Famous Enjoyment Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Familiar Letter

...nners,
You've a seat on the platform among the grandees.

At length your mere presence becomes a sensation,
Your cup of enjoyment is filled to its brim 
With the pleasure Horatian of digitmonstration,
As the whisper runs round of "That's he!" or "That's him!"

But remember, O dealer in phrases sonorous,
So daintily chosen, so tunefully matched,
Though you soar with the wings of the cherubim o'er us,
The ovum was human from which you were hatched.

No will of your own with its...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell


A Psalm of Life

...is earnest! 5 
And the grave is not its goal; 
Dust thou art to dust returnest  
Was not spoken of the soul. 

Not enjoyment and not sorrow  
Is our destined end or way; 10 
But to act that each to-morrow 
Find us farther than to-day. 

Art is long and Time is fleeting  
And our hearts though stout and brave  
Still like muffled drums are beating 15 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

In the world's broad field of battle  
In the bivouac of Life  
Be not like du...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Allegory

...so fast and showy, quite a treasure; 
Although he sometimes kicked and shied aslant. 
I had a chaise, and christened it Enjoyment, 
With yellow body and the wheels of red, 
Because it was only used for one employment, 
Namely, to go wherever Pleasure led. 
I had a wife, her nickname was Delight: 
A son called Frolic, who was never still: 
Alas! how often dark succeeds to bright! 
Delight was thrown, and Frolic had a spill, 
Enjoyment was upset and shattered quite, 
And Pleasu...Read more of this...
by Hood, Thomas

Beowulf (Modern English)

...th—his breast within him welled,
when he, wise of winters, remembered many things. (ll. 2101-14)

“So we grasped our enjoyment the whole day long
within the hall, until another night came upon mankind.
Then she was quick to return, ready for terrible wrack,
Grendel’s mother, venturing sorrowfully.
Death had seized her son, and the war-hatred of the Weders.
The horrible woman avenged her son, killed a warrior
audaciously. There the life of Æschere was torn out,
an ag...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bishop Blougrams Apology

...what I do meanwhile. 
Let us concede (gratuitously though) 
Next life relieves the soul of body, yields 
Pure spiritual enjoyment: well, my friend, 
Why lose this life i' the meantime, since its use 
May be to make the next life more intense? 

Do you know, I have often had a dream 
(Work it up in your next month's article) 
Of man's poor spirit in its progress, still 
Losing true life for ever and a day 
Through ever trying to be and ever being-- 
In the evolution of success...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert


Comus

...must not be hoarded,
But must be current; and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself.
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languished head.
Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workmanship.
It is for homely features to keep home;
They had their name thence: coarse complexions
And cheeks of sorry grain will se...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

From ‘Paracelsus'

...ates, all power 
Proceeds; in whom is life for evermore, 
Yet whom existence in its lowest form 
Includes; where dwells enjoyment there is he: 
With still a flying point of bliss remote, 
A happiness in store afar, a sphere 
Of distant glory in full view; thus climbs 
Pleasure its heights for ever and for ever. 
The centre-fire heaves underneath the earth, 
And the earth changes like a human face; 
The molten ore bursts up among the rocks, 
Winds into the stone’s heart, outbr...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Kings Must Die

...re worthy fade
We find that whimsically Time
Conserves some crazy escapade.
So as I left I stood to stare
With humorous enjoyment where
Alphonso crashed the Palace stair....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Locksley Hall

...wer, hangs the heavy-fruited tree--
Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea. 

There methinks would be enjoyment more than in this march of mind,
In the steamship, in the railway, in the thoughts that shake mankind. 

There the passions cramp'd no longer shall have scope and breathing space;
I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race. 

Iron-jointed, supple-sinew'd, they shall dive, and they shall run,
Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hur...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Paradise Lost: Book 06

..., his riven arms to havock hewn, 
And cloudy in aspect thus answering spake. 
Deliverer from new Lords, leader to free 
Enjoyment of our right as Gods; yet hard 
For Gods, and too unequal work we find, 
Against unequal arms to fight in pain, 
Against unpained, impassive; from which evil 
Ruin must needs ensue; for what avails 
Valour or strength, though matchless, quelled with pain 
Which all subdues, and makes remiss the hands 
Of mightiest? Sense of pleasure we may well 
Sp...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Pioneers! O Pioneers!

...t the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious; 
Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers!

24
 Do the feasters gluttonous feast? 
Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors? 
Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers! 

25
 Has the night descended? 
Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way?
Yet a passing hour I yiel...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Artists

...cher ye reward the eager gaze
The higher, fairer orders that the mind
May traverse with its magic rays,
Or compass with enjoyment unconfined--
The wider thoughts and feelings open lie
To more luxuriant floods of harmony.
To beauty's richer, more majestic stream,--
The fair members of the world's vast scheme,
That, maimed, disgrace on his creation bring,
He sees the lofty forms then perfecting--

The fairer riddles come from out the night--
The richer is the world his arms enc...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Deserted Garden

...ed these.

For here, their pleasure was to come and sit
Oft when the sun sloped midway to the west,
Watching with sweet enjoyment interknit
The long light slant across the green earth's breast,
And clouds upon the ranges opposite,
Rolled up into a gleaming thundercrest,
Topple and break and fall in purple rain,
And mist of summer showers trail out across the plain.

Whereon the shafts of ardent light, far-flung
Across the luminous azure overhead,
Ofttimes in arcs of transient...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume 1: 1931-1934

...I, at bottom, that fervent little Spanish Catholic child who chastised herself for loving toys, who forbade herself the enjoyment of sweet foods, who practiced silence, who humiliated her pride, who adored symbols, statues, burning candles, incense, the caress of nuns, organ music, for whom Communion was a great event? I was so exalted by the idea of eating Jesus's flesh and drinking His blood that I couldn't swallow the host well, and I dreaded harming the it. I visualized C...Read more of this...
by Nin, Anais

The Growth of Love

...t serve not ill 
The heavenly Muse, tho' she requite them not: 
I would have life--thou saidst--all as this day,
Simple enjoyment calm in its excess,
With not a grief to cloud, and not a ray
Of passion overhot my peace to oppress;
With no ambition to reproach delay,
Nor rapture to disturb its happiness. 

39
A man that sees by chance his picture, made
As once a child he was, handling some toy,
Will gaze to find his spirit within the boy,
Yet hath no secret with the soul pourt...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Holidays

...ll take it for granted, more playthings he wanted; 
Oh naught was something to do. 

We must have employment to give us enjoyment
And pass the time cheerfully away; 
And study and reading give pleasure, exceeding
The pleasures of toys and of play. 

To school now returning­to study and learning
With eagerness Harry applied; 
He felt no aversion to books or exertion, 
Nor yet for the holidays sigh'd....Read more of this...
by Taylor, Jane

The Lonely God

...t Thee how to pray?" 

And through eternity, adown the slope 
Of never-ending time, compact of hope, 
Of zest and young enjoyment, I and She 
Will walk together, sowing jollity 
Among the raving stars, and laughter through 
The vacancies of Heaven, till the blue 
Vast amplitudes of space lift up a song, 
The echo of our presence, rolled along 
And ever rolling where the planets sing 
The majesty and glory of the King. 
Then conquered, thou, Eternity, shalt lie 
Under My hand ...Read more of this...
by Stephens, James

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...the Devils party without knowing it


A Memorable Fancy.

As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the 
enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and
insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs: thinking that as
the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs
of Hell, shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any
description of buildings or garments.
When I came home; on the abyss of the five senses, where a
flat sided ste...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Proud Poet

...mer had the sorrow to be 
blind,
Yet a hundred people with good eyes would listen to him all night;
For they took great enjoyment in the heaven of his mind,
And were glad when the old blind poet let them share his powers 
of sight.
And there was Heine lying on his mattress all day long,
He had no wealth, he had no friends, he had no joy at all,
Except to pour his sorrow into little cups of song,
And the world finds in them the magic wine that his broken heart 
let fall.
"And ...Read more of this...
by Kilmer, Joyce

The Sprig of Moss

...pending upon him for bread,
And one evening he was dismissed from his employment,
Which put an end to all his peace and enjoyment. 

The poor lad was almost mad, and the next day
His parent's remains to the cemetery were taken away;
And when his father was buried, distracted like he grew,
And he strolled through the streets crying, What shall I do! 

And all night he wandered on sad and alone,
Until he began to think of returning home,
But, to his surprise, on raising his hea...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

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