Famous Reveals Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

A Celebration

...It is that very perfume 
has drawn the darkness down among the leaves. 
Do I speak clearly enough? 
It is this darkness reveals that which darkness alone 
loosens and sets spinning on waxen wings— 
not the touch of a finger-tip, not the motion 
of a sigh. A too heavy sweetness proves 
its own caretaker. 
And here are the orchids! 
 Never having seen 
such gaiety I will read these flowers for you: 
This is an odd January, died—in Villon's time. 
Snow, this is and this the stai...Read more of this...
by Williams, William Carlos (WCW)


A Lovers Call XXVII

...r I bade you farewell, 
And the Maritime kiss you placed on my lips? 
That kiss taught me that joining of lips in Love 
Reveals heavenly secrets which the tongue cannot utter! 


That kiss was introduction to a great sigh, 
Like the Almighty's breath that turned earth into man. 


That sigh led my way into the spiritual world, 
Announcing the glory of my soul; and there 
It shall perpetuate until again we meet. 


I remember when you kissed me and kissed me, 
With tears cours...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

A Nocturnal Reverie

...ndures, whilst tyrant man does sleep;
When a sedate content the spirit feels,
And no fierce light disturbs, whilst it reveals;
But silent musings urge the mind to seek
Something, too high for syllables to speak;
Till the free soul to a composedness charmed,
Finding the elements of rage disarmed,
O'er all below a solemn quiet grown,
Joys in th' inferior world, and thinks it like her own:
In such a night let me abroad remain,
Till morning breaks, and all's confused ag...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill

Beowulf (Modern English)

...too well, if we hear it said truthfully,
that among the Scyldings is some sort of scather,
an obscure deed-hater who reveals in the dark of night
a purposeless malice through his terror,
both an infamy and a glutting of corpses.
Out of my capacious spirit, I can teach Hrothgar this,
good counsel, how he, wise and excellent,
can vanquish this fiend, if reversal should come to him,
a ready cure for his baleful cares—
and his sorrowful wellings become the cooler.
Or e...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bride of Abydos The

...d that Nubian feels 
A tyrant's secrets are but chains, 
From which the captive gladly steals, 
And this and more to me reveals: 
Such still to guilt just Allah sends — 
Slaves, tools, accomplices — no friends! 

XVII. 

"All this, Zuleika, harshly sounds; 
But harsher still my tale must be: 
Howe'er my tongue thy softness wounds, 
Yet I must prove all truth to thee. 
I saw thee start this garb to see, 
Yet is it one I oft have worn, 
And long must wear: this Galiong?e, 
To w...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)


By The Arno

...arrows of the moon.

Before across the silent lawn
In sea-green vest the morning steals,
And to love's frightened eyes reveals
The long white fingers of the dawn

Fast climbing up the eastern sky
To grasp and slay the shuddering night,
All careless of my heart's delight,
Or if the nightingale should die....Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Last Instructions to a Painter

...does fixed admire 
Of grandsire Harry and of Charles his sire. 
Harry sits down, and in his open side 
The grisly wound reveals of which he died, 
And ghastly Charles, turning his collar low, 
The purple thread about his neck does show, 
Then whispering to his son in words unheard, 
Through the locked door both of them disappeared. 
The wondrous night the pensive King revolves, 
And rising straight on Hyde's disgrace resolves. 

At his first step, he Castlemaine does find, 
B...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Octaves

...the old scorn. 

XIV 

Though the sick beast infect us, we are fraught
Forever with indissoluble Truth,
Wherein redress reveals itself divine,
Transitional, transcendent. Grief and loss,
Disease and desolation, are the dreams
Of wasted excellence; and every dream
Has in it something of an ageless fact
That flouts deformity and laughs at years. 

XV 

We lack the courage to be where we are: -- 
We love too much to travel on old roads,
To triumph on old fields; we love too much...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Ode to Beauty

...On thy wan cheek, the young rose dies, 
Thy lip's deep tint expires; 
Dark Melancholy chills thy mind; 
Thy silent tear reveals thy woe; 
TIME strews with thorns thy mazy way, 
Where'er thy giddy footsteps stray, 
Thy thoughtless heart is doom'd to find 
An unrelenting foe. 

'Tis thus, the infant Forest flow'r 
Bespangled o'er with glitt'ring dew, 
At breezy morn's refreshing hour, 
Glows with pure tints of varying hue, 
Beneath an aged oak's wide spreading shade, 
Where no ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Ode To Salt

...ocean night:
taste imparts to every seasoned
dish your ocean essence;
the smallest,
miniature
wave from the saltcellar
reveals to us
more than domestic whiteness;
in it, we taste infinitude....Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo

Paradise Regained: The First Book

...led 
Into this wilderness; to what intent
I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals."
 So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,
And, looking round, on every side beheld
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.
The way he came, not having marked return,
Was difficult, by human steps untrod;
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
Accompanied of things past and to come 
Lodged in his breast as well might recommend
Such ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Tale Of A Tub

...on a public grin, repeats our name
but scrupulously reflects the usual terror.

Just how guilty are we when the ceiling
reveals no cracks that can be decoded? when washbowl
maintains it has no more holy calling
than physical ablution, and the towel
dryly disclaims that fierce troll faces lurk
in its explicit folds? or when the window,
blind with steam, will not admit the dark
which shrouds our prospects in ambiguous shadow?

Twenty years ago, the familiar tub
bred an ample ba...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

The Bride of Abydos

...d that Nubian feels 
A tyrant's secrets are but chains, 
From which the captive gladly steals, 
And this and more to me reveals: 
Such still to guilt just Allah sends — 
Slaves, tools, accomplices — no friends! 

XVII. 

"All this, Zuleika, harshly sounds; 
But harsher still my tale must be: 
Howe'er my tongue thy softness wounds, 
Yet I must prove all truth to thee. 
I saw thee start this garb to see, 
Yet is it one I oft have worn, 
And long must wear: this Galiong?e, 
To w...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Flaâneur

...ocean's lucent shores; 
I leave my mortal self below, 
As up the star-lit stairs I climb, 
And still the widening view reveals 
In endless rounds the circling wheels 
That build the horologe of time. 
New spheres, new suns, new systems gleam; 
The voice no earth-born echo hears 
Steals softly on my ravished ears: 
I hear them "singing as they shine" -- 
A mortal's voice dissolves my dream: 
My patient neighbor, next in line, 
Hints gently there are those who wait. 
O guardia...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell

The Giaour

...ap into the wave.'


Dark and unearthly is the scowl
That glares beneath his dusky cowl:
The flash of that dilating eye
Reveals too much of times gone by;
Though varying, indistinct its hue,
Oft will his glance the gazer rue,
For in it lurks that nameless spell,
Which speaks, itself unspeakable,
A spirit yet unquelled and high,
That claims and keeps ascendency;
And like the bird whose pinions quake,
But cannot fly the gazing snake,
Will others quail beneath his look,
Nor 'sca...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Jacquerie A Fragment

...blood-covered images that stalk
Through yon cold chambers of the future, as
The prophet-mood, now stealing on my soul,
Reveals them, marching, marching, marching. See!
There go the kings of France, in piteous file.
The deadly diamonds shining in their crowns
Do wound the foreheads of their Majesties
And glitter through a setting of blood-gouts
As if they smiled to think how men are slain
By the sharp facets of the gem of power,
And how the kings of men are slaves of stones.
...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Prisoner

...—unuttered harmony
That I could never dream, till Earth was lost to me.

Then dawns the Invisible; the Unseen its truth reveals;
My outward sense is gone, my inward essence feels;
Its wings are almost free—its home, its harbour found;
Measuring the gulf, it stoops, and dares the final bound.

O dreadful is the check—intense the agony— 
When the ear begins to hear, and the eye begins to see;
When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again,
The soul to feel the flesh, ...Read more of this...
by Brontë, Emily

The Rape of the Lock

...Mirror of thy ruling Star
I saw, alas! some dread Event impend,
E're to the Main this Morning Sun descend. 
But Heav'n reveals not what, or how, or where:
Warn'd by thy Sylph, oh Pious Maid beware!
This to disclose is all thy Guardian can.
Beware of all, but most beware of Man!

He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too long,
Leapt up, and wak'd his Mistress with his Tongue.
'Twas then Belinda, if Report say true,
Thy Eyes first open'd on a Billet-doux.
Wounds, Charms, ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

The Revenge Of Hamish

...
And Maclean, and the gillie that told him, dash up in a desperate race.

Not a breath's time for asking; an eye-glance reveals all the tale untold.
They follow mad Hamish afar up the crag toward the sea,
And the lady cries: "Clansmen, run for a fee! --
Yon castle and lands to the two first hands that shall hook him and hold

Fast Hamish back from the brink!" -- and ever she flies up the steep,
And the clansmen pant, and they sweat, and they jostle and strain.
But, mother, 't...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Story Of Our Lives

...last.
The book never discusses the causes of love.
It claims confusion is a necessary good.
It never explains. It only reveals.

6
The day goes on.
We study what we remember.
We look into the mirror across the room.
We cannot bear to be alone.
The book goes on.
"They became silent and did not know how to begin
the dialogue which was necessary.
It was words that created divisions in the first place,
that created loneliness.
They waited
they would turn the pages, hoping
someth...Read more of this...
by Strand, Mark

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Reveals poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter