Famous Prima Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Prima poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous prima poems. These examples illustrate what a famous prima poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Carroll, Lewis
...eath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?
Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict to "begin it"--
In gentler tones Secunda hopes
"There will be nonsense in it"--
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.
Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast--
And half believe it true.
A...Read more of this...
by
Lowell, Amy
...s the fat, clapping hands in the boxes.
Cymbals, gigantic, coin-shaped,
Crash.
The orange curtain parts
And the prima-donna steps forward.
One note,
A drop: transparent, iridescent,
A gold bubble,
It floats . . . floats . . .
And bursts against the lips of a bank president
In the grand tier....Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...num>[Pg 60] BALLATA IV. Perchè quel che mi trasse ad amar prima. HE WILL ALWAYS LOVE HER, THOUGH DENIED THE SIGHT OF HER. Though cruelty denies my viewThose charms which led me first to love;To passion yet will I be true,Nor shall my will ...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...CANZONE I. Nel dolce tempo della prima etade. HIS SUFFERINGS SINCE HE BECAME THE SLAVE OF LOVE. In the sweet season when my life was new,Which saw the birth, and still the being seesOf the fierce passion for my ill that grew,Read more of this...
by
Dickinson, Emily
...lee possesseth me,
That had I Ballet knowledge—
Would put itself abroad
In Pirouette to blanch a Troupe—
Or lay a Prima, mad,
And though I had no Gown of Gauze—
No Ringlet, to my Hair,
Nor hopped to Audiences—like Birds,
One Claw upon the Air,
Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
Nor rolled on wheels of snow
Till I was out of sight, in sound,
The House encore me so—
Nor any know I know the Art
I mention—easy—Here—
Nor any Placard boast me—
It's full as ...Read more of this...
by
Dickinson, Emily
...Glee possesseth me,
That had I Ballet knowledge --
Would put itself abroad
In Pirouette to blanch a Troupe --
Or lay a Prima, mad,
And though I had no Gown of Gauze --
No Ringlet, to my Hair,
Nor hopped to Audiences -- like Birds,
One Claw upon the Air,
Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
Nor rolled on wheels of snow
Till I was out of sight, in sound,
The House encore me so --
Nor any know I know the Art
I mention -- easy -- Here --
Nor any Placard boast me --
It's full a...Read more of this...
by
Tebb, Barry
...**** those dusty grey contemporary voices
Those verses will be mine.
Haslam’s a whole lot better but touchy as a prima donna
And couldn’t take it when I said he’d be a whole lot better
If he’d unloose his affects and let them scatter
I’m envious of his habitat, The Haworth Moors
Living there should be the inspiration of my old age
But being monophobic I can’t face the isolation
Or persuade my passionate friend to join me.
What urban experiences can improve
...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...a dal principio del mattino,
e 'l sol montava 'n s? con quelle stelle
ch'eran con lui quando l'amor divino
mosse di prima quelle cose belle;
s? ch'a bene sperar m'era cagione
di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle
l'ora del tempo e la dolce stagione;
ma non s? che paura non mi desse
la vista che m'apparve d'un leone.
Questi parea che contra me venisse
con la test'alta e con rabbiosa fame,
s? che parea che l'aere ne tremesse.
Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame
...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...the beginning of the morning;
the sun was rising now in fellowship
with the same stars that had escorted it
mosse di prima quelle cose belle;
s? ch'a bene sperar m'era cagione
di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle
when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty;
so that the hour and the gentle season
gave me good cause for hopefulness on seeing
l'ora del tempo e la dolce stagione;
ma non s? che paura non mi desse
la vista che m'apparve d'un leone .
that beast befo...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...here shall your excellence reveal itself!
Io cominciai: «Poeta che mi guidi,
guarda la mia virt? s'ell'? possente,
prima ch'a l'alto passo tu mi fidi .
I started: "Poet, you who are my guide,
see if the force in me is strong enough
before you let me face that rugged pass.
Tu dici che di Silvio il parente,
corruttibile ancora, ad immortale
secolo and?, e fu sensibilmente .
You say that he who fathered Sylvius,
while he was still corruptible, had jo...Read more of this...
by
Plath, Sylvia
...r, while each polemic jackanapes
joins his enemies' recruits.
The paradox is that 'the play's the thing':
though prima donna pouts and critic stings,
there burns throughout the line of words,
the cultivated act, a fierce brief fusion
which dreamers call real, and realists, illusion:
an insight like the flight of birds:
Arrows that lacerate the sky, while knowing
the secret of their ecstasy's in going;
some day, moving, one will drop,
and, dropping, die, to trace a...Read more of this...
by
Rossetti, Christina
...weet because you call'd them sweet?
2
Era gi? 1'ora che volge il desio. - Dante
Ricorro al tempo ch' io vi vidi prima. - Petrarca
I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could r...Read more of this...
by
Service, Robert William
...otherland;
And, stretched in deathless love to England's shore,
Some day she'll hearken and she'll understand.)
A prima-donna in the shining past,
But now a mother growing old and gray,
She thinks of how she held a people fast
In thrall, and gleaned the triumphs of a day.
She sees a sea of faces like a dream;
She sees herself a queen of song once more;
She sees lips part in rapture, eyes agleam;
She sings as never once she sang before.
She sings a wild, sw...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...ssere ascosa,
volta ver' me, s? lieta come bella,
«Drizza la mente in Dio grata», mi disse,
«che n'ha congiunti con la prima stella».
Parev'a me che nube ne coprisse
lucida, spessa, solida e pulita,
quasi adamante che lo sol ferisse.
Per entro s? l'etterna margarita
ne ricevette, com'acqua recepe
raggio di luce permanendo unita.
S'io era corpo, e qui non si concepe
com'una dimensione altra patio,
ch'esser convien se corpo in corpo repe,
accender ne dovr?a pi?...Read more of this...
by
Carroll, Lewis
...weak
To stir the tiniest feather&xclm.
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?
Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict ``to begin it'':
In gentler tones Secunda hopes
``There will be nonsense in it!''
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.
Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast--
And half believe it true.
...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...a scorta.
I' mi volsi a man destra, e puosi mente
a l'altro polo, e vidi quattro stelle
non viste mai fuor ch'a la prima gente.
Goder pareva 'l ciel di lor fiammelle:
oh settentrional vedovo sito,
poi che privato se' di mirar quelle!
Com'io da loro sguardo fui partito,
un poco me volgendo a l 'altro polo,
là onde il Carro già era sparito,
vidi presso di me un veglio solo,
degno di tanta reverenza in vista,
che più non dee a padre alcun figliuolo.
Lunga la bar...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...s=pagenum>[Pg 64] SONNET L. Lasso, che mal accorto fui da prima. HE PRAYS LOVE TO KINDLE ALSO IN HER THE FLAME BY WHICH HE IS UNCEASINGLY TORMENTED. Alas! this heart by me was little knownIn those first days when Love its depths explored,Where by degrees he made hi...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...PAN class=pagenum>[Pg 85] SONNET LXII. Se bianche non son prima ambe le tempie. THOUGH NOT SECURE AGAINST THE WILES OF LOVE, HE FEELS STRENGTH ENOUGH TO RESIST THEM. Till silver'd o'er by age my temples grow,Where Time by slow degrees now plants his grey,Safe shall...Read more of this...
by
di Prima, Diane
...the weighing is done in autumn
and the sifting
what is to be threshed
is threshed in autumn
what is to be gathered is taken
the wind does not die in autumn
the moon
shifts endlessly thru flying clouds
in autumn the sea is high
& a golden light plays everywhere
making it harder
to go one's way.
all leavetaking is in autumn
where there is leavetaking
i...Read more of this...
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