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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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by Burns, Robert
...llow 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...



by Wilmot, John
...above a day;
Made his ill-natured jest, and went away.
Now scorned by all, forsaken, and oppressed,
She's a momento mori to the rest;
Diseased, decayed, to take up half a crown
Must mortgage her long scarf and manteau gown.
Poor creature! who, unheard of as a fly,
In some dark hole must all the winter lie,
And want and dirt endure a while half year
That for one month she tawdry may appear.
--"In Easter Term she gets her a new gown,
When my young master's worship c...Read more of this...

by Owen, Wilfred
...not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori....Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...l'ala,
però che sempre quivi si ricoglie
qual verso Acheronte non si cala».
 E io: «Se nuova legge non ti toglie
memoria o uso a l'amoroso canto
che mi solea quetar tutte mie doglie,
 di ciò ti piaccia consolare alquanto
l'anima mia, che, con la sua persona
venendo qui, è affannata tanto!».
 'Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona'
cominciò elli allor sì dolcemente,
che la dolcezza ancor dentro mi suona.
 Lo mio maestro e io e quella gente
ch'eran con lui parevan sì con...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...th 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, Adam,
And come away with me,
So shalt thou have a pippin
From off my father's tre...Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...th 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, Adam,
And come away with me,
So shalt thou have a pippin
From off my father's tre...Read more of this...

by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...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 tones? 
He! Hand to mouth he lives, and voids with shame; 
And, blazoned in however bold the name, 
Man Jack the man is, just; his mate a hussy. 
And I that die these deaths, that feed this flame, 
That … in smooth spoons spy life’s masque mirrored: tame
My tempests there, my fire and fever fussy....Read more of this...

by Hacker, Marilyn
...braided,
how those women's death and lives, lived and died, were
interleaved also.

Does lip touch on lip a memento mori?
Does the blood-thrust nipple against its eager
mate recall, through lust, a breast's transformations
sometimes are lethal?

Now or later, what's the enormous difference?
If one day is good, is a day sufficient?
Is it fear of death with which I'm so eager
to live my life out

now and in its possible permutations
with the one I love? (Only four days late...Read more of this...

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