Famous Out Of Time Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Twas just this time last year I died

by Emily Dickinson
 'Twas just this time, last year, I died.
I know I heard the Corn,
When I was carried by the Farms --
It had the Tassels on --

I thought how yellow it would look --
When Richard went to mill --
And then, I wanted to get out,
But something held my will.

I thought just how Red -- Apples wedged
The Stubble's joints between --
And the...Read more of this...

The Bards Of Olden Time

by Friedrich von Schiller
 Say, where is now that glorious race, where now are the singers
Who, with the accents of life, listening nations enthralled,
Sung down from heaven the gods, and sung mankind up to heaven,
And who the spirit bore up high on the pinions of song?
Ah! the singers still live; the actions only are wanting,
And to awake the glad harp, only a welcoming...Read more of this...

In Memoriam A. H. H.: Is it then regret for buried time

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Is it, then, regret for buried time
That keenlier in sweet April wakes,
And meets the year, and gives and takes
The colours of the crescent prime?
Not all: the songs, the stirring air,
The life re-orient out of dust,
Cry thro' the sense to hearten trust
In that which made the world so fair.
Not all regret: the face will shine
Upon me, while I muse alone;
And...Read more of this...

The Coming Of Wisdom With Time

by William Butler Yeats
 Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth....Read more of this...

Now is the time to drink the morning wine; the noise

by Omar Khayyam
Now is the time to drink the morning wine; the noise
makes itself heard, O cupbearer! Now we are ready, O
cupbearer! here is the wine, behold the tavern. Could a
moment like this be for prayer? Silence, O cupbearer!
Leave thy discourse upon tradition and upon devotion;
drink, O cupbearer!...Read more of this...

With Lifes Tomorrow Time You Grasp

by Mihai Eminescu
With life's tomorrow time you grasp, 
Its yesterdays you fling away, 
And still, in spite of all remains 
Its long eternity, today. 

When one thing goes, another comes 
In this wide world by heaven borne; 
And when the sun is setting here 
'Tis somewhere else just breaking dawn. 

It seems somehow that other waves 
Are rolling down the same old...Read more of this...

Sonnet 17: Who will believe my verse in time to come

by William Shakespeare
 Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts:
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say, "This poet lies,
Such heavenly...Read more of this...

Each time you can procure two mens of wine, drink

by Omar Khayyam
Each time you can procure two mens of wine, drink
them, in every circumstance, in all society wherever you
may be; for he who does is freed from scornful looks
or gestures of disdain....Read more of this...

All the time I pray to Buddha

by Kobayashi Issa
 All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
killing mosquitoes....Read more of this...

Ask not the chances of the time to be,

by Omar Khayyam
Ask not the chances of the time to be,
And for the past, 'tis vanished, as you see;
This ready-money breath set down as gain,
Future and past concern not you or me....Read more of this...

Sonnet 19: Devouring Time blunt thou the lions paws

by William Shakespeare
 Devouring Time blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood,
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix, in her blood,
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt swift-footed Time
To the wide world and all her fading sweets.
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O carve...Read more of this...

Now is the time earth decks her greenest bowers,

by Omar Khayyam
Now is the time earth decks her greenest bowers,
And trees, like Musa's hand, grow white with flowers!
As 'twere at 'Isa's breath the plants revive,
While clouds brim o'er, like tearful eyes, with showers....Read more of this...

We do not know the time we lose --

by Emily Dickinson
 We do not know the time we lose --
The awful moment is
And takes its fundamental place
Among the certainties --

A firm appearance still inflates
The card -- the chance -- the friend --
The spectre of solidities
Whose substances are sand --...Read more of this...

Who Bides His Time

by James Whitcomb Riley
 Who bides his time, and day by day 
Faces defeat full patiently, 
And lifts a mirthful roundelay, 
However poor his fortunes be,-- 
He will not fail in any qualm 
Of poverty -- the paltry dime 
It will grow golden in his palm, 
Who bides his time.

Who bides his time -- he tastes the sweet 
Of honey in the saltest...Read more of this...

To The Virgins To Make Much Of Time

by Robert Herrick
 Gather ye rose-buds while ye may:
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best, which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the...Read more of this...

Not a single time has the Wheel of Heaven been propitious

by Omar Khayyam
Not a single time has the Wheel of Heaven been propitious
to me, never for one instant has it allowed me
to hear a sweet voice, not a day has it given me a
second of happiness but that very day it has plunged
me into an abyss of grief....Read more of this...

Time XXI

by Kahlil Gibran
 And an astronomer said, "Master, what of Time?" 

And he answered: 

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable. 

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. 

Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. 

Yet the timeless in...Read more of this...

Picnic-time

by Eugene Field
 It's June ag'in, an' in my soul I feel the fillin' joy
That's sure to come this time o' year to every little boy;
For, every June, the Sunday-schools at picnics may be seen,
Where "fields beyont the swellin' floods stand dressed in livin' green";
Where little girls are skeered to death with spiders, bugs, and ants,
An' little boys get grass-stains on their...Read more of this...

Time Cures All

by Hilaire Belloc
 It was my shame, and now it is my boast, 
That I have loved you rather more than most....Read more of this...

In the Time of Tyrants

by William Soutar
All that the hand may touch;
All that the hand may own;
Crumbles beyond time’s clutch
Down to oblivion.

Fear not the boasts which wound:
Fear not the threats which bind:
Always on broken ground
The seeds fall from the mind.

Always in darkest loam
A birthday is begun;
And from its catacomb
A candle lights the sun.

...Read more of this...

Sonnet XVII: Stay Speedy Time

by Michael Drayton
 To Time

Stay, speedy Time, behold, before thou pass, 
From age to age what thou hast sought to see, 
One in whom all the excellencies be, 
In whom Heav'n looks itself as in a glass. 
Time, look thyself in this tralucent glass, 
And thy youth past in this pure mirror see, 
As the world's beauty in his infancy, 
What is...Read more of this...

Time of Roses

by Thomas Hood
 It was not in the Winter 
Our loving lot was cast; 
It was the time of roses— 
We pluck'd them as we pass'd! 

That churlish season never frown'd 
On early lovers yet: 
O no—the world was newly crown'd 
With flowers when first we met! 

'Twas twilight, and I bade you go, 
But still you held me fast; 
It was...Read more of this...

The Shrubbery Written in a Time of Affliction

by William Cowper
 Oh happy shades--to me unblest!
Friendly to peace, but not to me!
How ill the scene that offers rest,
And heart that cannot rest, agree!
This glassy stream, that spreading pine,
Those alders quiv'ring to the breeze,
Might sooth a soul less hurt than mine,
And please, if any thing could please.

But fix'd unalterable care
Foregoes not what she feels within,
Shows the same sadness ev'rywhere,
And slights the...Read more of this...

Stanzas to Time

by Mary Darby Robinson
 CAPRICIOUS foe to human joy,
Still varying with the fleeting day;
With thee the purest raptures cloy,
The fairest prospects fade away;
Nor worth, nor pow'r thy wings can bind,
All earthly pleasures fly with THEE;
Inconstant as the wav'ring wind
That plays upon the summer sea. 

I court thee not, ungentle guest,
For I have e'er been doom'd to find
Life's gayest hours but idly drest,
With sweets...Read more of this...

Endless Time

by Rabindranath Tagore
 Time is endless in thy hands, my lord. 
There is none to count thy minutes. 

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. 
Thou knowest how to wait. 

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. 

We have no time to lose, 
and having no time we must scramble for a chance. 
We are...Read more of this...

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