Famous Follow Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Princess: A Medley: O Swallow

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South,
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee.
O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
And dark and true and tender is the North.
O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light
Upon her lattice, I would pipe...Read more of this...

Ballade De Marguerite (Normande)

by Oscar Wilde
 I am weary of lying within the chase
When the knights are meeting in market-place.

Nay, go not thou to the red-roofed town
Lest the hoofs of the war-horse tread thee down.

But I would not go where the Squires ride,
I would only walk by my Lady's side.

Alack! and alack! thou art overbold,
A Forester's son may not eat off gold.

Will she love me...Read more of this...

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.


Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering...Read more of this...

We can but follow to the Sun --

by Emily Dickinson
 We can but follow to the Sun --
As oft as He go down
He leave Ourselves a Sphere behind --
'Tis mostly -- following --

We go no further with the Dust
Than to the Earthen Door --
And then the Panels are reversed --
And we behold -- no more....Read more of this...

What man, what hero (QUEMN VIRUM AUT HEROA)

by Horace
     What man, what hero, Clio sweet,
       On harp or flute wilt thou proclaim?
     What god shall echo's voice repeat
       In mocking game
     To Helicon's sequester'd shade,
       Or Pindus, or...Read more of this...

Follow no other way than that which the Kalendar

by Omar Khayyam
Follow no other way than that which the Kalendar
follows; seek no other place than the tavern; occupy
yourself only with wine, song and the friend [the Divinity];
place in your hand a cup of wine, upon your back
a gourd; drink, O dear object of my heart! drink and
speak not of foolish things....Read more of this...

Sir Galahad a Christmas Mystery

by William Morris
 It is the longest night in all the year,
Near on the day when the Lord Christ was born;
Six hours ago I came and sat down here,
And ponder'd sadly, wearied and forlorn.

The winter wind that pass'd the chapel door,
Sang out a moody tune, that went right well
With mine own thoughts: I look'd down on the floor,
Between my feet, until I...Read more of this...

A November Night

by Sara Teasdale
 There! See the line of lights,
A chain of stars down either side the street --
Why can't you lift the chain and give it to me,
A necklace for my throat? I'd twist it round
And you could play with it. You smile at me
As though I were a little dreamy child
Behind whose eyes the fairies live. . . . And see,
The...Read more of this...

Follow Me ome

by Rudyard Kipling
 There was no one like 'im, 'Orse or Foot,
 Nor any o' the Guns I knew;
An' because it was so, why, o' course 'e went an' died,
 Which is just what the best men do.

So it's knock out your pipes an' follow me!
An' it's finish up your swipes an' follow me!
 Oh, 'ark to the big drum callin',
 Follow...Read more of this...

Lovers Gifts XLVIII: I Travelled the Old Road

by Rabindranath Tagore
 I travelled the old road every day, I took my fruits to the market,
my cattle to the meadows, I ferried my boat across the stream and
all the ways were well known to me.
One morning my basket was heavy with wares. Men were busy in
the fields, the pastures crowded with cattle; the breast of earth
heaved with the mirth of ripening...Read more of this...

Two Pictures

by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
A beautiful form and a beautiful face,
A winsome bride and a woman's grace,
So fair and sweet it were heaven indeed
For man to follow where she would lead.
A web of lace and a jeweled hand,
And life is changed by a golden band;
A dream of love and a wealth of gold—
The old new story once more is told.
A wealth of flowers and...Read more of this...

Here Follow Several Occasional Meditations

by Anne Bradstreet
 By night when others soundly slept, 
And had at once both case and rest, 
My waking eyes were open kept 
And so to lie I found it best.

I sought Him whom my soul did love, 
With tears I sought Him earnestly; 
He bowed His ear down from above. 
In vain I did not seek or cry.

My hungry soul He...Read more of this...

Waiting

by Carl Sandburg
 TODAY I will let the old boat stand
Where the sweep of the harbor tide comes in
To the pulse of a far, deep-steady sway.
And I will rest and dream and sit on the deck
Watching the world go by
And take my pay for many hard days gone I remember.

I will choose what clouds I like
In the great white fleets that wander...Read more of this...

Follow wise Orion

by Emily Dickinson
 Follow wise Orion
Till you waste your Eye --
Dazzlingly decamping
He is just as high --...Read more of this...

The Garden of Janus

by Aleister Crowley
 I

The cloud my bed is tinged with blood and foam.
The vault yet blazes with the sun
Writhing above the West, brave hippodrome
Whose gladiators shock and shun
As the blue night devours them, crested comb
Of sleep's dead sea
That eats the shores of life, rings round eternity!

II

So, he is gone whose giant sword shed flame
Into my bowels; my blood's bewitched;
My brain's afloat with...Read more of this...

Sign-Post

by Robinson Jeffers
 Civilized, crying: how to be human again; this will tell you how.
Turn outward, love things, not men, turn right away from humanity,
Let that doll lie. Consider if you like how the lilies grow,
Lean on the silent rock until you feel its divinity
Make your veins cold; look at the silent stars, let your eyes
Climb the great ladder out of the...Read more of this...

The Going

by Thomas Hardy
 Why did you give no hint that night
That quickly after the morrow's dawn,
And calmly, as if indifferent quite,
You would close your term here, up and be gone
 Where I could not follow
 With wing of swallow
To gain one glimpse of you ever anon!

 Never to bid good-bye
 Or lip me the softest call,
Or utter a wish for a word,...Read more of this...

The Princess: A Medley: Come down O Maid

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height:
What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang)
In height and cold, the splendour of the hills?
But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease
To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine,
To sit a star upon the sparkling spire;
And come, for Love is of the valley, come,
For Love is of the valley,...Read more of this...

With my old hands lifted to your forehead

by Emile Verhaeren
With my old hands lifted to your forehead, during your brief sleep by the black hearth this evening, I part your hair, and I kiss the fervour of your eyes hidden beneath your long lashes.
Oh! the sweet affection of this day's end! My eyes follow the years that have completed their course, and suddenly your life appears so perfect in...Read more of this...

Harry Carey Goodhue

by Edgar Lee Masters
 You never marveled, dullards of Spoon River, 
When Chase Henry voted against the saloons 
To revenge himself for being shut off. 
But none of you was keen enough 
To follow my steps, or trace me home 
As Chase's spiritual brother. 
Do you remember when I fought 
The bank and the courthouse ring, 
For pocketing the interest on public funds?...Read more of this...

Marie Bateson

by Edgar Lee Masters
 You observe the carven hand
With the index finger pointing heavenward.
That is the direction, no doubt.
But how shall one follow it?
It is well to abstain from murder and lust,
To forgive, do good to others, worship God
Without graven images.
But these are external means after all
By which you chiefly do good to yourself.
The inner kernel is freedom,
It is light, purity --
I can...Read more of this...

Sonnet XV

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XV. Piovonmi amare lagrime dal viso. HIS STATE WHEN LAURA IS PRESENT, AND WHEN SHE DEPARTS.  Down my cheeks bitter tears incessant rain,And my heart struggles with convulsive sighs,When, Laura, upon you I turn my eyes,For whom the world's allurements I disdain,But when I see that gentle smile again,That...Read more of this...

Modern Love XLII: I Am to Follow Her

by George Meredith
 I am to follow her. There is much grace 
In woman when thus bent on martyrdom. 
They think that dignity of soul may come, 
Perchance, with dignity of body. Base! 
But I was taken by that air of cold 
And statuesque sedateness, when she said 
'I'm going'; lit a taper, bowed her head, 
And went, as with the stride...Read more of this...

What the Birds Said

by John Greenleaf Whittier
 The birds against the April wind 
Flew northward, singing as they flew; 
They sang, "The land we leave behind 
Has swords for corn-blades, blood for dew." 

"O wild-birds, flying from the South, 
What saw and heard ye, gazing down?" 
"We saw the mortar's upturned mouth, 
The sickened camp, the blazing town! 

"Beneath the bivouac's starry lamps, 
We saw your...Read more of this...

A Certain Man

by Jean Toomer
 A certain man wishes to be a prince
Of this earth; he also wants to be
A saint and master of the being-world.
Conscience cannot exist in the first:
The second cannot exist without conscience.
Therefore he, who has enough conscience
To be disturbed but not enough to be
Compelled, can neither reject the one
Nor follow the other......Read more of this...

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