Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Mail Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Plath, Sylvia
...thes from my sheets, the cold dead center

Where split lives congeal and stiffen to history.
Let it not come by the mail, finger by finger.

Let it not come by word of mouth, I should be sixty
By the time the whole of it was delivered, and to numb to use it.

Only let down the veil, the veil, the veil.
If it were death

I would admire the deep gravity of it, its timeless eyes.
I would know you were serious.

There would be a nobility then, there would ...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...is find, 
 Where knock is open wide. 

 LXXVIII 
Beauteous the fleet before the gale; 
Beauteous the multitudes in mail, 
 Rank'd arms and crested heads: 
Beauteous the garden's umbrage mild, 
Walk, water, meditated wild, 
 And all the bloomy beds. 

 LXXIX 
Beauteous the moon full on the lawn; 
And beauteous, when the veil's withdrawn, 
 The virgin to her spouse: 
Beauteous the temple, deck'd and fill'd, 
When to the heav'n of heav'ns they build 
 Their heart-direct...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ed belly slips a ray of eventide, 
The flickerings of a hundred glowing clouds in tenebrous side 
With scales of golden mail ensheathe. 

Then mounts a palace, then the air vibrates--the vision flees. 
Confounded to its base, the fearful cloudy edifice 
Ruins immense in mounded wrack; 
Afar the fragments strew the sky, and each envermeiled cone 
Hangeth, peak downward, overhead, like mountains overthrown 
When the earthquake heaves its hugy back. 

These vapors, w...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...nce 
On me; and with an overweening skill, 
Which had sometimes almost a cringing in it, 
Found a few flaws in my tight mail of hate
And slowly pricked a poison into me 
In which at first I failed at recognizing 
An unfamiliar subtle sort of pity. 
But so it was, and I believe he knew it; 
Though even to dream it would have been absurd—
Until I knew it, and there was no need 
Of dreaming. For the fellow’s indolence, 
And his malignant oily swarthiness 
Housing a repti...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...blue wave will be our canopy,
And at our feet the water-snakes will curl
In all their amethystine panoply
Of diamonded mail, and we will mark
The mullets swimming by the mast of some storm-foundered bark,

Vermilion-finned with eyes of bossy gold
Like flakes of crimson light, and the great deep
His glassy-portaled chamber will unfold,
And we will see the painted dolphins sleep
Cradled by murmuring halcyons on the rocks
Where Proteus in quaint suit of green pastures his monst...Read more of this...



by Brautigan, Richard
...to her body. I
won't. She left the kitchen.
Then she went down the stairs and outside to see if she had any mail. I didn't remember
seeing any. She came back up the stairs and went into another room. She closed the door
after her. I looked at the pan full of water on the stove.
I knew that it would take a year before the water started to boil. It was now October
and there was too much water in the pan. That was the problem. I threw ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...of men, can tell
That flowers would bloom, or that green fruit would swell
To melting pulp, that fish would have bright mail,
The earth its dower of river, wood, and vale,
The meadows runnels, runnels pebble-stones,
The seed its harvest, or the lute its tones,
Tones ravishment, or ravishment its sweet,
If human souls did never kiss and greet?

 "Now, if this earthly love has power to make
Men's being mortal, immortal; to shake
Ambition from their memories, and brim
Their meas...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...hat walks in deepest hollows of the glade. 
 'Tis not a vampire nor a spectre pale 
 But living man in rugged coat of mail. 
 It is Alsatia's noble Chevalier, 
 Eviradnus the brave, that now is here. 
 
 The men who spoke he recognized the while 
 He rested in the thicket; words of guile 
 Most horrible were theirs as they passed on, 
 And to the ears of Eviradnus one— 
 One word had come which roused him. Well he knew 
 The land which lately he had journeyed throu...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...but thou shalt meet thy match.' 

So when they touched the second river-loop, 
Huge on a huge red horse, and all in mail 
Burnished to blinding, shone the Noonday Sun 
Beyond a raging shallow. As if the flower, 
That blows a globe of after arrowlets, 
Ten thousand-fold had grown, flashed the fierce shield, 
All sun; and Gareth's eyes had flying blots 
Before them when he turned from watching him. 
He from beyond the roaring shallow roared, 
'What doest thou, broth...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...Polymnia's scroll I love to read

How Asia sent her myriad hosts to war
Against a little town, and panoplied
In gilded mail with jewelled scimitar,
White-shielded, purple-crested, rode the Mede
Between the waving poplars and the sea
Which men call Artemisium, till he saw Thermopylae

Its steep ravine spanned by a narrow wall,
And on the nearer side a little brood
Of careless lions holding festival!
And stood amazed at such hardihood,
And pitched his tent upon the reedy shore...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...Monster Patent on the field; 
Keen Whorwood next, in aid of damsel frail, 
That pierced the giant Mordaunt through his mail; 
And surly Williams, the accountants' bane; 
And Lovelace young, of chimney-men the cane. 
Old Waller, trumpet-general, swore he'd write 
This combat truer than the naval fight. 
How'rd on's birth, wit, strength, courage much presumes 
And in his breast wears many Montezumes. 
These and some more with single valour stay 
The adverse troops,...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...I leave the office, take the stairs,
in time to mail a letter
before 3 in the afternoon--the last dispatch.
The red, white and blue air mail
falls past the slot for foreign mail
and hits bottom with a sound
that tells me my letter is alone.
They will have to bring in a plane
from a place of coastline and beaches,
from a climate of fresh figs and apricot,
to cradle my one letter. Up in the air
...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ns and thighs with downy gold 
And colours dipt in Heaven; the third his feet 
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, 
Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood, 
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled 
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands 
Of Angels under watch; and to his state, 
And to his message high, in honour rise; 
For on some message high they guessed him bound. 
Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come 
Int...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...idiculous, useless the forgery
Of brazen shield and spear, the hammer'd Cuirass,
Chalybean temper'd steel, and frock of mail
Adamantean Proof;
But safest he who stood aloof,
When insupportably his foot advanc't,
In scorn of thir proud arms and warlike tools,
Spurn'd them to death by Troops. The bold Ascalonite
Fled from his Lion ramp, old Warriors turn'd
Thir plated backs under his heel; 
Or grovling soild thir crested helmets in the dust.
Then with what trivial weapo...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...ne in generous thought and deed 
What mattered in the sufferer's sight 
The Quaker matron's inward light, 
The Doctor's mail of Calvin's creed? 
All hearts confess the saints elect 
Who, twain in faith, in love agree, 
And melt not in an acid sect 
The Christian pearl of charity! 

So days went on: a week had passed 
Since the great world was heard from last. 
The Almanac we studied o'er, 
Read and reread our little store 
Of books and pamphlets, scarce a score; 
One harm...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...
To his that now so well I knew.
On feet of measure short was placed
Its lengthy body's heavy load;
A scaly coat of mail embraced
The back, on which it fiercely showed."

"Its stretching neck appeared to swell,
And, ghastly as a gate of hell,
Its fearful jaws were open wide,
As if to seize the prey it tried;
And in its black mouth, ranged about,
Its teeth in prickly rows stood out;
Its tongue was like a sharp-edged sword,
And lightning from its small eyes poured;
A se...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ot gay.
Of fustian he weared a gipon*, *short doublet
Alle *besmotter'd with his habergeon,* *soiled by his coat of mail.*
For he was late y-come from his voyage,
And wente for to do his pilgrimage.

With him there was his son, a younge SQUIRE,
A lover, and a lusty bacheler,
With lockes crulle* as they were laid in press. *curled
Of twenty year of age he was I guess.
Of his stature he was of even length,
And *wonderly deliver*, and great of strength. *...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...specially the gentlefolk*
Our Host then laugh'd and swore, "So may I gon,* *prosper
This goes aright; *unbuckled is the mail;* *the budget is opened*
Let see now who shall tell another tale:
For truely this game is well begun.
Now telleth ye, Sir Monk, if that ye conne*, *know
Somewhat, to quiten* with the Knighte's tale." *match
The Miller that fordrunken was all pale,
So that unnethes* upon his horse he sat, *with difficulty
He would avalen* neither hood nor hat, *u...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...class=i0>Three men I saw advancing up the vale,Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail;Dentatus, long in standing fight renown'd,Sergius and Scæva oft with conquest crown'd;The triple terror of the hostile train,On whom the storm of battle broke in vain.Another Sergius near with deep disgraceRead more of this...

by Naidu, Sarojini
...Lotus-maiden, may you be 
Fragrant of all ecstasy.

Ranadheera

Little lord of battle, hail 
In your newly-tempered mail! 
Learn to conquer, learn to fight 
In the foremost flanks of right, 
Like Valmiki's heroes bold, 
Rubies girt in epic gold. 
Lord of battle, may you be, 
Lord of love and chivalry.

Lilamani

Limpid jewel of delight 
Severed from the tender night 
Of your sheltering mother-mine, 
Leap and sparkle, dance and shine, 
Blithely and securely set 
In...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Mail poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things