Famous Gone Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Alas! my wasted life has gone to wrack!

by Omar Khayyam
Alas! my wasted life has gone to wrack!
What with forbidden meats, and lusts, alack!
And leaving undone what 'twas right to do,
And doing wrong, my face is very black!...Read more of this...

O You Who've gone on Pilgrimage

by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
O you who’ve gone on pilgrimage -
where are you, where, oh where?
Here, here is the Beloved!
Oh come now, come, oh come!
Your friend, he is your neighbor,
he is next to your wall -
You, erring in the desert -
what air of love is this?
If you’d see the Beloved’s
form without any form -
You are the house, the master,
You are the Kaaba, you! ....Read more of this...

Those Dancing Days Are Gone

by William Butler Yeats
 Come, let me sing into your ear;
Those dancing days are gone,
All that silk and satin gear;
Crouch upon a stone,
Wrapping that foul body up
In as foul a rag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

Curse as you may I sing it through;
What matter if the knave
That the most could pleasure you,
The children that he gave,
Are...Read more of this...

Gone Down

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 To the voters of Glen Innes 'twas O'Sullivan that went, 
To secure the country vote for Mister Hay. 
So he told 'em what he'd borrowed, and he told 'em what he'd spent, 
Though extravagance had blown it all away. 
Said he, "Vote for Hay, my hearties, and wherever we may roam 
We will borrow, undismayed by Fortune's frown!" 
When...Read more of this...

When thou art gone, when are gone all those

by Hafez
When thou art gone, & when are gone all those
That knew thee & that loved thy living grace,
Merged in the formless flood whence all arose,

When thou hast passed, & of thy life no trace
Remaineth, nor remembrancer to say
‘Such was he, such his form, his voice, his face’,

In that new time shall rise, untouched by thee,
The eddying circles still, & pass...Read more of this...

Where Have You Gone

by Mari Evans
Where have you gone

with your confident 
walk with 
your crooked smile


why did you leave 
me 
when you took your 
laughter 
and departed 
are you aware that 
with you 
went the sun 
all light 
and what few stars 
there were?


where have you gone 
with your confident 
walk your 
crooked smile the 
rent money 
in one pocket and 
my heart 
in another...Read more of this...

Tis Gone And For Ever

by Thomas Moore
 'Tis gone, and for ever, the light we saw breaking, 
Like Heaven's first dawn o'er the sleep of the dead -- 
When Man, from the slumber of ages awaking, 
Look'd upward, and bless'd the pure ray, ere it fled. 
'Tis gone, and the gleams it has left of its burning, 
But deepen the long night of bondage and mourning,...Read more of this...

Has My Heart Gone To Sleep?

by Antonio Machado
 Has my heart gone to sleep?
Have the beehives of my dreams
stopped working, the waterwheel
of the mind run dry,
scoops turning empty,
only shadow inside?

No, my heart is not asleep.
It is awake, wide awake.
Not asleep, not dreaming—
its eyes are opened wide
watching distant signals, listening
on the rim of vast silence....Read more of this...

My comrades all are gone; Death, deadly foe,

by Omar Khayyam
My comrades all are gone; Death, deadly foe,
Has caught them one by one, and trampled low;
They shared life's feast, and drank its wine with me,
But lost their heads, and dropped a while ago....Read more of this...

Andys Gone With Cattle

by Henry Lawson
 Our Andy's gone to battle now
'Gainst Drought, the red marauder;
Our Andy's gone with cattle now
Across the Queensland border. 

He's left us in dejection now;
Our hearts with him are roving.
It's dull on this selection now,
Since Andy went a-droving. 

Who now shall wear the cheerful face
In times when things are slackest?
And who shall whistle round the place
When Fortune frowns her blackest?...Read more of this...

They that have passed away, and gone before,

by Omar Khayyam
They that have passed away, and gone before,
Sleep in delusion's dust for evermore;
Go, boy, and fetch some wine, this is the truth,
Their dogmas were but air, and wind their lore!...Read more of this...

They are all Gone into the World of Light

by Henry Vaughan
 1 They are all gone into the world of light!
2 And I alone sit ling'ring here;
3 Their very memory is fair and bright,
4 And my sad thoughts doth clear.

5 It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast,
6 Like stars upon some gloomy grove,
7 Or those faint beams in which this hill is drest,
8 After the sun's remove.

9 I see...Read more of this...

Those who are gone before us, O cupbearer! are imbedded

by Omar Khayyam
Those who are gone before us, O cupbearer! are imbedded
in the dust of pride. Go, drink wine; go, listen
to the truth that I tell you: All those who have gone
ahead are but as the wind; know it well, O cupbearer!
375...Read more of this...

The Day Is Gone And All Its Sweets Are Gone

by John Keats
 The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semitone,
Bright eyes, accomplished shape, and lang'rous waist!
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise— 
Vanished unseasonably at shut...Read more of this...

The distance that the dead have gone

by Emily Dickinson
 The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear --
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year.

And then, that we have followed them,
We more than half suspect,
So intimate have we become
With their dear retrospect....Read more of this...

Pigmy seraphs -- gone astray

by Emily Dickinson
 Pigmy seraphs -- gone astray --
Velvet people from Vevay --
Balles from some lost summer day --
Bees exclusive Coterie --
Paris could not lay the fold
Belted down with Emerald --
Venice could not show a check
Of a tint so lustrous meek --
Never such an Ambuscade
As of briar and leaf displayed
For my little damask maid --

I had rather wear her grace
Than an Earl's...Read more of this...

Gone

by Carl Sandburg
 Everybody loved Chick Lorimer in our town.
 Far off
 Everybody loved her.
So we all love a wild girl keeping a hold
On a dream she wants.
Nobody knows now where Chick Lorimer went.
Nobody knows why she packed her trunk. . a few
 old things
And is gone,
 Gone with her little chin
 Thrust ahead of her
 And her soft hair blowing careless
...Read more of this...

They are gone, these transients, and no one of them

by Omar Khayyam
They are gone, these transients, and no one of them
has returned to tell the secrets concealed behind the curtain.
O devotee! it is by humility that spiritual affairs
take favorable turn and not by prayer, for, what is
prayer without sincerity and humility?...Read more of this...

116. On a Scotch Bard gone to the West Indies

by Robert Burns
 A’ YE wha live by sowps o’ drink,
A’ ye wha live by crambo-clink,
A’ ye wha live and never think,
 Come, mourn wi’ me!
Our billie ’s gien us a’ a jink,
 An’ owre the sea!


Lament him a’ ye rantin core,
Wha dearly like a random splore;
Nae mair he’ll join the merry roar;
 In social key;
For now he’s taen anither shore.
 An’...Read more of this...

Irám indeed is gone

by Omar Khayyam
Irám indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshýd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows:
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows....Read more of this...

Elizabeth Gone

by Anne Sexton
 1.

You lay in the nest of your real death,
Beyond the print of my nervous fingers
Where they touched your moving head;
Your old skin puckering, your lungs' breath
Grown baby short as you looked up last
At my face swinging over the human bed,
And somewhere you cried, let me go let me go.

You lay in the crate of your last death,
But were not...Read more of this...

So much of Heaven has gone from Earth

by Emily Dickinson
 So much of Heaven has gone from Earth
That there must be a Heaven
If only to enclose the Saints
To Affidavit given.

The Missionary to the Mole
Must prove there is a Sky
Location doubtless he would plead
But what excuse have I?

Too much of Proof affronts Belief
The Turtle will not try
Unless you leave him -- then return
And he has hauled away....Read more of this...

To Jessica Gone Back To The City

by Ellis Parker Butler
 Sence fair Jessica hez left us
Seems ez ef she hed bereft us,
When she went, o’ half o’ livin’;
Fer we never knowed she’d driven
Into us so much content,
Till fair Jessica hed went.
 (Knowed a feller once thet cried
 When his yaller dog hed died.)

We hain’t near ez bright an’ chirky,
An’ the sun shines blue an’ murky,
Kind o’ sadly an’ dishearted,
Like...Read more of this...

The Bobolink is gone --

by Emily Dickinson
 The Bobolink is gone --
The Rowdy of the Meadow --
And no one swaggers now but me --
The Presbyterian Birds
Can now resume the Meeting
He boldly interrupted that overflowing Day
When supplicating mercy
In a portentous way
He swung upon the Decalogue
And shouted let us pray --...Read more of this...

Going Gone

by Anne Sexton
 Over stone walls and barns,
miles from the black-eyed Susans,
over circus tents and moon rockets
you are going, going.
You who have inhabited me
in the deepest and most broken place,
are going, going.
An old woman calls up to you
from her deathbed deep in sores,
asking, "What do you keep of her?"
She is the crone in the fables.
She is the fool at the supper
and you,...Read more of this...

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