." 
The lawyer wore a watch the case of which 
Was cunningly devised to make a noise 
Like a small pistol when he snapped it shut 
At such a time as this. He snapped it now. 
"Well, Anne, go, dearie. Our affair will wait. 
The lawyer man is thinking of his train. 
He wants to give me lots and lots of money 
Before he goes, because I hurt myself, 
And it may take him I don't know how long. 
But put our flower...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Shadow

...to look and see
How the spots on the ceiling danced prettily
When he flashed his stones. "Mother, the green
Has slid so cunningly in between
The blue and the yellow. Oh, please look down!"
Then, with a pitiful, puzzled frown,
He would get up slowly from his play
And walk round the room, feeling his way
From table to chair, from chair to door,
Stepping over the cracks in the floor,
Till reaching the table again, her face
Would bring recollection, and no solace
Could balm his h...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

Three Odes To My Friend

...is rocky ambush
Upon thee turns
The force of his lynx-like eyes,

Stretches his talons,
On thee falls,
In thy shoulders
Cunningly plants them.

Strong are his skinny arms,
As panther-claws;
He shaketh thee,
And rends thy frame.

Death 'tis to part,
'Tis threefold death
To part, not hoping
Ever to meet again.

Thou wouldst rejoice to leave
This hated land behind,
Wert thou not chain'd to me
With friendships flowery chains.

Burst them! I'll not repine.
No noble friend
Would st...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

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