Famous Guileless Poems by Famous Poets

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

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102. To a Mountain Daisy

...w thou lies!


Such is the fate of artless maid,
Sweet flow’ret of the rural shade!
By love’s simplicity betray’d,
 And guileless trust;
Till she, like thee, all soil’d, is laid
 Low i’ the dust.


Such is the fate of simple bard,
On life’s rough ocean luckless starr’d!
Unskilful he to note the card
 Of prudent lore,
Till billows rage, and gales blow hard,
 And whelm him o’er!


Such fate to suffering worth is giv’n,
Who long with wants and woes has striv’n,
By human pride or...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


83. The Cotter's Saturday Night

...
 To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays,
The lowly train in life’s sequester’d scene,
 The native feelings strong, the guileless ways,
What Aiken in a cottage would have been;
Ah! tho’ his worth unknown, far happier there I ween!


November chill blaws loud wi’ angry sugh;
 The short’ning winter-day is near a close;
The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh;
 The black’ning trains o’ craws to their repose:
 The toil-worn Cotter frae his labour goes,—
This night his weekly m...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

84. Address to the Deil

...in Adam’s days were green,
And Eve was like my bonie Jean,
 My dearest part,
A dancin, sweet, young handsome quean,
 O’ guileless heart.”
 [back]
Note 2. Vide Milton, Book vi.—R. B. [back]...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

An Old-time Lay

...skim cheerfully, 
 Swallow, oh! swallow swift! often I sigh 
 For a home 
 Where you roam 
 Nearing the sky! 
 
 Guileless of pondering; 
 Swallow-eyes wandering; 
 Seeking no fonder ring 
 Than the rose-garland Love gives thee apart! 
 Grant me soon— 
 Blessed boon! 
 Home in thy heart! 


 




...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Balloons

...Since Christmas they have lived with us,
Guileless and clear,
Oval soul-animals,
Taking up half the space,
Moving and rubbing on the silk

Invisible air drifts,
Giving a shriek and pop
When attacked, then scooting to rest, barely trembling.
Yellow cathead, blue fish ----
Such ***** moons we live with

Instead of dead furniture!
Straw mats, white walls
And these traveling
Globes of thin air, red, gr...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia


cherries and birds

...cherries are so vulnerable
blinking their way from green
to polished red in trees
guileless to stave off birds

a murmur does its rounds
and when the bright day comes
and ripeness throws its coyness
in the air a seething mesh

of wings and whetted beaks 
(knowing its cherry-right)
falls upon the fleshy fruit
and rips it to the stone

then birds become the foe
of people leaden in their legs
who gasp below (fists raised
at butchery so sweet...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

Daisy

...rrowed face. 
She gave me tokens three:-- 
A look, a word of her winsome mouth, 
And a wild raspberry. 

A berry red, a guileless look, 
A still word,--strings of sand! 
And yet they made my wild, wild heart 
Fly down to her little hand. 

For standing artless as the air, 
And candid as the skies, 
She took the berries with her hand, 
And the love with her sweet eyes. 

The fairest things have fleetest end, 
Their scent survives their close: 
But the rose's scent is bitternes...Read more of this...
by Thompson, Francis

Guinevere

...ar cities burnt, and with a cry she woke. 
And all this trouble did not pass but grew; 
Till even the clear face of the guileless King, 
And trustful courtesies of household life, 
Became her bane; and at the last she said, 
`O Lancelot, get thee hence to thine own land, 
For if thou tarry we shall meet again, 
And if we meet again, some evil chance 
Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze 
Before the people, and our lord the King.' 
And Lancelot ever promised, but ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Imperial Revels

...mothers down, 
 And marshals whose brave cannonade 
 Broke infant arms and split the stone 
 Where slumbered age and guileless maid— 
 Though blood is in the cup you fill, 
 Pretend it "rosy" wine, and still 
 Hail Cannon "King!" and Steel the "Queen!" 
 But I prefer to sup 
 From Philip Sidney's cup— 
 True soldier's draught serene. 
 
 Oh, workmen, seen by me sublime, 
 When from the tyrant wrenched ye peace, 
 Can you be dazed by tinselled crime, 
 And spy no...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

In the Wilderness

...went, 
Of all His wanderings 
Comrade, with ragged coat, 
Gaunt ribs—poor innocent— 
Bleeding foot, burning throat,
The guileless old scapegoat; 
For forty nights and days 
Followed in Jesus’ ways, 
Sure guard behind Him kept, 
Tears like a lover wept....Read more of this...
by Graves, Robert

Love

...;  Disturb'd her Soul with Pity!   All Impulses of Soul and Sense  Had thrill'd my guileless Genevieve,  The Music, and the doleful Tale,    The rich and balmy Eve;   And Hopes, and Fears that kindle Hope,  An undistinguishable Throng!  And gentle Wishes long subdued,    Subdued and cherish'd long!   She wept with pity and delight, ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

Love

...
My faultering voice and pausing harp
Disturbed her soul with pity!

All impulses of soul and sense
Had thrilled my guileless Genevieve;
The music and the doleful tale,
The rich and balmy eve;

And hopes, and fears that kindle hope,
An undistinguishable throng,
And gentle wishes long subdued,
Subdued and cherished long!

She wept with pity and delight,
She blushed with love, and virgin-shame;
And like the murmur of a dream,
I heard her breathe my name.

Her ...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Red Sea indeed! Talk not to me

..."Red Sea," indeed! Talk not to me
Of purple Pharaoh --
I have a Navy in the West
Would pierce his Columns thro' --
Guileless, yet of such Glory fine
That all along the Line
Is it, or is it not, divine --
The Eye inquires with a sigh
That Earth sh'd be so big --
What Exultation in the Woe --
What Wine in the fatigue!...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Snowbound a Winter Idyl

...old, 
Who knew the tales the sparrows told, 
Or Hermes, who interpreted 
What the sage cranes of Nilus said; 
A simple, guileless, childlike man, 
Content to live where life began; 
Strong only on his native grounds, 
The little world of sights and sounds 
Whose girdle was the parish bounds, 
Whereof his fondly partial pride 
The common features magnified, 
As Surrey hills to mountains grew 
In White of Selborne's loving view, -- 
He told how teal and loon he shot, 
And how t...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

The Lady of the Lake

...e in her mirror blue
     Gives back the shaggy banks more true,
     Than every free-born glance confessed
     The guileless movements of her breast;
     Whether joy danced in her dark eye,
     Or woe or pity claimed a sigh,
     Or filial love was glowing there,
     Or meek devotion poured a prayer,
     Or tale of injury called forth
     The indignant spirit of the North.
     One only passion unrevealed
     With maiden pride the maid concealed,
     Yet ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Mother Mourns

...d, 
 'The simple praise sweetly, 
But sweetlier the sage'--and did rashly 
 Man's vision unrein, 

"I rue it! . . . His guileless forerunners, 
 Whose brains I could blandish, 
To measure the deeps of my mysteries 
 Applied them in vain. 

"From them my waste aimings and futile 
 I subtly could cover; 
'Every best thing,' said they, 'to best purpose 
 Her powers preordain.' - 

"No more such! . . . My species are dwindling, 
 My forests grow barren, 
My popinjays fail from th...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

The Pigeons Of St. Marks

...in Pigeon-land;
Mankind we no longer trust;
Shrinking from the tendered hand,
pick we corn from out the dust;
While on guileless pilgrim pate,
Thinking that revenge is sweet,
Soft I croon my hymn of hate,
Drop my tribute and retreat....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Wargeilah Handicap

...would sad experience gain 
By racing with some shearer's hack, 
Who'd beat him half-way round the track. 

So, on this guileless English spark 
They did most fervently impress 
That he must keep the matter dark, 
And not let any person guess 
That he was purchasing The Trap 
To win Wargeilah Handicap. 

They spoke of "spielers from the Bland", 
And "champions from the Castlereagh", 
And gave the youth to understand 
That all of these would stop away, 
And spoil the race, if ...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

To Posterity

...Indeed I live in the dark ages!
A guileless word is an absurdity. A smooth forehead betokens
A hard heart. He who laughs
Has not yet heard
The terrible tidings.

Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
And he who walks calmly across the street,
Is he not out of reach of his friends
In trouble?

It is true: I earn my living
B...Read more of this...
by Brecht, Bertolt

Whoever disenchants

...Whoever disenchants
A single Human soul
By failure of irreverence
Is guilty of the whole.

As guileless as a Bird
As graphic as a star
Till the suggestion sinister
Things are not what they are --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

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