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Famous Played Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Crowley, Aleister
...ubt or fear betrayed
My life to fate! --- we parted. Was I afraid?
I was afraid, afraid to live my love,
Afraid you played the serpent, I the dove,
Afraid of what I know not. I am glad 
Of all the shame and wretchedness I had,
Since those six weeks have taught me not to doubt you,
And also that I cannot live without you.

Then I came back to you; black treasons rear
Their heads, blind hates, deaf agonies of fear,
Cruelty, cowardice, falsehood, broken pledges,
The ...Read more of this...



by Thomas, Dylan
...f there's any jelly left," Jack said. And we did that.

Always on Christmas night there was music. An uncle played the fiddle, a cousin sang "Cherry Ripe," and another
uncle sang "Drake's Drum." It was very warm in the little house. Auntie Hannah, who had got on to the parsnip
wine, sang a song about Bleeding Hearts and Death, and then another in which she said her heart was like a
Bird's Nest; and then everybody laughed again; and then I went to bed. ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...usky tench leapt at the dragon-fly.

But little care had he for any thing
Though up and down the beech the squirrel played,
And from the copse the linnet 'gan to sing
To its brown mate its sweetest serenade;
Ah! little care indeed, for he had seen
The breasts of Pallas and the naked wonder of the Queen.

But when the herdsman called his straggling goats
With whistling pipe across the rocky road,
And the shard-beetle with its trumpet-notes
Boomed through the darkening ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...l the fiddler was placed, with the gayest of hearts and of waistcoats.
Shadow and light from the leaves alternately played on his snow-white
Hair, as it waved in the wind; and the jolly face of the fiddler
Glowed like a living coal when the ashes are blown from the embers.
Gayly the old man sang to the vibrant sound of his fiddle,
Tous les Bourgeois de Chartres, and Le Carillon de Dunkerque,
And anon with his wooden shoes beat time to the music.
Merrily, merrily w...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...Of craft and violence, and blood and ill, 
 And fire and shocking deeds, his sword was still 
 God's counterpoise displayed. Ever alert 
 More evil from the wretched to avert, 
 Those hapless ones who 'neath Heaven's vault at night 
 Raise suppliant hands. His lance loved not the plight 
 Of mouldering in the rack, of no avail, 
 His battle-axe slipped from supporting nail 
 Quite easily; 'twas ill for action base 
 To come so near that he the thing could trace. 
 ...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...or youthful dalliance, as beseems 
Fair couple, linked in happy nuptial league, 
Alone as they. About them frisking played 
All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase 
In wood or wilderness, forest or den; 
Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw 
Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards, 
Gambolled before them; the unwieldy elephant, 
To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed 
His?kithetmroboscis; close the serpent sly, 
Insinuating, wove with...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm; 
A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here 
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will 
Her virgin fancies pouring forth more sweet, 
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss. 
Him through the spicy forest onward come 
Adam discerned, as in the door he sat 
Of his cool bower, while now the mounted sun 
Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm 
Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs: 
And Eve within, due at her hour p...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
Divinity within them breeding wings, 
Wherewith to scorn the earth: But that false fruit 
Far other operation first displayed, 
Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve 
Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him 
As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn: 
Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move. 
Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, 
And elegant, of sapience no small part; 
Since to each meaning savour we apply, 
And palate call judicious; I the praise 
Yield thee, so well this...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...e 
Fresh-hued and fair, where scarce appeared 
The uncertain prophecy of beard. 
He teased the mitten-blinded cat, 
Played cross-pins on my uncle's hat, 
Sang songs, and told us what befalls 
In classic Dartmouth's college halls. 
Born the wild Northern hills among, 
From whence his yeoman father wrung 
By patient toil subsistence scant, 
Not competence and yet not want, 
He early gained the power to pay 
His cheerful, self-reliant way; 
Could doff at ease his scholar...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...and die--
Pigmy and far away.

And Alfred, King of Wessex,
Looked on his conqueror--
And his hands hardened; but he played,
And leaving all later hates unsaid,
He sang of some old British raid
On the wild west march of yore.

He sang of war in the warm wet shires,
Where rain nor fruitage fails,
Where England of the motley states
Deepens like a garden to the gates
In the purple walls of Wales.

He sang of the seas of savage heads
And the seas and seas of spears,
Bo...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...we orchestrated them both,
calling ourselves TWO CAMP DIRECTORS.
There was a song, our song on your cassette,
that played over and over
and baptised the prodigals.
It spoke the unspeakable,
as the rain will on an attic roof,
letting the animal join its soul
as we kneeled before a miracle--
forgetting its knife.

The daisies confer
in the old-married kitchen
papered with blue and green chefs
who call out pies, cookies, yummy,
at the charcoal and cigarette smoke
th...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...brooks, 
One thought it March, just budding green, 
With hedgerows full of celandine. 
An otter' out of stream and played, 
Two hares come loping up and stayed; 
Wide-eyed and tender-eared but bold. 
Sheep bleated up from Penny's fold. 
I heard a partridge covey call, 
The morning sun was bright on all. 
Down the long slope the plough team drove 
The tossing rooks arose and hove. 
A stone struck on the share. A word 
Came to the team. The red eart...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...I thought my thirst 
Would slay me, saw deep lawns, and then a brook, 
With one sharp rapid, where the crisping white 
Played ever back upon the sloping wave, 
And took both ear and eye; and o'er the brook 
Were apple-trees, and apples by the brook 
Fallen, and on the lawns. "I will rest here," 
I said, "I am not worthy of the Quest;" 
But even while I drank the brook, and ate 
The goodly apples, all these things at once 
Fell into dust, and I was left alone, 
And thirst...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...r were these earth-born castles bare,
     Nor lacked they many a banner fair;
     For, from their shivered brows displayed,
     Far o'er the unfathomable glade,
     All twinkling with the dewdrop sheen,
     The briar-rose fell in streamers green,
     kind creeping shrubs of thousand dyes
     Waved in the west-wind's summer sighs.
     XII.

     Boon nature scattered, free and wild,
     Each plant or flower, the mountain's child.
     Here eglantine embalm...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...entered each act, unsure 
 of who I was and what I 
 did, touching my face for fear 
 I was another inside 

 my head I played back pictures 
 of my childhood, of my wife 
 even, for it was in her 
 I found myself beaten, safe, 
 and furthest from the present. 
 It is her face I see now 
 though all I say is meant 
 for you, her face in the slow 

 agony of sexual 
 release. I cannot see you. 
 The dark wall ribbed with spittle 
 on which I play my childhood 
 bri...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...an's, 
And I would teach them all that men are taught; 
We are twice as quick!' And here she shook aside 
The hand that played the patron with her curls. 

And one said smiling 'Pretty were the sight 
If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt 
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, 
And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. 
I think they should not wear our rusty gowns, 
But move as rich as Emperor-moths, or Ralph 
Who shines so in the corner; ye...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ance
Within a sunbeam.--Some upon the new
"Embroidery of flowers that did enhance
The grassy vesture of the desart, played,
Forgetful of the chariot's swift advance;
"Others stood gazing till within the shade
Of the great mountain its light left them dim.--
Others outspeeded it, and others made
"Circles around it like the clouds that swim
Round the high moon in a bright sea of air,
And more did follow, with exulting hymn,
"The chariot & the captives fettered there,
Bu...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...wind-wandering
Fragment of inky thunder-smoke--this haven
Was as a gem to copy heaven engraven.

On which that Lady played her many pranks,
Circling the image of a shooting star
(Even as a tiger on Hydaspes' banks
Outspeeds the antelopes which speediest are)
In her light boat; and many quips and cranks
She played upon the water; till the car
Of the late moon, like a sick matron wan,
To journey from the misty east began.

And then she called out of the hollow turrets
O...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...;"So in the church-yard she was laid,  And all the summer dry,  Together round her grave we played,  My brother John and I."   "And when the ground was white with snow,  And I could run and slide,  My brother John was forced to go,  And he lies by her side."   "How many are you then," said I,  "If they two are in Heaven?" ...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...And calmly looks upon the road.

I felt the gloomy, dusky fear
Before this woman of delight
As on her shoulders played alone
The rays of miserable light.

And how could I forgive her yet
Your shining praise by love deluded
Look, she is happily in sorrow,
And in such elegance denuded.



x x x

In the sleep to me is given
Our last eden of stars up high
City of clean water towers,
Golden Bakchisarai

There behind a colored fencing
By the pens...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs