Famous Gate Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Let such pure hate still underprop

by Henry David Thoreau
 "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers."

Let such pure hate still underprop 
Our love, that we may be 
Each other's conscience, 
And have our sympathy 
Mainly from thence. 

We'll one another treat like gods, 
And all the faith we have 
In virtue and in truth, bestow 
On either, and suspicion leave 
To gods below. 

Two solitary stars-- 
Unmeasured systems far 
Between...Read more of this...

Psalm 135 part 1

by Isaac Watts
 v.1-4,14,19-21 
L. M.
The church is God's house and care.

Praise ye the Lord, exalt his name,
While in his holy courts ye wait,
Ye saints, that to his house belong,
Or stand attending at his gate.

Praise ye the Lord, the Lord is good;
To praise his name is sweet employ:
Isr'el he chose of old, and still
His church is his peculiar joy.

The Lord himself will...Read more of this...

A train went through a burial gate

by Emily Dickinson
 A train went through a burial gate,
A bird broke forth and sang,
And trilled, and quivered, and shook his throat
Till all the churchyard rang;

And then adjusted his little notes,
And bowed and sang again.
Doubtless, he thought it meet of him
To say good-by to men....Read more of this...

The Investiture

by Siegfried Sassoon
 GOD with a Roll of Honour in His hand 
Sits welcoming the heroes who have died, 
While sorrowless angels ranked on either side 
Stand easy in Elysium’s meadow-land. 
Then you come shyly through the garden gate,
Wearing a blood-soaked bandage on your head; 
And God says something kind because you’re dead, 
And homesick, discontented with your fate. 

If I were...Read more of this...

Sonnet LXX

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET LXX. La bella donna che cotanto amavi. TO HIS BROTHER GERARDO, ON THE DEATH OF A LADY TO WHOM HE WAS ATTACHED.  The beauteous lady thou didst love so wellToo soon hath from our regions wing'd her flight,To find, I ween, a home 'mid realms of light;So much in virtue did...Read more of this...

The Woman At The Gate

by Robert William Service
 "Where is your little boy to-day?"
 I asked her at the gate.
"I used to see him at his play,
 And often I would wait:
He was so beautiful, so bright,
 I watched him with delight.

"He had a tiny motor-car
 And it was painted red;
He wound it up; it ran so far,
 So merrily it sped.
I think he told me that...Read more of this...

285. Song—I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen

by Robert Burns
 I GAED a waefu’ gate yestreen,
 A gate, I fear, I’ll dearly rue;
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
 Twa lovely een o’bonie blue.
’Twas not her golden ringlets bright,
 Her lips like roses wat wi’ dew,
Her heaving bosom, lily-white—
 It was her een sae bonie blue.


She talk’d, she smil’d, my heart she wyl’d;
 She charm’d my soul I...Read more of this...

The Truth The Dead Know

by Anne Sexton
 For my mother, born March 1902, died March 1959 
and my father, born February 1900, died June 1959

Gone, I say and walk from church, 
refusing the stiff procession to the grave, 
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse. 
It is June. I am tired of being brave. 

We drive to the Cape. I cultivate 
myself where the sun...Read more of this...

Life Is A Privilege

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 Life is a privilege. Its youthful days
Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.
To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire, 
To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire, 
To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glow
With great ambitions – in one hour to know
The depths and heights of feeling – God! in truth, 
How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!...Read more of this...

In memory of that excellent person Mrs. Mary Lloyd of Bodidrist in Denbigh-shire

by Katherine Philips
 I CANNOT hold, for though to write were rude, 
Yet to be silent were Ingratitude, 
And Folly too; for if Posterity 
Should never hear of such a one as thee, 
And onely know this Age's brutish fame, 
They would think Vertue nothing but a Name. 
And though far abler Pens must her define, 
Yet her Adoption hath engaged mine:...Read more of this...

The Spirit lasts -- but in what mode --

by Emily Dickinson
 The Spirit lasts -- but in what mode --
Below, the Body speaks,
But as the Spirit furnishes --
Apart, it never talks --
The Music in the Violin
Does not emerge alone
But Arm in Arm with Touch, yet Touch
Alone -- is not a Tune --
The Spirit lurks within the Flesh
Like Tides within the Sea
That make the Water live, estranged
What would the Either be?
Does...Read more of this...

George and the Dragon

by Marriott Edgar
 I'll tell you the tale of an old country pub 
As fancied itself up to date,
It had the word " Garage" wrote on t' stable door 
And a petrol pump outside the gate.

The " George and the Dragon" were t' name of the pub, 
And it stood in a spot wild and bleak,
Where nowt ever seemed to be passing...Read more of this...

The Burghers of Calais

by Marriott Edgar
 It were after the Battle of Crecy- 
The foe all lay dead on the ground- 
And King Edward went out with his soldiers
To clean up the places around.

The first place they came to were Calais, 
Where t' burghers all stood in a row,
And when Edward told them to surrender 
They told Edward where he could go.

Said he, " I'll...Read more of this...

Freedom XIV

by Kahlil Gibran
 And an orator said, "Speak to us of Freedom." 

And he answered: 

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, 

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them. 

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the...Read more of this...

Mary - A Ballad

by Robert Southey
 Author Note: The story of the following ballad was related to me, when a school boy, as a fact which had really happened in the North of England. I have
adopted the metre of Mr. Lewis's Alonzo and Imogene--a poem deservedly
popular.


I.

Who is she, the poor Maniac, whose wildly-fix'd eyes
Seem a heart overcharged to express?
She weeps not, yet often and deeply...Read more of this...

Raising The Flag

by Robert William Service
 Behold! the Spanish flag they're raising
Before the Palace courtyard gate;
To watch its progress bold and blazing
Two hundred patient people wait.
Though bandsmen play the anthem bravely
The silken emblem seems to lag;
Two hundred people watch it gravely -
But only two salute the flag.

Fine-clad and arrogant of manner
The twain are like dark dons of old,
And to that high and haughty banner
Uplifted palms...Read more of this...

The Iron Gate

by Oliver Wendell Holmes
 WHERE is this patriarch you are kindly greeting?
Not unfamiliar to my ear his name,
Nor yet unknown to many a joyous meeting
In days long vanished,-- is he still the same,

Or changed by years, forgotten and forgetting,
Dull-eared, dim-sighted, slow of speech and thought,
Still o'er the sad, degenerate present fretting,
Where all goes wrong, and nothing as it ought?

Old age, the graybeard! Well,...Read more of this...

The Old Front Gate

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 W'en daih's chillun in de house, 
Dey keep on a-gittin' tall;
But de folks don' seem to see
Dat dey's growin' up at all,
'Twell dey fin' out some fine day
Dat de gals has 'menced to grow,
W'en dey notice as dey pass
Dat de front gate's saggin' low.

W'en de hinges creak an' cry,
An' de bahs go slantin' down,
You kin reckon dat hit's time
Fu'...Read more of this...

The Mylora Elopement

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 By the winding Wollondilly where the weeping willows weep, 
And the shepherd, with his billy, half awake and half asleep, 
Folds his fleecy flocks that linger homewards in the setting sun 
Lived my hero, Jim the Ringer, "cocky" on Mylora Run. 
Jimmy loved the super's daughter, Miss Amelia Jane McGrath. 
Long and earnestly he sought her, but he feared...Read more of this...

In Maximum

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 WOULDST thou be free? I think it not, indeed;
But if thou wouldst, attend this simple rede:
When quite contented }thou canst dine at home
Thou shall be free when }
And drink a small wine of the march of Rome;
When thou canst see unmoved thy neighbour's plate,
And wear my threadbare toga in the gate;
When thou hast learned to love a small abode,
And...Read more of this...

A Sincere Man Am I

by José Martí
A sincere man am I
From the land where palm trees grow,
And I want before I die
My soul's verses to bestow.

I'm a traveler to all parts,
And a newcomer to none:
I am art among the arts,
With the mountains I am one.

I know how to name and class
All the strange flowers that grow;
I know every blade of grass,
Fatal lie and sublime woe.

I have...Read more of this...

516. Song—I'll aye ca' in by yon town

by Robert Burns
 Chorus—I’ll aye ca’ in by yon town,
 And by yon garden-green again;
I’ll aye ca’ in by yon town,
 And see my bonie Jean again.


THERE’S nane sall ken, there’s nane can guess
 What brings me back the gate again,
But she, my fairest faithfu’ lass,
 And stownlins we sall meet again.
 I’ll aye ca’ in, &c.


She’ll wander by the aiken tree,
...Read more of this...

How They Brought The Good News From Ghent To Aix

by Robert Browning
 I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
Neck by neck, stride by...Read more of this...

Fever 103°

by Sylvia Plath
 Pure? What does it mean?
The tongues of hell
Are dull, dull as the triple

Tongues of dull, fat Cerebus
Who wheezes at the gate. Incapable
Of licking clean

The aguey tendon, the sin, the sin.
The tinder cries.
The indelible smell

Of a snuffed candle!
Love, love, the low smokes roll
From me like Isadora's scarves, I'm in a fright

One scarf will catch and anchor in the wheel.
Such yellow...Read more of this...

A Ballad of Jakkko Hill

by Rudyard Kipling
 One moment bid the horses wait,
 Since tiffin is not laid till three,
Below the upward path and straight
 You climbed a year ago with me.
Love came upon us suddenly
 And loosed -- an idle hour to kill --
A headless, armless armory
 That smote us both on Jakko Hill.

Ah Heaven! we would wait and wait 
 Through Time and to...Read more of this...

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