Famous Lady Poems by Famous Poets

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

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My Lady

by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
My Lady (Español)

    Perdite, señora, quiero
de mi silencio perdón,
si lo que ha sido atención
le hace parecer grosero.

    Y no me podrás culpar
si hasta aquí mi proceder,
por ocuparse en querer,
se ha olvidado de explicar.

    Que en mi amorosa pasión
no fue desuido, ni mengua,
quitar el uso a la lengua
por dárselo al corazón.

 ...Read more of this...

To a Lady on Her Remarkable Preservation

by Phillis Wheatley
 Though thou did'st hear the tempest from afar,
And felt'st the horrors of the wat'ry war,
To me unknown, yet on this peaceful shore
Methinks I hear the storm tumultuous roar,
And how stern Boreas with impetuous hand
Compell'd they Nereids to usurp the land.
Reluctant rose the daughters of the main,
And slow ascending glided o'er the plain,
Till Æolus in his rapid chariot drove
In gloomy...Read more of this...

A Lady

by Amy Lowell
 You are beautiful and faded
Like an old opera tune
Played upon a harpsichord;
Or like the sun-flooded silks
Of an eighteenth-century boudoir.
In your eyes
Smoulder the fallen roses of out-lived minutes,
And the perfume of your soul
Is vague and suffusing,
With the pungence of sealed spice-jars.
Your half-tones delight me,
And I grow mad with gazing
At your blent colours.
My vigour is a new-minted penny,
Which I cast at...Read more of this...

Modern Love XL: I Bade My Lady Think

by George Meredith
 I bade my Lady think what she might mean. 
Know I my meaning, I? Can I love one, 
And yet be jealous of another? None 
Commits such folly. Terrible Love, I ween, 
Has might, even dead, half sighing to upheave 
The lightless seas of selfishness amain: 
Seas that in a man's heart have no rain 
To fall and still...Read more of this...

The Lady of Shalott

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
ON either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye, 
That clothe the wold and meet the sky; 
And thro' the field the road runs by 
To many-tower'd Camelot; 5 
And up and down the people go, 
Gazing where the lilies blow 
Round an island there below, 
The island of Shalott. 

Willows whiten, aspens quiver, 10 
Little breezes...Read more of this...

The Wish

by Lady Mary Chudleigh
 Remember that time you made the wish?

 I make a lot of wishes.

The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.

 What do you think I wished for?

I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd somehow be together in the end.

 I wished for what I always wish for.
 I wished for another poem....Read more of this...

For a Dead Lady

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 No more with overflowing light 
Shall fill the eyes that now are faded, 
Nor shall another's fringe with night 
Their woman-hidden world as they did.

No more shall quiver down the days 
The flowing wonder of her ways, 
Whereof no language may requite 
The shifting and the many-shaded.

The grace, divine, definitive, 
Clings only as a faint forestalling; 
The laugh that...Read more of this...

There was a Young Lady of Hull

by Edward Lear
There was a Young Lady of Hull,Who was chased by a virulent Bull;But she seized on a spade, and called out, "Who's afraid?"Which distracted that virulent Bull. ...Read more of this...

There was a Young Lady whose chin

by Edward Lear
There was a Young Lady whose chinResembled the point of a pin;So she had it made sharp, and purchased a harp,And played several tunes with her chin. ...Read more of this...

The Wish

by Lady Mary Chudleigh
 Would but indulgent Fortune send
To me a kind, and faithful Friend,
One who to Virtue's Laws is true,
And does her nicest Rules pursue;
One Pious, Lib'ral, Just and Brave,
And to his Passions not a Slave;
Who full of Honour, void of Pride,
Will freely praise, and freely chide;
But not indulge the smallest Fault,
Nor entertain one slighting Thought:
Who still the same will ever prove,
Will...Read more of this...

To Waken An Old Lady

by William Carlos (WCW) Williams
 Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind—
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested—
the snow
is covered with broken
seed husks
and the wind tempered
with a shrill
piping of plenty....Read more of this...

The Death of Lord and Lady Dalhousie

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Alas! Lord and Lady Dalhousie are dead, and buried at last,
Which causes many people to feel a little downcast;
And both lie side by side in one grave,
But I hope God in His goodness their souls will save. 

And may He protect their children that are left behind,
And may they always food and raiment find;
And from the paths of virtue...Read more of this...

To a Lady on Her Coming to North-America

by Phillis Wheatley
 Indulgent muse! my grov'ling mind inspire,
And fill my bosom with celestial fire.
See from Jamaica's fervid shore she moves,
Like the fair mother of the blooming loves,
When from above the Goddess with her hand
Fans the soft breeze, and lights upon the land;
Thus she on Neptune's wat'ry realm reclin'd
Appear'd, and thus invites the ling'ring wind.
"Arise, ye winds, America explore,

"Waft me, ye gales,...Read more of this...

The Federal Bus Conductor and the Old Lady

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Now 'urry, Mrs New South Wales, and come along of us, 
We're all a-goin' ridin' in the Federation 'bus. 
A fam'ly party, don't you know -- yes, Queenslans's comin', too, 
You can't afford it! Go along! We've kep' box seat for you. 
The very one of all the lot that can afford it best, 
You'll only have to pay...Read more of this...

There was a Young Lady Whose Eyes

by Edward Lear
 There was a young lady whose eyes,
were unique as to colour and size;
When she opened them wide,
people all turned aside,
and started away in surprise....Read more of this...

There was a young lady of Corsica

by Edward Lear
There was a young lady of Corsica,Who purchased a little brown saucy-cur;Which she fed upon ham, and hot raspberry jam,That expensive young lady of Corsica. ...Read more of this...

Modern Love XXXVI: My Lady unto Madam

by George Meredith
 My Lady unto Madam makes her bow. 
The charm of women is, that even while 
You're probed by them for tears, you yet may smile, 
Nay, laugh outright, as I have done just now. 
The interview was gracious: they anoint 
(To me aside) each other with fine praise: 
Discriminating compliments they raise, 
That hit with wondrous aim on the...Read more of this...

To A Lady

by George (Lord) Byron
 O! had my Fate been join'd with thine,
As once this pledge appear'd a token,
These follies had not, then, been mine,
For, then, my peace had not been broken.

To thee, these early faults I owe,
To thee, the wise and old reproving:
They know my sins, but do not know
'Twas thine to break the bonds of loving.

For once my soul, like thine, was...Read more of this...

To a Lady with a Guitar

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
ARIEL to Miranda:¡ªTake 
This slave of music for the sake 
Of him who is the slave of thee; 
And teach it all the harmony 
In which thou canst and only thou 5 
Make the delighted spirit glow  
Till joy denies itself again 
And too intense is turn'd to pain.
For by permission and command 
Of thine own Prince Ferdinand 10...Read more of this...

To One Persuading A Lady To Marriage

by Katherine Philips
 Forbear, bold youth; all 's heaven here,
 And what you do aver
To others courtship may appear,
 'Tis sacrilege to her.
She is a public deity;
 And were 't not very odd
She should dispose herself to be
 A petty household god? 

First make the sun in private shine
 And bid the world adieu,
That so he may his beams confine
 In compliment...Read more of this...

There was a young lady in white

by Edward Lear
There was a young lady in white,Who looked out at the depths of the night;But the birds of the air, filled her heart with despair,And oppressed that young lady in white. ...Read more of this...

O Sing Fair Lady When With Me

by Alexander Pushkin
O sing, fair lady, when with me
Sad songs of Georgia no more:
They bring into my memory
Another life, a distant shore.

Your beautiful, your cruel tune
Brings to my memory, alas,
The steppe, the night - and with the moon
Lines of a far, unhappy lass.

Forgetting at the sight of you
That shadow fateful, shadow dear,
I hear you singing - and anew
I picture it before me,...Read more of this...

To a Lady on the Death of Her Husband

by Phillis Wheatley
Grim monarch! see, depriv'd of vital breath,
A young physician in the dust of death:
Dost thou go on incessant to destroy,
Our griefs to double, and lay waste our joy?
"Enough" thou never yet wast known to say,
Though millions die, the vassals of thy sway:
Nor youth, nor science, nor the ties of love,
Nor aught on earth thy flinty heart can move.
The friend, the...Read more of this...

There was a Young Lady of Portugal

by Edward Lear
There was a Young Lady of Portugal,Whose ideas were excessively nautical;She climbed up a tree to examine the sea,But declared she would never leave Portugal. ...Read more of this...

Ballade to Our Lady of Czestochowa

by Hilaire Belloc
 I

Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold
And very Regent of the untroubled sky,
Whom in a dream St. Hilda did behold
And heard a woodland music passing by:
You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

II

Steep are...Read more of this...

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