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Famous Dead Of Night Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Martí, José
...All the strange flowers that grow;
I know every blade of grass,
Fatal lie and sublime woe.

I have seen through dead of night
Upon my head softly fall,
Rays formed of the purest light
From beauty celestial.

I have seen wings that were surging
From beautiful women's shoulders,
And seen butterflies emerging
From the refuse heap that moulders.

I have known a man to live
With a dagger at his side,
And never once the name give
Of she by whose hand he...Read more of this...



by Carew, Thomas
...iding throat 
She winters and keeps warm her note. 

Ask me no more where those stars light 
That downwards fall in dead of night; 
For in your eyes they sit, and there, 
Fixed become as in their sphere. 

Ask me no more if east or west 
The ph?nix builds her spicy nest; 
For unto you at last she flies, 
And in your fragrant bosom dies....Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
..." the sight was grand. 

Yet the crew of the "Pique" maintained the fight,
Oh! most courageously they fought in the dead of night;
And for two hours they kept up firing without dismay,
But it was a sacrifice of human life, they had to give way. 

And about five o'clock in the morning the French cried for quarter,
Because on board there had been a great slaughter;
Their Captain Consail was mortally wounded in the fight
Along with many officers and men; oh! it was a hea...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ood.' 
'A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn, 
And 'tis at peep of light; 
His blast is heard at merry morn, 
And mine at dead of night.' 

Yet sung she, 'Brignall banks are fair, 
And Greta woods are gay! 
I would I were with Edmund there, 
To reign his Queen of May! 

'With burnish'd brand and musketoon 
So gallantly you come, 
I read you for a bold Dragoon, 
That lists the tuck of drum.' 
'I list no more the tuck of drum, 
No more the trumpet hear; 
But when the beet...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...an's back. 

He left the camp by the sundown light, 
And the settlers out on the Marthaguy 
Awoke and heard, in the dead of night, 
A single horseman hurrying by. 
He crossed the Bogan at Dandaloo, 
And many a mile of the silent plain 
That lonely rider behind him threw 
Before they settled to sleep again. 

He rode all noght, and he steered his course 
By the shining stars with a bushman's skill, 
And every time that he pressed his horse 
The Swagman answered him...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...ty, 
Sleepless amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable wealth, 
With her million children around her—suddenly, 
At dead of night, at news from the south,
Incens’d, struck with clench’d hand the pavement. 

A shock electric—the night sustain’d it; 
Till with ominous hum, our hive at day-break pour’d out its myriads. 

From the houses then, and the workshops, and through all the doorways, 
Leapt they tumultuous—and lo! Manhattan arming.

3
To the drum-taps prom...Read more of this...

by Carver, Raymond
...eep.
Fear of the past rising up.
Fear of the present taking flight.
Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.
Fear of electrical storms.
Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!
Fear of dogs I've been told won't bite.
Fear of anxiety!
Fear of having to identify the body of a dead friend.
Fear of running out of money.
Fear of having too much, though people will not believe this.
Fear of psychological profiles....Read more of this...

by Campbell, Thomas
...And dark as winter was the flow
4 Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

5 But Linden saw another sight
6 When the drum beat at dead of night,
7 Commanding fires of death to light
8 The darkness of her scenery.

9 By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
10 Each horseman drew his battle blade,
11 And furious every charger neighed
12 To join the dreadful revelry.

13 Then shook the hills with thunder riven,
14 Then rushed the steed to battle driven,
15 And louder than the bolts of h...Read more of this...

by Lehman, David
...of hospital you're in
and you must escape from it
by acting "normal" pretending there isn't
a conspiracy against you as Dead of Night
shifts into Shock Corridor
there are a dozen versions of this dream
I keep thinking of what Ashbery said
about escapism he said we need
all the escapism we can get
and even that isn't going to be enough...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...ise 
My nerves, my pulses, more than effort can; 
I'll draw my curtain and consult the skies: 
These trembling stars at dead of night look wan, 
Wild, restless, strange, yet cannot be more drear 
Than this my couch, shared by a nameless fear. 

All black­one great cloud, drawn from east to west, 
Conceals the heavens, but there are lights below; 
Torches burn in Jerusalem, and cast 
On yonder stony mount a lurid glow. 
I see men stationed there, and gleaming spears; 
...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...the pressure upon the seat—the cool gurgling by the
 ears
 and hair. 

3
O the fireman’s joys! 
I hear the alarm at dead of night,
I hear bells—shouts!—I pass the crowd—I run! 
The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure. 

O the joy of the strong-brawn’d fighter, towering in the arena, in perfect condition,
 conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent. 

O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human Soul is capable of
 generating
 and...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...n's fame may turn on an Army mule. 

And if you go to the front-line camp where the sleepless outposts lie, 
At the dead of night you can hear the tramp of the mule train toiling by. 
The rattle and clink of a leading-chain, the creak of the lurching load, 
As the patient, plodding creatures strain at their task in the shell-torn road, 
Through the dark and the dust you may watch them go till the dawn is grey in the sky, 
And only the watchful pickets know when the "A...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...cheeks trickling fell. 

Oh! it was a weird and pathetic sight
As they buried him in the Citadel of Corunna at the dead of night,
While his staff and the men shed many tears
For the noble hero who had commanded them for many years. 

Success to the British Army wherever they go,
For seldom they have failed to conquer the foe;
Long may the highlanders be able to make the foe reel,
By giving them an inch or two of cold steel....Read more of this...

by Chatterton, Thomas
...ws in the stream; 
On Tiber's banks, by sacred priests rever'd, 
Where in the days of old a god appear'd; 
'Twas in the dead of night, at Chalma's feast, 
The tribe of Alra slept around the priest. 
He spoke; as evening thunders bursting near, 
His horrid accents broke upon the ear; 
Attend, Alraddas, with your sacred priest! 
This day the sun is rising in the east; 
The sun, which shall illumine all the earth, 
Now, now is rising, in a mortal birth. 
He vanish'd like...Read more of this...

by Campbell, Thomas
...or and truth; 
His spirit inspired the soul of the bard 
To comfort the Love of his youth! 

They lighted the tapers at dead of night, 
And chanted their holiest hymn; 
But her brow and her bosom were all damp with affright, 
Her eye was all sleepless and dim! 

And the lady of Eldersie wept for her lord, 
With a death-watch beat in her lonely room, 
When her curtain shook of its own accord, 
And the raven flapped at her window board 
To tell of her warrior's doom. 

Now ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...t of holiness. 
And "O my brother Percivale," she said, 
"Sweet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail: 
For, waked at dead of night, I heard a sound 
As of a silver horn from o'er the hills 
Blown, and I thought, `It is not Arthur's use 
To hunt by moonlight;' and the slender sound 
As from a distance beyond distance grew 
Coming upon me--O never harp nor horn, 
Nor aught we blow with breath, or touch with hand, 
Was like that music as it came; and then 
Streamed through my...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...In de dead of night I sometimes,
Git to t'inkin' of de pas'
An' de days w'en slavery helt me
In my mis'ry—ha'd an' fas'.
Dough de time was mighty tryin',
In dese houahs somehow hit seem
Dat a brightah light come slippin'
Thoo de kivahs of my dream.
An' my min' fu'gits de whuppins
Draps de feah o' block an' lash
An' flies straight to somep'n' joyful
In a...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...rowful voice to all who pass,--
"Forever--never!
Never--forever!"

By day its voice is low and light;
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say, at each chamber-door,--
"Forever--never!
Never--forever!"

Through days of sorrow and of mirth,
Through days of death and days of birth,
Through every swift vicissitude
Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood,
And as ...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ood.' 
'A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn, 
And 'tis at peep of light; 
His blast is heard at merry morn, 
And mine at dead of night.' 

Yet sung she, 'Brignall banks are fair, 
And Greta woods are gay! 
I would I were with Edmund there, 
To reign his Queen of May! 

'With burnish'd brand and musketoon 
So gallantly you come, 
I read you for a bold Dragoon, 
That lists the tuck of drum.' 
'I list no more the tuck of drum, 
No more the trumpet hear; 
But when the beet...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...br>
The Dragon's cave
Half hid, they tell me, now in flowing vines‹
Where once he dwelt and whence he roll'd himself
At dead of night‹thou knowest, and that smooth rock
Before it, altar-fashion'd, where of late 
The woman-breasted Sphinx, with wings drawn back 
Folded her lion paws, and look'd to Thebes. 
There blanch the bones of whom she slew, and these
Mixt with her own, because the fierce beast found 
A wiser than herself, and dash'd herself
Dead in her rage; but thou...Read more of this...

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