Famous Gethsemane Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Fury Of Jewels And Coal

by Anne Sexton
 Many a miner has gone 
into the deep pit 
to receive the dust of a kiss, 
an ore-cell. 
He has gone with his lamp 
full of mole eyes 
deep deep and has brought forth 
Jesus at Gethsemane. 
Body of moss, body of glass, 
body of peat, how sharp 
you lie, emerald as heavy 
as a golf course, ruby as...Read more of this...

Gethsemane

by Rudyard Kipling
 1914-18

The Garden called Gethsemane
 In Picardy it was,
And there the people came to see
 The English soldiers pass.
We used to pass -- we used to pass
Or halt, as it might be,
And ship our masks in case of gas
 Beyond Gethsemane.

The Garden called Gethsemane,
 It held a pretty lass,
But all the time she talked to me
 I prayed my cup...Read more of this...

One Crucifixion is recorded -- only --

by Emily Dickinson
 One Crucifixion is recorded -- only --
How many be
Is not affirmed of Mathematics --
Or History --

One Calvary -- exhibited to Stranger --
As many be
As persons -- or Peninsulas --
Gethsemane --

Is but a Province -- in the Being's Centre --
Judea --
For Journey -- or Crusade's Achieving --
Too near --

Our Lord -- indeed -- made Compound Witness --
And yet --
There's newer...Read more of this...

A Song at Cock-Crow

by Rudyard Kipling
 The first time that Peter denied his Lord
 He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord,
But followed far off to see what they would do,
 Till the cock crew--till the cock crew--
After Gethsemane, till the cock crew!

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
 'Twas only a maid in the palace who heard,
As he sat by the...Read more of this...

Good Friday 2001 Riding North

by Jennifer Reeser
 Yellow makes a play for green among
the rows of some poor farmer's field outside
the Memphis city limits' northern edge.
A D. J. plays The Day He Wore My Crown,
not knowing it entices into tears
this woman never once disposed to travel
the holiday before. My children squander
unleavened bread brought forth from Taco Bell.
What sacrifice of mine could be worth mention?
Enshroud it. Christ's...Read more of this...

Barnfloor and Winepress

by Gerard Manley Hopkins
 And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 
2 Kings VI: 27

Thou that on sin's wages starvest, 
Behold we have the joy in harvest: 
For us was gather'd the first fruits, 
For us was lifted from the roots, 
Sheaved in cruel bands, bruised...Read more of this...

Spurn the temerity --

by Emily Dickinson
 Spurn the temerity --
Rashness of Calvary --
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of Thee --...Read more of this...

The Little Hill

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Oh, here the air is sweet and still,
And soft's the grass to lie on;
And far away's the little hill
They took for Christ to die on.

And there's a hill across the brook,
And down the brook's another;
But, oh, the little hill they took,—
I think I am its mother!

The moon that saw Gethsemane,
I watch it rise and set:
It has so many things...Read more of this...

All overgrown by cunning moss

by Emily Dickinson
 All overgrown by cunning moss,
All interspersed with weed,
The little cage of "Currer Bell"
In quiet "Haworth" laid.

Gathered from many wanderings --
Gethsemane can tell
Thro' what transporting anguish
She reached the Asphodel!

Soft falls the sounds of Eden
Upon her puzzled ear --
Oh what an afternoon for Heaven,
When "Bronte" entered there!...Read more of this...

Super Flumina Babylonis

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept,
Remembering thee,
That for ages of agony hast endured, and slept,
And wouldst not see.

By the waters of Babylon we stood up and sang,
Considering thee,
That a blast of deliverance in the darkness rang,
To set thee free.

And with trumpets and thunderings and with morning song
Came up the light;
And thy spirit uplifted thee to...Read more of this...

Reminder

by D. H. Lawrence
    Do you remember
How night after night swept level and low
Overhead, at home, and had not one star,
Nor one narrow gate for the moon to go
    Forth to her field of November.

    And you remember,
How towards the north a red blot on the sky
Burns like a blotch of anxiety
Over the forges,...Read more of this...

I should have been too glad I see

by Emily Dickinson
 I should have been too glad, I see --
Too lifted -- for the scant degree
Of Life's penurious Round --
My little Circuit would have shamed
This new Circumference -- have blamed --
The homelier time behind.

I should have been too saved -- I see --
Too rescued -- Fear too dim to me
That I could spell the Prayer
I knew so perfect -- yesterday...Read more of this...

The Coliseum

by Edgar Allan Poe
 Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary 
Of lofty contemplation left to Time 
By buried centuries of pomp and power! 
At length- at length- after so many days 
Of weary pilgrimage and burning thirst, 
(Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie,) 
I kneel, an altered and an humble man, 
Amid thy shadows, and so drink within...Read more of this...

The Missionary

by Charlotte Bronte
 Lough, vessel, plough the British main,
Seek the free ocean's wider plain; 
Leave English scenes and English skies,
Unbind, dissever English ties; 
Bear me to climes remote and strange, 
Where altered life, fast-following change,
Hot action, never-ceasing toil, 
Shall stir, turn, dig, the spirit's soil; 
Fresh roots shall plant, fresh seed shall sow, 
Till a new garden there shall grow, 
Cleared of...Read more of this...

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