Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Penitents Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...
Be to the seed of Adam merciable;*                             *merciful
Bring us unto that palace that is built
To penitents that be *to mercy able!*             *fit to receive mercy*
...Read more of this...



by Tebb, Barry
....





 33



You wore a torn scarf

Over your hair

As we sat in the dark

Square of the church,

The footsteps of penitents

Echoing, Christ bleeding,

Candles burning, the confessionals

Closed.





34



In the attic were a hundred pre-war

‘Picture Posts’ with sepia prints

Of Boer War soldiers and pyramids

Of cannon balls stacked by their gun:

“Make war, not love”, the motto said,

Hanging over the double bed

And I was bred to defeat

As every growling dog k...Read more of this...

by Lux, Thomas
...s forehead
to the window glass.
He's moving soon: his trailer to a trailer park,
or to the priory to live among the penitents
but in his own cell,
with wheels, to take him, when it's time
to go, to: boathouse, houseboat
with a little motor, putt-putt,
to take him across the sea
or down the river
where at night, anchored by a sandbar
at the bend,
he will eat, sleep, and press his eyelids
to the window
of the pilothouse
until the anchor-hauling hour
when he'll embark again
...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...eproach my Savior's name?

Know that the Lord divides his saints
From all the tribes of men beside;
He hears the cry of penitents,
For the dear sake of Christ that died.

When our obedient bands have done
A thousand works of righteousness,
We put our trust in God alone,
And glory in his pardoning grace.

Let the unthinking many say,
"Who will bestow some earthly good?"
But, Lord, thy light and love we pray;
Our souls desire this heav'nly food.

Then shall my cheer...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...been thy lot from youth to age;
And thou wilt bless thee from the rage
Of passions fierce and uncontrolled,
Such as thy penitents unfold,
Whose secret sins and sorrows rest
Within thy pure and pitying breast. My days, though few, have passed below
In much of joy, but more of woe;
Yet still in hours of love or strife,
I've 'scaped the weariness of life:
Now leagued with friends, now girt by foes,
I loathed the languor of repose.
Now nothing left to love or hate,
No mor...Read more of this...



by Lowell, Robert
...d in the mast-head. Hide,
Our steel, Jonas Messias, in Thy side. 

 VI

 OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM

There once the penitents took off their shoes
And then walked barefoot the remaining mile;
And the small trees, a stream and hedgerows file
Slowly along the munching English lane,
Like cows to the old shrine, until you lose
Track of your dragging pain.
The stream flows down under the druid tree,
Shiloah's whirlpools gurgle and make glad
The castle of God. Sailor, y...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ers: but still—ah, the pity, the pity!
Look, two and two go the priests, then the monks with cowls and sandals,
And the penitents dressed in white shirts, a-holding the yellow candles;
One, he carries a flag up straight, and another a cross with handles,
And the Duke's guard brings up the rear, for the better prevention of scandals.
Bang, whang, whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife.
Oh, a day in the city-square, there is no such pleasure in life!...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Penitents poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things