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Famous Only Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...rocks melt wi' the sun:
I will love thess till, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run:

And fare thee well, my only luve!
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile....Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...lip-smiles everywhere, 
And Death and infidelity at every step.) 

2
A Nation announcing itself, 
I myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated,
I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms. 

A breed whose proof is in time and deeds; 
What we are, we are—nativity is answer enough to objections; 
We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded, 
We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
We are executive in ourselves—We are sufficient in the...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...Gazing Grain-- 
We passed the Setting Sun-- 

Or rather--He passed us-- 
The Dews drew quivering and chill-- 
For only Gossamer, my Gown-- 
My Tippet--only Tulle-- 

We paused before a House that seemed 
A Swelling of the Ground-- 
The Roof was scarcely visible-- 
The Cornice--in the Ground-- 

Since then--'tis Centuries--and yet 
Feels shorter than the Day 
I first surmised the Horses' Heads 
Were toward Eternity-- ...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...ugh the streets of Idaho seeking vis- 
 ionary indian angels who were visionary indian 
 angels, 
who thought they were only mad when Baltimore 
 gleamed in supernatural ecstasy, 
who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Okla- 
 homa on the impulse of winter midnight street 
 light smalltown rain, 
who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston 
 seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the 
 brilliant Spaniard to converse about America 
 and Eternity, a hopeless task,...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...or of Jove. Great Saturn, thou
Hast sifted well the atom-universe;
But for this reason, that thou art the King,
And only blind from sheer supremacy,
One avenue was shaded from thine eyes,
Through which I wandered to eternal truth.
And first, as thou wast not the first of powers,
So art thou not the last; it cannot be:
Thou art not the beginning nor the end.
From Chaos and parental Darkness came
Light, the first fruits of that intestine broil,
That sullen ferment, ...Read more of this...



by Alighieri, Dante
...where I lead, and thou shalt see 
 The spirits in pain, and hear the hopeless woe, 
 The unending cries, of those whose only plea 
 Is judgment, that the second death to be 
 Fall quickly. Further shalt thou climb, and go 
 To those who burn, but in their pain content 
 With hope of pardon; still beyond, more high, 
 Holier than opens to such souls as I, 
 The Heavens uprear; but if thou wilt, is one 
 Worthier, and she shall guide thee there, where none 
 Who did the Lor...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...p;My little boy of flesh and blood;  Oh joy for me that sight to see!  For he was here, and only he.   Suck, little babe, oh suck again!  It cools my blood; it cools my brain;  Thy lips I feel them, baby! they  Draw from my heart the pain away.  Oh! press me with thy little hand;  It loosens something at my chest;  About that tight and deadly ba...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...t condition,
 conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent. 

O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human Soul is capable of
 generating
 and emitting in steady and limitless floods. 

4
O the mother’s joys!
The watching—the endurance—the precious love—the anguish—the patiently
 yielded life. 

O the joy of increase, growth, recuperation; 
The joy of soothing and pacifying—the joy of concord and harmony. 

O to go back to the place whe...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...s—loose the stop from your throat; 
Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the
 best; 
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice. 

I mind how once we lay, such a transparent summer morning; 
How you settled your head athwart my hips, and gently turn’d over upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my
 bare-stript heart, 
And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my feet...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...here what he has in him; 
The past, the future, majesty, love—if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them. 

Only the kernel of every object nourishes; 
Where is he who tears off the husks for you and me?
Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me? 

Here is adhesiveness—it is not previously fashion’d—it is apropos; 
Do you know what it is, as you pass, to be loved by strangers? 
Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls? 

7
Here is the ...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...r; it is an eyeless crowd,
Where the tortured trumpets scream aloud
And the dense arrows drive.

Lady, by one light only
We look from Alfred's eyes,
We know he saw athwart the wreck
The sign that hangs about your neck,
Where One more than Melchizedek
Is dead and never dies.

Therefore I bring these rhymes to you
Who brought the cross to me,
Since on you flaming without flaw
I saw the sign that Guthrum saw
When he let break his ships of awe,
And laid peace on the sea.<...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...hid
A million buds but stay their blossoming;
And trustful birds have built their nests amid
The shuddering boughs, and only wait to sing
Till one soft shower from the south shall bid,
And hither tempt the pilgrim steps of spring. 

7
In thee my spring of life hath bid the while
A rose unfold beyond the summer's best,
The mystery of joy made manifest
In love's self-answering and awakening smile;
Whereby the lips in wonder reconcile
Passion with peace, and show desire at r...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...d of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it--he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand--so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman* used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man a...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...hat calld Body is
a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses. the chief inlets
of Soul in this age
Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is
the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
Energy is Eternal Delight
_______________________________________

PLATE 5

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough
to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place &
governs the unwilling.
And being restraind it by degrees...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...ne gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 
"'T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door; 5 
Only this and nothing more." 

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December 
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. 
Eagerly I wished the morrow;¡ªvainly I had sought to borrow 
From my books surcease of sorrow¡ªsorrow for the lost Lenore, 10 
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore: 
Name...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ll pain, all hate & love,
Which they had known before that hour of rest:
A sleeping mother then would dream not of
"The only child who died upon her breast
At eventide, a king would mourn no more
The crown of which his brow was dispossest
"When the sun lingered o'er the Ocean floor
To gild his rival's new prosperity.--
Thou wouldst forget thus vainly to deplore
"Ills, which if ills, can find no cure from thee,
The thought of which no other sleep will quell
Nor other music...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...little expense to the nation) there can be no doubt. 

With regard to the supernatural personages treated of, I can only say that I know as much about them, and (as an honest man) have a better right to talk of them than Robert Southey. I have also treated them more tolerantly. The way in which that poor insane creature, the Laureate, deals about his judgments in the next world, is like his own judgment in this. If it was not completely ludicrous, it would be ...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...he roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening r...Read more of this...

by Angelou, Maya
...sh of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free....Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...
The evil heart will pity
Something and then regret.
But this light-headed sadness
It will not forget.

I only sow. To harvest.
Others will come. And yes!
The lovely group of harvesters
May true God bless.

And that more perfectly I could
Give to you gratitude,
Allow me to give the world
Love incorruptible.



x x x

My voice is weak, but will does not get weaker.
It has become still better without love,
The sky is tall,...Read more of this...

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