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Famous Mays Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...the valley where the free winds sweep,
The earth is folded in an ermined sleep
That mocks the melting mirth of myriad Mays.
Departed her disheartening duns and grays,
And all her crusty black is covered deep.
Dark streams are locked in Winter's donjon-keep,
And made to shine with keen, unwonted rays.
O icy mantle, and deceitful snow!
What world-old liars in your hearts ye are!
Are there not still the darkened seam and scar
Beneath the brightness that you fain would ...Read more of this...



by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...orting with thee in the old-time plays,
And caught the sunlight of thy boyish glances
In half-forgotten and long-buried Mays.

Forth to the end, and back to the beginning,
My love would send its inundating tide,
Wherein all landmarks of thy past should hide.
If thy life's lesson must be learned through sinning,
My grieving virtue would become thy guide.

For I would share the burden of thy errors,
So when the sun of our brief life had set,
If thou didst walk in da...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...led music, murmured far and wide! 
 Ah, Springtime, when we think of all the lays 
 That dreamy lovers send to dreamy Mays, 
 Of the proud hearts within a billet bound, 
 Of all the soft silk paper that men wound, 
 The messages of love that mortals write, 
 Filled with intoxication of delight, 
 Written in April, and before the Maytime 
 Shredded and flown, playthings for the winds' playtime. 
 We dream that all white butterflies above, 
 Who seek through clouds or...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...r, till the last of English days.
No day nor night on English earth shall be
For ever, spring nor summer, Junes nor Mays,
But somewhat as a sound or gleam of thee
Shall come on us like morning from the sea.XX


Like sunrise never wholly risen, nor yet
Quenched; or like sunset never wholly set,
A light to lighten as from living eyes
The cold unlit close lids of one that lies
Dead, or a ray returned from death's far skies
To fire us living lest our lives forget.XXI
...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...Life is a privilege. Its youthful days
Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.
To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire, 
To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire, 
To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glow
With great ambitions – in one hour to know
The depths and heights of feeling – God! in truth, 
How beautiful, how beautiful is youth! 

Life is a privilege. Like some rare rose
The mysteries of the human min...Read more of this...



by Schiller, Friedrich von
...lting eyes--
For him new suns are in the skies!

Thy soul--a crystal river passing,
Silver-clear, and sunbeam-glassing,
Mays into bloom sad Autumn by thee;
Night and desert, if they spy thee,
To gardens laugh--with daylight shine,
Lit by those happy smiles of thine!
Dark with cloud the future far
Goldens itself beneath thy star.
Smilest thou to see the harmony
Of charm the laws of Nature keep?
Alas! to me the harmony
Brings only cause to weep!

Holds not Hades its domain
...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ss,
Cooms of a gentleman burn: an' we boäth on us thinks tha an ass.
Woä then, proputty, wiltha?--an ass as near as mays nowt--
Woä then, wiltha? dangtha!--the bees is as fell as owt.

Breäk me a bit o' the esh for his 'eäd, lad, out o' the fence!
Gentleman burn! what's gentleman burn? is it shillins an' pence?
Proputty, proputty's ivrything 'ere, an', Sammy, I'm blest
If it isn't the saäme oop yonder, fur them as 'as it 's the best.

Tis'n them as 'as munny as br...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...hat moons are sadly few
How I grudge the grave its due!

Yet somehow I seem to know
Seven Springs are left to me;
Seven Mays may cherry tree
Will allume with sudden snow . . .
Then let seven candles shine
Silver peace above my shrine....Read more of this...

by Viorst, Judith
...Hanna moved away.Chocolate ice cream tastes like prunes.December's come to stay.They've taken back the Mays and JunesSince Hanna moved away.Flowers smell like halibut.Velvet feels like hay.Every handsome dog's a muttSince Hanna moved away.Nothing's fun to laugh about.Nothing's fun to play.They call me, but I won't come outSince Hanna moved away....Read more of this...

by Housman, A E
...ll me not here, it needs not saying,
What tune the enchantress plays
In aftermaths of soft September
Or under blanching mays,
For she and I were long acquainted
And I knew all her ways.

On russet floors, by waters idle,
The pine lets fall its cone;
The cuckoo shouts all day at nothing
In leafy dells alone;
And traveller’s joy beguiles in autumn
Hearts that have lost their own.

On acres of the seeded grasses
The changing burnish heaves;
Or marshalled under moons of h...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...usic, murmured far and wide. 
Ah, the Spring time, when we think of all the lays 
That dreamy lovers send to dreamy mays, 
Of the fond hearts within a billet bound, 
Of all the soft silk paper that pens wound, 
The messages of love that mortals write 
Filled with intoxication of delight, 
Written in April and before the May time 
Shredded and flown, playthings for the wind's playtime, 
We dream that all white butterflies above, 
Who seek through clouds or waters souls to ...Read more of this...

by Clark, Badger
...oung, young land.

  When the last free trail is a prim, fenced lane
    And our graves grow weeds through forgetful Mays,
  Richer and statelier then you'll reign,
    Mother of men whom the world will praise.
  And your sons will love you and sigh for you,
  Labor and battle and die for you,
    But never the fondest will understand
    The way we have loved you, young, young land.
...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...There are two Mays
And then a Must
And after that a Shall.
How infinite the compromise
That indicates I will!...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...As one put drunk into the Packet-boat,
Tom May was hurry'd hence and did not know't.
But was amaz'd on the Elysian side,
And with an Eye uncertain, gazing wide,
Could not determine in what place he was,
For whence in Stevens ally Trees or Grass.
Nor where the Popes head, nor the Mitre lay,
Signs by which still he found and lost his way.
At last...Read more of this...

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