Famous Hospitality Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Remember me implored the Thief!

by Emily Dickinson
 "Remember me" implored the Thief!
Oh Hospitality!
My Guest "Today in Paradise"
I give thee guaranty.

That Courtesy will fair remain
When the Delight is Dust
With which we cite this mightiest case
Of compensated Trust.

Of all we are allowed to hope
But Affidavit stands
That this was due where most we fear
Be unexpected Friends....Read more of this...

To Penshurst

by Ben Jonson
  II. — TO PENSHURST.                Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told ; Or stair, or courts ;  but stand'st an ancient pile, And these grudg'd at, art reverenced the while. Thou joy'st in better marks, of soil, of air, Of wood, of water ;  therein thou art fair. Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport :...Read more of this...

After A Visit

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I be'n down in ole Kentucky
Fur a week er two, an' say,
'T wuz ez hard ez breakin' oxen
Fur to tear myse'f away.
Allus argerin' 'bout fren'ship
An' yer hospitality—
Y' ain't no right to talk about it
Tell you be'n down there to see.
See jest how they give you welcome
To the best that's in the land,
Feel the sort o' grip they give you
When they...Read more of this...

Great are the Myths

by Walt Whitman
 1
GREAT are the myths—I too delight in them; 
Great are Adam and Eve—I too look back and accept them; 
Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers,
 warriors,
 and priests. 
Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower; 
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail,
I weather it out...Read more of this...

Poem of Remembrance for a Girl or a Boy

by Walt Whitman
 YOU just maturing youth! You male or female! 
Remember the organic compact of These States, 
Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to the rights, life, liberty,
 equality of
 man, 
Remember what was promulged by the founders, ratified by The States, signed in black and
 white
 by the Commissioners, and read by Washington at the head of the...Read more of this...

The Ancestral Dwelling

by Henry Van Dyke
 Dear to my heart are the ancestral dwellings of America,
Dearer than if they were haunted by ghosts of royal splendour;
These are the homes that were built by the brave beginners of a nation,
They are simple enough to be great, and full of a friendly dignity. 

I love the old white farmhouses nestled in New England valleys,
Ample and long and...Read more of this...

Our little Kinsmen -- after Rain

by Emily Dickinson
 Our little Kinsmen -- after Rain
In plenty may be seen,
A Pink and Pulpy multitude
The tepid Ground upon.

A needless life, it seemed to me
Until a little Bird
As to a Hospitality
Advanced and breakfasted.

As I of He, so God of Me
I pondered, may have judged,
And left the little Angle Worm
With Modesties enlarged....Read more of this...

These are the Signs to Natures Inns --

by Emily Dickinson
 These are the Signs to Nature's Inns --
Her invitation broad
To Whosoever famishing
To taste her mystic Bread --

These are the rites of Nature's House --
The Hospitality
That opens with an equal width
To Beggar and to Bee

For Sureties of her staunch Estate
Her undecaying Cheer
The Purple in the East is set
And in the North, the Star --...Read more of this...

A Parting Guest

by James Whitcomb Riley
 What delightful hosts are they -- 
      Life and Love! 
Lingeringly I turn away, 
      This late hour, yet glad enough 
They have not withheld from me 
      Their high hospitality. 
So, with face lit with delight 
      And...Read more of this...

Highland Hospitality

by Robert William Service
 Unto his housemaid spoke the Laird:
"Tonight the Bishop is our guest;
The spare room must be warmed and aired:
To please him we will do our best.
A worthy haggis you must make,
And serve a bowl of barley bree;
We must be hearty for the sake
Of Highland Hospitality.

The feast was set, the candles lit,
The Bishop came with modest mien,
And (one surmised) was glad...Read more of this...

To make America the greatest is my goal

by Muhammad Ali
To make America the greatest is my goal,
So I beat the Russians, and I beat the Pole,
and for the USA won the medal of gold.
Italians said: "You're Greater than the Cassius of old´´.
We like your name, we like your game,
So make Rome your home if you will.
I said I appreciate your kind hospitality,
But the USA is my country still,
'Cause they're...Read more of this...

The Old Clock On The Stairs

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 L'eternite est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans
cesse ces deux mots seulement dans le silence des tombeaux:
"Toujours! jamais! Jamais! toujours!"--JACQUES BRIDAINE.

Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.
Across its antique portico
Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all,--
"Forever--never!
Never--forever!"

Half-way up the stairs it stands,
And points and beckons with...Read more of this...

Holyrood Palace

by Victor Hugo
 ("O palais, sois bénié.") 
 
 {II., June, 1839.} 


 Palace and ruin, bless thee evermore! 
 Grateful we bow thy gloomy tow'rs before; 
 For the old King of France{1} hath found in thee 
 That melancholy hospitality 
 Which in their royal fortune's evil day, 
 Stuarts and Bourbons to each other pay. 
 
 Fraser's Magazine....Read more of this...

Mannahatta

by Walt Whitman
 I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city, 
Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name! 

Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient;

I see that the word of my city is that word up there, 
Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays, superb, with tall and...Read more of this...

The Death of Fred Marsden the American Playwright

by William Topaz McGonagall
 A pathetic tragedy I will relate,
Concerning poor Fred. Marsden's fate,
Who suffocated himself by the fumes of gas,
On the 18th of May, and in the year of 1888, alas! 

Fred. Marsden was a playwright, the theatrical world knows,
And was highly esteemed by the people, and had very few foes;
And in New York, in his bedroom, he took his life away,
And...Read more of this...

Phantasmagoria CANTO II ( Hys Fyve Rules )

by Lewis Carroll
 "MY First - but don't suppose," he said,
"I'm setting you a riddle -
Is - if your Victim be in bed,
Don't touch the curtains at his head,
But take them in the middle, 

"And wave them slowly in and out,
While drawing them asunder;
And in a minute's time, no doubt,
He'll raise his head and look about
With eyes of wrath and wonder. 

"And...Read more of this...

Lois Spears

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Here lies the body of Lois Spears,
Born Lois Fluke, daughter of Willard Fluke,
Wife of Cyrus Spears,
Mother of Myrtle and Virgil Spears,
Children with clear eyes and sound limbs --
(I was born blind)
I was the happiest of women
As wife, mother and housekeeper,
Caring for my loved ones,
And making my home
A place of order and bounteous hospitality:
For I went about the rooms,
And about...Read more of this...

Snake

by D. H. Lawrence
 A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before
me.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the...Read more of this...

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