Famous Healthful Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Letter from Artemesia in the Town to Chloe in the Country

...vanities nor vices of the town;
Fresh in his youth, and faithful in his love;
Eager of joys which he does seldom prove;
Healthful and strong, he does no pains endure
But what the fair one he adores can cure;
Grateful for favors, does the sex esteem,
And libels none for being kind to him;
Then of the lewdness of the times complains:
Rails at the wits and atheists, and maintains
'Tis better than good sense, than power or wealth,
To have a love untainted, youth, and health.
--"T...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John


A Thanksgiving to God for His House

...nd giv'st me, for my bushel sown, 
Twice ten for one; 
Thou mak'st my teeming hen to lay 
Her egg each day; 
Besides my healthful ewes to bear 
Me twins each year; 
The while the conduits of my kine 
Run cream (for wine.) 
All these, and better Thou dost send 
Me, to this end, 
That I should render, for my part, 
A thankful heart, 
Which, fir'd with incense, I resign 
As wholly Thine; 
But the acceptance, that must be, 
My Christ, by Thee....Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

Against Idleness and Mischief

...abour or of Skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some Mischief still
For idle Hands to do.

In Books, or Work, or healthful Play
Let my first Years be past,
That I may give for every Day
Some good Account at last....Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Charmides

...
And now and then the shriller laughter where
The passionate purity of brown-limbed boys
Wrestled or raced in the clear healthful air,
And now and then a little tinkling bell
As the shorn wether led the sheep down to the mossy well.

Through the grey willows danced the fretful gnat,
The grasshopper chirped idly from the tree,
In sleek and oily coat the water-rat
Breasting the little ripples manfully
Made for the wild-duck's nest, from bough to bough
Hopped the shy finch, and ...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

First Anniversary

...didst thou from the first apply 
Thy sober spirit unto things too high, 
But in thine own fields exercised'st long, 
An healthful mind within a body strong; 
Till at the seventh time thou in the skies, 
As a small cloud, like a man's hand, didst rise; 
Then did thick mists and winds the air deform, 
And down at last thou poured'st the fertile storm, 
Which to the thirsty land did plenty bring, 
But, though forewarned, o'ertook and wet the King. 

What since he did, an higher ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew


Gareth And Lynette

...reth's ear. 
And out of bower and casement shyly glanced 
Eyes of pure women, wholesome stars of love; 
And all about a healthful people stept 
As in the presence of a gracious king. 

Then into hall Gareth ascending heard 
A voice, the voice of Arthur, and beheld 
Far over heads in that long-vaulted hall 
The splendour of the presence of the King 
Throned, and delivering doom--and looked no more-- 
But felt his young heart hammering in his ears, 
And thought, 'For this half-...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Humanitad

...erous feet are set;
Better the empty desert and a soul inviolate!

For gentle brotherhood, the harmony
Of living in the healthful air, the swift
Clean beauty of strong limbs when men are free
And women chaste, these are the things which lift
Our souls up more than even Agnolo's
Gaunt blinded Sibyl poring o'er the scroll of human woes,

Or Titian's little maiden on the stair
White as her own sweet lily and as tall,
Or Mona Lisa smiling through her hair, -
Ah! somehow life is b...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Inscription 07 - For A Tablet On The Banks Of A Stream

...tless speed
Yon glossy insect, on the sand below
How the swift shadow flies. The stream is pure
In solitude, and many a healthful herb
Bends o'er its course and drinks the vital wave:
But passing on amid the haunts of man,
It finds pollution there, and rolls from thence
A tainted tide. Seek'st thou for HAPPINESS?
Go Stranger, sojourn in the woodland cot
Of INNOCENCE, and thou shalt find her there....Read more of this...
by Southey, Robert

Isabella or The Pot of Basil

...essence steal."

XLI.
The Spirit mourn'd "Adieu!"--dissolv'd, and left
The atom darkness in a slow turmoil;
As when of healthful midnight sleep bereft,
Thinking on rugged hours and fruitless toil,
We put our eyes into a pillowy cleft,
And see the spangly gloom froth up and boil:
It made sad Isabella's eyelids ache,
And in the dawn she started up awake;

XLII.
"Ha! ha!" said she, "I knew not this hard life,
"I thought the worst was simple misery;
"I thought some Fate with ple...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Mischief

...of fun,
Now hear a tale of idle Jim, 
That warning they may take by him, 
Nor do as he has done. 

In harmless sport or healthful play
He did not pass his time away,
Nor took his pleasure in it;
For mischief was his only joy:
No book, or work, or even toy,
Could please him for a minute. 

A neighbour's house he'd slyly pass,
And throw a stone to break the glass,
And then enjoy the joke!
Or, if a window open stood,
He'd throw in stones, or bits of wood, 
To frighten all the fo...Read more of this...
by Taylor, Jane

No!

...any foreign coast--
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--
November!...Read more of this...
by Hood, Thomas

November

...No sun - no moon! 
No morn - no noon - 
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day. 
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, 
No comfortable feel in any member - 
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, 
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! - 
November!...Read more of this...
by Hood, Thomas

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...guring not God's likeness, but their own; 
Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced; 
While they pervert pure Nature's healthful rules 
To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they 
God's image did not reverence in themselves. 
I yield it just, said Adam, and submit. 
But is there yet no other way, besides 
These painful passages, how we may come 
To death, and mix with our connatural dust? 
There is, said Michael, if thou well observe 
The rule of Not too much; by temperance...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet 118: Like as to make our appetite more keen

...ue needing.
Thus policy in love t' anticipate
The ills that were not, grew to faults assured,
And brought to medicine a healthful state
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured.
But thence I learn and find the lesson true:
Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Ballad Of Reading Gaol

...morning air.

He did not wring his hands nor weep,
Nor did he peek or pine,
But he drank the air as though it held
Some healthful anodyne;
With open mouth he drank the sun
As though it had been wine!

And I and all the souls in pain,
Who tramped the other ring,
Forgot if we ourselves had done
A great or little thing,
And watched with gaze of dull amaze
The man who had to swing.

And strange it was to see him pass
With a step so light and gay,
And strange it was to see him loo...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The Deserted Village

...folly pays to pride.
Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,
Those calm desires that asked but little room,
Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene,
Lived in each look, and brightened all the green;
These, far departing, seek a kinder shore,
And rural mirth and manners are no more.

Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour,
Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power.
Here as I take my solitary rounds,
Amidst thy tangling walks and ruined grounds,
And, ...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver

The First Anniversary Of The Government Under O.C

...her didst thou from the first apply
Thy sober Spirit unto things too High,
But in thine own Fields exercisedst long,
An Healthful Mind within a Body strong;
Till at the Seventh time thou in the Skyes,
As a small Cloud, like a Mans hand didst rise;
Then did thick Mists and Winds the air deform,
And down at last thou pow'rdst the fertile Storm;
Which to the thirsty Land did plenty bring,
But though forewarn'd, o'r-took and wet the King.
What since he did, an higher Force him pu...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

The Triumph Of Woman

...oman's conquering charms,--
These shall we praise alone? Oh ye who sit
Beneath your vine, and quaff at evening hour
The healthful bowl, remember him whose dews,
Whose rains, whose sun, matur'd the growing fruit,
Creator and Preserver! Reverence Him,
O thou who from thy throne dispensest life
And death, for He has delegated power.
And thou shalt one day at the throne of God
Render most strict account! O ye who gaze
Enrapt on Beauty's fascinating form,
Gaze on with love, and lo...Read more of this...
by Southey, Robert

The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts)

...hen the sense of sacred presence fires,
356 And strong devotion to the skies aspires,
357 Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
358 Obedient passions, and a will resign'd;
359 For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
360 For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill;
361 For faith, that panting for a happier seat,
362 Counts death kind Nature's signal of retreat:
363 These goods for man the laws of Heav'n ordain,
364 These goods he grants, who grants the pow'r to...Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel

The Witch Of Atlas

...missioned, making wings of winds--
To stir sweet thoughts or sad in destined minds.

And liquors clear and sweet, whose healthful might
Could medicine the sick soul to happy sleep,
And change eternal death into a night
Of glorious dreams--or, if eyes needs must weep,
Could make their tears all wonder and delight--
She in her crystal phials did closely keep:
If men could drink of those clear phials, 'tis said
The living were not envied of the dead.

Her cave was stored with sc...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

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