Famous Despondence Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

..., and quiet breathing. 
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing 
A flowery band to bind us to the earth, 
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth 
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, 
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways 
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, 
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, 
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon 
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils 
With the green wo...Read more of this...
by Keats, John


Endymion: Book I

...lth, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world the...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Hyperion

...as mournful as that Memnon's harp
He utter'd, while his hands contemplative
He press'd together, and in silence stood.
Despondence seiz'd again the fallen Gods
At sight of the dejected King of day,
And many hid their faces from the light:
But fierce Enceladus sent forth his eyes
Among the brotherhood; and, at their glare,
Uprose Iapetus, and Creus too,
And Phorcus, sea-born, and together strode
To where he towered on his eminence.
There those four shouted forth old Saturn's ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Psalm CXXXVII The Babylonian Captivity

...ALONG the banks where Babel's current flows 
Our captive bands in deep despondence stray'd, 
While Zion's fall in sad remembrance rose, 
Her friends, her children mingled with the dead. 

The tuneless harp, that once with joy we strung, 
When praise employ'd and mirth inspir'd the lay, 
In mournful silence on the willows hung; 
And growing grief prolong'd the tedious day. 

The barbarous tyrants, to increase the woe, 
With taun...Read more of this...
by Barlow, Joel

The Emigrants: Book I

...errors, I lament your fate:
And, as disconsolate and sad ye hang
Upon the barrier of the rock, and seem
To murmur your despondence, waiting long
Some fortunate reverse that never comes;
Methinks in each expressive face, I see
Discriminated anguish; there droops one,
Who in a moping cloister long consum'd
This life inactive, to obtain a better,
And thought that meagre abstinence, to wake
From his hard pallet with the midnight bell,
To live on eleemosynary bread,
And to renoun...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte


The Emigrants: Book II

...her revolution; since with step,
Mournful and slow, along the wave-worn cliff,
Pensive I took my solitary way,
Lost in despondence, while contemplating
Not my own wayward destiny alone,
(Hard as it is, and difficult to bear!)
But in beholding the unhappy lot
Of the lorn Exiles; who, amid the storms
Of wild disastrous Anarchy, are thrown,
Like shipwreck'd sufferers, on England's coast,
To see, perhaps, no more their native land,
Where Desolation riots: They, like me,
From fai...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte

The Triumph Of Time

...id age his lot bewails,Whom every ill of lengthen'd life assails.Hence sick despondence thinks the human lotA gift of fleeting breath too dearly bought:But should the voice of Fame's obstreperous blastFrom ages on to future ages last,E'en to the trump of doom,—how poor the prizeWhose worth depends upon the changing skies!Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

To Hope

...ght,
 And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away,
 Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,
 And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof!

Should Disappointment, parent of Despair,
 Strive for her son to seize my careless heart;
When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air,
 Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart:
 Chase him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright,
 And fright him as the morning frightens night!

Whene'er the fate of those I hold most dear
 Tells to my fearf...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

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