Famous Looked Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Modern English)

...e,
a noble tested true, sat unblithe, suffering
powerfully, enduring the tearing away of his thanes.
Afterwards they looked upon the trace of that loathed one,
that accursed ghast. That struggle was too strong,
hateful and long-lasting. And it was no longer a time
than the next night, when Grendel did it all again,
more violent killing, and mourned it not,
feud or felony. He was too imbrued in them. (ll. 126-37)

Then it was too easy to find those seeking
a roomier...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village.
Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of hemlock,
Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries.
Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows; and gables projecting
Over the basement below pro...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Inferno (English)

...mean beneath aught else constrains 
 The envious outcries that too long ye heed. 
 Move past, but speak not." 
 Then I looked, and
 lo, 
 Were souls in ceaseless and unnumbered trains 
 That past me whirled unending, vainly led 
 Nowhither, in useless and unpausing haste. 
 A fluttering ensign all their guide, they chased 
 Themselves for ever. I had not thought the dead, 
 The whole world's dead, so many as these. I saw 
 The shadow of him elect to Peter's seat 
 Who made t...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Maple

...As she stood saying her name over aloud,
Striking it gently across her lowered eyes
To make it go well with the way she looked.
What was it about her name? Its strangeness lay
In having too much meaning. Other names,
As Lesley, Carol, Irma, Marjorie,
Signified nothing. Rose could have a meaning,
But hadn't as it went. (She knew a Rose.)
This difference from other names it was
Made people notice it—and notice her.
(They either noticed it, or got it wrong.)
Her problem was to f...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Oranges

...didn't say anything.
I took the nickle from
My pocket, then an orange,
And set them quietly on
The counter. When I looked up,
The lady's eyes met mine,
And held them, knowing
Very well what it was all
About.

Outside,
A few cars hissing past,
Fog hanging like old
Coats between the trees.
I took my girl's hand
In mine for two blocks,
Then released it to let
Her unwrap the chocolate.
I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, ...Read more of this...
by Soto, Gary


Paradise Lost: Book 05

...udden to the tree 
Of interdicted knowledge: fair it seemed, 
Much fairer to my fancy than by day: 
And, as I wondering looked, beside it stood 
One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven 
By us oft seen; his dewy locks distilled 
Ambrosia; on that tree he also gazed; 
And 'O fair plant,' said he, 'with fruit surcharged, 
'Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet, 
'Nor God, nor Man? Is knowledge so despised? 
'Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste? 
'Fo...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Snow

...you had a right to think
You could do—now. You know the risk you take
In going on.”

“Our snow-storms as a rule
Aren’t looked on as man-killers, and although
I’d rather be the beast that sleeps the sleep
Under it all, his door sealed up and lost,
Than the man fighting it to keep above it,
Yet think of the small birds at roost and not
In nests. Shall I be counted less than they are?
Their bulk in water would be frozen rock
In no time out to-night. And yet to-morrow
They will ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Ballad of the White Horse

...h sea-plants trailing heavily
And tracks of opal slime.

Yet Alfred is no fairy tale;
His days as our days ran,
He also looked forth for an hour
On peopled plains and skies that lower,
From those few windows in the tower
That is the head of a man.

But who shall look from Alfred's hood
Or breathe his breath alive?
His century like a small dark cloud
Drifts far; it is an eyeless crowd,
Where the tortured trumpets scream aloud
And the dense arrows drive.

Lady, by one light onl...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Dream

...Had far outgrown his years, and to his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth,
And that was shining on him; he had looked
Upon it till it could not pass away;
He had no breath, no being, but in hers:
She was his voice; he did not speak to her,
But trembled on her words; she was his sight,
For his eye followed hers, and saw with hers,
Which coloured all his objects;—he had ceased
To live within himself: she was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts,
Which termi...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Holy Grail

...little of this marvel he too saw, 
Returning o'er the plain that then began 
To darken under Camelot; whence the King 
Looked up, calling aloud, "Lo, there! the roofs 
Of our great hall are rolled in thunder-smoke! 
Pray Heaven, they be not smitten by the bolt." 
For dear to Arthur was that hall of ours, 
As having there so oft with all his knights 
Feasted, and as the stateliest under heaven. 

`O brother, had you known our mighty hall, 
Which Merlin built for Arthur long a...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Hunting Of The Snark

...ridecake--for which, I may state,
 No materials were to be had.

The last of the crew needs especial remark,
 Though he looked an incredible dunce:
He had just one idea--but, that one being "Snark,"
 The good Bellman engaged him at once.

He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,
 When the ship had been sailing a week,
He could only kill Beavers. The Bellman looked scared,
 And was almost too frightened to speak:

But at length he explained, in a tremulous tone,
 There was ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Idiot Boy

...; By this the stars were almost gone,  The moon was setting on the hill,  So pale you scarcely looked at her:  The little birds began to stir,  Though yet their tongues were still.   The pony, Betty, and her boy,  Wind slowly through the woody dale;  And who is she, be-times abroad,  That hobbles up the steep rough road?  Who is it, but old Susan Gale?   Long...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Knights Tale

...at the leaste way,
I am but dead; there is no more to say."
This Palamon, when he these wordes heard,
Dispiteously* he looked, and answer'd: *angrily
"Whether say'st thou this in earnest or in play?"
"Nay," quoth Arcite, "in earnest, by my fay*. *faith
God help me so, *me lust full ill to play*." *I am in no humour
This Palamon gan knit his browes tway. for jesting*
"It were," quoth he, "to thee no great honour
For to be false, nor for to be traitour
To me, that am thy cousi...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...h! was that a signal cry?'—
     He stammered forth, 'I shout to scare
     Yon raven from his dainty fare.'
     He looked—he knew the raven's prey,
     His own brave steed: 'Ah! gallant gray!
     For thee—for me, perchance—'t were well
     We ne'er had seen the Trosachs' dell.—
     Murdoch, move first—-but silently;
     Whistle or whoop, and thou shalt die!'
     Jealous and sullen on they fared,
     Each silent, each upon his guard.
     XXI.

     Now w...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Most Beautiful Woman In Town

...op her she had run this long hatpin through
her nose, sideways, just above the nostrils. I felt disgust and horror. She looked at me
and laughed, "Now do you think me pretty? What do you think now, man?" I pulled
the hatpin out and held my handkerchief over the bleeding. Several people, including the
bartender, had seen the act. The bartender came down: 
"Look," he said to Cass, "you act up again and you're out. We don't need
your dramatics here." 
"Oh, **** you, man!" she sa...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

The Road Not Taken

...Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 
And sorry I could not travel both 
And be one traveler, long I stood 
And looked down one as far as I could 
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair, 
And having perhaps the better claim 
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; 
Though as for that, the passing there 
Had worn them really about the same, 

And both that morning equally lay 
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I mar...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Three Voices

...is to say - I meant - " 

When, with quick breath and cheeks all flushed,
At length his speech was somewhat hushed,
She looked at him, and he was crushed. 

It needed not her calm reply:
She fixed him with a stony eye,
And he could neither fight nor fly. 

While she dissected, word by word,
His speech, half guessed at and half heard,
As might a cat a little bird. 

Then, having wholly overthrown
His views, and stripped them to the bone,
Proceeded to unfold her own. 

"Shall M...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Triumph of Life

...illed with many sounds woven into one
Oblivious melody, confusing sense
Amid the gliding waves & shadows dun;
"And as I looked the bright omnipresence
Of morning through the orient cavern flowed,
And the Sun's image radiantly intense
"Burned on the waters of the well that glowed
Like gold, and threaded all the forest maze
With winding paths of emerald fire--there stood
"Amid the sun, as he amid the blaze
Of his own glory, on the vibrating
Floor of the fountain, paved with fla...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The White Cliffs

...he wet south breeze. 
Gardens trampled down by Cromwell's army, 
Orchards of apple-trees and pears, 
Casements that had looked for the Armada, 
And a ghost on the stairs. 

XV 
Johnnie's mother, the Lady Jean, 
Child of a penniless Scottish peer, 
Was handsome, worn high-coloured, lean, 
With eyes like Johnnie's—more blue and clear— 
Like bubbles of glass in her fine tanned face. 
Quiet, she was, and so at ease, 
So perfectly sure of her rightful place 
In the world that she ...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

White Flock

...orest.
It is hot, and the road is not short.
He pushed back the door and came out
Greyhaired, luminous, short.

He looked at me, insolent bastard,
And muttered at once, "Christ's bride!
Do not envy success of the happy,
A place for you there does hide.

Do forget your parents' abode,
Get accustomed to open heaven
You will sleep on the straw and dirty,
And will meet a blissful end."

Truly, the priest must have heard
On the way back my singing voice
As I of un...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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