Famous Retains Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Manhattan Streets I Saunter'd Pondering

by Walt Whitman
 1
MANHATTAN’S streets I saunter’d, pondering, 
On time, space, reality—on such as these, and abreast with them, prudence. 

2
After all, the last explanation remains to be made about prudence; 
Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the prudence that suits immortality. 

The Soul is of itself;
All verges to it—all has reference to what ensues; 
All that a person does,...Read more of this...

After Schiller

by Thomas Hardy
 Knight, a true sister-love 
 This heart retains; 
Ask me no other love, 
 That way lie pains! 

Calm must I view thee come, 
 Calm see thee go; 
Tale-telling tears of thine 
 I must not know...Read more of this...

Summer Wind

by William Cullen Bryant
 It is a sultry day; the sun has drank 
The dew that lay upon the morning grass, 
There is no rustling in the lofty elm 
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade 
Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint 
And interrupted murmur of the bee, 
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again 
Instantly on the wing....Read more of this...

Flowers in Winter

by John Greenleaf Whittier
 How strange to greet, this frosty morn, 
In graceful counterfeit of flower, 
These children of the meadows, born 
Of sunshine and of showers! 

How well the conscious wood retains 
The pictures of its flower-sown home, 
The lights and shades, the purple stains, 
And golden hues of bloom! 

It was a happy thought to bring 
To the dark season's frost...Read more of this...

Sonnet FOUND IN LAURA'S TOMB

by Francesco Petrarch
[Pg 406] SONNET FOUND IN LAURA'S TOMB. Qui reposan quei caste e felice ossa.  Here peaceful sleeps the chaste, the happy shadeOf that pure spirit, which adorn'd this earth:Pure fame, true beauty, and transcendent worth,Rude stone! beneath thy rugged breast are laid.Death sudden snatch'd the dear lamented maid!Read more of this...

Kiama

by Henry Kendall
TOWARDS the hills of Jamberoo 
Some few fantastic shadows haste, 
Uplit with fires 
Like castle spires 
Outshining through a mirage waste. 
Behold, a mournful glory sits 
On feathered ferns and woven brakes, 
Where sobbing wild like restless child 

The gusty breeze of evening wakes! 
Methinks I hear on every breath 
A lofty tone go passing by, 
That whispers - ``Weave,...Read more of this...

Sonnet CXIX

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CXIX. Questa umil fera, un cor di tigre o d' orsa. HE PRAYS HER EITHER TO WELCOME OR DISMISS HIM AT ONCE.  Fiercer than tiger, savager than bear,In human guise an angel form appears,Who between fear and hope, from smiles to tearsSo tortures me that doubt becomes despair.Ere long if...Read more of this...

Je Suis une table

by Donald Hall
 It has happened suddenly,
by surprise, in an arbor,
or while drinking good coffee,
after speaking, or before,

that I dumbly inhabit
a density; in language,
there is nothing to stop it,
for nothing retains an edge.

Simple ignorance presents,
later, words for a function,
but it is common pretense
of speech, by a convention,

and there is nothing at all
but inner silence, nothing
to relieve on principle
now this intense thickening....Read more of this...

Ballade: In Favour Of Those Called Decadents And Symbolists Translation of Paul Verlaines Poem: Ballade

by T Wignesan
for Léon Vanier*

(The texts I use for my translations are from: Yves-Alain Favre, Ed. Paul Verlaine: Œuvres Poétiques Complètes. Paris: Robert Laffont,1992, XCIX-939p.)

Some few in all this Paris:
We live off pride, yet flat broke we’re
Even if with the bottle a bit too free
We drink above all fresh water
Being very sparing when taken with hunger.
With other fine fare and wines of...Read more of this...

On The Death Of Rev. Mr. George Whitefield

by Phillis Wheatley
 HAIL, happy saint, on thine immortal throne,
Possest of glory, life, and bliss unknown;
We hear no more the music of thy tongue,
Thy wonted auditories cease to throng.
Thy sermons in unequall'd accents flow'd,
And ev'ry bosom with devotion glow'd;
Thou didst in strains of eloquence refin'd
Inflame the heart, and captivate the mind.
Unhappy we the setting sun deplore,
So glorious once, but ah! it shines...Read more of this...

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