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Famous Mater Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...He knocked, and I beheld him at the door-- 
A vision for the gods to verify. 
"What battered ancient is this," thought I, 
"And when, if ever, did we meet before?" 
But ask him as I might, I got no more 
For answer than a moaning and a cry: 
Too late to parley, but in time to die, 
He staggered, and lay ahapeless on the floor.

When had I known him...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...O MATER! O fils! 
O brood continental! 
O flowers of the prairies! 
O space boundless! O hum of mighty products! 
O you teeming cities! O so invincible, turbulent, proud!
O race of the future! O women! 
O fathers! O you men of passion and the storm! 
O native power only! O beauty! 
O yourself! O God! O divine average! 
O you bearded roughs! O bards! O all thos...Read more of this...

by Matthew, John
...oday, 
That I am returning to you, mother city, after twenty years,
I look at your broad, bereft blood-stained streets, mater,
Through which emperors, prime ministers cavalcaded,
In victory and defeat, through gates and triumphal arches,
That murmur of the pains of your rape and impregnation.

The sudden shock of your poverty upsets me,
It is evident in the desperation of the cycle-rickshaw puller,
His eyes intent on the ground, standing on his pedals,
He pulls his woes, ...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...Charissimo Filio
Edmundo Trotio
Posuimus Pater & Mater
Frustra superstites.
Legite Parentes, vanissimus hominum ordo,
Figuli Filiorum, Substructores Hominum,
Fartores Opum, Longi Speratores,
Et nostro, si fas, sapite infortunio.
Fruit Edmundus Trottuis.
E quatuor masculae stirpis residuus,
Statura justa, Forma virili, specie eximic,
Medio juventutis Robore simul & Flore,
Alpectu, In cessu, serm...Read more of this...

by Tynan, Katharine
...She looked to east, she looked to west, 
Her eyes, unfathomable, mild, 
That saw both worlds, came home to rest,­ 
Home to her own sweet child.
God's golden head was at her breast. 

What need to look o'er land and sea? 
What could the winged ships bring to her? 
What gold or gems of price might be, 
Ivory or miniver, 
Since God Himself lay on her ...Read more of this...



by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...Who is this that sits by the way, by the wild wayside,
In a rent stained raiment, the robe of a cast-off bride,
In the dust, in the rainfall sitting, with soiled feet bare,
With the night for a garment upon her, with torn wet hair?
She is fairer of face than the daughters of men, and her eyes,
Worn through with her tears, are deep as the depth of skies.Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...Mother of man's time-travelling generations,
Breath of his nostrils, heartblood of his heart,
God above all Gods worshipped of all nations,
Light above light, law beyond law, thou art.

Thy face is as a sword smiting in sunder
Shadows and chains and dreams and iron things;
The sea is dumb before thy face, the thunder
Silent, the skies are narrower than...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...and how fair, --
How grave beyond her youth, yet debonair
As dawn, 'mid wrinkled Matres of old lands
Our youngest Alma Mater modest stands!
In four brief cycles round the punctual sun
Has she, old Learning's latest daughter, won
This grace, this stature, and this fruitful fame.
Howbeit she was born
Unnoised as any stealing summer morn.
From far the sages saw, from far they came
And ministered to her,
Led by the soaring-genius'd Sylvester
That, earlier, loosed the kno...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ver so blue,
My failures and faults magnifying,
I'd think of old Ed as he sniffed and he said:
"Shaw! them things don't mater a tittle.
Ye darned little cuss, why make such a full?
Ye're a-drownin' yerself in yer spittle."

When you're tangled with care till you're up in the air,
And worry and fear have you quaking,
When each tiny trouble seems bigger than double,
Till mountains of mole-hills you're making:
Go easy, my friend, things click in the end,
But maybe 'twill...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...r dumb hardness fills my throat to the base
till I swallow and taste your delicate flesh-hot prick barrel veined Please
Mater push my shoulders away and stare in my eyes, & make me bend over 
 the table
please master grab my thighs and lift my ass to your waist
please master your hand's rough stroke on my neck your palm down to my
 backside
please master push me, my feet on chairs, till my hole feels the breath of 
 your spit and your thumb stroke
please master make my say Pl...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...f
 heaven above,) 
The strong base stands, and its pulsations intermits not, 
Bathing, supporting, merging all the rest—maternity of all the rest; 
And with it every instrument in multitudes,
The players playing—all the world’s musicians, 
The solemn hymns and masses, rousing adoration, 
All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals, 
The measureless sweet vocalists of ages, 
And for their solvent setting, Earth’s own diapason,
Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves; 
A n...Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...ature's intent
That each girl be a mother -- whether or not she is
Or has become a lawful wife or bride
-- 0 Alma Magna Mater, deathless the living death of pride....Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...shelter, our small cottage - nor
Far-off is seen, rose carpeted and hung
With clematis, the quarry whence she sprung,
O mater pulchra filia pulchrior,
Whither in early spring, unharnessed folk,
We join the pairing swallows, glad to stay
Where, loosened in the hills, remote, unseen,
From its tall trees, it breathes a slender smoke
To heaven, and in the noon of sultry day
Stands, coolly buried, to the neck in green....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ted hound and steed:
Said Mother, 'Boy, you break my heart!
 You are not of our breed.'

Then came the War. The Mater said:
 'Thank God, a son I give
To King and Country,'--well, I'm dead
 Who would have loved to live.
'For England's sake,' said she, 'he died.
 For that my boy I bore.'
And now she talks of me with pride.
 A hero of the War.

Mother, I think that you are glad
 I ended up that way.
Your horses and your dogs you had,
 And still yo...Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...e higher forms of nature,
The male runs a terrifying risk when he goes seeking for 
 the bounty of beautiful Alma Magna Mater:
Yet clearly and truly he must seek and find his mate and 
 match like every other living creature!...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...--gives me a haughty stare--
Me that's an earl's own nephew--that is the hardest to bear.

To think of the poor old mater awaiting her prodigal son.
Tho' I broke her heart with my folly, I was always the white-haired one.
(That fatted calf that they're cooking will surely be overdone.)

I'll go back and yarn to the Bishop; I'll dance with the village belle;
I'll hand round tea to the ladies, and everything will be well.
Where I have been won't matter; what...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...
Or quite so ready to sob again 
On any neck that's around.
I'm leaving, Pater. Good-bye to you!
God bless you, Mater! I'll write to you! 
I wouldn't be impolite to you,
But, Brother, you are a hound!...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...
Or quite so ready to sob again 
On any neck that's around.
I'm leaving, Pater. Good-bye to you!
God bless you, Mater! I'll write to you! 
I wouldn't be impolite to you,
But, Brother, you are a hound!...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs