Famous Interpretation Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Avons Harvest

...ltered favor of God’s works, 
And promptly took upon himself the credit,
Which, in a fashion, was as accurate 
As one’s interpretation of another 
Is like to be. So for a frosty fortnight 
We had the sunlight with us on the lake, 
And the moon with us when the sun was down.
‘God gave his adjutants a holiday,’ 
Asher assured me, ‘when He made this place’; 
And I agreed with him that it was heaven,— 
Till it was hell for me for then and after. 

“There was a village miles away ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Original Preface

...ch I do not pretend to do 
more than attempt to give an idea of the minstrelsy of one so unrivalled, 
by as truthful an interpretation of it as lies in my power.

The principles which have guided me on the present occasion are 
the same as those followed in the translation of Schiller's complete 
Poems that was published by me in 1851, namely, as literal a rendering 
of the original as is consistent with good English, and also a very 
strict adherence to the metre of the orig...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

Picture-Writing

...icines,
The most potent spell of magic,
Dangerous more than war or hunting!
Thus the Love-Song was recorded,
Symbol and interpretation.
First a human figure standing,
Painted in the brightest scarlet;
`T Is the lover, the musician,
And the meaning is, "My painting
Makes me powerful over others."
Then the figure seated, singing,
Playing on a drum of magic,
And the interpretation, "Listen!
`T Is my voice you hear, my singing!"
Then the same red figure seated
In the shelter of a...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Poetry

...n grasp, eyes
 that can dilate, hair that can rise
 if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because
 they are
 useful. When they become so derivative as to become 
 unintelligible, 
 the same thing may be said for all of us, that we
 do not admire what
 we cannot understand: the bat
 holding on upside down or in quest of something to

eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf
 under
...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

The Bee

...music nears
The long-desiring sense, and slowly clears
To forms of time and apprehensive tune,
So, as I lay, full soon
Interpretation throve: the bee's fanfare,
Through sequent films of discourse vague as air,
Passed to plain words, while, fanning faint perfume,
The bee o'erhung a rich, unrifled bloom:
"O Earth, fair lordly Blossom, soft a-shine
Upon the star-pranked universal vine,
Hast nought for me?
To thee
Come I, a poet, hereward haply blown,
From out another worldflowe...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney


To His Sister

...en bids mee understand
Mine eyes have here a remedy
Wherby to reade more easily.
I doe but jeast: your love alone
Is my interpretation:
My words I will recant, and sweare
I know your hand is wondrous faire....Read more of this...
by Strode, William

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