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Famous Longitude Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...orn and bear,
And kept the country-side in fear);
Her cutty sark, o’ Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho’ sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.
Ah! little ken’d thy reverend grannie,
That sark she coft for her wee Nannie,
Wi twa pund Scots (’twas a’ her riches),
Wad ever grac’d a dance of witches!


 But here my Muse her wing maun cour,
Sic flights are far beyond her power;
To sing how Nannie lap and flang,
(A souple jade she was an...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...e bites its own tail in order to gather a bunch of roots
and a ball of yarn looks anxiously in the grass for unrealized longitude.
The Moon! The police. The foghorns of the ocean liners!
Facades of urine, of smoke, anemones, rubber gloves.
Everything is shattered in the night
that spread its legs on the terraces.
Everything is shatter in the tepid faucets
of a terrible silent fountain.
Oh, crowds! Loose women! Soldiers!
We will have to journey through the eyes of idiots,
open...Read more of this...
by García Lorca, Federico
...thither his course he bends 
Through the calm firmament, (but up or down, 
By center, or eccentrick, hard to tell, 
Or longitude,) where the great luminary 
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick, 
That from his lordly eye keep distance due, 
Dispenses light from far; they, as they move 
Their starry dance in numbers that compute 
Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp 
Turn swift their various motions, or are turned 
By his magnetick beam, that gently warms 
...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...t with sly circumspection, and began 
Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale, his roam 
Mean while in utmost longitude, where Heaven 
With earth and ocean meets, the setting sun 
Slowly descended, and with right aspect 
Against the eastern gate of Paradise 
Levelled his evening rays: It was a rock 
Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds, 
Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent 
Accessible from earth, one entrance high; 
The rest was craggy cliff, that overhung 
Sti...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...Adam, is no more 
Than what this garden is to all the earth, 
And all the sea, from one entire globose 
Stretched into longitude; which having passed, 
At length into the limits of the north 
They came; and Satan to his royal seat 
High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount 
Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers 
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold; 
The palace of great Lucifer, (so call 
That structure in the dialect of men 
Interpreted,) which not long after, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John



...st the glorious lamp was seen, 
Regent of day, and all the horizon round 
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run 
His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray 
Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced, 
Shedding sweet influence: Less bright the moon, 
But opposite in levelled west was set, 
His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light 
From him; for other light she needed none 
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps 
Till night; then in the east her turn sh...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...at rise so high in the mists? 
What myriads of dwellings are they, fill’d with dwellers? 

2
Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens; 
Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east—America is provided for in the west;
Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator, 
Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends; 
Within me is the longest day—the sun wheels in slanting rings—it does not set for months;

Stretch’d in due time within me the midnight sun just rises above the ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...orn and bear,
And kept the country-side in fear);
Her cutty sark, o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.
Ah! little kenned thy reverend grannie,
That sark she coft for her wee Nannie,
Wi' twa pund Scots ('twas a' her riches),
Wad ever graced a dance of witches!

But here my Muse her wing maun cour,
Sic flights are far beyond her power;
To sing how Nannie lap and flang,
(A souple jade she was an...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...s own rosy hue,
From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade
Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field.
Mine, spindling into longitude immense,
In spite of gravity, and sage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance
I view the muscular proportion'd limb
Transform'd to a lean shank. The shapeless pair,
As they design'd to mock me, at my side
Take step for step; and, as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plaster'd wall,
Prepost'r...Read more of this...
by Cowper, William

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