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Famous Pretty Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Masefield, John
...We were schooner-rigged and rakish, 
with a long and lissome hull, 
And we flew the pretty colours of the crossbones and the skull; 
We'd a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore, 
And we sailed the Spanish Water in the happy days of yore. 

We'd a long brass gun amidships, like a well-conducted ship, 
We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip; 
It's a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored, 
Bu...Read more of this...



by Blake, William
...tle sorrows sit and weep

Sweet babe in thy face
Soft desires I can trace  
Secret joys and secret smiles  
Little pretty infant wiles.

As thy softest limbs I feel 
Smiles as of the morning steal 
O'er thy cheek and o'er thy breast 
Where thy little heart doth rest.

O the cunning wiles that creep 
In thy little heart asleep! 
When thy little heart doth wake
Then the dreadful night shall break....Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...ticed Death—
Of Paradise—aware—
Each other's Face—was all the Disc
Each other's setting—saw—

479

She dealt her pretty words like Blades—
How glittering they shone—
And every One unbared a Nerve
Or wantoned with a Bone—

She never deemed—she hurt—
That—is not Steel's Affair—
A vulgar grimace in the Flesh—
How ill the Creatures bear—

To Ache is human—not polite—
The Film upon the eye
Mortality's old Custom—
Just locking up—to Die.

486

I was the ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...eeded--last, returning rich,
Become the master of a larger craft,
With fuller profits lead an easier life,
Have all his pretty young ones educated,
And pass his days in peace among his own. 

Thus Enoch in his heart determined all:
Then moving homeward came on Annie pale,
Nursing the sickly babe, her latest-born.
Forward she started with a happy cry,
And laid the feeble infant in his arms;
Whom Enoch took, and handled all his limbs,
Appraised his weight and fondled fa...Read more of this...

by Issa, Kobayashi
...In spring rain
a pretty girl
 yawning....Read more of this...



by Wordsworth, William
...ed:  And if from me thou wilt not go.  But still be true 'till I am dead,  My pretty thing! then thou shalt sing,  As merry as the birds in spring.   Thy father cares not for my breast,  'Tis thine, sweet baby, there to rest:  'Tis all thine own! and if its hue  Be changed, that was so fair to view,  'Tis fair enough for thee, my dove! ...Read more of this...

by Angelou, Maya
...Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool a...Read more of this...

by Berman, David
...eniently leaving out the "I"
as if they didn't want to commit
to their own declarations.

I agree that the "I" is a pretty heavy concept
and hope you won't get uncomfortable
if I should go into some deeper stuff here.

IV four

There are things I've given up on
like recording funny answering machine messages.
It's part of growing older
and the human race as a group
has matured along the same lines.
It seems our comedy dates the quickest.
If you laugh out l...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...p for warmth,
Piling it well above the window-sills.
The snow against the window caught his eye.
‘Hey, that’s a pretty thought’—those were his words.
‘So you can think it’s six feet deep outside,
While you sit warm and read up balanced rations.
You can’t get too much winter in the winter.’
Those were his words. And he went home and all
But banked the daylight out of Avery’s windows.
Now you and I would go to no such length.
At the same time you...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else; 
And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me; 
And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

14
The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night; 
Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation; 
(The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen close; 
I find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.) 

The sharp-hoof’d m...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...as beheld by Jabez Dawes?
The fireplace full of Santa Claus!
Then Jabez fell upon his knees
With cries of 'Don't,' and 'Pretty Please.'
He howled, 'I don't know where you read it,
But anyhow, I never said it!'
'Jabez' replied the angry saint,
'It isn't I, it's you that ain't.
Although there is a Santa Claus,
There isn't any Jabez Dawes!'


Said Jabez then with impudent vim,
'Oh, yes there is, and I am him!
Your magic don't scare me, it doesn't'
And suddenly he found h...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...ere no bird dare
In treetops torn by fiercest winds of the skies. 
Poor simple birds, foolish birds! then I cry,
Ye pretty pictures of delight, unstir'd
By the only joy of knowing that ye fly;
Ye are not what ye are, but rather, sum'd in a word,
The alphabet of a god's idea, and I
Who master it, I am the only bird. 

23
O weary pilgrims, chanting of your woe,
That turn your eyes to all the peaks that shine,
Hailing in each the citadel divine
The which ye thought to ha...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...Lent to the King, and Innocence the King 
Gave for a prize--and one of those white slips 
Handed her cup and piped, the pretty one, 
"Drink, drink, Sir Fool," and thereupon I drank, 
Spat--pish--the cup was gold, the draught was mud.' 

And Tristram, `Was it muddier than thy gibes? 
Is all the laughter gone dead out of thee?-- 
Not marking how the knighthood mock thee, fool-- 
"Fear God: honour the King--his one true knight-- 
Sole follower of the vows"--for here be they ...Read more of this...

by Brooks, Gwendolyn
...hunched-up, haggard, to-be-hurt.
Their League is allotting largesse to the Lost.
But to put their clean, their pretty money, to put
Their money collected from delicate rose-fingers
Tipped with their hundred flawless rose-nails seems . . . 
They own Spode, Lowestoft, candelabra,
Mantels, and hostess gowns, and sunburst clocks,
Turtle soup, Chippendale, red satin "hangings,"
Aubussons and Hattie Carnegie. They Winter
In Palm Beach; cross the Water in Ju...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...of the most beautiful I had
ever seen. I placed my arm about her waist and kissed her once. 
"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked. 
"Yes, of course, but there's something else... there's more than your
looks..." 
"People are always accusing me of being pretty. Do you really think I'm
pretty?" 
"Pretty isn't the word, it hardly does you fair."
Cass reached into her handbag. I thought she was reaching for her handkerchief. Sh...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...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; yet I fear, 
If there were many Lilias in the brood, 
However de...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...t me, Dear! good Humour can prevail,
When Airs, and Flights, and Screams, and Scolding fail.
Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;
Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul.

So spake the Dame, but no Applause ensu'd;
Belinda frown'd, Thalestris call'd her Prude.
To Arms, to Arms! the fierce Virago cries,
And swift as Lightning to the Combate flies.
All side in Parties, and begin th' Attack;
Fans clap, Silks russle, and tough Whalebones crack;
He...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...above them on the wall 
Hung other English faces-all 
Part of the pattern of English life—
General Sir Charles, and his pretty wife, 
Admirals, Lords-Lieutenant of Shires, 
Men who were served by these footmen's sires 
At their great parties-none of them knowing 
How soon or late they would all be going 
In plainer dress to a sterner strife- 
Another pattern of English life.

I went up the stairs between them all,
Strange and frightened and shy and small,
And as I entered...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...nbsp; And oftentimes I talked to him  In very idleness.   The young lambs ran a pretty race;  The morning sun shone bright and warm;  "Kilve," said I, "was a pleasant place,  And so is Liswyn farm."   "My little boy, which like you more,"  I said and took him by the arm—  "Our home by Kilve's delightful shore,  Or here at Liswyn ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...nderness divine,
And pity those of earthy ear
Who cannot hear . . . who cannot hear.

Let poets pattern pretty words:
For lovely largesse - bless you, Birds!...Read more of this...

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