Famous Grace Poems by Famous Poets

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

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We rest our hopes on Thy free grace alone,

by Omar Khayyam
We rest our hopes on Thy free grace alone,
Nor seek by merits for our sins to atone;
Mercy drops where it lists, and estimates
Ill done as undone, good undone as done....Read more of this...

Grace For A Child

by Robert Herrick
 Here, a little child, I stand,
Heaving up my either hand:
Cold as paddocks though they be,
Here I lift them up to thee,
For a benison to fall
On our meat, and on us all.
Amen....Read more of this...

That grace and favour at the first, what meant it?

by Omar Khayyam
That grace and favour at the first, what meant it?
That lavishing of joy and peace, what meant it?
But now thy purpose is to grieve my heart;
What did I do to cause this change? What meant it?...Read more of this...

This Life

by Grace Paley
 My friend tells me
a man in my house jumped off the roof
the roof is the eighth floor of this building
the roof door was locked how did he manage?
his girlfriend had said goodbye I'm leaving
he was 22
his mother and father were hurrying
at that very moment
from upstate to help him move out of Brooklyn
they had heard about the girl

the people who...Read more of this...

Sure of Thy grace, for sins why need I fear?

by Omar Khayyam
Sure of Thy grace, for sins why need I fear?
How can the pilgrim faint whilst Thou art near?
On the last day Thy grace will wash me white,
And make my «black record» to disappear....Read more of this...

Oh what a Grace is this

by Emily Dickinson
 Oh what a Grace is this,
What Majesties of Peace,
That having breathed
The fine -- ensuing Right
Without Diminuet Proceed!...Read more of this...

Sonnet 39 - Because thou hast the power and ownst the grace

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 Because thou hast the power and own'st the grace
To look through and behind this mask of me
(Against which years have beat thus blanchingly
With their rains), and behold my soul's true face,
The dim and weary witness of life's race,—
Because thou hast the faith and love to see,
Through that same soul's distracting lethargy,
The patient angel waiting for a place
In the new...Read more of this...

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

by Richard Brautigan
 I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammels and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky. 

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms. 

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of...Read more of this...

A face devoid of love or grace

by Emily Dickinson
 A face devoid of love or grace,
A hateful, hard, successful face,
A face with which a stone
Would feel as thoroughly at ease
As were they old acquaintances --
First time together thrown....Read more of this...

To The Handsome Mistress Grace Potter

by Robert Herrick
 As is your name, so is your comely face
Touch'd every where with such diffused grace,
As that in all that admirable round,
There is not one least solecism found;
And as that part, so every portion else
Keeps line for line with beauty's parallels....Read more of this...

Grace and Providence

by William Cowper
 Almighty King! whose wondrous hand
Supports the weight of sea and land;
Whose grace is such a boundless store,
No heart shall break that sighs for more.

Thy providence supplies my food,
And 'tis Thy blessing makes it good;
My soul is nourish'd by Thy Word,
Let soul and body praise the Lord!

My streams of outward comfort came
From Him who built this earthly frame;
Whate'er I want...Read more of this...

The Grace -- Myself -- might not obtain --

by Emily Dickinson
 The Grace -- Myself -- might not obtain --
Confer upon My flower --
Refracted but a Countenance --
For I -- inhabit Her --...Read more of this...

Sonnet. Inscribed to Her Grace the Duchess of Devonshire

by Mary Darby Robinson
 'TIS NOT thy flowing hair of orient gold,
Nor those bright eyes, like sapphire gems that glow;
Nor cheek of blushing rose, nor breast of snow,
The varying passions of the heart could hold: 

Those locks, too soon, shall own a silv'ry ray,
Those radiant orbs their magic fires forego;
Insatiate TIME shall steal those tints away,
Warp thy fine form, and bend thy beauties...Read more of this...

357. A Grace before Dinner

by Robert Burns
 O THOU who kindly dost provide
 For every creature’s want!
We bless Thee, God of Nature wide,
 For all Thy goodness lent:
And if it please Thee, Heavenly Guide,
 May never worse be sent;
But, whether granted, or denied,
 Lord, bless us with content. Amen...Read more of this...

Grace Before Song

by Ezra Pound
 Lord God of heaven that with mercy dight 
Th'alternate prayer wheel of the night and light 
Eternal hath to thee, and in whose sight 
Our days as rain drops in the sea surge fall,

As bright white drops upon a leaden sea 
Grant so my songs to this grey folk may be:

As drops that dream and gleam and falling catch...Read more of this...

358. A Grace after Dinner

by Robert Burns
 O THOU, in whom we live and move—
 Who made the sea and shore;
Thy goodness constantly we prove,
 And grateful would adore;
And, if it please Thee, Power above!
 Still grant us, with such store,
The friend we trust, the fair we love—
 And we desire no more. Amen!...Read more of this...

Grace

by George Herbert
 My stock lies dead and no increase
Doth my dull husbandry improve: 
O let thy graces without cease
Drop from above! 

If still the sun should hide his face, 
Thy house would but a dungeon prove, 
Thy works, night's captives: O let grace
Drop from above! 

The dew doth ev'ry morning fall; 
And shall the dew outstrip thy dove? 
The dew, for...Read more of this...

But for the Grace of God

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 “There, but for the grace of God, goes…”


There is a question that I ask,
And ask again: 
What hunger was half-hidden by the mask 
That he wore then? 

There was a word for me to say
That I said not; 
And in the past there was another day 
That I forgot: 

A dreary, cold, unwholesome day, 
Racked overhead,—
As if the world...Read more of this...

Grace Darling

by William Topaz McGonagall
 As the night was beginning to close in one rough September day
In the year of 1838, a steamer passed through the Fairway
Between the Farne Islands and the coast, on her passage northwards;
But the wind was against her, and the steamer laboured hard. 

There she laboured in the heavy sea against both wind and tide,
Whilst a dense fog enveloped her...Read more of this...

412. A Grace after Meat

by Robert Burns
 LORD, we thank, and thee adore,
 For temporal gifts we little merit;
At present we will ask no more—
 Let William Hislop give the spirit....Read more of this...

Sometimes you wear the kindly grace

by Emile Verhaeren
Sometimes you wear the kindly grace of the garden in early morning that, quiet and winding, unfolds in the blue distances its pleasant paths, curved like the necks of swans.
And, at other times, you are for me the bright thrill of the swift, exalting wind that passes with its lightning fingers through the watery mane of the white pond.
At the...Read more of this...

Another Grace For A Child

by Robert Herrick
 Here a little child I stand
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be,
Here I lift them up to Thee,
For a benison to fall
On our meat, and on us all. Amen....Read more of this...

Here

by Grace Paley
 Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face

how did this happen
well that's who I wanted to be

at last a woman
in the old style sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt grandchild sliding
on off my lap a pleasant
summer perspiration

that's my old man across the yard
he's talking to the meter reader
he's telling him the...Read more of this...

A Childs Grace

by Robert Herrick
 HERE a little child I stand 
Heaving up my either hand; 
Cold as paddocks though they be, 
Here I lift them up to Thee, 
For a benison to fall 
On our meat and on us all. Amen....Read more of this...

Grace

by George Herbert
 This air is flooded with her. I am a boy again, and my mother
and I lie on wet grass, laughing. She startles, turns to
marigolds at my side, saying beautiful, and I can see the red
there is in them.

When she would fall into her thoughts, we'd look for what
distracted her from us.

My mother's gone again as suddenly as ever and,...Read more of this...

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