Famous Lie Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Here Dead We Lie

by A E Housman
 Here dead we lie 
Because we did not choose 
To live and shame the land 
From which we sprung. 

Life, to be sure, 
Is nothing much to lose, 
But young men think it is, 
And we were young....Read more of this...

Lie Still Sleep Becalmed

by Dylan Thomas
 Lie still, sleep becalmed, sufferer with the wound
In the throat, burning and turning. All night afloat
On the silent sea we have heard the sound
That came from the wound wrapped in the salt sheet.

Under the mile off moon we trembled listening
To the sea sound flowing like blood from the loud wound
And when the salt sheet broke in a storm of...Read more of this...

A Dialogue Between the Resolved Soul And Created Pleasure

by Andrew Marvell
 Courage my Soul, now learn to wield
The weight of thine immortal Shield.
Close on thy Head thy Helmet bright.
Ballance thy Sword against the Fight.
See where an Army, strong as fair,
With silken Banners spreads the air.
Now, if thou bee'st that thing Divine,
In this day's Combat let it shine:
And shew that Nature wants an Art
To conquer one resolved Heart.

Pleasure
Welcome the Creations Guest,
Lord...Read more of this...

The Oldest Child

by Charles Simic
 The night still frightens you.
You know it is interminable
And of vast, unimaginable dimensions.
"That's because His insomnia is permanent,"
You've read some mystic say.
Is it the point of His schoolboy's compass
That pricks your heart?

Somewhere perhaps the lovers lie
Under the dark cypress trees,
Trembling with happiness,
But here there's only your beard of many days
And a night moth shivering
Under your hand pressed against your...Read more of this...

Cleared

by Rudyard Kipling
 Help for a patriot distressed, a spotless spirit hurt,
Help for an honourable clan sore trampled in the dirt!
From Queenstown Bay to Donegal, O listen to my song,
The honourable gentlemen have suffered grievous wrong.

Their noble names were mentioned -- O the burning black disgrace! --
By a brutal Saxon paper in an Irish shooting-case;
They sat upon it for a year, then...Read more of this...

On earth's green carpet many sleepers lie,

by Omar Khayyam
On earth's green carpet many sleepers lie,
And hid beneath it others I descry,
And others, not yet come, or passed away,
People the desert of Nonentity!...Read more of this...

An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet W. Shakespeare

by John Milton
 What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones
The labor of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a livelong monument.
For whilst, to th' shame of slow-endeavoring art,
Thy easy...Read more of this...

A Sweltering Day In Australia

by Mark Twain
 The Bombola faints in the hot Bowral tree, 
Where fierce Mullengudgery's smothering fires 
Far from the breezes of Coolgardie 
Burn ghastly and blue as the day expires; 

And Murriwillumba complaineth in song 
For the garlanded bowers of Woolloomooloo, 
And the Ballarat Fly and the lone Wollongong 
They dream of the gardens of Jamberoo; 

The wallabi sighs for the Murrubidgee,...Read more of this...

Sweet Mountains -- Ye tell Me no lie --

by Emily Dickinson
 Sweet Mountains -- Ye tell Me no lie --
Never deny Me -- Never fly --
Those same unvarying Eyes
Turn on Me -- when I fail -- or feign,
Or take the Royal names in vain --
Their far -- slow -- Violet Gaze --

My Strong Madonnas -- Cherish still --
The Wayward Nun -- beneath the Hill --
Whose service -- is to You...Read more of this...

O Lovely Lie

by Robert William Service
 I told a truth, a tragic truth
 That tore the sullen sky;
A million shuddered at my sooth
 And anarchist was I.
Red righteousness was in my word
 To winnow evil chaff;
Yet while I swung crusading sword
 I heard the devil laugh.

I framed a lie, a rainbow lie
 To glorify a thought;
And none was so surprised as I
 When fast as...Read more of this...

Warm in her Hand these accents lie

by Emily Dickinson
 Warm in her Hand these accents lie
While faithful and afar
The Grace so awkward for her sake
Its fond subjection wear --...Read more of this...

Take heart! Long in the weary tomb you'll lie,

by Omar Khayyam
Take heart! Long in the weary tomb you'll lie,
While stars keep countless watches in the sky,
And see your ashes moulded into bricks,
To build another's house and turrets high....Read more of this...

Charity thou art a lie

by Stephen Crane
 Charity thou art a lie,
A toy of women,
A pleasure of certain men.
In the presence of justice,
Lo, the walls of the temple
Are visible
Through thy form of sudden shadows....Read more of this...

Too little way the House must lie

by Emily Dickinson
 Too little way the House must lie
From every Human Heart
That holds in undisputed Lease
A white inhabitant --

Too narrow is the Right between --
Too imminent the chance --
Each Consciousness must emigrate
And lose its neighbor once --...Read more of this...

To a Little Girl That Has Told a Lie

by Ann Taylor
 AND has my darling told a lie? 
Did she forget that GOD was by? 
That GOD, who saw the things she did, 
From whom no action can be hid;
Did she forget that GOD could see
And hear, wherever she might be? 

He made your eyes, and can discern
Whichever way you think to turn; 
He made your ears, and he can...Read more of this...

A Drunken Mans Praise Of Sobriety

by William Butler Yeats
 Come swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.
Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore.
O mind your feet, O mind your feet,
Keep dancing like a wave,
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.
No ups and downs, my pretty,
A...Read more of this...

Hymn 42

by Isaac Watts
 Divine wrath and mercy.

Nah. 1:1-3; Heb. 12:29. 

Adore and tremble, for our God
Is a consuming fire!
His jealous eyes his wrath inflame,
And raise his vengeance higher.

Almighty vengeance, how it burns!
How bright his fury glows!
Vast magazines of plagues and storms
Lie treasured for his foes.

Those heaps of wrath, by slow degrees,
Are forced into a flame;
But kindled, oh! how fierce they blaze!
And rend...Read more of this...

Modern Love XXIII: Tis Christmas Weather

by George Meredith
 'Tis Christmas weather, and a country house 
Receives us: rooms are full: we can but get 
An attic-crib. Such lovers will not fret 
At that, it is half-said. The great carouse 
Knocks hard upon the midnight's hollow door, 
But when I knock at hers, I see the pit. 
Why did I come here in that dullard fit? 
I enter,...Read more of this...

The Lie

by Sir Walter Raleigh
 Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.

Tell potentates, they live
Acting...Read more of this...

Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie

by William Shakespeare
 Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer;
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer,
But reckoning Time, whose millioned accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of alt'ring things—
Alas,...Read more of this...

I. The Witch of Coös

by Robert Frost
 I stayed the night for shelter at a farm
Behind the mountains, with a mother and son,
Two old-believers. They did all the talking.

MOTHER: Folks think a witch who has familiar spirits
She could call up to pass a winter evening,
But won-™t, should be burned at the stake or something.
Summoning spirits isn-™t -œButton, button,
Who-™s got the button,- I would have them know.

SON:...Read more of this...

Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days

by Ted Hughes
 She gives him his eyes, she found them
Among some rubble, among some beetles

He gives her her skin
He just seemed to pull it down out of the air and lay it over her
She weeps with fearfulness and astonishment

She has found his hands for him, and fitted them freshly at the wrists
They are amazed at themselves, they go feeling all over...Read more of this...

After Prayers Lie Cold

by C S Lewis
 Arise my body, my small body, we have striven 
Enough, and He is merciful; we are forgiven. 
Arise small body, puppet-like and pale, and go, 
White as the bed-clothes into bed, and cold as snow, 
Undress with small, cold fingers and put out the light, 
And be alone, hush'd mortal, in the sacred night, 
-A meadow whipt flat with...Read more of this...

Flower of Love

by Claude McKay
 The perfume of your body dulls my sense. 
I want nor wine nor weed; your breath alone 
Suffices. In this moment rare and tense 
I worship at your breast. The flower is blown, 
The saffron petals tempt my amorous mouth, 
The yellow heart is radiant now with dew 
Soft-scented, redolent of my loved South; 
O flower of love! I...Read more of this...

83. The Cotter's Saturday Night

by Robert Burns
 MY lov’d, my honour’d, much respected friend!
 No mercenary bard his homage pays;
With honest pride, I scorn each selfish end,
 My dearest meed, a friend’s esteem and praise:
 To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays,
The lowly train in life’s sequester’d scene,
 The native feelings strong, the guileless ways,
What Aiken in a cottage would have been;
Ah! tho’ his worth...Read more of this...

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