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Famous Heft Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...strangled:
A knife, a father’s throat had mangled.
Whom his ain son of life bereft,
The grey-hairs yet stack to the heft;
Wi’ mair of horrible and awfu’,
Which even to name wad be unlawfu’.


 As Tammie glowr’d, amaz’d, and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious;
The Piper loud and louder blew,
The dancers quick and quicker flew,
The reel’d, they set, they cross’d, they cleekit,
Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,
And coost her duddies to the wark,
And linkit ...Read more of this...



by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...wilt?

No dome with suns and dews impearled and gilt,
Imperial: but some roof of wildwood tree,
Too mean for sceptre's heft or swordblade's hilt.

Some low sweet roof where love might live, set free
From change and fear and dreams of grief or guilt;
Canst thou not leave life even thus much to see,
Death, if thou wilt?

II.

Man, what art thou to speak and plead with me?
What knowest thou of my workings, where and how
What things I fashion? Nay, behold and see,
Man, w...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...u wit?

No dome with suns and dews impearled and gilt,
Imperial: but some roof of wildwood tree,
Too mean for sceptre's heft or swordblade's hilt.

Some low sweet roof where love might live, set free
From change and fear and dreams of grief or guilt;
Canst thou not leave life even thus much to see,
Death, if thou wilt?

II
Man, what art thou to speak and plead with me?
What knowest thou of my workings, where and how
What things I fashion? Nay, behold and see,
Man, what ar...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...A Weight with Needles on the pounds --
To push, and pierce, besides --
That if the Flesh resist the Heft --
The puncture -- coolly tries --

That not a pore be overlooked
Of all this Compound Frame --
As manifold for Anguish --
As Species -- be -- for name --...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...error afore,
With a rushing of sobs in a shower were strawn,
Till her power to pour 'em seemed wasted and gone
From the heft o' misfortune she bore.

"O Tim, my own Tim I must call 'ee--I will!
All the world ha' turned round on me so!
Can you help her who loved 'ee, though acting so ill?
Can you pity her misery--feel for her still?
When worse than her body so quivering and chill
Is her heart in its winter o' woe!

"I think I mid almost ha' borne it," she said,
"Had my gri...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...ill they came to the Big Cascade.
And here they must make the long portage, and the boys sweat in the sun;
And they heft and pack, and they haul and track, and each must do his trick;
But their thoughts are far in the Landing bar, where the founts of nectar run:
And no man thinks of such gorgeous drinks as that Athabaska Dick.

'Twas the close of day and his long boat lay just over the Big Cascade,
When there came to him one Jack-pot Jim, with a wild light in his eye;...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...or
 factory;
These shows all near you by day and night—workman! whoever you are, your daily life! 
In that and them the heft of the heaviest—in them far more than you estimated, and
 far
 less
 also; 
In them realities for you and me—in them poems for you and me; 
In them, not yourself—you and your Soul enclose all things, regardless of estimation;

In them the development good—in them, all themes and hints.

I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile—I do not advise y...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...lls, like giants at a hunting, lay,
Chin upon hand, to see the game at bay, -
'Now stab and end the creature - to the heft!'

Not hear? when noise was everywhere! it tolled
Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears
Of all the lost adventurers my peers, -
How such a one was strong, and such was bold,
And such was fortunate, yet each of old
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.

There they stood, ranged along the hill-sides, met
To view the last of...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...night and day.
And I used to sit and sing to it, and I shielded it from harm,
And many a hearty feed it had on the heft of my hairy arm.
For you'll never know in that land of snow how lonesome a man can feel;
So I made a fuss of the little cuss, and I christened it "Lucille".
But the longest winter has its end, and the ice went out to sea,
And I saw one day a ship in the bay, and there was the Nancy Lee.
So a boat was lowered and I went aboard, and they opene...Read more of this...

by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...Too fast:
Not that, but thus far, all with frailty, blest 
In one fair fall; but, for time’s aftercast, 
Creatures all heft, hope, hazard, interest. 

And are they thus? The fine, the fingering beams
Their young delightful hour do feature down
That fleeted else like day-dissolv?d dreams 
Or ringlet-race on burling Barrow brown. 

She leans on him with such contentment fond 
As well the sister sits, would well the wife; 
His looks, the soul’s own letters, see beyond,
...Read more of this...

by Geyer, Bernadette
...uail eggs.

*

Let me rub you against my teeth to test
the veracity of you, roll you
around my tongue to weigh your heft.

*

The heart clenches, hides its moon
among clouds. Would that I, too, could build
a radiant world around a bitter nucleus....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...rest friend;
God meant it so, and that is why
I'll toil unto the end.
I thank the Lord I'm full of beans,
So let me heft a hoe,
And I will don my garden jeans
And help the beans to grow....Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...had strangled;
A knife, a father's throat had mangled,
Whom his ain son o' life bereft,
The grey hairs yet stack to the heft;
Wi' mair of horrible and awfu',
Which even to name wad be unlawfu'.

As Tammie glowered, amazed and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious:
The Piper loud and louder blew;
The dancers quick and quicker flew;
They reeled, they set, they crossed, they cleekit,
Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,
And coost her duddies to the wark,
And linket a...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...>

A man once aimed that my life be shamed, and wrought me a deathly wrong;
I vowed one day I would well repay, but the heft of his hate was strong.
He thonged me East and he thonged me West; he harried me back and forth,
Till I fled in fright from his peerless spite to the bleak, bald-headed North.

And there I lay, and for many a day I hatched plan after plan,
For a golden haul of the wherewithal to crush and to kill my man;
And there I strove, and there I clove thr...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...r afore, 
With a rushing of sobs in a shower were strawn, 
Till her power to pour 'em seemed wasted and gone 
 From the heft o' misfortune she bore. 

"O Tim, my own Tim I must call 'ee--I will! 
 All the world ha' turned round on me so! 
Can you help her who loved 'ee, though acting so ill? 
Can you pity her misery--feel for her still? 
When worse than her body so quivering and chill 
 Is her heart in its winter o' woe! 

"I think I mid almost ha' borne it," she said, 
 ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...d to be a pretty *****.)

The moustached women on my left,
With spirits on hr heavy breath,
Lasciviously leaned her heft
On me as one who languisheth.
The sordid room was still as death.

"A shape I see," the medium cried,
"Whose face and name I do not know . . ."
"'Tis Robert service," soft replied
A voice - "I passed a month ago,
And I've come back to let you know.

"The Other Side is gay and bright;
We are so happy there and free,
And Dan McGrew...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...y smile o' Father tim McGee.
Then on the bar stood Santa Claus, says he: "We'll form a Trust;
So all you sourdoughs heft your pokes an' hang 'em on the Tree.
To give them kids a chance in life we'll raise enough or bust!"
"For zem I pray ze Lord to bless," said Montreal Maree.

You never saw a Christmas Tree so swell as that, I vow,
Wi' sixty sweaty sourdoughs ringin' round them infants two;
Their solid pokes o' virgin gold aweighin' down each bough,
All singin' C...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...uck the Muse's teats,
I think I would have liked to be
 A sweeper of the streets;
And city gutters glad to groom,
 Have heft a bonny broom.

There--as amid the crass and crush
 The limousines swished by,
I would have leaned upon my brush
 With visionary eye:
Deeming despite their loud allure
 That I was rich, they poor.

Aye, though in garb terrestrial,
 To Heaven I would pray,
And dream with broom celestial
 I swept the Milky Way;
And golden chariots would ring,
 And...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons --
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes --

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us --
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are --

None may teach it -- Any --
'Tis the Seal Despair --
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air --

When it comes, the Landscape listens --
Shadows -- hold their breath --
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death...Read more of this...

by Padel, Ruth
...ow?
Too bad. My soul has made its home
In you. I'm here and bare before you: shy,
In tears. But if I didn't heft my whole self up and hold it there - 
A crack-free mirror - loving you, or if I couldn't share
It, set it out in words, I'd die.
*
"I'll wait to hear from you. I must. Please let me hope.
Give me one look, from eyes I hardly dare
To look back at. Or scupper my dream 
By scolding me. I've given you rope
To hang me: tell me I'm mis...Read more of this...

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