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Famous Lantern Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Walcott, Derek
... 
My first friend was the sea.Now,is my last. 
I stop talking now.I work,then I read, 
cotching under a lantern hooked to the mast. 
I try to forget what happiness was, 
and when that don't work,I study the stars. 
Sometimes is just me,and the soft-scissored foam 
as the deck turn white and the moon open 
a cloud like a door,and the light over me 
is a road in white moonlight taking me home. 
Shabine sang to you from the depths of the sea....Read more of this...



by Frost, Robert
...Brown lived at such a lofty farm
 That everyone for miles could see
His lantern when he did his chores
 In winter after half-past three.

And many must have seen him make
 His wild descent from there one night,
’Cross lots, ’cross walls, ’cross everything,
 Describing rings of lantern light.

Between the house and barn the gale
 Got him by something he had on
And blew him out on the icy crust
 That cased the world, and h...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...return,
Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night,
Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars
That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps
With everlasting oil to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller?
This is the place, as well as I may guess,
Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth
Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear;
Yet nought but single darkness do I find.
What might this be ? A thousa...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...f came on, how crude and sore
The journey homeward to habitual self!
A mad-pursuing of the fog-born elf,
Whose flitting lantern, through rude nettle-briar,
Cheats us into a swamp, into a fire,
Into the bosom of a hated thing.

 What misery most drowningly doth sing
In lone Endymion's ear, now he has caught
The goal of consciousness? Ah, 'tis the thought,
The deadly feel of solitude: for lo!
He cannot see the heavens, nor the flow
Of rivers, nor hill-flowers running wild
I...Read more of this...

by Hikmet, Nazim
...s
 looks like a veteran of the Great War.
The gold helmet of a knight gleams
as the light from the night watchman's lantern 
 strikes a dark picture.

Here
 in the Louvre
 my days are all the same
 like the six sides of a wood cube.
My head is full of sharp smells
 like the shelf of a medicine cabinet.


20 March

I admire those Flemish painters:
is it easy to give the air of a naked goddess
 to the plump ladies
of milk and sausage merchants?
But
 even if you ...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...full of life. 
And when at last he came to Camelot, 
A wreath of airy dancers hand-in-hand 
Swung round the lighted lantern of the hall; 
And in the hall itself was such a feast 
As never man had dreamed; for every knight 
Had whatsoever meat he longed for served 
By hands unseen; and even as he said 
Down in the cellars merry bloated things 
Shouldered the spigot, straddling on the butts 
While the wine ran: so glad were spirits and men 
Before the coming of the sinful Q...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...ways take
A personal interest in the locking up
At bedtime; but the strangeness soon wears off.”
He fetched a dingy lantern from behind
A door. “There’s that we didn’t lose! And these!”—
Some matches he unpocketed. “For food—
The meals we’ve had no one can take from us.
I wish that everything on earth were just
As certain as the meals we’ve had. I wish
The meals we haven’t had were, anyway.
What have you you know where to lay your hands on?”

“The brea...Read more of this...

by Hayden, Robert
...h for them. Our men went down 
before the murderous Africans. Our loyal 
Celestino ran from below with gun 
and lantern and I saw, before the cane- 
knife's wounding flash, Cinquez, 
that surly brute who calls himself a prince, 
directing, urging on the ghastly work. 
He hacked the poor mulatto down, and then 
he turned on me. The decks were slippery 
when daylight finally came. It sickens me 
to think of what I saw, of how these apes 
threw overboard the ...Read more of this...

by Carman, Bliss
...e trail, 
Hearing the message, hearkening to the call.… 

Open the door to-night 
Within your heart, and light 
The lantern of love there to shine afar. 
On a tumultuous sea 
Some straining craft, maybe, 
With bearings lost, shall sight love’s silver star....Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...






 A NOTE ON THE CAMPING



 CRAZE THAT IS CURRENTLY



 SWEEPING AMERICA



As much as anything else, the Coleman lantern is the sym-

bol of the camping craze that is currently sweeping America,

with its unholy white light burning in the forests of America.

 Last summer, a Mr. Norris was drinking at a bar in San

Francisco. It was Sunday night and he'd had six or seven.

Turning to the guy on the next stool, he said, "What are you

up to?"

 "Just hav...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...us day and year. 

He said to his friend, "If the British march 
By land or sea from the town to-night, 
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch 
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,-- 
One if by land, and two if by sea; 
And I on the opposite shore will be, 
Ready to ride and spread the alarm 
Through every Middlesex village and farm, 
For the country-folk to be up and to arm." 

Then he said "Good night!" and with muffled oar 
Silently rowed to...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...ed, and dropped beside
Her; took the oars, and they began to steal Under the overhanging 
trees. A wide
Gash of red lantern-light cleft like a blade Into the gloom, 
and struck on Eunice sitting
Rigid and stark upon the after thwart. It 
blazed upon their flitting
In merciless light. A moment so it stayed,
Then was extinguished, and Sir Everard made
One leap, and landed just a fraction short.

LXI
His weight upon the gunwale tipped the boat To 
straining balan...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...br>

As he went down to the river-hut
He knew a night-shade scent,
Owls did as evil cherubs rise,
With little wings and lantern eyes,
As though he sank through the under-skies;
But down and down he went.

As he went down to the river-hut
He went as one that fell;
Seeing the high forest domes and spars.
Dim green or torn with golden scars,
As the proud look up at the evil stars,
In the red heavens of hell.

For he must meet by the river-hut
Them he had bidden to ar...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...rm the surly house-dog's faithful bark,  Or hang on tiptoe at the lifted latch;  The gloomy lantern, and the dim blue match,  The black disguise, the warning whistle shrill,  And ear still busy on its nightly watch,  Were not for me, brought up in nothing ill;  Besides, on griefs so fresh my thoughts were brooding still.   What could I do, unaided and unblest? &nb...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...es 
and a loose plank rattles
but doesn't give way.

On the left, a red light
swims through the dark:
a ship's port lantern.
Two rubber boots show,
illuminated, solemn.
A dog gives one bark.

A woman climbs in 
with two market bags,
brisk, freckled, elderly.
"A grand night. Yes, sir,
all the way to Boston."
She regards us amicably.

Moonlight as we enter 
the New Brunswick woods,
hairy, scratchy, splintery;
moonlight and mist
caught in them lik...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...k with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin, -- our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mout...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...br>
My first friend was the sea. Now, is my last.
I stop talking now. I work, then I read,
cotching under a lantern hooked to the mast.
I try to forget what happiness was,
and when that don't work, I study the stars.
Sometimes is just me, and the soft-scissored foam
as the deck turn white and the moon open
a cloud like a door, and the light over me
is a road in white moonlight taking me home.
Shabine sang to you from the depths of the sea....Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...ideways.
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains,
And rising on his hands, he looks in on me
Busy outdoors by lantern-light with something
I should have done by daylight, and indeed,
After the ground is frozen, I should have done
Before it froze, and a gust flings a handful
Of waste leaves at my smoky lantern chimney
To make fun of my way of doing things,
Or else fun of Orion's having caught me.
Has a man, I should like to ask, no rights
These forces are obliged...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...pleasure] 14 right enough at eve.
He is too great a niggard that will werne* *forbid
A man to light a candle at his lantern;
He shall have never the less light, pardie.
Have thou enough, thee thar* not plaine** thee *need **complain
Thou say'st also, if that we make us gay
With clothing and with precious array,
That it is peril of our chastity.
And yet, -- with sorrow! -- thou enforcest thee,
And say'st these words in the apostle's name:
'In habit made with chasti...Read more of this...

by Hikmet, Nazim
...ve written this somewhere before
wading through a dark muddy street I'm going to the shadow play 
Ramazan night
a paper lantern leading the way
maybe nothing like this ever happened
maybe I read it somewhere an eight-year-old boy
 going to the shadow play
Ramazan night in Istanbul holding his grandfather's hand 
 his grandfather has on a fez and is wearing the fur coat
 with a sable collar over his robe
 and there's a lantern in the servant's hand
 and I can't contain myself ...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Lantern poems.


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