Famous Kingdoms Poems by Famous Poets

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

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There Are Not Many Kingdoms Left

by Kenneth Patchen
 I write the lips of the moon upon her shoulders. In a
temple of silvery farawayness I guard her to rest.

For her bed I write a stillness over all the swans of the
world. With the morning breath of the snow leopard I
cover her against any hurt.

Using the pen of rivers and mountaintops I store her
pillow with singing.

Upon her hair I...Read more of this...

A Chorus

by Elizabeth Jennings
 Over the surging tides and the mountain kingdoms,
Over the pastoral valleys and the meadows,
Over the cities with their factory darkness,
Over the lands where peace is still a power,
Over all these and all this planet carries
A power broods, invisible monarch, a stranger
To some, but by many trusted. Man's a believer
Until corrupted. This huge trusted power
Is spirit. He moves in the...Read more of this...

Psalm 76

by Isaac Watts
 Israel saved, and the Assyrians destroyed.

In Judah God of old was known;
His name in Isr'el great;
In Salem stood his holy throne,
And Zion was his seat.

Among the praises of his saints
His dwelling there he chose;
There he received their just complaints
Against their haughty foes.

From Zion went his dreadful word,
And broke the threat'ning spear,
The bow, the arrows, and the sword,
And crushed th'...Read more of this...

He who was born

by Aleksandr Blok
 He, who was born in stagnant year 
Does not remember own way.
We, kids of Russia's years of fear,
Remember every night and day.

Years that burned everything to ashes!
Do you bring madness or grace?
The war's and freedom's fire flashes
Left bloody light on every face. 

We are struck dumb: the toxsin's pressure
Has made us tightly close lips.
In living hearts, once full of...Read more of this...

Quia Multum Amavit

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 Am I not he that hath made thee and begotten thee,
I, God, the spirit of man?
Wherefore now these eighteen years hast thou forgotten me,
From whom thy life began?
Thy life-blood and thy life-breath and thy beauty,
Thy might of hands and feet,
Thy soul made strong for divinity of duty
And service which was sweet.
Through the red sea brimmed with blood didst thou...Read more of this...

Journey Of The Magi

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, 
 refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the 
 terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men...Read more of this...

Psalm 46 part 2

by Isaac Watts
 God fights for his church.

Let Zion in her King rejoice;
Though tyrants rage, and kingdoms rise,
He utters his almighty voice,
The nations melt, the tumult dies.

The Lord of old for Jacob fought,
And Jacob's God is still our aid:
Behold the works his hand has wrought,
What desolations he has made!

From sea to sea, through all the shores,
He makes the noise of battle cease;
When...Read more of this...

A Poets Voice XV

by Kahlil Gibran
 Part One


The power of charity sows deep in my heart, and I reap and gather the wheat in bundles and give them to the hungry. 

My soul gives life to the grapevine and I press its bunches and give the juice to the thirsty. 

Heaven fills my lamp with oil and I place it at my window to direct...Read more of this...

The Parallel

by Thomas Moore
 Yes, sad one of Sion, if closely resembling, 
In shame and in sorrow, thy wither'd-up heart -- 
If drinking deep, deep, of the same "cup of trembling" 
Could make us thy children, our parent thou art. 

Like thee doth our nation lie conquer'd and broken, 
And fall'n from her head is the once royal crown; 
In her streets, in...Read more of this...

Love

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 The longer I live and the more I see 
Of the struggle of souls towards the heights above, 
The stronger this truth comes home to me--- 
That the Universe rests on the shoulders of love, 
A love so limitless, deep, and broad, 
That men have re-named it, and called it God.

And nothing that was ever born or evolved, 
Nothing...Read more of this...

Parables And Riddles

by Friedrich von Schiller
 I.

A bridge of pearls its form uprears
High o'er a gray and misty sea;
E'en in a moment it appears,
And rises upwards giddily.

Beneath its arch can find a road
The loftiest vessel's mast most high,
Itself hath never borne a load,
And seems, when thou draw'st near, to fly.

It comes first with the stream, and goes
Soon as the watery flood is dried.
Where may be...Read more of this...

The Bayadere

by Alan Seeger
 Flaked, drifting clouds hide not the full moon's rays 
More than her beautiful bright limbs were hid 
By the light veils they burned and blushed amid, 
Skilled to provoke in soft, lascivious ways, 
And there was invitation in her voice 
And laughing lips and wonderful dark eyes, 
As though above the gates of Paradise 
Fair verses bade, Be welcome...Read more of this...

Streets Too Old

by Carl Sandburg
 I WALKED among the streets of an old city and the streets were lean as the throats of hard seafish soaked in salt and kept in barrels many years.
How old, how old, how old, we are:—the walls went on saying, street walls leaning toward each other like old women of the people, like old midwives tired and only doing...Read more of this...

Taken from men -- this morning

by Emily Dickinson
 Taken from men -- this morning --
Carried by men today --
Met by the Gods with banners --
Who marshalled her away --

One little maid -- from playmates --
One little mind from school --
There must be guests in Eden --
All the rooms are full --

Far -- as the East from Even --
Dim -- as the border star --
Courtiers quaint, in Kingdoms
Our...Read more of this...

It is an honorable thought

by Emily Dickinson
It is an honorable thought,
   And makes one lift one's hat,
As one encountered gentlefolk
   Upon a daily street,

That we've immortal place,
   Though pyramids decay,
And kingdoms, like the orchard,
   Flit russetly away....Read more of this...

Old

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 I have seen peoples come and go 
Alike the Ocean'd ebb and flow; 
I have seen kingdoms rise and fall 
Like springtime shadows on a wall. 
I have seen houses rendered great 
That grew from life's debased estate, 
And all, all, all is change I see, 
So, dearest God, take me, take me....Read more of this...

201. Birthday Ode for 31st December 1787

by Robert Burns
 AFAR 1 the illustrious Exile roams,
 Whom kingdoms on this day should hail;
 An inmate in the casual shed,
 On transient pity’s bounty fed,
 Haunted by busy memory’s bitter tale!
 Beasts of the forest have their savage homes,
 But He, who should imperial purple wear,
Owns not the lap of earth where rests his royal head!
 His wretched refuge, dark...Read more of this...

The face I carry with me -- last

by Emily Dickinson
 The face I carry with me -- last --
When I go out of Time --
To take my Rank -- by -- in the West --
That face -- will just be thine --

I'll hand it to the Angel --
That -- Sir -- was my Degree --
In Kingdoms -- you have heard the Raised --
Refer to -- possibly.

He'll take it --...Read more of this...

The Three Songs

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 The poet sang of a battle-field
Where doughty deeds were done,
Where stout blows rang on helm and shield
And a kingdom's fate was spun
With the scarlet thread of victory,
And honor from death's grim revelry
Like a flame-red flower was won!
So bravely he sang that all who heard
With the sting of the fight and the triumph were stirred,
And they cried, "Let us blazon...Read more of this...

Fairyland

by Rabindranath Tagore
 If people came to know where my king's palace is, it would vanish 
into the air.
The walls are of white silver and the roof of shining gold.
The queen lives in a palace with seven courtyards, and she
wears a jewel that cost all the wealth of seven kingdoms.
But let me tell you, mother, in a whisper, where my king's
palace is.
It...Read more of this...

192. Song—The Bonie Lass of Albany

by Robert Burns
 MY 1 heart is wae, and unco wae,
 To think upon the raging sea,
That roars between her gardens green
 An’ the bonie Lass of Albany.


This lovely maid’s of royal blood
 That ruled Albion’s kingdoms three,
But oh, alas! for her bonie face,
 They’ve wrang’d the Lass of Albany.


In the rolling tide of spreading Clyde
 There sits an isle of high...Read more of this...

A Swarm Of Gnats

by Hermann Hesse
 Many thousand glittering motes
Crowd forward greedily together
In trembling circles.
Extravagantly carousing away
For a whole hour rapidly vanishing,
They rave, delirious, a shrill whir,
Shivering with joy against death.
While kingdoms, sunk into ruin,
Whose thrones, heavy with gold, instantly scattered
Into night and legend, without leaving a trace,
Have never known so fierce a dancing....Read more of this...

The Hollow Men

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 Mistah Kurtz -- he dead.




 A penny for the Old Guy




 I


We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes,...Read more of this...

Psalm XLVI: God Is the Refuge

by Isaac Watts
 God is the refuge of his saints,
When storms of sharp distress invade;
Ere we can offer our complaints,
Behold him present with his aid!

Let mountains from their seats be hurled
Down to the deep, and buried there,
Convulsions shake the solid world,
Our faith shall never yield to fear.

Loud may the troubled ocean roar;
In sacred peace our souls abide;
While every nation, every shore,
Trembles, and...Read more of this...

The Dove of Dacca

by Rudyard Kipling
 1892
The freed dove flew to the Rajah's tower--
 Fled from the slaughter of Moslem kings--
And the thorns have covered the city of Guar.
 Dove--dove--oh, homing dove!
Little white traitor, with woe on thy wings!


The Rajah of Dacca rode under the wall;
 He set in his bosom a dove of flight--
"If she return, be sure that I fall."
 Dove--dove--oh, homing dove!
Pressed...Read more of this...

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