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Famous Mainly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Clampitt, Amy
...at there's no foothold
but roams untethered save by such snells, 
such sailor's knots, such stays
and guy wires as are

mainly of our own devising. From such an 
empyrean, aloof seraphic mentors urge us
to look down on all attachment,
on any bonding, as

in the end untenable. Base as it is, from 
year to year the earth's sore surface
mends and rebinds itself, however
and as best it can, with

thread of cinquefoil, tendril of the magenta
beach pea, trammel of bramble; ...Read more of this...



by Edson, Russell
...his shoelaces needing to be tied, can he?
 Certainly it's true, when the 20th century gets written 
in full it will be mainly about him. That's the way the 
cookie crumbles--ah, there's a phrase that'll be quoted 
for centuries to come.
 Self-conscious? A little; how can one help it with all 
those yet-to-be-born eyes of the future watching him?
 Uh oh, he feels another historical event coming . . . 
Ah, there it is, a cup of coffee approaching his face a...Read more of this...

by Blackburn, Thomas
...hen 'Thomas Blackburn' he writes, and not the fuss
A life makes when it has no symmetry,
Though the term 'a poet' being mainly posthumous,
Since I'm no stiff, is inappropriate.
What I can confirm is the struggle that never lets up
Between the horses of Plato beneath my yoke,
One after Light, and for Hell not giving a rap,
The other only keen on infernal smoke.
And poems...? From time to time they commemorate
Some particularly dirty battle between these two...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries,
Blackberries on either side, though on the right mainly,
A blackberry alley, going down in hooks, and a sea
Somewhere at the end of it, heaving. Blackberries
Big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes
Ebon in the hedges, fat
With blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers.
I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.
They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...isconceive, suppose 
This Caliban strives hard and ails no less, 
And always, above all else, envies Him; 
Wherefore he mainly dances on dark nights, 
Moans in the sun, gets under holes to laugh, 
And never speaks his mind save housed as now: 
Outside, 'groans, curses. If He caught me here, 
O'erheard this speech, and asked "What chucklest at?" 
'Would, to appease Him, cut a finger off, 
Or of my three kid yearlings burn the best, 
Or let the toothsome apples rot on tree,...Read more of this...



by Yeats, William Butler
...reupon that linen-carrier said:
'Your life can grow much sweeter if you will

'Obey our ancient rule and make a shroud;
Mainly because of what we only know
The rattle of those arms makes us afraid.

'We thread the needles' eyes, and all we do
All must together do.' That done, the man
Took up the nearest and began to sew.

'Now must we sing and sing the best we can,
But first you must be told our character:
Convicted cowards all, by kindred slain

'Or driven from h...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...thoth (who became hermes who became mercury)
who was both moon and wisdom to the egyptians
manifested himself mainly as an ibis - a watery bird
a restless creature that could not stop searching
through marshy ground with its sickle-shaped beak

so to the christians the bird became a scavenger
the worst sinner from whom sins sprout forth and grow
sacred ibises have had to learn (like any living body)
you can't do a thing in this damned contrary world
without someone ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ry face with change of heart is changed. 
The world will not believe a man repents: 
And this wise world of ours is mainly right. 
Full seldom doth a man repent, or use 
Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch 
Of blood and custom wholly out of him, 
And make all clean, and plant himself afresh. 
Edyrn has done it, weeding all his heart 
As I will weed this land before I go. 
I, therefore, made him of our Table Round, 
Not rashly, but have proved him ev...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ike a dry bone cast to some hungry hound?
Let be thy fair Queen's fantasy. Strength of heart
And might of limb, but mainly use and skill,
Are winners in this pastime of our King.
My hand--belike the lance hath dript upon it--
No blood of mine, I trow; but O chief knight,
Right arm of Arthur in the battlefield,
Great brother, thou nor I have made the world;
Be happy in thy fair Queen as I in mine."


And Tristram round the gallery made his horse
Caracole; then bow'...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...palms.

Cupid is a casuist,
A mystic, and a cabalist,
Can your lurking Thought surprise,
And interpret your device;
Mainly versed in occult science,
In magic, and in clairvoyance.
Oft he keeps his fine ear strained,
And reason on her tiptoe pained,
For aery intelligence,
And for strange coincidence.
But it touches his quick heart
When Fate by omens takes his part,
And chance-dropt hints from Nature's sphere
Deeply soothe his anxious ear.

Heralds high before h...Read more of this...

by Thoreau, Henry David
...s."

Let such pure hate still underprop 
Our love, that we may be 
Each other's conscience, 
And have our sympathy 
Mainly from thence. 

We'll one another treat like gods, 
And all the faith we have 
In virtue and in truth, bestow 
On either, and suspicion leave 
To gods below. 

Two solitary stars-- 
Unmeasured systems far 
Between us roll; 
But by our conscious light we are 
Determined to one pole. 

What need confound the sphere?-- 
Love can afford to wait...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...auty;
The miracle of generative force;
Far-reaching concords of astronomy
Felt in the plants and in the punctual birds;
Mainly, the linked purpose of the whole;
And, chiefest prize, found I true liberty,
The home of homes plain-dealing Nature gave.

The polite found me impolite; the great
Would mortify me, but in vain:
I am a willow of the wilderness,
Loving the wind that bent me. All my hurts
My garden-spade can heal. A woodland walk,
A wild rose, or rock-loving ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...hemselves they vilified 
To serve ungoverned Appetite; and took 
His image whom they served, a brutish vice, 
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. 
Therefore so abject is their punishment, 
Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own; 
Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced; 
While they pervert pure Nature's healthful rules 
To loathsome sickness; worthily, since they 
God's image did not reverence in themselves. 
I yield it just, said Adam, and submit. 
But i...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...o me that you are the purports essential, 
That you hide in these shifting forms of life, for reasons—and that they are mainly
 for
 you, 
That you, beyond them, come forth, to remain, the real reality,
That behind the mask of materials you patiently wait, no matter how long, 
That you will one day, perhaps, take control of all, 
That you will perhaps dissipate this entire show of appearance, 
That may-be you are what it is all for—but it does not last so very long; 
But you ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...a dry bone cast to some hungry hound? 
Lest be thy fair Queen's fantasy. Strength of heart 
And might of limb, but mainly use and skill, 
Are winners in this pastime of our King. 
My hand--belike the lance hath dript upon it-- 
No blood of mine, I trow; but O chief knight, 
Right arm of Arthur in the battlefield, 
Great brother, thou nor I have made the world; 
Be happy in thy fair Queen as I in mine.' 

And Tristram round the gallery made his horse 
Caracole; th...Read more of this...

by Hecht, Anthony
...ally now when all the others here
Are having holiday visitors, and I feel
A little conspicuous and in the way.
It's mainly because of Thanksgiving. All these mothers
And wives and husbands gaze at me soulfully
And feel they should break up their box of chocolates
For a donation, or hand me a chunk of fruitcake. 
What they don't understand and never guess
Is that it's better for me without a family;
It's a great blessing. Though I mean no harm.
And as for v...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...>
French truth, Dutch prowess, British policy,
Hibernian learning, Scotch civility,
Spaniard's dispatch, Dane's wit are mainly seen in thee.
The great man's gratitude to his best friend,
King's promises, whore's vows, towards thee they bend,
Flow swiftly to thee, and in thee never end....Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...e dairy,
 Will ye give me some cream if I ask it?

I love your meads, and I love your flowers,
 And I love your junkets mainly,
But 'hind the door, I love kissing more,
 O look not so disdainly!

I love your hills, and I love your dales,
 And I love your flocks a-bleating;
But O, on the heather to lie together,
 With both our hearts a-beating!

I'll put your basket all safe in a nook,
 Your shawl I'll hang up on this willow,
And we will sigh in the daisy's eye,
 And kiss on a...Read more of this...

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