Famous On Land Poems by Famous Poets

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

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How the Land was Won

by Henry Lawson
 The future was dark and the past was dead 
As they gazed on the sea once more – 
But a nation was born when the immigrants said 
"Good-bye!" as they stepped ashore! 
In their loneliness they were parted thus 
Because of the work to do, 
A wild wide land to be won for us 
By hearts and hands so...Read more of this...

This -- is the land -- the Sunset washes

by Emily Dickinson
 This -- is the land -- the Sunset washes --
These -- are the Banks of the Yellow Sea --
Where it rose -- or whither it rushes --
These -- are the Western Mystery!

Night after Night
Her purple traffic
Strews the landing with Opal Bales --
Merchantmen -- poise upon Horizons --
Dip -- and vanish like Orioles!...Read more of this...

The Land

by Rudyard Kipling
 When Julius Fabricius, Sub-Prefect of the Weald,
In the days of Diocletian owned our Lower River-field,
He called to him Hobdenius-a Briton of the Clay,
Saying: "What about that River-piece for layin'' in to hay?"

And the aged Hobden answered: "I remember as a lad
My father told your father that she wanted dreenin' bad.
An' the more that you neeglect her the less you'll...Read more of this...

Thars More In the Man Than Thar Is In The Land

by Sidney Lanier
 I knowed a man, which he lived in Jones, 
Which Jones is a county of red hills and stones, 
And he lived pretty much by gittin' of loans, 
And his mules was nuthin' but skin and bones, 
And his hogs was flat as his corn-bread pones, 
And he had 'bout a thousand acres o' land. 

This man -- which...Read more of this...

Fairy Land iii

by William Shakespeare
 COME unto these yellow sands, 
 And then take hands: 
Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,-- 
 The wild waves whist,-- 
Foot it featly here and there; 
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. 
 Hark, hark! 
 Bow, wow, 
 The watch-dogs bark: 
 Bow, wow. 
 Hark, hark! I hear 
 The strain of strutting chanticleer 
 Cry,...Read more of this...

Land Mine

by Robert William Service
 A grey gull hovered overhead,
 Then wisely flew away.
'In half a jiffy you'll be dead,'
 I thought I heard it say;
As there upon the railway line,
 Checking an urge to cough,
I laboured to de-fuse the mine
 That had not yet gone off.

I tapped around the time-clock rim,
 Then something worried me.
I heard the singing of a hymn:
 Nearer my...Read more of this...

Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation

by William Butler Yeats
 How should the world be luckier if this house,
Where passion and precision have been one
Time out of mind, became too ruinous
To breed the lidleSs eye that loves the sun?
And the sweet laughing eagle thoughts that grow
Where wings have memory of wings, and all
That comes of the best knit to the best? Although
Mean roof-trees were the sturdier for its fall.
How...Read more of this...

In No Strange Land

by Francis Thompson
 The kingdom of God is within you


O world invisible, we view thee, 
O world intangible, we touch thee, 
O world unknowable, we know thee, 
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee! 

Does the fish soar to find the ocean, 
The eagle plunge to find the air-- 
That we ask of the stars in motion 
If they have rumor of thee there? 

Not...Read more of this...

Ploughing the land

by Yosa Buson
 Ploughing the land--
not even a bird singing
in the mountain's shadow....Read more of this...

The Land of Story-Books

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 At evening when the lamp is lit, 
Around the fire my parents sit; 
They sit at home and talk and sing, 
And do not play at anything. 

Now, with my little gun, I crawl 
All in the dark along the wall, 
And follow round the forest track 
Away behind the sofa back. 

There, in the night, where none can...Read more of this...

Now O Now in This Brown Land

by James Joyce
 Now, O now, in this brown land 
Where Love did so sweet music make 
We two shall wander, hand in hand, 
Forbearing for old friendship' sake, 
Nor grieve because our love was gay 
Which now is ended in this way. 

A rogue in red and yellow dress 
Is knocking, knocking at the tree; 
And all around our loneliness 
The...Read more of this...

Raw Land

by Marcin Malek
Maybe you know
that Heaven
has its own circles
and also
as Dante's Hell
is a raw land
jealously defending
its obsolete secrets

So if that is your need
— pray the gods
of which
wise men are saying
that were once like we 
...Read more of this...

I am bound to this Land by blood

by Olu Oguibe
I am bound to this land by blood
That's why my vision is blurred
I am rooted in its soil
And its streams flood my veins
I smell the sweat of its men
And the million feet that plod
The dust of its streets
Leave their prints on my soul
I have walked the footpaths of this land
Climbed the snake-routes of its hills
I have known the heat of...Read more of this...

Now spring-tide showers its foison on the land,

by Omar Khayyam
Now spring-tide showers its foison on the land,
And lively hearts wend forth, a joyous band,
For 'Isa's breath wakes the dead earth to life,
And trees gleam white with flowers, like Musa's hand....Read more of this...

363. Song—My Native Land sae far awa

by Robert Burns
 O SAD and heavy, should I part,
 But for her sake, sae far awa;
Unknowing what my way may thwart,
 My native land sae far awa.


Thou that of a’ things Maker art,
 That formed this Fair sae far awa,
Gie body strength, then I’ll ne’er start
 At this my way sae far awa.


How true is love to pure desert!
 Like mine...Read more of this...

The Unpromised Land Montgomery Alabama

by Andrew Hudgins
 Despite the noon sun shimmering on Court Street,
each day I leave my desk, and window-shop,
waste time, and use my whole lunch hour to stroll
the route the marchers took. The walk is blistering--
the kind of heat that might make you recall
Nat Turner skinned and rendered into grease
if you share my cheap liberal guilt for sins
before your time. I hold it...Read more of this...

The Height of Land

by Duncan Campbell Scott
 Here is the height of land:
The watershed on either hand
Goes down to Hudson Bay
Or Lake Superior;
The stars are up, and far away
The wind sounds in the wood, wearier
Than the long Ojibwa cadence
In which Potàn the Wise
Declares the ills of life
And Chees-que-ne-ne makes a mournful sound
Of acquiescence. The fires burn low
With just sufficient glow
To light the flakes of ash that...Read more of this...

Fairy Land ii

by William Shakespeare
 YOU spotted snakes with double tongue, 
 Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; 
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong; 
 Come not near our fairy queen. 

 Philomel, with melody, 
 Sing in our sweet lullaby; 
 Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby! 
 Never harm, 
 Nor spell nor charm, 
 Come our lovely lady nigh; 
 So, good...Read more of this...

There is no Fatwa in this Land

by Taja Kramberger
For Taslima Nasrin, in sisterhood
There is no fatwa in this land,
what are you thinking,
this is Europe.
A place without borders and
without internal wrinkles,
without possibilities for asylum and exile.

There is no fatwa in this land –
it is divided into
thousands of small conspiracies,
tiny murders per partes,
which seem like coincidental misfortunes
and sap your blood, drop by drop.

There is no fatwa in this land,
what are...Read more of this...

The Land Of Dreams

by William Blake
 Awake, awake my little Boy!
Thou wast thy Mother's only joy:
Why dost thou weep in thy gentle sleep?
Awake! thy Father does thee keep.

"O, what land is the Land of Dreams?
What are its mountains, and what are its streams?
O Father, I saw my Mother there,
Among the lillies by waters fair.

Among the lambs clothed in white
She walked with her Thomas in sweet...Read more of this...

The Land of Counterpane

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 When I was sick and lay a-bed, 
I had two pillows at my head, 
And all my toys beside me lay, 
To keep me happy all the day. 

And sometimes for an hour or so 
I watched my leaden soldiers go, 
With different uniforms and drills, 
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; 

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets...Read more of this...

Adieu Adieu! My Native Land

by George (Lord) Byron
 Adieu, adieu! my native shore
Fades o'ver the waters blue;
The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,
And shrieks the wild sea-mew.
Yon sun that sets upon the sea
We follow in his flight;
Farewell awhile to him and thee,
My native Land-Good Night! 
A few short hours, and he will rise
To give the morrow birth;
And I shall hail the main and skies,
But not my mother earth.
Deserted...Read more of this...

Fairy Land iv

by William Shakespeare
 WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I: 
In a cowslip's bell I lie; 
There I couch when owls do cry. 
On the bat's back I do fly 
After summer merrily: 
 Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, 
 Under the blossom that hangs on the bough....Read more of this...

My Land and I

by Henry Lawson
 They have eaten their fill at your tables spread, 
Like friends since the land was won; 
And they rise with a cry of "Australia's dead!" 
With the wheeze of "Australia's done!" 
Oh, the theme is stale, but they tell the tale 
(How the weak old tale will keep!) 
Like the crows that croak on a splintered rail, 
That have...Read more of this...

The Land of Nod

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do --
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are there for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And...Read more of this...

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