Famous New Day Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Faerie Queene: Book I Canto I

by Edmund Spenser
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall...Read more of this...

The Rock Cries Out to Us Today

by Maya Angelou
 A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Mark the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But...Read more of this...

Portrait

by Robert William Service
 Because life's passing show
 Is little to his mind,
There is a man I know
 Indrawn from human kind.
His dearest friends are books;
 Yet oh how glad he talks
To birds and trees and brooks
 On lonely walks.
He takes the same still way
 By grove and hill and sea;
He lives that each new day
 May like the last one be.
He hates...Read more of this...

She rose to His Requirement -- dropt

by Emily Dickinson
 She rose to His Requirement -- dropt
The Playthings of Her Life
To take the honorable Work
Of Woman, and of Wife --

If ought She missed in Her new Day,
Of Amplitude, or Awe --
Or first Prospective -- Or the Gold
In using, wear away,

It lay unmentioned -- as the Sea
Develop Pearl, and Weed,
But only to Himself -- be known
The Fathoms they abide --...Read more of this...

Under Siege

by Mahmoud Darwish
 Here on the slopes of hills, facing the dusk and the cannon of time 
Close to the gardens of broken shadows, 
We do what prisoners do, 
And what the jobless do: 
We cultivate hope. 

*** 
A country preparing for dawn. We grow less intelligent 
For we closely watch the hour of victory: 
No night in our night lit up...Read more of this...

To His Dead Body

by Siegfried Sassoon
 When roaring gloom surged inward and you cried, 
Groping for friendly hands, and clutched, and died, 
Like racing smoke, swift from your lolling head 
phantoms of thought and memory thinned and fled. 

Yet, though my dreams that throng the darkened stair
Can bring me no report of how you fare, 
Safe quit of wars, I speed you on your way...Read more of this...

Ah! Yet Consider it Again!

by Arthur Hugh Clough
 "Old things need not be therefore true,"
O brother men, nor yet the new;
Ah! still awhile the old thought retain,
And yet consider it again!

The souls of now two thousand years
Have laid up here their toils and tears,
And all the earnings of their pain,--
Ah, yet consider it again!

We! what do we see? each a space
Of some few yards before his face;
Does...Read more of this...

Lift Every Voice and Sing

by James Weldon Johnson
 Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new...Read more of this...

The Dead King

by Rudyard Kipling
 (EDWARD VII.)

1910


Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear?
And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run?
Let him approach. It is proven here
Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself, has done.

For to him above all was Life good, above all...Read more of this...

Dawn

by Rupert Brooke
 Opposite me two Germans snore and sweat.
Through sullen swirling gloom we jolt and roar.
We have been here for ever: even yet
A dim watch tells two hours, two aeons, more.
The windows are tight-shut and slimy-wet
With a night's foetor. There are two hours more;
Two hours to dawn and Milan; two hours yet.
Opposite me two Germans sweat and snore. . . .

One...Read more of this...

owls and pussy cats and seven-year -old boys

by Rg Gregory
 owls and pussy cats can make up their minds
to sail out to sea and even get married
but they don't have parents or other such binds
whose one job in life is to see that they're harried

now a seven year old boy whose mind is quite clear
about what the world is and his proper place
will feel deeply distraught and totally drear
when...Read more of this...

On the Pulse of Morning

by Maya Angelou
(also referred to as The Rock Cries Out To Us Today)

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Mark the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you...Read more of this...

Sea Song

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Sad is the Evening: all the level sand
     Lies left and lonely, while the restless sea,
   Tired of the green caresses of the land,
     Withdraws into its own infinity.

   But still more sad this white and chilly Dawn
     Filling the vacant...Read more of this...

El Poeta Leva El Ancla (Weighing The Anchor)

by Delmira Agustini
SpanishEl ancla de oro canta…la vela azul asciendeComo el ala de un sueño abierta al nuevo día.                              Partamos, musa mía!Ante lo prora alegre un bello mar se extiende.En el oriente claro como un cristal, esplendeEl fanal sonrosado de Aurora. FantasíaEstrena un raro traje lleno de pedreríapara vagar brillante por las olas.                              Ya tiendeLa vela azul a Eolo su oriflama de raso…El momento...Read more of this...

Regret

by Robert William Service
 It's not for laws I've broken
That bitter tears I've wept,
But solemn vows I've spoken
And promises unkept;
It's not for sins committed
My heart is full of rue,
but gentle acts omitted,
Kind deeds I did not do.

I have outlived the blindness,
The selfishness of youth;
The canker of unkindness,
The cruelty of truth;
The searing hurt of rudeness . . .
By mercies great and small,
I've come to...Read more of this...

Inaugural Poem

by Maya Angelou
A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.

The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven...Read more of this...

The Waters Chant

by Philip Levine
 Seven years ago I went into 
the High Sierras stunned by the desire 
to die. For hours I stared into a clear 
mountain stream that fell down 
over speckled rocks, and then I 
closed my eyes and prayed that when 
I opened them I would be gone 
and somewhere a purple and golden 
thistle would overflow with light. 
I...Read more of this...

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