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Famous Hand On Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Thomas, Dylan
...ll every turtle crushed from his shell
Till every bone in the rushing grave
Rose and crowed and fell!

Good luck to the hand on the rod,
There is thunder under its thumbs;
Gold gut is a lightning thread,
His fiery reel sings off its flames,

The whirled boat in the burn of his blood
Is crying from nets to knives,
Oh the shearwater birds and their boatsized brood
Oh the bulls of Biscay and their calves

Are making under the green, laid veil
The long-legged beautiful bait their...Read more of this...



by Sexton, Anne
...ich is no surprise.
Her stepmother and sisters didn't
recognize her without her cinder face
and the prince took her hand on the spot
and danced with no other the whole day.

As nightfall came she thought she'd better
get home. The prince walked her home
and she disappeared into the pigeon house
and although the prince took an axe and broke
it open she was gone. Back to her cinders.
These events repeated themselves for three days.
However on the third d...Read more of this...

by Collins, Billy
...till, let me know before you set out.
Come knock on my door
and I will walk with you as far as the garden 
with one hand on your shoulder.
I will even watch after you and not turn back
to the house until you disappear 
into the crowd of maple and ash,
heading up toward the hill,
percing the ground with your stick....Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...on a threshold,
Hushed by the scene he beholds, and the awful presence of sorrow.
Silently, therefore, he laid his hand on the head of the maiden,
Raising his tearful eyes to the silent stars that above them
Moved on their way, unperturbed by the wrongs and sorrows of mortals.
Then sat he down at her side, and they wept together in silence.

Suddenly rose from the south a light, as in autumn the blood-red
Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven, and o'er the hori...Read more of this...

by Hughes, Langston
...
In those dark days of slavery,
Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,
The slaves made up a song:
 Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!
That song meant just what it said: Hold On!
Freedom will come!
 Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!
Out of war it came, bloody and terrible!
But it came!
Some there were, as always,
Who doubted that the war would end right,
That the slaves would be free,
Or that the union would stand,
But now we know how it all came out.
Out o...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...n baking of it? 
Let be my name until I make my name! 
My deeds will speak: it is but for a day.' 
So with a kindly hand on Gareth's arm 
Smiled the great King, and half-unwillingly 
Loving his lusty youthhood yielded to him. 
Then, after summoning Lancelot privily, 
'I have given him the first quest: he is not proven. 
Look therefore when he calls for this in hall, 
Thou get to horse and follow him far away. 
Cover the lions on thy shield, and see 
Far as tho...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...l paleness, whose deep tint express'd 
The truth, and not the terror of his breast. 
This Lara mark'd, and laid his hand on his: 
It trembled not in such an hour as this; 
His lip was silent, scarcely beat his heart, 
His eye alone proclaim'd — 
"We will not part! 
Thy band may perish, or thy friends may flee, 
Farewell to life, but not adieu to thee!" 

The word hath pass'd his lips, and onward driven, 
Pours the link'd band through ranks asunder riven; 
Well has each st...Read more of this...

by Neruda, Pablo
...ies or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep....Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...I must not strive as yet to break
The silence, till my strength should be
Enough to leave my accents free;
And then her hand on mine she laid,
And smoothed the pillow for my head,
And stole along on tiptoe tread,
And gently oped the door, and spake 
In whispers - ne'er was voice so sweet! 
Even music followed her light feet.
But those she called were not awake,
And she went forth; but, ere she passed,
Another look on me she cast,
Another sign she made, to say,
That I had ...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...and stay. 


4 

She, whose high top above the stars did soar, 
One foot on Thetis, th' other on the Morning, 
One hand on Scythia, th' other on the Moor, 
Both heaven and earth in roundness compassing, 
Jove fearing, lest if she should greater grow, 
The old Giants should once again uprise, 
Her whelm'd with hills, these seven hills, which be now 
Tombs of her greatness, which did threat the skies: 
Upon her head he heaped Mount Saturnal, 
Upon her belly th' antique Pal...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...
Nuzzling for crumbs under lily-pads,
Which ladies threw as the last of fads.
Eggshell trays where gay beaux knelt,
Hand on heart, and daintily spelt
Their love in flowers, brittle and bright,
Artificial and fragile, which told aright
The vows of an eighteenth-century knight.
The cruder tones of old Dutch jugs
Glared from one shelf, where Toby mugs
Endlessly drank the foaming ale,
Its froth grown dusty, awaiting sale.
The glancing light of the burning wood
Played ...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...king
Are glad of songs less rough."

Blue-eyed was Elf the minstrel,
With womanish hair and ring,
Yet heavy was his hand on sword,
Though light upon the string.

And as he stirred the strings of the harp
To notes but four or five,
The heart of each man moved in him
Like a babe buried alive.

And they felt the land of the folk-songs
Spread southward of the Dane,
And they heard the good Rhine flowing
In the heart of all Allemagne.

They felt the land of the folk...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...e reeling junks behind me and the racing seas before,
I raped your richest roadstead -- I plundered Singapore!
I set my hand on the Hoogli; as a hooded snake she rose,
And I flung your stoutest steamers to roost with the startled crows.

"Never the lotus closes, never the wild-fowl wake,
But a soul goes out on the East Wind that died for England's sake --
Man or woman or suckling, mother or bride or maid --
Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...embling woman there. 
Moses commands she be ston’d to death. 
What was the sound of Jesus’ breath? 
He laid His hand on Moses’ law; 
The ancient Heavens, in silent awe, 
Writ with curses from pole to pole, 
All away began to roll. 
The Earth trembling and naked lay 
In secret bed of mortal clay; 
On Sinai felt the Hand Divine 
Pulling back the bloody shrine; 
And she heard the breath of God, 
As she heard by Eden’s flood: 
‘Good and Evil are no more! 
Sinai’s trum...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...r>

The share will jar on many a stone, 
Thou wilt not let me stand alone; 
And I shall feel (thou wilt not fail), 
Thy hand on mine upon the hale. 
Near Bullen Bank, on Gloucester Road, 
Thy everlasting mercy showed 
The ploughman patient on the hill 
Forever there, forever still, 
Ploughing the hill with steady yoke 
Of pine-trees lightning-struck and broke. 
I've marked the May Hill ploughman stay 
There on his hill, day after day 
Driving his team against the sky,...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ids its gloom.
His brow was bent, his eye was glazed;
He raised his arm, and fiercely raised,
And sternly shook his hand on high,
As doubting to return or fly;
Impatient of his flight delayed,
Here loud his raven charger neighed -
Down glanced that hand and, and grasped his blade;
That sound had burst his waking dream,
As slumber starts at owlet's scream.
The spur hath lanced his courser's sides;
Away, away, for life he rides:
Swift as the hurled on high jerreed
Sprin...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...athed broadsword in his hand,
     Abrupt he paced the islet strand,
     And eyed the rising sun, and laid
     His hand on his impatient blade.
     Beneath a rock, his vassals' care
     Was prompt the ritual to prepare,
     With deep and deathful meaning fraught;
     For such Antiquity had taught
     Was preface meet, ere yet abroad
     The Cross of Fire should take its road.
     The shrinking band stood oft aghast
     At the impatient glance he cast;—
 ...Read more of this...

by Lear, Edward
...The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
  In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money
  Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
  And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
          You are,
          You are!
What a beautiful Pussy y...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...oating darkly downward there, 
Her rounded arm shew'd white and bare: 
And ere yet she made reply, 
Once she raised her hand on high; 
It was so wan and transparent of hue, 
You might have seen the moon shine through. 

XXI. 

"I come from my rest to him I love best, 
That I may be happy, and he may be blest. 
I have pass'd the guards, the gate, the wall; 
Sought thee in safety through foes and all. 
'Tis said the lion will turn and flee 
From a maid in the pr...Read more of this...

by Neruda, Pablo
...ies or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things