Famous Illumining Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Epipsychidion (excerpt)

...rd treads but once a year)
Pierce into glades, caverns and bowers, and halls
Built round with ivy, which the waterfalls
Illumining, with sound that never fails
Accompany the noonday nightingales;
And all the place is peopled with sweet airs;
The light clear element which the isle wears
Is heavy with the scent of lemon-flowers,
Which floats like mist laden with unseen showers,
And falls upon the eyelids like faint sleep;
And from the moss violets and jonquils peep
And dart the...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe


III. O Thou whose stern command and precepts pure..

...ade the patient spirit still endure; 
Thou, who to sorrow hast a beauty lent, 
On the dark brow, with resolution clad, 
Illumining the dreary traces sad, 
Like the cold taper on a monument; 
O firm Philosophy! display the tide 
Of human misery, and oft relate 
How silent sinking in the storms of fate, 
The brave and good have bow'd their head and died. 
So taught by Thee, some solace I may find, 
Remembering the sorrows of mankind....Read more of this...
by Bowles, William Lisle

Meditation under Stars

...rays, though low our place,
To them are lastingly allied.

So may we read, and little find them cold:
Not frosty lamps illumining dead space,
Not distant aliens, not senseless Powers.
The fire is in them whereof we are born;
The music of their motion may be ours.
Spirit shall deem them beckoning Earth and voiced
Sisterly to her, in her beams rejoiced.
Of love, the grand impulsion, we behold
The love that lends her grace
Among the starry fold.
Then at new flood of customary m...Read more of this...
by Meredith, George

Paris

...on goes, 


And, flaunting all the hue that lies in childish cheeks and nubile waist, 
She passes, charmingly unchaste, illumining ignoble eyes. . . . 


But now the blood from every heart leaps madder through abounding veins 
As first the fascinating strains of "El Irresistible" start. 


Caught in the spell of pulsing sound, impatient elbows lift and yield 
The scented softnesses they shield to arms that catch and close them round, 


Surrender, swift to be possessed, the s...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Soudan, The Sphinxes, The Cup, The Lamp

...passion seldom warms, 
 Would find heat torrid in that queen's soft arms. 
 She won without a single woman's wile, 
 Illumining the earth with peerless smile. 
 Come in!—but muffle closely up your face, 
 No grateful scents have ta'en sweet odors' place. 
 
 THE TENTH SPHINX. 
 
 What did the greatest king that e'er earth bore, 
 Sennacherib? No matter—he's no more! 
 What were the words Sardanapalus said? 
 Who cares to hear—that ruler long is dead. 
 
 The Sou...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor


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