Famous Pain Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Pain poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous pain poems. These examples illustrate what a famous pain poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Emily Dickinson
Are Friends Delight or Pain?
Could Bounty but remain
Riches were good --
But if they only stay
Ampler to fly away
Riches are sad....Read more of this...
by
Anne Sexton
There can be certain potions
needled in the clock
for the body's fall from grace,
to untorture and to plead for.
These I have known
and would sell all my furniture
and books and assorted goods
to avoid, and more, more.
But the other pain
I would sell my life to avoid
the pain that begins in the crib
with...Read more of this...
by
George William Russell
DOES the earth grow grey with grief
For her hero darling fled?
Though her vales let fall no leaf,
In our hearts her tears are shed.
Still the stars laugh on above:
Not to them her grief is said;
Mourning for her hero love
In our hearts the tears are shed.
We her children mourn for him,
Mourn the elder hero dead;
In the twilight grey and dim
In our...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Ah! would there were a place of rest from pain,
Which we, poor pilgrims, might at last attain,
And after many thousand wintry years,
Renew our life, like flowers, and bloom again!...Read more of this...
by
Thomas Edward Brown
The Man that hath great griefs I pity not;
’Tis something to be great
In any wise, and hint the larger state,
Though but in shadow of a shade, God wot!
Moreover, while we wait the possible,
This man has touched the fact,
And probed till he has felt the core, where, packed
In pulpy folds, resides the ironic...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
If pain for peace prepares
Lo, what "Augustan" years
Our feet await!
If springs from winter rise,
Can the Anemones
Be reckoned up?
If night stands fast -- then noon
To gird us for the sun,
What gaze!
When from a thousand skies
On our developed eyes
Noons blaze!...Read more of this...
by
Razvan Tupa
a romanian body knows how to sidestep decisions it feels
that in such cases it can no longer justify its comfortable suffering
for this with your entire body you must stay here until it’s very late
you can be a keychain or a gummed sticker
but one day the music of breathing will disappear
all on its own
or conversely
my hands ready to receive silence
like a...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
'Twas the old -- road -- through pain --
That unfrequented -- one --
With many a turn -- and thorn --
That stops -- at Heaven --
This -- was the Town -- she passed --
There -- where she -- rested -- last --
Then -- stepped more fast --
The little tracks -- close prest --
Then -- not so swift --
Slow -- slow...Read more of this...
by
Sarojini Naidu
UNWILLING priestess in thy cruel fane,
Long hast thou held me, pitiless god of Pain,
Bound to thy worship by reluctant vows,
My tired breast girt with suffering, and my brows
Anointed with perpetual weariness.
Long have I borne thy service, through the stress
Of rigorous years, sad days and slumberless nights,
Performing thine inexorable rites.
For thy dark...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Pain has but one Acquaintance
And that is Death --
Each one unto the other
Society enough.
Pain is the Junior Party
By just a Second's right --
Death tenderly assists Him
And then absconds from Sight....Read more of this...
by
Kahlil Gibran
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the
daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem
less wondrous than your joy;...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Joy to have merited the Pain --
To merit the Release --
Joy to have perished every step --
To Compass Paradise --
Pardon -- to look upon thy face --
With these old fashioned Eyes --
Better than new -- could be -- for that --
Though bought in Paradise --
Because they looked on thee before --
And thou hast looked on them --
Prove Me --...Read more of this...
by
Arthur Hugh Clough
To spend uncounted years of pain
Again, again, and yet again
In working out in heart and brain
The problem of our being here,
To gather facts from far and near
Upon the mind to hold them clear,
And knowing more may yet appear
Until one's latest breath to fear
The premature result to draw -
Is this the object, end, and law,
And purpose of our being...Read more of this...
by
Ehsan Sehgal
I remain unaware of that
To be aware is a pain
Thinking of you is my life
You are in my sleepless nights and dreams
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
To learn the Transport by the Pain
As Blind Men learn the sun!
To die of thirst -- suspecting
That Brooks in Meadows run!
To stay the homesick -- homesick feet
Upon a foreign shore --
Haunted by native lands, the while --
And blue -- beloved air!
This is the Sovereign Anguish!
This -- the signal woe!
These are the patient "Laureates"
Whose voices -- trained -- below --
Ascend...Read more of this...
by
D. H. Lawrence
As a drenched, drowned bee
Hangs numb and heavy from a bending flower,
So clings to me
My baby, her brown hair brushed with wet tears
And laid against her cheek;
Her soft white legs hanging heavily over my arm
Swinging heavily to my movements as I walk.
My sleeping baby hangs upon my life,
Like a burden she hangs...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Pain -- expands the Time --
Ages coil within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain --
Pain contracts -- the Time --
Occupied with Shot
Gamuts of Eternities
Are as they were not --...Read more of this...
by
Jane Austen
'I've a pain in my head'
Said the suffering Beckford;
To her Doctor so dread.
'Oh! what shall I take for't?'
Said this Doctor so dread
Whose name it was Newnham.
'For this pain in your head
Ah! What can you do Ma'am?'
Said Miss Beckford, 'Suppose
If you think there's no risk,
I take a good Dose
Of calomel brisk.'--
'What...Read more of this...
by
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A THOUGHT ay like a flower upon mine heart,
And drew around it other thoughts like bees
For multitude and thirst of sweetnesses;
Whereat rejoicing, I desired the art
Of the Greek whistler, who to wharf and mart
Could lure those insect swarms from orange-trees
That I might hive with me such thoughts and please
My soul so, always. foolish counterpart
Of a weak man's vain wishes...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
Pain -- has an Element of Blank --
It cannot recollect
When it begun -- or if there were
A time when it was not --
It has no Future -- but itself --
Its Infinite contain
Its Past -- enlightened to perceive
New Periods -- of Pain....Read more of this...
by
Thomas Edward Brown
MEN have made them gods of love,
Sun-gods, givers of the rain,
Deities of hill and grove:
I have made a god of Pain.
Of my god I know this much,
And in singing I repeat,
Though there’s anguish in his touch,
Yet his soul within is sweet....Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs --
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?
The Feet, mechanical, go round --
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought --
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone --
This is the Hour of Lead --
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
The hallowing of Pain
Like hallowing of Heaven,
Obtains at a corporeal cost --
The Summit is not given
To Him who strives severe
At middle of the Hill --
But He who has achieved the Top --
All -- is the price of All --...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
O soul! whose lot it is to bleed with pain,
And daily change of fortune to sustain,
Into this body wherefore didst thou come,
Seeing thou must at last go forth again?...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
I cried at Pity -- not at Pain --
I heard a Woman say
"Poor Child" -- and something in her voice
Convicted me -- of me --
So long I fainted, to myself
It seemed the common way,
And Health, and Laughter, Curious things --
To look at, like a Toy --
To sometimes hear "Rich people" buy
And see the Parcel rolled --
And carried, I supposed...Read more of this...
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