Famous Gentle Poems by Famous Poets

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

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O gentle weariness

by Hafez
O gentle weariness,
Thine is the power that can all spirits free
From bonding-trouble, thou art a goddess
To all the suffering slaves of misery.

Thy sanctuary
No suppliant vainly seeketh; wheresoe’er
Desperate grief is, then unfailingly
Is thine all-hallowing rest & refuge there.

Our sorrow hath outgrown
Solace, yet still in thine all-mothering hand
Is balm of soft oblivion, who alone
Our never-ending needs dost understand.


...Read more of this...

Love and the Gentle Heart

by Dante Alighieri
 Love and the gentle heart are one thing,
just as the poet says in his verse,
each from the other one as well divorced
as reason from the mind’s reasoning.

Nature craves love, and then creates love king,
and makes the heart a palace where he’ll stay,
perhaps a shorter or a longer day,
breathing quietly, gently slumbering.

Then beauty in a virtuous woman’s face
makes the eyes...Read more of this...

How ruthless are the gentle --

by Emily Dickinson
 How ruthless are the gentle --
How cruel are the kind --
God broke his contract to his Lamb
To qualify the Wind --...Read more of this...

Summer Time

by Anonymous
I love to hear the little birdsThat carol on the trees;I love the gentle, murmuring stream;I love the evening breeze.I love to hear the busy humOf honey-making bee,And learn a lesson,—hard to learn,—Of patient industry.I love to think of Him who madeThose pleasant things for me,Who gave me life, and health, and strength,And eyes, that I might see.The child who...Read more of this...

On the Soft and Gentle Motions of Eudora

by Anne Killigrew
 DIvine Thalia strike th'Harmonious Lute, 
But with a Stroke so Gentle as may sute
 The silent gliding of the Howers,
 Or yet the calmer growth of Flowers;
 Th'ascending or the falling Dew,
 Which none can see, though all find true. 
 For thus alone,
 Can be shewn,
 How downie, how smooth,
 Eudora doth Move,
 How Silken her Actions appear,
...Read more of this...

I prithee spare me gentle boy

by Sir John Suckling
 I prithee spare me gentle boy,
Press me no more for that slight toy,
That foolish trifle of an heart;
I swear it will not do its part,
Though thou dost thine, employ'st thy pow'r and art.

For through long custom it has known
The little secrets, and is grown
Sullen and wise, will have its will,
And like old hawks pursues that still
That makes least sport,...Read more of this...

Sonnet XLVIII

by William Shakespeare
 How careful was I, when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy of comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have...Read more of this...

Post Office Romance

by Robert William Service
 The lady at the corner wicket
Sold me a stamp, I stooped to lick it,
And on the envelope to stick it;
A spinster lacking girlish grace,
Yet sweetly sensitive, her face
Seemed to en-star that stodgy place. 

Said I: "I've come from o'er the sea
To ask you if you'll marry me -
That is to say, if you are free.
I see your gentle features...Read more of this...

Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be

by Vachel Lindsay
 (What Grandpa told the Children)


The moon? It is a griffin's egg,
Hatching to-morrow night.
And how the little boys will watch
With shouting and delight
To see him break the shell and stretch
And creep across the sky.
The boys will laugh. The little girls,
I fear, may hide and cry.
Yet gentle will the griffin be,
Most decorous and fat,
And walk up to the milky way
And lap...Read more of this...

Oh! how gentle are your hands

by Emile Verhaeren
Oh! how gentle are your hands and their slow caress winding about my neck and gliding over my body, when I tell you at the fall of evening how my strength grows heavy day by day with the lead of my weakness!
You do not wish me to become a shadow and a wreck like those who go towards the darkness,...Read more of this...

Gentle Lady Do Not Sing

by James Joyce
 Gentle lady, do not sing 
Sad songs about the end of love; 
Lay aside sadness and sing 
How love that passes is enough. 

Sing about the long deep sleep 
Of lovers that are dead, and how 
In the grave all love shall sleep: 
Love is aweary now....Read more of this...

And now that the lofty leaves have fallen

by Emile Verhaeren
And now that the lofty leaves have fallen, that kept our garden sheltered beneath their shade, through the bare branches can be seen beyond them the roofs of the old villages climbing towards the horizon.
So long as summer poured out its gladness, none of us saw them grouped so near our door; but now that the flowers and the leaves...Read more of this...

Gentle Gaoler

by Robert William Service
 Being a gaoler I'm supposed
 To be a hard-boiled guy;
Yet never prison walls enclosed
 A kinder soul than I:
Passing my charges precious pills
 To end their ills.

And if in gentle sleep they die,
 And pass to pleasant peace,
No one suspects that it is I
 Who gave them their release:
No matter what the Doctor thinks,
 The Warden winks.

A lifer's is...Read more of this...

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced...Read more of this...

My Gentle Harp

by Thomas Moore
 My gentle Harp, once more I waken 
The sweetness of thy slumbering strain; 
In tears our last farewell was taken, 
And now in tears we meet again. 
No light of joy hath o'er thee broken, 
But, like those harps whose heavenly skill 
Of slavery, dark as thine, hath spoken, 
Thou hang'st upon the willows still. 

And yet, since last...Read more of this...

The Quiet Eye

by Eliza Cook
 THE ORB I like is not the one 
That dazzles with its lightning gleam; 
That dares to look upon the sun, 
As though it challenged brighter beam. 
That orb may sparkle, flash, and roll; 
Its fire may blaze, its shaft may fly; 
But not for me: I prize the soul 
That slumbers in a quiet eye. 

There ’s something...Read more of this...

The Gentle Traveller

by Henry Van Dyke
 Through many a land your journey ran,
And showed the best the world can boast:
Now tell me, traveller, if you can,
The place that pleased you most." 

She laid her hands upon my breast,
And murmured gently in my ear, 
"The place I loved and liked the best
Was in your arms, my dear!"...Read more of this...

The Hymn

by John Milton
 I

It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

II

Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked...Read more of this...

Sonnet 5: Those hours that with gentle work did frame

by William Shakespeare
 Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same
And that unfair which fairly doth excel;
For never-resting Time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there,
Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'ersnowed and bareness everywhere.
Then, were not summer's distillation left
A liquid prisoner pent...Read more of this...

Sonnet LXIII: Truce Gentle Love

by Michael Drayton
 Truce, gentle Love, a parley now I crave; 
Methinks 'tis long since first these wars begun; 
Nor thou nor I the better yet can have; 
Bad is the match where neither party won. 
I offer free conditions of fair peace, 
My heart for hostage that it shall remain; 
Discharge our forces, here let malice cease, 
So for my pledge...Read more of this...

I fear thy kisses gentle maiden

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I FEAR thy kisses gentle maiden; 
Thou needest not fear mine; 
My spirit is too deeply laden 
Ever to burthen thine. 

I fear thy mien thy tones thy motion; 5 
Thou needest not fear mine; 
Innocent is the heart's devotion 
With which I worship thine. ...Read more of this...

There is a Gentle Thought

by Dante Alighieri
 There is a gentle thought that often springs
to life in me, because it speaks of you.
Its reasoning about love’s so sweet and true,
the heart is conquered, and accepts these things.
‘Who is this’ the mind enquires of the heart,
‘who comes here to seduce our intellect?
Is his power so great we must reject
every other intellectual art?
The heart replies ‘O, meditative mind
this...Read more of this...

Sonnet V: Those Hours That With Gentle Work Did Frame

by William Shakespeare
 Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same
And that unfair which fairly doth excel;
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter, and confounds him there;
Sap checked with frost, and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where:
Then were not summer's distillation left,
A liquid prisoner...Read more of this...

When first to earth thy gentle spirit came

by Hafez
When first to earth thy gentle spirit came
From some soft climate of Elysian field,
Garmented in its own ethereal flame;

When first from heav’n’s high peace it enter’d here,
No armour had it then, nor guarding shield,
Nor sword for safety, nor attacking spear,
No pang’d misgivings suffered it, nor fear,
Seeing in every face its own sweet face,
Smiling to treachery with trustful eyes,
Finding in nature...Read more of this...

Waft, gentle gale

by Auhad-uddin Ali Anwari
Waft, gentle gale, oh waft to Samarcand,
When next thou visitest that blissful land,
The plaint of Khorasania plunged in woe:
Beart to Turania's King our piteous scroll,
Whose opening brathes forth all the anguished soul,
And close denotes what all the tortur'd know....Read more of this...

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