Famous Destroys Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet XLIII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XLIII. Se col cieco desir che 'l cor distrugge. BLIGHTED HOPE.  Either that blind desire, which life destroysCounting the hours, deceives my misery,[Pg 58]Or, even while yet I speak, the moment flies,Promised at once to pity and to me.Alas! what baneful shade o'erhangs and driesThe seed...Read more of this...

Dream Song 265: I dont know one damned butterfly from another

by John Berryman
 I don't know one damned butterfly from another
my ignorance of the stars is formidable,
also of dogs & ferns
except that around my house one destroys the other
When I reckon up my real ignorance, pal,
I mumble "many returns"-”

next time it will be nature & Thoreau
this time is Baudelaire if one had the skill
and even those problems O
At the mysterious urging of...Read more of this...

Feast Of Victory

by Friedrich von Schiller
 Priam's castle-walls had sunk,
Troy in dust and ashes lay,
And each Greek, with triumph drunk,
Richly laden with his prey,
Sat upon his ship's high prow,
On the Hellespontic strand,
Starting on his journey now,
Bound for Greece, his own fair land.
Raise the glad exulting shout!
Toward the land that gave them birth
Turn they now the ships about,
As they seek their native earth.

And in rows, all...Read more of this...

Upon Nothing

by John Wilmot
 Nothing, thou elder brother even to shade,
That hadst a being ere the world was made,
And (well fixed) art alone of ending not afraid.
Ere time and place were, time and place were not,
When primitive Nothing Something straight begot,
Then all proceeded from the great united--What?
Something, the general attribute of all,
Severed from thee, its sole original,
Into thy boundless self must undistinguished fall.
Yet...Read more of this...

Canzone XVII

by Francesco Petrarch
CANZONE XVII. Di pensier in pensier, di monte in monte. DISTANCE AND SOLITUDE.  From hill to hill I roam, from thought to thought,With Love my guide; the beaten path I fly,For there in vain the tranquil life is sought:If 'mid the waste well forth a lonely rill,Or deep embosom'd a low...Read more of this...

The Stretcher-Bearer

by Robert William Service
 My stretcher is one scarlet stain,
 And as I tries to scrape it clean,
I tell you wot -- I'm sick with pain
 For all I've 'eard, for all I've seen;
Around me is the 'ellish night,
 And as the war's red rim I trace,
I wonder if in 'Eaven's height,
 Our God don't turn away 'Is Face.

I don't care 'oose the...Read more of this...

The Ideals

by Friedrich von Schiller
 And wilt thou, faithless one, then, leave me,
With all thy magic phantasy,--
With all the thoughts that joy or grieve me,
Wilt thou with all forever fly?
Can naught delay thine onward motion,
Thou golden time of life's young dream?
In vain! eternity's wide ocean
Ceaselessly drowns thy rolling stream.

The glorious suns my youth enchanting
Have set in never-ending night;
Those blest ideals now are wanting
That swelled...Read more of this...

Tiger

by Alec Derwent (A D) Hope
 At noon thepaper tigers roar 
-- Miroslav Holub

The paper tigers roar at noon; 
The sun is hot, the sun is high. 
They roar in chorus, not in tune, 
Their plaintive, savage hunting cry.

O, when you hear them, stop your ears 
And clench your lids and bite your tongue. 
The harmless paper tiger bears 
Strong fascination for the young.

His forest...Read more of this...

The Whitsun Weddings

by Philip Larkin
 That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
 Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday 
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone. We ran 
Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street
Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thence 
The river's level drifting breadth began, 
Where sky and Lincolnshire and...Read more of this...

t of the Fifth Scene in the Second Act of Athalia

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 Enter, as in the Temple of Jerusalem,
ATHALIA, MATHAN, ABNER

[Mathan]
WHY, to our Wonder, in this Place is seen, 
Thus discompos'd, and alter'd, Juda's Queen? 
May we demand, what Terrors seize your Breast, 
Or, why your Steps are to this House addrest, 
Where your unguarded Person stands expos'd 
To secret Foes, within its Walls inclos'd? 
Can it be thought that you...Read more of this...

Friendships Mystery To My Dearest Lucasia

by Katherine Philips
 Come, my Lucasia, since we see 
That miracles Men's Faith do move,
By wonder and by prodigy
To the dull angry World let's prove
There's a Religion in our Love. 

For Though we were design'd t'agree,
That Fate no liberty destroys,
But our Election is as free
As Angels, who with greedy choice
Are yet determin'd to their joys. 

Our hearts are doubled by the loss,
Here...Read more of this...

Independence

by Aleister Crowley
 Come to my arms --- is it eve? is it morn? 
Is Apollo awake? Is Diana reborn? 
Are the streams in full song? Do the woods whisper hush 
Is it the nightingale? Is it the thrush? 
Is it the smile of the autumn, the blush 
Of the spring? Is the world full of peace or alarms? 
Come to my...Read more of this...

Canzone XVIII

by Francesco Petrarch
CANZONE XVIII. Qual più diversa e nova. HE COMPARES HIMSELF TO ALL THAT IS MOST STRANGE IN CREATION.  Whate'er most wild and newWas ever found in any foreign land,If viewed and valued true,Most likens me 'neath Love's transforming hand.Whence the bright day breaks through,Alone and consortless, a bird there flies,Read more of this...

Smoky the Bear Sutra

by Gary Snyder
Smokey the Bear Sutra

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago,
 the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite
 Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements
 and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings,
 the flying beings, and the sitting beings -- even grasses,
 to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from...Read more of this...

Sonnet CCXVIII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CCXVIII. Far potess' io vendetta di colei. HIS SOUL VISITS HER IN SLEEP.  Oh! that from her some vengeance I could wrestWith words and glances who my peace destroys,And then abash'd, for my worse sorrow, flies,Veiling her eyes so cruel, yet so blest;Thus mine afflicted spirits and oppress'dBy sure...Read more of this...

Sonnet CIII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CIII. Amor m' ha posto come segno a strale. LOVE'S ARMOURY.  Love makes me as the target for his dart,As snow in sunshine, or as wax in flame,Or gale-driven cloud; and, Laura, on thy nameI call, but thou no pity wilt impart.Thy radiant eyes first caused my bosom's smart;No...Read more of this...

The Four Zoas (excerpt)

by William Blake
 'What is the price of Experience? do men buy it for a song? 
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath, his house, his wife, his children.
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy,
And in the wither'd field where the farmer plows for...Read more of this...

Sonnet IX

by William Shakespeare
 Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
That thou consumest thyself in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die.
The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind.
Look,...Read more of this...

Goliath Of Gath

by Phillis Wheatley
 SAMUEL, Chap. xvii.

YE martial pow'rs, and all ye tuneful nine,
Inspire my song, and aid my high design.
The dreadful scenes and toils of war I write,
The ardent warriors, and the fields of fight:
You best remember, and you best can sing
The acts of heroes to the vocal string:
Resume the lays with which your sacred lyre,
Did then the poet and the sage...Read more of this...

The Four Zoas (excerpt)

by William Blake
 1.1 "What is the price of Experience? do men buy it for a song? 
1.2 Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price
1.3 Of all that a man hath, his house, his wife, his children.
1.4 Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy,
1.5 And in the wither'd field...Read more of this...

Ode to Meditation

by Mary Darby Robinson
 SWEET CHILD OF REASON! maid serene; 
With folded arms, and pensive mien, 
Who wand'ring near yon thorny wild, 
So oft, my length'ning hours beguil'd; 
Thou, who within thy peaceful call, 
Canst laugh at LIFE'S tumultuous care, 
While calm repose delights to dwell 
On beds of fragrant roses there; 
Where meek-ey'd PATIENCE waits to greet 
The woe-worn Trav'ller's weary feet,...Read more of this...

Persuasions to Joy a Song

by Thomas Carew
 IF the quick spirits in your eye 
Now languish and anon must die; 
If every sweet and every grace 
Must fly from that forsaken face; 
 Then, Celia, let us reap our joys 
 Ere Time such goodly fruit destroys. 

Or if that golden fleece must grow 
For ever free from aged snow; 
If those bright suns must know...Read more of this...

To His Noble Friend Mr. Richard Lovelace Upon His Poems

by Andrew Marvell
 Sir, 
Our times are much degenerate from those 
Which your sweet muse with your fair fortune chose, 
And as complexions alter with the climes, 
Our wits have drawn the infection of our times. 
That candid age no other way could tell 
To be ingenious, but by speaking well. 
Who best could praise had then the greatest praise, 
'Twas more...Read more of this...

Sonnet 9: Is it for fear to wet a widows eye

by William Shakespeare
 Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife.
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in...Read more of this...

Robert Fulton Tanner

by Edgar Lee Masters
 If a man could bite the giant hand
That catchs and destroys him,
As I was bitten by a rat
While demonstrating my patent trap,
In my hardware store that day.
But a man can never avenge himself
On the monstrous ogre Life.
You enter the room—that's being born;
And then you must live—work out your soul,
Aha! the bait that you crave is in view:
A woman with...Read more of this...

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