Famous Gently Poems by Famous Poets

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

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An Essay On Criticism

...,
'Tis not enough no Harshness gives Offence,
The Sound must seem an Eccho to the Sense.
Soft is the Strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth Stream in smoother Numbers flows;
But when loud Surges lash the sounding Shore,
The hoarse, rough Verse shou'd like the Torrent roar.
When Ajax strives, some Rocks' vast Weight to throw,
The Line too labours, and the Words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the Plain,
Flies o'er th'unbending Corn, and skims along the Ma...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander


Beowulf (Modern English)

...r it all,
the treasures of that hall, when it was allowed me—
that journey inside under the earthen wall
was not all gently permitted me. I seized at haste
a great deal, a mighty burden, in my hands,
of those hoarded treasures, and bore it hither
to my king. He was still alive at that point,
wise and aware. He spoke a great many things
aged in his cares, and he bid me hail you all,
commanding you to work, after friendly deeds,
in the place of the pyre, a lofty barro...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Dream Variations

...n,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
 Dark like me-
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
 Black like me....Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

Endymion: Book IV

...d'st foster me beyond the brink
Of recollection! make my watchful care
Close up its bloodshot eyes, nor see despair!
Do gently murder half my soul, and I
Shall feel the other half so utterly!--
I'm giddy at that cheek so fair and smooth;
O let it blush so ever! let it soothe
My madness! let it mantle rosy-warm
With the tinge of love, panting in safe alarm.--
This cannot be thy hand, and yet it is;
And this is sure thine other softling--this
Thine own fair bosom, and I am so n...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Lara

...ara's prostrate form he bent beside, 
And in that tongue which seem'd his own replied, 
And Lara heeds those tones that gently seem 
To soothe away the horrors of his dream; 
If dream it were, that thus could overthrow 
A breast that needed not ideal woe. 

XV. 

Whate'er his frenzy dream'd or eye beheld, 
If yet remember'd ne'er to be reveal'd, 
Rests at his heart: the custom'd morning came, 
And breathed new vigour in his shaking frame; 
And solace sought he none from pries...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)


Maple

...from the parent seed.
It carne back vaguely at the glass one day,
As she stood saying her name over aloud,
Striking it gently across her lowered eyes
To make it go well with the way she looked.
What was it about her name? Its strangeness lay
In having too much meaning. Other names,
As Lesley, Carol, Irma, Marjorie,
Signified nothing. Rose could have a meaning,
But hadn't as it went. (She knew a Rose.)
This difference from other names it was
Made people notice it—and notice h...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Paradise Lost: Book 09

..., whose head, though gay 
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, 
Hung drooping unsustained; them she upstays 
Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while 
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, 
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh. 
Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed 
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; 
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, 
Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers 
Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve: 
Spot mor...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Passage to India

...re and its wonders, Time and Space and Death, 
But that I, turning, call to thee, O soul, thou actual Me, 
And lo! thou gently masterest the orbs,
Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death, 
And fillest, swellest full, the vastnesses of Space. 

Greater than stars or suns, 
Bounding, O soul, thou journeyest forth; 
—What love, than thine and ours could wider amplify?
What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul? 
What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, per...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Sea Dreams

...A city clerk, but gently born and bred;
His wife, an unknown artist's orphan child--
One babe was theirs, a Margaret, three years old:
They, thinking that her clear germander eye
Droopt in the giant-factoried city-gloom,
Came, with a month's leave given them, to the sea:
For which his gains were dock'd, however small:
Small were his gains, and hard his work; besides,
Their sl...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Song of Myself

...voice. 

I mind how once we lay, such a transparent summer morning; 
How you settled your head athwart my hips, and gently turn’d over upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my
 bare-stript heart, 
And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my feet.


Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the
 argument of the earth; 
And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of the Open Road

...and absolute,
Listening to others, and considering well what they say, 
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, 
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. 

I inhale great draughts of space; 
The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought; 
I did not know I held so much goodness. 

All seems beautiful to me; 
I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good t...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Bride of Abydos

...ad ta'en his way, 
But here young Selim silence brake, 
First lowly rendering reverence meet! 
And downcast look'd, and gently spake, 
Still standing at the Pacha's feet: 
For son of Moslem must expire, 
Ere dare to sit before his sire! 

"Father! for fear that thou shouldst chide 
My sister, or her sable guide, 
Know — for the fault, if fault there be, 
Was mine — then fall thy frowns on me — 
So lovelily the morning shone, 
That — let the old and weary sleep — 
I could not;...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Dungeon

...pain may come to-morrow? LINES  Written near Richmond upon the Thames.   Glide gently, thus for ever glide,  O Thames! that other bards may see,  As lovely visions by thy side  As now, fair river! come to me.  Oh glide, fair stream! for ever so;  Thy quiet soul on all bestowing,  'Till all our minds for ever flow,  As thy deep waters now are flowing.  &nb...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Four Ages of Man

..., th'oppressed I set free,
4.34 The liars curb'd but nourisht verity.
4.35 Was I a pastor, I my flock did feed
4.36 And gently lead the lambs, as they had need.
4.37 A Captain I, with skill I train'd my band
4.38 And shew'd them how in face of foes to stand.
4.39 If a Soldier, with speed I did obey
4.40 As readily as could my Leader say.
4.41 Was I a laborer, I wrought all day
4.42 As cheerfully as ere I took my pay.
4.43 Thus hath mine age (in all) sometimes done well;
4.44 ...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

The Idiot Boy

...and.   And now that Johnny is just going,  Though Betty's in a mighty flurry,  She gently pats the pony's side,  On which her idiot boy must ride,  And seems no longer in a hurry.   But when the pony moved his legs,  Oh! then for the poor idiot boy!  For joy he cannot hold the bridle,  For joy his head and heels are idle,  He's idle all for very joy.  ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Lady of the Lake

...ds his court at morning prime.'
     With heating heart, and bosom wrung,
     As to a brother's arm she clung.
     Gently he dried the falling tear,
     And gently whispered hope and cheer;
     Her faltering steps half led, half stayed,
     Through gallery fair and high arcade,
     Till at his touch its wings of pride
     A portal arch unfolded wide.
     XXVI.

     Within 't was brilliant all and light,
     A thronging scene of figures bright;
     It g...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Raven

...d curious volume of forgotten lore—
    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
            Only this and nothing more.”

    Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
    Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
    From my books ...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan

The Seasons: Winter

...;
With that attemper'd Heroe, mild, and firm,
Who wept the Brother, while the Tyrant bled.
Scipio, the humane Warriour, gently brave,
Fair Learning's Friend; who early sought the Shade,
To dwell, with Innocence, and Truth, retir'd.
And, equal to the best, the Theban, He
Who, single, rais'd his Country into Fame.
Thousands behind, the Boast of Greece and Rome,
Whom Vertue owns, the Tribute of a Verse
Demand, but who can count the Stars of Heaven?
Who sing their Influence on th...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Vision of Judgment

...a circle like Orion's belt 
Around their poor old charge; who scarce knew whither 
His guards had led him, though they gently dealt 
With royal manes (for by many stories, 
And true, we learn the angels all are Tories.) 

XXVII 

As things were in this posture, the gate flew 
Asunder, and the flashing of its hinges 
Flung over space an universal hue 
Of many-colour'd flame, until its tinges 
Reach'd even our speck of earth, and made a new 
Aurora borealis spread its fringes ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

White Flock

...me at deathbed.
Forgive me now. Lord teaches to forgive.
In burning agony my flesh does live,
And already the spirit gently sleeps,
A garden I recall, tender with autumn leaves
And cries of cranes, and the black fields around..
How sweet it would be with you underground!



x x x
The muse has left along narrow
And winding street,
And with large drops of dew
Were sprinkled her feet.

For long did I ask of her
To wait for winter with me,
But she said, "The g...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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