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Famous Erstwhile Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory
...u go
   Down through the darkness of the Great, Blind Portal,
     All of life's best and basest you must know.

   Erstwhile Beloved, you were so young and fragile
     I held you gently, as one holds a flower:
   But now, God knows, what use to still be tender
     To one whose life is done within an hour?

   I hurt?  What then?  Death will not hurt you, dearest,
     As you hurt me, for just a single night,
   You call me cruel, who laid my life in ruins
     ...Read more of this...



by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory
...ickle,
          Keen to pursue and loth to keep.
   Ah, could they see these tears that trickle
          From eyes erstwhile too proud to weep.
   Could see me, prone, beneath the sickle,
          While pain and sorrow stand and reap!

   Unopened scarce, yet overblown, lie
          The hopes that rose-like round me grew,
   The lights are low, and more than lonely
          This life I lead apart from you.
   Come back, come back!  I want you only,
          ...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...>

Unremembered as old rain
Dries the sheer libation,
And the little petulant hand
Is an annotation.

After all, my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished,
Need we say it was not love,
Now that love is perished?...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...w. 

Her lips began to borrow 
 Their former wondrous smile; 
Her fair eyes, faint with sorrow, 
 Grew sparkling as erstwhile. 

Such tears as often ran not 
 Ran then, my love, for thee; 
And O, believe I cannot 
 That thou are lost to me!...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...od and wink 
I read they think 
That I am fool and blind. 

My gift to God seems futile, quite; 
The world moves as erstwhile; 
And powerful Wrong on feeble Right 
Tramples in olden style. 
My faith burns down, 
I see no crown; 
But Cares, and Griefs, and Guile. 

So now, the remedy? Yea, this: 
I gently swing the door 
Here, of my fane--no soul to wis-- 
And cross the patterned floor 
To the rood-screen 
That stands between 
The nave and inner chore. 

The ri...Read more of this...



by Hardy, Thomas
...ose his domicile. 
Death menaced now; yet less for life 
She wished than that she were the wife 
 That she had been erstwhile. 

Time wore to six. Her husband rose 
 And struck the steel and stone; 
He glanced at Jenny, whose repose 
 Seemed deeper than his own. 
With dumb dismay, on closer sight, 
He gathered sense that in the night, 
 Or morn, her soul had flown. 

When told that some too mighty strain 
 For one so many-yeared 
Had burst her bosom's mast...Read more of this...

by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory
...weary day's laborious pace,
     I hasten and beguile
   By fancies, which I backwards trace
     To things I loved erstwhile;
           The weary sweetness of your face,
           Your faint, illusive smile.

   The silken softness of your hair
     Where faint bronze shadows are,
   Your strangely slight and youthful air,
     No passions seem to mar,—
           Oh, why, since Fate has made you fair,
           Must Fortune keep you far?

   Thus spent, th...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...ll suits the time
For clownish words, and trivial is our cause
If naught's at stake but John Cabanis' wrath,
He who was erstwhile of the other side
And came to us for vengeance. More's at stake
Than triumph for New England or Virginia.
And whether rum be sold, or for two years
As in the past two years, this town be dry
Matters but little -- Oh yes, revenue
For sidewalks, sewers; that is well enough!
I wish to God this fight were now inspired
By other passion than to s...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...lode softly by my side, 
A woman's; and her motion seemed 
 The motion of my bride. 

And yet methought she'd drawn erstwhile 
 Adown the ancient leaze, 
Where once were pile and peristyle 
 For men's idolatries. 

- "O maiden lithe and lone, what may 
 Thy name and lineage be, 
Who so resemblest by this ray 
 My darling?--Art thou she?" 

The Shape: "Thy bride remains within 
 Her father's grange and grove." 
- "Thou speakest rightly," I broke in, 
 "Thou art not...Read more of this...

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