Famous Lily White Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Bankrupt Peace-Maker

by Vachel Lindsay
 I opened the ink-well and smoke filled the room.
The smoke formed the giant frog-cat of my doom.
His web feet left dreadful slime tracks on the floor.
He had hammer and nails that he laid by the door.
He sprawled on the table, claw-hands in my hair.
He looked through my heart to the mud that was there.
Like a black-mailer hating his victim...Read more of this...

The Foreigner

by Amy Lowell
 Have at you, you Devils!
My back's to this tree,
For you're nothing so nice
That the hind-side of me
Would escape your assault.
Come on now, all three!
Here's a dandified gentleman,
Rapier at point,
And a wrist which whirls round
Like a circular joint.
A spatter of blood, man!
That's just to anoint
And make supple your limbs.
'Tis a pity the silk
Of your waistcoat is stained.
Why! Your heart's full...Read more of this...

My Lady Of Castle Grand

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Gray is the palace where she dwells,
Grimly the poplars stand
There by the window where she sits,
My Lady of Castle Grand.
There does she bide the livelong day,
Grim as the poplars are,
Ever her gaze goes reaching out,
Steady, but vague and far.
Bright burn the fires in the castle hall,
Brightly the fire-dogs stand;
But cold is the body and cold the heart
Of my Lady of...Read more of this...

The Lilly

by William Blake
 The modest Rose puts forth a thorn:
The humble Sheep. a threatning horn:
While the Lily white, shall in Love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright...Read more of this...

As I Walked Out One Evening

by Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden
As I walked out one evening,Walking down Bristol Street,The crowds upon the pavementWere fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming riverI heard a lover singUnder an arch of the railway:'Love has no ending. 'I'll love you, dear, I'll love youTill China and Africa meet,And the river jumps over the mountainAnd the salmon sing in the street, 'I'll love...Read more of this...

Fancies

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Surely the flowers of a hundred springs 
Are simply the souls of beautiful things! 

The poppies aflame with gold and red 
Were the kisses of lovers in days that are fled. 

The purple pansies with dew-drops pearled 
Were the rainbow dreams of a youngling world. 

The lily, white as a star apart, 
Was the first pure prayer of a...Read more of this...

The Priestess of Panormita

by Aleister Crowley
 Hear me, Lord of the Stars!
For thee I have worshipped ever
With stains and sorrows and scars,
With joyful, joyful endeavour.
Hear me, O lily-white goat!
O crisp as a thicket of thorns,
With a collar of gold for Thy throat,
A scarlet bow for Thy horns!

Here, in the dusty air,
I build Thee a shrine of yew.
All green is the garland I wear,
But I feed...Read more of this...

108. Song—Will ye go to the Indies my Mary?

by Robert Burns
 WILL ye go to the Indies, my Mary,
 And leave auld Scotia’s shore?
Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary,
 Across th’ Atlantic roar?


O sweet grows the lime and the orange,
 And the apple on the pine;
But a’ the charms o’ the Indies
 Can never equal thine.


I hae sworn by the Heavens to my Mary,
 I hae sworn by...Read more of this...

Unwanted

by Edward Field
 The poster with my picture on it
Is hanging on the bulletin board in the Post Office.

I stand by it hoping to be recognized
Posing first full face and then profile

But everybody passes by and I have to admit
The photograph was taken some years ago.

I was unwanted then and I'm unwanted now
Ah guess ah'll go up echo mountain and crah.

I wish...Read more of this...

Song Of Love

by Victor Hugo
 ("S'il est un charmant gazon.") 
 
 {XXII, Feb. 18, 1834.} 


 If there be a velvet sward 
 By dewdrops pearly drest, 
 Where through all seasons fairies guard 
 Flowers by bees carest, 
 Where one may gather, day and night, 
 Roses, honeysuckle, lily white, 
 I fain would make of it a site 
 For...Read more of this...

Lady Clare

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
IT was the time when lilies blow, 
And clouds are highest up in air, 
Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe 
To give his cousin, Lady Clare. 

I trow they did not part in scorn- 
Lovers long-betroth'd were they: 
They too will wed the morrow morn: 
God's blessing on the day! 

'He does not love me for my birth, 
Nor for...Read more of this...

Venus and Adonis

by William Shakespeare
 Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold
That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold.

Venus salutes him with this fair good-morrow;
"O thou clear god, and patron of all light,
From whom each lamp and shining star...Read more of this...

285. Song—I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen

by Robert Burns
 I GAED a waefu’ gate yestreen,
 A gate, I fear, I’ll dearly rue;
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
 Twa lovely een o’bonie blue.
’Twas not her golden ringlets bright,
 Her lips like roses wat wi’ dew,
Her heaving bosom, lily-white—
 It was her een sae bonie blue.


She talk’d, she smil’d, my heart she wyl’d;
 She charm’d my soul I...Read more of this...

On Mistress Nicely a Pattern for Housekeepers

by Thomas Hood
 She was a woman peerless in her station, 
With household virtues wedded to her name; 
Spotless in linen, grass-bleached in her fame; 
And pure and clear-starched in her conversation; 
Thence in my Castle of Imagination 
She dwells for evermore, the dainty dame, 
To keep all airy draperies from shame 
And all dream furnitures in preservation: 

There walketh she with...Read more of this...

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