Famous Harping Poems by Famous Poets

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

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At the Long Sault

...day; 
Eyes glared at us with serpent hate­
Yet sometimes a hush fell, and then we heard naught 
Save the wind's shrill harping far away, 
The piping of birds, and the softened calls 
Of the merry, distant water-falls; 
Then of other scenes we thought­
Of valleys beloved in sunny France, 
Purple vineyards of song and dance, 
Hopes and visions roseate; 
Of many a holy festal morn, 
And many a dream at vesper bell­
But anon the shuddering air was torn 
By noises such as the fie...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud


Beowulf (Old English)

...are this world endures!

Then song and music mingled sounds
in the presence of Healfdene’s head-of-armies {16c}
and harping was heard with the hero-lay
as Hrothgar’s singer the hall-joy woke
along the mead-seats, making his song
of that sudden raid on the sons of Finn. {16d}
Healfdene’s hero, Hnaef the Scylding,
was fated to fall in the Frisian slaughter. {16e}
Hildeburh needed not hold in value
her enemies’ honor! {16f} Innocent both
were the loved ones she lost ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

By an Autumn Fire

...Now at our casement the wind is shrilling, 
Poignant and keen 
And all the great boughs of the pines between 
It is harping a lone and hungering strain 
To the eldritch weeping of the rain; 
And then to the wild, wet valley flying 
It is seeking, sighing, 
Something lost in the summer olden. 
When night was silver and day was golden; 
But out on the shore the waves are moaning 
With ancient and never fulfilled desire, 
And the spirits of all the empty spaces, 
Of all the ...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Christmass

...ppy sound and mirth
That long wi childish memory stays
How blest around the cottage hearth
I met thee in my boyish days
Harping wi raptures dreaming joys
On presents that thy coming found
The welcome sight of little toys
The christmass gifts of comers round

'The wooden horse wi arching head
Drawn upon wheels around the room
The gilded coach of ginger bread
And many colord sugar plumb
Gilt coverd books for pictures sought
Or storys childhood loves to tell
Wi many a urgent pro...Read more of this...
by Clare, John

Hymn on the Morning of Christs Nativity

...e-fac't night array'd, 
The helmed Cherubim 
And sworded Seraphim, 
 Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid, 
Harping in loud and solemn quire, 
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir. 

Such musick (as 'tis said) 
Before was never made, 
 But when of old the sons of morning sung, 
While the Creator Great 
His constellations set, 
 And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung, 
And cast the dark foundations deep, 
And bid the weltring waves their oozy chann...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament (excerpt)

...ourself
To babble about him, all to show your wit--
And whether he were King by courtesy,
Or King by right--and so went harping down
The black king's highway, got so far, and grew
So witty that we play'd at ducks and drakes
With Arthur's vows on the great lake of fire.
Tuwhoo! do ye see it? do ye see the star?"


"Nay, fool," said Tristram, "not in open day."
And Dagonet, "Nay, nor will: I see it and hear.
It makes a silent music up in heaven,
And I, and Arthur and the angels...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

May

...d lost a leaf
When signs appear that token wet
As they are neath the bushes met
The girls are glad wi hopes of play
And harping of the holiday
A hugh blue bird will often swim
Along the wheat when skys grow dim
Wi clouds-slow as the gales of spring
In motion wi dark shadowd wing
Beneath the coming storm it sails
And lonly chirps the wheat hid quails
That came to live wi spring again
And start when summer browns the grain
They start the young girls joys afloat
Wi 'wet my foot'...Read more of this...
by Clare, John

Midnight in Camp

...ilderness of God;
And the tall firs that all day long have flung
Balsamic odors where the sunshine burned,
Chant to its harping primal epics learned
When this old world was young. 

Beyond the lake, white, girdling peaks uplift
Untroubled brows to virgin skies afar,
And o'er the uncertain water glimmers drift
Of fitful cloud and star.
Sure never day such mystic beauty held
As sylvan midnight here in this surcease
Of toil, when the kind darkness gives us peace
Garnered from ye...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Old Pardon the Son of Reprieve

...with my thatch of the snow; 
When he dies, then I hope I may follow, 
And go where the racehorses go. 
I don't want no harping nor singing -- 
Such things with my style don't agree; 
Where the hoofs of the horses are ringing 
There's music sufficient for me. 

And surely the thoroughbred horses 
Will rise up again and begin 
Fresh faces on far-away courses, 
And p'raps they might let me slip in. 
It would look rather well the race-card on 
'Mongst Cherubs and Seraphs and thi...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

Rain Along Shore

...Wan white mists upon the sea,
East wind harping mournfully
All the sunken reefs along,
Wail and heart-break in its song,
But adown the placid bay
Fisher-folk keep holiday.

All the deeps beyond the bar
Call and murmur from afar,
'Plaining of a mighty woe
Where the great ships come and go,
But adown the harbor gray
Fisher-folk keep holiday.

When the cloudy heavens frown,
And the sweeping rain come...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

The Blackbirds Are Rough Today

...are rough today
like
ingrown toenails
in an overnight
jail---
wine wine whine,
the blackbirds run around and
fly around
harping about
Spanish melodies and bones.

and everywhere is
nowhere---
the dream is as bad as
flapjacks and flat tires:

why do we go on
with our minds and
pockets full of
dust
like a bad boy just out of
school---
you tell
me,
you who were a hero in some
revolution
you who teach children
you who drink with calmness
you who own large homes
and walk in garden...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

The General Prologue

...as as a bell out of press.
Somewhat he lisped for his wantonness,
To make his English sweet upon his tongue;
And in his harping, when that he had sung,
His eyen* twinkled in his head aright, *eyes
As do the starres in a frosty night.
This worthy limitour  was call'd Huberd.

A MERCHANT was there with a forked beard,
In motley, and high on his horse he sat,
Upon his head a Flandrish beaver hat.
His bootes clasped fair and fetisly*. *neatly
His reasons aye spake he full sol...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The House Of Clouds

...apestried
With the showers of summer,
Close, but soundless,---glorified
When the sunbeams come here;
Wandering harpers, harping on
Waters stringed for such,---
Drawing colours, for a tune,
With a vibrant touch.

Bring a shadow green and still
From the chestnut forest,
Bring a purple from the hill,
When the heat is sorest;
Spread them out from wall to wall,
Carpet-wove around,---
Whereupon the foot shall fall
In light instead of sound.

Bring the fantasque cloudlets home
From ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

The Hymn

...e shame faced night arrayed
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.

XII

Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set, 
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel ke...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Last Tournament

...self 
To babble about him, all to show your wit-- 
And whether he were King by courtesy, 
Or King by right--and so went harping down 
The black king's highway, got so far, and grew 
So witty that ye played at ducks and drakes 
With Arthur's vows on the great lake of fire. 
Tuwhoo! do ye see it? do ye see the star?' 

`Nay, fool,' said Tristram, `not in open day.' 
And Dagonet, `Nay, nor will: I see it and hear. 
It makes a silent music up in heaven, 
And I, and Arthur and the...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Seafarer

...ring, nor his king to the faithful
But shall have his sorrow for sea-fare
Whatever his lord will.
He hath not heart for harping, nor in ring-having
Nor winsomeness to wife, nor world's delight
Nor any whit else save the wave's slash,
Yet longing comes upon him to fare forth on the water.
Bosque taketh blossom, cometh beauty of berries,
Fields to fairness, land fares brisker,
All this admonisheth man eager of mood,
The heart turns to travel so that he then thinks
On flood-ways...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra

uganda cry

...feelings where the groves

were rife with desiccated pens
but all the time my ears insistent to

the sounds of england harping at
my back rehearsing self's return

and i came back propelled against
the growing grains inside - to wring

futures from a skin the times had sloughed
and now (eleven years since then)

uganda's gone its own way into grief
and many i must have taught amin

has killed - i rush about my own concerns
unable to erupt the loathing that

consumes all rati...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

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