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Famous Harms Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...’ at our leisure, when ye like,
 We’ll whistle owre the lave o’t.
 I am, &c.


But bless me wi’ your heav’n o’ charms,
An’ while I kittle hair on thairms,
Hunger, cauld, an’ a’ sic harms,
 May whistle owre the lave o’t.
 I am, &c.


RecitativoHer charms had struck a sturdy caird,
 As weel as poor gut-scraper;
He taks the fiddler by the beard,
 An’ draws a roosty rapier—
He swoor, by a’ was swearing worth,
 To speet him like a pliver,
Unless he would from that ...Read more of this...



by Shakespeare, William
...isfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof;
To be forbod the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though Reason weep, and cry, 'It is thy last.'

'For further I could say 'This man's untrue,'
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
Kne...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...on, bronzèd glows, 
Where the hurricane, the waterspout, thunder, and hell repose, 
Muttering hoarse dreams of destined harms,-- 
'Tis God who hangs their multitude amid the skiey deep, 
As a warrior that suspendeth from the roof-tree of his keep 
His dreadful and resounding arms! 

All vanishes! The Sun, from topmost heaven precipitated, 
Like a globe of iron which is tossed back fiery red 
Into the furnace stirred to fume, 
Shocking the cloudy surges, plashed from its impet...Read more of this...

by Donne, John
...ods, nor sigh-tempests move,
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ree samples of true snakestone--rarer still, 
One of the other sort, the melon-shaped, 
(But fitter, pounded fine, for charms than drugs) 
And writeth now the twenty-second time. 

My journeyings were brought to Jericho; 
Thus I resume. Who studious in our art 
Shall count a little labour unrepaid? 
I have shed sweat enough, left flesh and bone 
On many a flinty furlong of this land. 
Also, the country-side is all on fire 
With rumours of a marching hitherward: 
S...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...nightly ill,
Of noisom winds, and blasting vapours chill.
And from the Boughs brush off the evil dew, 
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blew,
Or what the cross dire-looking Planet smites,
Or hurtfull Worm with canker'd venom bites.
When Eev'ning gray doth rise, I fetch my round
Over the mount, and all this hallow'd ground,
And early ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the slumbring leaves, or tasseld horn
Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about,
Number my ...Read more of this...

by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...which is-
O sorrow and shame! Can this be she,
The lady, who knelt at the old oak tree?
And lo! the worker of these harms,
That holds the maiden in her arms,
Seems to slumber still and mild,
As a mother with her child.

A star hath set, a star hath risen,
O Geraldine! since arms of thine
Have been the lovely lady's prison.
O Geraldine! one hour was thine-
Thou'st had thy will! By tarn and rill,
The night-birds all that hour were still.
But now they ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...outed wild-boars routing tender corn
Anger our huntsman: Breather round our farms,
To keep off mildews, and all weather harms:
Strange ministrant of undescribed sounds,
That come a swooning over hollow grounds,
And wither drearily on barren moors:
Dread opener of the mysterious doors
Leading to universal knowledge--see,
Great son of Dryope,
The many that are come to pay their vows
With leaves about their brows!

 Be still the unimaginable lodge
For solitary thinkings; such as...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...
I craved its bleak unrest.

"I will not die, my One of all!--
To lengthen out thy days
I'll guard me from minutest harms
That may invest my ways!"

She smiled and went. Since then she comes
Oft when her birth-moon climbs,
Or at the seasons' ingresses
Or anniversary times;

But grows my grief. When I surcease,
Through whom alone lives she,
Ceases my Love, her words, her ways,
Never again to be!...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...e prize of valor!
"Go back to your home and people, 
Live among them, toil among them, 
Cleanse the earth from all that harms it, 
Clear the fishing-grounds and rivers, 
Slay all monsters and magicians,
All the Wendigoes, the giants, 
All the serpents, the Kenabeeks, 
As I slew the Mishe-Mokwa, 
Slew the Great Bear of the mountains.
"And at last when Death draws near you, 
When the awful eyes of Pauguk 
Glare upon you in the darkness, 
I will share my kingdom with you, 
R...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...urpose he projected
The only certain way t' effect it,
To seize your powder, shot and arms,
And all your means of doing harms;
As prudent folks take knives away,
Lest children cut themselves at play.
And yet, when this was all his scheme,
The war you still will charge on him;
And tho' he oft has swore and said it,
Stick close to facts, and give no credit.
Think you, he wish'd you'd brave and beard him?
Why, 'twas the very thing, that scared him.
He'd rather you sh...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...ly Bent, 
Sought their Destruction to prevent; 
The Beech in vain, with out-stretch'd Arms, 
Deprecates th' approaching Harms; 
In vain the Oak (so often storm'd) 
Rely'd upon that native Force, 
By which already was perform'd 
So much of his appointed Course, 
As made him, fearless of Decay, 
Wait but the accomplish'd Time 
Of his long-wish'd and useful Prime, 
To be remov'd, with Honor, to the Sea. 


The strait and ornamental Pine 
Did in the like Ambition joyn, 
And t...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...done. It seemed her 
constant care Might some day cease to fright her.
Illness could be no crime, and dreadful harms
Did come from too much sunshine. Her alarms
Would lessen when she saw him standing there,

XLII
Simple and kind, a brother just returned From 
journeying, and he would treat her so.
She knew his honest heart, and if there burned A spark in it 
he would not let it show.
But when he really came, and stood beside Her underneath the 
fruitless ...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...hast said 
And never had more cause of woe 
Than when I did what thou bad'st do. 
I'll stop mine ears at these thy charms 
And count them for my deadly harms. 
Thy sinful pleasures I do hate, 
Thy riches are to me no bait. 
Thine honours do, nor will I love, 
For my ambition lies above. 
My greatest honour it shall be 
When I am victor over thee, 
And Triumph shall, with laurel head, 
When thou my Captive shalt be led. 
How I do live, thou need'st not scof...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...ut never seen.
Strange winged dragons writhe about
These vases, poisoned venoms spout,
Impregnate with old Chinese charms;
Sealed urns containing mortal harms,
They fill the mind with thoughts impure,
Pestilent drippings from the ure
Of vicious thinkings. "Ah, I see,"
Said I, "you deal in pottery."
The old man turned and looked at me.
Shook his head gently. "No," said he.
Then from under his cloak he took the thing
Which I had wondered to see him bring...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...ou hast said
And never had more cause of woe
Than when I did what thou bad'st do.
I'll stop mine ears at these thy charms
And count them for my deadly harms.
Thy sinful pleasures I do hate,
Thy riches are to me no bait.
Thine honours do, nor will I love,
For my ambition lies above.
My greatest honour it shall be
When I am victor over thee,
And Triumph shall, with laurel head,
When thou my Captive shalt be led.
How I do live, thou need'st not scoff,
For I h...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...ks besieged his last abode,
And he his Troy's hope still, her king-at-arms.
But on those gentle meads, which Lethe charms
With weary oblivion, his passion glow'd
Like the cold night-worm's candle, and only show'd
Such mimic flame as neither heats nor harms. 
'Twas plain to read, even by those shadows quaint,
How rude catastrophe had dim'd his day,
And blighted all his cheer with stern complaint:
To arms! to arms! what more the voice would say
Was swallow'd in the vall...Read more of this...

by Thompson, Francis
...wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save me, save only me?
All which I took from thee, I did'st but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms.
All which thy childs mistake fancies as lost,
I have stored for thee at Home.
Rise, clasp my hand, and come.
Halts by me that Footfall.
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
Ah, Fondest, Blindest, Weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest.
Thou dravest Love fro...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...the cheat of beauty's snare;
That snare more dreadful to be in,
Than huntsman's net, or horse-hair gin.
"By others' harms learn to be wise,"
As ancient proverbs well advise.
Each villany, that nature breeds,
From females and from love proceeds.
'Tis love disturbs with fell debate
Of man and beast the peaceful state:
Men fill the world with war's alarms,
When female trumpets sound to arms;
The commonwealth of dogs delight
For beauties, as for bones, to fight.
L...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...o burgeon out of all 
Within her--let her make herself her own 
To give or keep, to live and learn and be 
All that not harms distinctive womanhood. 
For woman is not undevelopt man, 
But diverse: could we make her as the man, 
Sweet Love were slain: his dearest bond is this, 
Not like to like, but like in difference. 
Yet in the long years liker must they grow; 
The man be more of woman, she of man; 
He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 
Nor lose the wrestling t...Read more of this...

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