Famous Dim Poems by Famous Poets

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

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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...

Night, Dim Night

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Night, dim night, and it rains, my love, it rains,
(Art thou dreaming of me, I wonder)
The trees are sad, and the wind complains,
Outside the rolling of the thunder,
And the beat against the panes.
Heart, my heart, thou art mournful in the rain,
(Are thy redolent lips a-quiver?)
My soul seeks thine, doth it seek in vain?
My love goes surging like a river,
Shall its...Read more of this...

He Loves Me

by Mark Van Doren
 That God should love me is more wonderful 
Than that I so imperfectly love him. 
My reason is mortality, and dim 
Senses; his--oh, insupportable-- 
Is that he sees me. Even when I pull 
Dark thoughts about my head, each vein and limb 
Delights him, though remembrance in him, grim 
With my worst crimes, should prove me horrible. 

And he...Read more of this...

Memoriam A. H. H.: 72. Risest thou thus dim dawn again

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again,
And howlest, issuing out of night,
With blasts that blow the poplar white,
And lash with storm the streaming pane?
Day, when my crown'd estate begun
To pine in that reverse of doom,
Which sicken'd every living bloom,
And blurr'd the splendour of the sun;
Who usherest in the dolorous hour
With thy quick tears that make the rose
Pull sideways, and the...Read more of this...

The Power Of Prayer

by Sidney Lanier
 or, The First Steamboat up the Alabama.

You, Dinah! Come and set me whar de ribber-roads does meet.
De Lord, HE made dese black-jack roots to twis' into a seat.
Umph, dar! De Lord have mussy on dis blin' ole ******'s feet.

It 'pear to me dis mornin' I kin smell de fust o' June.
I 'clar', I b'lieve dat mockin'-bird could play de...Read more of this...

In Memoriam A. H. H.: 99. Risest thou thus dim dawn again

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again,
So loud with voices of the birds,
So thick with lowings of the herds,
Day, when I lost the flower of men;
Who tremblest thro' thy darkling red
On yon swoll'n brook that bubbles fast
By meadows breathing of the past,
And woodlands holy to the dead;
Who murmurest in the foliaged eaves
A song that slights the coming care,
And Autumn laying...Read more of this...

Only A Boche

by Robert William Service
 We brought him in from between the lines: we'd better have let him lie;
For what's the use of risking one's skin for a tyke that's going to die?
What's the use of tearing him loose under a gruelling fire,
When he's shot in the head, and worse than dead, and all messed up on the wire?
However, I say, we brought him...Read more of this...

I Wish I Was By That Dim Lake

by Thomas Moore
 I wish I was by that dim Lake,
Where sinful souls their farewell take 
Of this vain world, and half-way lie 
In death's cold shadow, ere they die. 
There, there, far from thee, 
Deceitful world, my home should be; 
Where, come what might of gloom and pain, 
False hope should n'er deceive again. 

The lifeless sky, the mournful sound 
Of...Read more of this...

The Spell Of The Yukon

by Robert William Service
 I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
 I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy -- I fought it;
 I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it --
 Came out with a fortune last fall, --
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
 And somehow the gold isn't all.

No!...Read more of this...

The Race Of Banquo

by Robert Southey
 Fly, son of Banquo! Fleance, fly!
Leave thy guilty sire to die.
O'er the heath the stripling fled,
The wild storm howling round his head.
Fear mightier thro' the shades of night
Urged his feet, and wing'd his flight;
And still he heard his father cry
Fly, son of Banquo! Fleance, fly.

Fly, son of Banquo! Fleance, fly
Leave thy guilty sire to die.
On every blast was heard...Read more of this...

Variations on an Elizabethan Theme

by Edgar Bowers
 Long days, short nights, this Southern summer 
Fixes the mind within its timeless place. 
 Athwart pale limbs the brazen hummer 
Hangs and is gone, warm sound its quickened space. 

 Butterfly weed and cardinal flower, 
Orange and red, with indigo the band, 
 Perfect themselves unto the hour. 
And blood suffused within the sunlit hand, 

 Within the...Read more of this...

Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!

by Emily Dickinson
 Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!
Why, God, would be content
With but a fraction of the Life --
Poured thee, without a stint --
The whole of me -- forever --
What more the Woman can,
Say quick, that I may dower thee
With last Delight I own!

It cannot be my Spirit --
For that was thine, before --
I ceded all of Dust I knew --
What Opulence...Read more of this...

A Channel Crossing

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 Forth from Calais, at dawn of night, when sunset summer on autumn shone,
Fared the steamer alert and loud through seas whence only the sun was gone:
Soft and sweet as the sky they smiled, and bade man welcome: a dim sweet hour
Gleamed and whispered in wind and sea, and heaven was fair as a field in flower,
Stars fulfilled the desire...Read more of this...

My Cocoon tightens -- Colors tease --

by Emily Dickinson
 My Cocoon tightens -- Colors tease --
I'm feeling for the Air --
A dim capacity for Wings
Demeans the Dress I wear --

A power of Butterfly must be --
The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty implies
And easy Sweeps of Sky --

So I must baffle at the Hint
And cipher at the Sign
And make much blunder, if at least
I take the clue divine --...Read more of this...

The Voyagers

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 We shall launch our shallop on waters blue from some dim primrose shore,
We shall sail with the magic of dusk behind and enchanted coasts before,
Over oceans that stretch to the sunset land where lost Atlantis lies,
And our pilot shall be the vesper star that shines in the amber skies. 

The sirens will call to us again, all sweet and...Read more of this...

Sick Leave

by Siegfried Sassoon
 When I’m asleep, dreaming and lulled and warm,— 
They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead. 
While the dim charging breakers of the storm 
Bellow and drone and rumble overhead, 
Out of the gloom they gather about my bed.
They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine. 
‘Why are you here with all your watches ended? 
From Ypres to...Read more of this...

Transformations

by D. H. Lawrence
I

=The Town=

Oh you stiff shapes, swift transformation seethes
About you: only last night you were
A Sodom smouldering in the dense, soiled air;
To-day a thicket of sunshine with blue smoke-wreaths.

To-morrow swimming in evening's vague, dim vapour
Like a weeded city in shadow under the sea,
Beneath an ocean of shimmering light you will be:
Then a group of toadstools waiting the moon's white taper.

And when...Read more of this...

A Minor Poet

by Stephen Vincent Benet
 I am a shell. From me you shall not hear 
The splendid tramplings of insistent drums, 
The orbed gold of the viol's voice that comes, 
Heavy with radiance, languorous and clear. 
Yet, if you hold me close against the ear, 
A dim, far whisper rises clamorously, 
The thunderous beat and passion of the sea, 
The slow surge of the...Read more of this...

The Song of the Women

by Rudyard Kipling
 How shall she know the worship we would do her?
 The walls are high, and she is very far.
How shall the woman's message reach unto her
 Above the tumult of the packed bazaar?
 Free wind of March, against the lattice blowing,
 Bear thou our thanks, lest she depart unknowing.

Go forth across the fields we may not roam in,
 Go...Read more of this...

Sussex

by Rudyard Kipling
 God gave all men all earth to love,
 But, since our hearts are small
Ordained for each one spot should prove
 Beloved over all;
That, as He watched Creation's birth,
 So we, in godlike mood,
May of our love create our earth
 And see that it is good.

So one shall Baltic pines content,
 As one some Surrey glade,
Or one the palm-grove's droned...Read more of this...

Winter in the Country

by Claude McKay
 Sweet life! how lovely to be here 
And feel the soft sea-laden breeze 
Strike my flushed face, the spruce's fair 
Free limbs to see, the lesser trees' 

Bare hands to touch, the sparrow's cheep 
To heed, and watch his nimble flight 
Above the short brown grass asleep. 
Love glorious in his friendly might, 

Music that every heart could bless,...Read more of this...

The Past

by William Cullen Bryant
THOU unrelenting Past! 
Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain  
And fetters sure and fast  
Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. 

Far in thy realm withdrawn 5 
Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom  
And glorious ages gone 
Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb. 

Childhood with all its mirth  
Youth Manhood Age...Read more of this...

Souvenir

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 A vanished house that for an hour I knew
By some forgotten chance when I was young
Had once a glimmering window overhung
With honeysuckle wet with evening dew.
Along the path tall dusky dahlias grew,
And shadowy hydrangeas reached and swung
Ferociously; and over me, among
The moths and mysteries, a blurred bat flew.

Somewhere within there were dim presences
Of days that hovered and of years...Read more of this...

A Waltz-Quadrille

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 The band was playing a waltz-quadrille,
I felt as light as a wind-blown feather,
As we floated away, at the caller’s will,
Through the intricate, mazy dance together.
Like mimic armies our lines were meeting,
Slowly advancing, and then retreating,
All decked in their bright array;
And back and forth to the music’s rhyme
We moved together, and all the time
I knew you were going away.

The fold...Read more of this...

A Martian Sends A Postcard Home

by Craig Raine
 Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings --

they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on ground:

then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue...Read more of this...

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