Famous Life Other Poems by Famous Poets

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

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One Life

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Oh, I am hurt to death, my Love;
The shafts of Fate have pierced my striving heart,
And I am sick and weary of
The endless pain and smart.
My soul is weary of the strife,
And chafes at life, and chafes at life.
Time mocks me with fair promises;
A blooming future grows a barren past,
Like rain my fair full-blossomed trees
Unburden in the blast.
The harvest fails...Read more of this...

When One has given up Ones life

by Emily Dickinson
 When One has given up One's life
The parting with the rest
Feels easy, as when Day lets go
Entirely the West

The Peaks, that lingered last
Remain in Her regret
As scarcely as the Iodine
Upon the Cataract....Read more of this...

All my life long from drink I have not ceased,

by Omar Khayyam
All my life long from drink I have not ceased,
And drink I will to-night on Kadr's feast;
And throw my arms about the wine-jar's neck,
And kiss its lip, and clasp it to my breast!...Read more of this...

Life

by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
A dewy flower, bathed in crimson light,
May touch the soul—a pure and beauteous sight;
A golden river flashing 'neath the sun,
May reach the spot where life's dark waters run;
Yet, when the sun is gone, the splendor dies,
With drooping head the tender flower lies.
And such is life; a golden mist of light,
A tangled web that glitters in the sun;
When shadows come, the...Read more of this...

Khayyam! why weep you that your life is bad?

by Omar Khayyam
Khayyam! why weep you that your life is bad?
What boots it thus to mourn? Rather be glad.
He that sins not can make no claim to mercy,
Mercy was made for sinners—be not sad....Read more of this...

The universe is but a point in our poor round of life;

by Omar Khayyam
The universe is but a point in our poor round of life;
the Djeihoun [Oxus] but a feeble trace of tears and
blood; Hell but a spark of useless worry which we give
ourselves, and Paradise an instant of repose, which here
below we rarely catch....Read more of this...

488. Song—The Winter of Life

by Robert Burns
 BUT lately seen in gladsome green,
 The woods rejoic’d the day,
Thro’ gentle showers, the laughing flowers
 In double pride were gay:
But now our joys are fled
 On winter blasts awa;
Yet maiden May, in rich array,
 Again shall bring them a’.


But my white pow, nae kindly thowe
 Shall melt the snaws of Age;
My trunk of eild, but buss or beild,
...Read more of this...

The Witchs Life

by Anne Sexton
 When I was a child
there was an old woman in our neighborhood whom we called The Witch.
All day she peered from her second story
window
from behind the wrinkled curtains
and sometimes she would open the window
and yell: Get out of my life!
She had hair like kelp
and a voice like a boulder.

I think of her sometimes now
and wonder if I am becoming...Read more of this...

i wrote a life

by Billy Jno Hope
 this might be the swan song
i have traveled beyond misty mountains
spilled my seed on the hungry rock
hallowed days
blasphemous timelines
art nourishment
prolific like sin
to the serpent edge of youth
once my head rolled in the streets
motors crashing by
inches from my intoxication
a fleshful laugh echoed in time
a mad initiation as part of the door
to the unrepentant lyric
heathen apprentices
i cracked the demon-s egg
tattooed pandora-s...Read more of this...

My Inner Life

by Robert William Service
 'Tis true my garments threadbare are,
 And sorry poor I seem;
But inly I am richer far
 Than any poet's dream.
For I've a hidden life no one
 Can ever hope to see;
A sacred sanctuary none
 May share with me.

Aloof I stand from out the strife,
 Within my heart a song;
By virtue of my inner life
 I to myself belong.
Against man-ruling...Read more of this...

Behold, I must go, and life is saddened by my going; for,

by Omar Khayyam
Behold, I must go, and life is saddened by my going; for,
out of a hundred precious pearls but one have I pierced.
Alas! thanks to the ignorance of men, a hundred thousand
things of deepest import yet remain unheard.
317...Read more of this...

He gave away his Life --

by Emily Dickinson
 He gave away his Life --
To Us -- Gigantic Sum --
A trifle -- in his own esteem --
But magnified -- by Fame --

Until it burst the Hearts
That fancied they could hold --
When swift it slipped its limit --
And on the Heavens -- unrolled --

'Tis Ours -- to wince -- and weep --
And wonder -- and decay
By Blossoms gradual process...Read more of this...

The Life that tied too tight escapes

by Emily Dickinson
 The Life that tied too tight escapes
Will ever after run
With a prudential look behind
And spectres of the Rein --
The Horse that scents the living Grass
And sees the Pastures smile
Will be retaken with a shot
If he is caught at all --...Read more of this...

A Poets Death is His Life IV

by Kahlil Gibran
 The dark wings of night enfolded the city upon which Nature had spread a pure white garment of snow; and men deserted the streets for their houses in search of warmth, while the north wind probed in contemplation of laying waste the gardens. There in the suburb stood an old hut heavily laden with snow and on the verge...Read more of this...

An Image From A Past Life

by William Butler Yeats
 He. Never until this night have I been stirred.
The elaborate starlight throws a reflection
On the dark stream,
Till all the eddies gleam;
And thereupon there comes that scream
From terrified, invisible beast or bird:
Image of poignant recollection.

She. An image of my heart that is smitten through
Out of all likelihood, or reason,
And when at last,
Youth's bitterness being past,
I had thought that all my...Read more of this...

Life, void of wine, and minstrels with their lutes,

by Omar Khayyam
Life, void of wine, and minstrels with their lutes,
And the soft murmurs of Irakian flutes,
Were nothing worth: I scan the world and see:
Save pleasure, life yields only bitter fruits....Read more of this...

Life in a Bottle

by Robert Browning
 Escape me?
Never--
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose...Read more of this...

Amoretti LXVIII: Most Glorious Lord of Life

by Edmund Spenser
 Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day,
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin:
And having harrow'd hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we for whom thou diddest die,
Being with thy dear blood clean wash'd from sin,
May live for ever in felicity.
And that thy love we...Read more of this...

My Philosophy of Life

by John Ashbery
 Just when I thought there wasn't room enough
for another thought in my head, I had this great idea--
call it a philosophy of life, if you will.Briefly,
it involved living the way philosophers live,
according to a set of principles. OK, but which ones?

That was the hardest part, I admit, but I had a
kind of dark foreknowledge of what it would be...Read more of this...

Song VI: Cherish Life that Abideth

by William Morris
 Love is enough: cherish life that abideth,
Lest ye die ere ye know him, and curse and misname him;
For who knows in what ruin of all hope he hideth,
On what wings of the terror of darkness he rideth?
And what is the joy of man's life that ye blame him
For his bliss grown a sword, and his rest grown a fire?...Read more of this...

Life Is Fine

by Langston Hughes
 I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

 But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought...Read more of this...

When life is spent, what's Balkh or Nishapore?

by Omar Khayyam
When life is spent, what's Balkh or Nishapore?
What sweet or bitter, when the cup runs o'er?
Come drink! full many a moon will wax and wane
In times to come, when we are here no more....Read more of this...

The Thread of Life

by Christina Rossetti
 I
The irresponsive silence of the land, 
The irresponsive sounding of the sea, 
Speak both one message of one sense to me:--
Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand
Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band
Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;
But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?
What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?--
And I am...Read more of this...

The Playground of Life XIX

by Kahlil Gibran
 One hour devoted to the pursuit of Beauty 
And Love is worth a full century of glory 
Given by the frightened weak to the strong. 


From that hour comes man's Truth; and 
During that century Truth sleeps between 
The restless arms of disturbing dreams. 


In that hour the soul sees for herself 
The Natural Law, and for that century...Read more of this...

O Me! O Life!

by Walt Whitman
 O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; 
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish; 
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more
 faithless?) 
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever
 renew’d; 
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding...Read more of this...

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