Famous Quite Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Last Buccaneer

by Charles Kingsley
 OH, England is a pleasant place for them that ’s rich and high; 
But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I; 
And such a port for mariners I ne’er shall see again, 
As the pleasant Isle of Avès, beside the Spanish main. 

There were forty craft in Avès that were both swift and stout, 
All...Read more of this...

Job Interview

by William Matthews
 Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch's wife
 He would have written sonnets all his life?
 DON JUAN, III, 63-4

"Where do you see yourself five years from now?"
the eldest male member (or is "male member"
a redundancy?) of the committee
asked me. "Not here," I thought. A good thing I
speak fluent Fog. I craved that job like some
unappeasable, taunting woman.
What did...Read more of this...

At the Zoo

by Alan Alexander (A A) Milne
There are lions and roaring tigers,
and enormous camels and things,
There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons,
and a great big bear with wings.
There's a sort of a tiny potamus,
and a tiny nosserus too -
But I gave buns to the elephant
when I went down to the Zoo!

There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers,
and a Super-in-tendent's House,
There are masses of goats, and a Polar,
and different kinds of...Read more of this...

Modern Love: XXXIV

by George Meredith
 Madam would speak with me. So, now it comes:
The Deluge or else Fire! She's well, she thanks
My husbandship. Our chain on silence clanks.
Time leers between, above his twiddling thumbs.
Am I quite well? Most excellent in health!
The journals, too, I diligently peruse.
Vesuvius is expected to give news:
Niagara is no noisier. By stealth
Our eyes dart scrutinizing snakes. She's glad
I'm happy, says...Read more of this...

My Favourite Fan

by Robert William Service
 Being a writer I receive
Sweet screeds from folk of every land;
Some are so weird you'd scarce believe,
And some quite hard to understand:
But as a conscientious man
I type my thanks to all I can. 

So when I got a foreign scrawl
That spider-webbed across the page,
Said I: "This is the worst of all;
No doubt a child of tender age
Has written it,...Read more of this...

Elegy

by D. H. Lawrence
 Since I lost you, my darling, the sky has come near,
And I am of it, the small sharp stars are quite near,
The white moon going among them like a white bird among snow-berries,
And the sound of her gently rustling in heaven like a bird I hear.

And I am willing to come to you now, my dear,
As a pigeon lets...Read more of this...

Infidelity

by Robert William Service
 Three Triangles

TRIANGLE ONE

My husband put some poison in my beer,
And fondly hoped that I would drink it up.
He would get rid of me - no bloody fear,
For when his back was turned I changed the cup.
He took it all, and if he did not die,
Its just because he's heartier than I.

And now I watch and watch him night and...Read more of this...

Bed Sitter

by Robert William Service
 He stared at me with sad, hurt eyes,
That drab, untidy man;
And though my clients I despise
I do the best I can
To comfort them with cheerful chat;
(Quite comme il faut, of course)
And furnish evidence so that
Their wives may claim divorce. 

But as this chap sobbed out his woes
I thought: How it's a shame!
His wife's a ***** and so he goes
And...Read more of this...

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

by Mother Goose
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
  How does your garden grow?
Silver bells and cockle-shells,
  And pretty maids all of a row....Read more of this...

Slugging Saint

by Robert William Service
 'Twas in a pub in Battersea
 They call the "Rose and Crown,"
Quite suddenly, it seemed to me,
 The Lord was looking down;
The Lord was looking from above,
 And shiny was His face,
And I was filled with gush of love
 For all the human race.

Anon I saw three ancient men
 Who reckoned not of bliss,
And they looked quite astonished when
...Read more of this...

The Paper Windmill

by Amy Lowell
 The little boy pressed his face against the window-pane 
and looked out
at the bright sunshiny morning. The cobble-stones of 
the square
glistened like mica. In the trees, a breeze danced and 
pranced,
and shook drops of sunlight like falling golden coins into the brown 
water
of the canal. Down stream slowly drifted a long string 
of galliots
piled with crimson cheeses. The little...Read more of this...

Oh when I was in love with you

by A E Housman
 Oh, when I was in love with you,
Then I was clean and brave,
And miles around the wonder grew
How well did I behave.

And now the fancy passes by,
And nothing will remain,
And miles around they'll say that I
Am quite myself again....Read more of this...

The More Loving One

by Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden
Looking up at the stars, I know quite wellThat, for all they care, I can go to hell,But on earth indifference is the leastWe have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burnWith a passion for us we could not return?If equal affection cannot be,Let the more loving one be me. Admirer as...Read more of this...

The Idealist

by Robert William Service
 Oh you who have daring deeds to tell!
 And you who have felt Ambition's spell!
Have you heard of the louse who longed to dwell
 In the golden hair of a queen?
He sighed all day and he sighed all night,
 And no one could understand it quite,
For the head of a **** is a louse's delight,
 But he pined for...Read more of this...

A Girdle

by William Strode
 Whene'er the wast makes too much hast,
That hast againe makes too much wast.


I here stand keeper while 'tis light,
'Tis theft to enter when 'tis night.


This girdle doth the wast embrace
To keepe all others from that place.


This circle here is drawne about
To keepe all tempting spiritts out.


Whoe'er the girdle doth undoe
Hee quite undoes the owner too...Read more of this...

The Old Timers Steeplechase

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 The sheep were shorn and the wool went down 
At the time of our local racing; 
And I'd earned a spell -- I was burnt and brown -- 
So I rolled my swag for a trip to town 
And a look at the steeplechasing. 
Twas rough and ready--an uncleared course 
As rough as the blacks had found it; 
With...Read more of this...

The Prodigal Son

by Rudyard Kipling
 Here come I to my own again, 
Fed, forgiven and known again, 
Claimed by bone of my bone again 
And cheered by flesh of my flesh. 
The fatted calf is dressed for me, 
But the husks have greater zest for me, 
I think my pigs will be best for me, 
So I'm off to the Yards afresh.

I never was...Read more of this...

Not Quite The Same

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 Not quite the same the springtime seems to me, 
Since that sad season when in separate ways
Our paths diverged. There are no more such days
As dawned for us in that last time when we
Dwelt in the realm of dreams, illusive dreams; 
Spring may be just as fair now, but it seems
Not quite the same.

Not quite the same in life,...Read more of this...

Good - Better - Best

by Ellis Parker Butler
 When young, in tones quite positive
I said, "The world shall see
That I can keep myself from sin;
A good man I will be."

But when I loved Miss Kate St. Clair
'Twas thus my musing ran:
"I cannot be compared with her;
I'll be a better man."

'Twas at the wedding of a friend
(He married Kate St. Clair)
That I became superlative,
For I was "best man"...Read more of this...

If I Should Learn In Some Quite Casual Way

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 IF I should learn, in some quite casual way, 
 That you were gone, not to return again— 
Read from the back-page of a paper, say, 
 Held by a neighbor in a subway train, 
How at the corner of this avenue 
 And such a street (so are the papers filled) 
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—...Read more of this...

To Stella Who Collected and Transcribed His Poems

by Jonathan Swift
 As, when a lofty pile is raised,
We never hear the workmen praised,
Who bring the lime, or place the stones;
But all admire Inigo Jones:
So, if this pile of scattered rhymes
Should be approved in aftertimes;
If it both pleases and endures,
The merit and the praise are yours.
Thou, Stella, wert no longer young,
When first for thee my harp was strung,
Without one word of...Read more of this...

Quite empty quite at rest

by Emily Dickinson
 Quite empty, quite at rest,
The Robin locks her Nest, and tries her Wings.
She does not know a Route
But puts her Craft about
For rumored Springs --
She does not ask for Noon --
She does not ask for Boon,
Crumbless and homeless, of but one request --
The Birds she lost --...Read more of this...

Sonnet 05: If I Should Learn In Some Quite Casual Way

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
 That you were gone, not to return again—
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
 Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
 And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—
 At noon to-day had happened to...Read more of this...

It dont sound so terrible -- quite -- as it did

by Emily Dickinson
 It don't sound so terrible -- quite -- as it did --
I run it over -- "Dead", Brain, "Dead."
Put it in Latin -- left of my school --
Seems it don't shriek so -- under rule.

Turn it, a little -- full in the face
A Trouble looks bitterest --
Shift it -- just --
Say "When Tomorrow comes this way --
I shall have...Read more of this...

Not quite dark yet

by Yosa Buson
 Not quite dark yet
and the stars shining
above the withered fields....Read more of this...

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