Famous Fair(A) Poems by Famous Poets

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

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424. Song—Phillis the Fair

by Robert Burns
 WHILE larks, with little wing,
 Fann’d the pure air,
Tasting the breathing Spring,
 Forth I did fare:
Gay the sun’s golden eye
Peep’d o’er the mountains high;
Such thy morn! did I cry,
 Phillis the fair.


In each bird’s careless song,
 Glad I did share;
While yon wild-flowers among,
 Chance led me there!
Sweet to the op’ning day,
Rosebuds bent the dewy spray;
Such thy bloom! did I...Read more of this...

The Fair Singer

by Andrew Marvell
 To make a final conquest of all me,
Love did compose so sweet an Enemy,
In whom both Beauties to my death agree,
Joyning themselves in fatal Harmony;
That while she with her Eyes my Heart does bind,
She with her Voice might captivate my Mind.

I could have fled from One but singly fair:
My dis-intangled Soul it self might save,
Breaking the curled trammels of...Read more of this...

Fill the Bumper Fair

by Thomas Moore
 Fill the bumper fair! 
Every drop we sprinkle 
O'er the brow of Care 
Smooths away a wrinkle. 
Wit's electric flame 
Ne'er so swiftly passes, 
As when through the frame 
It shoots from brimming glasses. 
Fill the bumper fair! 
Every drop we sprinkle 
O'er the brow of Care 
Smooths away a wrinkle. 

Sages can, they say, 
Grasp the lightning's pinions,...Read more of this...

Sonnet 127: In the old age black was not counted fair

by William Shakespeare
 In the old age black was not counted fair,
Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;
But now is black beauty's successive heir,
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame.
For since each hand hath put on nature's power,
Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,
Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my...Read more of this...

To lovers true, what matters dark or fair?

by Omar Khayyam
To lovers true, what matters dark or fair?
Or if the loved one silk or sackcloth wear,
Or lie on down or dust, or rise to heaven?
Yea, though she sink to hell, he'll seek her there....Read more of this...

The Long-Nosed Fair

by Christopher Smart
 Once on a time I fair Dorinda kiss'd, 
Whose nose was too distinguish'd to be miss'd; 
My dear, says I, I fain would kiss you closer, 
But tho' your lips say aye--your nose says, no, Sir.-- 
The maid was equally to fun inclin'd, 
And plac'd her lovely lily-hand behind; 
Here, swain, she cry'd, may'st thou securely kiss, 
Where there's...Read more of this...

The Gardener LXXVI: The Fair Was On

by Rabindranath Tagore
 The fair was on before the temple.
It had rained from the early morning
and the day came to its end.
Brighter than all the gladness of
the crowd was the bright smile of
a girl who bought for a farthing a 
whistle of palm leaf.
The shrill joy of that whistle floated
above all laughter and noise.
An endless throng of people came
and jostled together. The...Read more of this...

Oh fair enough are sky and plain

by A E Housman
 Oh fair enough are sky and plain, 
But I know fairer far: 
Those are as beautiful again 
That in the water are; 

The pools and rivers wash so clean 
The trees and clouds and air, 
The like on earth was never seen, 
And oh that I were there. 

These are the thoughts I often think 
As I stand gazing...Read more of this...

Fair Elanor

by William Blake
 The bell struck one, and shook the silent tower;
The graves give up their dead: fair Elenor
Walk'd by the castle gate, and look?d in.
A hollow groan ran thro' the dreary vaults.
She shriek'd aloud, and sunk upon the steps,
On the cold stone her pale cheeks. Sickly smells
Of death issue as from a sepulchre,
And all is silent but the sighing vaults.

Chill Death...Read more of this...

Song (Sylvia The Fair In The Bloom Of Fifteen)

by John Dryden
 Sylvia the fair, in the bloom of fifteen,
Felt an innocent warmth as she lay on the green:
She had heard of a pleasure, and something she guessed
By the towsing and tumbling and touching her breast:
She saw the men eager, but was at a loss
What they meant by their sighing and kissing so close;
By their praying and whining,
And clasping and twining,
And...Read more of this...

And Thou Art Dead As Young and Fair

by George (Lord) Byron
 And thou art dead, as young and fair 
As aught of mortal birth;
And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon return'd to Earth!
Though Earth receiv'd them in her bed,
And o'er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook
A moment on that grave to look.

I will not ask where thou liest...Read more of this...

Taking up the fair Ideal

by Emily Dickinson
 Taking up the fair Ideal,
Just to cast her down
When a fracture -- we discover --
Or a splintered Crown --
Makes the Heavens portable --
And the Gods -- a lie --
Doubtless -- "Adam" -- scowled at Eden --
For his perjury!

Cherishing -- our pool Ideal --
Till in purer dress --
We behold her -- glorified --
Comforts -- search -- like this --
Till the...Read more of this...

I Dreamed Of Forest Alleys fair

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 I.

I DREAMED of forest alleys fair
And fields of gray-flowered grass,
Where by the yellow summer moon
My Jenny seemed to pass.

I dreamed the yellow summer moon,
Behind a cedar wood,
Lay white on fields of rippling grass
Where I and Jenny stood.

I dreamed - but fallen through my dream,
In a rainy land I lie
Where wan wet morning crowns the hills
Of grim reality.

II.

I am as...Read more of this...

Fair Isle At Sea

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 FAIR Isle at Sea - thy lovely name
Soft in my ear like music came.
That sea I loved, and once or twice
I touched at isles of Paradise....Read more of this...

250. Song—She's Fair and Fause

by Robert Burns
 SHE’S fair and fause that causes my smart,
 I lo’ed her meikle and lang;
She’s broken her vow, she’s broken my heart,
 And I may e’en gae hang.
A coof cam in wi’ routh o’ gear,
And I hae tint my dearest dear;
But Woman is but warld’s gear,
 Sae let the bonie lass gang.


Whae’er ye be that woman love,
 To this be...Read more of this...

340. Song—Thou Fair Eliza

by Robert Burns
 TURN again, thou fair Eliza!
 Ae kind blink before we part;
Rue on thy despairing lover,
 Can’st thou break his faithfu’ heart?
Turn again, thou fair Eliza!
 If to love thy heart denies,
Oh, in pity hide the sentence
 Under friendship’s kind disguise!


Thee, sweet maid, hae I offended?
 My offence is loving thee;
Can’st thou wreck his peace for ever,
 Wha for thine...Read more of this...

Fair And Unfair

by Robert Francis
 The beautiful is fair. The just is fair.
Yet one is commonplace and one is rare,
One everywhere, one scarcely anywhere.

So fair unfair a world. Had we the wit
To use the surplus for the deficit,
We'd make a fairer fairer world of it....Read more of this...

The Dark and the Fair

by Stanley Kunitz
 A roaring company that festive night;
The beast of dialectic dragged his chains,
Prowling from chair to chair is the smoking light,
While the snow hissed against the windowpanes.

Our politics, our science, and our faith
Were whiskey on the tongue; I, being rent
By the fierce divisions of our time, cried death
And death again, and my own dying meant.

Out of her secret life, the...Read more of this...

A Tribute to Mr J. Graham Henderson The Worlds Fair Judge

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Thrice welcome home to Hawick, Mr J. Graham Henderson,
For by your Scotch tweeds a great honour you have won;
By exhibiting your beautiful tweeds at the World's Fair
You have been elected judge of Australian and American wools while there. 

You had to pass a strict examination on the wool trade,
But you have been victorious, and not the least afraid,
And has...Read more of this...

When the fair soul this mansion doth vacate,

by Omar Khayyam
When the fair soul this mansion doth vacate,
Each element assumes its primal state,
And all the silken furniture of life
Is then dismantled by the blows of fate....Read more of this...

418. Song—O were my love you lilac fair

by Robert Burns
 O WERE my love yon Lilac fair,
 Wi’ purple blossoms to the Spring,
And I, a bird to shelter there,
 When wearied on my little wing!
How I wad mourn when it was torn
 By Autumn wild, and Winter rude!
But I wad sing on wanton wing,
 When youthfu’ May its bloom renew’d.


O gin my love were yon red rose,
 That grows...Read more of this...

Twice had Summer her fair Verdure

by Emily Dickinson
 Twice had Summer her fair Verdure
Proffered to the Plain --
Twice a Winter's silver Fracture
On the Rivers been --

Two full Autumns for the Squirrel
Bounteous prepared --
Nature, Had'st thou not a Berry
For thy wandering Bird?...Read more of this...

Song To A Fair Young Lady Going Out Of Town In The Spring

by John Dryden
 Ask not the cause why sullen spring
 So long delays her flow'rs to bear;
Why warbling birds forget to sing,
 And winter storms invert the year?
Chloris is gone; and Fate provides
To make it spring where she resides.

Chloris is gone, the cruel fair;
 She cast not back a pitying eye:
But left her lover in despair,
 To sigh, to languish, and to...Read more of this...

Fair way

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Dedicate your affection in fair way to get someone's affection, never use tricks that are sensitive and weakness of somebody, may the respose is positive, but the real and true attention and affection is in doubts, as this concept, you are the loser."
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...

Sonnet 42 - My future will not copy fair my past

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 'My future will not copy fair my past'—
I wrote that once; and thinking at my side
My ministering life-angel justified
The word by his appealing look upcast
To the white throne of God, I turned at last,
And there, instead, saw thee, not unallied
To angels in thy soul! Then I, long tried
By natural ills, received the comfort fast,
While budding, at thy sight, my...Read more of this...

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