Famous Mind Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet 114: Or whether doth my mind being crowned with you

by William Shakespeare
 Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you,
Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?
Or whether shall I say mine eye saith true,
And that your love taught it this alchemy,
To make of monsters, and things indigest,
Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble,
Creating every bad a perfect best
As fast as objects to his beams assemble?
O, 'tis the first, 'tis flattery...Read more of this...

A Star Deep In the Mind

by Dejan Stojanovic
I see a new star on the horizon; 
It's not the Morning Star; 
It's a star without light.
This star without the light is the brightest
Because its light stays within. 
The biggest star doesn't take any space; 
It lives within, 
Feeds all other stars, all other matter. 
Without space, there is no time, 
Without time, there is no aging, 
Without aging,...Read more of this...

In The Slight Ripple The Mind Perceives The Heart

by Delmore Schwartz
 In the slight ripple, the fishes dart
Like fingers, centrifugal, like wishes
Wanton. And pleasures rise
 as the eyes fall 
Through the lucid water. The small pebble, 
The clear clay bottom, the white shell
Are apparent, though superficial. 
Who would ask more of the August afternoon? 
Who would dig mines and follow shadows? 
"I would," answers bored Heart, "Lounger, rise"
(Underlip trembling, face...Read more of this...

We should not mind so small a flower

by Emily Dickinson
 We should not mind so small a flower --
Except it quiet bring
Our little garden that we lost
Back to the Lawn again.

So spicy her Carnations nod --
So drunken, reel her Bees --
So silver steal a hundred flutes
From out a hundred trees --

That whoso sees this little flower
By faith may clear behold
The Bobolinks around the throne
And Dandelions gold....Read more of this...

I could bring You Jewels -- had I a mind to --

by Emily Dickinson
 I could bring You Jewels -- had I a mind to --
But You have enough -- of those --
I could bring You Odors from St. Domingo --
Colors -- from Vera Cruz --

Berries of the Bahamas -- have I --
But this little Blaze
Flickering to itself -- in the Meadow --
Suits Me -- more than those --

Never a Fellow matched this...Read more of this...

Heaven is so far of the Mind

by Emily Dickinson
 Heaven is so far of the Mind
That were the Mind dissolved --
The Site -- of it -- by Architect
Could not again be proved --

'Tis vast -- as our Capacity --
As fair -- as our idea --
To Him of adequate desire
No further 'tis, than Here --...Read more of this...

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --

by Emily Dickinson
 I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --
As if my Brain had split --
I tried to match it -- Seam by Seam --
But could not make it fit.

The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before --
But Sequence ravelled out of Sound
Like Balls -- upon a Floor....Read more of this...

A Shade upon the mind there passes

by Emily Dickinson
 A Shade upon the mind there passes
As when on Noon
A Cloud the mighty Sun encloses
Remembering

That some there be too numb to notice
Oh God
Why give if Thou must take away
The Loved?...Read more of this...

Let not base avarice enslave thy mind,

by Omar Khayyam
Let not base avarice enslave thy mind,
Nor vain ambition in its trammels bind;
Be sharp as fire, as running water swift,
Not, like earth's dust, the sport of every wind!...Read more of this...

When I recall my grievous sins to mind,

by Omar Khayyam
When I recall my grievous sins to mind,
Fire burns my breast, and tears my vision blind;
Yet, when a slave repents, is it not meet
His lord should pardon, and again be kind?...Read more of this...

A thought went up my mind to-day

by Emily Dickinson
A thought went up my mind to-day
That I have had before,
But did not finish,--some way back,
I could not fix the year,

Nor where it went, nor why it came
The second time to me,
Nor definitely what it was,
Have I the art to say.

But somewhere in my soul, I know
I've met the thing before;
It just reminded me--'t was all--
And came my way no...Read more of this...

When my sins come back to mind, the fire which then

by Omar Khayyam
When my sins come back to mind, the fire which then
burned in my heart makes my boldness stream forth;
for everywhere is it established that when a slave repents,
a generous master pardons him....Read more of this...

An Island in the Mind

by Dejan Stojanovic
Dream, flying out from the head
Becomes a bird flying over the sea; 

The Sun, sprouting from the sea
Makes the sea alive and blue; 

The flying dream that hovers in space
Becomes an island in the sea; 

The island—the dream emanating from the head, 
The bird, the air, the sea, and the light. ...Read more of this...

Go, book: go, vessel laden with the mind

by Hafez
Go, book: go, vessel laden with the mind
That builded thee, go now & bear thy freight
Of man’s old messaging to all mankind.

Say first:—Such oft-told things as I relate,
Such pond’rous words strung on unperish’d thought,
Such pearly praises worn by countless queens,
Such temper’d swords wherewith heroes have fought,
Such sceptres that have ruled all earth’s demesnes,
Such broider’d robes, such antique jewelry,
Such orbs, such...Read more of this...

A Thought went up my mind today --

by Emily Dickinson
 A Thought went up my mind today --
That I have had before --
But did not finish -- some way back --
I could not fix the Year --

Nor where it went -- nor why it came
The second time to me --
Nor definitely, what it was --
Have I the Art to say --

But somewhere -- in my Soul -- I know...Read more of this...

The Balloon Of The Mind

by William Butler Yeats
 Hands, do what you're bid:
Bring the balloon of the mind
That bellies and drags in the wind
Into its narrow shed....Read more of this...

Sonnet LI: Calling to Mind

by Michael Drayton
 Calling to mind, since first my love begun, 
Th'uncertain times oft varying in their course, 
How things still unexpectedly have run, 
As it please the Fates, by their resistless force. 
Lastly mine eyes amazedly have seen 
Essex' great fall, Tyrone his peace to gain; 
The quiet end of that long-living Queen; 
This King's fair entrance; and our peace with...Read more of this...

Such are the inlets of the mind --

by Emily Dickinson
 Such are the inlets of the mind --
His outlets -- would you see
Ascend with me the eminence
Of immortality --...Read more of this...

Sonnet 113: Since I left you mine eye is in my mind

by William Shakespeare
 Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind,
And that which governs me to go about
Doth part his function, and is partly blind,
Seems seeing, but effectually is out;
For it no form delivers to the heart
Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch;
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part,
Nor his own vision holds what it...Read more of this...

His mind of man a secret makes

by Emily Dickinson
 His mind of man, a secret makes
I meet him with a start
He carries a circumference
In which I have no part --

Or even if I deem I do
He otherwise may know
Impregnable to inquest
However neighborly --...Read more of this...

The Evening Of The Mind

by Donald Justice
 Now comes the evening of the mind.
Here are the fireflies twitching in the blood;
Here is the shadow moving down the page
Where you sit reading by the garden wall.
Now the dwarf peach trees, nailed to their trellises,
Shudder and droop. Your know their voices now,
Faintly the martyred peaches crying out
Your name, the name nobody knows but you.
It is the aura and...Read more of this...

Mother Mind

by Julia Ward Howe
 I never made a poem, dear friend--
I never sat me down, and said,
This cunning brain and patient hand
Shall fashion something to be read.
Men often came to me, and prayed
I should indite a fitting verse
For fast, or festival, or in
Some stately pageant to rehearse.
(As if, than Balaam more endowed,
I of myself could bless or curse.)

Reluctantly I bade them go,
Ungladdened by...Read more of this...

His Mind like Fabrics of the East

by Emily Dickinson
 His Mind like Fabrics of the East
Displayed to the despair
Of everyone but here and there
An humble Purchaser --
For though his price was not of Gold --
More arduous there is --
That one should comprehend the worth
Was all the price there was --...Read more of this...

Mind Games

by Dimitris Varos
 I am a waterfall in the desert.
A rain from a cloudless sky. 
A well known but unborn child. 
An insistence experience 
that you never had. 

I play mind games with your brain. 
When you strike the keys and remember the sea 
I come as indefinable memory. 
When you look at your watch 
and the time has passed
you feel me...Read more of this...

Give not vain thoughts free access to thy mind. Drink

by Omar Khayyam
Give not vain thoughts free access to thy mind. Drink
wine throughout the year, and always cups filled to the
brim. Pursue the daughter of the vine and aye rejoice,
for it is better to enjoy the daughter without leave of
law than know the mother with her full consent....Read more of this...

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