Famous Lips Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Her Lips Are Copper Wire

by Jean Toomer
 whisper of yellow globes
gleaming on lamp-posts that sway
like bootleg licker drinkers in the fog

and let your breath be moist against me
like bright beads on yellow globes

telephone the power-house
that the main wires are insulate

(her words play softly up and down
dewy corridors of billboards)

then with your tongue remove the tape
and press your lips to mine
till they are incandescent...Read more of this...

The gift of yourself

by Emile Verhaeren
The gift of yourself no longer satisfies you; you are prodigal of yourself: the rapture that bears you on to ever greater love springs up in you ceaselessly and untiringly, and carries you ever higher towards the wide heaven of perfect love.
A clasp of the hands, a gentle look impassions you; and your heart appears to me so suddenly lovely...Read more of this...

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed And Where And Why (Sonnet XLIII)

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, 
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain 
Under my head till morning; but the rain 
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh 
Upon the glass and listen for reply, 
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain 
For unremembered lads that not again 
Will turn...Read more of this...

Lips and Eyes

by Thomas Carew
 IN Celia's face a question did arise,
Which were more beautiful, her lips or eyes ? 
“ We,” said the eyes, “send forth those pointed darts 
Which pierce the hardest adamantine hearts.” 
“ From us,” repli'd the lips, “proceed those blisses 
Which lovers reap by kind words and sweet kisses.” 
Then wept the eyes, and from their springs did pour...Read more of this...

I put my lips to the cup, for I did yearn

by Omar Khayyam
I put my lips to the cup, for I did yearn
The hidden cause of length of days to learn;
He leaned his lip to mine, and whispered low,
«Drink! for, once gone, you never will return.»...Read more of this...

The Phantom of Love

by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
She stood by my side with a queenly air,
Her face it was young and proud and fair;
She held my rose in her hands of snow;
It crimsoned her face with a deeper glow;
The sunlight drooped in her eyes of fire
And quickened my heart to a wild desire;
I envied the rose in her hands so fair,
I envied the flowers that gleamed in...Read more of this...

O Thou whose lips secrete the water of life, permit

by Omar Khayyam
O Thou whose lips secrete the water of life, permit
not those of the cup to come and kiss them! [Oh, if
Thou shouldst permit it], may I lose the name of man
if I am not soaked in the blood of the flask, for what is
it, this cup, to dare to touch its lips to Thine?
367...Read more of this...

These ruby lips, and wine, and minstrel boys,

by Omar Khayyam
These ruby lips, and wine, and minstrel boys,
And lute, and harp, your dearly cherished toys,
Are mere redundancies, and you are naught,
Till you renounce the world's delusive joys....Read more of this...

Out of White Lips

by Carl Sandburg
 OUT of white lips a question: Shall seven million dead ask for their blood a little land for the living wives and children, a little land for the living brothers and sisters?

Out of white lips:—Shall they have only air that sweeps round the earth for breath of their nostrils and no footing on the dirt of the earth for...Read more of this...

You may indeed be taken with lips tinted with the

by Omar Khayyam
You may indeed be taken with lips tinted with the
color of the ruby, you may indeed appreciate the cup of
wine, you may indeed call for the noise of the drum, the
sound of the harp and of the flute, but these are only
trifles. God is my witness, while you do not break the
bonds of this dark world, you nothing are....Read more of this...

Dedication

by Wole Soyinka
Dedication

for Moremi, 1963

Earth will not share the rafter's envy; dung floors
Break, not the gecko's slight skin, but its fall
Taste this soil for death and plumb her deep for life

As this yam, wholly earthed, yet a living tuber
To the warmth of waters, earthed as springs
As roots of baobab, as the hearth.

The air will not deny you. Like a top
Spin you on...Read more of this...

Oh! where is that one whose lips are of rubies, where

by Omar Khayyam
Oh! where is that one whose lips are of rubies, where
that precious stone of Bedekhchan? Where is that wine
full of perfume which gives repose to the soul? They
say that the religion of Islam prohibits it; drink, friend,
and have no fear, for where do you see Islam?...Read more of this...

Take O take those Lips away

by William Shakespeare
 TAKE, O take those lips away, 
 That so sweetly were forsworn; 
And those eyes, the break of day, 
 Lights that do mislead the morn! 
But my kisses bring again, 
 Bring again; 
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, 
 Seal'd in vain!...Read more of this...

Sonnet 145: Those lips that Loves own hand did make

by William Shakespeare
 Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said "I hate"
To me that languished for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
"I hate" she altered with an end,
That followed it as gentle...Read more of this...

Ave Adonai

by Aleister Crowley
 [Dedicated to G. M. Marston]


Pale as the night that pales
In the dawn's pearl-pure pavillion,
I wait for thee, with my dove's breast
Shuddering, a god its bitter guest-
Have I not gilded my nails
And painted my lips with vermillion ?

Am I not wholly stript
Of the deeds and thoughts that obscure thee?
I wait for thee, my soul distraught
With aching for some nameless naught
In...Read more of this...

Modern Love VI: It Chanced His Lips Did Meet

by George Meredith
 It chanced his lips did meet her forehead cool. 
She had no blush, but slanted down her eye. 
Shamed nature, then, confesses love can die: 
And most she punishes the tender fool 
Who will believe what honours her the most! 
Dead! is it dead? She has a pulse, and flow 
Of tears, the price of blood-drops, as I know,...Read more of this...

Take Oh Take Those Lips Away

by John Gould Fletcher
 Take, oh take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn,
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again,
Seals of love, but sealed in vain.

Hide, oh hide those hills of snow,
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are yet of those that April wears.
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound...Read more of this...

Psalm 45

by Isaac Watts
 The glory of Christ.

My Savior and my King,
Thy beauties are divine;
Thy lips with blessings overflow,
And every grace is thine.

Now make thy glory known,
Gird on thy dreadful sword,
And ride in majesty to spread
The conquests of thy word.

Strike through thy stubborn foes,
Or melt their hearts t' obey,
While justice, meekness, grace, and truth,
Attend thy glorious way.

Thy laws, O God, are right;
Thy throne...Read more of this...

A Nursery Darling

by Lewis Carroll
 A Mother's breast: 
Safe refuge from her childish fears, 
From childish troubles, childish tears, 
Mists that enshroud her dawning years! 
see how in sleep she seems to sing 
A voiceless psalm--an offering 
Raised, to the glory of her King 
In Love: for Love is Rest. 


A Darling's kiss: 
Dearest of all the signs that fleet 
From lips that lovingly...Read more of this...

So soon as our lips touch

by Emile Verhaeren
So soon as our lips touch, we feel so much more luminous together that it would seem as though two Gods loved and united in us.
We feel our hearts to be so divinely fresh and so renewed by their virgin light that, in their brightness, the universe is made manifest to us.
In our eyes, joy is the only ferment of...Read more of this...

And David's Lips are lockt

by Omar Khayyam
And David’s Lips are lockt; but in divine
High-piping Péhlevi, with “Wine! Wine! Wine!
Red Wine!”—the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That yellow Cheek of hers to incarnadine....Read more of this...

Vision X

by Kahlil Gibran
 There in the middle of the field, by the side of a crystalline stream, I saw a bird-cage whose rods and hinges were fashioned by an expert's hands. In one corner lay a dead bird, and in another were two basins -- one empty of water and the other of seeds. I stood there reverently, as if the lifeless...Read more of this...

A Match

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 If love were what the rose is, 
And I were like the leaf, 
Our lives would grow together 
In sad or singing weather, 
Blown fields or flowerful closes, 
Green pasture or gray grief; 
If love were what the rose is, 
And I were like the leaf. 

If I were what the words are, 
And love were like the tune,...Read more of this...

My prayers must meet a brazen heaven

by Gerard Manley Hopkins
 My prayers must meet a brazen heaven
And fail and scatter all away.
Unclean and seeming unforgiven
My prayers I scarcely call to pray.
I cannot buoy my heart above; 
Above I cannot entrance win.
I reckon precedents of love, 
But feel the long success of sin.

My heaven is brass and iron my earth: 
Yea, iron is mingled with my clay, 
So harden'd is...Read more of this...

My Triumph

by John Greenleaf Whittier
 The autumn-time has come; 
On woods that dream of bloom, 
And over purpling vines, 
The low sun fainter shines. 

The aster-flower is failing, 
The hazel's gold is paling; 
Yet overhead more near 
The eternal stars appear! 

And present gratitude 
Insures the future's good, 
And for the things I see 
I trust the things to be; 

That in the paths...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Lips poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace