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Famous Ennui Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...ast eve,
Here at my feet, thy dear head on my breast,
I heard thee say thy heart would no more grieve
Or feel the olden ennui and unrest.

What troubles thee? Am I not all thine own –
I, so long sought, so sighed for and so dear?
And do I not live but for thee alone?
“Thou hast seen Lippo, whom I loved last year! ”

Well, what of that? Last year is naught to me –
‘Tis swallowed in the ocean of the past.
Art thou not glad ‘twas Lippo, and not thee,
Whose brief bright d...Read more of this...



by Petrarch, Francesco
...pe to beImmortal made, although all flesh must die.At your approach ennui and anguish fly;With your departure they return again:But memory, on the past which doting dwells,Denies them entrance then,So that no outward act their influence tells;Thus, if in me is nurstAny go...Read more of this...

by Verlaine, Paul
...in a style 
Of gold, with languid sunshine dancing in each line.

The solitary soul is heart-sick with a vile 
Ennui. Down yon, they say, War's torches bloody shine. 
Alas, to be so faint of will, one must resign 
The chance of brave adventure in the splendid file,-

Of death, perchance! Alas, so lagging in desire! 
Ah, all is drunk! Bathyllus, has done laughing, pray? 
Ah, all is drunk,--all eaten! Nothing more to say!

Alone, a vapid verse one tosse...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...
 ("Amis! ennui nous tue.") 
 
 {Bk. IV. xv., March, 1825.} 


 Aweary unto death, my friends, a mood by wise abhorred, 
 Come to the novel feast I spread, thrice-consul, Nero, lord, 
 The Caesar, master of the world, and eke of harmony, 
 Who plays the harp of many strings, a chief of minstrelsy. 
 
 My joyful call should instantly bring all who love me...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...Soul.

16
O, while I live, to be the ruler of life—not a slave, 
To meet life as a powerful conqueror, 
No fumes—no ennui—no more complaints, or scornful criticisms. 

O me repellent and ugly! 
To these proud laws of the air, the water, and the ground, proving my interior Soul
 impregnable,
And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me. 

O to attract by more than attraction! 
How it is I know not—yet behold! the something which obeys none of the rest, 
It is...Read more of this...



by Taylor, Marilyn L
...e Muzak.

Do you plan to squander your precious twenties
wiping ketchup dripping from little fingers,
drowning your ennui in a Dr. Pepper
from the dispenser?

Were I you for one schizophrenic moment,
I’d display my pulchritude with a graceful
yet dismissive wave to the gathered burghers
feeding their faces—

find myself a job as a super-model,
get me to those Peloponnesian beaches
where I’d preen all day with a jug of ouzo
in my bikini.

Would I miss the gummy sub...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...atures then I see,
Distorted hideously,--

An owl's they might be now.

What is it, askest thou?
Is't love, or is't ennui?

'Tis both at once, I vow.

1767-9....Read more of this...

by Pushkin, Alexander
...br> 
Still I remember you appear 
Before me like a vision fleeting, 
A beauty's angel pure and clear. 

In hopeless ennui surrounding 
The worldly bustle, to my ear 
For long your tender voice kept sounding, 
For long in dreams came features dear. 

Time passed. Unruly storms confounded 
Old dreams, and I from year to year 
Forgot how tender you had sounded, 
Your heavenly features once so dear. 

My backwoods days dragged slow and quiet -- 
Dull fence around,...Read more of this...

by Pushkin, Alexander
...r>.
Still I remember you appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.

In hopeless ennui surrounding
The worldly bustle, to my ear
For long your tender voice kept sounding,
For long in dreams came features dear.

Time passed. Unruly storms confounded
Old dreams, and I from year to year
Forgot how tender you had sounded,
Your heavenly features once so dear.

My backwoods days dragged slow and quiet --
Dull fence around, dark vau...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...pluck in play, 
 No harsh voice frightening it away. 
 And I'm alone—all pleasure o'er— 
 Alone with pedant called "Ennui," 
 For since the morning at my door 
 Ennui has waited patiently. 
 That docto-r-London born, you mark, 
 One Sunday in December dark, 
 Poor little ones—he loved you not, 
 And waited till the chance he got 
 To enter as you passed away, 
 And in the very corner where 
 You played with frolic laughter gay, 
 He sighs and yawns with weary ai...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...h birth, life, death, burial, the means are provided, nothing is scanted; 
Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are picks its way....Read more of this...

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