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Famous Lenient Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Browning, Robert
.... 
That's better than acquitting God with grace 
As some folk do. He's tried--no case is proved, 
Philosophy is lenient--he may go! 

You'll say, the old system's not so obsolete 
But men believe still: ay, but who and where? 


King Bomba's lazzaroni foster yet 
The sacred flame, so Antonelli writes; 
But even of these, what ragamuffin-saint 
Believes God watches him continually, 
As he believes in fire that it will burn, 
Or rain that it will drench him? Break fire'...Read more of this...



by Robinson, Mary Darby
...vy's self thy eloquence confess'd. 

Who could like thee the soul's wild tumults paint,
Or wake the torpid ear with lenient art?
Touch the nice sense with pity's dulcet plaint,
Or soothe the sorrows of the breaking heart? 

Who can forget thy penetrating eye, 
The sweet bewitching smile, th' empassion'd look?
The clear deep whisper, the persuasive sigh,
The feeling tear that Nature's language spoke? 

Rich in each treasure bounteous Heaven could lend,
For private worth di...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...thine!
Be no unpleasing melancholy mine:
Me, let the tender office long engage
To rock the cradle of reposing age,
With lenient arts extend a mother's breath,
Make langour smile, and smooth the bed of death,
Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
And keep a while one parent from the sky!
On cares like these if length of days attend,
May Heav'n, to bless those days, preserve my friend,
Preserve him social, cheerful, and serene,
And just as rich as when he serv'd a queen....Read more of this...

by Bryant, William Cullen
...ipened by years of toil and studious search

And watch of Nature's silent lessons, taught
Thy hand to practise best the lenient art
To which thou gavest thy laborious days.
And, last, thy life. And, therefore, when the earth
Received thee, tears were in unyielding eyes
And on hard cheeks, and they who deemed thy skill
Delayed their death-hour, shuddered and turned pale
When thou wert gone. This faltering verse, which thou
Shalt not, as wont, o'erlook, is all I hav...Read more of this...

by Bryant, William Cullen
...ture years.
The child can never take, you see,
A single step without a staff--
The harshest punishment would be
Too lenient for the crime by half."

All said that Love had suffered wrong,
And well that wrong should be repaid;
Then weighed the public interest long,
And long the party's interest weighed.
And thus decreed the court above--
"Since Love is blind from Folly's blow,
Let Folly be the guide of Love,
Where'er the boy may choose to go."...Read more of this...



by Untermeyer, Louis
...f a blithe Hellene,
Who am too much in love with life to live.
(The shrug is pure Hebraic) ... For what I've been,
A lenient Lord will tax me—and forgive.
Dieu me pardonnera—c'est son metier.
But this is jesting. There are other scandals

You haven't heard ... Can it be dusk so soon?
Or is this deeper darkness ...? Is that you,
Mother? How did you come? Where are the candles?...
Over my bed a strange tree gleams—half filled
With stars and birds whose white notes gl...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...elights from Greek or Roman host; 
 Nor at the free, control-less jousts, where, spite of cynic vaunts, 
 Austere but lenient Seneca no "Ercles" bumper daunts; 
 
 Nor where upon the Tiber floats Aglae in galley gay, 
 'Neath Asian tent of brilliant stripes, in gorgeous array; 
 Nor when to lutes and tambourines the wealthy prefect flings 
 A score of slaves, their fetters wreathed, to feed grim, greedy 
 things. 
 
 I vow to show ye Rome aflame, the whole town in a...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...drops sustain, 
Touch'd by thy voice, the melting eye 
Shall pour the balm of yielding SYMPATHY. 

'Tis thine, with lenient Song to move 
The dumb despair of hopeless LOVE; 
Or when the animated soul 
On Fancy's wing shall soar, 
And scorning Reason's soft controul, 
Untrodden paths explore; 
'Till by distracting conflicts tost, 
The intellectual source is lost: 
E'en then, the witching music of thy tongue 
Stealing thro' Mis'ry's DARKEST GLOOM, 
Weaves the fine threads o...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...pes for thee its aromatic store
To bathe each languid gasping pore;
But where, O where, shall cherish'd sorrow find
The lenient balm to soothe the feeling mind. 

O, mem'ry! busy barb'rous foe, 
At thy fell touch I wake to woe: 
Alas! the flatt'ring dream is o'er, 
From thee the bright illusions fly, 
Thou bidst the glitt'ring phantoms die, 
And hope, and youth, and fancy, charm no more. 

No more for me the tip-toe SPRING
Drops flowrets from her infant wing; 
For me ...Read more of this...

by Warton, Thomas
...d place thy crown of poppies on my breast.

O steep my senses in oblivion's balm,
And sooth my throbbing pulse with lenient hand;
This tempest of my boiling blood becalm!
Despair grows mild at thy supreme command.

Yet ah! in vain, familiar with the gloom,
And sadly toiling through the tedious night,
I seek sweet slumber, while that virgin bloom,
For ever hovering, haunts my wretched sight.

Nor would the dawning day my sorrows charm:
Black midnight and the blaze ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...alamities,
All chances incident to mans frail life
Consolatories writ
With studied argument, and much perswasion sought
Lenient of grief and anxious thought,
But with th' afflicted in his pangs thir sound 
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune,
Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint,
Unless he feel within
Some sourse of consolation from above;
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,
And fainting spirits uphold.
God of our Fathers, what is man!
That thou t...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...bliss shall prove, 
Tho' life no raptures shall impart, 
No boundless joy, or, madd'ning love, 
Sweet NIGHTINGALE, thy lenient strain 
Shall mock Despair, AND BLUNT THE SHAFT OF PAIN....Read more of this...

by Bowles, William Lisle
...O Time! who know'st a lenient hand to lay
Softest on sorrow's wound, and slowly thence
(Lulling to sad repose the weary sense)
The faint pang stealest unperceived away;
On thee I rest my only hope at last,
And think, when thou hast dried the bitter tear
That flows in vain o'er all my soul held dear,
I may look back on every sorrow past,
And meet life's peaceful evening with a smi...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...tear from PITY'S eye; 
There shall thy balmy sweets impart 
An essence grateful to my heart. 

Thus SYMPATHY, with lenient pow'r,
Shall bid thy fading charms bestow
Soft odours for life's happy hour,
Kind, healing balsam for its woe! 
If such thy virtues, ROSE DIVINE! 
OH ! MAY THY ENVIED FATE BE MINE....Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...h of Autumn's frost.
Yet there are those , whose patient pity still
Hears my long murmurs; who, unwearied, try
With lenient hands to bind up every wound
My wearied spirit feels, and bid me go
"Right onward 7 "--a calm votary of the Nymph,
Who, from her adamantine rock, points out
To conscious rectitude the rugged path,
That leads at length to Peace!--Ah! yes, my friends
Peace will at last be mine; for in the Grave
Is Peace--and pass a few short years, perchance
A few shor...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ss *after one*." *alike*
And shortly, when his ire is thus agone,
He gan to look on them with eyen light*, *gentle, lenient*
And spake these same wordes *all on height.* *aloud*

"The god of love, ah! benedicite*, *bless ye him
How mighty and how great a lord is he!
Against his might there gaine* none obstacles, *avail, conquer
He may be called a god for his miracles
For he can maken at his owen guise
Of every heart, as that him list devise.
Lo here this Arcite, a...Read more of this...

by Riley, James Whitcomb
...ings
So closely here declares
A sad regret in its ravelings
And the faded hue it wears.

But the old guitar, with a lenient grace,
Has cherished a smile for me;
And its features hint of a fairer face
That comes with a memory
Of a flower-and-perfume-haunted place
And a moonlit balcony.

Music sweeter than words confess,
Or the minstrel's powers invent,
Thrilled here once at the light caress
Of the fairy hands that lent
This excuse for the kiss I press
On the dear old i...Read more of this...

by Bowles, William Lisle
...O TIME! who know'st a lenient hand to lay 
Softest on sorrow's wound, and slowly thence 
(Lulling to sad repose the weary sense) 
The faint pang stealest unperceived away; 
On thee I rest my only hope at last, 
And think, when thou hast dried the bitter tear 
That flows in vain o'er all my soul held dear, 
I may look back on every sorrow past, 
And meet life's peaceful evening wi...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...thirsty fainting bud, 
That drinks with joy the grateful flood. 
Yet, can the deeply wounded Mind, 
From these, no lenient balsam find.­ 

What can the force of anguish quell, 
Where sullen Sorrow loves to dwell, 
Where round the bosom's burning throne, 
HOPELESS, the mingling PASSIONS groan? 
While thro' each guiv'ring, scorching vein, 
Rolls a revolving tide of pain; 
That struggling with the Storms of FATE, 
Provokes her darkest, direst, HATE. 
O, BARD ADMIR'D...Read more of this...

by Bowles, William Lisle
...O TIME! who know'st a lenient hand to lay 
Softest on sorrow's wound, and slowly thence, 
(Lulling to sad repose the weary sense) 
Stealest the long-forgotten pang away; 
On Thee I rest my only hope at last, 
And think, when thou hast dried the bitter tear 
That flows in vain o'er all my soul held dear, 
I may look back on many a sorrow past, 
And meet life's peaceful evening wit...Read more of this...

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