Famous Finer Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

133. The Brigs of Ayr

...lover’s raptured joys or bleeding cares;
How would his Highland lug been nobler fir’d,
And ev’n his matchless hand with finer touch inspir’d!
No guess could tell what instrument appear’d,
But all the soul of Music’s self was heard;
Harmonious concert rung in every part,
While simple melody pour’d moving on the heart.


 The Genius of the Stream in front appears,
A venerable Chief advanc’d in years;
His hoary head with water-lilies crown’d,
His manly leg with garter-tangle bou...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A fuzzy fellow without feet

...l this in summer.
But when winds alarm the Forest Folk,
He taketh Damask Residence --
And struts in sewing silk!

Then, finer than a Lady,
Emerges in the spring!
A Feather on each shoulder!
You'd scarce recognize him!

By Men, yclept Caterpillar!
By me! But who am I,
To tell the pretty secret
Of the Butterfly!...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Baseball and Writing

...he massive run need not be everything.
"Going, going . . . "Is
it?Roger Maris
has it, running fast.You will
never see a finer catch.Well . . .
"Mickey, leaping like the devil"--why
gild it, although deer sounds better--
snares what was speeding towards its treetop nest,
one-handing the souvenir-to-be
meant to be caught by you or me.

Assign Yogi Berra to Cape Canaveral;
he could handle any missile.
He is no feather."Strike! . . . Strike two!"
Fouled back.A blur.
It's gone.You...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

Cleon

...
At some one point the inside of a sphere, 
And, as we turn the sphere, touch all the rest 
In due succession: but the finer air 
Which not so palpably nor obviously, 
Though no less universally, can touch 
The whole circumference of that emptied sphere, 
Fills it more fully than the water did; 
Holds thrice the weight of water in itself 
Resolved into a subtler element. 
And yet the vulgar call the sphere first full 
Up to the visible height--and after, void; 
Not knowing a...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Corn

...gabond air;
From darkness of the dreadful night,
And joyful light;
From antique ashes, whose departed flame
In thee has finer life and longer fame;
From wounds and balms,
From storms and calms,
From potsherds and dry bones
And ruin-stones.
Into thy vigorous substance thou hast wrought
Whate'er the hand of Circumstance hath brought;
Yea, into cool solacing green hast spun
White radiance hot from out the sun.
So thou dost mutually leaven
Strength of earth with grace of heaven;
...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney


Custer

...ike a foe
The trusting bird and beast; and, coward like, 
Deals covert blows he dare not boldly strike.
The brutes have finer souls, and only slay
When torn by hunger's pangs, or when to fear a prey.



VIII.
The pale-faced hunter, insolent and bold, 
Pursued the bison while he sought for gold.
And on the hungry red man's own domains 
He left the rotting and unused remains
To foul with sickening stench each passing wind
And rouse the demon in the savage mind, 
Save in the hea...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Dharma

...any money
or the keys to her doghouse
never fails to fill the saucer of my heart
with milky admiration.

Who provides a finer example 
of a life without encumbrance—
Thoreau in his curtainless hut
with a single plate, a single spoon?
Gandhi with his staff and his holy diapers?

Off she goes into the material world
with nothing but her brown coat
and her modest blue collar,
following only her wet nose, 
the twin portals of her steady breathing,
followed only by the plume of he...Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy

Essay on Man

...s state can bear. 
Why has not Man a microscopic eye? 
For this plain reason, Man is not a Fly. 
Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 
T' inspect a mite,(16) not comprehend the heav'n? 
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 
To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore? 
Or quick effluvia(17) darting thro' the brain, 
Die of a rose in aromatic pain? 
If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears, 
And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres, 
How would he wish that Heav'n had left...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Gareth And Lynette

...oose and golden eggs.' 

And Gareth answered her with kindling eyes, 
'Nay, nay, good mother, but this egg of mine 
Was finer gold than any goose can lay; 
For this an Eagle, a royal Eagle, laid 
Almost beyond eye-reach, on such a palm 
As glitters gilded in thy Book of Hours. 
And there was ever haunting round the palm 
A lusty youth, but poor, who often saw 
The splendour sparkling from aloft, and thought 
"An I could climb and lay my hand upon it, 
Then were I wealthier th...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Investigating Flora

...scientific circles 
That the great Professor Brown 
Had a world-wide reputation 
As a writer of renown. 
He had striven finer feelings 
In our natures to implant 
By his Treatise on the Morals 
Of the Red-eyed Bulldog Ant. 
He had hoisted an opponent 
Who had trodden unawares 
On his "Reasons for Bare Patches 
On the Female Native Bears". 
So they gave him an appointment 
As instructor to a band 
Of the most attractive females 
To be gathered in the land. 
'Twas a "Ladies' Sc...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

Locksley Hall

...uty, kiss him, take his hand in thine. 

It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is overwrought:
Soothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with thy lighter thought. 

He will answer to the purpose, easy things to understand--
Better thou wert dead before me, tho' I slew thee with my hand! 

Better thou and I were lying, hidden from the heart's disgrace,
Roll'd in one another's arms, and silent in a last embrace. 

Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Monadnoc

...y blest,
Fast abides this constant giver,
Pouring many a cheerful river;
To far eyes, an aërial isle,
Unploughed, which finer spirits pile,
Which morn and crimson evening paint
For bard, for lover, and for saint;
The country's core,
Inspirer, prophet evermore,
Pillar which God aloft had set
So that men might it not forget,
It should be their life's ornament,
And mix itself with each event;
Their calendar and dial,
Barometer, and chemic phial,
Garden of berries, perch of birds...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Song of Myself

...
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch’d
 from;
The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer; 
This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds. 

If I worship one thing more than another, it shall be the spread of my own body,
 or any part of it. 

Translucent mould of me, it shall be you! 
Shaded ledges and rests, it shall be you!
Firm masculine colter, it shall be you. 

Whatever goes to the tilth of me, it sha...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Summer has two Beginnings --

...ng once in June --
Beginning in October
Affectingly again --

Without, perhaps, the Riot
But graphicker for Grace --
As finer is a going
Than a remaining Face --

Departing then -- forever --
Forever -- until May --
Forever is deciduous
Except to those who die --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

...nd I have customers who buy
Scalpels with which to dissect the brains
And hearts of men. Ultramundanes
Even demand some finer kinds
To open their own souls and minds.
But the other half of my business deals
With visions and fancies. Under seals,
Sorted, and placed in vessels here,
I keep the seeds of an atmosphere.
Each jar contains a different kind
Of poppy seed. From farthest Ind
Come the purple flowers, opium filled,
From which the weirdest myths are distilled;
My orient p...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Ghost

...was hard and bitter, and a bitter spirit he, 
So I felt no great aversion to his ghostly company. 
Said the Shade: `At finer feelings let your lip in scorn be curled, 
`Self and Pelf', my friend, has ever been the motto for the world.' 

And he said: `If you'd be happy, you must clip your fancy's wings, 
Stretch your conscience at the edges to the size of earthly things; 
Never fight another's battle, for a friend can never know 
When he'll gladly fly for succour to the boso...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles

The Hammers

...icken and flagons
Of wine,
And beer in stoppered jugs.
"Dear! Dear! But I tell 'ee 'twill be a fine 
ship.
There's none finer in any of the slips at Chatham."
The third Summer's roses have started in to blow,
When the fine stern carving is begun.
Flutings, and twinings, and long slow swirls,
Bits of deal shaved away to thin spiral curls.
Tap! Tap! A cornucopia is nailed into place.
Rap-a-tap! They are putting up a railing filigreed like 
Irish lace.
The Three Town's people ne...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Knights Tale

...stalke green,
And fresher than the May with flowers new
(For with the rose colour strove her hue;
I n'ot* which was the finer of them two), *know not
Ere it was day, as she was wont to do,
She was arisen, and all ready dight*, *dressed
For May will have no sluggardy a-night;
The season pricketh every gentle heart,
And maketh him out of his sleep to start,
And saith, "Arise, and do thine observance."

This maketh Emily have remembrance
To do honour to May, and for to rise.
Y-c...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...iad of the strand.
     XVIII.

     And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace
     A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace,
     Of finer form or lovelier face!
     What though the sun, with ardent frown,
     Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown,—
     The sportive toil, which, short and light
     Had dyed her glowing hue so bright,
     Served too in hastier swell to show
     Short glimpses of a breast of snow:
     What though no rule of courtly grace
     To measured m...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

Three Odes To My Friend

...e of some of them, such 
as the Winter Journey over the Hartz Mountains, and the Wanderer's 
Storm-Song, nothing can be finer than the noble one entitled Mahomet's 
Song, and others, such as the Spirit Song' over the Waters, The 
God-like, and, above all, the magnificent sketch of Prometheus, 
which forms part of an unfinished piece bearing the same name, and 
called by Goethe a 'Dramatic Fragment.'

 TO MY FRIEND.

 [These three Odes are addressed to a certain 
Behrisch, who...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Finer poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter