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Famous Port Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Crowley, Aleister
...nd bless the love of loyal heart to heart!
God keep us every hour in every thought,
And bring the vessel of our love to port!

These are my birthday wishes. Dawn's at hand,
And you're an exile in a lonely land.
But what were magic if it could not give
My thought enough vitality to live?
Do not then dream this night has been a loss!
All night I have hung, a god, upon the cross;
All night I have offered incense at the shrine;
All night you have been unutterably mine,
Mi...Read more of this...



by Thomas, Dylan
...d some
elderberry wine. The dog was sick. Auntie Dosie had to have three aspirins, but Auntie Hannah, who liked port,
stood in the middle of the snowbound back yard, singing like a big-bosomed thrush. I would blow up balloons to
see how big they would blow up to; and, when they burst, which they all did, the Uncles jumped and rumbled. In
the rich and heavy afternoon, the Uncles breathing like dolphins and the snow descending, I would sit among
festoons and Chi...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...uals—All is for you, 
No condition is prohibited—not God’s, or any. 

All comes by the body—only health puts you rapport with the universe.

Produce great persons, the rest follows. 

4
America isolated I sing; 
I say that works made here in the spirit of other lands, are so much poison in The States.


(How dare such insects as we see assume to write poems for America? 
For our victorious armies, and the offspring following the armies?)

Piety and conformity ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...wakens Love.
Come, let us our rights begin;
'T is only daylight that makes sin,
Which these dun shades will ne'er report.
Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport,
Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame,
That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb
Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom,
And makes one blot of all the air!
Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,
Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend
Us thy vowed priests, ti...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...9

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile—the Winds—
To a heart in port—
Done with the Compass—
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden—
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor—Tonight—
In Thee!

253

You see I cannot see—your lifetime—
I must guess—
How many times it ache for me—today—Confess—
How many times for my far sake
The brave eyes film—
But I guess guessing hurts—
Mine—get so dim!

Too vague—the face—
My own...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...

Here on this beach a hundred years ago,
Three children of three houses, Annie Lee,
The prettiest little damsel in the port,
And Philip Ray the miller's only son,
And Enoch Arden, a rough sailor's lad
Made orphan by a winter shipwreck, play'd
Among the waste and lumber of the shore,
Hard coils of cordage, swarthy fishing-nets,
Anchors of rusty fluke, and boats updrawn,
And built their castles of dissolving sand
To watch them overflow'd, or following up
And flying the white b...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...g flocks from the seaside,
Where was their favorite pasture. Behind them followed the watch-dog,
Patient, full of importance, and grand in the pride of his instinct,
Walking from side to side with a lordly air, and superbly
Waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the stragglers;
Regent of flocks was he when the shepherd slept; their protector,
When from the forest at night, through the starry silence, the wolves howled.
Late, with the rising moon, returned the wains...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...d he, unwary, and of tongue too fleet, 
No longer could conceal his fortune sweet. 
Justly the rogue was shipped in porter's den, 
And Jermyn straight has leave to come again. 
Ah, Painter, now could Alexander live, 
And this Campaspe thee, Apelles, give! 

Draw next a pair of tables opening, then 
The House of Commons clattering like the men. 
Describe the Court and Country, both set right 
On opp'site points, the black against the white. 
Those having lost t...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...r>O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, 
the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! 
O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for 
you the bugle trills, 
...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...or which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
From faction: for none sure will claim in Hell 
Precedence; none whose portion is so small 
Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
Will covet more! With this advantage, then, 
To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, 
More than can be in Heaven, we now return 
To claim our just inheritance of old, 
Surer to prosper than prosperity 
Could have assured us; and by what best way, 
Whether of open war or covert guile, 
We now d...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ut 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 Gordian twine 
His braided train, and of his fatal guile 
Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass 
Co...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ting helplessly—some with contagious diseases. 

I behold the sail and steamships of the world, some in clusters in port, some on their
 voyages;

Some double the Cape of Storms—some Cape Verde,—others Cape Guardafui, Bon, or Bajadore; 
Others Dondra Head—others pass the Straits of Sunda—others Cape Lopatka—others Behring’s
 Straits;
Others Cape Horn—others sail the Gulf of Mexico, or along Cuba or Hayti—others Hudson’s
 Bay or
 Baffin’s Bay; 
Others pass the Straits of D...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...the parturition chamber, her faintness and
 pains are advancing; 
The paving-man leans on his two-handed rammer—the reporter’s lead
 flies swiftly over the note-book—the sign-painter is lettering with red and
 gold; 
The canal boy trots on the tow-path—the book-keeper counts at his
 desk—the shoemaker waxes his thread; 
The conductor beats time for the band, and all the performers follow him;
The child is baptized—the convert is making his first professions; 
The reg...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...cross-cut,) 
To cultivate a turn for carpentering, plastering, painting, 
To work as tailor, tailoress, nurse, hostler, porter,
To invent a little—something ingenious—to aid the washing, cooking, cleaning, 
And hold it no disgrace to take a hand at them themselves. 

I say I bring thee, Muse, to-day and here, 
All occupations, duties broad and close, 
Toil, healthy toil and sweat, endless, without cessation,
The old, old general burdens, interests, joys, 
The family, pare...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...! 
However sweet these laid-up stores—however convenient this dwelling, we cannot remain
 here; 
However shelter’d this port, and however calm these waters, we must not anchor here; 
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us, we are permitted to receive it but a
 little
 while. 

10
Allons! the inducements shall be greater;
We will sail pathless and wild seas; 
We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper speeds by under full sail.


Allons!...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...on martyrs as mistakes, 
But still they burned for it at stakes; 
Your only fire's the jolly fire 
Where you can guzzle port with Squire, 
And back and praise his damned opinions 
About his temporal dominions. 
You let him give the man who digs, 
A filthy hut unfit for pigs, 
Without a well, without a drain, 
With mossy thatch that lets in rain, 
Without a 'lotment, 'less he rent it, 
And never meat, unless he scent it, 
But weekly doles of 'leven shilling 
To make a grow...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...flood  Supplied, to him were more than mines of gold.  Light was my sleep; my days in transport roll'd:  With thoughtless joy I stretch'd along the shore  My father's nets, or from the mountain fold  Saw on the distant lake his twinkling oar  Or watch'd his lazy boat still less'ning more and more   My father was a good and pious man,  An honest man by honest...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...lly sailed backwards. 

As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in "writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves." Again, the first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the "o" in "borrow." I have heard people try to give it the sound of the"o" in "worry." Suc...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ovelier face!
     What though the sun, with ardent frown,
     Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown,—
     The sportive toil, which, short and light
     Had dyed her glowing hue so bright,
     Served too in hastier swell to show
     Short glimpses of a breast of snow:
     What though no rule of courtly grace
     To measured mood had trained her pace,—
     A foot more light, a step more true,
     Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew;
     E'en the ...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...e waters into golden air,
Or under chasms unfathomable ever
Sepulchre them, till in their rage they tear
A subterranean portal for the river,
It fled. The circling sunbows did upbear
Its fall down the hoar precipice of spray,
Lighting it far upon its lampless way.

And, when the Wizard Lady would ascend
The labyrinths of some many-winding vale
Which to the inmost mountain upward tend,
She called "Hermaphroditus!"--and the pale
And heavy hue which slumber could extend
...Read more of this...

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