Famous Helplessness Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Helplessness poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous helplessness poems. These examples illustrate what a famous helplessness poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Petrarch, Francesco
...tUnto the throne of heavenly grace have past;Yet, breathed by human helplessness, ah! when[Pg 30]Had purest orison the skill and forceTo bend eternal justice from its course?But He, heaven's bounteous ruler from on high,On the sad sacred spot, where erst He bled,Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...thers, chid.From mercy thus if envy bar me, beMy amorous thirst and helplessness my plea. In divers ways how often have I triedIf, reft of these, aught mortal could retainE'en for a single day in life my frame:But, ah! my soul, which has no rest beside,Speeds back to those ...Read more of this...
by
Hugo, Victor
...ve not a sound, and all the armor spread,
The hauberks, that strong breathing seemed to sway,
Are stranded now in helplessness alway
To see the shadows, still prolonged, that seem
To take at night the image of a dream.
These two great files reach from the door afar
To where the table and the daïs are,
Leaving between their fronts a narrow lane.
On the left side the Marquises maintain
Their place, but the right side the Dukes retain,
And till t...Read more of this...
by
Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...u;
Take my salute,' unknightly with flat hand,
However lightly, smote her on the cheek.
Then Enid, in her utter helplessness,
And since she thought, 'He had not dared to do it,
Except he surely knew my lord was dead,'
Sent forth a sudden sharp and bitter cry,
As of a wild thing taken in the trap,
Which sees the trapper coming through the wood.
This heard Geraint, and grasping at his sword,
(It lay beside him in the hollow shield),
Made but a single bound,...Read more of this...
by
Byron, George (Lord)
...d become?
Night's sepulchre, the universal home,
Where weakness, strength, vice, virtue, sunk supine,
Alike in naked helplessness recline;
Glad for awhile to heave unconscious breath,
Yet wake to wrestle with the dread of death,
And shun, though day but dawn on ills increased,
That sleep, the loveliest, since it dreams the least.
____________
CANTO THE SECOND.
I.
Night wanes — the vapours round the mountains curl'd,
Melt into morn, and Light awakes...Read more of this...
by
Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...s idiot world
Where blood pays blood for nothing, and where life
Pays life to madness, till at last the ports
Of gilded helplessness be battered through
By the still crash of salvatory steel.
XVII
To you that sit with Sorrow like chained slaves,
And wonder if the night will ever come,
I would say this: The night will never come,
And sorrow is not always. But my words
Are not enough; your eyes are not enough;
The soul itself must insulate the Real,
Or ever you do c...Read more of this...
by
Graham, Jorie
...aping, a gold river,
and a blue river traveling
in opposite directions.
They would not stop, resolution of will
and helplessness, as the eye
is helpless
when the image forms itself, upside-down, backward,
driving up into
the mind, and the world
unfastens itself
from the deep ocean of the given. . .Justice, aspen
leaves, mother attempting
suicide, the white night-flying moth
the ants dismantled bit by bit and carried in
right through the crack
in my wall. ....Read more of this...
by
Dunn, Stephen
...it
every which way until it had an order
and a deceptive period at the end. That's what
I always do in the face of helplessness,
make some arrangements if I can.
Praise the odd, serendipitous world.
Nothing I'd be inclined to think of
would have stopped that dog.
Only the facts saved her....Read more of this...
by
Lanier, Sidney
...ereon in triumph; hounded ever
By small necessities of barest use
Which, since I cannot compass them alone,
Do snarl my helplessness into mine ear,
Howling behind me that I have no hands,
And yelping round me that I have no feet:
So that my heart is stretched by tiny ills
That are so much the larger that I knew
In bygone days how trifling small they were:
-- Dungeoned in wicker, strong as 'twere in stone;
-- Fast chained with nothing, firmer than with steel;
-- Captive in lim...Read more of this...
by
Verhaeren, Emile
...mall
The terror dwells of feeling It is nigh.
And, though It stirs not, dominating all.
Broken with dull despair and helplessness,
Beneath Its presence they crouch motionless,
As though upon the watch—and dread to see.
Through rifts of vapour, open suddenly
At evening, in the moon, the argent eyes
Of Its mute mysteries.
...Read more of this...
by
Shakur, Tupac
...the 2 pushed u away
the one got weak and embraced u
and now u are ripping us apart..
The worst feeling of helplessness
the greatest pain has rested in my heart
the vision of heaven fades
and the nightmare of loneliness has started..
My hero has been defeated by u
and now what can i do
watch as u destroy us
and our love is finally through
I know worst is here
I feel it in my heart
u got into the circle
now u are tearing us apart! ...Read more of this...
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