Famous Onyx Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Onyx poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous onyx poems. These examples illustrate what a famous onyx poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Lowell, Amy
...mbles a-slumber in a pillar rose,
With content
Grown indolent.
By night my garden is o'erhung with gems
Fixed in an onyx setting. Fireflies
Flicker their lanterns in my dazzled eyes.
In serried rows I guess the straight, stiff stems
Of hollyhocks
Against the rocks.
So far and still it is that, listening,
I hear the flowers talking in the dawn;
And where a sunken basin cuts the lawn,
Cinctured with iris, pale and glistening,
The sudden swish
Of a waking fish.Read more of this...
by
Tebb, Barry
...black and white
Upright, sheet music
From Banks in County Arcade
Gleaming in Burmantofts
Faience tiles, marble and onyx.
23
May blossoms hang
In Mill Hill churchyard
Over the ultramarine
Signboard; in Trinity Church
I share God with no-one
Stained glass
Colours the silence.
24
Margaret, Nancy and I
Had always played together
When we went walking
In Knostrop, climbing
The ruined walls
Of Knostrop Hall
We went to wee
Together, it seeme...Read more of this...
by
Dickinson, Emily
...His Feet are shod with Gauze --
His Helmet, is of Gold,
His Breast, a Single Onyx
With Chrysophrase, inlaid.
His Labor is a Chant --
His Idleness -- a Tune --
Oh, for a Bee's experience
Of Clovers, and of Noon!...Read more of this...
by
Smart, Christopher
...-- God be gracious to Mrs Hind, that lived at Canbury.
Let Tyrrel, house of Tyrrel rejoice with Sardius Lapis an Onyx of a black colour. God speed Hawke's Fleet.
Let Moss, house of Moss rejoice with the Pearl-Oyster behold how God has consider'd for him that lacketh.
Let Ross, house of Ross rejoice with the Great Flabber Dabber Flat Clapping Fish with hands. Vide Anson's Voyage and Psalm 98th ix.
Let Fisher, house of Fisher rejoice with Sandas...Read more of this...
by
Dickinson, Emily
...ilts away
To vanquish other blooms.
His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.
His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
Of clovers and of noon!...Read more of this...
by
Lowell, Amy
...rkles in the sun, but it sparkles
milkily, vaguely,
the great glass-houses put out its shining. Glass, stone,
and onyx
now for the sun's mirror. Much has come to pass at Malmaison.
New rocks and fountains, blocks of carven marble, fluted pillars
uprearing
antique temples, vases and urns in unexpected places, bridges of
stone,
bridges of wood, arbours and statues, and a flood of flowers everywhere,
new flowers, rare flowers, parterre after parterre of flowers.<...Read more of this...
by
Arnold, Matthew
...k-bales and of balsam-drops,
Of gold and ivory,
Of turquoise-earth and amethyst,
Jasper and chalcedony,
And milk-barred onyx-stones.
The loaded boat swings groaning
In the yellow eddies;
The Gods behold him.
They see the Heroes
Sitting in the dark ship
On the foamless, long-heaving
Violet sea.
At sunset nearing
The Happy Islands.
These things, Ulysses,
The wise bards, also
Behold and sing.
But oh, what labour!
O prince, what pain!
They too can see
Tiresias...Read more of this...
by
Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory
...wrenched the gold from her broken wrist,
No use to cry; there were none to hear.
Her scarlet mouth and her onyx eyes,
Her braided hair in its silken sheen,
Were surely meet for a Lover's prize,
But Fate dissented, and stepped between.
Across the Zenith the vultures fly,
Cruel of beak and heavy of wing.
Thus it was written that she should die.
Inshallah! Death is a transient thing....Read more of this...
by
Wylie, Elinor
...ng,
A humming-bird's wing
In hammered gold,
And store well chosen
Of snowflakes frozen
In crystal cold.
Black onyx cherries
And mistletoe berries
Of chrysoprase,
Jade buds, tight shut,
All carven and cut
In intricate ways.
Here, if you please
Are little gilt bees
In amber drops
Which look like honey,
Translucent and sunny,
From clover-tops.
Here's an elfin girl
Of mother-of-pearl
And moonshine made,
With tortise-shell hair
Both dusky and fair...Read more of this...
by
Lawrence, D. H.
...Her tawny eyes are onyx of thoughtlessness,
Hardened they are like gems in ancient modesty;
Yea, and her mouth’s prudent and crude caress
Means even less than her many words to me.
Though her kiss betrays me also this, this only
Consolation, that in her lips her blood at climax clips
Two wild, dumb paws in anguish on the lonely
Fruit of my heart, ere down, rebuked, i...Read more of this...
by
Yeats, William Butler
...tomb.
In vain, in pain; the cataract still cries;
The everlasting taper lights the gloom;
All wisdom shut into his onyx eyes,
Our Father Rosicross sleeps in his tomb....Read more of this...
by
Levine, Philip
...to look off
into a darkness I hadn't seen, a pool
of shadow that forms before his eyes,
in my memory now as solid as onyx.
*
I began this poem in the present
because nothing is past. The ice factory,
the bottling plant, the cindered yard
all gave way to a low brick building
a block wide and windowless where they
designed gun mounts for personnel carriers
that never made it to Korea. My brother
rises early, and on clear days he walks
to the corner to...Read more of this...
by
Arnold, Matthew
...alsam-drops,
194 Of gold and ivory,
195 Of turquoise-earth and amethyst,
196 Jasper and chalcedony,
197 And milk-barred onyx-stones.
198 The loaded boat swings groaning
199 In the yellow eddies;
200 The Gods behold him.
201 They see the Heroes
202 Sitting in the dark ship
203 On the foamless, long-heaving
204 Violet sea.
205 At sunset nearing
206 The Happy Islands.
207 These things, Ulysses,
208 The wise bards, also
209 Behold and sing.
210 But oh, wha...Read more of this...
by
Bradstreet, Anne
...count.
The depth and sea have said " 'tis not in me,"
With pearl and gold it shall not valued be.
For sapphire, onyx, topaz who would change;
It's hid from eyes of men, they count it strange.
Death and destruction the fame hath heard,
But where and what it is, from heaven's declared;
It brings to honor which shall ne'er decay,
It stores with wealth which time can't wear away.
It yieldeth pleasures far beyond conceit,
And truly beautifies without deceit.
No...Read more of this...
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