Famous Prose Poems by Famous Poets

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

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On Love

by Kahlil Gibran
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with...Read more of this...

Laughter and Tears IX

by Kahlil Gibran
 As the Sun withdrew his rays from the garden, and the moon threw cushioned beams upon the flowers, I sat under the trees pondering upon the phenomena of the atmosphere, looking through the branches at the strewn stars which glittered like chips of silver upon a blue carpet; and I could hear from a distance the agitated murmur of...Read more of this...

Two Infants II

by Kahlil Gibran
 A prince stood on the balcony of his palace addressing a great multitude summoned for the occasion and said, "Let me offer you and this whole fortunate country my congratulations upon the birth of a new prince who will carry the name of my noble family, and of whom you will be justly proud. He is the new bearer...Read more of this...

Stupid

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Stupid people follow guidelines provided by websites and books towards love, you should know that are only how to get a beautiful women, men and sex, not the true love, true love does not need any guidelines."
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...

Two Wishes XI

by Kahlil Gibran
 In the silence of the night Death descended from God toward the earth. He hovered above a city and pierced the dwellings with his eyes. He say the spirits floating on wings of dreams, and the people who were surrendered to the Slumber. 

When the moon fell below the horizon and the city became black, Death walked silently among...Read more of this...

The Death Of A Fly

by Russell Edson
 There was once a man who disguised himself as a 
housefly and went about the neighborhood depositing 
flyspecks.
 Well, he has to do something hasn't he? said someone to 
someone else.
 Of course, said someone else back to someone.
 Then what's all the fuss? said someone to someone else.
 Who's fussing? I'm just saying that if he doesn't get...Read more of this...

The Having To Love Something Else

by Russell Edson
 There was a man who would marry his mother, and asked his
father for his mother's hand in marriage, and was told he could
not marry his mother's hand because it was attached to all
the rest of mother, which was all married to his father; that
he'd have to love something else . . .

 And so he went into the world...Read more of this...

Be a part

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Never be enemy, even you have reasons for that, never hurt and damage to anyone, you will look happy, safe, satisfy within you. You are the society and society is you, be like a perfume, be like a blossom, be a part of harmony, love, friendship, justice, integration and tolerance. Just fight against your own criminal and negative thoughts, you...Read more of this...

Let Them Alone

by Robinson Jeffers
 If God has been good enough to give you a poet
Then listen to him. But for God's sake let him alone until he is dead; 
no prizes, no ceremony,
They kill the man. A poet is one who listens
To nature and his own heart; and if the noise of the world grows up 
around him, and if he is tough...Read more of this...

Alas! when the lead of illness flowed

by Emile Verhaeren
Alas! when the lead of illness flowed in my benumbed veins with my heavy, sluggish blood, with my blood day by day heavier and more sluggish;
When my eyes, my poor eyes, followed peevishly on my long, pale hands the fatal marks of insidious malady;
When my skin dried up like bark, and I had no longer even strength enough to press...Read more of this...

We have violated all the vows that we have made; we

by Omar Khayyam
We have violated all the vows that we have made; we
have closed upon us the door of what is called good and
what is called bad. Then blame me not if you see me
committing senseless deeds, for we are drunk with the
wine of love, and all are drunk as we....Read more of this...

A Poets Death is His Life IV

by Kahlil Gibran
 The dark wings of night enfolded the city upon which Nature had spread a pure white garment of snow; and men deserted the streets for their houses in search of warmth, while the north wind probed in contemplation of laying waste the gardens. There in the suburb stood an old hut heavily laden with snow and on the verge...Read more of this...

It was June in the garden

by Emile Verhaeren
It was June in the garden, our hour and our day, and our eyes looked upon all things with so great a love that the roses seemed to us to open gently, and to see and love us.
The sky was purer than it had ever been: the insects and birds floated in the gold and gladness of an air as...Read more of this...

Sea of love

by Ehsan Sehgal
You have reached a heart that is sea of love, in which you can see and find wisdom, beauty of conversation, politeness, forgiveness, spirituality, respect, harmony and through all that the way of soul where you deserve to be loved. 
Ehsan Sehgal ...Read more of this...

Dangerous Things

by Constantine P Cavafy
 Said Myrtias (a Syrian student
in Alexandria; in the reign of
Augustus Constans and Augustus Constantius;
in part a pagan, and in part a christian);
"Fortified by theory and study,
I shall not fear my passions like a coward.
I shall give my body to sensual delights,
to enjoyments dreamt-of,
to the most daring amorous desires,
to the lustful impulses of my blood, without
any fear, for whenever I...Read more of this...

Sudden Things

by Donald Hall
 A storm was coming, that was why it was dark. The wind was blowing the fronds of the palm trees off. They were maples. I looked out the window across the big lawn. The house was huge, full of children and old people. The lion was loose. Either because of the wind, or by malevolent human energy, which is...Read more of this...

You said to me, one evening

by Emile Verhaeren
You said to me, one evening, words so beautiful that doubtless the flowers that leaned towards us suddenly loved us, and one among them, in order to touch us both, fell upon our knees.
You spoke to me of a time nigh at hand when our years like over-ripe fruit would be ready for the gathering, how the knell of destiny...Read more of this...

Mercian Hymns I

by Geoffrey Hill
 King of the perennial holly-groves, the riven sandstone: overlord of the
M5: architect of the historic rampart and ditch, the citadel at
Tamworth, the summer hermitage in Holy Cross: guardian of the Welsh
Bridge and the Iron Bridge: contractor to the desirable new estates:
saltmaster: money-changer: commissioner for oaths: martyrologist: the
friend of Charlemagne.

'I liked that,' said Offa, 'sing it again.'...Read more of this...

(I have already said) the entire world, like a bowl,

by Omar Khayyam
[I have already said] the entire world, like a bowl,
was rolling in a hollow which, when I slept dead drunk,
I noticed no more than if I saw a grain of barley rolling
along. Yesterday, at evening, I put myself in pawn at
the tavern for a cup of wine. The wine merchant never
ceased to say: O excellent security that here I hold....Read more of this...

Stupidity

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Other name of stupidity is love, and love does not value and recognise the inteligence, that comes from mind, the mostly place of the evil, and love comes from the heart, where God lives, love is in itself symbol of perfection." 
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...

Poem To Be Placed In A Bottle And Cast Out To Sea

by Barry Tebb
 for Ken Kesey and his merry pranksters in a bus called ‘Further...’





Dear _______ and here’s where the problem begins

For who shall I address this letter to?

Friends are few and very special, muses in the main

I must confess, the first I lost just fifty years ago.

Perhaps the best.



I searched for years and wrote en route

‘Bridge Over the Aire’ after that...Read more of this...

Mercian Hymns VII

by Geoffrey Hill
 Gasholders, russet among fields. Milldams, marlpools that lay
unstirring. Eel-swarms. Coagulations of frogs: once, with branches and
half-bricks, he battered a ditchful; then sidled away from the stillness
and silence.

Ceolred was his friend and remained so, even after the day of the lost
fighter: a biplane, already obsolete and irreplaceable, two inches of
heavy snub silver. Ceolred let it spin through a hole in...Read more of this...

Everything that lives about us

by Emile Verhaeren
Everything that lives about us in the fragile and gentle light, frail grasses, tender branches, hollyhocks, and the shadow that brushes them lightly by, and the wind that knots them, and the singing and hopping birds that swarm riotously in the sun like clusters of jewels,— everything that lives in the fine ruddy garden loves us artlessly, and we—we love...Read more of this...

Strayed Crab

by Elizabeth Bishop
 This is not my home. How did I get so far from water? It must 
be over that way somewhere. 
 I am the color of wine, of tinta. The inside of my powerful 
right claw is saffron-yellow. See, I see it now; I wave it like a 
flag. I am dapper and elegant; I move with great precision,...Read more of this...

Unseen love

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Love to the unseen person is the most powerful and true love that is only raised in the hearts of the blessed people for those who are also blessed by the blessings of the Divine."
Ehsan Sehgal....Read more of this...

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