Famous Proud Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Proud Farmer

by Vachel Lindsay
 [In memory of E. S. Frazee, Rush County, Indiana]


Into the acres of the newborn state 
He poured his strength, and plowed his ancient name, 
And, when the traders followed him, he stood 
Towering above their furtive souls and tame. 

That brow without a stain, that fearless eye 
Oft left the passing stranger wondering 
To find such knighthood in the...Read more of this...

The Proud Poet

by Joyce Kilmer
 (For Shaemas O Sheel)

One winter night a Devil came and sat upon my bed,
His eyes were full of laughter for his heart was full of crime.
"Why don't you take up fancy work, or embroidery?" he said,
"For a needle is as manly a tool as a pen that makes a rhyme!"
"You little ugly Devil," said I, "go back to Hell
For...Read more of this...

Proud Music of The Storm

by Walt Whitman
 1
PROUD music of the storm! 
Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies! 
Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains! 
Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras! 
You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert,
Blending, with Nature’s rhythmus, all the tongues of nations; 
You chords left us by vast composers! you choruses! 
You formless, free, religious dances! you...Read more of this...

Proud and Beautiful

by Carl Sandburg
 AFTER you have spent all the money modistes and manicures and mannikins will take for fixing you over into a thing the people on the streets call proud and beautiful,
After the shops and fingers have worn out all they have and know and can hope to have and know for the sake of making you what the people on...Read more of this...

Lord Kitchner

by Robert Seymour Bridges
 Unflinching hero, watchful to foresee 
And face thy country's peril wheresoe'er, 
Directing war and peace with equal care, 
Till by long toil ennobled thou wert he 
Whom England call'd and bade "Set my arm free 
To obey my will and save my honour fair," -- 
What day the foe presumed on her despair 
And she herself had trust in...Read more of this...

A Proud Lady

by Elinor Wylie
 Hate in the world's hand 
Can carve and set its seal 
Like the strong blast of sand 
Which cuts into steel.

I have seen how the finger of hate 
Can mar and mould 
Faces burned passionate 
And frozen cold.

Sorrowful faces worn 
As stone with rain, 
Faces writhing with scorn 
And sullen with pain.

But you have a proud face 
Which the...Read more of this...

So proud she was to die

by Emily Dickinson
 So proud she was to die
It made us all ashamed
That what we cherished, so unknown
To her desire seemed --
So satisfied to go
Where none of us should be
Immediately -- that Anguish stooped
Almost to Jealousy --...Read more of this...

The Missal Makers

by Robert William Service
 To visit the Escurial
We took a motor bus,
And there a guide mercurial
 Took charge of us.
He showed us through room after room,
And talked hour after hour,
Of place, crypt and royal tomb,
 Of pomp and power.

But in bewilderment of grace
What pleased me most of all
Were ancient missals proud in place
 In stately hall.
A thousand tomes there were at least,
All luminously...Read more of this...

Death Be Not Proud

by John Donne
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, 
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, 
And soonest our best men with thee...Read more of this...

The Proud Lady

by Henry Van Dyke
 When Stiivoren town was in its prime
And queened the Zuyder Zee,
Its ships went out to every clime
With costly merchantry. 

A lady dwelt in that rich town,
The fairest in all the land;
She walked abroad in a velvet gown,
With many rings on her hand. 

Her hair was bright as the beaten gold,
Her lips as coral red,
Her roving eyes were blue and...Read more of this...

Death Snips Proud Men

by Carl Sandburg
 DEATH is stronger than all the governments because the governments are men and men die and then death laughs: Now you see ’em, now you don’t.

Death is stronger than all proud men and so death snips proud men on the nose, throws a pair of dice and says: Read ’em and weep.

Death sends a radiogram every day: When I...Read more of this...

Do you Remember me? or are you Proud?

by Walter Savage Landor
 "Do you remember me? or are you proud?"
Lightly advancing thro' her star-trimm'd crowd,
Ianthe said, and lookt into my eyes,
"A yes, a yes, to both: for Memory
Where you but once have been must ever be,
And at your voice Pride from his throne must rise."...Read more of this...

Memoir of a Proud Boy

by Carl Sandburg
 HE lived on the wings of storm.
The ashes are in Chihuahua.

Out of Ludlow and coal towns in Colorado
Sprang a vengeance of Slav miners, Italians, Scots, Cornishmen, Yanks.
Killings ran under the spoken commands of this boy
With eighty men and rifles on a hogback mountain.

They killed swearing to remember
The shot and charred wives and children
In the burnt camp of Ludlow,
And Louis...Read more of this...

Holy Sonnet X: Death Be Not Proud

by John Donne
 Death, be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which yet thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must low
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones...Read more of this...

Proud Word You Never Spoke

by Walter Savage Landor
 Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak
Four not exempt from pride some future day.
Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek,
Over my open volume you will say,
'This man loved me'—then rise and trip away....Read more of this...

proud of his scientific attitude

by Edward Estlin (E E) Cummings
proud of his scientific attitude

and liked the prince of wales wife wants to die
but the doctors won't let her comman considers fr
ood
whom he pronounces young mistaken and
cradles in rubbery one somewhat hand
the paper destinies of nations sic
item a bounceless period unshy
the empty house is full O Yes of guk
rooms daughter item son a woopsing *****
colon hobby photography never has plumbed
the...Read more of this...

Since neither man's proud pomp kingly name

by Hafez
Since neither man’s proud pomp & kingly name
Endureth, nor his monumental throne,
Nor honour’d shrine, nor pinnacle of fame;

Since borne in agony to life he came
& in pain too he passeth, one by one
His joys desert him, friendless & alone,

Yea since all lov’d delights their cycles range,
All to their parent elements return,
Air to air, dust to dust,—when Thy Life’s breath,

The fire...Read more of this...

Sonnet 86: Was it the proud full sail of his great verse

by William Shakespeare
 Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of all-too-precious you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
Giving him aid, my verse astonishèd.
He nor...Read more of this...

Sez You

by Henry Lawson
 When the heavy sand is yielding backward from your blistered feet, 
And across the distant timber you can SEE the flowing heat; 
When your head is hot and aching, and the shadeless plain is wide, 
And it's fifteen miles to water in the scrub the other side -- 
Don't give up, don't be down-hearted, to a man's strong heart...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXIX: When Conquering Love

by Michael Drayton
 To the Senses

When conquering Love did first my Heart assail, 
Unto mine aid I summon'd every Sense, 
Doubting, if that proud tyrant should prevail, 
My Heart should suffer for mine Eyes' offence; 
But he with Beauty first corrupted Sight, 
My Hearing bribed with her tongue's harmony, 
My Taste by her sweet lips drawn with delight, 
My Smelling won with...Read more of this...

People With Proud Chins

by Carl Sandburg
 I TELL them where the wind comes from,
Where the music goes when the fiddle is in the box.

Kids—I saw one with a proud chin, a sleepyhead,
And the moonline creeping white on her pillow.
 I have seen their heads in the starlight
 And their proud chins marching in a mist of stars.

They are the only people I never lie to.
...Read more of this...

Cadenza

by Carl Sandburg
 THE KNEES
 of this proud woman
are bone.

The elbows
 of this proud woman
are bone.

The summer-white stars
 and the winter-white stars
never stop circling
 around this proud woman.

The bones
 of this proud woman
answer the vibrations
 of the stars.

 In summer
the stars speak deep thoughts
 In the winter
the stars repeat summer speeches.

The knees
 of this proud woman
know these thoughts
 and know these speeches
of...Read more of this...

Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it

by Emily Dickinson
 Proud of my broken heart, since thou didst break it,
Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,

Proud of my night, since thou with moons dost slake it,
Not to partake thy passion, my humility.

Thou can'st not boast, like Jesus, drunken without companion
Was the strong cup of anguish brewed for the Nazarene

Thou can'st not pierce tradition with the peerless...Read more of this...

These numerous great lords, so proud of their titles,

by Omar Khayyam
These numerous great lords, so proud of their titles,
are so gnawed by cares and sorrows that existence to
them is a burden. And most ridiculous it is that they
deign not to call by the name of men those who, unlike to
them, are not slaves to their passions....Read more of this...

Know Celia Since Thou Art So Proud

by Thomas Carew
 Know, Celia, since thou art so proud,
'Twas I that gave thee thy renown.
Thou hadst in the forgotten crowd
Of common beauties lived unknown
Had not my verse extolled thy name,
And with it imped the wings of Fame.

That killing power is none of thine;
I gave it to thy voice and eyes.
Thy sweets, thy graces, all are mine;
Thou art my star, shin'st in...Read more of this...

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