Famous Dissonant Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Charmides

...t.

For round the temple rolled the clang of arms,
And the twelve Gods leapt up in marble fear,
And the air quaked with dissonant alarums
Till huge Poseidon shook his mighty spear,
And on the frieze the prancing horses neighed,
And the low tread of hurrying feet rang from the cavalcade.

Ready for death with parted lips he stood,
And well content at such a price to see
That calm wide brow, that terrible maidenhood,
The marvel of that pitiless chastity,
Ah! well content indeed...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar


Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...he forest.
Then came the guard from the ships, and marching proudly among them
Entered the sacred portal. With loud and dissonant clangor
Echoed the sound of their brazen drums from ceiling and casement,--
Echoed a moment only, and slowly the ponderous portal
Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of the soldiers.
Then uprose their commander, and spoke from the steps of the altar,
Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission.
"You are convened t...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Mutability

...aking the darkness radiantly! -yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest. -- A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise. -- One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same! -- For, be ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Ode Written On The First Of January

...us gaze survey
The fruitful far-off vale.

Oh there are those who love the pensive song
To whom all sounds of Mirth are dissonant!
There are who at this hour
Will love to contemplate!

For hopeless Sorrow hails the lapse of Time,
Rejoicing when the fading orb of day
Is sunk again in night,
That one day more is gone.

And he who bears Affliction's heavy load
With patient piety, well pleas'd he knows
The World a pilgrimage,
The Grave the inn of rest....Read more of this...
by Southey, Robert

Samson Agonistes

...anxious thought,
But with th' afflicted in his pangs thir sound 
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune,
Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint,
Unless he feel within
Some sourse of consolation from above;
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,
And fainting spirits uphold.
God of our Fathers, what is man!
That thou towards him with hand so various,
Or might I say contrarious,
Temperst thy providence through his short course, 
Not evenly, as thou rul'st
The An...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


The Dungeon

...ies of woods, and winds, and waters,  Till he relent, and can no more endure  To be a jarring and a dissonant thing,  Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;  But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,  His angry spirit healed and harmonized  By the benignant touch of love and beauty. SIMON LEE, THE OLD HUNTSMAN,   With an incident in which he was concerned.   In the sw...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

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