Famous Rather Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet CI

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CI. Io canterei d' Amor sì novamente. REPLY TO A SONNET OF JACOPO DA LENTINO.  Ways apt and new to sing of love I'd find,Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh,And re-enkindle in her frozen mindDesires a thousand, passionate and high;O'er her fair face would see each swift...Read more of this...

Poems to Mulgrave and Scroope

by John Wilmot
 Deare Friend. 

I heare this Towne does soe abound, 
With sawcy Censurers, that faults are found, 
With what of late wee (in Poetique Rage) 
Bestowing, threw away on the dull Age; 
But (howsoe're Envy, their Spleen may raise, 
To Robb my Brow, of the deserved Bays) 
Their thanks at least I merit since through me, 
They are Partakers of...Read more of this...

Song 2

by Anne Bronte
 Come to the banquet -- triumph in your songs!
Strike up the chords -- and sing of Victory!
The oppressed have risen to redress their wrongs;
The Tyrants are o'erthrown; the Land is free!
The Land is free! Aye, shout it forth once more;
Is she not red with her oppressors' gore? 
We are her champions -- shall we not rejoice?
Are not the tyrants'...Read more of this...

But Men Loved Darkness rather than Light

by Richard Crashaw
 The world's light shines, shine as it will,
The world will love its darkness still.
I doubt though when the world's in hell,
It will not love its darkness half so well....Read more of this...

The Romance Of Patrolman Casey

by Ellis Parker Butler
 There was a young patrolman who
 Had large but tender feet;
They always hurt him badly when
 He walked upon his beat.
(He always took them with him when
 He walked upon his beat.)

His name was Patrick Casey and
 A sweetheart fair had he;
Her face was full of freckles—but
 Her name was Kate McGee.
(It was in spite of freckles that
 Her...Read more of this...

For life and death of a Poet

by Marcin Malek
Poets
In literal meaning
Are not responsive
To normative rules of dying

Moreover 
Just like the Saints
They do not fit into a
Written conventions

Of the existence
Of the survival
At all costs
At the cost of their own greatness

They rather resemble
Orphaned fortresses
Which has to be taken
Meter by meter - as in the past

With the severe blood loss

Or permanently straining
Among the yellow fields
Mossy towers with no vaults
But with the...Read more of this...

In The Night

by Stevie Smith
 I longed for companionship rather,
But my companions I always wished farther.
And now in the desolate night
I think only of the people i should like to bite....Read more of this...

E.P. Ode Pour Lelection De Son Sepulchre

by Ezra Pound
 For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old sense. Wrong from the start--

No, hardly, but seeing he had been born
In a half savage country, out of date;
Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;
Capaneus; trout for factitious bait;

Idmen gar toi panth, hos eni troie
Caught in...Read more of this...

Phantasmagoria CANTO V ( Byckerment )

by Lewis Carroll
 "DON'T they consult the 'Victims,' though?"
I said. "They should, by rights,
Give them a chance - because, you know,
The tastes of people differ so,
Especially in Sprites." 

The Phantom shook his head and smiled.
"Consult them? Not a bit!
'Twould be a job to drive one wild,
To satisfy one single child -
There'd be no end to it!" 

"Of course you can't leave CHILDREN...Read more of this...

For Death -- or rather

by Emily Dickinson
 For Death -- or rather
For the Things 'twould buy --
This -- put away
Life's Opportunity --

The Things that Death will buy
Are Room --
Escape from Circumstances --
And a Name --

With Gifts of Life
How Death's Gifts may compare --
We know not --
For the Rates -- lie Here --...Read more of this...

Gunga Din

by Rudyard Kipling
 You may talk o' gin and beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.
Now in Injia's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,
Of all them blackfaced crew
The...Read more of this...

Baile And Aillinn

by William Butler Yeats
 ARGUMENT. Baile and Aillinn were lovers, but Aengus, the
Master of Love, wishing them to he happy in his own land
among the dead, told to each a story of the other's death, so
that their hearts were broken and they died.

 I hardly hear the curlew cry,
 Nor thegrey rush when the wind is high,
 Before my thoughts begin to run
...Read more of this...

Walt Whitman

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 The master-songs are ended, and the man
That sang them is a name. And so is God
A name; and so is love, and life, and death,
And everything. But we, who are too blind
To read what we have written, or what faith
Has written for us, do not understand:
We only blink, and wonder.

Last night it was the song that was the man,
But...Read more of this...

Leave knowledge and take the cup in thy hand. Disturb

by Omar Khayyam
Leave knowledge and take the cup in thy hand. Disturb
thyself not about Paradise or Hell, but seek rather
the Koocer [the celestial river of wine]. Sell thy silken
turban to buy wine and have no more fear. Rid thyself
of that head-dress and envelop thy head in a simple woolen
band [emblem of Sufism]....Read more of this...

Id rather recollect a setting

by Emily Dickinson
 I'd rather recollect a setting
Than own a rising sun
Though one is beautiful forgetting --
And true the other one.

Because in going is a Drama
Staying cannot confer
To die divinely once a Twilight --
Than wane is easier --...Read more of this...

Whispers of Heavenly Death

by Walt Whitman
 WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur’d I hear; 
Labial gossip of night—sibilant chorals; 
Footsteps gently ascending—mystical breezes, wafted soft and low; 
Ripples of unseen rivers—tides of a current, flowing, forever flowing; 
(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human tears?)

I see, just see, skyward, great cloud-masses; 
Mournfully, slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing; 
With, at...Read more of this...

That Time and Absence proves Rather helps than hurts to loves

by John Donne
ABSENCE hear thou my protestation 
Against thy strength  
Distance and length: 
Do what thou canst for alteration  
For hearts of truest mettle 5 
Absence doth join and Time doth settle. 

Who loves a mistress of such quality  
His mind hath found 
Affection's ground 
Beyond time place and all mortality. 10 
To hearts that cannot vary 
Absence is...Read more of this...

Rather arid delight

by Emily Dickinson
 Rather arid delight
If Contentment accrue
Make an abstemious Ecstasy
Not so good as joy --

But Rapture's Expense
Must not be incurred
With a tomorrow knocking
And the Rent unpaid --...Read more of this...

Reverie of Ormuz the Persian

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Pale hands I love beside the Shalimar,
     Where are you now?  Who lies beneath your spell?
   Whom do you lead on Rapture's roadway, far,
     Before you agonise them in farewell?

   Oh, pale dispensers of my Joys and Pains,
     Holding the...Read more of this...

When All Is Done

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
When all is done, and my last word is said,
And ye who loved me murmur, "He is dead,"
Let no one weep, for fear that I should know,
And sorrow too that ye should sorrow so.
When all is done and in the oozing clay,
Ye lay this cast-off hull of mine away,
Pray not for me, for, after long despair,
The quiet of the grave...Read more of this...

Preparation

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 We must not force events, but rather make
The heart soil ready for their coming, as
The earth spreads carpets for the feet of Spring, 
Or, with the strengthening tonic of the frost, 
Prepares for Winter. Should a July noon
Burst suddenly upon a frozen world
Small joy would follow, even tho' that world
Were longing for the Summer. Should the sting
Of sharp December...Read more of this...

Prayer for Patience

by William Cowper
 Lord, who hast suffer'd all for me,
My peace and pardon to procure,
The lighter cross I bear for Thee,
Help me with patience to endure.

The storm of loud repining hush;
I would in humble silence mourn;
Why should the unburnt, though burning bush,
Be angry as the crackling thorn?

Man should not faint at Thy rebuke,
Like Joshua falling on his face,
When the cursed thing that...Read more of this...

A Sick Child

by Randall Jarrell
 The postman comes when I am still in bed.
"Postman, what do you have for me today?"
I say to him. (But really I'm in bed.)
Then he says - what shall I have him say?

"This letter says that you are president
Of - this word here; it's a republic."
Tell them I can't answer right away.
"It's your duty." No, I'd rather just be...Read more of this...

Head Against The Walls

by Paul Eluard
 There were only a few of them 
In all the earth
Each one thought he was alone
They sang, they were right
To sing
But they sang the way you sack a city
The way you kill yourself. 

Frayed moist night
Shall we endure you
Longer
Shall we not shake
Your cloacal evidence
We shall not wait for a morning
Made to measure
We wanted to see in other people's eyes
Their...Read more of this...

The Married Lover

by Coventry Patmore
 Why, having won her, do I woo? 
Because her spirit's vestal grace 
Provokes me always to pursue, 
But, spirit-like, eludes embrace; 
Because her womanhood is such
That, as on court-days subjects kiss 
The Queen's hand, yet so near a touch 
Affirms no mean familiarness; 
Nay, rather marks more fair the height 
Which can with safety so neglect 
To dread, as...Read more of this...

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