Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Resolutions Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Whitman, Walt
...hoked articulations—you meannesses; 
You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shallowest of any;) 
You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smother’d ennuis; 
Ah, think not you finally triumph—My real self has yet to come forth; 
It shall yet march forth o’ermastering, till all lies beneath me;
It shall yet stand up the soldier of unquestion’d victory....Read more of this...



by Gregory, Rg
...tuffed with pomp of state
were brushed aside in favour of the plate
but those who entered hungry came out wise
unspoken resolutions mulled like pies


(2)
and then the tram ride home (if we were lucky -
and nothing during the day had caused despair)
trams had a gift about them that was snaky
wriggling their straitened ways from lair to lair
they hissed upon their wires and flashed the air
they swallowed people whole and spewed them out
and most engorged in them became devout
...Read more of this...

by Godolphin, Sidney
...winds like no other bark
chasmal to my ant-soul running up and down
and if I find you I must go out deep into your
 far resolutions
and if I find you I must stay here with the separate leaves...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...my son?" she said;
 "Just do it."

Of her wise words I've often thought -
Aye, sometimes with a pang of pain,
When resolutions come to naught,
And high resolves are sadly vain;
The human heart from failure bleeds;
Hopes may be wrecked so that we rue them . . .
Don't let us dream of lovely deeds -
 Just do them.

And so, my son, uphold your pride.
Believe serenely in your soul.
Just take things in a steady stride,
Until behold! you've gained your g...Read more of this...

by Matthew, John
...Resolutions I have made,
Kept, I have none,
Why do I have to make,
Resolutions anymore?

I pause through endless time,
For this year to pass,
And the lights of celebration to die,
On this New Year day.

Remember those magical days,
When the promise of togetherness, 
Held us together, tentatively,
Alas! No more!

Years just flow by,
As water beneath bridg...Read more of this...



by Ashbery, John
...d a say in the matter and exercised
An option of which he was hardly conscious,
Unaware that necessity circumvents such resolutions.
So as to create something new
For itself, that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
Stringent laws, and that things
Do get done in this way, but never the things
We set out to accomplish and wanted so desperately
To see come into being. Parmigianino
Must have realized this as he worked at his
Life-obs...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...unday, and the church bells rang their peal, 
The quiet man was mending a broken waggon wheel; 
While they passed their resolutions on his doings (and the likes), 
From a pile his men brought to him he was choosing poles for pikes. 

(They were hanging men in Buckland who would not cheer King George – 
They were making pikes in Charlestown at every blacksmith's forge: 
While the Council sat in session and the same old song they sang, 
They heard the horsemen gallop out, a...Read more of this...

by Gordon, Adam Lindsay
...the corn or for the oil, 
Or for wine that maketh glad the heart of man. 
For good undone, and gifts misspent, and resolutions vain, 
'Tis somewhat late to trouble. This I know -- 
I should live the same life over, if I had to live again; 
And the chances are I go where most men go. 

The deep blue skies wax dusky, and the tall green trees grow dim, 
The sward beneath me seems to heave and fall; 
And sickly, smoky shadows through the sleepy sunlight swim, 
And on...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...k on us when 
They brought us sympathy, and saw us stand 
Like the proverbial ostrich-head in sand— 
While youth passed resolutions not to fight, 
And statesmen muttered everything was right— 
Germany, a kindly, much ill-treated nation—
Russia was working out her own salvation
Within her borders. As for Spain, ah, Spain
Would buy from England when peace came again!
I listened and believed— believed through sheer
Terror. I could not look whither my fear
Pointed— that a...Read more of this...

by Cavafy, Constantine P
...were being formed,
the scope of my art was being plotted.

This is why my repentances were never stable.
And my resolutions to control myself, to change
lasted for two weeks at the very most....Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Resolutions poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs