Famous Pass Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Pass joyously thy life, for many other travelers will file

by Omar Khayyam
Pass joyously thy life, for many other travelers will file
through this world; the soul will cry after the body from
which it will be separated, and the head, the seat of
the passions, will be trampled under the potter's feet....Read more of this...

The White City

by Claude McKay
 I will not toy with it nor bend an inch. 
Deep in the secret chambers of my heart 
I muse my life-long hate, and without flinch 
I bear it nobly as I live my part. 
My being would be a skeleton, a shell, 
If this dark Passion that fills my every mood, 
And makes my heaven in the white...Read more of this...

No Life can pompless pass away --

by Emily Dickinson
 No Life can pompless pass away --
The lowliest career
To the same Pageant wends its way
As that exalted here --

How cordial is the mystery!
The hospitable Pall
A "this way" beckons spaciously --
A Miracle for all!...Read more of this...

Moon over Mountain Pass

by Li Po
 A bright moon rising above Tian Shan Mountain,
Lost in a vast ocean of clouds.
The long wind, across thousands upon thousands of miles,
Blows past the Jade-gate Pass.
The army of Han has gone down the Baiteng Road,
As the barbarian hordes probe at Qinghai Bay.
It is known that from the battlefield
Few ever live to return.
Men at Garrison look on the border scene,
Home...Read more of this...

Aix In Provence

by Robert Browning
 Christ God who savest man, save most
Of men Count Gismond who saved me!
Count Gauthier, when he chose his post,
Chose time and place and company
To suit it; when he struck at length
My honour, 'twas with all his strength.

II.

And doubtlessly ere he could draw
All points to one, he must have schemed!
That miserable morning saw
Few half so happy as I seemed,
While being...Read more of this...

Self-Portrait At 28

by David Berman
 I know it's a bad title
but I'm giving it to myself as a gift
on a day nearly canceled by sunlight
when the entire hill is approaching
the ideal of Virginia
brochured with goldenrod and loblolly
and I think "at least I have not woken up
with a bloody knife in my hand"
by then having absently wandered
one hundred yards from the house
while still seated in...Read more of this...

Pass to they Rendezvous of Light

by Emily Dickinson
 Pass to they Rendezvous of Light,
Pangless except for us --
Who slowly for the Mystery
Which thou hast leaped across!...Read more of this...

Ships That Pass in the Night

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing; 
I look far out into the pregnant night,
Where I can hear the solemn booming gun
And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek
is passing, passing.
My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing;
For I would hail and check that ship of ships.
I stretch...Read more of this...

Through the strait pass of suffering --

by Emily Dickinson
 Through the strait pass of suffering --
The Martyrs -- even -- trod.
Their feet -- upon Temptations --
Their faces -- upon God --

A stately -- shriven -- Company --
Convulsion -- playing round --
Harmless -- as streaks of Meteor --
Upon a Planet's Bond --

Their faith -- the everlasting troth --
Their Expectation -- fair --
The Needle -- to the North Degree --
Wades...Read more of this...

Well pass without the parting

by Emily Dickinson
 We'll pass without the parting
So to spare
Certificate of Absence --
Deeming where

I left Her I could find Her
If I tried --
This way, I keep from missing
Those that died....Read more of this...

From Adonais 49-52

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
 49

Go thou to Rome,--at once the Paradise,
The grave, the city, and the wilderness;
And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise,
And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress
The bones of Desolation's nakedness
Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead
Thy footsteps to a slope of green access
Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead
A light of laughing flowers along the grass...Read more of this...

There Pass the Careless People

by A E Housman
 There pass the careless people 
That call their souls their own: 
Here by the road I loiter, 
How idle and alone. 

Ah, past the plunge of plummet, 
In seas I cannot sound, 
My heart and soul and senses, 
World without end, are drowned. 

His folly has not fellow 
Beneath the blue of day 
That gives to man or woman...Read more of this...

O Love! before you pass death's portal through,

by Omar Khayyam
O Love! before you pass death's portal through,
And potters make their jugs of me and you,
Pour from this jug some wine, of headache void,
And fill your cup, and fill my goblet too!...Read more of this...

Since things are not allowed to come to pass as we desire,

by Omar Khayyam
Since things are not allowed to come to pass as we desire,
to what purpose are our designs and our efforts?
We are constantly tormenting ourselves, speaking to ourselves
with sighs of regret. Ah! we have arrived too late;
too soon will it be necessary for us to depart!...Read more of this...

Since to-day is my turn for youth, I intend to pass it

by Omar Khayyam
Since to-day is my turn for youth, I intend to pass it
in drinking wine, for that is my pleasure. Begin not to
talk of its bitterness, to speak ill of this delicious juice,
for it is agreeable, and is only bitter because it enforces
the bitterness of my life.
285...Read more of this...

No base or light-weight coins pass current here,

by Omar Khayyam
No base or light-weight coins pass current here,
Of such a broom has swept our dwelling clear
Forth from the tavern comes a sage and cries,
«Drink! for ye all must sleep through ages drear»...Read more of this...

As we pass Houses musing slow

by Emily Dickinson
 As we pass Houses musing slow
If they be occupied
So minds pass minds
If they be occupied...Read more of this...

The Voices

by Rainer Maria Rilke
 The rich and fortunate do well to keep silent,
for no one cares to know who and what they are.
But those in need must reveal themselves,
must say: I am blind,
or: I'm on the verge of going blind,
or: nothing goes well with me on earth,
or: I have a sickly child,
or: I have little to hold me together...

And chances are this is...Read more of this...

Dream Song 56: Hell is empty. O that has come to pass

by John Berryman
 Hell is empty. O that has come to pass
which the cut Alexandrian foresaw,
and Hell is empty.
Lightning fell silent where the Devil knelt
and over the whole grave space hath settled awe
in a full death of guilt.

The tinchel closes. Terror, & plunging, swipes.
I lay my ears back. I am about to die.
My cleft feet drum.
Fierce, the two-footers club. My green world...Read more of this...

Moon over Mountain Pass

by Li Bai
A bright moon rising above Tian Shan Mountain,
Lost in a vast ocean of clouds.
The long wind, across thousands upon thousands of miles,
Blows past the Jade-gate Pass.
The army of Han has gone down the Baiteng Road,
As the barbarian hordes probe at Qinghai Bay.
It is known that from the battlefield
Few ever live to return.
Men at Garrison look on the border scene,
Home thoughts...Read more of this...

Sonnet 136: If thy soul check thee that I come so near

by William Shakespeare
 If thy soul check thee that I come so near,
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,
And will thy soul knows is admitted there;
Thus far for love, my love suit, sweet, fulfil.
Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love,
Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one.
In things of great receipt with case we prove
Among a...Read more of this...

The time we pass in this world has no worth without

by Omar Khayyam
The time we pass in this world has no worth without
the wine-cup and the wine. It also needs the swelling
sound of Irak's flute. Incessant watching of things here
below has told me that in pleasure and in joy alone are
worth: the rest is naught.
300...Read more of this...

The Hymn

by John Milton
 I

It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

II

Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked...Read more of this...

A Paranaeticall Or Advisive Verseto His Friend Mr John Wicks

by Robert Herrick
 Is this a life, to break thy sleep,
To rise as soon as day doth peep?
To tire thy patient ox or ass
By noon, and let thy good days pass,
Not knowing this, that Jove decrees
Some mirth, t' adulce man's miseries?
--No; 'tis a life to have thine oil
Without extortion from thy soil;
Thy faithful fields to yield thee grain,
Although with some, yet little...Read more of this...

How long wilt thou pass thy life in adoring thyself, and

by Omar Khayyam
How long wilt thou pass thy life in adoring thyself, and
seeking the cause of annihilation of thy being? Drink
wine, for a life that is followed by death is better spent
in sleep or drunkenness....Read more of this...

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