Famous Opens Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Letter From Li Po

...crab
who sleeps till daybreak in his nest of reed.
The hour is open as the mind is open.
Closed as the mind is closed. Opens as the hand opens
to receive the ghostly snowflakes of the moon, closes
to feel the sunbeams of the bloodstream warm
our human inheritance of touch. The air tonight
brings back, to the all-remembering world, its ghosts,
borne from the Great Year on the Wind Wheel Circle.
On that invisible wave we lift, we too,
and drag at secret moorings,
stirred by th...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad


A poem on the rising glory of America

...grandeur from the pow'r of trade. 
Hail happy city where the muses stray, 
Where deep philosophy convenes her sons 
And opens all her secrets to their view! 
Bids them ascend with Newton to the skies, 
And trace the orbits of the rolling spheres, 
Survey the glories of the universe, 
Its suns and moons and ever blazing stars! 
Hail city blest with liberty's fair beams, 
And with the rays of mild religion blest! 



ACASTO. 
Nor these alone, America, thy sons 
In the short cir...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

Astrophel and Stella

...ch, coupling Doues, guides Venus chariot right.
Best charge, and brauest retrait in Cupids fight;
A double key, which opens to the heart,
Most rich when most riches it impart;
Nest of young ioyes, Schoolemaster of delight,
Teaching the meane at once to take and giue;
The friendly fray, where blowes both wound and heale,
The prettie death, while each in other liue.
Poore hopes first wealth, ostage of promist weale;
Breakfast of loue. But lo, lo, where she is,
Cease w...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip

Bishop Blougrams Apology

...ly better than my own. 
He comes, reclaims God's earth for God, he says, 
Sets up God's rule again by simple means, 
Re-opens a shut book, and all is done. 
He flared out in the flaring of mankind; 
Such Luther's luck was: how shall such be mine? 
If he succeeded, nothing's left to do: 
And if he did not altogether--well, 
Strauss is the next advance. All Strauss should be 
I might be also. But to what result? 
He looks upon no future: Luther did. 
What can I gain on the deny...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Captain Craig

...ne who throws himself
Down restless on a couch when clouds are dark, 
And shuts his eyes to find, when he wakes up 
And opens them again, what seems at first 
An unfamiliar sunlight in his room 
And in his life—as if the child in him
Had laughed and let him see; and then I knew 
Some prowling superfluity of child 
In me had found the child in Captain Craig 
And let the sunlight reach him. While I slept, 
My thought reshaped itself to friendly dreams,
And in the morning it was...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Courage

...en,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out....Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne

Craving for Spring

...ir.

The gush of spring is strong enough
to play with the globe of earth like a ball on a fountain;
At the same time it opens the tiny hands of the hazel
with such infinite patience.
The power of the rising, golden, all-creative sap could take the earth
and heave it off among the stars, into the invisible;
the same sets the throstle at sunset on a bough
singing against the blackbird;
comes out in the hesitating tremor of the primrose,
and betrays its candour in the round whit...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

Dickinson Poems by Number

...notice sudden is—

The Grass divides as with a Comb—
A spotted shaft is seen—
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on—

He likes a Boggy Acre
A Floor too cool for Corn—
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot—
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled, and was gone—

Several of Nature's People
I know, and they know me—
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality—

But never m...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Four Riddles

...-
"Oh, Uncle, what's o'clock?" 

The Uncle gravely nods, and wisely winks.
It MAY mean much, but how is one to know?
He opens his mouth - yet out of it, methinks,
No words of wisdom flow. 


II 

Empress of Art, for thee I twine
This wreath with all too slender skill.
Forgive my Muse each halting line,
And for the deed accept the will! 


O day of tears! Whence comes this spectre grim,
Parting, like Death's cold river, souls that love?
Is not he bound to thee, as thou to him,...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

...ks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill 
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the s...Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya

Inferno (English)

...mb, 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 Lord of those fair realms deny 
 May enter. There in his city He dwells, and there 
 Rules and pervades in every part, and calls 
 His chosen ever within the sacred walls. 
 O happiest, they!" 
 I answered, "By that Go...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Laughter and Tears IX

...ilence, I heard the following words uttered with sighs from weather-bitten lips, "Shed not tears, my beloved; love that opens our eyes and enslaves our hearts can give us the blessing of patience. Be consoled in our delay our delay, for we have taken an oath and entered Love's shrine; for our love will ever grow in adversity; for it is in Love's name that we are suffering the obstacles of poverty and the sharpness of misery and the emptiness of separation. I shall attack thes...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

Lesbos

...vase of acid,
It is love you are full of. You know who you hate.
He is hugging his ball and chain down by the gate
That opens to the sea
Where it drives in, white and black,
Then spews it back.
Every day you fill him with soul-stuff, like a pitcher.
You are so exhausted.
Your voice my ear-ring,
Flapping and sucking, blood-loving bat.
That is that. That is that.
You peer from the door,
Sad hag. 'Every woman's a whore.
I can't communicate.'

I see your cute décor
Close on you l...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Morning Song

...r sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

(1961)...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...spair? 
Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; 
And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep 
Still threatening to devour me opens wide, 
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. 
O, then, at last relent: Is there no place 
Left for repentance, none for pardon left? 
None left but by submission; and that word 
Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame 
Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced 
With other promises and other vaunts 
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue 
The Om...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Stupid

...do something? Secure the house
in some way? Uncle Bo stayed married to Aunt Ruby for 47 years. Then hanged himself.
He opens his eyes again. Nothing adds up.
It all adds up. How long will this storm go on?...Read more of this...
by Carver, Raymond

The Ghosts

...e.
Hark! a step on the garret stair, a postman knocks at the flimsy door.
"Registered letter!" Brown thrills with fear; opens, and reads, then bends above:
"Glorious tidings! Egypt, dear! The book is accepted -- life and love."...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Lady of the Lake

...Minstrel, away! the work of fate
     Is bearing on; its issue wait,
     Where the rude Trosachs' dread defile
     Opens on Katrine's lake and isle.
     Gray Benvenue I soon repassed,
     Loch Katrine lay beneath me cast.
          The sun is set;—the clouds are met,
               The lowering scowl of heaven
          An inky hue of livid blue
               To the deep lake has given;
     Strange gusts of wind from mountain glen
     Swept o'er the lake, th...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

Three Women

...oking so angrily!
He flew into the room, a shriek at his heel.
The blue color pales. He is human after all.
A red lotus opens in its bowl of blood;
They are stitching me up with silk, as if I were a material.

What did my fingers do before they held him?
What did my heart do, with its love?
I have never seen a thing so clear.
His lids are like the lilac-flower
And soft as a moth, his breath.
I shall not let go.
There is no guile or warp in him. May he keep so.

SECOND VOICE:
...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

White Flock

...redom
All believed, and thus they live:
Wait for meeting, fear the parting,
And sing songs of love.

But to others opens a secret
And upon them descends a still..
I by accident came upon this
And since then am as if I'm ill.



x x x

On the blooming lilac bushes
Sky is sowing the light rain.
Beats with wings upon the window
The white, the white Spirits' day.

For a friend to be returning
From the sea - especial hour.
I am dreaming of the far shore,
Of...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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