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Famous Profaned Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...lips and chin.
Man has but one soul, 'tis ordained,
And each soul but one love, I add;
Yet souls are damned and love's profaned.
These nightingales will sing me mad!
The nightingales, the nightingales.

I marvel how the birds can sing.
There's little difference, in their view,
Betwixt our Tuscan trees that spring
As vital flames into the blue,
And dull round blots of foliage meant
Like saturated sponges here
To suck the fogs up. As content
Is he too in this land, 'tis clear....Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett



..., and bloom before his eyes; 
From frozen pools he saw the pale 
Sweet summer lilies rise. 

To their old homes, by man profaned 
Came the sad dryads, exiled long, 
And through their leafy tongues complained 
Of household use and wrong. 

The beechen platter sprouted wild, 
The pipkin wore its old-time green, 
The cradle o'er the sleeping child 
Became a leafy screen. 

Haply our gentle friend hath met, 
While wandering in her sylvan quest, 
Haunting his native woodlands yet,...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...I am the mouth of moss
If you are the forest of the clouds
              I am the axe that parts it
If you are the profaned city
              I am the rain of consecration
If you are the yellow mountain
              I am the red arms of lichen
If you are the rising sun
              I am the road of blood...Read more of this...
by Paz, Octavio
...l the blest fraternity of love
Solemnized there thy birth, and kept thy holyday above.

O gracious God! how far have we
Profaned thy Heav'nly gift of poesy!
Made prostitute and profligate the Muse,
Debased to each obscene and impious use,
Whose harmony was first ordained above,
For tongues of angels and for hymns of love!
Oh wretched we! why were we hurried down
This lubrique and adult'rate age
(Nay, added fat pollutions of our own)
T' increase the steaming ordures of the sta...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...ONE word is too often profaned 
For me to profane it  
One feeling too falsely disdain'd 
For thee to disdain it. 
One hope is too like despair 5 
For prudence to smother  
And pity from thee more dear 
Than that from another. 

I can give not what men call love; 
But wilt thou accept not 10 
The worship the heart lifts above 
And the Heavens reject not: 
The desire ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe



...ced 
Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
Abominations; and with cursed things 
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 
And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears; 
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire 
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain, 
In Argob and in Basan,...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...py, 
Argues no leader but a liear traced, 
Satan, and couldst thou faithful add? O name, 
O sacred name of faithfulness profaned! 
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew? 
Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head. 
Was this your discipline and faith engaged, 
Your military obedience, to dissolve 
Allegiance to the acknowledged Power supreme? 
And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem 
Patron of liberty, who more than thou 
Once fawned, and cringed, and servily adored 
Heave...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...d Omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so 
Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact 
Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, 
Profaned first by the serpent, by him first 
Made common, and unhallowed, ere our taste; 
Nor yet on him found deadly; yet he lives; 
Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as Man, 
Higher degree of life; inducement strong 
To us, as likely tasting to attain 
Proportional ascent; which cannot be 
But to be Gods, or Angels, demi-Gods. 
Nor can I think that...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...me?
Shall saints be made their endless song,
And bear immortal shame?

Canst thou for ever sit and hear
Thine holy name profaned?
And still thy jealousy forbear,
And still withhold thine hand?

What strange deliv'rance hast thou shown
In ages long before!
And now no other God we own,
No other God adore.

Thou didst divide the raging sea
By thy resistless might,
To make thy tribes a wondrous way,
And then secure their flight.

Is not the world of nature thine,
The darkness and...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac
...me?
Shall saints be made their endless song,
And bear immortal shame?

Canst thou for ever sit and bear
Thine holy name profaned?
And still thy jealousy forbear,
And still withhold thine hand?

What strange deliv'rance hast thou shown
In ages long before !
And now no other God we own,
No other God adore.

Thou didst divide the raging sea
By thy resistless might,
To make thy tribes a wondrous way,
And then secure their flight.

Is not the world of nature thine,
The darkness an...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac
...-place 
To him who leaves such hearts on shore. 
Or -- if some desert land we meet, 
Where never yet false-hearted men 
Profaned a world, that else were sweet -- 
Then rest thee, bark, but not till then....Read more of this...
by Moore, Thomas
...put on nature's power,
Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,
Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem,
At such who, not born fair no beauty lack,
Sland'ring creation with a false esteem.
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving,
Or if it do, not from those lips of thine
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov'st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee.
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example may...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...hou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lovest those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example ma...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...ut on nature's power,
Fairing the foul with art's false borrow'd face,
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my mistress' brows are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
Slandering creation with a false esteem:
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...suffering ages look; 
Time’s tragedy is in that aching stoop; 
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed, 
Plundered, profaned and disinherited, 
Cries protest to the Judges of the World, 
A protest that is also prophecy. 

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, 
Is this the handiwork you give to God, 
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? 
How will you ever straighten up this shape; 
Touch it again with immortality; 
Give back the upward looking and the ligh...Read more of this...
by Markham, Edwin
...y walk begun,
Avoiding only, as I trod,
My brothers' graves without a sod;
For if I thought with heedless tread
My step profaned their lowly bed,
My breath came gaspingly and thick,
And my crush'd heart fell blind and sick. 

XII
I made a footing in the wall,
I was not there from to escape,
For I had buried one and all
Who loved me in a human shape;
And the whole earth would henceforth be
A wider prison unto me:
No child - no sire - no kin had I
No partner in my misery;
I tho...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...ad,
The flowers, accustomed, blew,
As if no soul the solstice passed
That maketh all things new --

The time was scarce profaned, by speech --
The symbol of a word
Was needless, as at Sacrament,
The Wardrobe -- of our Lord --

Each was to each The Sealed Church,
Permitted to commune this -- time --
Lest we too awkward show
At Supper of the Lamb.

The Hours slid fast -- as Hours will,
Clutched tight, by greedy hands --
So faces on two Decks, look back,
Bound to opposing lands ...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...; 
And while your tyrants join'd in hate, 
You never join'd in love. 
But hearts fell off that ought to twine, 
And man profaned what God had given; 
Till some were heard to curse the shrine 
Where others knelt in heaven!"...Read more of this...
by Moore, Thomas

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry