Famous Erred Poems by Famous Poets

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

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a clowns smirk in the skull of a baboon

...d 
rose very slowly in a tight balloon
until the smallening world became absurd;
him did an archer spy(whose aim had erred
never)and by that little trick or this
he shot the aeronaut down into the abyss
-and wonderfully i fell through the green groove
of twilight striking into many a piece.
I have never loved you dear as now i love

god's terrible face brighter than a spoon 
collects the image of one fatal word;
so that my life(which liked the sun and the moon)
r...Read more of this...
by Cummings, Edward Estlin (E E)


Did Not

...pressed it closer, closer still,
Though gently bid not;
Till - oh! the world hath seldom heard
Of lovers, who so nearly erred,
And yet, who did not....Read more of this...
by Moore, Thomas

Do You Remember Once . .

...s moan -- 
The hour advances, and I sleep alone. 



III 


Farewell, dear heart, enough of vain despairing! 
If I have erred I plead but one excuse -- 
The jewel were a lesser joy in wearing 
That cost a lesser agony to lose. 


I had not bid for beautifuller hours 
Had I not found the door so near unsealed, 
Nor hoped, had you not filled my arms with flowers, 
For that one flower that bloomed too far afield. 


If I have wept, it was because, forsaken, 
I felt perhaps more ...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

Geraint And Enid

...fits of prayer, at every stroke a breath. 
And he, she dreaded most, bare down upon him. 
Aimed at the helm, his lance erred; but Geraint's, 
A little in the late encounter strained, 
Struck through the bulky bandit's corselet home, 
And then brake short, and down his enemy rolled, 
And there lay still; as he that tells the tale 
Saw once a great piece of a promontory, 
That had a sapling growing on it, slide 
From the long shore-cliff's windy walls to the beach, 
And there ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Guinevere

...f this low head be harmed. 
Fear not: thou shalt be guarded till my death. 
Howbeit I know, if ancient prophecies 
Have erred not, that I march to meet my doom. 
Thou hast not made my life so sweet to me, 
That I the King should greatly care to live; 
For thou hast spoilt the purpose of my life. 
Bear with me for the last time while I show, 
Even for thy sake, the sin which thou hast sinned. 
For when the Roman left us, and their law 
Relaxed its hold upon us, and the ways 
W...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord


Honors - Part Ii

...
      And have the grace to wait.
Wait, nor against the half-learned lesson fret,
  Nor chide at old belief as if it erred,
Because thou canst not reconcile as yet
      The Worker and the word.
Either the Worker did in ancient days
  Give us the word, His tale of love and might;
(And if in truth He gave it us, who says
      He did not give it right?)
Or else He gave it not, and then indeed
  We know not if HE is—by whom our years
Are portioned, who the orphan mo...Read more of this...
by Ingelow, Jean

Mazeppa

...trunk
Beneath its woes a moment sunk?
The earth gave way, the skies rolled round,
I seemed to sink upon the ground;
But erred, for I was fastly bound.
My heart turned sick, my brain grew sore,
And throbbed awhile, then beat no more:
The skies spun like a mighty wheel;
I saw the trees like drunkards reel,
And a slight flash sprang o'er my eyes,
Which saw no farther. He who dies
Can die no more than then I died;
O’ertortured by that ghastly ride.
I felt the blackness come and g...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

On the Way

...ugh of them; 
And once I figured a sufficiency 
To be at least an atom in the annals 
Of your republic. But I must have erred. 

HAMILTON

You smile as if your spirit lived at ease
With error. I should not have named it so, 
Failing assent from you; nor, if I did, 
Should I be so complacent in my skill 
To comb the tangled language of the people 
As to be sure of anything in these days.
Put that much in account with modesty. 

BURR

What in the name of Ahab, Hamilton, 
Have y...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...seat worthier of Gods, as built 
With second thoughts, reforming what was old! 
O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred 
For what God, after better, worse would build? 
Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens 
That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, 
Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, 
In thee concentring all their precious beams 
Of sacred influence! As God in Heaven 
Is center, yet extends to all; so thou, 
Centring, receivest from all t...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...ern cloud, that draws 
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white, 
And slow descends with something heavenly fraught? 
He erred not; for by this the heavenly bands 
Down from a sky of jasper lighted now 
In Paradise, and on a hill made halt; 
A glorious apparition, had not doubt 
And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam's eye. 
Not that more glorious, when the Angels met 
Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw 
The field pavilioned with his guardians bright; 
Nor that, which on the flamin...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet 137: Thou blind fool Love what dost thou to mine eyes

...ne eyes seeing this, say this is not
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,
And to this false plague are they now transferred....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet 31 - Thou comest! all is said without a word

...sit beneath thy looks, as children do
In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through
Their happy eyelids from an unaverred
Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred
In that last doubt! and yet I cannot rue
The sin most, but the occasion—that we two
Should for a moment stand unministered
By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,
Thou dovelike help! and, when my fears would rise,
With thy broad heart serenely interpose:
Brood down with thy divine sufficiencies
These thou...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

Sweet -- You forgot -- but I remembered

...forgot -- but I remembered
Every time -- for Two --
So that the Sum be never hindered
Through Decay of You --

Say if I erred? Accuse my Farthings --
Blame the little Hand
Happy it be for You -- a Beggar's --
Seeking More -- to spend --

Just to be Rich -- to waste my Guineas
On so Best a Heart --
Just to be Poor -- for Barefoot Vision
You -- Sweet -- Shut me out --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Contretemps

...you had a third!
Kissing here in my very view!"
- Husband and lover then withdrew.
I let them; and I told them not they erred. 

Why not? Well, there faced she and I -
Two strangers who'd kissed, or near,
Chancewise. To see stand weeping by
A woman once embraced, will try
The tension of a man the most austere. 

So it began; and I was young,
She pretty, by the lamp,
As flakes came waltzing down among
The waves of her clinging hair, that hung
Heavily on her temples, dark and d...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

The Halt Before Rome--September 1867

...s
Nation awakens by nation,
King by king disappears.

How shall the spirit be loyal
To the shell of a spiritless thing?
Erred once, in only a word,
The sweet great song that we heard
Poured upon Tuscany, erred,
Calling a crowned man royal
That was no more than a king.

Sea-eagle of English feather,
A song-bird beautiful-souled,
She knew not them that she sang;
The golden trumpet that rang
From Florence, in vain for them, sprang
As a note in the nightingales' weather
Far over ...Read more of this...
by Swinburne, Algernon Charles

The Lady of the Lake

...the mere,
     To furnish forth your evening cheer.'—
     'Now, by the rood, my lovely maid,
     Your courtesy has erred,' he said;
     'No right have I to claim, misplaced,
     The welcome of expected guest.
     A wanderer, here by fortune toss,
     My way, my friends, my courser lost,
     I ne'er before, believe me, fair,
     Have ever drawn your mountain air,
     Till on this lake's romantic strand
     I found a fey in fairy land!'—
     XXIII.

   ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Miner

...rits of the deep 
Unrevealed their answer keep; 
Still no beam from out the gloomy 
Cavern rises to illume me. 

Have I erred? Does this way lead 
Not to clarity indeed? 
If above I seek to find it, 
By the glare my eyes are blinded. 

Downward, then! the depths are best; 
There is immemorial rest. 
Heavy hammer burst as bidden 
To the heart-nook of the hidden!-- 

Hammer-blow on hammer-blow 
Till the lamp of life is low. 
Not a ray of hope's fore-warning; 
Not a glimmer of t...Read more of this...
by Ibsen, Henrik

The Old Lowe House Staten Island

...ave laid a wondering ear and oft-times heard, 
As from the hollow of a stranded shell, 
Old voices echoing (or my fancy erred) 
Things indistinct, but not insensible....Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Under-Dogs

...What have we done, Oh Lord, that we
 Are evil starred?
How have we erred and sinned to be
 So scourged and scarred?
Lash us, Oh Lord, with scorpion whips,
 We can but run;
But harken to our piteous lips:
 What have we done?

How have we sinned to rouse your wrath,
 To earn your scorn?
Stony and steep has been our path
 Since we were born.
Oh for a sign, a hope, a word,
 A heaven glance;
Why is your hand against us, Lord?
 G...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Without Disguise

...If I have erred in showing all my heart, 
And lost your favour by a lack of pride;
If standing like a beggar at your side 
With naked feet, I have forgot the art
Of those who bargain well in passion's mart,
And win the thing they want by what they hide;
Be mine the fault as mine the hope denied, 
Be mine the lover's and the loser's part. 

The sin, if sin it was, I do...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

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