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Famous Deceiving Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...the nectar of thy breath,
In one sweet kiss, but one, of all thy store,
I ask no more.'

'All that I ask'-nay, self-deceiving Love,
Reverse thy phrase, so thus the words may fall,
In place of 'all I ask, ' say, 'I ask all, '
All that pertains to earth or soars above,
All that thou wert, art, will be, body, soul,
Love asks the whole....Read more of this...



by Lindsay, Vachel
...I throw my scribbled paper on the floor,
The bottle says, "Fe, fi, fo, fum," and steams and shouts some more.
O sad deceiving ink, as bad as liquor in its way—
All demons of a bottle size have pranced from you to-day,
And seized my pen for hobby-horse as witches ride a broom,
And left a trail of brimstone words and blots and gobs of gloom.
And yet when I am extra good and say my prayers at night, 
And mind my ma, and do the chores, and speak to folks polite,
My bottle...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...efore my respite— 
Which now I knew and recognized at last 
As only his more venomous preparation
For the vile end of a deceiving peace— 
That I began to fancy there was on me 
The stupor that explorers have alleged 
As evidence of nature’s final mercy 
When tigers have them down upon the earth
And wild hot breath is heavy on their faces. 
I could not feel his breath, but I could hear it; 
Though fear had made an anvil of my heart 
Where demons, for the joy of doing it, 
...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...joined and in a flash they knew. . .
The sleepy waiter saw, when time to close,
The sweet romance of those deceiving two,
Whose lips were joined, their hearts, their future too....Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...o fair? 
Oh, but the forest king white and hoary
Is weaving a mantle for both to wear.

God! If I could by the soft deceiving
Of forests of splendour and cheeks of bloom
Lull my heart into sweet believing
Just for a moment and drown my gloom; 
If I could forget for a second only
And rest from the pain of this awful dread
Of the days that are coming long and lonely
When the Autumn goes and she is dead.

But all the while the sun gilds wood and meadow
And the fair cheek...Read more of this...



by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory
...ut to die.

   And thus we part, with no believing
          In any chance of future years.
   We have no idle self-deceiving,
          No half-consoling hopes and fears;
   We know the Gods grant no retrieving
          A wasted chance.  Fate knows no tears....Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...moment
And every moment is a new and shocking
Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived
Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm.
In the middle, not only in the middle of the way
But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble,
On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold,
And menaced by monsters, fancy lights,
Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,
Their fear of fear and frenzy, their...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...eed them - it's commonplace

they hold the keystones of our lives
i fear something else much deeper
the diabolical self-deceiving
(wilful destruction of the spirit)
by those loudspeaking themselves
as poetry's protectors - publishers
editors literature officers
poetry societies and centres

all all jumping on the flagship
competition's crock of gold
find the winners pick the famous
all the hopefuls cry please name us
aspiring poets search their wardrobes
for the wordy swimsui...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...rour of his foulded tail. 

The Oracles are dumm, 
No voice or hideous humm 
 Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 
Apollo from his shrine 
Can no more divine, 
 With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving. 
No nightly trance, or breathed spell, 
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. 

The lonely mountains o're, 
And the resounding shore, 
 A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; 
From haunted spring, and dale 
Edg'd with p...Read more of this...

by Kaufman, Bob
...Music from her breast, vibrating
Soundseared into burnished velvet.
Silent hips deceiving fools.
Rivulets of trickling ecstacy
From the alabaster pools of Jazz
Where music cools hot souls.
Eyes more articulately silent
Than Medusa's thousand tongues.
A bridge of eyes, consenting smiles
reveal her presence singing
Of cool remembrance, happy balls
Wrapped in swinging
Jazz
Her music...
Jazz....Read more of this...

by Hayden, Robert
...see to steer the ship to Africa, 
and we like phantoms doomed to rove the sea 
voyaged east by day and west by night, 
deceiving them, hoping for rescue, 
prisoners on our own vessel, till 
at length we drifted to the shores of this 
your land, America, where we were freed 
from our unspeakable misery. Now we 
demand, good sirs, the extradition of 
Cinquez and his accomplices to La 
Havana. And it distresses us to know 
there are so many here who seem inclined 
to ju...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...
He can walk on the narrowest rail.
He can pick any card from a pack,
He is equally cunning with dice;
He is always deceiving you into believing
That he's only hunting for mice.
He can play any trick with a cork
Or a spoon and a bit of fish-paste;
If you look for a knife or a fork
And you think it is merely misplaced--
You have seen it one moment, and then it is gawn!
But you'll find it next week lying out on the lawn.

And we all say: OH!
Well I never!
Was there ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ke a bell 
To toll me back from thee to my sole self! 
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well 
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf. 
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades 75 
Past the near meadows, over the still stream, 
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep 
In the next valley-glades: 
Was it a vision, or a waking dream? 
Fled is that music:¡ªdo I wake or sleep? 80 ...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...duck
(these may be guesses from obscurity)
ten-year faithful wife whilst her husband
was gallivanting round the islands
deceiving the suitors by her shroud-unpicking 
or maybe not such a savoury dame having
a high time with those after her favours
allegedly allowing hermes up her skirts
and becoming the mother of pan
or even (when odysseus was killed) 
getting married to her own murdering son

penelope seemed to have been good material
for the greek tabloids (for which truth
...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...st 
Had come, as it should seem, to stay with him, 
Bidden or not? He were a stranger then, 
Foredrowsed awhile by some deceiving draught
Of poppied anguish, to the covert grief 
And the stark loneliness that waited him, 
And for the time were cursedly endowed 
With a dull trust that shammed indifference 
To knowing there would be no touch again
Of her small hand on his, no silencing 
Of her quick lips on his, no feminine 
Completeness and love-fragrance in the house, 
No sou...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...in the beams of light. 

Did Jesus teach doubt? or did He 
Give any lessons of philosophy, 
Charge Visionaries with deceiving, 
Or call men wise for not believing?… 

Was Jesus born of a Virgin pure 
With narrow soul and looks demure? 
If He intended to take on sin 
The Mother should an harlot been, 
Just such a one as Magdalen, 
With seven devils in her pen. 
Or were Jew virgins still more curs’d, 
And more sucking devils nurs’d? 
Or what was it which He took on 
Tha...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...mber patting while it carried her,
The day she arrived and the Duke married her.
And, do you know, though it's easy deceiving
Oneself in such matters, I can't help believing
The lady had not forgotten it either,
And knew the poor devil so much beneath her
Would have been only too glad for her service
To dance on hot ploughshares like a Turk dervise,
But, unable to pay proper duty where owing it,
Was reduced to that pitiful method of showing it:
For though the moment I beg...Read more of this...

by Aiken, Conrad
...to tell you
The secrets of this house, and how I live here;
Suppose I tell you who I am, in fact. . . .
Deceiving you—as far as I may know it—
Only so much as I deceive myself.

If you are clever you already see me
As one who moves forever in a cloud
Of warm bright vanity: a luminous cloud
Which falls on all things with a quivering magic,
Changing such outlines as a light may change,
Brightening what lies dark to me, concealing
Those things that will not c...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...our of his foulded tail.

XIX

The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. 

XX

The lonely mountains o're,
And the resounding shore,
A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;
From haunted spring, and dale
Edg'd with poplar p...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...rose to work & weep.

Thou Mother of my Mortal part.
With cruelty didst mould my Heart.
And with false self-deceiving tears.
Didst blind my Nostrils Eyes & Ears

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay
And me to Mortal Life betray:
The Death of Jesus set me free.
Then what have I to do with thee?...Read more of this...

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