Famous Dressed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Satyre Against Mankind

...his great maker took such care to make,
That from himself he did the image take;
And this fair frame in shining reason dressed,
To dignify his nature above beast.
Reason, by whose aspiring influence
We take a flight beyond material sense,
Dive into mysteries, then soaring pierce
The flaming limits of the universe,
Search heaven and hell, Find out what's acted there,
And give the world true grounds of hope and fear."

Hold mighty man, I cry, all this we know,
From the patheti...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John


Christabel

...s beneath her cloak,
And stole to the other side of the oak.
What sees she there?

There she sees a damsel bright,
Dressed in a silken robe of white,
That shadowy in the moonlight shone:
The neck that made that white robe wan,
Her stately neck, and arms were bare;
Her blue-veined feet unsandaled were;
And wildly glittered here and there
The gems entangled in her hair.
I guess, 't was frightful there to see
A lady so richly clad as she-
Beautiful exceedingly!

...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Eviradnus

...uite suddenly there showed across the door, 
 Three heads which all a festive aspect wore. 
 Two men were there; and, dressed in cloth of gold, 
 A woman. Of the men one might have told 
 Some thirty years, the other younger seemed, 
 Was tall and fair, and from his shoulder gleamed 
 A gay guitar with ivy leaves enlaced. 
 The other man was dark, but pallid-faced 
 And small. At the first glance they seemed to be 
 But made of perfume and frivolity. 
 Handsome they...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Her Anxiety

...Earth in beauty dressed
Awaits returning spring.
All true love must die,
Alter at the best
Into some lesser thing.
Prove that I lie.

Such body lovers have,
Such exacting breath,
That they touch or sigh.
Every touch they give,
Love is nearer death.
Prove that I lie....Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

Last Instructions to a Painter

...standard, weltering in his stride. 
He, to excuse his slowness, truth confessed 
That 'twas so long before he could be dressed. 
The Lord's sons, last, all these did reinforce: 
Cornb'ry before them managed hobby-horse. 

Never before nor since, an host so steeled 
Trooped on to muster in the Tothill Field: 
Not the first cock-horse that with cork were shod 
To rescue Albemarle from the sea-cod, 
Nor the late feather-men, whom Tomkins fierce 
Shall with one breath, like this...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew


Let It Enfold You

...plenty
of those.
like say, the boss
behind his desk,
he is going to have
to fire me.

I've missed too many 
days.
he is dressed in a
suit, necktie, glasses,
he says, "i am going
to have to let you go"

"it's all right" i tell
him.

He must do what he
must do, he has a 
wife, a house, children.
expenses, most probably
a girlfreind.

I am sorry for him
he is caught.

I walk onto the blazing
sunshine.
the whole day is
mine
temporailiy,
anyhow.

(the whole world is at the
throat ...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

Morning (Love Sonnet XXVII)

...you withdraw to the underground world.

As if down a long tunnel of clothing and of chores;
Your clear light dims, gets dressed, drops its leaves,
And becomes a naked hand again....Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo

Next Day

...see me.
For so many years
I was good enough to eat: the world looked at me
And its mouth watered. How often they have undressed me,
The eyes of strangers!
And, holding their flesh within my flesh, their vile

Imaginings within my imagining,
I too have taken
The chance of life. Now the boy pats my dog
And we start home. Now I am good.
The last mistaken,
Ecstatic, accidental bliss, the blind

Happiness that, bursting, leaves upon the palm
Some soap and water--
It was so long ag...Read more of this...
by Jarrell, Randall

Snow

...ening to a fresh access
Of wind that caught against the house a moment,
Gulped snow, and then blew free again—the Coles
Dressed, but dishevelled from some hours of sleep,
Meserve belittled in the great skin coat he wore.

Meserve was first to speak. He pointed backward
Over his shoulder with his pipe-stem, saying,
“You can just see it glancing off the roof
Making a great scroll upward toward the sky,
Long enough for recording all our names on.—
I think I’ll just call up my wi...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Everlasting Mercy

..., 
You'll get what you'd a got tonight; 
That puts my meaning clear, I guess, 
Now get to hell; I want to dress." 



I dressed. My backers one and all 
Said, "Well done you" or "Good old Saul." 
"Saul is a wonder and a fly 'un, 
What'll you have, Saul, at the Lion?" 
With merry oaths they helped me down 
The stony wood path to the town. 

The moonlight shone on Cabbage Walk, 
It made the limestone look like chalk. 
It was too late for any people, 
Twelve struck as we went by...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The Hunting Of The Snark

...:
While the Billiard-marker with quivering hand
 Was chalking the tip of his nose.

But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine,
 With yellow kid gloves and a ruff--
Said he felt it exactly like going to dine,
 Which the Bellman declared was all "stuff."

"Introduce me, now there's a good fellow," he said,
 "If we happen to meet it together!"
And the Bellman, sagaciously nodding his head,
 Said "That must depend on the weather."

The Beaver went simply galumphing...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Knights Tale

...ich was the finer of them two), *know not
Ere it was day, as she was wont to do,
She was arisen, and all ready dight*, *dressed
For May will have no sluggardy a-night;
The season pricketh every gentle heart,
And maketh him out of his sleep to start,
And saith, "Arise, and do thine observance."

This maketh Emily have remembrance
To do honour to May, and for to rise.
Y-clothed was she fresh for to devise;
Her yellow hair was braided in a tress,
Behind her back, a yarde long I ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Man of Laws Tale

...hey them dressen* all and some. *prepare to set out*
Constance, that was with sorrow all o'ercome,
Full pale arose, and dressed her to wend,
For well she saw there was no other end.

Alas! what wonder is it though she wept,
That shall be sent to a strange nation
From friendes, that so tenderly her kept,
And to be bound under subjection
of one, she knew not his condition?
Husbands be all good, and have been *of yore*, *of old*
That knowe wives; I dare say no more.

"Father," s...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Millers Tale

...h he went, jolif* and amorous, *joyous
Till he came to the carpentere's house,
A little after the cock had y-crow,
And *dressed him* under a shot window , *stationed himself.*
That was upon the carpentere's wall.
He singeth in his voice gentle and small;
"Now, dear lady, if thy will be,
I pray that ye will rue* on me;" *take pity
Full well accordant to his giterning.
This carpenter awoke, and heard him sing,
And spake unto his wife, and said anon,
What Alison, hear'st tho...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Most Beautiful Woman In Town

...your name?" I asked. 
"What the hell difference does it make?" she asked. 
I laughed and went on ahead. Afterwards she dressed and I drove her back to the bar but
she was difficult to forget. I wasn't working and I slept until 2 p.m. then got up and
read the paper. I was in the bathtub when she came in with a large leaf- an elephant ear. 
"I knew you'd be in the bathtub," she said, "so I brought you something
to cover that thing with, nature boy." 
She threw the elephant lea...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

The Schooner Flight

...as the bow rope untied
and the Flight swing seaward:"Is no use repeating
that the sea have more fish. I ain't want her
dressed in the sexless light of a seraph,
I want those round brown eyes like a marmoset, and
till the day when I can lean back and laugh,
those claws that tickled my back on sweating
Sunday afternoons, like a crab on wet sand."

As I worked, watching the rotting waves come
past the bow that scissor the sea like milk,
I swear to you all, by my mother's milk,
...Read more of this...
by Walcott, Derek

This Morning

...floated in a clear
blue sky. The sea was blue, and blue-green,
as far as the eye could see.
Scarcely a ripple. Calm. I dressed and went
for a walk -- determined not to return
until I took in what Nature had to offer.
I passed close to some old, bent-over trees.
Crossed a field strewn with rocks
where snow had drifted. Kept going
until I reached the bluff.
Where I gazed at the sea, and the sky, and
the gulls wheeling over the white beach
far below. All lovely. All bathed in a...Read more of this...
by Carver, Raymond

Trout Fishing in America

...u promised?" he asked.

"Yeah, " I said. "It's here in my pocket. "

"Good. "

 He hopped out of bed and he was already dressed. He had

told me once that he never took off his clothes when he went

to bed.

 "Why bother?" he had said. "You're only going to get up,

anyway. Be prepared for it. You're not fooling anyone by

taking your clothes off when you go to bed."

 He went into the kitchen, stepping around the littlest

children, whose wet diapers were in various stages o...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Very Like a Whale

...esult that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers
to people they say Oh yes, they're the ones that a lot of
wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.
That's the kind of thing that's being done all the time by poets,
from Homer to Tennyson;
They're always comparing ladies to lilies and veal to venison,
And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket
after a winter storm.
Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of
snow and ...Read more of this...
by Nash, Ogden

White Flock

...ecognize sweet Muse's loving taste:
She looks ahead and does not let a word pass,
And bows a head in the dark garland dressed
Onto my chest, exhausted from the haste.

And only conscience, scarier with each day,
Wants a great ransom and for this abuses.
Closing the face, I answer her this way..
But there remain no tears and no excuses.



x x x

To lose the freshness of the words and sense, for us,
Is it same as for an artist to lose vision,
Or for an actor ...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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