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Famous Funeral Pyre Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...y hero. -- Now haste is best,
that we go to gaze on our Geatish lord,
and bear the bountiful breaker-of-rings
to the funeral pyre. No fragments merely
shall burn with the warrior. Wealth of jewels,
gold untold and gained in terror,
treasure at last with his life obtained,
all of that booty the brands shall take,
fire shall eat it. No earl must carry
memorial jewel. No maiden fair
shall wreathe her neck with noble ring:
nay, sad in spirit and shorn of her gold,
oft...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,



...t of famished years, 
And crown with love my marriage-bed? 
My soul burns with the quenchless fire 
That lit my lover's funeral pyre: 
Alas! alas! my lord is dead....Read more of this...
by Naidu, Sarojini
...y
has turned into a raging hell that is not from here.
Quite pure, quite free of future planning, I mounted
the tangled funeral pyre built for my suffering,
so sure of nothing more to buy for future needs,
while in my heart the stored reserves kept silent.

Is it still I, who there past all recognition burn?
Memories I do not seize and bring inside.
O life! O living! O to be outside!
And I in flames. And no one here who knows me. 



[Written in December 1926, this poem was t...Read more of this...
by Hunt, James Henry Leigh
...HERE, O my heart, let us burn the dear dreams that are dead, 
Here in this wood let us fashion a funeral pyre 
Of fallen white petals and leaves that are mellow and red, 
Here let us burn them in noon's flaming torches of fire. 


We are weary, my heart, we are weary, so long we have borne 
The heavy loved burden of dreams that are dead, let us rest, 
Let us scatter their ashes away, for a while let us mourn; 
We will rest, O my heart, till the shadows ...Read more of this...
by Naidu, Sarojini
...hings 
Rob you of your junketings. 

Burn the papers; sell the books; 
Clear out all the pestered nooks; 
Make a mighty funeral pyre 
For the corpse of old desire, 
Till there shall remain of it 
Naught but ashes in a pit: 
And when you have done away 
All that is of yesterday, 
If you feel a thrill of pain, 
Master it, and start again. 

This, at least, you have never done 
Since you first beheld the sun: 
If you came upon your own 
Blind to light and deaf to tone, 
Basking ...Read more of this...
by Raleigh, Sir Walter



...nt outside and slashed in fury with it
Till not a nettle in that fierce parade
Stood upright any more. And then I lit
A funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead,
But in two weeks the busy sun and rain
Had called up tall recruits behind the shed:
My son would often feel sharp wounds again....Read more of this...
by Scannell, Vernon
...Thou hast not wrought to noble rage
The hearts thou wouldst have stirred. Not any fire
Save sad flames set to light a funeral pyre
Dost thou suggest. Nay,—impotent in age,
Unsought, thou holdst a corner of the stage
And ceasest even dumbly to aspire.
How different was the thought of him that writ.
What promised he to love of ease and wealth,
When men should read and kindle at his wit.
But here decay eats up the book by stealth,
While it, like some old maiden, solemn...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...ine, 
But drink alone the gall of tears in fortune’s
drear decline.

I’m sorry for the souls who build their own fame’s
funeral pyre, 
Derided by the scornful throng like ice deriding
fire.
I’m sorry for the conquering ones tho know not
sin’s defeat, 
But daily tread down fierce desire ‘neath scorched
and bleeding feet.

I’m sorry for the anguished hearts that break with
passions strain, 
But I’m sorrier for the poor starved souls that
Never knew love’s pain.
Who hunger on th...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...r, by fraud,
Made of the mistletoe!
The accursed mistletoe!

They laid him in his ship,
With horse and harness,
As on a funeral pyre. 
Odin placed 
A ring upon his finger, 
And whispered in his ear.

They launched the burning ship!
It floated far away 
Over the misty sea,
Till like the sun it seemed, 
Sinking beneath the waves. 
Balder returned no more!

So perish the old Gods!
But out of the sea of Time
Rises a new land of song,
Fairer than the old.
Over its meadows green
Wa...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry