Famous Notre Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Illusions

by Dimitris P Kraniotis
 Des rides muettes
sur notre front
les limites de notre histoire,
jettent de petits regards
à de petits poèmes d’Homère.
Des illusions
pleines de consciences
libèrent
des murmures blesses
qui sont devenus l’écho
dans des grottes lumineuses
des bêtes et des innocents....Read more of this...

Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV To Richard Boyle

by Alexander Pope
 Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se 
Impediat verbis lassas onerantibus aures: 
Et sermone opus est modo tristi, saepe jocoso, 
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poetae, 
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas consulto.
(Horace, Satires, I, x, 17-22)
'Tis strange, the miser should his cares employ 
To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy:
Is it less strange, the prodigal should...Read more of this...

A Hall

by Czeslaw Milosz
 The road led straight to the temple.
Notre Dame, though not Gothic at all.
The huge doors were closed. I chose one on the side,
Not to the main building-to its left wing,
The one in green copper, worn into gaps below.
I pushed. Then it was revealed:
An astonishing large hall, in warm light.
Great statues of sitting women-goddesses,
In draped robes, marked it with a...Read more of this...

Au Lecteur

by Charles Baudelaire
 La sottise, l'erreur, le péché, la lésine,
Occupent nos esprits et travaillent nos corps,
Et nous alimentons nos aimables remords,
Comme les mendiants nourrissent leur vermine. 
Nos péchés sont têtus, nos repentirs sont lâches;
Nous nous faisons payer grassement nos aveux,
Et nous rentrons gaiement dans le chemin bourbeux,
Croyant par de vils pleurs laver toutes nos taches.
Sur l'oreiller du mal c'est Satan Trismégiste
Qui berce...Read more of this...

La dètresse senroule

by Judith Skillman
 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése.

Le volcan en attente au fond de nous
ronge, creuse, tremble,
soupése ses chances. 
La dètresse s'enroule,
se tasse comme une b?te malade.
Nous sommes mèconnaissables,
uniques,
avec la certitude de notre fèrocitè....Read more of this...

The Grandmother

by Victor Hugo
 ("Dors-tu? mère de notre mère.") 
 
 {III., 1823.} 
 
 "To die—to sleep."—SHAKESPEARE. 


 Still asleep! We have been since the noon thus alone. 
 Oh, the hours we have ceased to number! 
 Wake, grandmother!—speechless say why thou art grown. 
 Then, thy lips are so cold!—the Madonna of stone 
 Is like thee in thy holy...Read more of this...

Insomnia

by Robert William Service
 Heigh ho! to sleep I vainly try;
Since twelve I haven't closed an eye,
And now it's three, and as I lie,
From Notre Dame to St. Denis
The bells of Paris chime to me;
"You're young," they say, "and strong and free."

I do not turn with sighs and groans
To ease my limbs, to rest my bones,
As if my bed were stuffed with stones,
No...Read more of this...

Angel Or Demon

by Victor Hugo
 ("Tu domines notre âge; ange ou démon, qu'importe!") 
 
 {I. vii.} 


 Angel or demon! thou,—whether of light 
 The minister, or darkness—still dost sway 
 This age of ours; thine eagle's soaring flight 
 Bears us, all breathless, after it away. 
 The eye that from thy presence fain would stray, 
 Shuns thee in vain; thy...Read more of this...

LInvitation au Voyage

by Charles Baudelaire
 Mon enfant, ma soeur,
Songe à la douceur,
D'aller là-bas, vivre ensemble!
Aimer à loisir,
Aimer et mourir,
Au pays qui te ressemble!
Les soleils mouillés,
De ces ciels brouillés,
Pour mon esprit ont les charmes,
Si mystérieux,
De tes traîtres yeux,
Brillant à travers leurs larmes. 
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.
Des meubles luisants,
Polis par les ans,
Décoreraient notre chambre;
Les plus rares fleurs
Mêlant leurs odeurs
Aux vagues senteurs...Read more of this...

Les idéaux

by Dimitris P Kraniotis
 Des montagnes enneigées,
des monuments anciens,
le nord qui nous signe,
la pensée qui coule,
des images mouillées
par les hymnes de notre histoire,
des mots épigraphiques
faits par des idéaux géométriques....Read more of this...

A Letter to Lady Margaret Cavendish Holles-Harley when a Child

by Matthew Prior
 MY noble, lovely, little Peggy, 
Let this my First Epistle beg ye, 
At dawn of morn, and close of even, 
To lift your heart and hands to Heaven. 
In double duty say your prayer: 
Our Father first, then Notre Pere. 

And, dearest child, along the day, 
In every thing you do and say, 
Obey and please my lord and...Read more of this...

Des limites

by Dimitris P Kraniotis
 De petits morceaux de verre
dans la chambre vide
des murmures incompréhensibles,
causent du sang
a nos limites,
qui remplissent
de blessures
la caresse de notre âme....Read more of this...

The Bistro Styx

by Rita Dove
 She was thinner, with a mannered gauntness
as she paused just inside the double
glass doors to survey the room, silvery cape
billowing dramatically behind her.What's this,

I thought, lifting a hand until
she nodded and started across the parquet;
that's when I saw she was dressed all in gray,
from a kittenish cashmere skirt and cowl

down to the graphite signature of her shoes.
"Sorry I'm late,"...Read more of this...

Sonnet VI

by Alan Seeger
 Give me the treble of thy horns and hoofs, 
The ponderous undertones of 'bus and tram, 
A garret and a glimpse across the roofs 
Of clouds blown eastward over Notre Dame, 
The glad-eyed streets and radiant gatherings 
Where I drank deep the bliss of being young, 
The strife and sweet potential flux of things 
I sought Youth's dream of...Read more of this...

Negress In Notre Dame

by Robert William Service
 The aged Queen who passed away
Had sixty servants, so they say;
Twice sixty hands her shoes to tie:
Two soapy ones have I.

The old Queen had of beds a score;
A cot have I and ask no more.
For when the last is said and done
One can but die in one.

The old Queen rightly thought that she
Was better than the likes o' me;
And...Read more of this...

Paris

by Alan Seeger
 First, London, for its myriads; for its height, 
Manhattan heaped in towering stalagmite; 
But Paris for the smoothness of the paths 
That lead the heart unto the heart's delight. . . . 


Fair loiterer on the threshold of those days 
When there's no lovelier prize the world displays 
Than, having beauty and your twenty years, 
You have the means...Read more of this...

Always For The First Time

by Andre Breton
 Always for the first time
Hardly do I know you by sight
You return at some hour of the night to a house at an angle to my window
A wholly imaginary house
It is there that from one second to the next
In the inviolate darkness
I anticipate once more the fascinating rift occurring
The one and only rift
In the facade and in my heart
The...Read more of this...

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