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Famous Indian Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...h current swift 
Circling the hills, where fiercest beasts of prey, 
Panther and wolf in nightly concert howl. 
The Indian sage from superstition freed, 
Be taught a nobler heav'n than cloud-topt-hill, 
Or sep'rate island in the wat'ry waste. 
The aged Sachem fix his moving tribe, 
And grow humane now taught the arts of peace. 
In human sacrifice delight no more, 
Mad cantico or savage feast of war. 
Such scenes of fierce barbarity no more 
Be perpetrated ther...Read more of this...



by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...th eternal storms. 
But why, thus hap'ly found, should we resume 
The tale of Cortez, furious chief, ordain'd 
With Indian blood to dye the sands, and choak 
Fam'd Amazonia's stream with dead! Or why, 
Once more revive the story old in fame, 
Of Atabilipa by thirst of gold 
Depriv'd of life: which not Peru's rich ore, 
Nor Mexico's vast mines cou'd then redeem. 
Better these northern realms deserve our song, 
Discover'd by Britannia for her sons; 
Undeluged with seas ...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!
Isola d'oro!- Fior di Levante!
And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river-
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:

"Spirit! that dwellest where,
In the deep sky,
The terrible and fair,
In beauty vie!
Beyond the line of blue-
The boundary of the star
Which turneth at the view
Of thy barrier and thy bar-
Of the barrier overgone
By the comets...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...the unnoticed end.

Before that end much had she ravelled out
From a discourse in figurative speech
By some learned Indian
On the soul's journey. How it is whirled about,
Wherever the orbit of the moon can reach,
Until it plunge into the sun;
And there, free and yet fast,
Being both Chance and Choice,
Forget its broken toys
And sink into its own delight at last.

And I call up MacGregor from the grave,
For in my first hard springtime we were friends.
Although ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...iests, till utmost end
Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,
Ere the blabbing eastern scout,
The nice Morn on the Indian steep,
From her cabined loop-hole peep,
And to the tell-tale Sun descry
Our concealed solemnity.
Come, knit hands, and beat the ground
In a light fantastic round.

 The Measure.

 Break off, break off! I feel the different pace
Of some chaste footing near about this ground.
Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees;
Our number ...Read more of this...



by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...his laureled brow, 
Be brave, my Muse, and darker truths avow.
Let Justice ask a preface to thy songs, 
Before the Indian's crimes declare his wrongs; 
Before effects, wherein all horrors blend, 
Declare the shameful cause, precursor of the end.

VIII.

When first this soil the great Columbus trod, 
He was less like the image of his God
Than those ingenuous souls, unspoiled by art, 
Who lived so near to Mother Nature's heart; 
Those simple children of the wood an...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...c dying, and I seek
No more delight--I bid adieu to all.
Didst thou not after other climates call,
And murmur about Indian streams?"--Then she,
Sitting beneath the midmost forest tree,
For pity sang this roundelay------


 "O Sorrow,
 Why dost borrow
The natural hue of health, from vermeil lips?--
 To give maiden blushes
 To the white rose bushes?
Or is it thy dewy hand the daisy tips?

 "O Sorrow,
 Why dost borrow
The lustrous passion from a falcon-eye?--
 To give the gl...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...er he was gone,
The two remaining found a fallen stem;
And Enoch's comrade, careless of himself,
Fire-hollowing this in Indian fashion, fell
Sun-stricken, and that other lived alone.
In those two deaths he read God's warning `wait.' 

The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns
And winding glades high up like ways to Heaven,
The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes,
The lightning flash of insect and of bird,
The lustre of the long convolvuluses
That coil'd around th...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...lways To be blest: 
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 
Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 
His soul proud Science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk, or milky way; 
Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, 
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n; 
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 
Some happier island in the watry waste, 
Where slaves once more...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ng and inclement.
Bees, with prophetic instinct of want, had hoarded their honey
Till the hives overflowed; and the Indian bunters asserted
Cold would the winter be, for thick was the fur of the foxes.
Such was the advent of autumn. Then followed that beautiful season,
Called by the pious Acadian peasants the Summer of All-Saints!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood.
Peac...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...os in- 
 stinctively vibrated at their feet in Kansas, 
who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking vis- 
 ionary indian angels who were visionary indian 
 angels, 
who thought they were only mad when Baltimore 
 gleamed in supernatural ecstasy, 
who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Okla- 
 homa on the impulse of winter midnight street 
 light smalltown rain, 
who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston 
 seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the 
 bril...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
... And I will always be thy guide,  Through hollow snows and rivers wide.  I'll build an Indian bower; I know  The leaves that make the softest bed:  And if from me thou wilt not go.  But still be true 'till I am dead,  My pretty thing! then thou shalt sing,  As merry as the birds in spring.   Thy father cares not for my breast,  'Tis thine, ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...the thickest wood; there soon they chose 
The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renowned, 
But such as at this day, to Indians known, 
In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms 
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
About the mother tree, a pillared shade 
High over-arched, and echoing walks between: 
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 
At loop-holes cut through ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...and sinks
 again;

Within me zones, seas, cataracts, plants, volcanoes, groups,
Malaysia, Polynesia, and the great West Indian islands. 

3
What do you hear, Walt Whitman? 

I hear the workman singing, and the farmer’s wife singing; 
I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day; 
I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Tennessee and Kentucky, hunting on
 hills;
I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse; 
I ...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...
Our father rode again his ride 
On Memphremagog's wooded side; 
Sat down again to moose and samp 
In trapper's hut and Indian camp; 
Lived o'er the old idyllic ease 
Beneath St. François' hemlock-trees; 
Again for him the moonlight shone 
On Norman cap and bodiced zone; 
Again he heard the violin play 
Which led the village dance away, 
And mingled in its merry whirl 
The grandam and the laughing girl. 
Or, nearer home, our steps he led 
Where Salisbury's level marsh...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...hat dogwood bears. 
316 And in their music showering sounds intone. 
317 On what strange froth does the gross Indian dote, 
318 What Eden sapling gum, what honeyed gore, 
319 What pulpy dram distilled of innocence, 
320 That streaking gold should speak in him 
321 Or bask within his images and words? 
322 If these rude instances impeach themselves 
323 By force of rudeness, let the principle 
324 Be plain. For application Crispin strove, 
325 Abhorring T...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...Cass was the youngest and most beautiful of 5 sisters. Cass was the most beautiful girl
in town. 1/2 Indian with a supple and strange body, a snake-like and fiery body with eyes
to go with it. Cass was fluid moving fire. She was like a spirit stuck into a form that
would not hold her. Her hair was black and long and silken and whirled about as did her
body. Her spirit was either very high or very low. There was no in between for Cass.Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...ast,
Who gave the Ball, or paid the Visit last:
One speaks the Glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian Screen.
A third interprets Motions, Looks, and Eyes;
At ev'ry Word a Reputation dies.
Snuff, or the Fan, supply each Pause of Chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.

Mean while declining from the Noon of Day,
The Sun obliquely shoots his burning Ray; 
The hungry Judges soon the Sentence sign,
And Wretches hang that Jury-men ma...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...in the sand I’d trundled in barrow loads

From the builder’s yard, a make-do sandpit which drew the whole street,

West Indian, English and Asian built temples together. Our sandalled

Bearded neighbour was the first to complain, his teacher wife beside him,

The next-door French widow supporting, “So numerous the children, n’est ce pas?”

Meaning “Don’t encourage the Pakis, there are too many already.”

Like thunder the row erupted, a streetful of shouting, my voice ...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...hen there hovers
"A flock of vampire-bats before the glare
Of the tropic sun, bring ere evening
Strange night upon some Indian isle,--thus were
"Phantoms diffused around, & some did fling
Shadows of shadows, yet unlike themselves,
Behind them, some like eaglets on the wing
"Were lost in the white blaze, others like elves
Danced in a thousand unimagined shapes
Upon the sunny streams & grassy shelves;
"And others sate chattering like restless apes
On vulgar paws and voluble lik...Read more of this...

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