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Famous Opened Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...motion 
Than after a long horror, without hope,
To turn my face again the other way. 
Some force that was not mine opened my eyes, 
And, as I knew it must be,—it was there.” 

Avon covered his eyes—whether to shut 
The memory and the sight of it away,
Or to be sure that mine were for the moment 
Not searching his with pity, is now no matter. 
My glance at him was brief, turning itself 
To the familiar pattern of his rug, 
Wherein I may have sought a consolation—
...Read more of this...



by Aldington, Richard
...d shut it in a match-box. 
My shrivelled wings were beaten, 
Shed their colours in dusty scales 
Before the box was opened 
For the moth to fly. 

III 

I hate that town; 
I hate the town I lived in when I was little; 
I hate to think of it. 
There wre always clouds, smoke, rain 
In that dingly little valley. 
It rained; it always rained. 
I think I never saw the sun until I was nine -- 
And then it was too late; 
Everything's too late after the first seve...Read more of this...

by Cisneros, Sandra
...racker tin. A bowl of blueber-
ries in heavy cream. White wine in a green-stemmed glass.


And when you opened your wings to wind, across the punched-
tin sky above a prison courtyard, those condemned to death and
those condemned to life watched how smooth and sweet a white
cloud glides. ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...Today I opened wide my eyes,
And stared with wonder and surprise,
To see beneath November skies
An apple blossom peer;
Upon a branch as bleak as night
It gleamed exultant on my sight,
A fairy beacon burning bright
Of hope and cheer.

"Alas!" said I, "poor foolish thing,
Have you mistaken this for Spring?
Behold, the thrush has taken wing,
And Winter's near."...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...nds of the farmers had raised with labor incessant,
Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows.
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy val...Read more of this...



by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:
Save if the door half opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up,
For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play-mate when we both were clothed alike!

Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side,
Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm,
Fill up the interspersed vacancies
And momentary pa...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...to tell, 
 The hopeless, pathless, lightless hours forgot, 
 I turn my tale to that which next befell, 
 When the dawn opened, and the night was not. 
 The hollowed blackness of that waste, God wot, 
 Shrank, thinned, and ceased. A blinding splendour hot 
 Flushed the great height toward which my footsteps fell, 
 And though it kindled from the nether hell, 
 Or from the Star that all men leads, alike 
 It showed me where the great dawn-glories strike 
 The wide east...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...' 
But with her sailing weight, the Holland keel, 
Snapping the brittle links, does thorough reel, 
And to the rest the opened passage show; 
Monck from the bank the dismal sight does view. 
Our feathered gallants, which came down that day 
To be spectators safe of the new play, 
Leave him alone when first they hear the gun 
(Cornb'ry the fleetest) and to London run. 
Our seamen, whom no danger's shape could fright, 
Unpaid, refuse to mount our ships for spite, 
Or to...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...s; or from above 
Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
His red right hand to plague us? What if all 
Her stores were opened, and this firmament 
Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 
Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 
One day upon our heads; while we perhaps, 
Designing or exhorting glorious war, 
Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 
Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 
Or racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk 
Under yon boiling ocean, w...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...hand parting, to his speed gave way 
Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate 
Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide 
On golden hinges turning, as by work 
Divine the sovran Architect had framed. 
From hence no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight, 
Star interposed, however small he sees, 
Not unconformed to other shining globes, 
Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned 
Above all hills. As when by night the glass 
Of Galileo, less assured, observ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ers? He knows that in the day 
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear, 
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then 
Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods, 
Knowing both good and evil, as they know. 
That ye shall be as Gods, since I as Man, 
Internal Man, is but proportion meet; 
I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods. 
So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off 
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished, 
Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring.<...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...s farm.

The roof leaned gaping to the grass,
As a monstrous mushroom lies;
Echoing and empty seemed the place;
But opened in a little space
A great grey woman with scarred face
And strong and humbled eyes.

King Alfred was but a meagre man,
Bright eyed, but lean and pale:
And swordless, with his harp and rags,
He seemed a beggar, such as lags
Looking for crusts and ale.

And the woman, with a woman's eyes
Of pity at once and ire,
Said, when that she had glared a ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...the Children's Hour. 

I hear in the chamber above me 
The patter of little feet, 
The sound of a door that is opened, 
And voices soft and sweet. 

From my study I see in the lamplight, 
Descending the broad hall stair, 
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, 
And Edith with golden hair. 

A whisper, and then a silence: 
Yet I know by their merry eyes 
They are plotting and planning together 
To take me by surprise. 

A sudden rush from the stai...Read more of this...

by Baudelaire, Charles
...Seine's cold quays to Ganges' burning stream, 
The mortal troupes dance onward in a dream; 
They do not see, within the opened sky, 
The Angel's sinister trumpet raised on high. 

In every clime and under every sun, 
Death laughs at ye, mad mortals, as ye run; 
And oft perfumes herself with myrrh, like ye 
And mingles with your madness, irony!"...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...he Universe
He held his dialogues: and they did teach
To him the magic of their mysteries;
To him the book of Night was opened wide,
And voices from the deep abyss revealed
A marvel and a secret.—Be it so.

IX

My dream is past; it had no further change.
It was of a strange order, that the doom
Of these two creatures should be thus traced out
Almost like a reality—the one
To end in madness—both in misery....Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...d wept; 
But all the drunken others slept. 
Jane slept beside me in the chair, 
And I got up; I wanted air. 

I opened window wide and leaned 
Out of that pigstye of the fiend 
And felt a cool wind go like grace 
About the sleeping market-place. 
The clock struck three, and sweetly, slowly, 
The bells chimed Holy, Holy, Holy; 
And in a second's pause there fell 
The cold note of the chapel bell. 
And then a cock crew, flapping wings, 
And summat made me think ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...me the Lord of all the world, 
Being so huge. But when I thought he meant 
To crush me, moving on me, lo! he, too, 
Opened his arms to embrace me as he came, 
And up I went and touched him, and he, too, 
Fell into dust, and I was left alone 
And wearying in a land of sand and thorns. 

`And I rode on and found a mighty hill, 
And on the top, a city walled: the spires 
Pricked with incredible pinnacles into heaven. 
And by the gateway stirred a crowd; and these 
Cr...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...the mountain maiden showed
     A clambering unsuspected road,
     That winded through the tangled screen,
     And opened on a narrow green,
     Where weeping birch and willow round
     With their long fibres swept the ground.
     Here, for retreat in dangerous hour,
     Some chief had framed a rustic bower.
     XXVI.

     It was a lodge of ample size,
     But strange of structure and device;
     Of such materials as around
     The workman's hand had r...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...Cass on the streets. She was a beautiful
woman, perhaps more beautiful than ever. We made it to my place and I opened a bottle of
wine and we talked. With Cass and I, it always came easy. She talked a while and I would
listen and then i would talk. Our conversation simply went along without strain. We seemed
to discover secrets together. When we discovered a good one Cass would laugh that laugh-
only the way she could. It was like joy out of f...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...e rapping, 
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, 
That I scarce was sure I heard you"¡ªhere I opened wide the door:¡ª 
Darkness there and nothing more. 

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 25 
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before; 
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, 
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" 
This I whispered,...Read more of this...

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