Famous Entire Poems by Famous Poets

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

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As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free

...also stored in thee! 
Thou holdest not the venture of thyself alone—not of thy western continent alone;
Earth’s résumé entire floats on thy keel, O ship—is
 steadied by
 thy spars; 
With thee Time voyages in trust—the antecedent nations sink or swim with thee; 
With all their ancient struggles, martyrs, heroes, epics, wars, thou bear’st the
 other
 continents; 
Theirs, theirs as much as thine, the destination-port triumphant: 
—Steer, steer with good strong hand and wary eye...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Beowulf (Modern English)

..., the fair city of your allies,
where he claimed kin, shelter, and rings.
The son of Beanstan truly made good
on his entire boast against you.
So then I expect from you a worse outcome,
although you have often availed in the rush of battle,
grim warfare, if you dare very near at hand
to await Grendel for the length of the entire night.” (ll. 506-28)

Beowulf made his reply, the son of Ecgtheow:
“What a whole lot of words, Unferth my friend,
you have spoken concerni...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Endymion: Book III

...re came a nearer bliss--
My strange love came--Felicity's abyss!
She came, and thou didst fade, and fade away--
Yet not entirely; no, thy starry sway
Has been an under-passion to this hour.
Now I begin to feel thine orby power
Is coming fresh upon me: O be kind,
Keep back thine influence, and do not blind
My sovereign vision.--Dearest love, forgive
That I can think away from thee and live!--
Pardon me, airy planet, that I prize
One thought beyond thine argent luxuries!
How fa...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Forgetfulness

...The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and ev...Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy

Hurry Up Please Its Time

...dah. 
Sun, you hammer of yellow, 
you hat on fire, 
you honeysuckle mama, 
pour your blonde on me! 
Let me laugh for an entire hour 
at your supreme being, your Cadillac stuff, 
because I've come a long way 
from Brussels sprouts. 
I've come a long way to peel off my clothes 
and lay me down in the grass. 
Once only my palms showed. 
Once I hung around in my woolly tank suit, 
drying my hair in those little meatball curls. 
Now I am clothed in gold air with 
one dozen halos g...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne


Love Is A Parallax

...scarf; love is a faun
 who insists his playmates run. 

Now you, my intellectual leprechaun,
would have me swallow the entire sun
 like an enormous oyster, down
the ocean in one gulp: you say a mark
of comet hara-kiri through the dark
 should inflame the sleeping town. 

So kiss: the drunks upon the curb and dames
in dubious doorways forget their monday names,
 caper with candles in their heads;
the leaves applaud, and santa claus flies in
scattering candy from a zeppelin,
 ...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...lmighty, since no less 
Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, 
Strongly to suffer and support our pains, 
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire, 
Or do him mightier service as his thralls 
By right of war, whate'er his business be, 
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, 
Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep? 
What can it the avail though yet we feel 
Strength undiminished, or eternal being 
To undergo et...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...r may, at choice, 
Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell; 
If ye be found obedient, and retain 
Unalterably firm his love entire, 
Whose progeny you are. Mean while enjoy 
Your fill what happiness this happy state 
Can comprehend, incapable of more. 
To whom the patriarch of mankind replied. 
O favourable Spirit, propitious guest, 
Well hast thou taught the way that might direct 
Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set 
From center to circumference; whereon, 
In contemplatio...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...To whom with healing words Adam replied. 
Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve! 
For such thou art; from sin and blame entire: 
Not diffident of thee do I dissuade 
Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid 
The attempt itself, intended by our foe. 
For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses 
The tempted with dishonour foul; supposed 
Not incorruptible of faith, not proof 
Against temptation: Thou thyself with scorn 
And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong, 
Thoug...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...his heart 
Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just, 
Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind 
Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed, 
Complete to have discovered and repulsed 
Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend. 
For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered, 
The high injunction, not to taste that fruit, 
Whoever tempted; which they not obeying, 
(Incurred what could they less?) the penalty; 
And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall. 
Up into Heav...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 12

...many battles fought 
How many kings destroyed; and kingdoms won; 
Or how the sun shall in mid Heaven stand still 
A day entire, and night's due course adjourn, 
Man's voice commanding, 'Sun, in Gibeon stand, 
'And thou moon in the vale of Aialon, 
'Till Israel overcome! so call the third 
From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him 
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win. 
Here Adam interposed. O sent from Heaven, 
Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things 
Thou hast rev...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry

...runken arms to move them.
I don't think you want me to go on;
everyone has his expectations, but this
is a poem for the entire family.
Right now, Budweiser
is dripping from a waterfall,
deodorants are hissing into armpits
of people you resemble,
and the two lovers are dressing now,
saying farewell.
I don't know what music this poem
can come up with, but clearly
it's needed. For it's apparent 
they will never see each other again
and we need music for this
because there was ne...Read more of this...
by Dunn, Stephen

Self-Portrait At 28

...I know it's a bad title
but I'm giving it to myself as a gift
on a day nearly canceled by sunlight
when the entire hill is approaching
the ideal of Virginia
brochured with goldenrod and loblolly
and I think "at least I have not woken up
with a bloody knife in my hand"
by then having absently wandered
one hundred yards from the house
while still seated in this chair
with my eyes closed.

It is a certain hill
the one I imagine when I hear the word "hill"
and if the ...Read more of this...
by Berman, David

Stepping Backward

...hole
The way we look upon the things we lose.
We see each other daily and in segments;
Parting might make us meet anew, entire.

You asked me once, and I could give no answer,
How far dare we throw off the daily ruse,
Official treacheries of face and name,
Have out our true identity? I could hazard
An answer now, if you are asking still.
We are a small and lonely human race
Showing no sign of mastering solitude
Out on this stony planet that we farm.
The most that we can do fo...Read more of this...
by Rich, Adrienne

The Cats Song

...and stretching long, long. 
I speak greed with my paws and fear with my whiskers. 
Envy lashes my tail. Love speaks me entire, a word 

of fur. I will teach you to be still as an egg 
and to slip like the ghost of wind through the grass....Read more of this...
by Piercy, Marge

The Flight Of The Duchess

...ments of life's earlier feast,
``Let fall through eagerness to find
``The crowning dainties yet behind?
``Ponder on the entire past
``Laid together thus at last,
``When the twilight helps to fuse
``The first fresh with the faded hues,
``And the outline of the whole,
``As round eve's shades their framework roll,
``Grandly fronts for once thy soul.
``And then as, 'mid the dark, a glean
``Of yet another morning breaks,
``And like the hand which ends a dream,
``Death, with the mi...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Giaour

...ircumspect than in the 'olden time', or because the Christians have better fortune, or less enterprise. The story, when entire, contained the adventures of a female slave, who was thrown, in the Mussulman manner, into the sea for infidelity, and avenged by a young Venetian, her lover, at the time the Seven Islands were possessed by the Republic of Venice, and soon after the Arnauts were beaten back from the Morea, which they had ravaged for some time subsequent to the Russian...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

...led herbage of the field! 

LXXXVIII.
Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire! 

LXXXIX.
Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane,
The Moon of Heav'n is rising once again:
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me -- in vain! 

XC.
And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass
Among the Guests star-scatter'd on t...Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar

The Vision of Judgment

...ver has been wisely done below.' 

XXII 

The angel answer'd, 'Peter! do not pout: 
The king who comes has head and all entire, 
And never knew much what it was about — 
He did as doth the puppet — by its wire, 
And will be judged like all the rest, no doubt: 
My business and your own is not to inquire 
Into such matters, but to mind our cue — 
Which is to act as we are bid to do.' 

XXIII 

While thus they spake, the angelic caravan, 
Arriving like a rush of mighty wind, 
Cl...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

White Flock

...
The sudden angst of the uncalled desires
And in the pensive cities you did seek
That street which was not on the map entire!

Upon the sound of voice behind an open door,
Upon the sight of every accidental letter,
You will remember: "Here has she herself
Come to assist my disbelief unfettered."



x x x

Did not scold me, did not praise me,
Like friends and like enemies.
Only left his soul to me
And then said, "Now keep in peace."

And one thing worries m...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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