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Famous Eros Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Gregory, Rg
...riously expecting dis-
appointment when my flowers deign
to curtsey boorishly into the light

they ignore i'm agape not eros
my passion is a mute kind of longing
a fund of good-feeling - i blend
much more than possess (respect
distance) bestow rather than demand

my flowers voice outwards - trumpets
toned down to temper their height
my scores are obliged to be gentle
i use only circumspect colours
love is better for not being showy...Read more of this...



by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...Strong as death, and cruel as the grave,
Clothed with cloud and tempest's blackening breath,
Known of death's dread self, whom none outbrave,
Strong as death,

Love, brow-bound with anguish for a wreath,
Fierce with pain, a tyrant-hearted slave,
Burns above a world that groans beneath.

Hath not pity power on thee to save,
Love? hath power no pity? Nou...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...in
That they will have no joy of it, but ye
To whose wan cheeks now creeps the lingering smile,
Ye who have learned who Eros is, - O listen yet awhile.

A little space he let his greedy eyes
Rest on the burnished image, till mere sight
Half swooned for surfeit of such luxuries,
And then his lips in hungering delight
Fed on her lips, and round the towered neck
He flung his arms, nor cared at all his passion's will to check.

Never I ween did lover hold such tryst,
For ...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...eve me, together
The bright gods come ever,
Still as of old;
Scarce see I Bacchus, the giver of joy,
Than comes up fair Eros, the laugh-loving boy,
And Phoebus, the stately, behold!

They come near and nearer,
The heavenly ones all--
The gods with their presence
Fill earth as their hall!

Say, how shall I welcome,
Human and earthborn,
Sons of the sky?
Pour out to me--pour the full life that ye live!
What to ye, O ye gods! can the mortal one give?

The joys can dwell only
In J...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...The sense of the world is short,
Long and various the report,—
To love and be beloved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it,
And how oft soe'er they've turned it,
'Tis not to be improved....Read more of this...



by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...She fears him, and will always ask 
What fated her to choose him; 
She meets in his engaging mask 
All reason to refuse him. 
But what she meets and what she fears 
Are less than are the downward years, 
Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs 
Of age, were she to lose him.

Between a blurred sagacity 
That once had power to sound him, 
And Love, that w...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...y roaring wave;
But wave and deep are won by love--
Thou smilest on the brave!"

"Nor vainly, sovereign of the sea,
Did Eros send his shafts to thee
What time the rain of gold,
Bright Helle, with her brother bore,
How stirred the waves she wandered o'er,
How stirred thy deeps of old!
Swift, by the maiden's charms subdued,
Thou cam'st from out the gloomy waves,
And in thy mighty arms, she sank
Into thy bridal caves."

"A goddess with a god, to keep
In endless youth, beneat...Read more of this...

by Levertov, Denise
...O Eros, silently smiling one, hear me.
Let the shadow of thy wings 
brush me.
Let thy presence
enfold me, as if darkness
were swandown.
Let me see that darkness
lamp in hand,
this country become 
the other country
sacred to desire.

Drowsy god,
slow the wheels of my thought
so that I listen only
to the snowfall hush of
thy circling.
Close m...Read more of this...

by Auden, Wystan Hugh (W H)
...e it. One rational voice is dumb. Over his gravethe household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved:sad is Eros, builder of cities,and weeping anarchic Aphrodite....Read more of this...

by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory
...Kama the Indian Eros

   The daylight is dying,
   The Flying fox flying,
         Amber and amethyst burn in the sky.
   See, the sun throws a late,
   Lingering, roseate
         Kiss to the landscape to bid it good-bye.

   The time of our Trysting!
   Oh, come, unresisting,
         Lovely, expectant, on tentative feet.
   Shadow shall cover us,
   Roses be...Read more of this...

by Reeser, Jennifer
...She recognizes him at last as Other,
not Self. I see her in my mind, hot wax
about to plummet from the lifted candle.
Should closeness be so vulnerable to fact?

The wrinkles in her gown – a troubling grayness
amid chaste white – I see as always moved
by some upended breeze against their terrace;
his face I see as turned, not wholly proved,

his fa...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...EROS, what mean'st thou by this? In each of thine hands is an 
hourglass!

What, oh thou frivolous god! twofold thy measure of time?
"Slowly run from the one, the hours of lovers when parted;

While through the other they rush swiftly, as soon as they meet."

 1789.*...Read more of this...

by Agustini, Delmira
...Spanish    –Eros: acaso no sentiste nuncaPiedad de las estatuas?Se dirían crisálidas de piedraDe yo no sé qué formidable razaEn una eterna espera inenarrable.Los cráteres dormidos de sus bocasDan la ceniza negra del Silencio,Mana de las columnas de sus hombrosLa mortaja copiosa de la CalmaY fluye de sus órbitas la noche;Victimas del Futuro o del Misterio,En capullos...Read more of this...

by Auden, Wystan Hugh (W H)
...br>Ironic points of lightFlash out wherever the JustExchange their messages:May I, composed like themOf Eros and of dust,Beleaguered by the sameNegation and despair,Show an affirming flame....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...d. A year ago 
I met him—and to meet was to admire:
Forgotten were the ladies and the lyre, 
And the small, ink-fed Eros of his dream. 
By questioning I found a man to know— 
A failure spared, a Shadrach of the Gleam....Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...It is full summer now, the heart of June;
Not yet the sunburnt reapers are astir
Upon the upland meadow where too soon
Rich autumn time, the season's usurer,
Will lend his hoarded gold to all the trees,
And see his treasure scattered by the wild and spendthrift breeze.

Too soon indeed! yet here the daffodil,
That love-child of the Spring, has lingered...Read more of this...

by Lehman, David
...m head. 
He gave her tips on "aggressive growth" mutual funds. She gave him a red rose 
 and a little statue of eros. 
He gave her Genesis 2 (21-23). She gave him Genesis 1 (26-28). 
He gave her a square peg. She gave him a round hole. 
He gave her Long Beach on a late Sunday in September. She gave him zinnias 
 and cosmos in the plenitude of July. 
He gave her a camisole and a brooch. She gave him a cover and a break. 
He gave her ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...hough men it heard.
And in his gear* for all the world he far'd *behaviour 
Not only like the lovers' malady
Of Eros, but rather y-like manie* *madness
Engender'd of humours melancholic,
Before his head in his cell fantastic.
And shortly turned was all upside down,
Both habit and eke dispositioun,
Of him, this woful lover Dan* Arcite. *Lord 
Why should I all day of his woe indite?
When he endured had a year or two
This cruel torment, and this pain and ...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...uiet greenwood came;
Full of skill was he and heartless
In pursuit of feathered game.
And betimes he chanced to see
Eros perching in a tree.

"What strange bird is that, I wonder?"
Thought the youth, and spread his snare;
Eros, chuckling at the blunder,
Gayly scampered here and there.
Do his best, the simple clod
Could not snare the agile god!

Blubbering, to his aged master
Went the fowler in dismay,
And confided his disaster
With that curious bird that day;
"Mas...Read more of this...

by Kilmer, Joyce
...t did he seem
Gifted with eyes that could follow the gods to their holiest places.
I have no vision of gods, not of Eros with love-arrows laden,
Jupiter thundering death or of Juno his white-breasted queen,
Yet have I seen
All of the joy of the world in the innocent heart of a maiden....Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Eros poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things