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Famous Importunate Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Betjeman, John
...r>

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
I can hear from the car park the dance has begun,
Oh! Surry twilight! importunate band!
Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!

Around us are Rovers and Austins afar,
Above us the intimate roof of the car,
And here on my right is the girl of my choice,
With the tilt of her nose and the chime of her voice.

And the scent of her wrap, and the words never said,
And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
We sat in the car ...Read more of this...



by McKay, Claude
...efore do you sing 
Dream-songs of carefree men and ancient places? 
Soon we shall be beset by clamouring 
Of hungry and importunate palefaces....Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...ease, offending none:Me now their glances shunAs one injurious and importunate,Who, poor and hungry, didMyself the very act, in better stateWhich I, in others, chid.From mercy thus if envy bar me, beMy amorous thirst and helplessness my plea. In d...Read more of this...

by Tessimond, A S J
...We expected the violin's finger on the upturned nerve;
Its importunate cry, too laxly curved:
And you drew us an oboe-outline, clean and acute;
Unadorned statement, accurately carved.

We expected the screen, the background for reverie
Which cloudforms usefully weave:
And you built the immaculate, adamant, blue-green steel
Arch of a balanced wave.

We expected a pool with flowers to diffuse and break
The chi...Read more of this...

by Crowley, Aleister
...!

Thou my scarlet concubine
Draining heart’s blood to the lees
To empurple those divine
Lips with living luxuries
Life importunate to appease
Drought insatiable of wine!

Tunis in the tremendous trance
Rests from day’s incestuous
Traffic with the radiance
Of her sire-& over us
Gleams the intoxicating glance
Of the Moon & Sirius.

Take the ardour of my impearled
Essence that my shoulders seek
To intensify the curled
Candour of the eyes oblique,
Eyes that see the seraphic ...Read more of this...



by Stevenson, Robert Louis
...g rain
That cloys the sullen days!

Thee, heart of mine, I greet.
In what hard mountain pass
Striv'st thou? In what importunate morass
Sink now thy weary feet?

Thou run'st a hopeless race
To win despair. No crown
Awaits success, but leaden gods look down
On thee, with evil face.

And those that would befriend
And cherish thy defeat,
With angry welcome shall turn sour the sweet
Home-coming of the end.

Yea, those that offer praise
To idleness, shall yet
Insult...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...ses, 
With the white amaranths underneath. 
Even while I look, I can but heed 
The restless sands' incessant fall, 
Importunate hours that hours succeed 
Each clamorous with its own sharp need, 
And duty keeping pace with all. 
Shut down and clasp with heavy lids; 
I hear again the voice that bids 
The dreamer leave his dream midway 
For larger hopes and graver fears: 
Life greatens in these later years, 
The century's aloe flowers to-day! 

Yet, haply, in some lull o...Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
..., 
But you shall never hear me supplicate. 
These long months that have magnified my need 
Have made my asking less importunate, 
For now small favors seem to me so great 
That not the courteous lovers of old time 
Were more content to rule themselves and wait, 
Easing desire with discourse and sweet rhyme. 
Nay, be capricious, willful; have no fear 
To wound me with unkindness done or said, 
Lest mutual devotion make too dear 
My life that hangs by a so slender threa...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...d,And how to her who, queen-like, rules my breast,More than my wont importunate I grow.[Pg 207]Never from rocks wise sailor guarded soHis ship of richest merchandise possess'd,As evermore I shield my bark distress'dFrom shocks of her hard pride that would o'erthro...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...hed, one by one, 
Till, with a shaft of God's eternal day, 
The dream of all my glory was undone,-- 
And, with a fool's importunate dismay, 
I heard the dead men singing in the sun....Read more of this...

by Hood, Thomas
...One more Unfortunate, 
Weary of breath, 
Rashly importunate, 
Gone to her death! 

Take her up tenderly, 
Lift her with care; 
Fashion'd so slenderly 
Young, and so fair! 

Look at her garments 
Clinging like cerements; 
Whilst the wave constantly 
Drips from her clothing; 
Take her up instantly, 
Loving, not loathing. 

Touch her not scornfully; 
Think of her mournfully, 
Gently and humanly; 
Not of ...Read more of this...

by Morris, William
...traight?
Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme
Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale not too importunate
To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lulled by the singer of an empty day.

Folk say, a wizard to a northern king
At Christmas-tide such wondrous things did show,
That through one window men beheld the spring,
And through another saw the summer glow,
And through a third the fruited vines a-row,
While still, unheard, but in its wonted way,
...Read more of this...

by Ransom, John Crowe
...e swords. 
But what they said, the doves came straightway flying 
And unsaid: Honor, Honor, they came crying. 

Importunate her doves. Too pure, too wise, 
Clambering on his shoulder, saying, Arise, 
Leave me now, and never let us meet, 
Eternal distance now command thy feet. 

Predicament indeed, which thus discovers 
Honor among thieves, Honor between lovers. 
O such a little word is Honor, they feel! 
But the grey word is between them cold as steel....Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...If this importunate heart trouble your peace
With words lighter than air,
Or hopes that in mere hoping flicker and cease;
Crumple the rose in your hair;
And cover your lips with odorous twilight and say,
'O Hearts of wind-blown flame!
O Winds, older than changing of night and day,
That murmuring and longing came
From marble cities loud with tabors of old
In dove-gre...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...hat witch brewing her damnable porridge!

Lo, when he vanished from sight, knowing the evil that threatened,
Forth with importunate cries hastened his father and mother.
"Peter!" they shrieked in alarm, "Peter!" and evermore "Peter!"--
Ran from the house to the barn, ran from the barn to the garden,
Ran to the corn-crib anon, then to the smoke-house proceeded;
Henhouse and woodpile they passed, calling and wailing and weeping,
Through the front gate to the road, braving t...Read more of this...

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