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Famous Nourishment Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...yea, seats himself 
Upon the tyrant's throne---the sepulchre, 
And of the triumphs of his ghastly foe 
Makes his own nourishment. For he came forth 
From thine own bosom, and shall have no end. 

There have been holy men who hid themselves 
Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave 
Their lives to thought and prayer, till they outlived 
The generation born with them, nor seemed 
Less aged than the hoary trees and rocks 
Around them;---and there have been holy men 
Wh...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen



...¡ªyea seats himself 
Upon the tyrant's throne¡ªthe sepulchre  
And of the triumphs of his ghastly foe 
Makes his own nourishment. For he came forth 
From thine own bosom and shall have no end. 90 

There have been holy men who hid themselves 
Deep in the woody wilderness and gave 
Their lives to thought and prayer till they outlived 
The generation born with them nor seemed 
Less aged than the hoary trees and rocks 95 
Around them;¡ªand there have been holy men 
W...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...kind:
And such is my prolific power,
They bloom in less than half an hour;
Yet standers-by may plainly see
They get no nourishment from me.
My head with giddiness goes round,
And yet I firmly stand my ground:
All over naked I am seen,
And painted like an Indian queen.
No couple-beggar in the land
E'er joined such numbers hand in hand.
I joined them fairly with a ring;
Nor can our parson blame the thing.
And though no marriage words are spoke,
They part not till the ring is b...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan
...nd,
And she to wound, but not to cure,
Too weak too wilt thou prove
My passion to remove;
Physic to other ills, thou'rt nourishment to love.

Sleep, sleep again, my Lyre!
For thou canst never tell my humble tale
In sounds that will prevail,
Nor gentle thoughts in her inspire;
All thy vain mirth lay by,
Bid thy strings silent lie,
Sleep, sleep again, my Lyre, and let thy master die....Read more of this...
by Cowley, Abraham
...t that thine ever-restless life
May still with kindly strength be rife,
I, for thine inward spirit's calm.
Have granted nourishment and balm,
That rapture may thy soul imbue,
Like some fair blossom bathed in dew."--
Behind his house then secretly
Outside the doorway pointed she,
Where, in a shady garden-nook,
A beauteous maid with downcast look
Was sitting where a stream was flowing,
With elder bushes near it growing,
She sat beneath an apple tree,
And nought around her seem'...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang



..., he sendeth shower, 
Alike they're needful for the flower: 
And joys and tears alike are sent 
To give the soul fit nourishment. 
As comes to me or cloud or sun, 
Father! thy will, not mine, be done! 
Can loving children e'er reprove 
With murmurs whom they trust and love? 
Creator! I would ever be 
A trusting, loving child to thee: 
As comes to me or cloud or sun, 
Father! thy will, not mine, be done! 
Oh, ne'er will I at life repine: 
Enough that thou hast mad...Read more of this...
by Adams, Sarah Fuller Flower
...within his heart.
Thou messgenger of sympathies,
That wax and wane in lovers' eyes --
Thou -- that to human thought art nourishment,
Like darkness to a dying flame!
Depart not as thy shadow came,
Depart not -- lest the grave should be,
Like life and fear, a dark reality.

While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead.
I called on poisonous...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...he god of the Useful swaths 
In the language of bronze and brass! 
And women, alas! You shadow your heredity, 
You gnaw nourishment from debauchery, 
A virgin holds maternal lechery 
And all the horrors of fecundity! 

We have, it is true, corrupt nations, 
Beauty unknown to the radiant ancients: 
Faces that gnaw through the heart's cankers, 
And talk with the cool beauty of languor; 
But these inventions of our backward muses 
Are never hindered in their morbid uses 
Of the ...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...song
i have traveled beyond misty mountains
spilled my seed on the hungry rock
hallowed days
blasphemous timelines
art nourishment
prolific like sin
to the serpent edge of youth
once my head rolled in the streets
motors crashing by
inches from my intoxication
a fleshful laugh echoed in time
a mad initiation as part of the door
to the unrepentant lyric
heathen apprentices
i cracked the demon-s egg
tattooed pandora-s eye
with rage, blissillusion
madness conceived
a life, my me...Read more of this...
by Hope, Billy Jno
...ersey cow to furnish him the same,
So soft and sleek and mild and meek, and Kathleen was her name.
And so his source of nourishment he got to love her so
That everywhere the captain went the cow would also go;
And though his sleeping quarters were ridiculously small,
He roped a section of them off to make Kathleen a stall.
So every morn she'd wake him up with mellifluous moo,
And he would pat her on the nose and go to wake the crew.
Then when he'd done his daily run and hitch...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...these. 

I was, being human, born alone; 
I am, being woman, hard beset; 
I live by squeezing from a stone 
What little nourishment I get. 

In masks outrageous and austere 
The years go by in single file; 
But none has merited my fear, 
And none has quite escaped my smile....Read more of this...
by Wylie, Elinor
...on; 
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged 
Vapours not yet into her substance turned. 
Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale 
From her moist continent to higher orbs. 
The sun that light imparts to all, receives 
From all his alimental recompence 
In humid exhalations, and at even 
Sups with the ocean. Though in Heaven the trees 
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines 
Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn 
We brush mellifluous dews, and find th...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
..., to know 
In measure what the mind may well contain; 
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns 
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind. 
Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven 
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host 
Of Angels, than that star the stars among,) 
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep 
Into his place, and the great Son returned 
Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent 
Eternal Father from his throne beheld 
Their multitude, and to his S...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ll observe 
The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught, 
In what thou eatest and drinkest; seeking from thence 
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight, 
Till many years over thy head return: 
So mayest thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop 
Into thy mother's lap; or be with ease 
Gathered, nor harshly plucked; for death mature: 
This is Old Age; but then, thou must outlive 
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty; which will change 
To withered, weak, and gray; thy sen...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...I am the lover's eyes, and the spirit's 
Wine, and the heart's nourishment. 
I am a rose. My heart opens at dawn and 
The virgin kisses me and places me 
Upon her breast. 


I am the house of true fortune, and the 
Origin of pleasure, and the beginning 
Of peace and tranquility. I am the gentle 
Smile upon his lips of beauty. When youth 
Overtakes me he forgets his toil, and his 
Whole life becomes reality of sweet drea...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil
...l is clear as you draw near - for coyley peering out
Are hosts and hosts of tiny worms, each indigo of snout.
And as no nourishment they find, to keep themselves alive
They masticate each other's tails, till just the Tough survive.
Yet on this stern and Spartan fare so-rapidly they grow,
That some attain six inches by the melting of the snow.
Then when the tundra glows to green and ****** heads appear,
They burrow down and are not seen until another year."

"A toughish yarn,"...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...like, wading at the heels of war,  Protract a curst existence, with the brood  That lap (their very nourishment!) their brother's blood.   The pains and plagues that on our heads came down;  Disease and famine, agony and fear,  In wood or wilderness, in camp or town,  It would thy brain unsettle even to hear.  All perished—all, in one remorseless year,  Husband and children! one by one, by ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...in state,
Then folded her hands ridged with sinews and corded with veins,
Folded them across her breasts spent with the nourishment of children,
Gazed at the sky past the tops of the cedars,
Saw two spangled nights arise out of the twilight,
Saw two days go by filled with the tranquil sunshine,
Saw, without pain, or dread, or even a moment of longing:
Then on the third great night there came thronging and thronging
Millions of snowflakes out of a windless cloud;
They covered ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Duncan Campbell
...om your soul, 
and the things that hide in you come out again 
so that a blue and palled people 
your newly born, takes nourishment. 

Oh magnificent and fecund and magnetic slave 
of the circle that moves in turn through black and gold: 
rise, lead and possess a creation 
so rich in life that its flowers perish 
and it is full of sadness....Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo
...N>Thus went the soul in peace; so lamps are spent,As the oil fails which gave them nourishment;In sum, her countenance you still might knowThe same it was, not pale, but white as snow,Which on the tops of hills in gentle flakesFalls in a calm, or as a man that takesDesir'ed rest, as if her lovely sightWere clo...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry