Famous Prolonged Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Cloud in Trousers

...than anything. 

Have you seen 
a dog lick the hand that thrashed it?! 

I, 
mocked by my contemporaries 
like a prolonged 
dirty joke, 
I perceive whom no one sees, 
crossing the mountains of time. 

Where men¡¯s eyes stop short, 
there, at the head of hungry hordes, 
the year 1916 cometh 
in the thorny crown of revolutions. 

In your midst, his precursor, 
I am where pain is ¨C everywhere; 
on each drop of the tear-flow 
I have nailed myself on the cross...Read more of this...
by Mayakovsky, Vladimir


A Game Of Chess

...s; stirred by the air
  That freshened from the window, these ascended                          90
  In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
  Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
  Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
  Huge sea-wood fed with copper
  Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
  In which sad light a carved dolphin swam.
  Above the antique mantel was displayed
  As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
  The change of P...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

A Hermit Thrush

...e, 
the ant-thronged, root-snelled moss, grass 
and clover tuffet underneath it, 
edges frazzled raw

but, like our own prolonged attachment, holding. 
Whatever moral lesson might commend itself, 
there's no use drawing one, 
there's nothing here

to seize on as exemplifying any so-called virtue 
(holding on despite adversity, perhaps) or 
any no-more-than-human tendency—
stubborn adherence, say,

to a wholly wrongheaded tenet. Though to 
hold on in any case means taking less...Read more of this...
by Clampitt, Amy

Abt Vogler

...failure here but a triumph's evidence
For the fulness of the days? Have we withered or agonized?
Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence?
Why rushed the discords in, but that harmony should be prized?
Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear,
Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and woe:
But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the ear;
The rest may reason and welcome; 'tis we musicians know.

Well, it is earth with me; ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Kar

..., and let thy better wit help all! 

'Tis but a case of mania--subinduced 
By epilepsy, at the turning-point 
Of trance prolonged unduly some three days: 
When, by the exhibition of some drug 
Or spell, exorcization, stroke of art 
Unknown to me and which 'twere well to know, 
The evil thing out-breaking all at once 
Left the man whole and sound of body indeed,-- 
But, flinging (so to speak) life's gates too wide, 
Making a clear house of it too suddenly, 
The first conceit t...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert


At a Certain Age

...ingly very close
Did not care to hear of things long past.
Conversations with friends over vodka or coffee
Ought not be prolonged beyond the first sign of boredom.
It would be humiliating to pay by the hour
A man with a diploma, just for listening.
Churches. Perhaps churches. But to confess there what?
That we used to see ourselves as handsome and noble
Yet later in our place an ugly toad
Half-opens its thick eyelid
And one sees clearly: "That's me."...Read more of this...
by Milosz, Czeslaw

Eviradnus

...hauberks, that strong breathing seemed to sway, 
 Are stranded now in helplessness alway 
 To see the shadows, still prolonged, that seem 
 To take at night the image of a dream. 
 
 These two great files reach from the door afar 
 To where the table and the daïs are, 
 Leaving between their fronts a narrow lane. 
 On the left side the Marquises maintain 
 Their place, but the right side the Dukes retain, 
 And till the roof, embattled by Spignus, 
 But worn by ti...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Frost at Midnight

...ke articulate sounds of things to come!
So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt,
Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams!
And so I brooded all the following morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:
Save if the door half opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up,
For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play-mate when we b...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Holy-Cross Day

...had we dared!
``Let defiance to them pay mistrust of Thee,
``And Rome make amends for Calvary!

XIX.

``By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
``By the infamy, Israel's heritage,
``By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace,
``By the badge of shame, by the felon's place,
``By the branding-tool, the bloody whip,
``And the summons to Christian fellowship,---

XX.

``We boast our proof that at least the Jew
``Would wrest Christ's name from the Devil's crew.
``Thy face to...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

In Romney Marsh

...ing wagged their tops;
The swinging waves pealed on the shore;
The saffron beach, all diamond drops
And beads of surge, prolonged the roar.

As I came up from Dymchurch Wall,
I saw above the Downs' low crest
The crimson brands of sunset fall,
Flicker and fade from out the West.

Night sank: like flakes of silver fire
The stars in one great shower came down;
Shrill blew the wind; and shrill the wire
Rang out from Hythe to Romney town.

The darkly shining salt sea drops
Streame...Read more of this...
by Davidson, John

Mazeppa

...II

'The wood was passed; 'twas more than noon,
But chill the air, although in June;
Or it might be my veins ran cold -
Prolonged endurance tames the bold;
And I was then not what I seem,
But headlong as a wintry stream,
And wore my feelings out before
I well could count their causes o'er:
And what with fury, fear, and wrath,
The tortures which beset my path,
Cold, hunger, sorrow, shame, distress, 
Thus bound in nature's nakedness;
Sprung from a race whose rising blood
When s...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Municipal Gum

...s 
Here you seems to me 
Like that poor cart-horse 
Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, 
Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged, 
Whose hung head and listless mien express 
Its hopelessness. 
Municipal gum, it is dolorous 
To see you thus 
Set in your black grass of bitumen-- 
O fellow citizen, 
What have they done to us?...Read more of this...
by Noonuccal, Oodgeroo

My Happiest Dream

...why she is afraid,— 
 Love's yet unseen! 
 Another—rarest 'mong the rare— 
 To see the gaze of chosen fair 
 Return prolonged and wistful stare 
 Of eager een. 
 
 But—dream o'er all to stir my soul, 
 And shine the brightest on the roll, 
 Is when a land of tyrant's toll 
 By sword is rid. 
 I say not dagger—with the sword 
 When Right enchampions the horde, 
 All in broad day—so that the bard 
 May sing the victor with the starred 
 Bayard and Cid! 


 

...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Outside The Ball-room

...evelry resounds, 
 Like fairy melody on haunted grounds. 
 But who demands this profuse, wanton glee, 
 These shouts prolonged and wild festivity— 
 Not sure our city—web, more woe than bliss, 
 In any hour, requiring aught but this! 
 
 Deaf is the ear of all that jewelled crowd 
 To sorrow's sob, although its call be loud. 
 Better than waste long nights in idle show, 
 To help the indigent and raise the low— 
 To train the wicked to forsake his way, 
 And find ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...rld where shall I seek 
His bright appearances, or foot-step trace? 
For though I fled him angry, yet recalled 
To life prolonged and promised race, I now 
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts 
Of glory; and far off his steps adore. 
To whom thus Michael with regard benign. 
Adam, thou knowest Heaven his, and all the Earth; 
Not this rock only; his Omnipresence fills 
Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives, 
Fomented by his virtual power and warmed: 
All the eart...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Ballad Of A Bachelor

...ar,

And might have studied two years more
Had he not, walking on the shore,

Conceived a very simple way
Of ending his prolonged delay--

A way in which he might decide
Which of the maids should be his bride.

He said, "I'll toss into the air
A dollar, and I'll toss it fair;

If heads come up, I'll wed Marie;
If tails, fair Kate my bride shall be."

Then from his leather pocket-book
A dollar bright and new he took;

He kissed one side for fair Marie,
The other side for Kate ...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

The Building of the Ship

...th one exulting, joyous bound, 
She leaps into the ocean's arms! 
And lo! from the assembled crowd 
There rose a shout, prolonged and loud, 
That to the ocean seemed to say, 
"Take her, O bridegroom, old and gray, 
Take her to thy protecting arms, 
With all her youth and all her charms!" 
How beautiful she is! How fair 
She lies within those arms, that press 
Her form with many a soft caress 
Of tenderness and watchful care! 
Sail forth into the sea, O ship! 
Through wind and...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Lady of the Lake

...aster's side they pressed,
     With drooping tail and humbled crest;
     But still the dingle's hollow throat
     Prolonged the swelling bugle-note.
     The owlets started from their dream,
     The eagles answered with their scream,
     Round and around the sounds were cast,
     Till echo seemed an answering blast;
     And on the Hunter tried his way,
     To join some comrades of the day,
     Yet often paused, so strange the road,
     So wondrous were th...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Metamorphosis Of Plants

...close the ring of her forces eternal;

Yet doth a new one, at once, cling to the one gone 
before,
So that the chain be prolonged for ever through all generations,

And that the whole may have life, e'en as enjoy'd 
by each part.
Now, my beloved one, turn thy gaze on the many-hued thousands

Which, confusing no more, gladden the mind as they 
wave.
Every plant unto thee proclaimeth the laws everlasting,

Every flowered speaks louder and louder to thee;
But if thou here canst ...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

The Waste Land

...ed
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended 
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
In which sad light a carved dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarou...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

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