Famous Permanence Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Little Sleeps-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight

by Galway Kinnell
1

You scream, waking from a nightmare.

When I sleepwalk
into your room, and pick you up,
and hold you up in the moonlight, you cling to me
hard,
as if clinging could save us. I think
you think
I will never die, I think I exude
to you the permanence of smoke or stars,
even as
my broken arms heal themselves around you.

2

I have heard you tell
the sun, don't go...Read more of this...

Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 I

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage...Read more of this...

Epitaph For A Romantic Woman

by Louise Bogan
 She has attained the permanence 
She dreamed of, where old stones lie sunning. 
Untended stalks blow over her 
Even and swift, like young men running. 

Always in the heart she loved 
Others had lived, -- she heard their laughter. 
She lies where none has lain before, 
Where certainly none will follow after....Read more of this...

Song of the Devoted Slave

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   On the wooden deck of the wooden Junk, silent, alone, we lie,
   With silver foam about the bow, and a silver moon in the sky:
   A glimmer of dimmer silver here, from the anklets round your feet,
   Our lips may close on each other's lips, but never our souls may meet.

...Read more of this...

Dominion lasts until obtained --

by Emily Dickinson
 Dominion lasts until obtained --
Possession just as long --
But these -- endowing as they flit
Eternally belong.

How everlasting are the Lips
Known only to the Dew --
These are the Brides of permanence
Supplanting me and you....Read more of this...

Permanence

by Duncan Campbell Scott
 Set within a desert lone,
Circled by an arid sea,
Stands a figure carved in stone,
Where a fountain used to be.

Two abraded, pleading hands
Held below a shapeless mouth,
Human-like the fragment stands,
Tortured by perpetual drouth.

Once the form was drenched with spray,
Deluged with the rainbow flushes;
Surplus water dashed away
To the lotus and the rushes.

Time was clothed in rippling fashion,.
Opulence of light and air,
Beauty...Read more of this...

O Cupbearer! since time is here, ready to break down

by Omar Khayyam
O Cupbearer! since time is here, ready to break down
you and me, this world for neither you nor me can be a
place of permanence. But, equally, be well convinced
that while this jug of wine is here 'twixt you and me,
our God is in our hands.
292...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Permanence poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace