Famous Mori Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sic transit gloria mundi

by Emily Dickinson
 "Sic transit gloria mundi,"
"How doth the busy bee,"
"Dum vivimus vivamus,"
I stay mine enemy!

Oh "veni, vidi, vici!"
Oh caput cap-a-pie!
And oh "memento mori"
When I am far from thee!

Hurrah for Peter Parley!
Hurrah for Daniel Boone!
Three cheers, sir, for the gentleman
Who first observed the moon!

Peter, put up the sunshine;
Patti, arrange the stars;
Tell Luna, tea is waiting,
And call your brother Mars!

Put down the apple,...Read more of this...

The Shepherd's Brow Fronting Forked Lightning Owns

by Gerard Manley Hopkins
 The shepherd's brow, fronting forked lightning, owns 
The horror and the havoc and the glory 
Of it. Angels fall, they are towers, from heaven—a story 
Of just, majestical, and giant groans. 
But man—we, scaffold of score brittle bones;
Who breathe, from groundlong babyhood to hoary 
Age gasp; whose breath is our memento mori— 
What bass is our viol for tragic...Read more of this...

Years End

by Marilyn Hacker
 for Audre Lorde and Sonny Wainwright

Twice in my quickly disappearing forties
someone called while someone I loved and I were
making love to tell me another woman had died of cancer.

Seven years apart, and two different lovers:
underneath the numbers, how lives are braided,
how those women's death and lives, lived and died, were
interleaved also.

Does lip touch on lip a memento mori?
Does the...Read more of this...

Sic transit gloria mundi

by Emily Dickinson
 "Sic transit gloria mundi,"
"How doth the busy bee,"
"Dum vivimus vivamus,"
I stay mine enemy!

Oh "veni, vidi, vici!"
Oh caput cap-a-pie!
And oh "memento mori"
When I am far from thee!

Hurrah for Peter Parley!
Hurrah for Daniel Boone!
Three cheers, sir, for the gentleman
Who first observed the moon!

Peter, put up the sunshine;
Patti, arrange the stars;
Tell Luna, tea is waiting,
And call your brother Mars!

Put down the apple,...Read more of this...

77. Epitaph on John Dove Innkeeper

by Robert Burns
 HERE lies Johnie Pigeon;
What was his religion?
 Whae’er desires to ken,
To some other warl’
Maun follow the carl,
 For here Johnie Pigeon had nane!


Strong ale was ablution,
Small beer persecution,
 A dram was memento mori;
But a full-flowing bowl
Was the saving his soul,
 And port was celestial glory....Read more of this...

Dulce Et Decorum Est

by Wilfred Owen
 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick,...Read more of this...

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