Famous Quatrain Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Quatrain poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous quatrain poems. These examples illustrate what a famous quatrain poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
George William Russell
OH, if my spirit may foretell
Or earlier impart,
It is because I always dwell
With morning in my heart.
I feel the keen embrace of light
Ere dawning on the view
It sprays the chilly fold of night
With iridescent dew.
The robe of dust around it cast
Hides not the earth below,
Its heart of ruby flame, the vast
Mysterious gloom and...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Those hypocrites, all know so well, who lurk
In streets to beg their bread, and will not work,
Claim to be saints, like Shibli and Junaid,
No Shiblis are they, though well known in Karkh!...Read more of this...
by
Oscar Wilde
Is it thy will that I should wax and wane,
Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey,
And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain
Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?
Is it thy will - Love that I love so well -
That my Soul's House should be a tortured spot
Wherein, like evil paramours, must dwell
The quenchless flame, the...Read more of this...
by
Henry Lawson
We must suffer, husband and father, we must suffer, daughter and son,
For the wrong we have taken part in and the wrong that we have seen done.
Let the bride of frivolous fashion, and of ease, be ashamed and dumb,
For I tell you the nations shall rule us who have let their children come!
How shall Australia escape it – we...Read more of this...
by
Isaac Watts
The saint's trial and safety.
Unshaken as the sacred hill,
And firm as mountains be,
Firm as a rock the soul shall rest
That leans, O Lord, on thee.
Not walls nor hills could guard so well
Old Salem's happy ground,
As those eternal arms of love
That every saint surround.
While tyrants are a smarting scourge
To drive them near to God,
Divine compassion does allay
The fury of the...Read more of this...
by
Isaac Watts
Forgiveness of sins upon confession.
O Blessed souls are they
Whose sins are covered o'er!
Divinely blest, to whom the Lord
Imputes their guilt no more.
They mourn their follies past,
And keep their hearts with care;
Their lips and lives, without deceit,
Shall prove their faith sincere.
While I concealed my guilt,
I felt the fest'ring wound;
Till I confessed my sins to thee,
And ready pardon found.
Let sinners learn...Read more of this...
by
Ogden Nash
Tell me, O Octopus, I begs
Is those things arms, or is they legs?
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
If I were thou, I'd call me Us....Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Yesterday, I visited the workshop of a potter; there I
saw two thousand pitchers, some speaking, others silent.
Each one of these seemed to say to me: Where is the
potter? Where is the buyer of pitchers? Where the
seller?...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
I seek a flask of ruby wine, a book of verse, a momentary
peace in life and bread enough. And if with
these, my friend, in some lone spot with thee I could
repose, 'twould be a happiness above a Sultan's regal joy....Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
I stole them from a Bee --
Because -- Thee --
Sweet plea --
He pardoned me!...Read more of this...
by
Emily Dickinson
The Work of Her that went,
The Toil of Fellows done --
In Ovens green our Mother bakes,
By Fires of the Sun....Read more of this...
by
Joseph Brodsky
I was but what you'd brush
with your palm what your leaning
brow would hunch to in evening's
raven-black hush.
I was but what your gaze
in that dark could distinguish:
a dim shape to begin with
later - features a face.
It was you on my right
on my left with your heated
sighs who molded my helix
whispering at my side.
It was you by that black
window's trembling...Read more of this...
by
Claude McKay
O word I love to sing! thou art too tender
For all the passions agitating me;
For all my bitterness thou art too tender,
I cannot pour my red soul into thee.
O haunting melody! thou art too slender,
Too fragile like a globe of crystal glass;
For all my stormy thoughts thou art too slender,
The burden from...Read more of this...
by
Vachel Lindsay
When Bryan speaks, the town's a hive.
From miles around, the autos drive.
The sparrow chirps. The rooster crows.
The place is kicking and alive.
When Bryan speaks, the bunting glows.
The raw procession onward flows.
The small dogs bark. The children laugh
A wind of springtime fancy blows.
When Bryan speaks, the wigwam shakes.
The corporation magnate quakes.
The pre-convention plot is smashed.
The valiant pleb full-armed awakes.
When Bryan...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
To prayer and fasting when my heart inclined,
All my desire I surely hoped to find;
Alas! my purity is stained with wine,
My prayers are wasted like a breath of wind....Read more of this...
by
Isaac Watts
The first and second Adam.
Rom. 5:12,etc.
Deep in the dust before thy throne
Our guilt and our disgrace we own;
Great God! we own th' unhappy name
Whence sprang our nature and our shame;
Adam the sinner: at his fall,
Death like a conqueror seized us
A thousand new-born babes are dead
By fatal union to their head.
But whilst our spirits, filled with awe,
Behold the terrors...Read more of this...
by
Hilaire Belloc
When people call this beast to mind,
They marvel more and more
At such a little tail behind,
So large a trunk before....Read more of this...
by
Isaac Watts
Imperfection of nature, and perfection of scripture.
ver. 96, paraphrased.
Let all the heathen writers join
To form one perfect book;
Great God! if once compared with thine,
How mean their writings look!
Not the most perfect rules they gave
Could show one sin forgiv'n,
Nor lead a step beyond the grave;
But thine conduct to heav'n.
I've seen an end to what we call
Perfection here below;
How short...Read more of this...
by
Isaac Watts
Unfruitfulness, ignorance, and unsanctified affections.
Long have I sat beneath the sound
Of thy salvation, Lord;
But still how weak my faith is found,
And knowledge of thy word!
Oft I frequent thy holy place,
And hear almost in vain;
How small a portion of thy grace
My memory can retain!
[My dear Almighty, and my God,
How little art thou known
By all the judgments of thy rod,
And blessings...Read more of this...
by
Anne Bronte
YES, thou art gone ! and never more
Thy sunny smile shall gladden me ;
But I may pass the old church door,
And pace the floor that covers thee.
May stand upon the cold, damp stone,
And think that, frozen, lies below
The lightest heart that I have known,
The kindest I shall ever know.
Yet, though I cannot see thee more,
'Tis still a comfort to...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Even a mountain would dance for joy if you soaked it
in wine. Poor is the fool who scorns the cup. You dare
order me to renounce the juice of the vine! Know then
that wine is a soul which helps to bring man to perfection....Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
This wheel of heaven, which makes us all afraid,
I liken to a lamp's revolving shade,
The sun the candlestick, the earth the shade,
And men the trembling forms thereon portrayed....Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
If from the commencement Thou hadst wished to make
me known to myself, why later, hast Thou separated me
from this myself? If from the first day Thy intention
was to abandon me, why hast Thou thrown me, all
amazed, into the midst of the world?...Read more of this...
by
Omar Khayyam
Count upon life not longer than the sixtieth year.
Place thy foot in no direction without being overcome
with wine. As long as thy skull hath not been made a
pitcher, go always on thy way, nor take the wine-gourd
from thy shoulder or the wine-cup from thy hand....Read more of this...
by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.
I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.
From my study I see in the lamplight,...Read more of this...
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