Famous Place Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lovers Complaint

...ir poor balls are tied
To the orbed earth; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and, nowhere fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
And true to bondage would not break from thence,
Though slackl...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William


As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...le man, 
Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,

Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad, 
He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportion, neither more nor less, 
He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
He is the equalizer of his age and land, 
He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what wants checking, 
In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, buildi...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Beowulf (Modern English)

...ng souls must seek it out,
constrained by need, the children of humanity
dwelling on the earth, readily to that other place,
where the body-house, fixed to its final resting-place,
must sleep after the feasting. (ll. 991-1008a)

Then it was the time and the moment
for the son of Halfdane to go into the hall.
The king wished to partake in the feast himself.
Nor have I heard of a greater company of kindred
behaving better about their ring-giver.
Then the profit-beare...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Hyperion

...d seem'd list'ning to the Earth,
His ancient mother, for some comfort yet.

 It seem'd no force could wake him from his place;
But there came one, who with a kindred hand
Touch'd his wide shoulders, after bending low
With reverence, though to one who knew it not.
She was a Goddess of the infant world;
By her in stature the tall Amazon
Had stood a pigmy's height: she would have ta'en
Achilles by the hair and bent his neck;
Or with a finger stay'd Ixion's wheel.
Her face was la...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Inferno (English)

...h Camilla of old, the virgin brave, 
 Turnus and Nisus died in strife. His chase 
 He shall not cease, nor any cowering-place 
 Her fear shall find her, till he drive her back, 
 From city to city exiled, from wrack to wrack 
 Slain out of life, to find the native hell 
 Whence envy loosed her. 
 For thyself were
 well 
 To follow where I lead, and thou shalt see 
 The spirits in pain, and hear the hopeless woe, 
 The unending cries, of those whose only plea 
 Is judgment, th...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante


Lara

...s for sables which he must not wear. 
A hundred scutcheons deck with gloomy grace 
The Laras' last and longest dwelling-place; 
But one is absent from the mouldering file, 
That now were welcome to that Gothic pile. 

IV. 

He comes at last in sudden loneliness, 
And whence they know not, why they need not guess; 
They more might marvel, when the greeting's o'er, 
Not that he came, but came not long before: 
No train is his beyond a single page, 
Of foreign aspect, and of ten...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Poem of Joys

...ncrease, growth, recuperation; 
The joy of soothing and pacifying—the joy of concord and harmony. 

O to go back to the place where I was born! 
To hear the birds sing once more!
To ramble about the house and barn, and over the fields, once more, 
And through the orchard and along the old lanes once more. 

5
O male and female! 
O the presence of women! (I swear there is nothing more exquisite to me than the mere
 presence
 of women;) 
O for the girl, my mate! O for the happi...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

She Walks in Beauty

...tress, 
Or softly lightens o'er her face; 
Where thoughts serenely sweet express, 
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. 

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, 
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, 
The smiles that win, the tints that glow, 
But tell of days in goodness spent, 
A mind at peace with all below, 
A heart whose love is innocent!...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Snow

...d strong of stale tobacco.”

“He’ll pull through.’
“You only say so. Not another house
Or shelter to put into from this place
To theirs. I’m going to call his wife again.”

“Wait and he may. Let’s see what he will do.
Let’s see if he will think of her again.
But then I doubt he’s thinking of himself
He doesn’t look on it as anything.”

“He shan’t go—there!”

“It is a night, my dear.”

“One thing: he didn’t drag God into it.”

“He don’t consider it a case for God.”

“You think...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Song of Myself

...me again,
But they are not the Me myself. 

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am; 
Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary; 
Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest, 
Looking with side-curved head, curious what will come next;
Both in and out of the game, and watching and wondering at it. 

Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and
 contenders; 
I have no mockings or arg...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Ballad of the White Horse

...th white.

And the cry of the palms and the purple moons,
Or the cry of the frost and foam,
Swept ever around an inmost place,
And the din of distant race on race
Cried and replied round Rome.

And there was death on the Emperor
And night upon the Pope:
And Alfred, hiding in deep grass,
Hardened his heart with hope.

A sea-folk blinder than the sea
Broke all about his land,
But Alfred up against them bare
And gripped the ground and grasped the air,
Staggered, and strove to st...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Dream

...s, nor that which should have been— 
But the old mansion, and the accustomed hall,
And the remembered chambers, and the place,
The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,
All things pertaining to that place and hour,
And her who was his destiny, came back
And thrust themselves between him and the light;
What business had they there at such a time?

VII

A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Lady of his love;—Oh! she was changed,
As by the sickness of the soul; he...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Growth of Love

...1
They that in play can do the thing they would,
Having an instinct throned in reason's place,
--And every perfect action hath the grace
Of indolence or thoughtless hardihood--
These are the best: yet be there workmen good
Who lose in earnestness control of face,
Or reckon means, and rapt in effort base
Reach to their end by steps well understood. 
Me whom thou sawest of late strive with the pains
Of one who spends his strength to rule his nerv...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Hunting Of The Snark

...ster's Dream
Fit the Seventh. The Banker's Fate
Fit the Eighth. The Vanishing


Fit the First.

THE LANDING


"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
 As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
 By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
 That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
 What I tell you three times is true."

 The crew was complete: it ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Lady of the Lake

...st be,
     Some rustling oak my canopy.
     Yet pass we that; the war and chase
     Give little choice of resting-place;—
     A summer night in greenwood spent
     Were but to-morrow's merriment:
     But hosts may in these wilds abound,
     Such as are better missed than found;
     To meet with Highland plunderers here
     Were worse than loss of steed or deer.—
     I am alone;—my bugle-strain
     May call some straggler of the train;
     Or, fall the ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...hose who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough
to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place &
governs the unwilling.
And being restraind it by degrees becomes passive till it is
only the shadow of desire.
The history of this is written in Paradise Lost. & the Governor
or Reason is call'd Messiah.
And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the
heavenly host, is calld the Devil or Satan and his children are
call'd Sin & Death
But...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Three Voices

...hang upon her every word:
"In truth," he said, "it was absurd." 


The Third Voice 


NOT long this transport held its place:
Within a little moment's space
Quick tears were raining down his face 

His heart stood still, aghast with fear;
A wordless voice, nor far nor near,
He seemed to hear and not to hear. 

"Tears kindle not the doubtful spark.
If so, why not? Of this remark
The bearings are profoundly dark." 

"Her speech," he said, "hath caused this pain.
Easier I count...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Triumph of Life

...Though it was now broad day, a gentle trace
Of light diviner than the common Sun
Sheds on the common Earth, but all the place
"Was filled with many sounds woven into one
Oblivious melody, confusing sense
Amid the gliding waves & shadows dun;
"And as I looked the bright omnipresence
Of morning through the orient cavern flowed,
And the Sun's image radiantly intense
"Burned on the waters of the well that glowed
Like gold, and threaded all the forest maze
With winding paths of em...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The Vision of Judgment

...e celestial gate: 
His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull, 
So little trouble had been given of late; 
Not that the place by any means was full, 
But since the Gallic era 'eight-eight' 
The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 
And 'a pull altogether,' as they say 
At sea — which drew most souls another way. 

II 

The angels all were singing out of tune, 
And hoarse with having little else to do, 
Excepting to wind up the sun and moon, 
Or curb a runaway young star ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

White Flock

...is tall, the mountain wind is blowing
My thoughts are sinless to true God above.
The sleeplessness has gone to other places,
I do not on grey ashes count my sorrow,
And the skewed arrow of the clock face
Does not look to me like a deadly arrow.
How past over the heart is losing power!
Freedom is near. I will forgive all yet,
Watching, as ray of sun runs up and down
The springtime vine that with spring rain is wet.



x x x

He was jealous, fearful and tender...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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