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Famous Magdalene Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Kipling, Rudyard
...Is it well, is it well with the child?
 For I know not where he is laid."

On the dawning of Easter Day
 Comes Mary Magdalene;
But the Stone was rolled away,
 And the Body was not within --
 (Within! Within!)
 "Ah, who will answer my word?
 The broken mother prayed.
 "They have taken away my Lord,
 And I know not where He is laid."

 . . . . .

"The Star stands forth in Heaven.
 The watchers watch in vain
For Sign of the Promise given
 Of p...Read more of this...



by Gregory, Rg
...ast supper
(a painting i have actually seen in a milan church
fragilely restored) is a woman – an honour earned
by mary magdalene who (according to research)
turns out to be christ’s wife – hang on what a whopper

cry those who can’t contemplate centuries of teaching
down the drain – who suck up to the precious thought
of divine purity (eternity’s abstention from all
the dirty business of the body) pasteurising preaching
let christ stay a product of the time before the fall
(...Read more of this...

by Patmore, Coventry
...e
Ye in whom living Love yet blushes for dead shame.
There of pure Virgins none
Is fairer seen,
Save One,
Than Mary Magdalene.
Gaze without doubt or fear
Ye to whom generous Love, by any name, is dear.
Love makes the life to be
A fount perpetual of virginity;
For, lo, the Elect
Of generous Love, how named soe'er, affect
Nothing but God,
Or mediate or direct,
Nothing but God,
The Husband of the Heavens:
And who Him love, in potence great or small
Are, one and all,
...Read more of this...

by McHugh, Heather
...tter
revelation: for a correspondence--
if not lexical, at least
phonetic; if not with Madonna

then at least with Mary Magdalene.
Instead we get the sheer
opacity of things: an accident
of incident, a tracery of history: the dung

inside the dungarees, the jock strap for a codpiece, and
the ruined patches bordering the lip. One boot (high-heeled) could make
Sorrento sorry, Capri corny, even little Italy
a little ill. Low-cased, a lover looks

one over--eggs witho...Read more of this...

by Crashaw, Richard
...rills!
 Ever bubbling things,
Thawing crystal, snowy hills!
 Still spending, never spent; I mean
 Thy fair eyes, sweet Magdalene.

 Heavens thy fair eyes be;
Heavens of ever-falling stars;
 'Tis seed-time still with thee,
And stars thou sow'st whose harvest dares
 Promise the earth to countershine
 Whatever makes Heaven's forehead fine.

 Every morn from hence
A brisk cherub something sips
 Whose soft influence
Adds sweetness to his sweetest lips;
 Then to his music:...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair.
They shall find real saints to draw from -- Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

And only The Master shall praise us, and only The Master shall blame;
Andd no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...o you keep?"

"Mother's role is a sweet torture,
I was not worthy of it.
The gate dissolved into white heaven,
Magdalene took the kid.

"Each day for me is happy and jolly,
I got lost in a too-long spring,
Only arms pine away for a burden
Only his cries in my sleep ring.

"The heart will be restless and weary
And no memory cross my mind,
I still wander in rooms dark and bleary
And his crib still attempt to find."



x x x

How often did ...Read more of this...

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