Famous Open Arms Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Chattanooga

by Herman Melville
 (November, 1863)

A kindling impulse seized the host
Inspired by heaven's elastic air;
Their hearts outran their General's plan,
Though Grant commanded there - 
Grant, who without reserve can dare;
And, "Well, go on and do your will,"
He said, and measured the mountain then:
So master-riders fling the rein - 
But you must know your men.

On yester-morn in grayish mist,
Armies like ghosts on hills had...Read more of this...

Letter to S.S. from Mametz Wood

by Robert Graves
 I never dreamed we’d meet that day 
In our old haunts down Fricourt way, 
Plotting such marvellous journeys there 
For jolly old “Apr?s-la-guerre.” 

Well, when it’s over, first we’ll meet 
At Gweithdy Bach, my country seat 
In Wales, a curious little shop 
With two rooms and a roof on top, 
A sort of Morlancourt-ish billet 
That never needs a...Read more of this...

If fate has saved us

by Emile Verhaeren
If fate has saved us from commonplace errors and from vile untruth and from sorry shams, it is because all constraint that might have bowed our double fervour revolted us.
You went your way, free and frank and bright, mingling with the flowers of love the flowers of your will, and gently lifting up towards yourself its lofty spirit when my...Read more of this...

146. Address to Edinburgh

by Robert Burns
 EDINA! Scotia’s darling seat!
 All hail thy palaces and tow’rs,
Where once, beneath a Monarch’s feet,
 Sat Legislation’s sov’reign pow’rs:
 From marking wildly scatt’red flow’rs,
As on the banks of Ayr I stray’d,
 And singing, lone, the lingering hours,
I shelter in they honour’d shade.


Here Wealth still swells the golden tide,
 As busy Trade his labours plies;
There Architecture’s noble pride
 Bids elegance...Read more of this...

Two Rivulets

by Walt Whitman
 TWO Rivulets side by side, 
Two blended, parallel, strolling tides, 
Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey. 

For the Eternal Ocean bound, 
These ripples, passing surges, streams of Death and Life,
Object and Subject hurrying, whirling by, 
The Real and Ideal, 

Alternate ebb and flow the Days and Nights, 
(Strands of a Trio twining, Present, Future, Past.) 

In You, whoe’er you...Read more of this...

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