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Famous Mourn Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...flattery she hates, 
And feigned tears, and tongue which silver-tipt 
Moves in the cause of wickedness and pride. 
She mourns not that fair liberty depress'd 
Which kings tyrannic can extort, but that 
Pure freedom of the soul to truth divine 
Which first indulg'd her and with envious hand 
Pluck'd thence, left hideous slavery behind. 
She weeps not loss of property on earth, 
Nor stirs the multitude to dire revenge 
With headlong violence, but soothes the soul 
To harmony a...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry



...ost. 
Here those brave chiefs, who lavish of their blood 
Fought in Britannia's cause, most nobly fell. 
What Heart but mourns the untimely fate of Wolf, 
Who dying conquer'd, or what breast but beats 
To share a fate like his, and die like him? 



ACASTO. 
And he demands our lay who bravely fell 
By Monangahela and the Ohio's stream; 
By wiles o'ercome the hapless hero fell, 
His soul too gen'rous, for that dastard crew 
Who kill unseen and shun the face of day. 
Ambush'd i...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...standard,
high over his head, letting the seas bear him,
giving him to the spear-waves—their hearts grieving,
minds mourning. No man knows how to say truly,
among the hall-wise or heroes under heaven,
who took in those treasures. (ll. 47-52)

 

I.

Then in the strongholds was the Scylding Beow
the beloved king of the people for a very long time,
famous to his folk—his father departed elsewhere,
the prince from this earth—until from him was soon born
Halfdane ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...head they hoist the standard,
a gold-wove banner; let billows take him,
gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,
mournful their mood. No man is able
to say in sooth, no son of the halls,
no hero ’neath heaven, -- who harbored that freight!



I

Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
leader beloved, and long he ruled
in fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
s...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...han death's alarm.



XXXIII.
But ere they seek to rescue the oppressed, 
The valiant dead, in state, are laid to rest.
Mourned Hamilton, the faithful and the brave, 
Nine hundred comrades follow to the grave; 
And close behind the banner-hidden corse
All draped in black, walks mournfully his horse; 
While tears of sound drip through the sunlit day.
A soldier may not weep, but drums and bugles may.



XXXIV.
Now, Muse, recount, how after long delays
And dangerous marches thro...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler



...a moonless night,
To tinge, on syren shores, the salt sea-spry?

 "O Sorrow,
 Why dost borrow
The mellow ditties from a mourning tongue?--
 To give at evening pale
 Unto the nightingale,
That thou mayst listen the cold dews among?

 "O Sorrow,
 Why dost borrow
Heart's lightness from the merriment of May?--
 A lover would not tread
 A cowslip on the head,
Though he should dance from eve till peep of day--
 Nor any drooping flower
 Held sacred for thy bower,
Wherever he may spo...Read more of this...
by Keats, John
...the head? 
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd(27) 
To serve mere engines to the ruling Mind? 
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains 
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains. 
All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body, Nature is, and God the soul; 
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same, 
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame, 
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, 
Lives thro' all ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...d, and to the level of his ear
Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake
In solemn tenor and deep organ tone:
Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue
Would come in these like accents; O how frail
To that large utterance of the early Gods!
"Saturn, look up!---though wherefore, poor old King?
I have no comfort for thee, no not one:
I cannot say, 'O wherefore sleepest thou?'
For heaven is parted from thee, and the earth
Knows thee not, thus afflicted, for a God;
And...Read more of this...
by Keats, John
...ey found; 
From him by sterner chiefs to exile driven 
They but required a shelter, and 'twas given. 
By him no peasant mourn'd his rifled cot, 
And scarce the serf could murmur o'er his lot; 
With him old avarice found its hoard secure, 
With him contempt forbore to mock the poor; 
Youth present cheer and promised recompense 
Detain'd, till all too late to part from thence: 
To hate he offer'd, with the coming change, 
The deep reversion of delay'd revenge; 
To love, long ba...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...e thrifty troop of privateers, 
Whose horses each with other interfered. 
Before them Higgons rides with brow compact, 
Mourning his Countess, anxious for his Act. 
Sir Frederick and Sir Solomon draw lots 
For the command of politics or sots, 
Thence fell to words, but quarrel to adjourn; 
Their friends agreed they should command by turn. 
Carteret the rich did the accountants guide 
And in ill English all the world defied. 
The Papists--but of these the House had none 
Else ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...e.—That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompense.  For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.  And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you l...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...m Selim's bosom broke; 
One sigh Zuleika's thought bespoke: 
Still gazed he through the lattice grate, 
Pale, mute, and mournfully sedate. 
To him Zuleika's eye was turn'd, 
But little from his aspect learn'd; 
Equal her grief, yet not the same: 
Her heart confess'd a gentler flame: 
But yet that heart, alarm'd, or weak, 
She knew not why, forbade to speak. 
Yet speak she must — but when essay? 
"How strange he thus should turn away! 
Not thus we e'er before have met; 
Not th...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
..., talking in the archways,
Were all suddenly struck quiet
And ran from under stone to look up at the sky: so shrill and mournful,
So fierce and final, a brazen
Pealing of trumpets high up in the air, in the summer blue over Tuscany.
They marvelled; the soothsayers answered:
"Although the Gods are little troubled toward men, at the end of each period
A sign is declared in heaven
Indicating new times, new customs, a changed people; the Romans
Rule, and Etruria is finished;
A wi...Read more of this...
by Jeffers, Robinson
...had I but heavenly wings. 

42
When I see childhood on the threshold seize
The prize of life from age and likelihood,
I mourn time's change that will not be withstood,
Thinking how Christ said Be like one of these.
For in the forest among many trees
Scarce one in all is found that hath made good
The virgin pattern of its slender wood,
That courtesied in joy to every breeze; 
But scath'd, but knotted trunks that raise on high
Their arms in stiff contortion, strain'd and bare
W...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...ine a mightier hand
     Has tuned my harp, my strings has spanned!
     I touch the chords of joy, but low
     And mournful answer notes of woe;
     And the proud march which victors tread
     Sinks in the wailing for the dead.
     O, well for me, if mine alone
     That dirge's deep prophetic tone!
     If, as my tuneful fathers said,
     This harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed,
     Can thus its master's fate foretell,
     Then welcome be the minstrel's k...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...ye upon my woe,
That for your love I sweat *there as* I go. *wherever
No wonder is that I do swelt* and sweat. *faint
I mourn as doth a lamb after the teat
Y-wis*, leman, I have such love-longing, *certainly
That like a turtle* true is my mourning. *turtle-dove
I may not eat, no more than a maid."
"Go from the window, thou jack fool," she said:
"As help me God, it will not be, 'come ba* me.' *kiss
I love another, else I were to blame",
Well better than thee, by Jesus, Absolon...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...f another's fear,
And others as with steps towards the tomb
Pored on the trodden worms that crawled beneath,
And others mournfully within the gloom
Of their own shadow walked, and called it death ...
And some fled from it as it were a ghost,
Half fainting in the affliction of vain breath.
But more with motions which each other crost
Pursued or shunned the shadows the clouds threw
Or birds within the noonday ether lost,
Upon that path where flowers never grew;
And weary with v...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ut if* I telle tales two or three *unless
Of friars, ere I come to Sittingbourne,
That I shall make thine hearte for to mourn:
For well I wot thy patience is gone."
Our Hoste cried, "Peace, and that anon;"
And saide, "Let the woman tell her tale.
Ye fare* as folk that drunken be of ale. *behave
Do, Dame, tell forth your tale, and that is best."
"All ready, sir," quoth she, "right as you lest,* *please
If I have licence of this worthy Frere."
"Yes, Dame," quoth he, "tell forth...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...h and write poetry!"
And I buried the joyous songbird
Behind a round well near a tree.

I promised that I would not mourn her.
But my heart turned to stone without choice,
And it seems to me that everywhere
And always I'll hear her sweet voice.



x x x

True love's memory, You are heavy!
In your smoke I sing and burn,
And the rest -- is only fire
To keep the chilled soul warm.

To keep warm the sated body,
They need my tears for this
Did I for this sing...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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