Famous Make Believe Poems by Famous Poets

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

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535. Song—The Braw Wooer

by Robert Burns
 LAST May, a braw wooer cam doun the lang glen,
 And sair wi’ his love he did deave me;
I said, there was naething I hated like men—
 The deuce gae wi’m, to believe me, believe me;
 The deuce gae wi’m to believe me.


He spak o’ the darts in my bonie black e’en,
 And vow’d for my love he was...Read more of this...

She went as quiet as the Dew

by Emily Dickinson
 She went as quiet as the Dew
From an Accustomed flower.
Not like the Dew, did she return
At the Accustomed hour!

She dropt as softly as a star
From out my summer's Eve --
Less skillful than Le Verriere
It's sorer to believe!...Read more of this...

Honours Martyr

by Emily Brontë
 The moon is full this winter night;
The stars are clear, though few;
And every window glistens bright,
With leaves of frozen dew. 

The sweet moon through your lattice gleams
And lights your room like day;
And there you pass, in happy dreams,
The peaceful hours away! 

While I, with effort hardly quelling
The anguish in my breast,
Wander about the silent dwelling,
And cannot think of rest....Read more of this...

With No Experience In Such Matters

by Stephen Dunn
 To hold a damaged sparrow
under water until you feel it die
is to know a small something
about the mind; how, for example,
it blames the cat for the original crime,
how it wants praise for its better side.

And yet it's as human
as pulling the plug on your Dad
whose world has turned
to feces and fog, human as--
Well, let's admit, it's a mild thing
as...Read more of this...

Would You Believe It?

by Ellis Parker Butler
 One year ago I wished that I
A banker great might be
With a hundred million dollars
And financial majesty;

A mighty Wall Street banker
With a whopping lot of power
And an income of somewhere around
A thousand plunks per hour;

A solid Wall Street banker
With securities in sacks
And with clever men to show me
How to pay no income tax;

A wealthy Wall Street banker
Who raked in...Read more of this...

Named

by Stephen Dunn
 He'd spent his life trying to control the names
  people gave him;
oh the unfair and the accurate equally hurt.

Just recently he'd been a son-of-a-*****
  and sweetheart in the same day,
and once again knew what antonyms

love and control are, and how comforting
  it must be to have a business card -
Manager, Specialist - and believe what it...Read more of this...

Having it Out with Melancholy

by Jane Kenyon
 1FROM THE NURSERY


When I was born, you waited 
behind a pile of linen in the nursery, 
and when we were alone, you lay down 
on top of me, pressing
the bile of desolation into every pore.


And from that day on 
everything under the sun and moon 
made me sad -- even the yellow 
wooden beads that slid and spun 
along...Read more of this...

My Dentist

by Robert William Service
 Sitting in the dentist's chair,
Wishing that I wasn't there,
To forget and pass the time
I have made this bit of rhyme.

I had a rendez-vous at ten;
I rushed to get in line,
But found a lot of dames and men
Had waited there since nine;
I stared at them, then in an hour
Was blandly ushered in;
But though my face was grim and sour
He met...Read more of this...

Be not led to believe that I fear the world, or that I

by Omar Khayyam
Be not led to believe that I fear the world, or that I
have fear of dying, or of seeing my soul go its way.
Death being a truth, I have no fear of it. What I fear
is that I have not lived well.
348...Read more of this...

Raising The Flag

by Robert William Service
 Behold! the Spanish flag they're raising
Before the Palace courtyard gate;
To watch its progress bold and blazing
Two hundred patient people wait.
Though bandsmen play the anthem bravely
The silken emblem seems to lag;
Two hundred people watch it gravely -
But only two salute the flag.

Fine-clad and arrogant of manner
The twain are like dark dons of old,
And to that high and haughty banner
Uplifted palms...Read more of this...

Everywhere I cast my eyes I believe I see the sod of

by Omar Khayyam
Everywhere I cast my eyes I believe I see the sod of
Paradise and the brook of Koocer. They say the field
outside of Hell is transformed into a celestial sojourn.
Rest then in that celestial place near some celestial fair.
384...Read more of this...

Who will believe that He who fashioned the cup could

by Omar Khayyam
Who will believe that He who fashioned the cup could
think of destroying it? All these beautiful heads, all
these beautiful arms, all these dainty hands, are by what
love created and by what hate destroyed?...Read more of this...

Blackberrying

by Sylvia Plath
 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...Read more of this...

Serenade

by Victor Hugo
 ("Quand tu chantes.") 


 When the voice of thy lute at the eve 
 Charmeth the ear, 
 In the hour of enchantment believe 
 What I murmur near. 
 That the tune can the Age of Gold 
 With its magic restore. 
 Play on, play on, my fair one, 
 Play on for evermore. 
 
 When...Read more of this...

Sonnet 17: Who will believe my verse in time to come

by William Shakespeare
 Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts:
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say, "This poet lies,
Such heavenly...Read more of this...

Poor Peter

by Robert William Service
 Blind Peter Piper used to play
All up and down the city;
I'd often meet him on my way,
And throw a coin for pity.
But all amid his sparkling tones
His ear was quick as any
To catch upon the cobble-stones
The jingle of my penny.

And as upon a day that shone
He piped a merry measure:
"How well you play!" I chanced to say;
Poor Peter glowed...Read more of this...

In Between the Strophes

by Marcin Malek
I'll never be a king of the brave

The vain poet - I lied, forgive me if you care
I went calmly through all the stages of madness
The last it's the tongue on a stranger face

And believe that man can turn in to a bird
To look at people and things
Without the need of rising the gaze

What a disruptive and ugly input
- Acquired...Read more of this...

The discreet collector

by Eugene Field
 Down south there is a curio-shop
Unknown to many men;
Thereat do I intend to stop
When I am south again;
The narrow street through which to go--
Aha! I know it well!
And may be you would like to know--
But no--I will not tell!

'T is there to find the loveliest plates
(The bluest of the blue!)
At such surprisingly low rates
You'd not believe it true!
And there...Read more of this...

You Dont Believe

by William Blake
 You don't believe -- I won't attempt to make ye:
You are asleep -- I won't attempt to wake ye.
Sleep on! sleep on! while in your pleasant dreams
Of Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.
Reason and Newton, they are quite two things;
For so the swallow and the sparrow sings.

Reason says `Miracle': Newton says `Doubt.'
Aye! that's the way to make...Read more of this...

The Lover's Sacrifice

by Victor Hugo
 ("Fuyons ensemble.") 
 
 {HERNANI, Act II.} 


 DONNA SOL. Together let us fly! 
 
 HERNANI. Together? No! the hour is past for flight. 
 Dearest, when first thy beauty smote my sight, 
 I offered, for the love that bade me live, 
 Wretch that I was, what misery had to give: 
 My wood, my stream,...Read more of this...

Los Angeles 1954

by David St John
 It was in the old days,
When she used to hang out at a place
Called Club Zombie,
A black cabaret that the police liked
To raid now and then. As she
Stepped through the door, the light
Would hit her platinum hair,
And believe me, heads would turn. Maestro
Loved it; he'd have her by
The arm as he led us through the packed crowd
To a private...Read more of this...

Cassandra

by Robinson Jeffers
 The mad girl with the staring eyes and long white fingers
Hooked in the stones of the wall,
The storm-wrack hair and screeching mouth: does it matter, Cassandra,
Whether the people believe
Your bitter fountain? Truly men hate the truth, they'd liefer
Meet a tiger on the road.
Therefore the poets honey their truth with lying; but religion—
Vendors and political men
Pour from the barrel, new...Read more of this...

With Antecedents

by Walt Whitman
 1
WITH antecedents; 
With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations of past ages; 
With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am: 
With Egypt, India, Phenicia, Greece and Rome; 
With the Kelt, the Scandinavian, the Alb, and the Saxon;
With antique maritime ventures,—with laws, artizanship, wars and journeys; 
With the poet, the skald,...Read more of this...

The Way Things Work

by Jorie Graham
 is by admitting 
or opening away. 
This is the simplest form 
of current: Blue 
moving through blue; 
blue through purple; 
the objects of desire 
opening upon themselves 
without us; the objects of faith. 
The way things work 
is by solution, 
resistance lessened or 
increased and taken 
advantage of. 
The way things work 
is that we finally believe 
they are...Read more of this...

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms

by Thomas Moore
Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
   Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow, and fleet in my arms,
   Like fairy-gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,
   Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
 ...Read more of this...

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