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Famous Retained Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry 
...me...
Oh, it takes little to deceive me -
I cannot wait to be deceived!

(tr. by Genia Gurarie, 10.95 - 4.99)
Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie.
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
For permission to reproduce, write personally to the translator....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander

...lls the whitening valley,
Plaintive screeching rends my heart...


Translated by Genia Gurarie July 29, 1995.
Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie.
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
For permission to reproduce, write personally to the translator....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander 
...rebodingly,
among them.
 I bring you,
 reawakened,
a memory of those flowers.
 They were sweet
 when I pressed them
and retained
 something of their sweetness
 a long time.
It is a curious odor,
 a moral odor,
 that brings me
near to you.
 The color
 was the first to go.
There had come to me
 a challenge,
 your dear self,
mortal as I was,
 the lily's throat
 to the hummingbird!
Endless wealth,
 I thought,
 held out its arms to me.
A thousand tropics
 in an apple blossom.
 The...Read more of this...
by Williams, William Carlos (WCW) 
...A form had rush'ed amidst them from the dark,
And spread his arms,--and fell upon the floor:
Of aged strength his limbs retained the mark;
But desolate he look's and famish'd, poor,
As ever shipwreck'd wretch lone left on desert shore.

Uprisen, each wond'ring brow is knit and arch'd:
A spirit form the dead they deem him first:
To speak he tries; but quivering, pale, and parch'd,
From lips, as by some powerless dream accursed
Emotions unintelligible burst;
And long his filmed...Read more of this...
by Campbell, Thomas 
...Ministerial Bench he slowly crept. 
When his colleagues said, "Who won it? Is our banner waving high? 
Has the Ministry retained Glen Innes Town?" 
Then the great man hesitated, and responded with a sigh -- 
"There's another blessed seat gone down!"...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

...slow flames
of your lovely produce fall into ashes?

My nights, my days, you have borne so much!
All your branches have retained the gesture
of that long labor you are rising from:
my days, my nights. Oh my rustic friends!

I look for what was so good for you.
Oh my lovely, half-dead trees,
could some equal sweetness still
stroke your leaves, open your calyx?

Ah, no more fruit! But one last time
bloom in fruitless blossoming
without planning, without reckoning,
as useless as...Read more of this...
by Rilke, Rainer Maria 
...ve so tender and so true
As may God grant you to be loved again.


Translated by Genia Gurarie, 11/10/95. Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander 
...ation, 
And drove her exiled from her home. 

And silent still, she straight assembled 
The wrecks of strength her soul retained; 
For though the wasted body trembled, 
The unconquered mind, to quail, disdained. 

She crossed the sea­now lone she wanders 
By Seine's, or Rhine's, or Arno's flow; 
Fain would I know if distance renders 
Relief or comfort to her woe. 

Fain would I know if, henceforth, ever, 
These eyes shall read in hers again, 
That light of love which faded ne...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte 
...
Strange alteration in me, to degree 
Of reason in my inward powers; and speech 
Wanted not long; though to this shape retained. 
Thenceforth to speculations high or deep 
I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind 
Considered all things visible in Heaven, 
Or Earth, or Middle; all things fair and good: 
But all that fair and good in thy divine 
Semblance, and in thy beauty's heavenly ray, 
United I beheld; no fair to thine 
Equivalent or second! which compelled 
Me thus,...Read more of this...
by Milton, John 
...See! from the world what profit have I gained?
What fruitage of my life in hand retained?
What use is Jamshid's goblet, once 'tis crushed?
What pleasure's torch, when once its light has waned?...Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar 
...-
And the drowned man knocks, unceasing,
By the gates and at the pane.


Translated by: Genia Gurarie, 11/95
Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie.
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
For permission to reproduce, write personally to the translator....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander 
...Or did they both already wither,
Like this unfathomable flower?

Translated by: Genia Gurarie, summer of 1995
Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie.
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
For permission to reproduce, write personally to the translator....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander 
...Or mantles o'er the bison's horns;
     Pennons and flags defaced and stained,
     That blackening streaks of blood retained,
     And deer-skins, dappled, dun, and white,
     With otter's fur and seal's unite,
     In rude and uncouth tapestry all,
     To garnish forth the sylvan hall.
     XXVIII.

     The wondering stranger round him gazed,
     And next the fallen weapon raised:—
     Few were the arms whose sinewy strength
     Sufficed to stretch it for...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter 
..., 
 And thou shalt drop below 
 To where the spirits, to a tree enchained, 
 Will clutch thee, there to be 'mid them retained 
 For all to-come in woe! 
 
 "Or if, by happy chance, thy soul might flee 
 Thy victims, after, thou shouldst surely see 
 And hear thy crimes relate; 
 Streaked with the guileless gore drained from their veins, 
 Greater in number than the reigns on reigns 
 Thou hopedst for thy state. 
 
 "This so will be! and neither fleet nor fort 
 ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor 
...a crowd of local urchins,
While fishing, found his hoary beard.

Translated by: Genia Gurarie, summer of 1995
Copyright retained by Genia Gurarie.
email: egurarie@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/
For permission to reproduce, write personally to the translator....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander 
...tug,
painful now, from when roots
pulled us into the ground

and because our children believe
they can fly, an instinct retained
from when the bones in our arms
were shaped like zithers and broke
neatly under their feathers

and because before we had lungs
we knew how far it was to the bottom
as we floated open-eyed
like painted scarves through the scenery
of dreams, and because we awakened

and learned to speak

2
We sat by the fire in our caves,
and because we were poor, we...Read more of this...
by Mueller, Lisel

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry