Famous Laid Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet 125: Weret aught to me I bore the canopy

by William Shakespeare
 Were't aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which proves more short than waste or ruining?
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent
For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,
Pitiful thrivers in their gazing spent?
No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
And take...Read more of this...

The Clouds their Backs together laid

by Emily Dickinson
 The Clouds their Backs together laid
The North begun to push
The Forests galloped till they fell
The Lightning played like mice

The Thunder crumbled like a stuff
How good to be in Tombs
Where Nature's Temper cannot reach
Nor missile ever comes...Read more of this...

I see around me tombstones grey

by Emily Brontë
 I see around me tombstones grey
Stretching their shadows far away.
Beneath the turf my footsteps tread
Lie low and lone the silent dead -
Beneath the turf - beneath the mould -
Forever dark, forever cold -
And my eyes cannot hold the tears
That memory hoards from vanished years
For Time and Death and Mortal pain
Give wounds that will not heal again -
Let me remember...Read more of this...

Paul McNeely

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Dear Jane! dear winsome Jane!
How you stole in the room (where I lay so ill)
In your nurse's cap and linen cuffs,
And took my hand and said with a smile:
"You are not so ill -- you'll soon be well."
And how the liquid thought of your eyes
Sank in my eyes like dew that slips
Into the heart of a flower.
Dear Jane! the...Read more of this...

Song For Heroes

by Ellis Parker Butler
 Captain O’Hare was a mariner brave;
He refused to abandon his ship;
A hero, he sleeps in a watery grave—
And his widow is now Mrs. Bipp,
 Haw! Haw!
His widow is now Mrs. Bipp!

Henri Dupont was a fearless young ace;
Five thousand feet up he was hit;
Each year on his grave pretty flowers we place—
And his widow is now Mrs. Schmitt,
 Haw! Haw!
His...Read more of this...

Banty Time

by John Hay
I reckon I git your drift, gents,—
You ’low the boy sha’n’t stay;
This is a white man’s country;
You’re Dimocrats, you say;
And whereas, and seein’, and wherefore,
The times bein’ all out o’ j’int,
The ****** has got to mosey
From the limits o’ Spunky P’int!

Le’s reason the thing a minute:
I’m an old-fashioned Dimocrat too,
Though I laid my politics out o’ the way
For to keep...Read more of this...

Summer laid her simple Hat

by Emily Dickinson
 Summer laid her simple Hat
On its boundless Shelf --
Unobserved -- a Ribbon slipt,
Snatch it for yourself.

Summer laid her supple Glove
In its sylvan Drawer --
Wheresoe'er, or was she --
The demand of Awe?...Read more of this...

After all Birds have been investigated and laid aside --

by Emily Dickinson
 After all Birds have been investigated and laid aside --
Nature imparts the little Blue-Bird -- assured
Her conscientious Voice will soar unmoved
Above ostensible Vicissitude.

First at the March -- competing with the Wind --
Her panting note exalts us -- like a friend --
Last to adhere when Summer cleaves away --
Elegy of Integrity....Read more of this...

Flattery

by Allama Muhammad Iqbal
One day a Spider was telling a Fly
'Everyday on this route you are passing by'

But not for once did my fortune trigger
That, towards my home you never got nearer

It matters not if from strangers you abstain
But away from friends you shouldn't remain

My home if you come
That shall be my honor!
That ladder in the front
Will reach you to your friend

When heard...Read more of this...

She laid her docile Crescent down

by Emily Dickinson
 She laid her docile Crescent down
And this confiding Stone
Still states to Dates that have forgot
The News that she is gone --

So constant to its stolid trust,
The Shaft that never knew --
It shames the Constancy that fled
Before its emblem flew --...Read more of this...

Bring me the sunset in a cup

by Emily Dickinson
 Bring me the sunset in a cup,
Reckon the morning's flagons up
And say how many Dew,
Tell me how far the morning leaps --
Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadth of blue!

Write me how many notes there be
In the new Robin's ecstasy
Among astonished boughs --
How many trips the Tortoise makes --
How many cups the Bee partakes,
The Debauchee of...Read more of this...

The House of Socrates

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 FOR Socrates a House was built, 
Of but inferiour Size; 
Not highly Arch'd, nor Carv'd, nor Gilt; 
The Man, 'tis said, was Wise. 

But Mob despis'd the little Cell, 
That struck them with no Fear; 
Whilst Others thought, there should not dwell 
So great a Person there. 

How shou'd a due Recourse be made 
To One, so much Admir'd?...Read more of this...

My Wars are laid away in Books --

by Emily Dickinson
 My Wars are laid away in Books --
I have one Battle more --
A Foe whom I have never seen
But oft has scanned me o'er --
And hesitated me between
And others at my side,
But chose the best -- Neglecting me -- till
All the rest, have died --
How sweet if I am not forgot
By Chums that passed away --
Since Playmates at threescore...Read more of this...

The Child of Destiny

by George William Russell
 THIS is the hero-heart of the enchanted isle,
Whom now the twilight children tenderly enfold,
Pat with their pearly palms and crown with elfin gold,
While in the mountain’s breast his brothers watch and smile.
Who now of Dana’s host may guide these dancing feet?
What bright immortal hides and through a child’s light breath
Laughs an immortal joy—Angus of love and death
Returned to make...Read more of this...

Sir Galahad a Christmas Mystery

by William Morris
 It is the longest night in all the year,
Near on the day when the Lord Christ was born;
Six hours ago I came and sat down here,
And ponder'd sadly, wearied and forlorn.

The winter wind that pass'd the chapel door,
Sang out a moody tune, that went right well
With mine own thoughts: I look'd down on the floor,
Between my feet, until I...Read more of this...

Blessing The Cornfields

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Sing, O Song of Hiawatha,
Of the happy days that followed,
In the land of the Ojibways,
In the pleasant land and peaceful!
Sing the mysteries of Mondamin,
Sing the Blessing of the Cornfields!
Buried was the bloody hatchet,
Buried was the dreadful war-club,
Buried were all warlike weapons,
And the war-cry was forgotten.
There was peace among the nations;
Unmolested roved the hunters,
Built the birch canoe for sailing,
Caught the...Read more of this...

Upon Prew His Maid

by Robert Herrick
 In this little Urne is laid
Prewdence Baldwin (once my maid)
From whose happy spark here let
Spring the purple violet....Read more of this...

The Sleeper

by Walter de la Mare
 As Ann came in one summer's day, 
She felt that she must creep, 
So silent was the clear cool house, 
It seemed a house of sleep. 
And sure, when she pushed open the door, 
Rapt in the stillness there, 
Her mother sat, with stooping head, 
Asleep upon a chair; 
Fast -- fast asleep; her two hands laid 
Loose-folded on...Read more of this...

Afridi Love

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Since, Oh, Beloved, you are not even faithful
     To me, who loved you so, for one short night,
   For one brief space of darkness, though my absence
     Did but endure until the dawning light;

   Since all your beauty—which was mine—you squandered
    ...Read more of this...

The Revenge - A Ballad of the Fleet

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, 
And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away: 
'Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted' 
Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: ''Fore God I am no coward; 
But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear, 
And the half my men...Read more of this...

Deliverance from a Fit of Fainting

by Anne Bradstreet
 Worthy art Thou, O Lord, of praise, 
But ah! It's not in me. 
My sinking heart I pray Thee raise 
So shall I give it Thee.

My life as spider's webb's cut off, 
Thus fainting have I said, 
And living man no more shall see 
But be in silence laid.

My feeble spirit Thou didst revive, 
My doubting Thou didst chide,...Read more of this...

To My Brothers

by John Keats
 Small, busy flames play through the fresh-laid coals,
And their faint cracklings o'er our silence creep
Like whispers of the household gods that keep
A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls.
And while for rhymes I search around the poles,
Your eyes are fixed, as in poetic sleep,
Upon the lore so voluble and deep,
That aye at fall of night our care condoles.
This is your birthday,...Read more of this...

Sonnet 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep

by William Shakespeare
 Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep,
A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
Which borrowed from this holy fire of Love
A dateless lively heat still to endure,
And grew a seeting bath, which yet men prove
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
The...Read more of this...

A Baby Asleep after Pain

by D. H. Lawrence
 As a drenched, drowned bee 
Hangs numb and heavy from a bending flower, 
So clings to me 
My baby, her brown hair brushed with wet tears 
And laid against her cheek;
Her soft white legs hanging heavily over my arm 
Swinging heavily to my movements as I walk. 
My sleeping baby hangs upon my life, 
Like a burden she hangs...Read more of this...

In Memory Of Alfred Pollexfen

by William Butler Yeats
 Five-and-twenty years have gone
Since old William pollexfen
Laid his strong bones down in death
By his wife Elizabeth
In the grey stone tomb he made.
And after twenty years they laid
In that tomb by him and her
His son George, the astrologer;
And Masons drove from miles away
To scatter the Acacia spray
Upon a melancholy man
Who had ended where his breath began.
Many a son and daughter...Read more of this...

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