Famous Litanies Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Litanies of the Rose

by Remy de Gourmont
Rose with dark eyes, 
mirror of your nothingness, 
rose with dark eyes, 
make us believe in the mystery, 
hypocrite flower,
flower of silence.

Rose the colour of pure gold, 
oh safe deposit of the ideal, 
rose the colour of pure gold, 
give us the key of your womb, 
hypocrite flower, 
flower of silence.

Rose the colour of silver, 
censer of our dreams, 
rose...Read more of this...

The Problem

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
I LIKE a church; I like a cowl; 
I love a prophet of the soul; 
And on my heart monastic aisles 
Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles; 
Yet not for all his faith can see 5 
Would I that cowl¨¨d churchman be. 
Why should the vest on him allure  
Which I could not on me endure? 

Not from...Read more of this...

The Morning after Woe

by Emily Dickinson
 The Morning after Woe --
'Tis frequently the Way --
Surpasses all that rose before --
For utter Jubilee --

As Nature did not care --
And piled her Blossoms on --
And further to parade a Joy
Her Victim stared upon --

The Birds declaim their Tunes --
Pronouncing every word
Like Hammers -- Did they know they fell
Like Litanies of Lead --

On here and there -- a...Read more of this...

In Lovers Lane

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 I know a place for loitering feet
Deep in the valley where the breeze
Makes melody in lichened boughs,
And murmurs low love-litanies. 

There slender harebells nod and dream,
And pale wild roses offer up
The fragrance of their golden hearts,
As from some incense-brimméd cup. 

It holds the sunshine sifted down
Softly through many a beechen screen,
Save where, by deeper woods embraced,
Cool shadows linger, dim...Read more of this...

White Nassau

by Bliss Carman
 There is fog upon the river, there is mirk upon the town;
You can hear the groping ferries as they hoot each other down;
From the Battery to Harlem there's seven miles of slush,
Through looming granite canyons of glitter, noise, and rush.
Are you sick of phones and tickers and crazing cable gongs,
Of the theatres, the hansoms, and the breathless Broadway throngs,
Of...Read more of this...

Pater Filio

by Robert Seymour Bridges
 Sense with keenest edge unusèd, 
Yet unsteel'd by scathing fire; 
Lovely feet as yet unbruisèd 
On the ways of dark desire; 
Sweetest hope that lookest smiling
O'er the wilderness defiling! 

Why such beauty, to be blighted 
By the swarm of foul destruction? 
Why such innocence delighted, 
When sin stalks to thy seduction? 
All the litanies e'er chaunted 
Shall not keep...Read more of this...

Among the Pines

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Here let us linger at will and delightsomely hearken
Music aeolian of wind in the boughs of pine,
Timbrel of falling waters, sounds all soft and sonorous,
Worshipful litanies sung at a bannered shrine. 

Deep let us breathe the ripeness and savor of balsam,
Tears that the pines have wept in sorrow sweet,
With its aroma comes beguilement of things forgotten,
Long-past hopes of the...Read more of this...

Ante Aram

by Rupert Brooke
 Before thy shrine I kneel, an unknown worshipper,
Chanting strange hymns to thee and sorrowful litanies,
Incense of dirges, prayers that are as holy myrrh.

Ah, goddess, on thy throne of tears and faint low sighs,
Weary at last to theeward come the feet that err,
And empty hearts grown tired of the world's vanities.

How fair this cool deep silence to a wanderer
Deaf with...Read more of this...

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