Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Preceded Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Whitman, Walt
...return—And that what are called lies are perfect
 returns, 
And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it, 
And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact, 
And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth—but that all is truth
 without
 exception;
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am, 
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing....Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...Bereaved of all, I went abroad --
No less bereaved was I
Upon a New Peninsula --
The Grave preceded me --

Obtained my Lodgings, ere myself --
And when I sought my Bed --
The Grave it was reposed upon
The Pillow for my Head --

I waked to find it first awake --
I rose -- It followed me --
I tried to drop it in the Crowd --
To lose it in the Sea --

In Cups of artificial Drowse
To steep its shape away --
The Grave -- was finished -- but the Spade
R...Read more of this...

by Thayer, Ernest Lawrence
...f only Casey could but get a whack at that. 
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat." 

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake; 
and the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake. 

So upon that stricken multitude, grim melancholy sat; 
for there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat. 

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all. 
And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball.Read more of this...

by Mueller, Lisel
....
I give you trees that lose their leaves,
as you knew they would,
and then come green again.
I give you 
fruit preceded by flowers,
Venus supreme in the sky,
the miracle of always
landing on your feet,
even though the earth
rotates on its axis.

Start out with that, at least....Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...ing myself yet being someone other—
 And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed
To compel the recognition they preceded.
 And so, compliant to the common wind,
 Too strange to each other for misunderstanding,
In concord at this intersection time
 Of meeting nowhere, no before and after,
 We trod the pavement in a dead patrol.
I said: 'The wonder that I feel is easy,
 Yet ease is cause of wonder. Therefore speak:
 I may not comprehend, may not remember.Read more of this...



by Stevens, Wallace
...apier-mache... 
The sun was coming from the outside. 

That scrawny cry--It was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun, 

Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality. ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...down of coffins,
Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years—the curious years, each emerging from
 that
 which preceded it, 
Journeyers as with companions, namely, their own diverse phases, 
Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days, 
Journeyers gayly with their own youth—Journeyers with their bearded and well-grain’d
 manhood, 
Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass’d, content,
Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or womanhood, 
...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...heard
Was nearer than the Sky
And rumbles still, though torrid Noons
Have lain their missiles by --
The Lightning that preceded it
Struck no one but myself --
But I would not exchange the Bolt
For all the rest of Life --
Indebtedness to Oxygen
The Happy may repay,
But not the obligation
To Electricity --
It founds the Homes and decks the Days
And every clamor bright
Is but the gleam concomitant
Of that waylaying Light --
The Thought is quiet as a Flake --
A Crash without a S...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ne another all their desires,
So that each knows what his friend requires,
And does its bidding without teachers.
I preceded her; the crone
Followed silent and alone;
I spoke to her, but she merely jabbered
In the old style; both her eyes had slunk
Back to their pits; her stature shrunk;
In short, the soul in its body sunk
Like a blade sent home to its scabbard.
We descended, I preceding;
Crossed the court with nobody heeding,
All the world was at the chase,
The court...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Preceded poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things