Famous Deem Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Success

by Robert William Service
 You ask me what I call Success -
It is, I wonder, Happiness?

It is not wealth, it is not fame,
Nor rank, nor power nor honoured name.
It is not triumph in the Arts -
Best-selling books or leading parts.
It is not plaudits of the crowd,
The flame of flags, processions proud.
The panegyrics of the Press
are but the mirage of Success.
You may have all...Read more of this...

Stanzas Composed During A Thunderstorm

by George (Lord) Byron
 Chill and mirk is the nightly blast,
Where Pindus' mountains rise,
And angry clouds are pouring fast
The vengeance of the skies.

Our guides are gone, our hope is lost,
And lightnings, as they play,
But show where rocks our path have crost,
Or gild the torrent's spray.

Is yon a cot I saw, though low?
When lightning broke the gloom---
How welcome were its shade!---ah, no!
'Tis but a...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...

Could I but ride indefinite

by Emily Dickinson
 Could I but ride indefinite
As doth the Meadow Bee
And visit only where I liked
And No one visit me

And flirt all Day with Buttercups
And marry whom I may
And dwell a little everywhere
Or better, run away

With no Police to follow
Or chase Him if He do
Till He should jump Peninsulas
To get away from me --

I said "But just to be a Bee"
Upon...Read more of this...

The Beauteous Flower

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 SONG OF THE IMPRISONED COUNT.

COUNT.

I KNOW a flower of beauty rare,

Ah, how I hold it dear!
To seek it I would fain repair,

Were I not prison'd here.
My sorrow sore oppresses me,
For when I was at liberty,

I had it close beside me.

Though from this castle's walls so steep

I cast mine eyes around,
And gaze oft from the lofty keep,

The flower can not...Read more of this...

To The Chosen One

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
HAND in hand! and lip to lip!

Oh, be faithful, maiden dear!
Fare thee well! thy lover's ship

Past full many a rock must steers
But should he the haven see,

When the storm has ceased to break,
And be happy, reft of thee,--

May the Gods fierce vengeance take!

Boldly dared is well nigh won!

Half my task is solved aright;
Ev'ry star's to me a sun,

Only cowards deem...Read more of this...

Did you ever stand in a Caverns Mouth --

by Emily Dickinson
 Did you ever stand in a Cavern's Mouth --
Widths out of the Sun --
And look -- and shudder, and block your breath --
And deem to be alone

In such a place, what horror,
How Goblin it would be --
And fly, as 'twere pursuing you?
Then Loneliness -- looks so --

Did you ever look in a Cannon's face --
Between whose Yellow eye --
And...Read more of this...

Reverie: Zahir-u-Din

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Death and Famine on every side
       And never a sign of rain,
   The bones of those who have starved and died
       Unburied upon the plain.
   What care have I that the bones bleach white?
       To-morrow...Read more of this...

The Carrier Pigeon

by Victor Hugo
 ("Oh! qu'est-ce que c'est donc que l'Inconnu.") 
 
 {January, 1871.} 


 Who then—oh, who, is like our God so great, 
 Who makes the seed expand beneath the mountain's weight; 
 Who for a swallow's nest leaves one old castle wall, 
 Who lets for famished beetles savory apples fall, 
 Who bids a pigmy win where Titans...Read more of this...

Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland

by Ben Jonson
  XII. — EPISTLE TO ELIZABETH COUNTESS OF RUTLAND. That which, to boot with hell, is thought worth heaven, And for it, life, conscience, yea souls are given, Toils, by grave custom, up and down the court, To every squire, or groom, that will report Well or ill, only all the following year, Just to the weight their this day's presents...Read more of this...

The Macaronis

by Robert William Service
 Italian people peaceful are,--
 Let it be to their credit.
They mostly fail to win a war,
 --Oh they themselves have said it.
"Allergic we to lethal guns
 And military might:
We love our homes and little ones,
 And loath to fight."

But Teutons are a warrior race
 Who seek the sword to rattle;
And in the sun they claim a place,
 Even at...Read more of this...

Back to the Border

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Alas! alas! this wasted Night
   With all its Jasmin-scented air,
   Its thousand stars, serenely bright!
   I lie alone, and long for you,
   Long for your Champa-scented hair,
   Your tranquil eyes of twilight hue;

   Long for the close-curved, delicate lips
   —Their sinuous sweetness laid...Read more of this...

I many times thought Peace had come

by Emily Dickinson
 I many times thought Peace had come
When Peace was far away --
As Wrecked Men -- deem they sight the Land --
At Centre of the Sea --

And struggle slacker -- but to prove
As hopelessly as I --
How many the fictitious Shores --
Before the Harbor be --...Read more of this...

A Lost Angel

by Ellis Parker Butler
 When first we met she seemed so white
 I feared her;
As one might near a spirit bright
 I neared her;
An angel pure from heaven above
 I dreamed her,
And far too good for human love
 I deemed her.
A spirit free from mortal taint
 I thought her,
And incense as unto a saint
 I brought her.

Well, incense burning did not seem
 To...Read more of this...

The Isles of Greece

by George (Lord) Byron
 The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus
sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set...

The mountains look on Marathon--
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians'...Read more of this...

God gave a loaf to every bird

by Emily Dickinson
God gave a loaf to every bird,
But just a crumb to me;
I dare not eat it, though I starve,--
My poignant luxury
To own it, touch it, prove the feat
That made the pellet mine,--
Too happy in my sparrow chance
For ampler coveting.

It might be famine all around,
I could not miss an ear,
Such plenty smiles upon my board,
My garner shows so fair.
I wonder how...Read more of this...

Obesity

by Robert William Service
 With belly like a poisoned pup
 Said I: 'I must give bacon up:
And also, I profanely fear,
 I must abandon bread and beer
That make for portliness they say;
 Yet of them copiously today
I ate with an increasingly sense
 Of grievous corpulence.

I like a lot of thinks I like.
 Too bad that I must go on strike
Against pork sausages and...Read more of this...

This world a hollow pageant you should deem;

by Omar Khayyam
This world a hollow pageant you should deem;
All wise men know things are not what they seem;
Be of good cheer, and drink, and so shake off
This vain illusion of a baseless dream....Read more of this...

The Living Lost

by William Cullen Bryant
 Matron! the children of whose love,
Each to his grave, in youth have passed,
And now the mould is heaped above
The dearest and the last!
Bride! who dost wear the widow's veil
Before the wedding flowers are pale!
Ye deem the human heart endures
No deeper, bitterer grief than yours.

Yet there are pangs of keener wo,
Of which the sufferers never speak,
Nor to the world's cold...Read more of this...

Mad Maria

by Robert William Service
 Mad Maria in the Square
Sits upon a wicker chair.
When the keeper asks the price
Mad Maria counts her lice.
No pesito can she pay,
So he shrugs and goes away;
Hopes she'll pay him with her prayers,
Shabby keeper of the chairs.

Mad Maria counts her lice,
Cracks them once and cracks them twice,
Combs them from her sunny hair;
People stop to turn and stare.
Innocent in thought...Read more of this...

The Haystack in the Floods

by William Morris
 Had she come all the way for this,
To part at last without a kiss?
Yea, had she borne the dirt and rain
That her own eyes might see him slain
Beside the haystack in the floods?

Along the dripping leafless woods,
The stirrup touching either shoe,
She rode astride as troopers do;
With kirtle kilted to her knee,
To which the mud splash'd wretchedly;
And the wet dripp'd...Read more of this...

To A. L. Persuasions to Love

by Thomas Carew
 THINK not, 'cause men flattering say
You're fresh as April, sweet as May,
Bright as is the morning star,
That you are so ; or, though you are,
Be not therefore proud, and deem
All men unworthy your esteem :
For, being so, you lose the pleasure
Of being fair, since that rich treasure
Of rare beauty and sweet feature
Was bestow'd on you by nature
To be enjoy'd...Read more of this...

The very wine a myriad forms sustains,

by Omar Khayyam
The very wine a myriad forms sustains,
And to take shapes of plants and creatures deigns
But deem not that its essence ever dies,
Its forms may perish, but its self remains....Read more of this...

The Hawk and the Babe

by Aleister Crowley
 [Dedicated to Raymond Radclyffe]

I am that hawk of gold
Proud in adamantine poise
On the pillars of torqoise,
See,beyond the starry fold,
Where a darkling orb is rolled.

There, beneath a grove of yew,
Plays a babe. Should I despise
Such a foam of gold, and eyes
Burning beryline, so blue
That the sun seems peeping through?

Did I swwop, were Heaven amazed?
With my beak I strike but once;
Out...Read more of this...

So glad we are -- a Strangerd deem

by Emily Dickinson
 'Twas sorry, that we were --
For where the Holiday should be
There publishes a Tear --
Nor how Ourselves be justified --
Since Grief and Joy are done
So similar -- An Optizan
Could not decide between --...Read more of this...

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