Famous Harsher Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Absence

..., the tone, I know so well. 

Only two months since you stood here? 
 Two shortest months? Then tell me why 
Voices are harsher than they were, 
 And tears are longer ere they dry....Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour


Ballade: In Favour Of Those Called Decadents And Symbolists Translation of Paul Verlaines Poem: Ballade

...empered never.
We are the writers of good taste.

Phoebé when all the cats gray be
Highly sharpened to a point much harsher
Our bodies nourrished by glory
Hell licks its lips and in ambush does cower
And with his dart Phoebus pierces us ever
The night cradling us through dreamy waste
Strewn with seeds of peach beds over.
We are the writers of good taste.

A good many of the best minds rally
Holding high Man’s standard: toffee-nosed scoffer
And Lemerre* retains w...Read more of this...
by Wignesan, T

Bride of Abydos The

...o guilt just Allah sends — 
Slaves, tools, accomplices — no friends! 

XVII. 

"All this, Zuleika, harshly sounds; 
But harsher still my tale must be: 
Howe'er my tongue thy softness wounds, 
Yet I must prove all truth to thee. 
I saw thee start this garb to see, 
Yet is it one I oft have worn, 
And long must wear: this Galiong?e, 
To whom thy plighted vow is sworn, 
Is leader of those pirate hordes, 
Whose laws and lives are on their swords; 
To hear whose desolating tale 
W...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Menses

...han one in our few years together)
Chafe at the churlish wind, the unseasonable weather.

"Unseasonable?" you cry, with harsher scorn
Than the theme warrants; "Every year it is the same!
'Unseasonable!' they whine, these stupid peasants!—and never
since they were born
Have they known a spring less wintry! Lord, the shame,
The crying shame of seeing a man no wiser than the beasts he
feeds—
His skull as empty as a shell!"

("Go to. You are unwell.")

Such is my thought, but suc...Read more of this...
by St. Vincent Millay, Edna

Patriotism 02 Nelson Pitt Fox

...sleep with him who sleeps below:
And, if thou mourn'st they could not save
From error him who owns this grave,
Be every harsher thought suppress'd,
And sacred be the last long rest.
Here, where the end of earthly things
Lays heroes, patriots, bards, and kings;
Where stiff the hand, and still the tongue,
Of those who fought, and spoke, and sung;
Here, where the fretted vaults prolong
The distant notes of holy song,
As if some angel spoke agen,
'All peace on earth, good-will to...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter


Sonnet CXLI

...erile earth, which first was wornBeneath my infant feet; but harder far,And harsher still, the tyrant maid, whose scorn,In league with savage Love, inflamed the warOf all my passions.—Love himself more tame,With pity soothes my ills; while that cold heart,Insensible to the devouring flameWhich wastes my vitals, triumphs in m...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

The Bride of Abydos

...o guilt just Allah sends — 
Slaves, tools, accomplices — no friends! 

XVII. 

"All this, Zuleika, harshly sounds; 
But harsher still my tale must be: 
Howe'er my tongue thy softness wounds, 
Yet I must prove all truth to thee. 
I saw thee start this garb to see, 
Yet is it one I oft have worn, 
And long must wear: this Galiong?e, 
To whom thy plighted vow is sworn, 
Is leader of those pirate hordes, 
Whose laws and lives are on their swords; 
To hear whose desolating tale 
W...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Comedian As The Letter C

...
167 Aware of exquisite thought. The storm was one 
168 Of many proclamations of the kind, 
169 Proclaiming something harsher than he learned 
170 From hearing signboards whimper in cold nights 
171 Or seeing the midsummer artifice 
172 Of heat upon his pane. This was the span 
173 Of force, the quintessential fact, the note 
174 Of Vulcan, that a valet seeks to own, 
175 The thing that makes him envious in phrase. 

176 And while the torrent on the roof still drone...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Equipage

...the loosen'd Reins: 
In the Box fits vig'rous Health, 
Shunning miry Paths of Wealth: 
Gaiety with easy Smiles, 
Ev'ry harsher Step beguiles; 
Whilst of Nature, or of Fate 
Only This I wou'd intreat: 
The Equipage might not decay, 
Till the worn Carriage drops away....Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill

The Future Life

...ilt thou forget the love that joined us here? 

The love that lived through all the stormy past  
And meekly with my harsher nature bore  
And deeper grew and tenderer to the last  
Shall it expire with life and be no more? 20 

A happier lot than mine and larger light  
Await thee there for thou hast bowed thy will 
In cheerful homage to the rule of right  
And lovest all and renderest good for ill. 

For me the sordid cares in which I dwell 25 
Shrink and consu...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen

The Lady of the Lake

..., by distance tame,
     Mellowed along the waters came,
     And, lingering long by cape and bay,
     Wailed every harsher note away,
     Then bursting bolder on the ear,
     The clan's shrill Gathering they could hear,
     Those thrilling sounds that call the might
     Of old Clan-Alpine to the fight.
     Thick beat the rapid notes, as when
     The mustering hundreds shake the glen,
     And hurrying at the signal dread,
     'Fine battered earth returns t...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Preceptor

...ck, 
 Who kept us youthful drudges in the track, 
 Thinking it good for them to leave home care, 
 And for a while a harsher yoke to bear; 
 Surrender all the careless ease of home, 
 And be forbid from schoolyard bounds to roam; 
 For this with blandest smiles he softly asks 
 That they with him will prosecute their tasks; 
 Receives them in his solemn chilly lair, 
 The rigid lot of discipline to share. 
 At dingy desks they toil by day; at night 
 To gloomy cham...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

What News

...ight, the tone, I know so well.

Only two months since you stood here!
Two shortest months! then tell me why
Voices are harsher than they were,
And tears are longer ere they dry....Read more of this...
by Landor, Walter Savage

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