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Famous Homing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Masefield, John
..., the love she gave. 

And I shall know, in angry words, 
In gibes, and mocks, and many a tear, 
A carrion flock of homing-birds, 
The gibes and scorns I uttered here. 
The brave word that I failed to speak 
Will brand me dastard on the cheek. 

And as I wander on the roads 
I shall be helped and healed and blessed; 
Dear words shall cheer and be as goads 
To urge to heights before unguessed. 
My road shall be the road I made; 
All that I gave shall be repaid....Read more of this...



by Brooke, Rupert
...babes that weep, and so forget their weeping;
And the young heavens, forgetful after rain;
And evening hush, broken by homing wings;
And Song's nobility, and Wisdom holy,
That live, we dead. I would think of a thousand things,
Lovely and durable, and taste them slowly,
One after one, like tasting a sweet food.
I have need to busy my heart with quietude....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ir,
As fit a seeming lad and lass
 As ought to pair.

For twenty years I went away
 And scoured the China Sea,
Then homing came and found that they
 Were still sweet company.
The Doctor and the Priest had banned
 Three times their wedding ties,
Yet they were walking hand in hand,
 Love in their eyes.

And then I went away again
 For years another score,
And sailored all the Spanish Main
 Ere I returned once more;
And now I see them pass my gate,
 So slow and stoop...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...t the recurrent end of the unending
After the dark dove with the flickering tongue
 Had passed below the horizon of his homing
 While the dead leaves still rattled on like tin
Over the asphalt where no other sound was
 Between three districts whence the smoke arose
 I met one walking, loitering and hurried
As if blown towards me like the metal leaves
 Before the urban dawn wind unresisting.
 And as I fixed upon the down-turned face
That pointed scrutiny with which we chal...Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...Be Fame their mistress whom Love passes by. 
This only matters: from some flowery bed, 
Laden with sweetness like a homing bee, 
If one have known what bliss it is to come, 
Bearing on hands and breast and laughing lips 
The fragrance of his youth's dear rose. To him 
The hills have bared their treasure, the far clouds 
Unveiled the vision that o'er summer seas 
Drew on his thirsting arms. This last thing known, 
He can court danger, laugh at perilous odds, 
And, ...Read more of this...



by Hardy, Thomas
...d mean but Not to Know: 
Hence, Messengers! and straightway put an end 
 To what men undergo." . . . 

 Homing at dawn, I thought to see 
 One of the Messengers standing by. 
- Oh, childish thought! . . . Yet oft it comes to me 
 When trouble hovers nigh....Read more of this...

by McKay, Claude
...Swift swallows sailing from the Spanish main, 
O rain-birds racing merrily away 
From hill-tops parched with heat and sultry plain 
Of wilting plants and fainting flowers, say-- 

When at the noon-hour from the chapel school 
The children dash and scamper down the dale, 
Scornful of teacher's rod and binding rule 
Forever broken and without avail, 

Do the...Read more of this...

by Naidu, Sarojini
...les of Thy morn.

What care I for the world's desire and pride,
Who know the silver wings that gleam and glide,
The homing pigeons of Thine eventide?

What care I for the world's loud weariness,
Who dream in twilight granaries Thou dost bless
With delicate sheaves of mellow silences?

Say, shall I heed dull presages of doom,
Or dread the rumoured loneliness and gloom,
The mute and mythic terror of the tomb?

For my glad heart is drunk and drenched with Thee,
O inmost wind...Read more of this...

by Mackeller, Dorothea
...r, 
You will not understand 
though Earth holds many splendours, 
Wherever I may die, 
I know to what brown country 
My homing thoughts will fly....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...the valiant fray;
Adventure beacons through the summer gloaming:
Oh long and long and long will be the day
 Ere I come homing!

This earth is ours to love: lute, brush and pen,
They are but tongues to tell of life sincerely;
The thaumaturgic Day, the might of men,
O God of Scribes, grant us to grave them clearly!
Grant heart that homes in heart, then all is well.
Honey is honey-sweet, howe'er the hiving.
Each to his work, his wage at evening bell
 The strength of str...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...can do."
Seemed that Priscilla just took the word;
Up with a leap like a horse that's spurred,
On with the joy of a homing bird,
Swift as the wind she flew.

Shell-holes shoot at them out of the night;
A lurch to the left, a wrench to the right,
Hands grim-gripping and teeth clenched tight,
Eyes that glare through the dark.
"Priscilla, you're doing me proud this day;
Hospital's only a league away,
And, honey, I'm longing to hit the hay,
So hurry, old girl. .Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...Exiled afar from youth and happy love, 
If Death should ravish my fond spirit hence 
I have no doubt but, like a homing dove, 
It would return to its dear residence, 
And through a thousand stars find out the road 
Back into earthly flesh that was its loved abode....Read more of this...

by Brooke, Rupert
...abes that weep, and so forget their weeping; 
And the young heavens, forgetful after rain; 
And evening hush, broken by homing wings; 
And Song’s nobility, and Wisdom holy,
That live, we dead. I would think of a thousand things, 
Lovely and durable, and taste them slowly, 
One after one, like tasting a sweet food. 
I have need to busy my heart with quietude....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ming
 In the Country of the Crepuscule beside the Frozen Sea,
Where the musk-ox runs unchallenged, and the cariboo goes homing;
 And they sit like little children, just as quiet as can be:
 Men of every crime and colour, how they harken unto me!

And I tell them of the Furland, of the tumpline and the paddle,
 Of secret rivers loitering, that no one will explore;
And I tell them of the ranges, of the pack-strap and the saddle,
 And they fill their pipes in silence, and their ...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...the side of his pig in the gloaming. 

A terrible scrimmage did straightway begin, 
And I thought it was time to be homing, 
For Maoris and Irish were fighting like sin 
'Midst war-cries of "Pakeha!" "Batherashin!" 
As I fled from the spot in the gloaming...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...g the joy.
There was music, mirth and sunshine; but some eyes shone with regret;
 And while we stun with cheers our homing braves,
O God, in Thy great mercy, let us nevermore forget
 The graves they left behind, the bitter graves....Read more of this...

by Brooke, Rupert
...eaceful even to death. . . .
O Thou,
God of all long desirous roaming,
Our hearts are sick of fruitless homing,
And crying after lost desire.
Hearten us onward! as with fire
Consuming dreams of other bliss.
The best Thou givest, giving this
Sufficient thing -- to travel still
Over the plain, beyond the hill,
Unhesitating through the shade,
Amid the silence unafraid,
Till, at some sudden turn, one sees
Against the black and muttering trees
Thine altar, ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...er headlong they plunged, to the fathomless regions 
 Of myriads forgot. 

XVI 

 And the spirits of those who were homing 
 Passed on, rushingly, 
 Like the Pentecost Wind; 
 And the whirr of their wayfaring thinned 
And surceased on the sky, and but left in the gloaming 
 Sea-mutterings and me....Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...s told to me,
And this I have thought that another man thought of a Prince in Muscovy."
The good souls flocked like homing doves and bade him clear the path,
And Peter twirled the jangling keys in weariness and wrath.
"Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said, "and the tale is yet to run:
By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer -- what ha' ye done?"
Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and little good it bore,
For the Darkness stayed at h...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...lls the place 
Of the setting sun. 
The hazy darkness deepens, 
And up the lane 
You may hear, but cannot see, 
The homing wain. 
An engine pants and hums 
In the farm hard by: 
Its lowering smoke is lost 
In the lowering sky. 
The soaking branches drip, 
And all night through 
The dropping will not cease 
In the avenue. 
A tall man there in the house 
Must keep his chair: 
He knows he will never again 
Breathe the spring air: 
His heart is worn with work; 
He...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs