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Famous Near Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...ather’s, 
His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees, 
Built of the common stock, having room for far and near, 
Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love, 
Plunging his seminal muscle into its merits and demerits, 
Making its cities, beginnings, events, diversities, wars, vocal in him, 
Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him, 
Mississippi with yearly fr...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt



...xpect from you a worse outcome,
although you have often availed in the rush of battle,
grim warfare, if you dare very near at hand
to await Grendel for the length of the entire night.” (ll. 506-28)

Beowulf made his reply, the son of Ecgtheow:
“What a whole lot of words, Unferth my friend,
you have spoken concerning Breca, drunk on beer,
telling of his trajectory. But I shall tell you all the truth:
that I possessed the greater strength at sea,
and waylaying in the ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light....Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan
...to the troubled waters of this shore
Where I am wrecked and stranded, even now
The chariot wheels of passion sweep too near,
Hence! Hence! I pass unto a life more barren, more austere.

More barren - ay, those arms will never lean
Down through the trellised vines and draw my soul
In sweet reluctance through the tangled green;
Some other head must wear that aureole,
For I am hers who loves not any man
Whose white and stainless bosom bears the sign Gorgonian.

Let Venus go and...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...o me his voice
Found way from forth the thunders round his head!
Pale wox I, and in vapours hid my face.
Art thou, too, near such doom? vague fear there is:
For I have seen my sons most unlike Gods.
Divine ye were created, and divine
In sad demeanour, solemn, undisturb'd,
Unruffled, like high Gods, ye liv'd and ruled:
Now I behold in you fear, hope, and wrath;
Actions of rage and passion; even as
I see them, on the mortal world beneath,
In men who die.---This is the grief, O ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John



...d, not fortune's - climbs a path so ill 
 That all the night-bred fears he hastes to flee 
 Were kindly to the thing he nears. The tale 
 Moved through the peace of I leaven, and swift I sped 
 Downward, to aid my friend in love's avail, 
 With scanty time therefor, that half I dread 
 Too late I came. But thou shalt haste, and go 
 With golden wisdom of thy speech, that so 
 For me be consolation. Thou shalt say, 
 "I come from Beatric?." Downward far, 
 From Heaven to I lea...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...uth his fatherland; 
But from the hour he waved his parting hand 
Each trace wax'd fainter of his course, till all 
Had nearly ceased his memory to recall. 
His sire was dust, his vassals could declare, 
'Twas all they knew, that Lara was not there; 
Nor sent, nor came he, till conjecture grew 
Cold in the many, anxious in the few. 
His hall scarce echoes with his wonted name, 
His portrait darkens in its fading frame, 
Another chief consoled his destined bride, 
The young fo...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...s shall be boil’d till their
 color
 becomes scarlet.

Or, another time, mackerel-taking, 
Voracious, mad for the hook, near the surface, they seem to fill the water for miles: 
Or, another time, fishing for rock-fish, in Chesapeake Bay—I one of the brown-faced
 crew: 
Or, another time, trailing for blue-fish off Paumanok, I stand with braced body, 
My left foot is on the gunwale—my right arm throws the coils of slender rope,
In sight around me the quick veering and darting o...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...e of all
The illimitable dark and cold and storm,
And by so doing give these three, lamp, dog,
And book-leaf, that keep near you, their repose;
Though for all anyone can tell, repose
May be the thing you haven’t, yet you give it.
So false it is that what we haven’t we can’t give;
So false, that what we always say is true.
I’ll have to turn the leaf if no one else will.
It won’t lie down. Then let it stand. Who cares?”

“I shouldn’t want to hurry you, Meserve,
But if you’re go...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...he marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west—the bride
 was a red girl; 
Her father and his friends sat near, cross-legged and dumbly smoking—they
 had moccasins to their feet, and large thick blankets hanging from their
 shoulders; 
On a bank lounged the trapper—he was drest mostly in skins—his
 luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck—he held his bride by the hand;

She had long eyelashes—her head was bare—her coarse straight locks
 descended upon...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...hing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road. 

The earth—that is sufficient; 
I do not want the constellations any nearer; 
I know they are very well where they are; 
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens; 
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go; 
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them; 
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.) 

2
You road I enter upon and look a...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...ved the names
Of those who reared them; by his sleeping side
Stood camels grazing, and some goodly steeds
Were fastened near a fountain; and a man,
Glad in a flowing garb, did watch the while,
While many of his tribe slumbered around:
And they were canopied by the blue sky,
So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful,
That God alone was to be seen in heaven.

V

A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Lady of his love was wed with One
Who did not love her better: in her ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...l the woe which thou to joy hast turn'd
Nor come the heavenly sun and bathing blue
To my life's need more splendid and unearn'd
Than hath thy gift outmatch'd desire and due. 

10
Winter was not unkind because uncouth;
His prison'd time made me a closer guest,
And gave thy graciousness a warmer zest,
Biting all else with keen and angry tooth
And bravelier the triumphant blood of youth
Mantling thy cheek its happy home possest,
And sterner sport by day put strength to test,
And...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...ong shoulder to shoulder.

Then a scream, shrill and high, rent the shuddering sky,
 And they knew that some danger was near:
The Beaver turned pale to the tip of its tail,
 And even the Butcher felt *****.

He thought of his childhood, left far far behind--
 That blissful and innocent state--
The sound so exactly recalled to his mind
 A pencil that squeaks on a slate!

"'Tis the voice of the Jubjub!" he suddenly cried.
 (This man, that they used to call "Dunce.")
"As the Bel...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...tty will not then depart.   Burr, burr—now Johnny's lips they burr,  As loud as any mill, or near it,  Meek as a lamb the pony moves,  And Johnny makes the noise he loves,  And Betty listens, glad to hear it.   Away she hies to Susan Gale:  And Johnny's in a merry tune,  The owlets hoot, the owlets purr,  And Johnny's lips they burr, burr, burr,  And on he goes be...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...es so newly dried. 

He wondered at the waters clear,
The breeze that whispered in his ear,
The billows heaving far and near, 

And why he had so long preferred
To hang upon her every word:
"In truth," he said, "it was absurd." 


The Third Voice 


NOT long this transport held its place:
Within a little moment's space
Quick tears were raining down his face 

His heart stood still, aghast with fear;
A wordless voice, nor far nor near,
He seemed to hear and not to hear. 

"Tea...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...r of Heaven grew not,
Conquered the heart by love which gold or pain
Or age or sloth or slavery could subdue not--
"And near [[blank]] walk the [[blank]] twain,
The tutor & his pupil, whom Dominion
Followed as tame as vulture in a chain.--
"The world was darkened beneath either pinion
Of him whom from the flock of conquerors
Fame singled as her thunderbearing minion;
"The other long outlived both woes & wars,
Throned in new thoughts of men, and still had kept
The jealous keys...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ncestors are, at his request, called up to his view; and he exclaims to
his ghostly guide) — 

'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us? what wretch 
Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow? 
Listen! him yonder who, bound down supine, 
Shrinks yelling from that sword there, engine-hung. 
He too amongst my ancestors! I hate 
The despot, but the dastard I despise. 
Was he our countryman?' 
'Alas, O king! 
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst 
Inclement winds blew blighting f...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...arrow of the clock face
Does not look to me like a deadly arrow.
How past over the heart is losing power!
Freedom is near. I will forgive all yet,
Watching, as ray of sun runs up and down
The springtime vine that with spring rain is wet.



x x x

He was jealous, fearful and tender,
He loved me like God's only light,
And that she not sing of the past times
He killed my bird colored white.

He said, in the lighthouse at sundown:
"Love me, laugh and write poe...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry