Famous Mystical Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Four Seasons

by Obi Nwakanma
I
ICICLES fall from trees, molten with age, 
without memory - they stand aloof in their 
nakedness - they limber; 
like the gods terrified into silence, 
like tall brooding deities looming out of the 
fog: 

The forest hugs them 
carves them into stones, 
Etches them into the slow 
eastern landscape: rivers, hills 
the slow running water, 
times broken inscapes…

The willows are...Read more of this...

The Voice of Age

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 She'd look upon us, if she could, 
As hard as Rhadamanthus would; 
Yet one may see,—who sees her face, 
Her crown of silver and of lace, 
Her mystical serene address
Of age alloyed with loveliness,— 
That she would not annihilate 
The frailest of things animate. 

She has opinions of our ways, 
And if we’re not all mad, she says,—
If our...Read more of this...

The Lay Of The Mountain

by Friedrich von Schiller
 To the solemn abyss leads the terrible path,
The life and death winding dizzy between;
In thy desolate way, grim with menace and wrath,
To daunt thee the spectres of giants are seen;
That thou wake not the wild one, all silently tread--
Let thy lip breathe no breath in the pathway of dread!

High over the marge of the horrible deep
Hangs and hovers a...Read more of this...

As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free

by Walt Whitman
 1
AS a strong bird on pinions free, 
Joyous, the amplest spaces heavenward cleaving, 
Such be the thought I’d think to-day of thee, America, 
Such be the recitative I’d bring to-day for thee. 

The conceits of the poets of other lands I bring thee not,
Nor the compliments that have served their turn so long, 
Nor rhyme—nor the classics—nor perfume of...Read more of this...

The Daguerreotype

by William Vaughn Moody
 This, then, is she, 
My mother as she looked at seventeen, 
When she first met my father. Young incredibly, 
Younger than spring, without the faintest trace 
Of disappointment, weariness, or tean 
Upon the childlike earnestness and grace 
Of the waiting face. 
Those close-wound ropes of pearl 
(Or common beads made precious by their use) 
Seem heavy for so slight...Read more of this...

Ave Adonai

by Aleister Crowley
 [Dedicated to G. M. Marston]


Pale as the night that pales
In the dawn's pearl-pure pavillion,
I wait for thee, with my dove's breast
Shuddering, a god its bitter guest-
Have I not gilded my nails
And painted my lips with vermillion ?

Am I not wholly stript
Of the deeds and thoughts that obscure thee?
I wait for thee, my soul distraught
With aching for some nameless naught
In...Read more of this...

Dionysus

by Aleister Crowley
 I bring ye wine from above,
From the vats of the storied sun;
For every one of yer love,
And life for every one.
Ye shall dance on hill and level;
Ye shall sing in hollow and height
In the festal mystical revel,
The rapurous Bacchanal rite!
The rocks and trees are yours,
And the waters under the hill,
By the might of that which endures,
The holy heaven of...Read more of this...

Fields of Soria

by Antonio Machado
 Hills of silver plate,
grey heights, dark red rocks
through which the Duero bends
its crossbow arc
round Soria, shadowed oaks,
stone dry-lands, naked mountains,
white roads and river poplars,
twilights of Soria, warlike and mystical,
today I feel, for you, 
in my hearts depths, sadness,
sadness of love! Fields of Soria,
where it seems the stones have dreams,
you go with me! Hills of silver plate,
grey heights, dark red...Read more of this...

The Phantom Kiss

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
One night in my room, still and beamless,
With will and with thought in eclipse,
I rested in sleep that was dreamless;
When softly there fell on my lips
A touch, as of lips that were pressing
Mine own with the message of bliss—
A sudden, soft, fleeting caressing,
A breath like a maiden's first kiss.
I woke-and the scoffer may doubt me—
I peered in surprise through the...Read more of this...

The Star of Youth

by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
The sun sinks down in the crimson west,
  Oh, a beautiful sun is he;
With his purple robes and his crown of gold
  And his feet dipped in the sea.
Along the shore where the sea-weeds lie
  Like threads of her tangled hair,
Naomi stands in the amber glow
  Of the mystical sunset air.
Her hair is brown, with a...Read more of this...

But Wise Men Perceive Approaching Things

by Constantine P Cavafy
 Because gods perceive future things, men what is happening now,
 but wise men perceive approaching things.

 Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, VIII, 7.


Men know what is happening now.
The gods know the things of the future,
the full and sole possessors of all lights.
Of the future things, wise men perceive
approaching things. Their hearing

is sometimes, during serious studies,
disturbed. The mystical clamor
of...Read more of this...

Longfellow

by Henry Van Dyke
 In a great land, a new land, a land full of labour 
and riches and confusion,
Where there were many running to and fro, and
shouting, and striving together,
In the midst of the hurry and the troubled noise, 
I heard the voice of one singing. 

"What are you doing there, O man, singing
quietly amid all this tumult?
This is the time for...Read more of this...

There Is A Candle In Your Heart

by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
There is a candle in your heart,
      ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
      ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?
You feel the separation
      from the Beloved.
Invite Him to fill you up,
      embrace the fire.
Remind those who tell you otherwise that 
      Love
      comes...Read more of this...

The Priestess of Panormita

by Aleister Crowley
 Hear me, Lord of the Stars!
For thee I have worshipped ever
With stains and sorrows and scars,
With joyful, joyful endeavour.
Hear me, O lily-white goat!
O crisp as a thicket of thorns,
With a collar of gold for Thy throat,
A scarlet bow for Thy horns!

Here, in the dusty air,
I build Thee a shrine of yew.
All green is the garland I wear,
But I feed...Read more of this...

One Whisper of the Beloved

by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
Lovers share a sacred decree – 
to seek the Beloved.
They roll head over heels,
rushing toward the Beautiful One
like a torrent of water. In truth, everyone is a shadow of the Beloved – 
Our seeking is His seeking,
Our words are His words. At times we flow toward the Beloved
like a dancing stream.
At times we are still water
held in His pitcher.
At times...Read more of this...

The Beggars Valentine

by Vachel Lindsay
 Kiss me and comfort my heart 
Maiden honest and fine. 
I am the pilgrim boy 
Lame, but hunting the shrine; 

Fleeing away from the sweets, 
Seeking the dust and rain, 
Sworn to the staff and road, 
Scorning pleasure and pain; 

Nevertheless my mouth 
Would rest like a bird an hour 
And find in your curls a nest 
And find...Read more of this...

The Garden of Janus

by Aleister Crowley
 I

The cloud my bed is tinged with blood and foam.
The vault yet blazes with the sun
Writhing above the West, brave hippodrome
Whose gladiators shock and shun
As the blue night devours them, crested comb
Of sleep's dead sea
That eats the shores of life, rings round eternity!

II

So, he is gone whose giant sword shed flame
Into my bowels; my blood's bewitched;
My brain's afloat with...Read more of this...

Nephelidia

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 From the depth of the dreamy decline of the dawn through a notable nimbus of nebulous noonshine,
Pallid and pink as the palm of the flag-flower that flickers with fear of the flies as they float,
Are they looks of our lovers that lustrously lean from a marvel of mystic miraculous moonshine,
These that we feel in the blood of our blushes...Read more of this...

The Water-Fall

by Henry Vaughan
 1 With what deep murmurs through time's silent stealth
2 Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat'ry wealth
3 Here flowing fall,
4 And chide, and call,
5 As if his liquid, loose retinue stay'd
6 Ling'ring, and were of this steep place afraid;
7 The common pass
8 Where, clear as glass,
9 All must descend
10 Not to an end,
11 But quicken'd by this deep and rocky...Read more of this...

When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer

by Walt Whitman
 WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer; 
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; 
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; 
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the
 lecture-room, 
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out,...Read more of this...

Sunday Morning

by Wallace Stevens
1
Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead,
Winding across wide...Read more of this...

Lullaby

by Louise Gluck
 Sleep, pretty lady, the night is enfolding you;
Drift, and so lightly, on crystalline streams.
Wrapped in its perfumes, the darkness is holding you;
Starlight bespangles the way of your dreams.
Chorus the nightingales, wistfully amorous;
Blessedly quiet, the blare of the day.
All the sweet hours may your visions be glamorous-
Sleep, pretty lady, as long as you may.

Sleep, pretty lady, the night shall be...Read more of this...

O Glorious France

by Edgar Lee Masters
 You have become a forge of snow-white fire,
A crucible of molten steel, O France!
Your sons are stars who cluster to a dawn
And fade in light for you, O glorious France!
They pass through meteor changes with a song
Which to all islands and all continents
Says life is neither comfort, wealth, nor fame,
Nor quiet hearthstones, friendship, wife nor child,
Nor love, nor youth's...Read more of this...

The Holy Book

by Jean Delville
Turning the golden pages with my fervent hands,
As if my pure fingers were handling light,
O immense and luminous book, your powerful prayer
Unfolds, in my night, the mystical treasure!

My spirit, in the night, opens its angel's glances
To plunge their lustre into the recesses of your wisdom;
For those who read you, the secret will be known,
Of how divine love changes even degradation...Read more of this...

Pan to Artemis

by Aleister Crowley
 Uncharmable charmer
Of Bacchus and Mars
In the sounding rebounding
Abyss of the stars!
O virgin in armour,
Thine arrows unsling
In the brilliant resilient
First rays of the spring!

By the force of the fashion
Of love, when I broke
Through the shroud, through the cloud,
Through the storm, through the smoke,
To the mountain of passion
Volcanic that woke ---
By the rage of the mage
I invoke, I invoke!

By the midnight...Read more of this...

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