Famous De Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Arabia

by Walter de la Mare
 Far are the shades of Arabia, 
Where the Princes ride at noon, 
'Mid the verdurous vales and thickets, 
Under the ghost of the moon; 
And so dark is that vaulted purple 
Flowers in the forest rise 
And toss into blossom 'gainst the phantom stars 
Pale in the noonday skies. 

Sweet is the music of Arabia 
In my heart, when...Read more of this...

How Sleep the Brave

by Walter de la Mare
 Nay, nay, sweet England, do not grieve! 
Not one of these poor men who died 
But did within his soul believe 
That death for thee was glorified. 

Ever they watched it hovering near 
That mystery 'yond thought to plumb, 
Perchance sometimes in loathèd fear 
They heard cold Danger whisper, Come! -- 

Heard and obeyed. O, if thou weep 
Such...Read more of this...

Felo de Se

by Amy Levy
 With Apologies to Mr. Swinburne.


For repose I have sighed and have struggled ; have sigh'd and have struggled in vain;
I am held in the Circle of Being and caught in the Circle of Pain.
I was wan and weary with life ; my sick soul yearned for death;
I was weary of women and war and the sea and the wind's...Read more of this...

Ballade De Marguerite (Normande)

by Oscar Wilde
 I am weary of lying within the chase
When the knights are meeting in market-place.

Nay, go not thou to the red-roofed town
Lest the hoofs of the war-horse tread thee down.

But I would not go where the Squires ride,
I would only walk by my Lady's side.

Alack! and alack! thou art overbold,
A Forester's son may not eat off gold.

Will she love me...Read more of this...

Le Manteau De Pascal

by Jorie Graham
 I have put on my great coat it is cold.

It is an outer garment.

Coarse, woolen.

Of unknown origin.

 *

It has a fine inner lining but it is 
as an exterior that you see it — a grace.

 *

I have a coat I am wearing. It is a fine admixture.
The woman who threw the threads in the two directions
has made, skillfully,...Read more of this...

De Ligurra

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 YOU fear, Ligurra - above all, you long -
That I should smite you with a stinging song.
This dreadful honour you both fear and hope -
Both all in vain: you fall below my scope.
The Lybian lion tears the roaring bull,
He does not harm the midge along the pool.

Lo! if so close this stands in your regard,
From some blind tap fish...Read more of this...

Ninon De Lenclos On Her Last Birthday

by Dorothy Parker
 So let me have the rouge again,
And comb my hair the curly way.
The poor young men, the dear young men
They'll all be here by noon today.

And I shall wear the blue, I think-
They beg to touch its rippled lace;
Or do they love me best in pink,
So sweetly flattering the face?

And are you sure my eyes are bright,
And is it...Read more of this...

Arraignment Of The Men

by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Males perverse, schooled to condemn
Women by your witless laws,
Though forsooth you are prime cause
Of that which you blame in them:

If with unexampled care
You solicit their disdain,
Will your fair words ease their pain,
When you ruthless set the snare?

Their resistance you impugn,
Then maintain with gravity
That it was mere levity
Made you dare to importune.

What more elevating sight
Than of man with logic crass,
Who with...Read more of this...

La Solitude de St. Amant

by Katherine Philips
 1

O! Solitude, my sweetest choice
Places devoted to the night,
Remote from tumult, and from noise,
How you my restless thoughts delight!
O Heavens! what content is mine,
To see those trees which have appear'd
From the nativity of Time,
And which hall ages have rever'd,
To look to-day as fresh and green,
As when their beauties first were seen!


2

A cheerful wind does court them so,
And with such...Read more of this...

The Widow

by Walter de la Mare
 Grief hath pacified her face; 
Even hope might share so still a place; 
Yet, on the silence of her heart, 
Haply, if a strange footfall start, 
Or a chance word of ecstasy 
Cry through dim cloistered memory, 
Into her eyes her soul will steal 
To gaze into the irrevocable -- 
As if death had not power to keep 
One...Read more of this...

a reader's de profundis

by Rg Gregory
 in my reading of the moment i have learned
the figure next to christ in da vinci’s last supper
(a painting i have actually seen in a milan church
fragilely restored) is a woman – an honour earned
by mary magdalene who (according to research)
turns out to be christ’s wife – hang on what a whopper

cry those who can’t contemplate centuries of teaching
down...Read more of this...

The Scribe

by Walter de la Mare
 What lovely things 
Thy hand hath made: 
The smooth-plumed bird 
In its emerald shade, 
The seed of the grass, 
The speck of the stone 
Which the wayfaring ant 
Stirs -- and hastes on! 

Though I should sit 
By some tarn in thy hills, 
Using its ink 
As the spirit wills 
To write of Earth's wonders, 
Its live, willed things,...Read more of this...

Why?

by Walter de la Mare
 Ever, ever
Stir and shiver
The reeds and rushes
By the river:
Ever, ever,
As if in dream,
The lone moon's silver
Sleeks the stream.
What old sorrow,
What lost love,
Moon, reeds, rushes,
Dream you of?...Read more of this...

De M. Antonio

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 NOW Antoninus, in a smiling age,
Counts of his life the fifteenth finished stage.
The rounded days and the safe years he sees,
Nor fears death's water mounting round his knees.
To him remembering not one day is sad,
Not one but that its memory makes him glad.
So good men lengthen life; and to recall
The past is to have twice enjoyed it all....Read more of this...

Martha

by Walter de la Mare
 "Once...Once upon a time..." 
Over and over again, 
Martha would tell us her stories, 
In the hazel glen. 

Hers were those clear gray eyes 
You watch, and the story seems 
Told by their beautifulness 
Tranquil as dreams. 

She'd sit with her two slim hands 
Clasped round her bended knees; 
While we on our elbows lolled, 
And stared at ease....Read more of this...

You Men

by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
(Español)
Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpáis:

si con ansia sin igual
solicitáis su desdén,
¿por qué quereis que obren bien
si las incitáis al mal?

Combatís su resistencia
y luego, con gravedad,
decís que fue liviandad
lo que hizo la diligencia.

Parecer quiere el denuedo
de vuestro parecer loco,
al niño que pone el coco
y luego le tiene miedo.

Queréis, con...Read more of this...

The Keys of Morning

by Walter de la Mare
 While at her bedroom window once,
Learning her task for school,
Little Louisa lonely sat
In the morning clear and cool,
She slanted her small bead-brown eyes
Across the empty street,
And saw Death softly watching her
In the sunshine pale and sweet. 

His was a long lean sallow face;
He sat with half-shut eyes,
Like a old sailor in a ship
Becalmed 'neath tropic skies.
Beside him in the...Read more of this...

Vers De Société

by Philip Larkin
 My wife and I have asked a crowd of craps
To come and waste their time and ours: perhaps
You'd care to join us? In a pig's ****, friend.
Day comes to an end.
The gas fire breathes, the trees are darkly swayed.
And so Dear Warlock-Williams: I'm afraid--

Funny how hard it is to be alone.
I could spend half my evenings, if I wanted,
Holding...Read more of this...

Winter

by Walter de la Mare
 When icicles hang by the wall 
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail 
And Tom bears logs into the hall, 
And milk comes frozen home in pail, 
When Blood is nipped and ways be foul, 
Then nightly sings the staring owl, 
Tu-who; 
Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note, 
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 

When all aloud the wind...Read more of this...

Wanderers

by Walter de la Mare
 Wide are the meadows of night, 
And daisies are shinng there, 
Tossing their lovely dews, 
Lustrous and fair; 

And through these sweet fields go, 
Wanderers amid the stars -- 
Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, 
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. 

'Tired in their silver, they move, 
And circling, whisper and say, 
Fair are the blossoming meads of delight 
Through which we stray....Read more of this...

At Ease

by Walter de la Mare
 Most wounds can Time repair;
But some are mortal -- these:
For a broken heart there is no balm,
No cure for a heart at ease --

At ease, but cold as stone,
Though the intellect spin on,
And the feat and practiced face may show
Nought of the life that is gone;

But smiles, as by habit taught;
And sighs, as by custom led;
And the soul within...Read more of this...

The Remonstrance

by Walter de la Mare
 I was at peace until you came 
And set a careless mind aflame; 
I lived in quiet; cold, content; 
All longing in safe banishment, 
Until your ghostly lips and eyes 
Made wisdom unwise. 

Naught was in me to tempt your feet 
To seek a lodging. Quite forgot 
Lay the sweet solitude we two 
In childhood used to wander through;...Read more of this...

Noddin' By De Fire

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Some folks t'inks hit's right an' p'opah,
Soon ez bedtime come erroun',
Fu' to scramble to de kiver,
Lak dey 'd hyeahed de trumpet soun'.
But dese people dey all misses
Whut I mos'ly does desiah;
Dat 's de settin' roun' an' dozin',
An' a-noddin' by de fiah.
When you 's tiahed out a-hoein',
Er a-followin' de plough,
Whut's de use of des a-fallin'
On yo' pallet lak a cow?
W'y, de...Read more of this...

De Profundis

by Dorothy Parker
 Oh, is it, then, Utopian
To hope that I may meet a man
Who'll not relate, in accents suave,
The tales of girls he used to have?...Read more of this...

Trouble In De Kitchen

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Dey was oncet a awful quoil 'twixt de skillet an' de pot;
De pot was des a-bilin' an' de skillet sho' was hot.
Dey slurred each othah's colah an' dey called each othah names,[Pg 269]
Wile de coal-oil can des gu-gled, po'in oil erpon de flames.
De pot, hit called de skillet des a flat, disfiggered t'ing,
An' de skillet 'plied dat all...Read more of this...

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