Famous Keening Poems by Famous Poets

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

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At Nightfall

...ht have been invaded,
There are voices quite unknown upon the hill; 

The wind has grown too weary for a comrade,
It is keening in the rushes spent and low,
Let us join our hands and hasten very softly
To the little, olden, friendly path we know. 

The stars are laughing at us, O, my playmate,
Very, very far away in lonely skies,
The trees that were our friends are strangers to us,
And the fern is full of whispers and of sighs. 

The sounds we hear are not what we may share i...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud


Before Storm

...ke ghosts of the sea, in the offing,
Creeping all wan and chilly by headland and sunken reef,
And a wind is wailing and keening like a lost thing 'mid the islands,
Boding of wreck and tempest, plaining of dolor and grief. 

Swiftly the boats come homeward, over the grim bar crowding,
Like birds that flee to their shelter in hurry and affright,
Only the wild grey gulls that love the cloud and the clamor
Will dare to tempt the ways of the ravining sea to-night. 

But the ship t...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Beowulf (Modern English)

...r stood within the North-Danes,
every one alone who heard the wailing from the walls,
the opponent of God singing his keening terror,
a chant without victory, bemoaning his pain,
the hostage of hell. He held him tightly,
the one who was the strongest in power of all men
back in the days of that age. (ll. 782b-90)

 

 

XII.

That shelter of heroes didn’t wish to allow
his fatal visitor to escape alive for any thing,
nor could he account much use of Grendel’s ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bridge Over The Aire Book 3

...s

Your breasts, blank walls

Your buttocks, tight and

Secret openings your

Taut vagina’s lips.





29



There is a keening and a honing

And a winnowing in the wind

I am the surge and flow

In Winwaed’s water the last breath

Of Elmete’s King.



I am Penda crossing the Aire

Camping at Killingbeck

Conquered by Aethalwald

Ruler of Deira.





30



Life is a bird hovering

In the Hall of the King

Between darkness and darkness flickering

The stone of Scone at last li...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Companioned

...er charm,
Peopled the silent lands for me. 

The faces of old comradeship
In golden youth were round my way,
And in the keening wind I heard
The songs of many an orient day. 

And to me called, from out the pines
And woven grasses, voices dear,
As if from elfin lips should fall
The mimicked tones of yesteryear. 

Old laughter echoed o'er the leas
And love-lipped dreams the past had kept,
From wayside blooms like honeyed bees
To company my wanderings crept. 

And so I walked, ...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud


Realization

...o scorn our foolish grief." 

But when I went at moonrise to our ancient trysting place. . . . . 
And, oh, the wind was keening in the fir-boughs overhead! . . . . 
And you came never to me with your little gypsy face,
Your lips and hands of welcome, I knew that you were dead!...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

The Ballad Of Father OHart

...nd he went his way with a frown.

But if when anyone died
Came keeners hoarser than rooks,
He bade them give over their keening;
For he was a man of books.

And these were the works of John,
When, weeping score by score,
People came into Colooney;
For he'd died at ninety-four.

There was no human keening;
The birds from Knocknarea
And the world round Knocknashee
Came keening in that day.

The young birds and old birds
Came flying, heavy and sad;
Keening in from Tiraragh,
Keen...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

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