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Famous Remnants Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...e oil lamp, his only companion, and some parchments upon which he had inscribed his heart's feeling. As he salvaged the remnants of his withering strength he lifted his hands heavenward; he moved his eyes hopelessly, as if wanting to penetrate the ceiling in order to see the stars from behind the veil clouds. 

And he said, "Come, oh beautiful Death; my soul is longing for you. Come close to me and unfasten the irons life, for I am weary of dragging them. Come, oh sweet Death...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil



...ed
bellies betray
caught the wistful eye
that curved beneath my eyelids

something slime
and panic strewn
we gather the remnants of democracy

silence herds mad laughter
cumulus scorn
haunted horizons running
running to weep...Read more of this...
by Hope, Billy Jno
...ay through thine hands in barren braid 
 Wove the sick flowers of secrecy and shade, 
Green buds of sorrow and sin, and remnants gray, 
 Sweet-smelling, pale with poison, sanguine-hearted, 
 Passions that sprang from sleep and thoughts that started, 
Shall death not bring us all as thee one day 
 Among the days departed? 

For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother, 
 Take at my hands this garland, and farewell. 
 Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell, 
And chill the so...Read more of this...
by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...em coming nearer. 

“Whenever your poet or your philosopher 
Has nothing richer for us,” he resumed, 
“He burrows among remnants, like a mouse 
In a waste-basket, and with much dry noise
Comes up again, having found Time at the bottom 
And filled himself with its futility. 
‘Time is at once,’ he says, to startle us, 
‘A poison for us, if we make it so, 
And, if we make it so, an antidote
For the same poison that afflicted us.’ 
I’m witness to the poison, but the cure 
Of my c...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...culty
into the Ravenswood, deprived of their lord. (ll. 2922-35)

“Ongentheow then beset them with a huge army,
the remnants of the sword, wearied with wounds,
promising woes to the wretched troop
for the rest of the night, saying that he wished
to gut them with the blades of swords—in the morning
some would swing on gallows-trees, as game for the birds.
Comfort came at last to the sorrow-minded
all at once in the earliest morning, after they heard
the sound, the h...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,



...hives of golden honey.


14)

He is safely put
in a container, head to foot,

and there, on his upper part, wears still
remnants of a life he lived at will --

but, lower down, he probes at that doubled sack
holds all his random virtues in a mindless fact.


15)

The forms wait, swan,
elephant, crab, rabbit, horse, monkey, cow,

squirrel and crocodile. From the one
sits in empty consciousness, all seemingly has come

and now it goes, to regather,
to tell another story to its ...Read more of this...
by Creeley, Robert
...their tell-tale mounds) , 
So has the white man with the Indians done.
Now with their backs against the setting sun
The remnants of a dying nation stand
And view the lost domain, once their beloved land.



II.
Upon the vast Atlantic's leagues of shore
The happy red man's tent is seen no more; 
And from the deep blue lakes which mirror heaven
His bounding bark canoe was long since driven.
The mighty woods, those temples where his God
Spoke to his soul, are leveled to the sod;...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...ath and watched the extreme of pain.

But one or two prayed, one or two
Were silent, shocked, stood back
And remembered remnants of words, a new vision,
The cross is up with its crying victim, the clouds
Cover the sun, we learn a new way to lose
What we did not know we had
Until this bleak and sacrificial day,
Until we turned from our bad
Past and knelt and cried out our dismay,
The dice still clicking, the voices dying away....Read more of this...
by Jennings, Elizabeth
...ers
Then living on the earth, with laboring thought
Won from the gaze of many centuries:
Now lost, save what we find on remnants huge
Of stone, or rnarble swart; their import gone,
Their wisdom long since fled.---Two wings this orb
Possess'd for glory, two fair argent wings,
Ever exalted at the God's approach:
And now, from forth the gloom their plumes immense
Rose, one by one, till all outspreaded were;
While still the dazzling globe maintain'd eclipse,
Awaiting for Hyperion...Read more of this...
by Keats, John
...am therein,
And barely won the verge;
Bold Poniatowski plunged him in
Never to re-emerge.

"Then stayed the strife. The remnants wound
Their Rhineward way pell-mell;
And thus did Leipzig City sound
An Empire's passing bell;

"While in cavalcade, with band and blade,
Came Marshals, Princes, Kings;
And the town was theirs.... Ay, as simple maid,
My mother saw these things!

"And whenever those notes in the street begin,
I recall her, and that far scene,
And her acting of how th...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas
...d after bending the branches of the trees and leaning heavily upon the grain in the field. The stars appeared as broken remnants of lightning, but now silence prevailed over all, as if Nature's war had never been fought. 

At that hour a young woman entered her chamber and knelt by her bed sobbing bitterly. Her heart flamed with agony but she could finally open her lips and say, "Oh Lord, bring him home safely to me. I have exhausted my tears and can offer no more, oh Lord, f...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil
...t we see?
Taygetus takes here the winds abreast,
And there the sun resumes Thermopylae;
The light is Athens where those remnants rest,
And Salamis the sea-wall of that sea.
The grass men tread upon
Is very Marathon,
The leaves are of that time-unstricken tree
That storm nor sun can fret
Nor wind, since she that set
Made it her sign to men whose shield was she;
Here, as dead time his deathless things,
Eurotas and Cephisus keep their sleepless springs.



O hills of Crete, are ...Read more of this...
by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...k white hair 
Escaping from her cap; she feels the chill, 
Looks round and murmurs, then again is still. 
Now bring the remnants of each household fire; 
On the wet ground the hissing coals expire; 
And Paudeen Dhu, with meekly dismal face, 
Receives the full possession of the place....Read more of this...
by Allingham, William
...urbance at thy wine:
And France is wild for one to lead her souls;
But thou art huge and fat and laggest back
Among the remnants of forsaken camps.
Thou'rt not God's Pope, thou art the Devil's Pope.
Thou art first Squire to that most puissant knight,
Lord Satan, who thy faithful squireship long
Hath watched and well shall guerdon.
Ye sad souls,
So faint with work ye love not, so thin-worn
With miseries ye wrought not, so outraged
By strokes of ill that pass th' ill-doers' hea...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney
...im with a gallant band,
     Submission, homage, humbled pride,
     Shall turn the Monarch's wrath aside.
     Poor remnants of the Bleeding Heart,
     Ellen and I will seek apart
     The refuge of some forest cell,
     There, like the hunted quarry, dwell,
     Till on the mountain and the moor
     The stern pursuit be passed and o'er,'—
     ***.

     'No, by mine honor,' Roderick said,
     'So help me Heaven, and my good blade!
     No, never! Blasted b...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...k was most Unkind!
A Sylph too warn'd me of the Threats of Fate,
In mystic Visions, now believ'd too late!
See the poor Remnants of these slighted Hairs!
My hands shall rend what ev'n thy Rapine spares:
These, in two sable Ringlets taught to break,
Once gave new Beauties to the snowie Neck. 
The Sister-Lock now sits uncouth, alone,
And in its Fellow's Fate foresees its own;
Uncurl'd it hangs, the fatal Sheers demands;
And tempts once more thy sacrilegious Hands.
Oh hadst thou...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...as most unkind!
A Sylph too warn'd me of the threats of fate,
In mystic visions, now believ'd too late!
See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs!
My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares:
These, in two sable ringlets taught to break,
Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck.
The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone,
And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;
Uncurl'd it hangs, the fatal shears demands
And tempts once more thy sacrilegious hands.
Oh hadst...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...the future to grieve 
O'er that which hath been, and o'er that which must be! 
What we have seen, our sons shall see; 
Remnants of things that have pass'd away, 
Fragments of stone, rear'd by creatures of clay! 

XIX. 

He sate him down at a pillar's base, 
And pass'd his hand athwart his face; 
Like one in dreary musing mood, 
Declining was his attitude; 
His head was drooping on his breast, 
Fever'd, throbbing, and opprest; 
And o'er his brow, so downward bent, 
Oft his be...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...and cloud-like;
I beheld our nation scattered,
All forgetful of my counsels,
Weakened, warring with each other:
Saw the remnants of our people
Sweeping westward, wild and woful,
Like the cloud-rack of a tempest,
Like the withered leaves of Autumn!"...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...My books piled up before me for my use
 waiting in space where I placed them, they
haven't disappeared, time's left its remnants and qual-
ities for me to use--my words piled up, my texts, my 
manuscripts, my loves.
 I had a moment of clarity, saw the feeling in
the heart of things, walked out to the garden crying.
 Saw the red blossoms in the night light, sun's 
gone, they had all grown, in a moment, and were wait-
ing stopped in time for the day sun to come and give
them......Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry