Famous Leaning Poems by Famous Poets

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...e building,
then bent down to benches, sarks resounding,
the war-armor of men. Their spears stood,
sea-men’s tackle, leaning together,
ashen shafts grey at the tip. That metal-bound troop
was worthied in weapons. Then a proud noble
asked the chosen champions about their lineage: (ll. 320-32)

“From where have you all ferried those fretted shields,
grey hauberks and masked helmets, this forest of battle-shafts?
I am Hrothgar’s herald and servant. Never have I seen
m...Read more of this...

by Anonymous,

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...eads a thousand men away
To save a ground bird's nest which in the footpath lay.


LI.
Mile following mile, against the leaning skies
Far off they see a dull dark cloud arise.
The hunter's instinct in each heart is stirred, 
Beholding there in one stupendous herd
A hundred thousand buffaloes. Oh great
Unwieldy proof of Nature's cruder state, 
Rough remnant of a prehistoric day, 
Thou, with the red man, too, must shortly pass away.



LII.
Upon those spreading plains is there ...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

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...all but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats—
And Saints—to windows run—
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the—Sun—

249

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile—the Winds—
To a heart in port—
Done with the Compass—
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden—
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor—Tonight—
In Thee!

253

You see I cannot see—your lifetime—
I must guess—
How many times it ache for...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily

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...s are seen, 
 And serpents winged and finned; things made to fright 
 The timid foe, alone by sense of sight. 
 Some leaning forward and the others back, 
 They looked a growing forest that did lack 
 No form of terror; but these things of dread 
 That once on barons' helms the battle led 
 Beneath the giant banners, now are still, 
 
 As if they gaped and found the time but ill, 
 Wearied the ages passed so slowly by, 
 And that the gory dead no more did lie 
 Be...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor

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...ere,
Though an immortal, she felt cruel pain:
The other upon Saturn's bended neck
She laid, and to the level of his ear
Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake
In solemn tenor and deep organ tone:
Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue
Would come in these like accents; O how frail
To that large utterance of the early Gods!
"Saturn, look up!---though wherefore, poor old King?
I have no comfort for thee, no not one:
I cannot say, 'O wherefore sleepest thou?'
For...Read more of this...

by Keats, John

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...nder was to find unwakened Eve 
With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek, 
As through unquiet rest: He, on his side 
Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love 
Hung over her enamoured, and beheld 
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep, 
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice 
Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, 
Her hand soft touching, whispered thus. Awake, 
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found, 
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight! 
Awake:...Read more of this...

by Milton, John

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...e rage, weep, hate, desire, with yourself,
To lead America—to quell America with a great tongue. 

O the joy of my soul leaning pois’d on itself—receiving identity through
 materials,
 and loving them—observing characters, and absorbing them; 
O my soul, vibrated back to me, from them—from facts, sight, hearing, touch, my
 phrenology, reason, articulation, comparison, memory, and the like; 
The real life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and flesh; 
My body, done...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt

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...cry
the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

and death i think is no parenthesis...Read more of this...

by Cummings, Edward Estlin (E E)

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...he well-curb had a Chinese roof; 
And even the long sweep, high aloof, 
In its slant spendor, seemed to tell 
Of Pisa's leaning miracle. 

A prompt, decisive man, no breath 
Our father wasted: "Boys, a path!" 
Well pleased (for when did farmer boy 
Count such a summons less than joy?) 
Our buskins on our feet we drew; 
With mittened hands, and caps drawn low, 
To guard our necks and ears from snow, 
We cut the solid whiteness through. 
And, where the drift was deepest, made 
...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf

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...ound the vanished life so dear
Beyond the urn, and brought it back.
A blooming Pollux-form appeared now soon,
On Castor leaning, and enshrined in light--
The shadow that is seen upon the moon,
Ere she has filled her silvery circle bright!

Yet higher,--higher still above the earth
Inventive genius never ceased to rise:
Creations from creations had their birth,
And harmonies from harmonies.
What here alone enchants the ravished sight,
A nobler beauty yonder must obey;
The grac...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von

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...air,
Staggered, and strove to stand.

He bent them back with spear and spade,
With desperate dyke and wall,
With foemen leaning on his shield
And roaring on him when he reeled;
And no help came at all.

He broke them with a broken sword
A little towards the sea,
And for one hour of panting peace,
Ringed with a roar that would not cease,
With golden crown and girded fleece
Made laws under a tree.


The Northmen came about our land
A Christless chivalry:
Who knew not of the arc...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K

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...and bound her.
She almost swooned,
With the breeze and the moon
And the slipping sea,
And he beside her,
Touching her, leaning --
The ship careening,
With the white moon steadily shining over
Her and her lover,
Theodore, still her lover!
Then a quiver fell on the crowded 
notes,
And slowly floated
A single note which spread and spread
Till it filled the room with a shimmer like gold,
And noises shivered throughout its length,
And tried its strength.
They pulled it, and tore ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy

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...ket on his arm,
1.40 His golden rod in's purse, which was his charm.
1.41 And last of all, to act upon this Stage,
1.42 Leaning upon his staff, comes up old age.
1.43 Under his arm a Sheaf of wheat he bore,
1.44 A Harvest of the best: what needs he more?
1.45 In's other hand a glass, ev'n almost run,
1.46 This writ about: This out, then I am done.
1.47 His hoary hairs and grave aspect made way,
1.48 And all gave ear to what he had to say.
1.49 These being met, each in his equ...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne

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...he harp the closing hymn,—
     Unmoved in attitude and limb,
     As listening still, Clan-Alpine's lord
     Stood leaning on his heavy sword,
     Until the page with humble sign
     Twice pointed to the sun's decline.
     Then while his plaid he round him cast,
     'It is the last time—'tis the last,'
     He muttered thrice,—'the last time e'er
     That angel-voice shall Roderick hear''
     It was a goading thought,—his stride
     Hied hastier down the m...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter

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...e, 
A bitterness to me!--ye look amazed, 
Not knowing they were lost as soon as given-- 
Slid from my hands, when I was leaning out 
Above the river--that unhappy child 
Past in her barge: but rosier luck will go 
With these rich jewels, seeing that they came 
Not from the skeleton of a brother-slayer, 
But the sweet body of a maiden babe. 
Perchance--who knows?--the purest of thy knights 
May win them for the purest of my maids.' 

She ended, and the cry of a great jousts 
W...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

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...destroy?" 

LXXVII.
None answer'd this; but after Silence spake
A Vessel of a more ungainly Make:
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?" 

LXXVIII:
"Why," said another, "Some there are who tell
Of one who threatens he will toss to Hell
The luckless Pots he marred in making -- Pish!
He's a Good Fellow, and 'twill all be well." 

LXXIX.
Then said another with a long-drawn Sigh,
"My Clay with long oblivion is gone dry:
But, fill me ...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar

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...urricanes,
trailing, like masts, the cirrus of torn sails;
when I was green like them, I used to think
those cypresses, leaning against the sea,
that take the sea noise up into their branches,
are not real cypresses but casuarinas.
Now captain just call them Canadian cedars.
But cedars, cypresses, or casuarinas,
whoever called them so had a good cause,
watching their bending bodies wail like women
after a storm, when some schooner came home
with news of one more sailor drowne...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek

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...pursues,
"Jug Jug" to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. 
 "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
"Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
 "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
"I never know what ...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

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...it battling 
With her tears and pride. 
The Southampton landing, 
Porters, neat and quick, 
And a young man standing, 
Leaning on his stick. 
'Oh, John, John, you shouldn't 
Have come this long way. . . 
'Did you really think I wouldn't 
Be here to make you stay?'
I can't remember whether
There was much stress and strain,
But presently, together,
We were travelling back again.

XXI 
The English love their country with a love 
Steady, and simple, wordless, dignified;
I think ...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer

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...nt flies
And I am in stage fright before singing -
My lips have grown colder than ice.

But soon that place, where, leaning to the windows
The tender birches make dry rustling sound,
The voices will be ringing of the shadows
And roses will in blackened wreaths be wound.

And further onward still -- the light is generous
Unbearably as though ¡®t were red hot wine..
And now the wind, all redolent and heated,
In perfect vigor has enflamed my mind.



x x x

O...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna

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