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Famous Portico Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...ad in gloom. 

But when ¨C 
nevertheless! ¨C 
the street coughed up the crush on the square, 
pushing away the portico that was treading on its throat, 
it looked as if: 
in choirs of an archangel¡¯s chorale, 
god, who has been plundered, was advancing in 
wrath! 

But the street, squatting down, bawled: 
¡°Let¡¯s go and guzzle!¡± 

Krupps and Krupplets1 paint 
a bristling of menacing brows on the city, 
but in the mouth 
corpselets of dead words putrefy;...Read more of this...



by Hunt, James Henry Leigh
...p's frog, whose heart was like the ox's. 
Such puff about high roads, so grand, so small, 
With wings and what not, portico and all, 
And poor drench'd pillars, which it seems a sin 
Not to mat up at night-time, or take in. 
I'd live in none of those. Nor would I have 
Veranda'd windows to forestall my grave; 
Veranda'd truly, from the northern heat! 
And cut down to the floor to comfort one's cold feet! 
My house should be of brick, more wide than high, 
With swa...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...raise

Of famous men,

A famous man yourself

Your own voice drowned

By London’s roar.





5



Leeds Town Hall’s portico

Is grand and grander

It grows with money

And with prose but still

I see in the rain and

Dark the Ritz that’s

Boarded up, its exquisite

Carved fa?ade crumbling

Its royal lions weeping

Its stone flowers fading.



The Scala, too, is gone

Even the street

Where it stood,

Only the river

And the canal

Are untouched

In their flow.



...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...ing brine,
Back to the boisterous billow let us go,
And walk all day beneath the hyaline
Huge vault of Neptune's watery portico,
And watch the purple monsters of the deep
Sport in ungainly play, and from his lair keen Xiphias leap.

For if my mistress find me lying here
She will not ruth or gentle pity show,
But lay her boar-spear down, and with austere
Relentless fingers string the cornel bow,
And draw the feathered notch against her breast,
And loose the arched cord; ay...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...r> 
The master of thy galley still unlades 
Gift after gift; they block my court at last 
And pile themselves along its portico 
Royal with sunset, like a thought of thee: 
And one white she-slave from the group dispersed 
Of black and white slaves (like the chequer-work 
Pavement, at once my nation's work and gift, 
Now covered with this settle-down of doves), 
One lyric woman, in her crocus vest 
Woven of sea-wools, with her two white hands 
Commends to me the strainer and ...Read more of this...



by Plath, Sylvia
...Through portico of my elegant house you stalk
With your wild furies, disturbing garlands of fruit
And the fabulous lutes and peacocks, rending the net
Of all decorum which holds the whirlwind back.
Now, rich order of walls is fallen; rooks croak
Above the appalling ruin; in bleak light
Of your stormy eye, magic takes flight
Like a daunted witch, quitting castle ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...Before the florid portico
I watched the gamblers come and go,
While by me on a bench there sat
A female in a faded hat;
A shabby, shrinking, crumpled creature,
Of waxy casino-ward with eyes
Of lost soul seeking paradise. 

Then from the Café de la Paix
There shambled forth a waiter fellow,
Clad dingily, down-stooped and grey,
With hollow face, careworn and yellow.
Wit...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...los at well-fought Marathon,
And died to show that Milton's England still could bear a son!

And yet I cannot tread the Portico
And live without desire, fear and pain,
Or nurture that wise calm which long ago
The grave Athenian master taught to men,
Self-poised, self-centred, and self-comforted,
To watch the world's vain phantasies go by with unbowed head.

Alas! that serene brow, those eloquent lips,
Those eyes that mirrored all eternity,
Rest in their own Colonos, an ec...Read more of this...

by Homer,
...ender feet of the goddess.

[Line 184] Soon they came to the house of heaven-nurtured Celeus and went through the portico to where their queenly mother sat by a pillar of the close-fitted roof, holding her son, a tender scion, in her bosom. And the girls ran to her. But the goddess walked to the threshold: and her head reached the roof and she filled the doorway with a heavenly radiance. Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of Metaneira, and she ro...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...some lonely Houses off the Road
A Robber'd like the look of --
Wooden barred,
And Windows hanging low,
Inviting to --
A Portico,
Where two could creep --
One -- hand the Tools --
The other peep --
To make sure All's Asleep --
Old fashioned eyes --
Not easy to surprise!

How orderly the Kitchen'd look, by night,
With just a Clock --
But they could gag the Tick --
And Mice won't bark --
And so the Walls -- don't tell --
None -- will --

A pair of Spectacles ajar just stir --
An...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...d Pompeii sees;
And built anew the town of Dorian Hercules!
House upon house--its silent halls once more
Opes the broad portico!--Oh, haste and fill
Again those halls with life!--Oh, pour along
Through the seven-vista'd theatre the throng!
Where are ye, mimes?--Come forth, the steel prepare
For crowned Atrides, or Orestes haunt,
Ye choral Furies, with your dismal chant!
The arch of triumph!--whither leads it?--still
Behold the forum!--on the curule chair
Where the majestic im...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...luster'd in thick beads, dim
The agate brooch-stones
On thy white shoulder;
The cool night-wind, too,
Blows through the portico,
Stirs thy hair, Goddess,
Waves thy white robe!


Circe.

Whence art thou, sleeper?


The Youth.

When the white dawn first
Through the rough fir-planks
Of my hut, by the chestnuts,
Up at the valley-head,
Came breaking, Goddess!
I sprang up, I threw round me
My dappled fawn-skin;
Passing out, from the wet turf,
Where they lay, by the hut door...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack,
remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately
when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts,
and seemed to see significance in the incident. -- DAILY PAPERS.


Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro --
And what should they know of England who only England know...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
.... 

And though I have eaten berries among the hill when you would have had me sit at your board, 

And slept in the portico of the temple where you would gladly have sheltered me, 

Yet was it not your loving mindfulness of my days and my nights that made food sweet to my mouth and girdled my sleep with visions? 

For this I bless you most: 

You give much and know not that you give at all. 

Verily the kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone, 

And...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...sweet melody,
We may behold Her face who long ago
Dwelt among men by the AEgean sea,
And whose sad house with pillaged portico
And friezeless wall and columns toppled down
Looms o'er the ruins of that fair and violet cinctured town.

Spirit of Beauty! tarry still awhile,
They are not dead, thine ancient votaries;
Some few there are to whom thy radiant smile
Is better than a thousand victories,
Though all the nobly slain of Waterloo
Rise up in wrath against them! tarry st...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...the universities used then to go about 
begging for money to maintain them and their studies.

26. Parvis: The portico of St. Paul's, which lawyers frequented
to meet their clients.

27. St Julian: The patron saint of hospitality, celebrated for
supplying his votaries with good lodging and good cheer.

28. Mew: cage. The place behind Whitehall, where the king's
hawks were caged was called the Mews.

29. Many a luce in stew: many a pike...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...withered heath and rushes dry
     Supplied a russet canopy.
     Due westward, fronting to the green,
     A rural portico was seen,
     Aloft on native pillars borne,
     Of mountain fir with bark unshorn
     Where Ellen's hand had taught to twine
     The ivy and Idaean vine,
     The clematis, the favored flower
     Which boasts the name of virgin-bower,
     And every hardy plant could bear
     Loch Katrine's keen and searching air.
     An instant in t...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...QUES BRIDAINE.

Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.
Across its antique portico
Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all,--
"Forever--never!
Never--forever!"

Half-way up the stairs it stands,
And points and beckons with its hands
From its case of massive oak,
Like a monk, who, under his cloak,
Crosses himself, and sighs, alas!
With sorrowful voice to all who pass,-...Read more of this...

by Moore, Marianne
...sign says C. J. Poole, Steeple Jack,
 in black and white; and one in red
and white says

Danger. The church portico has four fluted
 columns, each a single piece of stone, made
modester by white-wash. Theis would be a fit haven for
waifs, children, animals, prisoners,
 and presidents who have repaid
sin-driven

senators by not thinking about them. The
 place has a school-house, a post-office in a
store, fish-houses, hen-houses, a three-masted schooner on
t...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...k beads, dim 
17 The agate brooch-stones 
18 On thy white shoulder; 
19 The cool night-wind, too, 
20 Blows through the portico, 
21 Stirs thy hair, Goddess, 
22 Waves thy white robe! 

Circe. 

23 Whence art thou, sleeper? 

The Youth. 

24 When the white dawn first 
25 Through the rough fir-planks 
26 Of my hut, by the chestnuts, 
27 Up at the valley-head, 
28 Came breaking, Goddess! 
29 I sprang up, I threw round me 
30 My dappled fawn-skin; 
31 Passing out, from t...Read more of this...

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