Famous Harp Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Childs Christmas In Wales

...ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel
petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt
like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the
English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the
daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed. But ...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan


A poem on divine revelation

...othes her visage horible to view. 
Celestial graces better sooth the soul, 
Than vocal music, or the charming sound 
Of harp or lyre. More than the golden lyre 
Which Orpheus tun'd in melancholy notes, 
Which almost pierc'd the dull cold ear of death, 
And mov'd the grave to give him back his bride. 


Peace with the graces and fair science now 
Wait on the gospel car; science improv'd 
Puts on a fairer dress; a fairer form 
Now ev'ry art assumes; bold eloquence 
Moves in a h...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

A poem on the rising glory of America

...Detain the muses on Cithæron's brow, 
Or old Olympus crown'd with waving woods; 
Or Hæmus' top where once was heard the harp, 
Sweet Orpheus' harp that ravish'd hell below 
And pierc'd the soul of Orcus and his bride, 
That hush'd to silence by the song divine 
Thy melancholy waters, and the gales 
O Hebrus! which o'er thy sad surface blow. 
No more the maids round Alpheus' waters stray 
Where he with Arethusas' stream doth mix, 
Or where swift Tiber disembogues his waves 
In...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

A Song To David

...I 
O THOU, that sit'st upon a throne, 
With harp of high majestic tone, 
 To praise the King of kings; 
And voice of heav'n-ascending swell, 
Which, while its deeper notes excell, 
 Clear, as a clarion, rings: 

 II 
To bless each valley, grove and coast, 
And charm the cherubs to the post 
 Of gratitude in throngs; 
To keep the days on Zion's mount, 
And send the year to his account, 
 With dances an...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Alastor: or the Spirit of Solitude

...h voice stifled in tremulous sobs
Subdued by its own pathos; her fair hands
Were bare alone, sweeping from some strange harp
Strange symphony, and in their branching veins
The eloquent blood told an ineffable tale.
The beating of her heart was heard to fill
The pauses of her music, and her breath 
Tumultuously accorded with those fits
Of intermitted song. Sudden she rose,
As if her heart impatiently endured
Its bursting burden; at the sound he turned,
And saw by the warm ligh...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe


Beowulf (Modern English)

...hty monster
suffered for a space, he who dwelt in darkness,
every day hearing the joy loud in the hall.
The voice of harps was there and the ringing song
of the scop. One spoke who knew best,
of the creation of men, relating from long before.
He told that the Almighty made the earth,
a shining-bright plain, so surrounded by waters.
He established both sun and moon, victorious and triumphant,
the lamps of light for those living on land,
and ornamented all the corners...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...r an evil spirit
endured the dole in his dark abode,
that he heard each day the din of revel
high in the hall: there harps rang out,
clear song of the singer. He sang who knew {1d}
tales of the early time of man,
how the Almighty made the earth,
fairest fields enfolded by water,
set, triumphant, sun and moon
for a light to lighten the land-dwellers,
and braided bright the breast of earth
with limbs and leaves, made life for all
of mortal beings that breathe and mo...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Death and Fame

...
 peters, bowed bass & french horn black geniuses, folksinger 
 fiddlers with dobro tamborine harmonica mandolin auto-
 harp pennywhistles & kazoos
Next, artist Italian romantic realists schooled in mystic 60's India, 
 Late fauve Tuscan painter-poets, Classic draftsman Massa-
 chusets surreal jackanapes with continental wives, poverty 
 sketchbook gesso oil watercolor masters from American 
 provinces
Then highschool teachers, lonely Irish librarians, delicate biblio-
 phile...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

Hyperion

...ed of thine hoary majesty.
Thy thunder, conscious of the new command,
Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house;
And thy sharp lightning in unpractised hands
Scorches and burns our once serene domain.
O aching time! O moments big as years!
All as ye pass swell out the monstrous truth,
And press it so upon our weary griefs
That unbelief has not a space to breathe.
Saturn, sleep on:---O thoughtless, why did I
Thus violate thy slumbrous solitude?
Why should I ope thy melancholy ey...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Love

...sp;She lean'd against the Armed Man,  The Statue of the Armed Knight:  She stood and listen'd to my Harp    Amid the ling'ring Light.   Few Sorrows hath she of her own,  My Hope, my Joy, my Genevieve!  She loves me best, whene'er I sing    The Songs, that make her grieve.   I play'd a soft and doleful Air,  I sang an old and moving Story—  An o...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

Love

...e lay;—

His dying words—but when I reached
That tenderest strain of all the ditty,
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, a...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...Oeta threw 
Into th' Euboic sea. Others, more mild, 
Retreated in a silent valley, sing 
With notes angelical to many a harp 
Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall 
By doom of battle, and complain that Fate 
Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 
Their song was partial; but the harmony 
(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?) 
Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment 
The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 
(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms t...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...editated; such prompt eloquence 
Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous verse, 
More tuneable than needed lute or harp 
To add more sweetness; and they thus began. 
These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 
Almighty! Thine this universal frame, 
Thus wonderous fair; Thyself how wonderous then! 
Unspeakable, who sitst above these heavens 
To us invisible, or dimly seen 
In these thy lowest works; yet these declare 
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine. 
Spe...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Artists

...ng to proportion's chains,
Must with its sisters join in friendly link,
The hero in the hero-band must sink,
The Muses' harp peals forth its tuneful strains.

The wondering savages soon came
To view the new creation's plan
"Behold!"--the joyous crowds exclaim,--
"Behold, all this is done by man!"
With jocund and more social aim
The minstrel's lyre their awe awoke,
Telling of Titans, and of giant's frays
And lion-slayers, turning, as he spoke,
Even into heroes those who heard ...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Ballad of the White Horse

...in-wrapped isle,
Where Patrick and Brandan westerly
Looked out at last on a landless sea
And the sun's last smile.

His harp was carved and cunning,
As the Celtic craftsman makes,
Graven all over with twisting shapes
Like many headless snakes.

His harp was carved and cunning,
His sword prompt and sharp,
And he was gay when he held the sword,
Sad when he held the harp.

For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry,
And all their s...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Bride of Abydos

...a's turban'd band 
Mix in the game of mimic slaughter, 
Careering cleave the folded felt [13] 
With sabre stroke right sharply dealt; 
Nor mark'd the javelin-darting crowd, 
Nor heard their Ollahs wild and loud [14] — 
He thought but of old Giaffir's daughter! 

X. 

No word from Selim's bosom broke; 
One sigh Zuleika's thought bespoke: 
Still gazed he through the lattice grate, 
Pale, mute, and mournfully sedate. 
To him Zuleika's eye was turn'd, 
But little from his aspect ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Everlasting Mercy

...poor things, on Dog Hill bench; 
And how he'd owned to one Court 
And how Judge made him sorry for't. 
Jack set a jew's harp twanging drily; 
"gimme another cup," said Riley. 
A dozen more were in their glories 
With laughs and smokes and smutty stories; 
And Jimmy joked and took his sup 
And sang his song of "Up, come up." 
Jane brought the bowl of stewing gin 
And poured the egg and lemon in, 
And whisked it up and served it out 
While bawdy questions went about. 
Jack chuc...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The Holy Grail

...r's use 
To hunt by moonlight;' and the slender sound 
As from a distance beyond distance grew 
Coming upon me--O never harp nor horn, 
Nor aught we blow with breath, or touch with hand, 
Was like that music as it came; and then 
Streamed through my cell a cold and silver beam, 
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail, 
Rose-red with beatings in it, as if alive, 
Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed 
With rosy colours leaping on the wall; 
And then the music fade...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Lady of the Lake

...CANTO FIRST.

The Chase.

     Harp of the North! that mouldering long hast hung
        On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's spring
     And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung,
        Till envious ivy did around thee cling,
     Muffling with verdant ringlet every string,—
        O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep?
     Mid rustling leaves and fountains ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...then this appearance was no more, but I found
myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moon light
hearing a harper who sung to the harp. & his theme was, The man
who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds
reptiles of the mind.
But I arose, and sought for the mill, & there I found my
Angel, who surprised asked me, how I escaped?
I answerd. All that we saw was owing to your metaphysics: for
when you ran away, I found myself on a bank by moonlight ...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

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