Famous Denied Poems by Famous Poets

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

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In Memory of Sigmund Freud

by Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden
When there are so many we shall have to mourn,when grief has been made so public, and exposedto the critique of a whole epochthe frailty of our conscience and anguish, of whom shall we speak? For every day they dieamong us, those who were doing us some good,who knew it was never enough buthoped to improve a little by living....Read more of this...

Thus may Cyprus (SIC TE DIVA)

by Horace
Thus may Cyprus' heavenly queen,
     Thus Helen's brethren, stars of brightest sheen,
       Guide thee! May the Sire of wind
     Each truant gale, save only Zephyr, bind!
       So do thou, fair ship, that ow'st
     Virgil, thy precious...Read more of this...

Quarrel In Old Age

by William Butler Yeats
 I met the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
'Those breasts are flat and fallen now,
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.'

'Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,' I cried.
'My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart's...Read more of this...

Sonnet XCII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XCII. In mezzo di duo amanti onesta altera. LAURA TURNING TO SALUTE HIM, THE SUN, THROUGH JEALOUSY, WITHDREW BEHIND A CLOUD.  'Tween two fond lovers I a lady spied,Virtuous but haughty, and with her that lord,By gods above and men below adored—The sun on this, myself upon that side—Soon as...Read more of this...

A Letter is a joy of Earth --

by Emily Dickinson
 A Letter is a joy of Earth --
It is denied the Gods --...Read more of this...

The Turning

by Philip Levine
 Unknown faces in the street 
And winter coming on. I 
Stand in the last moments of 
The city, no more a child, 
Only a man, -- one who has 
Looked upon his own nakedness 
Without shame, and in defeat 
Has seen nothing to bless. 
Touched once, like a plum, I turned 
Rotten in the meat, or like 
The plum...Read more of this...

Mourning and Longing

by William Cowper
 The Saviour hides His face;
My spirit thirsts to prove
Renew'd supplies of pardoning grace,
And never-fading love.

The favor'd souls who know
What glories shine in Him,
Pant for His presence as the roe
Pants for the living stream.

What trifles tease me now!
They swarm like summer flies!
They cleave to everything I do,
And swim before my eyes.

How dull the Sabbath day,
Without the Sabbath's Lord!
How toilsome then...Read more of this...

451. Epitaph on the same

by Robert Burns
 HERE lies, now a prey to insulting neglect,
 What once was a butterfly, gay in life’s beam:
Want only of wisdom denied her respect,
 Want only of goodness denied her esteem....Read more of this...

Without Disguise

by Henry Van Dyke
 If I have erred in showing all my heart, 
And lost your favour by a lack of pride;
If standing like a beggar at your side 
With naked feet, I have forgot the art
Of those who bargain well in passion's mart,
And win the thing they want by what they hide;
Be mine the fault as mine the hope denied, 
Be mine...Read more of this...

Bridge Over The Aire Book 6

by Barry Tebb
 THE WALK TO THE PARADISE GARDENS



1



Bonfire Night beckoned us to the bridge

By Saint Hilda’s where we started down

Knostrop to chump but I trailed behind

With Margaret when it was late September

The song of summer ceased and fires in

Blackleaded grates began and we were

Hidden from the others by the bridge’s span.

2



When you bent I saw the buds of your breasts

As you...Read more of this...

357. A Grace before Dinner

by Robert Burns
 O THOU who kindly dost provide
 For every creature’s want!
We bless Thee, God of Nature wide,
 For all Thy goodness lent:
And if it please Thee, Heavenly Guide,
 May never worse be sent;
But, whether granted, or denied,
 Lord, bless us with content. Amen...Read more of this...

Remorse For Any Death

by Jorge Luis Borges
 Free of memory and of hope,
limitless, abstract, almost future,
the dead man is not a dead man: he is death.
Like the God of the mystics,
of Whom anything that could be said must be denied,
the dead one, alien everywhere,
is but the ruin and absence of the world.
We rob him of everything,
we leave him not so much as a color or syllable:
here,...Read more of this...

Solitude

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 OH ye kindly nymphs, who dwell 'mongst the rocks and the thickets,

Grant unto each whatsoe'er he may in silence desire!
Comfort impart to the mourner, and give to the doubter instruction,

And let the lover rejoice, finding the bliss that he craves.
For from the gods ye received what they ever denied unto mortals,

Power to comfort and aid all who in you...Read more of this...

To One denied the drink

by Emily Dickinson
 To One denied the drink
To tell what Water is
Would be acuter, would it not
Than letting Him surmise?

To lead Him to the Well
And let Him hear it drip
Remind Him, would it not, somewhat
Of His condemned lip?...Read more of this...

The Basket

by Amy Lowell
 I
The inkstand is full of ink, and the paper lies 
white and unspotted,
in the round of light thrown by a candle. Puffs of darkness 
sweep into
the corners, and keep rolling through the room behind his chair. The 
air
is silver and pearl, for the night is liquid with moonlight.
See how the roof glitters, like ice!
Over there, a slice of yellow...Read more of this...

Canzone IV

by Francesco Petrarch
CANZONE IV. Si è debile il filo a cui s' attene. HE GRIEVES IN ABSENCE FROM LAURA.  The thread on which my weary life dependsSo fragile is and weak,If none kind succour lends,Soon 'neath the painful burden will it break;Since doom'd to take my sad farewell of her,In whom begins...Read more of this...

Justice Denied In Massachusetts

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Let us abandon then our gardens and go home
And sit in the sitting-room
Shall the larkspur blossom or the corn grow under this cloud?
Sour to the fruitful seed
Is the cold earth under this cloud,
Fostering quack and weed, we have marched upon but cannot
conquer;
We have bent the blades of our hoes against the stalks of them.

Let us go home, and sit...Read more of this...

Jean Desprez

by Robert William Service
 Oh ye whose hearts are resonant, and ring to War's romance,
Hear ye the story of a boy, a peasant boy of France;
A lad uncouth and warped with toil, yet who, when trial came,
Could feel within his soul upleap and soar the sacred flame;
Could stand upright, and scorn and smite, as only heroes may:
Oh, harken! Let me try to tell...Read more of this...

Denied

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 The winds came out of the west one day, 
And hurried the clouds before them; 
And drove the shadows and mists away, 
And over the mountains bore them.
And I wept, 'Oh, wind, blow into my mind, 
Blow into my soul and heart, 
And scatter the clouds that hang lile shrouds, 
And make the shadows depart.'

The rain came out of...Read more of this...

My nosegays are for Captives

by Emily Dickinson
 My nosegays are for Captives --
Dim -- expectant eyes,
Fingers denied the plucking,
Patient till Paradise.

To such, if they should whisper
Of morning and the moor,
They bear no other errand,
And I, no other prayer....Read more of this...

The Voice

by Rupert Brooke
 Safe in the magic of my woods
I lay, and watched the dying light.
Faint in the pale high solitudes,
And washed with rain and veiled by night,

Silver and blue and green were showing.
And the dark woods grew darker still;
And birds were hushed; and peace was growing;
And quietness crept up the hill;

And no wind was blowing

And I knew
That this was the hour...Read more of this...

What Birds Plunge Through Is Not The Intimate Space

by Rainer Maria Rilke
 What birds plunge through is not the intimate space,
in which you see all Forms intensified.
(In the Open, denied, you would lose yourself,
would disappear into that vastness.)

Space reaches from us and translates Things:
to become the very essence of a tree,
throw inner space around it, from that space
that lives in you. Encircle it with restraint.
It has no limits. For the first...Read more of this...

Through The Metodja To Abd-El-Kadr

by Robert Browning
 1842

I

As I ride, as I ride,
With a full heart for my guide,
So its tide rocks my side,
As I ride, as I ride,
That, as I were double-eyed,
He, in whom our Tribes confide,
Is descried, ways untried
As I ride, as I ride.

II

As I ride, as I ride
To our Chief and his Allied,
Who dares chide my heart's pride
As I ride, as I ride?
Or...Read more of this...

Colin Instructed

by Thomas Chatterton
 Young Colin was as stout a boy 
As ever gave a maiden joy; 
But long in vain he told his tale 
To black-eyed Biddy of the Dale. 
Ah why, the whining shepherd cried, 
Am I alone your smiles denied? 
I only tell in vain my tale 
To black-eyed Biddy of the Dale. 

True Colin, said the laughing dame, 
You...Read more of this...

For The One Who Would Take Mans Life In His Hands

by Delmore Schwartz
 Tiger Christ unsheathed his sword,
Threw it down, became a lamb.
Swift spat upon the species, but
Took two women to his heart.
Samson who was strong as death
Paid his strength to kiss a ****.
Othello that stiff warrior
Was broken by a woman's heart.
Troy burned for a sea-tax, also for
Possession of a charming whore.
What do all examples show?
What must the finished murderer know?

You cannot...Read more of this...

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