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Famous Freely Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Pope, Alexander
...eir Light,
These born to Judge, as well as those to Write.
Let such teach others who themselves excell,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their Wit, 'tis true,
But are not Criticks to their Judgment too?

Yet if we look more closely, we shall find
Most have the Seeds of Judgment in their Mind;
Nature affords at least a glimm'ring Light;
The Lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right.
But as the slightest Sketch, if justly trac'...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...erning God, had patience and indulgence toward the
 people,
 taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown, 
I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the
 mothers
 of families, 
I have read these leaves to myself in the open air—I have tried them by trees, stars,
 rivers, 
I have dismiss’d whatever insulted my own Soul or defiled my Body, 
I have claim’d nothing to myself which I have not carefully claim’d for others
 on the
 same terms...Read more of this...

by Walker, Alice
...Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. ...Read more of this...

by Walker, Alice
...Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.


Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.


Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
Bu...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...ideal Grace. 
I love thee to the level of every day's 
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. 
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; 
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. 
I love with a passion put to use 
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. 
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose 
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath, 
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose, 
I shall but love thee better after ...Read more of this...



by Ginsberg, Allen
...in the morning in the evenings in rose 
 gardens and the grass of public parks and 
 cemeteries scattering their semen freely to 
 whomever come who may, 
who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up 
 with a sob behind a partition in a Turkish Bath 
 when the blond & naked angel came to pierce 
 them with a sword, 
who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate 
 the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar 
 the one eyed shrew that winks out of the womb 
...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...and 
In sight of God, enthroned, our happy state 
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds; 
On other surety none: Freely we serve, 
Because we freely love, as in our will 
To love or not; in this we stand or fall: 
And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen, 
And so from Heaven to deepest Hell; O fall 
From what high state of bliss, into what woe! 
To whom our great progenitor. Thy words 
Attentive, and with more delighted ear, 
Divine instructer, I have heard, tha...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...breasts? These, these, and many more 
Causes import your need of this fair fruit. 
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste! 
He ended; and his words, replete with guile, 
Into her heart too easy entrance won: 
Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold 
Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound 
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned 
With reason, to her seeming, and with truth: 
Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and waked 
An eager appetite, raised by...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...ing waves of wild Euboean sea!
O wind-swept heights of lone Thermopylae!
He loved you well - ay, not alone in word,
Who freely gave to thee his lyre and sword,
Like AEschylos at well-fought Marathon:

And England, too, shall glory in her son,
Her warrior-poet, first in song and fight.
No longer now shall Slander's venomed spite
Crawl like a snake across his perfect name,
Or mar the lordly scutcheon of his fame.

For as the olive-garland of the race,
Which lights with ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...lieves me from my task of servile toyl,
Daily in the common Prison else enjoyn'd me,
Where I a Prisoner chain'd, scarce freely draw
The air imprison'd also, close and damp,
Unwholsom draught: but here I feel amends,
The breath of Heav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet, 
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
This day a solemn Feast the people hold
To Dagon thir Sea-Idol, and forbid
Laborious works, unwillingly this rest
Thir Superstition yields me; hence with leave...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...elf to bestow myself on the first that will take me; 
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will; 
Scattering it freely forever. 

15
The pure contralto sings in the organ loft;
The carpenter dresses his plank—the tongue of his foreplane whistles its
 wild ascending lisp; 
The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner; 
The pilot seizes the king-pin—he heaves down with a strong arm; 
The mate stands braced in the whale-boat—lance...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...e bursting in of mercenaries and bigots tumultuously and disorderly, 
Roar, flames, blood, drunkenness, madness, 
Goods freely rifled from houses and temples, screams of women in the gripe of brigands, 
Craft and thievery of camp-followers, men running, old persons despairing,
The hell of war, the cruelties of creeds, 
The list of all executive deeds and words, just or unjust, 
The power of personality, just or unjust. 

4
Muscle and pluck forever! 
What invigorates life,...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ebes year by year:
And finally at request and prayere
Of Perithous, withoute ranson
Duke Theseus him let out of prison,
Freely to go, where him list over all,
In such a guise, as I you tellen shall
This was the forword*, plainly to indite, *promise
Betwixte Theseus and him Arcite:
That if so were, that Arcite were y-found
Ever in his life, by day or night, one stound* *moment
In any country of this Theseus,
And he were caught, it was accorded thus,
That with a sword he sh...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...far as Coilantogle's ford;
     From thence thy warrant is thy sword.'
     'I take thy courtesy, by heaven,
     As freely as 'tis nobly given!'
     Well, rest thee; for the bittern's cry
     Sings us the lake's wild lullaby.'
     With that he shook the gathered heath,
     And spread his plaid upon the wreath;
     And the brave foemen, side by side,
     Lay peaceful down like brothers tried,
     And slept until the dawning beam
     Purpled the mountain and...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ater comes, that we may go,
And break an hole on high upon the gable
Into the garden-ward, over the stable,
That we may freely passe forth our way,
When that the greate shower is gone away.
Then shalt thou swim as merry, I undertake,
As doth the white duck after her drake:
Then will I clepe,* 'How, Alison? How, John? *call
Be merry: for the flood will pass anon.'
And thou wilt say, 'Hail, Master Nicholay,
Good-morrow, I see thee well, for it is day.'
And then shal...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...n the rolls 
Of hell assign'd; but where their inclination 
Or business carries them in search of game, 
They may range freely — being damn'd the same. 

LIV 

They're proud of this — as very well they may, 
It being a sort of knighthood, or gilt key 
Stuck in their loins; or like to an 'entr?' 
Up the back stairs, or such free-masonry. 
I borrow my comparisons from clay, 
Being clay myself. Let not those spirits be 
Offended with such base low likenesses; 
We kno...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...'er the blooming meadow the changeable colors are gleaming,
But the strife, full of charms, in its own grace melts away
Freely the plain receives me,--with carpet far away reaching,
Over its friendly green wanders the pathway along.
Round me is humming the busy bee, and with pinion uncertain
Hovers the butterfly gay over the trefoil's red flower.
Fiercely the darts of the sun fall on me,--the zephyr is silent,
Only the song of the lark echoes athwart the clear air.Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...nt goes off to fight;
And see him the next morning, in the park,
Complete in busbee, marching to embark.
I had read freely, even as a child,
Not only Meredith and Oscar Wilde
But many novels of an earlier day—
Ravenshoe, Can You Forgive Her?, Vivien Grey,
Ouida, The Duchess, Broughton's Red As a Rose,
Guy Livingstone, Whyte-Melville— Heaven knows
What others. Now, I thought, I was to see
Their habitat, though like the Miller of Dee,
I cared for none and no one cared f...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...h *cleped us,* *called us to
I'll persevere, I am not precious,* *over-dainty
In wifehood I will use mine instrument
As freely as my Maker hath it sent.
If I be dangerous* God give me sorrow; *sparing of my favours
Mine husband shall it have, both eve and morrow,
When that him list come forth and pay his debt.
A husband will I have, I *will no let,* *will bear no hindrance*
Which shall be both my debtor and my thrall,* *slave
And have his tribulation withal
Upon his f...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...light,
And the body does not celebrate any longer
The anniversary of its plight.



x x x

I myself have freely chosen
Fate of the friend of my heart:
To the freedom under gospel
I allowed him to depart.
And the pigeon came back, beating
On the window with all might
Like from shine of divine restments,
In the room it became light.



Sleep

I know that you dreamed of me,
That's why I could not sleep.
The muddy light had turned blue
...Read more of this...

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