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Famous Enclosed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Whitman, Walt
...morrow, from the other side, the Queen of England sends her eldest son to you.

7
The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed, 
The ring is circled, the journey is done; 
The box-lid is but perceptibly open’d—nevertheless the perfume pours copiously out of the
 whole
 box. 

8
Young Libertad! 
With the venerable Asia, the all-mother,
Be considerate with her, now and ever, hot Libertad—for you are all; 
Bend your proud neck to the long-off mother, now sending messages o...Read more of this...



by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...And other withered stumps of time
  Were told upon the walls; staring forms
  Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
  Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
  Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
  Spread out in fiery points
  Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.                        110

  "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
  "Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
  "What are ...Read more of this...

by Campbell, Thomas
...safe from present harm,
Had laid her cheek, and clasp'd her hands of snow
On Waldegrave's shoulder, half within his arm
Enclosed, that felt her heart, and hush'd its wild alarm!

But short that contemplation--sad and short
The pause to bid each much-loved scene adieu!
Beneath the very shadow of the fort,
Where friendly swords were drawn, and banners flew;
Ah! who could deem that root of Indian crew
Was near?--yet there, with lust of murd'rous deeds,
Gleam'd like a basilisk, f...Read more of this...

by Desnos, Robert
...me, a shooting star falls into the poet's nightly bottle.
He corks it right away and from then on watches the star enclosed in the glass, the
constellations born on its walls, far from me, you are so far from me.
If you only knew.
Far from me a house has just been built.
A bricklayer in white coveralls at the top of the scaffolding sings a very sad little
song and, suddenly, in the tray full of mortar, the future of the house appears:
lovers' kisses and doubl...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...It was a Grave, yet bore no Stone
Enclosed 'twas not of Rail
A Consciousness its Acre, and
It held a Human Soul.

Entombed by whom, for what offence
If Home or Foreign born --
Had I the curiosity
'Twere not appeased of men

Till Resurrection, I must guess
Denied the small desire
A Rose upon its Ridge to sow
Or take away a Briar....Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...less 
Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme, 
And god-like imitated state: him round 
A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed 
With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
Then of their session ended they bid cry 
With trumpet's regal sound the great result: 
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim 
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy, 
By herald's voice explained; the hollow Abyss 
Heard far adn wide, and all the host of Hell 
With deafening shout returned them ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
Mean while upon the firm opacous globe 
Of this round world, whose first convex divides 
The luminous inferiour orbs, enclosed 
From Chaos, and the inroad of Darkness old, 
Satan alighted walks: A globe far off 
It seemed, now seems a boundless continent 
Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night 
Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms 
Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky; 
Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven, 
Though distant far, some small re...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ngs their issue guard, 
Mount Amara, though this by some supposed 
True Paradise under the Ethiop line 
By Nilus' head, enclosed with shining rock, 
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote 
From this Assyrian garden, where the Fiend 
Saw, undelighted, all delight, all kind 
Of living creatures, new to sight, and strange 
Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 
Godlike erect, with native honour clad 
In naked majesty seemed lords of all: 
And worthy seemed; for in their ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...hought. 
High in the midst, exalted as a God, 
The Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat, 
Idol of majesty divine, enclosed 
With flaming Cherubim, and golden shields; 
Then lighted from his gorgeous throne, for now 
"twixt host and host but narrow space was left, 
A dreadful interval, and front to front 
Presented stood in terrible array 
Of hideous length: Before the cloudy van, 
On the rough edge of battle ere it joined, 
Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced,...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...snaky folds, and added wings. First crept 
The parsimonious emmet, provident 
Of future; in small room large heart enclosed; 
Pattern of just equality perhaps 
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes 
Of commonalty: Swarming next appeared 
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells 
With honey stored: The rest are numberless, 
And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names, 
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown 
The ser...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...s, as in air 
Smooth-sliding without step, last led me up 
A woody mountain; whose high top was plain, 
A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees 
Planted, with walks, and bowers; that what I saw 
Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemed. Each tree, 
Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to the eye 
Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite 
To pluck and eat; whereat I waked, and found 
Before mine eyes all real, as the dream 
Had lively shadowed: Here had new begun 
My wa...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e stronger, under show of love well feigned; 
The way which to her ruin now I tend. 
So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed 
In serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve 
Addressed his way: not with indented wave, 
Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear, 
Circular base of rising folds, that towered 
Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head 
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; 
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect 
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...rs, 
Like a Pandora, locked long in store. 
But destiny this huge Chaos turmoiling, 
In which all good and evil was enclosed, 
Their heavenly virtues from these woes absolving, 
Carried to heaven, from sinful bondage loosed: 
But their great sins, the causers of their pain, 
Under these antique ruins yet remain. 


20 

No otherwise than rainy cloud, first fed 
With earthly vapors gathered in the air, 
Eftsoones in compass arch'd, to steep his head, 
Doth plunge himse...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...traveller stopped, the courier's feet 
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit 
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed 
In a tumultuous privacy of Storm." 
Emerson,The Snow Storm. 


The sun that brief December day 
Rose cheerless over hills of gray, 
And, darkly circled, gave at noon 
A sadder light than waning moon. 
Slow tracing down the thickening sky 
Its mute and ominous prophecy, 
A portent seeming less than threat, 
It sank from sight before it s...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...t has chanted, 
Sing me the Universal. 

In this broad Earth of ours, 
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart, 
Nestles the seed Perfection. 

By every life a share, or more or less, 
None born but it is born—conceal’d or unconceal’d, the seed is waiting. 

2
Lo! keen-eyed, towering Science!
As from tall peaks the Modern overlooking, 
Successive, absolute fiats issuing. 

Yet again, lo! the Soul—above all scienc...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...s susceptible of a perfume, which is slight but not disagreeable. 

(26) The belief in amulets engraved on gems, or enclosed in gold boxes, containing scraps from the Koran, worn round the neck, wrist, or arm, is still universal in the East. The Koorsee (throne) verse in the second chapter of the Koran describes the attributes of the Most High, and is engraved in this manner, and worn by the pious, as the most esteemed and sublime of all sentences. 

(27) "Combolo...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...ve, but they  Are poorest of the poor.  This scrap of land he from the heath  Enclosed when he was stronger;  But what avails the land to them,  Which they can till no longer?   Few months of life has he in store,  As he to you will-tell,  For still, the more he works, the more  His poor old ancles swell.  My gentle reader, I perce...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...in you and the greater knowledge of you. 

And it is with this belief and this knowledge that I say, 

You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. 

That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind. 

It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety, 

But a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether. 

If this be vague words, then seek not t...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...

We’d sat around, our hearts numb, all hope gone; but then

A quiet came we had not felt for years, a lens of silence

Enclosed us, a single leaf fell at my feet.



IV

The rat we tried to frighten, trap or poison, saw us off instead;

It seemed as if it grew beneath our very skins and circled

With our blood and hammered at our heads and leered from specks

Of fluff beneath the bed. The wainscot was the worst, it seemed

No whitewashed wall was free from cavities t...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...rs.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. 
 "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
"Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
 "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
"I never ...Read more of this...

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