Famous Fear Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Be not led to believe that I fear the world, or that I

by Omar Khayyam
Be not led to believe that I fear the world, or that I
have fear of dying, or of seeing my soul go its way.
Death being a truth, I have no fear of it. What I fear
is that I have not lived well.
348...Read more of this...

We Meet at the Judgment and I Fear It Not

by Vachel Lindsay
 Though better men may fear that trumpet's warning,
I meet you, lady, on the Judgment morning,
With golden hope my spirit still adorning.


Our God who made you all so fair and sweet
Is three times gentle, and before his feet
Rejoicing I shall say:—"The girl you gave
Was my first Heaven, an angel bent to save.
Oh, God, her maker, if my ingrate breath
Is worth...Read more of this...

Lively Hope and Gracious Fear

by William Cowper
 I was a grovelling creature once,
And basely cleaved to earth:
I wanted spirit to renounce
The clod that gave me birth.

But God hath breathed upon a worm,
And sent me from above
Wings such as clothe an angel's form,
The wings of joy and love.

With these to Pisgah's top I fly
And there delighted stand,
To view, beneath a shining sky,
The spacious promised land.

The Lord of...Read more of this...

Not Fear

by Rafael Guillen
 Not fear. Maybe, out there somewhere,
the possibility of fear; the wall
that might tumble down, because it's for sure
that behind it is the sea.
Not fear. Fear has a countenance;
It's external, concrete,
like a rifle, a shot bolt,
a suffering child,
like the darkness that's hidden
in every human mouth.
Not fear. Maybe only the brand
of the offspring of fear.

It's a narrow, interminable street
with all the...Read more of this...

To His Heart Bidding It Have No Fear

by William Butler Yeats
 Be you still, be you still, trembling heart;
Remember the wisdom out of the old days:
Him who trembles before the flame and the flood,
And the winds that blow through the starry ways,
Let the starry winds and the flame and the flood
Cover over and hide, for he has no part
With the lonely, majestical multitude....Read more of this...

Sonnet 9: Is it for fear to wet a widows eye

by William Shakespeare
 Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife.
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in...Read more of this...

Fear

by Hart Crane
 The host, he says that all is well
And the fire-wood glow is bright;
The food has a warm and tempting smell,—
But on the window licks the night.

Pile on the logs... Give me your hands,
Friends! No,— it is not fright...
But hold me... somewhere I heard demands...
And on the window licks the night....Read more of this...

Dont fear death

by Aleksandr Blok
 Don't fear death in earthly travels. 
Don't fear enemies or friends. 
Just listen to the words of prayers, 
To pass the facets of the dreads. 

Your death will come to you, and never 
You shall be, else, a slave of life, 
Just waiting for a dawn's favor, 
From nights of poverty and strife. 

She'll build with you a common...Read more of this...

Fear

by Robert William Service
 I know how father's strap would feel,
If ever I were caught,
So mother's jam I did not steal,
Though theft was in my thought.
Then turned fourteen and full of pitch,
Of love I was afraid,
And did not dare to dally with
Our pretty parlour maid.

And so it is and always was,
The path of rectitude
I've followed all my life because
The Parson said I should.
The...Read more of this...

Fear

by Raymond Carver
 Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive.
Fear of falling asleep at night.
Fear of not falling asleep.
Fear of the past rising up.
Fear of the present taking flight.
Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.
Fear of electrical storms.
Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!
Fear of dogs I've been told won't...Read more of this...

Fear No More

by William Shakespeare
 Fear no more the heat o' the sun; 
Nor the furious winter's rages, 
Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages; 
Golden lads and girls all must, 
As chimney sweepers come to dust. 

Fear no more the frown of the great, 
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke: 
Care no more to clothe and eat;...Read more of this...

It is the effect of thy ignorance which makes thee fear

by Omar Khayyam
It is the effect of thy ignorance which makes thee fear
death and abhor annihilation, for it is evident that from
this annihilation shoots up a branch of immortality.
Since my soul has been revived by the breath of Jesus,
eternal death has fled far from me....Read more of this...

A darting fear -- a pomp -- a tear

by Emily Dickinson
 A darting fear -- a pomp -- a tear --
A waking on a morn
To find that what one waked for,
Inhales the different dawn....Read more of this...

Lest they should come -- is all my fear

by Emily Dickinson
 Lest they should come -- is all my fear
When sweet incarcerated here...Read more of this...

Let not the fear of future things yellow thy cheeks; let

by Omar Khayyam
Let not the fear of future things yellow thy cheeks; let
not present affairs make thee tremble with fright; rejoice,
in this world of annihilation, at the portion of pleasure
which comes to you, and wait not for that which the
kindness of heaven may withhold....Read more of this...

I fear a Man of frugal Speech --

by Emily Dickinson
 I fear a Man of frugal Speech --
I fear a Silent Man --
Haranguer -- I can overtake --
Or Babbler -- entertain --

But He who weigheth -- While the Rest --
Expend their furthest pound --
Of this Man -- I am wary --
I fear that He is Grand --...Read more of this...

Storm Fear

by Robert Frost
 WHEN the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts with snow
The lowest chamber window on the east,
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
The beast,
‘Come out! Come out!’--
It costs no inward struggle not to go,
Ah, no!
I count our strength,
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,--
How...Read more of this...

Fear

by Ehsan Sehgal
Though my heart wants;

I wish I would open my lips
I wish I would say something
I wish I would express my emotions
I wish I would love my beloved
But I am silent and watching
Every way of life
The time is testing me
How far I can go
Actually I am afraid of the result
and the reality
Human's cruelty
        ...Read more of this...

Fear Is What Quickens Me

by James Wright
 1
Many animals that our fathers killed in America
Had quick eyes.
They stared about wildly,
When the moon went dark.
The new moon falls into the freight yards
Of cities in the south,
But the loss of the moon to the dark hands of Chicago
Does not matter to the deer
In this northern field.

 2
What is that tall woman doing
There, in the trees?
I can hear rabbits...Read more of this...

Thy pity being promised me, I have no fear of sin

by Omar Khayyam
Thy pity being promised me, I have no fear of sin.
With the provision that Thou possessest, I have no disquiet
about the journey. Thy benevolence renders my
visage white and of the black book I have no fear....Read more of this...

Hope and Fear

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 Beneath the shadow of dawn's aërial cope,
With eyes enkindled as the sun's own sphere,
Hope from the front of youth in godlike cheer
Looks Godward, past the shades where blind men grope
Round the dark door that prayers nor dreams can ope,
And makes for joy the very darkness dear
That gives her wide wings play; nor dreams that fear
At noon may rise and...Read more of this...

I Do Not Fear To Own Me Kin

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 I DO not fear to own me kin
To the glad clods in which spring flowers begin;
Or to my brothers, the great trees,
That speak with pleasant voices in the breeze,
Loud talkers with the winds that pass;
Or to my sister, the deep grass.

Of such I am, of such my body is,
That thrills to reach its lips to kiss.
That gives and takes...Read more of this...

Sure of Thy grace, for sins why need I fear?

by Omar Khayyam
Sure of Thy grace, for sins why need I fear?
How can the pilgrim faint whilst Thou art near?
On the last day Thy grace will wash me white,
And make my «black record» to disappear....Read more of this...

The Fear Of Burial

by Louise Gluck
 In the empty field, in the morning,
the body waits to be claimed.
The spirit sits beside it, on a small rock--
nothing comes to give it form again.

Think of the body's loneliness.
At night pacing the sheared field,
its shadow buckled tightly around.
Such a long journey.

And already the remote, trembling lights of the village
not pausing for it as they scan the rows.
How far...Read more of this...

Look not in my eyes for fear

by A E Housman
 Look not in my eyes, for fear 
Thy mirror true the sight I see, 
And there you find your face too clear 
And love it and be lost like me. 
One the long nights through must lie 
Spent in star-defeated sighs, 
But why should you as well as I 
Perish? gaze not in my eyes. 

A Grecian lad, as...Read more of this...

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