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Famous Miserable Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...he truth, he would have gone his way. 
And you your way. He might have wished you dead, 
But he would not have made you miserable.
At least,” I added, indefensibly, 
“That’s what I hope is true.” 

He pitied me, 
But had the magnanimity not to say so. 
“If only we had shaken hands,” he said,
“And I had said the truth, we might have been 
In half a moment rolling on the gravel. 
If I had said the truth, I should have said 
That never at any moment on the clock 
Above us in the...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington



...misery,
every woe, the broadest sorrows. Therefore it became
an open secret to men, to the sons of humanity,
through miserable songs, that Grendel struggled
a long while against Hrothgar, wearing malicious hatred,
felony and feud for many long years,
a perpetual strife—he wished for no accord
with any man among the host of the Danes,
to turn aside the soul-slaying or settle it with payment,
nor need any of the counselors expect
to receive bright gifts from the hands...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...t deal us—stated as our food—
And hungered for—the same—

We learn to know the Planks—
That answer to Our feet—
So miserable a sound—at first—
Nor ever now—so sweet—

As plashing in the Pools—
When Memory was a Boy—
But a Demurer Circuit—
A Geometric Joy—

The Posture of the Key
That interrupt the Day
To Our Endeavor—Not so real
The Cheek of Liberty—

As this Phantasm Steel—
Whose features—Day and Night—
Are present to us—as Our Own—
And as escapeless—qui...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...ing thus inactive, doubt and gloom.
He seem'd, as in a nightmare of the night,
To see his children leading evermore
Low miserable lives of hand-to-mouth,
And her, he loved, a beggar: then he pray'd
`Save them from this, whatever comes to me.'
And while he pray'd, the master of that ship
Enoch had served in, hearing his mischance,
Came, for he knew the man and valued him,
Reporting of his vessel China-bound,
And wanting yet a boatswain. Would he go?
There yet were many weeks b...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...why?—too late to plead. 
 The forfeit's due and hope should all be dead. 
 Incurables! For you I am the grave. 
 Oh, miserable men! that naught can save. 
 Yes, Sigismond a kaiser is, and you 
 A king, O Ladisläus!—it is true. 
 You thought of God but as a wheel to roll 
 Your chariot on; you who have king's control 
 O'er Poland and its many towns so strong. 
 You, Milan's Duke, to whom at once belong 
 The gold and iron crowns. You, Emperor made 
 By Rome, a son ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor



...ace,  An Angel beautiful and bright;  And that he knew, it was a Fiend,    This miserable Knight!   And that, unknowing what he did,  He leapt amid a murd'rous Band,  And sav'd from Outrage worse than Death    The Lady of the Land;   And how she wept and clasp'd his knees  And how she tended him in vain—  And ever strove to expiate  &...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...lade,—

There came and looked him in the face
An angel beautiful and bright;
And that he knew it was a Fiend,
This miserable Knight!

And that unknowing what he did,
He leaped amid a murderous band,
And saved from outrage worse than death
The Lady of the Land!

And how she wept, and clasped his knees;
And how she tended him in vain—
And ever strove to expiate
The scorn that crazed his brain;—

And that she nursed him in a cave;
And how his madness went away,...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...es
And the boy takes it to my station wagon,
What I've become
Troubles me even if I shut my eyes.

When I was young and miserable and pretty
And poor, I'd wish
What all girls wish: to have a husband,
A house and children. Now that I'm old, my wish
Is womanish:
That the boy putting groceries in my car

See me. It bewilders me he doesn't see me.
For so many years
I was good enough to eat: the world looked at me
And its mouth watered. How often they have undressed me,
The eyes o...Read more of this...
by Jarrell, Randall
...g 
To undergo eternal punishment?" 
 Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied:-- 
"Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, 
Doing or suffering: but of this be sure-- 
To do aught good never will be our task, 
But ever to do ill our sole delight, 
As being the contrary to his high will 
Whom we resist. If then his providence 
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, 
Our labour must be to pervert that end, 
And out of good still to find means of evil; 
Which ofttimes ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...? which, to the height enraged, 
Will either quite consume us, and reduce 
To nothing this essential--happier far 
Than miserable to have eternal being!-- 
Or, if our substance be indeed divine, 
And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 
On this side nothing; and by proof we feel 
Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, 
And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 
Though inaccessible, his fatal throne: 
Which, if not victory, is yet revenge." 
 He ended frowning, and his look de...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...e, it deals eternal woe. 
Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will 
Chose freely what it now so justly rues. 
Me miserable! which way shall I fly 
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? 
Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; 
And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep 
Still threatening to devour me opens wide, 
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. 
O, then, at last relent: Is there no place 
Left for repentance, none for pardon left? 
None left but by submission; a...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...
But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven 
To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme; 
Nor hope to be myself less miserable 
By what I seek, but others to make such 
As I, though thereby worse to me redound: 
For only in destroying I find ease 
To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroyed, 
Or won to what may work his utter loss, 
For whom all this was made, all this will soon 
Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe; 
In woe then; that destruction wide may range: 
To ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...doned, but worse felt within; 
And, in a troubled sea of passion tost, 
Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint. 
O miserable of happy! Is this the end 
Of this new glorious world, and me so late 
The glory of that glory, who now become 
Accursed, of blessed? hide me from the face 
Of God, whom to behold was then my highth 
Of happiness!--Yet well, if here would end 
The misery; I deserved it, and would bear 
My own deservings; but this will not serve: 
All that I eat or ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...him up to tears 
A space, till firmer thoughts restrained excess; 
And, scarce recovering words, his plaint renewed. 
O miserable mankind, to what fall 
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! 
Better end here unborn. Why is life given 
To be thus wrested from us? rather, why 
Obtruded on us thus? who, if we knew 
What we receive, would either no accept 
Life offered, or soon beg to lay it down; 
Glad to be so dismissed in peace. Can thus 
The image of God in Man, created ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...m light;
As in the land of darkness yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death, 
And buried; but O yet more miserable!
My self, my Sepulcher, a moving Grave,
Buried, yet not exempt
By priviledge of death and burial
From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs,
But made hereby obnoxious more
To all the miseries of life,
Life in captivity
Among inhuman foes.
But who are these? for with joint pace I hear 
The tread of many feet stearing this way;
Perhaps my enemies wh...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...obs on her tipsy and pimpled
 neck; 
The crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer and wink to each other; 
(Miserable! I do not laugh at your oaths, nor jeer you;)
The President, holding a cabinet council, is surrounded by the Great
 Secretaries; 
On the piazza walk three matrons stately and friendly with twined arms; 
The crew of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of halibut in the hold; 
The Missourian crosses the plains, toting his wares and his cattle; 
...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...rent Fishermen, in parcels marked out by imaginary lines drawn from rock to rock.]   Can I forget that miserable hour,  When from the last hill-top, my sire surveyed,  Peering above the trees, the steeple tower  That on his marriage-day sweet music made?  Till then he hoped his bones might there be laid,  Close by my mother in their native bowers:  Bidding me trust in God, he stood and prayed,— ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...hes, where their precious gems,Their mitres, sceptres, robes, and diadems?O miserable men, whose hopes ariseFrom worldly joys, yet be there few so wiseAs in those trifling follies not to trust;And if they be deceived, in end 'tis just:Ah! more than blind, what gain you by your toil?You must return once to your mother's soil,...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...have laughed with laughter long 
 To see you on my rough drafts fall, 
 My bald hexameters, and all 
 The mournful, miserable band, 
 And drag them with relentless hand 
 From out their box, with true delight 
 To set them each and all a-light, 
 And then with clapping hands to lean 
 Above the stove and watch the scene, 
 How to the mass deformed there came 
 A soul that showed itself in flame! 
 
 Bright tricksy children—oh, I pray 
 Come back and sing and dan...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor
...the road.

I felt the gloomy, dusky fear
Before this woman of delight
As on her shoulders played alone
The rays of miserable light.

And how could I forgive her yet
Your shining praise by love deluded
Look, she is happily in sorrow,
And in such elegance denuded.



x x x

In the sleep to me is given
Our last eden of stars up high
City of clean water towers,
Golden Bakchisarai

There behind a colored fencing
By the pensive water stalled
Village of the ...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry