Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Lost It Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...what I'll do:
I'll find that fountain if it takes all summer,
And both of our united strengths, to do it."

"You've lost it, then?"

 "Not so but I can find it.
No doubt it's grown up some to woods around it.
The mountain may have shifted since I saw it
In eighty-five."

 "As long ago as that?"

"If I remember rightly, it had sprung
A leak and emptied then. And forty years
Can do a good deal to bad masonry.
You won't see any Mormon swimming in it.
...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert



...I

The face, which, duly as the sun, 
Rose up for me with life begun, 
To mark all bright hours of the day 
With hourly love, is dimmed away—
And yet my days go on, go on.

II 

The tongue which, like a stream, could run
Smooth music from the roughest stone, 
And every morning with ' Good day'
Make each day good, is hushed away,
And yet my days go on, ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...I have a life that did not become,
that turned aside and stopped,
astonished:
I hold it in me like a pregnancy or
as on my lap a child
not to grow old but dwell on

it is to his grave I most
frequently return and return
to ask what is wrong, what was
wrong, to see it all by
the light of a different necessity
but the grave will not heal
and the child,
stirr...Read more of this...
by Ammons, A R
...hought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths--and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something....Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...ven't had a feed. 

"But still I thought my luck was in, 
I couldn't go astray -- 
I put it all on Little Min, 
And lost it straightaway. 

"I haven't got a bite or bed, 
I'm absolutely stuck; 
So keep this lesson in your head: 
Don't over-trust your luck!" 

The folks went homeward, near and far, 
The tout, oh! where is he? 
Ask where the empty boilers are 
Beside the Circular Quay....Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton



...
And I put all the money I got from my father's estate
Into the canning factory, to get the job
Of head accountant, and lost it all.
And then I knew I was one of Life's fools,
Whom only death would treat as the equal
Of other men, making me feel like a man....Read more of this...
by Masters, Edgar Lee
...I had a guinea golden --
I lost it in the sand --
And tho' the sum was simple
And pounds were in the land --
Still, had it such a value
Unto my frugal eye --
That when I could not find it --
I sat me down to sigh.

I had a crimson Robin --
Who sang full many a day
But when the woods were painted,
He, too, did fly away --

Time brought me other Robins --
Their ballads were the same...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...to whom the benefit accru'd. 
Though none of Honour had a quicker sense, 
Never had Woman more of complacence; 
Yet lost it not in empty forms, but still 
Her Nature noble was, her Soul gentile. 
And as in Youth she did attract, (for she 
The Verdure had without the Vanity) 
So she in Age was mild and grave to all, 
Was not morose, but was majestical. 
Thus from all other Women she had skill 
To draw their good, but nothing of their ill. 
And since she knew th...Read more of this...
by Philips, Katherine
...ve, 
Knows no possible forgiveness, or deputed atonement, 
Knows that the young man who composedly peril’d his life and lost it, has done
 exceedingly
 well
 for himself without doubt, 
That he who never peril’d his life, but retains it to old age in riches and ease, has
 probably
 achiev’d nothing for himself worth mentioning;
Knows that only that person has really learn’d, who has learn’d to prefer
 results, 
Who favors Body and Soul the same, 
Who perceives the indirect as...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...to the Spirit Slammer.

 The sign said 1 1/2 miles. The path was easy to follow,

then it just stopped. We lost it near a creek. I looked all

around. I looked on both sides of the creek, but the path had

just vanished.

 Could be the fact that we were still alive had something

to do with it. Hard to tell.

 We turned around and started back down the mountain. The

baby cried when she saw the snow again, holding out her

hands for the sn...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard
...nd -- 
You'll find amongst the crowd that ride their races in the Stand. 
They'll say "He had the race in hand, and lost it in the straight." 
They'll know how Godby came too soon, and Barden came too late 

They'll say Chevalley lost his nerve, and Regan lost his head; 
They'll tell how one was "livened up" and something else was "dead" -- 
In fact, the race was never run on sea, or sky, or land, 
But what you'd get it better done by riders in the Stand. 

The ru...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...eir foes:
And such a sense, when first I fronted him,
Said, "trust him not;" but after, when I came
To know him more, I lost it, knew him less;
Fought with what seem'd my own uncharity;
Sat at his table; drank his costly wines;
Made more and more allowance for his talk;
Went further, fool! and trusted him with all,
All my poor scrapings from a dozen years
Of dust and deskwork: there is no such mine,
None; but a gulf of ruin, swallowing gold,
Not making. Ruin'd! ruin'd! th...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ot ride.'
     XXXII.

     'Thou warn'st me I have done amiss,—
     I should have earlier looked to this;
     I lost it in this bustling day.—
     Retrace with speed thy former way;
     Spare not for spoiling of thy steed,
     The best of mine shall be thy meed.
     Say to our faithful Lord of Mar,
     We do forbid the intended war;
     Roderick this morn in single fight
     Was made our prisoner by a knight,
     And Douglas hath himself and cause
   ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...with fonder a care,
Fonder a care kept than we could have kept it, kept
Far with fonder a care (and we, we should have lost it) finer, fonder
A care kept.—Where kept? Do but tell us where kept, where.—
Yonder.—What high as that! We follow, now we follow.—Yonder, yes yonder, yonder,
Yonder....Read more of this...
by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...oth he. *destroys

It will not come again, withoute dread,*
No more than will Malkin's maidenhead,
When she hath lost it in her wantonness.
Let us not moulde thus in idleness.
"Sir Man of Law," quoth he, "so have ye bliss,
Tell us a tale anon, as forword* is. *the bargain
Ye be submitted through your free assent
To stand in this case at my judgement.
Acquit you now, and *holde your behest*; *keep your promise*
Then have ye done your devoir* at the least...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ts, tax-payers in pews,
 Kings on your thrones, you know as well as me,
We've only one virginity to lose,
 And where we lost it there our hearts will be!...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...aunt beloved a virtue yields.

What though the music of thy rustic flute
Kept not for long its happy, country tone;
Lost it too soon, and learnt a stormy note
Of men contention-tost, of men who groan,
Which task'd thy pipe too sore, and tired thy throat--
It fail'd, and thou wage mute!
Yet hadst thou always visions of our light,
And long with men of care thou couldst not stay,
And soon thy foot resumed its wandering way,
Left human haunt, and on alone till night.

Too...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew
...d nobody calls you a dunce,
66 And people suppose me clever:
67 This could but have happened once,
68 And we missed it, lost it for ever....Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Lost It poems.


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry