Famous Melts Poems by Famous Poets

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

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An Essay On Criticism

...
And bid Alternate Passions fall and rise!
While, at each Change, the Son of Lybian Jove
Now burns with Glory, and then melts with Love;
Now his fierce Eyes with sparkling Fury glow;
Now Sighs steal out, and Tears begin to flow:
Persians and Greeks like Turns of Nature found,
And the World's Victor stood subdu'd by Sound!
The Pow'rs of Musick all our Hearts allow;
And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now.

Avoid Extreams; and shun the Fault of such,
Who still are pleas'd too lit...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander


Astrophel and Stella

...e thy workes reproue,
And scorning say, See what it is to loue! 
CVIII 

When Sorrow (vsing mine owne fiers might)
Melts downe his lead into my boyling brest
Through that darke furnace to my hart opprest,
There shines a ioy from thee my only light:
But soone as thought of thee breeds my delight,
And my yong soule flutters to thee his nest,
Most rude Despaire, my daily vnbidden guest,
Clips streight my wings, streight wraps me in his night,
And makes me then bow do...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip

Eviradnus

...ating to the hand— 
 Of tiny bell—where sounds a grain of sand. 
 A man's voice mixes with the melody, 
 And vaguely melts to song in harmony. 
 
 "If you like we'll dream a dream. 
 Let us mount on palfreys two; 
 Birds are singing,—let it seem 
 You lure me—and I take you. 
 
 "Let us start—'tis eve, you see, 
 I'm thy master and thy prey. 
 My bright steed shall pleasure be; 
 Yours, it shall be love, I say. 
 
 "Journeying leisurely we go, 
 We will make o...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Lady Lazarus

...r on my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.
I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----
A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

(1962)...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Liberty

...re dark and the coast is bleak,
And the storm is wild and fierce,
Its frozen flake on the upturned cheek
Of the Pilgrim melts in tears,
And the dawn that springs from the darkness there
Is the morning light of an answered prayer.

The morning light of the day of Peace
That gladdens the aching eyes,
And gives to the soul that sweet release
That the present verifies,--
Nor a snow so deep, nor a wind so chill
To quench the flame of a freeman's will!

II

Days of toil when the bl...Read more of this...
by Riley, James Whitcomb


Music

...olour in the bow of sound.

Red as the dawn the trumpet rings,
Imperial purple from the trombone flows,
The mellow horn melts into evening rose.
Blue as the sky, the choir of strings
Darkens in double-bass to ocean's hue,
Rises in violins to noon-tide's blue,
With threads of quivering light shot through and through.
Green as the mantle that the summer flings
Around the world, the pastoral reeds in time
Embroider melodies of May and June.
Yellow as gold,
Yea, thrice-refined go...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

Passage to India

...test God, yieldest, the aim attain’d, 
As, fill’d with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found, 
The Younger melts in fondness in his arms. 

12
Passage to more than India!
Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights? 
O Soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like these? 
Disportest thou on waters such as these? 
Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas? 
Then have thy bent unleash’d.

Passage to you, your shores, ye aged fierce enigmas! 
Passage to you, to ma...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Artists

...that round him play,
In tender outline in each other sinking,
The soft breath of his life thus fleets away.
His spirit melts in the harmonious sea,
That, rich in rapture, round his senses flows,
And the dissolving thought all silently
To omnipresent Cytherea grows.
Joining in lofty union with the Fates,
On Graces and on Muses calm relying,
With freely-offered bosom he awaits
The shaft that soon against him will be flying
From the soft bow necessity creates.

Favorites belove...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Bride of Abydos

...and profound 
Will shape and syllable its sound 
Into Zuleika's name. [43] 
'Tis from her cypress' summit heard, 
That melts in air the liquid word; 
'Tis from her lowly virgin earth 
That white rose takes its tender birth. 
There late was laid a marble stone; 
Eve saw it placed — the Morrow gone! 
It was no mortal arm that bore 
That deep fixed pillar to the shore; 
For there, as Helle's legends tell, 
Next morn 'twas found where Selim fell; 
Lash'd by the tumbling tide, wh...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Giaour

...l.
The rugged metal of the mine,
Must burn before its surface shine,
But plunged within the furnace-flame,
It bends and melts - though still the same;
Then tempered to thy want, or will,
'Twill serve thee to defend or kill;
A breast-plate for thine hour of need,
Or blade to bid thy foeman bleed;
But if a dagger's form it bear,
Let those who shape its edge, beware!
Thus passion's fire, and woman's art,
Can turn and tame the sterner heart;
From these its form and tone are ta'en...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The House Of Dust: Complete (Long)

...eginning to change,—
It is her lover, she no longer desires to resist,
She is held and kissed.
She closes her eyes, and melts in a seethe of flame . . .
With a smoking ghost of shame . . .

Wind, wind, wind . . . Wind in an enormous brain
Blowing dark thoughts like fallen leaves . . .
The wind shrieks, the wind grieves;
It dashes the leaves on walls, it whirls then again;
And the enormous sleeper vaguely and stupidly dreams
And desires to stir, to resist a ghost of pain.

One...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

The Lady of the Lake

...ir oars the spray,
     Not faster yonder rippling bright,
     That tracks the shallop's course in light,
          Melts in the lake away,
     Than men from memory erase
     The benefits of former days;
     Then, stranger, go! good speed the while,
     Nor think again of the lonely isle.

     'High place to thee in royal court,
          High place in battled line,
     Good hawk and hound for sylvan sport!
     Where beauty sees the brave resort,
        ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Last Tournament

...t all her hand was red. 
Then cried the Breton, `Look, her hand is red! 
These be no rubies, this is frozen blood, 
And melts within her hand--her hand is hot 
With ill desires, but this I gave thee, look, 
Is all as cool and white as any flower.' 
Followed a rush of eagle's wings, and then 
A whimpering of the spirit of the child, 
Because the twain had spoiled her carcanet. 

He dreamed; but Arthur with a hundred spears 
Rode far, till o'er the illimitable reed, 
And many a...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Pleasures of Melancholy

...ats of jealous rage.
By soft degrees the manly torrent steals
From my swollen eyes; and at a brother's woe
My big heart melts in sympathizing tears.

What are the splendours of the gaudy court,
Its tinsel trappings, and its pageant pomps?
To me far happier seems the banish'd lord,
Amid Siberia's unrejoicing wilds
Who pines all lonesome, in the chambers hoar
Of some high castle shut, whose windows dim
In distant ken discover trackless plains,
Where Winter ever whirls his icy c...Read more of this...
by Warton, Thomas

The Sacrifice

...undred did the ointment prize, 
Not half so sweet as my sweet sacrifice: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

Therefore my soul melts, and my heart's dear treasure
Drops blood (the only beads) my words to measure: 
O let this cup pass, if it be thy pleasure: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

These drops being temper'd with a sinner's tears, 
A Balsam are for both the Hemispheres: 
Curing all wounds but mine; all, but my fears, 
Was ever grief like mine? 

Yet my Disciples sleep: I cannot ...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George

The Seasons: Winter

...a continual Flow. See! sudden, hoar'd,
The Woods beneath the stainless Burden bow, 
Blackning, along the mazy Stream it melts;
Earth's universal Face, deep-hid, and chill,
Is all one, dazzling, Waste. The Labourer-Ox
Stands cover'd o'er with Snow, and then demands
The Fruit of all his Toil. The Fowls of Heaven, 
Tam'd by the cruel Season, croud around
The winnowing Store, and claim the little Boon,
That Providence allows. The foodless Wilds
Pour forth their brown Inhabitants;...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts)

...ies.

289 But grant, the virtues of a temp'rate prime
290 Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime;
291 An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,
292 And glides in modest innocence away;
293 Whose peaceful day Benevolence endears,
294 Whose night congratulating Conscience cheers;
295 The gen'ral fav'rite as the gen'ral friend:
296 Such age there is, and who could wish its end?

297 Yet ev'n on this her load Misfortune flings,
298 To press the weary minutes' flagging wings:
...Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel

The Walk

...s.
Bright o'er the blooming meadow the changeable colors are gleaming,
But the strife, full of charms, in its own grace melts away
Freely the plain receives me,--with carpet far away reaching,
Over its friendly green wanders the pathway along.
Round me is humming the busy bee, and with pinion uncertain
Hovers the butterfly gay over the trefoil's red flower.
Fiercely the darts of the sun fall on me,--the zephyr is silent,
Only the song of the lark echoes athwart the clear air....Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Waste Land

...yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest.
Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into
the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct
from Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman,
and the two sexes meet in Tiresias. What Tiresias sees, in fact,
is the substance of the poem. The whole passage from Ovid is
of great anthropological interest:
 '. . . Cum Iunone iocos et maior vestra
profecto est
 Quam, q...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

White Flock

...ile..
O my happy and wealthy heir,
Read from my will.

 * III * 



May Snow

Upon fresh ground falls and melts
At once unnoticed a thin film.
The harsh and chilly spring
The ripened buds does kill.
Sight of early death is so horrid
That I can't look at God's creation, and am riven
With sadness, to which king David
Millenia of life has given.



x x x

Why do you pretend to be
A wind, a bird, or a stone?
Why do you smile at me
From the sky with...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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