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Famous Empyrean Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Clampitt, Amy
...ve by such snells, 
such sailor's knots, such stays
and guy wires as are

mainly of our own devising. From such an 
empyrean, aloof seraphic mentors urge us
to look down on all attachment,
on any bonding, as

in the end untenable. Base as it is, from 
year to year the earth's sore surface
mends and rebinds itself, however
and as best it can, with

thread of cinquefoil, tendril of the magenta
beach pea, trammel of bramble; with easings,
mulchings, fragrances, the gray-...Read more of this...



by Scott, Duncan Campbell
...way.

Her soul was chartered for great deeds,
For gentle war unwonted here:
Her spirit sought her clearer needs,
An Empyrean atmosphere.

At hush of eve we hear her still
Say with her clear, her perfect smile,
And with her silver-throated thrill:
"A little while - a little while."...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...,
Near four bright suns- a temporary rest-
An oasis in desert of the blest.
Away- away- 'mid seas of rays that roll
Empyrean splendor o'er th' unchained soul-
The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)
Can struggle to its destin'd eminence,-
To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode
And late to ours, the favor'd one of God-
But, now, the ruler of an anchor'd realm,
She throws aside the sceptre- leaves the helm,
And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,
Laves ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...ot lived enough to know)
Between the vicar and the country squires,
The lord-lieutenant looking down sometimes
From the empyrean to assure their souls
Against chance-vulgarisms, and, in the abyss
The apothecary, looked on once a year
To prove their soundness of humility.
The poor-club exercised her Christian gifts
Of knitting stockings, stitching petticoats,
Because we are of one flesh after all
And need one flannel (with a proper sense
Of difference in the quality) -- an...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...laurel and of palm displays,And, answering, thus she says."From th' empyrean seat of holy loveAlone thy sorrows to console I move." In actions, and in words, in humble guiseI speak my thanks, and ask, "How may it beThat thou shouldst know my wretched state?" and she"Thy...Read more of this...



by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...un-clear
Be the axis of the sphere;
Then shall the lights ye pour amain
Go without check or intervals,
Through from the empyrean walls,
Unto the same again.

Close, close to men,
Like undulating layer of air,
Right above their heads,
The potent plain of Dæmons spreads.
Stands to each human soul its own,
For watch, and ward, and furtherance
In the snares of nature's dance;
And the lustre and the grace
Which fascinate each human heart,
Beaming from another part,
Translu...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...e voices marry at their birth;
Let us entwine hoveringly--O dearth
Of human words! roughness of mortal speech!
Lispings empyrean will I sometime teach
Thine honied tongue--lute-breathings, which I gasp
To have thee understand, now while I clasp
Thee thus, and weep for fondness--I am pain'd,
Endymion: woe! woe! is grief contain'd
In the very deeps of pleasure, my sole life?"--
Hereat, with many sobs, her gentle strife
Melted into a languor. He return'd
Entranced vows and t...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...y an earthly realm I take.
Since I saw thee, I have been wide awake
Night after night, and day by day, until
Of the empyrean I have drunk my fill.
Let it content thee, Sister, seeing me
More happy than betides mortality.
A hermit young, I'll live in mossy cave,
Where thou alone shalt come to me, and lave
Thy spirit in the wonders I shall tell.
Through me the shepherd realm shall prosper well;
For to thy tongue will I all health confide.
And, for my sake, l...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...ffairs,
The fat flocks and the fields' fatness,
Mariners, rough harvesters;
Overcome Gods upon Parnassus;

Overcome the Empyrean; hurl
Heaven and Earth out of their places,
That in the Same calamity
Brother and brother, friend and friend,
Family and family,
City and city may contend,
By that great glory driven wild.

Pray I will and sing I must,
And yet I weep -- Oedipus' child
Descends into the loveless dust....Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...ll Things Lost Below 
 Allowed it, reason seems, to those who see 
 The enduring greatness of his destiny, 
 Who in the Empyrean Heaven elect was called 
 Sire of the Eternal City, that throned and walled 
 Made Empire of the world beyond, to be 
 The Holy Place at last, by God's decree, 
 Where the great Peter's follower rules. For he 
 Learned there the causes of his victory. 

 "And later to the third great Heaven was caught 
 The last Apostle, and thence returning...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...l'alma Roma e di suo impero 
ne l'empireo ciel per padre eletto : 

that does not seem incomprehensible, 
since in the empyrean heaven he was chosen 
to father honored Rome and her empire; 


la quale e 'l quale, a voler dir lo vero, 
fu stabilita per lo loco santo 
u' siede il successor del maggior Piero . 

and if the truth be told, Rome and her realm 
were destined to become the sacred place, 
the seat of the successor of great Peter. 


Per quest'andata onde li d...Read more of this...

by Crowley, Aleister
...f Chance, or Law, or Will?
Is None or All or One to thank for this?
It will not matter if thanksgiving fill
The endless empyrean with a kiss....Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ound for ages;
Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,
Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries,
Tower, as the deep-domed empyrean
Rings to the roar of an angel onset--
Me rather all that bowery loneliness,
The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,
And bloom profuse and cedar arches
Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean,
Where some refulgent sunset of India
Streams o'er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,
And crimson-hued the stately palm-woods
Whisper in odorous heights of even....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...wherein remained 
(For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe 
Clear victory; to our part loss and rout 
Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, 
Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down 
Into this Deep; and in the general fall 
I also: at which time this powerful key 
Into my hands was given, with charge to keep 
These gates for ever shut, which none can pass 
Without my opening. Pensive here I sat 
Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb, 
Pregnant by thee, a...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...at I may see and tell 
Of things invisible to mortal sight. 
Now had the Almighty Father from above, 
From the pure empyrean where he sits 
High thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye 
His own works and their works at once to view: 
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven 
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd 
Beatitude past utterance; on his right 
The radiant image of his glory sat, 
His only son; on earth he first beheld 
Our two first parents, yet the...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...numerous host. 
He on his impious foes right onward drove, 
Gloomy as night; under his burning wheels 
The stedfast empyrean shook throughout, 
All but the throne itself of God. Full soon 
Among them he arrived; in his right hand 
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent 
Before him, such as in their souls infixed 
Plagues: They, astonished, all resistance lost, 
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt: 
O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode 
Of Th...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...der in our ears, 
Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed, 
Divine interpreter! by favour sent 
Down from the empyrean, to forewarn 
Us timely of what might else have been our loss, 
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach; 
For which to the infinitely Good we owe 
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment 
Receive, with solemn purpose to observe 
Immutably his sovran will, the end 
Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed 
Gently, for our instruction, ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...f adamant 
And chains they made all fast, too fast they made 
And durable! And now in little space 
The confines met of empyrean Heaven, 
And of this World; and, on the left hand, Hell 
With long reach interposed; three several ways 
In sight, to each of these three places led. 
And now their way to Earth they had descried, 
To Paradise first tending; when, behold! 
Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright, 
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering 
His zenith, while th...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...oman -figured clock

My mother made us take when all was lost,

Together until the last breath had flown

Into the blue empyrean with her soul....Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ese dark buildings, pointed to the skies, 
 Immense entanglement in shroud of gloom! 
 The stars which gleamed in the empyrean dome, 
 Under the thousand arches in heaven's space 
 Shone as through meshes of the blackest lace. 
 Cities of hell, with foul desires demented, 
 And monstrous pleasures, hour by hour invented! 
 Each roof and home some monstrous mystery bore! 
 Which through the world spread like a twofold sore! 
 Yet all things slept, and scarce some pale...Read more of this...

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