Famous Recollect Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Phantasmagoria CANTO II ( Hys Fyve Rules )

by Lewis Carroll
 "MY First - but don't suppose," he said,
"I'm setting you a riddle -
Is - if your Victim be in bed,
Don't touch the curtains at his head,
But take them in the middle, 

"And wave them slowly in and out,
While drawing them asunder;
And in a minute's time, no doubt,
He'll raise his head and look about
With eyes of wrath and wonder. 

"And...Read more of this...

Pain -- has an Element of Blank --

by Emily Dickinson
 Pain -- has an Element of Blank --
It cannot recollect
When it begun -- or if there were
A time when it was not --

It has no Future -- but itself --
Its Infinite contain
Its Past -- enlightened to perceive
New Periods -- of Pain....Read more of this...

I Wish I Could Remember That First Day

by Christina Rossetti
I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or Winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only...Read more of this...

Tis good -- the looking back on Grief --

by Emily Dickinson
 'Tis good -- the looking back on Grief --
To re-endure a Day --
We thought the Mighty Funeral --
Of All Conceived Joy --

To recollect how Busy Grass
Did meddle -- one by one --
Till all the Grief with Summer -- waved
And none could see the stone.

And though the Woe you have Today
Be larger -- As the Sea
Exceeds its Unremembered Drop --
They're...Read more of this...

Proof to No Purpose

by Robert Herrick
 You see this grntle stream that glides, 
Shoved on, by quick-succeeding tides: 
Try if this sober stream you can 
Follow to th' wider ocean, 
And see, if there it keeps unspent 
In that congesting element. 
Next, from that world of waters, then 
By pores and caverns back again 
Induct that inadultrate same 
Stream to the spring from whence it...Read more of this...

When I hoped I recollect

by Emily Dickinson
 When I hoped, I recollect
Just the place I stood --
At a Window facing West --
Roughest Air -- was good --

Not a Sleet could bite me --
Not a frost could cool --
Hope it was that kept me warm --
Not Merino shawl --

When I feared -- I recollect
Just the Day it was --
Worlds were lying out to Sun --
Yet how Nature...Read more of this...

A loss of something ever felt I --

by Emily Dickinson
 A loss of something ever felt I --
The first that I could recollect
Bereft I was -- of what I knew not
Too young that any should suspect

A Mourner walked among the children
I notwithstanding went about
As one bemoaning a Dominion
Itself the only Prince cast out --

Elder, Today, a session wiser
And fainter, too, as Wiseness is --
I find myself still softly searching
For...Read more of this...

The Star-Splitter

by Robert Frost
 `You know Orion always comes up sideways.
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains,
And rising on his hands, he looks in on me
Busy outdoors by lantern-light with something
I should have done by daylight, and indeed,
After the ground is frozen, I should have done
Before it froze, and a gust flings a handful
Of waste leaves at my smoky lantern chimney
To...Read more of this...

Flame-Heart

by Claude McKay
 So much have I forgotten in ten years,
So much in ten brief years! I have forgot
What time the purple apples come to juice,
And what month brings the shy forget-me-not.
I have forgot the special, startling season
Of the pimento's flowering and fruiting;
What time of year the ground doves brown the fields
And fill the noonday with their curious fluting.
I have forgotten much,...Read more of this...

Middlesex

by John Betjeman
 Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train,
With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
Daintily alights Elaine;
Hurries down the concrete station
With a frown of concentration,
Out into the outskirt's edges
Where a few surviving hedges
Keep alive our lost Elysium - rural Middlesex again.

Well cut Windsmoor flapping lightly,
Jacqmar scarf of mauve and green
Hiding hair which, Friday nightly,
Delicately drowns in Dreen;
Fair Elaine the bobby-soxer,
Fresh-complexioned with...Read more of this...

Joy to have merited the Pain --

by Emily Dickinson
 Joy to have merited the Pain --
To merit the Release --
Joy to have perished every step --
To Compass Paradise --

Pardon -- to look upon thy face --
With these old fashioned Eyes --
Better than new -- could be -- for that --
Though bought in Paradise --

Because they looked on thee before --
And thou hast looked on them --
Prove Me --...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...

The first Day that I was a Life

by Emily Dickinson
 The first Day that I was a Life
I recollect it -- How still --
That last Day that I was a Life
I recollect it -- as well --

'Twas stiller -- though the first
Was still --
"Twas empty -- but the first
Was full --

This -- was my finallest Occasion --
But then
My tenderer Experiment
Toward Men --

"Which choose I"?
That -- I cannot say --
"Which...Read more of this...

257. Ode on the Departed Regency Bill

by Robert Burns
 DAUGHTER of Chaos’ doting years,
 Nurse of ten thousand hopes and fears,
 Whether thy airy, insubstantial shade
 (The rights of sepulture now duly paid)
 Spread abroad its hideous form
 On the roaring civil storm,
 Deafening din and warring rage
 Factions wild with factions wage;
Or under-ground, deep-sunk, profound,
 Among the demons of the earth,
With groans that make the mountains shake,
...Read more of this...

A Womans Love

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 So vast the tide of Love within me surging,
It overflows like some stupendous sea,
The confines of the Present and To-be;
And 'gainst the Past's high wall I feel it urging,
As it would cry "Thou too shalt yield to me!"

All other loves my supreme love embodies;
I would be she on whose soft bosom nursed
Thy clinging infant lips to quench their thirst;
She...Read more of this...

The Baldness Of Chewed-Ear

by Robert William Service
 When Chewed-ear Jenkins got hitched up to Guinneyveer McGee,
His flowin' locks, ye recollect, wuz frivolous an' free;
But in old Hymen's jack-pot, it's a most amazin' thing,
Them flowin' locks jest disappeared like snow-balls in the Spring;
Jest seemed to wilt an' fade away like dead leaves in the Fall,
An' left old Chewed-ear balder than a white-washed cannon ball.

Now Missis Chewed-ear Jenkins,...Read more of this...

The Luxury to apprehend

by Emily Dickinson
 The Luxury to apprehend
The Luxury 'twould be
To look at Thee a single time
An Epicure of Me

In whatsoever Presence makes
Till for a further Food
I scarcely recollect to starve
So first am I supplied --

The Luxury to meditate
The Luxury it was
To banguet on thy Countenance
A Sumptuousness bestows

On plainer Days, whose Table far
As Certainty can see
Is laden with a single Crumb
The Consciousness of...Read more of this...

This Little Bag

by Jane Austen
 This little bag I hope will prove
To be not vainly made--
For, if you should a needle want
It will afford you aid. 
And as we are about to part
T'will serve another end,
For when you look upon the Bag
You'll recollect your friend...Read more of this...

There is a June when Corn is cut

by Emily Dickinson
 There is a June when Corn is cut
And Roses in the Seed --
A Summer briefer than the first
But tenderer indeed

As should a Face supposed the Grave's
Emerge a single Noon
In the Vermilion that it wore
Affect us, and return --

Two Seasons, it is said, exist --
The Summer of the Just,
And this of Ours, diversified
With Prospect, and with Frost --

May not our...Read more of this...

I got so I could take his name

by Emily Dickinson
 I got so I could take his name --
Without -- Tremendous gain --
That Stop-sensation -- on my Soul --
And Thunder -- in the Room --

I got so I could walk across
That Angle in the floor,
Where he turned so, and I turned -- how --
And all our Sinew tore --

I got so I could stir the Box --
In which his...Read more of this...

A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed

by Jonathan Swift
 Corinna, Pride of Drury-Lane,
For whom no Shepherd sighs in vain;
Never did Covent Garden boast
So bright a batter'd, strolling Toast;
No drunken Rake to pick her up,
No Cellar where on Tick to sup;
Returning at the Midnight Hour;
Four Stories climbing to her Bow'r;
Then, seated on a three-legg'd Chair,
Takes off her artificial Hair: 
Now, picking out a Crystal Eye,
She wipes it clean, and...Read more of this...

A Ballad of Footmen

by Amy Lowell
 Now what in the name of the sun and the stars
Is the meaning of this most unholy of wars?
Do men find life so full of humour and joy
That for want of excitement they smash up the toy?
Fifteen millions of soldiers with popguns and horses
All bent upon killing, because their "of courses"
Are not quite the same. All these men by...Read more of this...

Recollect the Face of me

by Emily Dickinson
 Recollect the Face of me
When in thy Felicity,
Due in Paradise today
Guest of mine assuredly --

Other Courtesies have been --
Other Courtesy may be --
We commend ourselves to thee
Paragon of Chivalry....Read more of this...

Went up a year this evening!

by Emily Dickinson
 Went up a year this evening!
I recollect it well!
Amid no bells nor bravoes
The bystanders will tell!
Cheerful -- as to the village --
Tranquil -- as to repose --
Chastened -- as to the Chapel
This humble Tourist rose!
Did not talk of returning!
Alluded to no time
When, were the gales propitious --
We might look for him!
Was grateful for the Roses
In life's diverse bouquet --
Talked...Read more of this...

Phantasmagoria CANTO III ( Scarmoges )

by Lewis Carroll
 "AND did you really walk," said I,
"On such a wretched night?
I always fancied Ghosts could fly -
If not exactly in the sky,
Yet at a fairish height." 

"It's very well," said he, "for Kings
To soar above the earth:
But Phantoms often find that wings -
Like many other pleasant things -
Cost more than they are worth. 

"Spectres of course are rich, and...Read more of this...

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