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Famous Nodding Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...y,
And Summer, with his fervid-beaming eye;
All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn,
Led yellow Autumn wreath’d with nodding corn;
Then Winter’s time-bleach’d locks did hoary show,
By Hospitality with cloudless brow:
Next followed Courage with his martial stride,
From where the Feal wild-woody coverts hide; 9
Benevolence, with mild, benignant air,
A female form, came from the tow’rs of Stair; 10
Learning and Worth in equal measures trode,
From simple Catrine, their long-lo...Read more of this...



by Dryden, John
...l pow'r is still superior found,
When long driv'n back, at length it stands the ground.

He said. Th' Almighty, nodding, gave consent;
And peals of thunder shook the firmament.
Henceforth a series of new time began,
The mighty years in long procession ran:
Once more the god-like David was restor'd,
And willing nations knew their lawful lord....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...r father's state,
And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way
Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,
The nodding horror of whose shady brows
Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;
And here their tender age might suffer peril,
But that, by quick command from sovran Jove,
I was despatched for their defence and guard:
And listen why; for I will tell you now
What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.
 Bacchus, tha...Read more of this...

by Gray, Thomas
...eep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn;

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech,
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch,
And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
Mutt'ring his wayward fancies would he rove;
Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,
Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.

"One morn I m...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...chair, and watched how the flames and the smoke-wreaths
Struggled together like foes in a burning city. Behind him,
Nodding and mocking along the wall, with gestures fantastic,
Darted his own huge shadow, and vanished away into darkness.
Faces, clumsily carved in oak, on the back of his arm-chair
Laughed in the flickering light, and the pewter plates on the dresser
Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies the sunshine.
Fragments of song the old man san...Read more of this...



by Wilde, Oscar
...- the spring is in the air;

Already the slim crocus stirs the snow,
And soon yon blanched fields will bloom again
With nodding cowslips for some lad to mow,
For with the first warm kisses of the rain
The winter's icy sorrow breaks to tears,
And the brown thrushes mate, and with bright eyes the rabbit peers

From the dark warren where the fir-cones lie,
And treads one snowdrop under foot, and runs
Over the mossy knoll, and blackbirds fly
Across our path at evening, and the su...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...had practis'd young,
And from whose loins recorded Psyche sprung,
His temples last with poppies were o'er spread,
That nodding seem'd to consecrate his head:
Just at that point of time, if fame not lie,
On his left hand twelve reverend owls did fly.
So Romulus, 'tis sung, by Tiber's brook,
Presage of sway from twice six vultures took.
Th'admiring throng loud acclamations make,
And omens of his future empire take.
The sire then shook the honours of his head,
And f...Read more of this...

by Collins, Billy
...were right beside me
on this clear day in March,
the pavement sparkling with sunlight,
pigeons fluttering off the curb,
nodding over a profusion of bread crumbs.

In fact, I would say
my delight at being suffused
with phrases from his saxophone --
some like honey, some like vinegar --
is surpassed only by my gratitude

to Tommy Potter for taking the time
to join us on this breezy afternoon
with his most unwieldy bass
and to the esteemed Arthur Taylor
who is somehow managi...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...s brilliant dyes
An image of Elysium lies:
Seven Pleiades entranced in Heaven,
Form in the deep another seven:
Endymion nodding from above
Sees in the sea a second love.
Within the valleys dim and brown,
And on the spectral mountain's crown,
The wearied light is dying down,
And earth, and stars, and sea, and sky
Are redolent of sleep, as I
Am redolent of thee and thine
Enthralling love, my Adeline.
But list, O list,- so soft and low
Thy lover's voice tonight shall flo...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...e-bosom’d night! Press close, magnetic, nourishing night! 
Night of south winds! night of the large few stars!
Still, nodding night! mad, naked, summer night. 

Smile, O voluptuous, cool-breath’d earth! 
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees; 
Earth of departed sunset! earth of the mountains, misty-topt! 
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon, just tinged with blue!
Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river! 
Earth of the limpid gray of clo...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...t a hope?"

Even as she spoke she was not,
Nor any word said he,
He only heard, still as he stood
Under the old night's nodding hood,
The sea-folk breaking down the wood
Like a high tide from sea.

He only heard the heathen men,
Whose eyes are blue and bleak,
Singing about some cruel thing
Done by a great and smiling king
In daylight on a deck.

He only heard the heathen men,
Whose eyes are blue and blind,
Singing what shameful things are done
Between the sunlit sea a...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...boys, and make a night of it." 

The room was full of men and stink 
Of bad cigars and heavy drink. 
Riley was nodding to the floor 
And gurgling as he wanted more. 
His mouth was wide, his face was pale, 
His swollen face was sweating ale; 
And one of those assembled Greeks 
Had corked black crosses on his cheeks. 
Thomas was having words with Goss, 
He "wouldn't pay, the fight was cross." 
And Goss told Tom that "cross or no, 
The bets go as the verdict...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...irdle take

Yon curving spray of purple clematis
Whose gorgeous dye outflames the Tyrian King,
And foxgloves with their nodding chalices,
But that one narciss which the startled Spring
Let from her kirtle fall when first she heard
In her own woods the wild tempestuous song of summer's bird,

Ah! leave it for a subtle memory
Of those sweet tremulous days of rain and sun,
When April laughed between her tears to see
The early primrose with shy footsteps run
From the gnarled oak-...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...one
Old cherry tossed its branches near the door.
Bordered along the wall, in beds between,
Flickering, streaming, nodding in the air,
The pride of all the garden, there were more
Tulips than Max had ever dreamed or seen.
They jostled, mobbed, and danced. Max stood at helpless 
stare.

30
"Within the arbour, Mynheer Breuck, I'll bring
Coffee and cakes, a pipe, and Father's best
Tobacco, brought from countries harbouring
Dawn's earliest footstep. Wait....Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...

"Introduce me, now there's a good fellow," he said,
 "If we happen to meet it together!"
And the Bellman, sagaciously nodding his head,
 Said "That must depend on the weather."

The Beaver went simply galumphing about,
 At seeing the Butcher so shy:
And even the Baker, though stupid and stout,
 Made an effort to wink with one eye.

"Be a man!" said the Bellman in wrath, as he heard
 The Butcher beginning to sob.
"Should we meet with a Jubjub, that desperate bird...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ollow voice, that spoke
     The incessant war of wave and rock.
     Suspended cliffs with hideous sway
     Seemed nodding o'er the cavern gray.
     From such a den the wolf had sprung,
     In such the wild-cat leaves her young;
     Yet Douglas and his daughter fair
     Sought for a space their safety there.
     Gray Superstition's whisper dread
     Debarred the spot to vulgar tread;
     For there, she said, did fays resort,
     And satyrs hold their sylv...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...>
Jove's Thunder roars, Heav'n trembles all around;
Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing Deeps resound; 
Earth shakes her nodding Tow'rs, the Ground gives way;
And the pale Ghosts start at the Flash of Day!

Triumphant Umbriel on a Sconce's Height
Clapt his glad Wings, and sate to view the Fight,
Propt on their Bodkin Spears, the Sprights survey
The growing Combat, or assist the Fray.

While thro' the Press enrag'd Thalestris flies,
And scatters Deaths around from both her ...Read more of this...

by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...ere beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

And now the Storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping mast...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...With temper'd mail she hid her snowy breast,And with Bellona's helm and nodding crestDespising Cupid's lore, her charms conceal'd,And led the foes of Latium to the field.The shock at ancient Rome was felt afar,And Tyber trembled at the distant warOf foes she held in scorn: but soon she foundRead more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep 
And nodding by the fire, take down this book, 
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look 
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; 

How many loved your moments of glad grace, 
And loved your beauty with love false or true; 
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, 
And loved the sorrows of your changing face. 

And bending down beside the...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs