Famous Ringing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Childs Christmas In Wales

...ad, frozen feet they crunched up to the doors and
mittened on them manfully. But all that the children could hear was a ringing of bells."
"You mean that the postman went rat-a-tat-tat and the doors rang?"
"I mean that the bells the children could hear were inside them."
"I only hear thunder sometimes, never bells."
"There were church bells, too."
"Inside them?"
"No, no, no, in the bat-black, snow-white belfries, tugged by bishops and storks. And they rang their tidings
over ...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan


As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...the hurtled balls scream! 

The battle-front forms amid the smoke—the volleys pour incessant from the line; 
Hark! the ringing word, Charge!—now the tussle, and the furious maddening
 yells;
Now the corpses tumble curl’d upon the ground, 
Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you, 
Angry cloth I saw there leaping.) 

12
Are you he who would assume a place to teach, or be a poet here in The States? 
The place is august—the terms obdurate.

Who would assume to teach here, ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Beowulf (Modern English)

...r a space, he who dwelt in darkness,
every day hearing the joy loud in the hall.
The voice of harps was there and the ringing song
of the scop. One spoke who knew best,
of the creation of men, relating from long before.
He told that the Almighty made the earth,
a shining-bright plain, so surrounded by waters.
He established both sun and moon, victorious and triumphant,
the lamps of light for those living on land,
and ornamented all the corners of the earth
with limb...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...id by the finder.
In the throng was this one thirteenth man,
starter of all the strife and ill,
care-laden captive; cringing thence
forced and reluctant, he led them on
till he came in ken of that cavern-hall,
the barrow delved near billowy surges,
flood of ocean. Within ’twas full
of wire-gold and jewels; a jealous warden,
warrior trusty, the treasures held,
lurked in his lair. Not light the task
of entrance for any of earth-born men!
Sat on the headland the hero...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Captain Craig

...on of the truth 
No longer glorifies the singing beast,
Or venerates the clinquant charlatan,— 
Then shall at last come ringing through the sun, 
Through time, through flesh, a music that is true. 
For wisdom is that music, and all joy 
That wisdom:—you may counterfeit, you think,
The burden of it in a thousand ways; 
But as the bitterness that loads your tears 
Makes Dead Sea swimming easy, so the gloom, 
The penance, and the woeful pride you keep, 
Make bitterness your buoy...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Christabel

...the doleful tale
With a merry peal from Borrowdale.

The air is still! through mist and cloud
That merry peal comes ringing loud;
And Geraldine shakes off her dread,
And rises lightly from the bed;
Puts on her silken vestments white,
And tricks her hair in lovely plight,
And nothing doubting of her spell
Awakens the lady Christabel.
'Sleep you, sweet lady Christabel?
I trust that you have rested well.'

And Christabel awoke and spied
The same who lay down by he...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Enoch Arden

...ke,
With his first babe's first cry, the noble wish
To save all earnings to the uttermost,
And give his child a better bringing-up
Than his had been, or hers; a wish renew'd,
When two years after came a boy to be
The rosy idol of her solitudes,
While Enoch was abroad on wrathful seas,
Or often journeying landward; for in truth
Enoch's white horse, and Enoch's ocean-spoil
In ocean-smelling osier, and his face,
Rough-redden'd with a thousand winter gales,
Not only to the market...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Four Riddles

...es of light
And rich with laughter and with singing:
Young hearts beat high in ecstasy,
And banners wave, and bells are ringing:
But silence falls with fading day,
And there's an end to mirth and play.
Ah, well-a-day 

Rest your old bones, ye wrinkled crones!
The kettle sings, the firelight dances.
Deep be it quaffed, the magic draught
That fills the soul with golden fancies!
For Youth and Pleasance will not stay,
And ye are withered, worn, and gray.
Ah, well-a-day! 

O fair ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Japan

...with its papery wings.

And later, when I say it to you in the dark,
you are the bell,
and I am the tongue of the bell, ringing you,

and the moth has flown
from its line
and moves like a hinge in the air above our bed....Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy

Music

...art has listened for thee long;
And now I seem to hear
Across the crowded market-place of life,
Thy measured foot-fall, ringing light and clear
Above the unmeaning noises and the unruly strife;
In quiet cadence, sweet and slow,
Serenely pacing to and fro,
Thy far-off steps are magical and dear.
Ah, turn this way, come close and speak to me!
>From this dull bed of languor set my spirit free,
And bid me rise, and let me walk awhile with thee


III

Where wilt thou lead me first...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

Snow

...
“She me.
You’d better dress: you won’t go back to bed.
We must have been asleep: it’s three and after.”

“Had she been ringing long? I’ll get my wrapper.
I want to speak to her.”

“All she said was,
He hadn’t come and had he really started.”

“She knew he had, poor thing, two hours ago.”

“He had the shovel. He’ll have made a fight.”

“Why did I ever let him leave this house!”

“Don’t begin that. You did the best you could
To keep him—though perhaps you didn’t quite
Conceal ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Bells

...usly wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

III

Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan

The Cremona Violin

...in went up? Perhaps. If 
so,
Charlotta never saw it go.
The famous Fraeulein Gebnitz' singing
Only came to her like the ringing
Of bells at a festa
Which swing in the air
And nobody realizes they are there.
They jingle and jangle,
And clang, and bang,
And never a soul could tell whether they rang,
For the plopping of guns and rockets
And the chinking of silver to spend, in one's 
pockets,
And the shuffling and clapping of feet,
And the loud flapping
Of flags, with the drums,
...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Everlasting Mercy

...nd all their lifted fingers burned, 
Burned like the golden altar tallows, 
Burned like a troop of God's own Hallows, 
Bringing to mind the burning time 
When all the bells will rock and chime 
And burning saints on burning horses 
Will sweep the planets from their courses 
And loose the stars to burn up night. 
Lord, give us eyes to bear the light. 

We all went quiet down the Scallenge 
Lest Police Inspector Drew should challenge. 
But 'Spector Drew was sleeping sweet, 
His...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The Giaour

...re the weeds and the desolate dust are spread.
‘Twas sweet of yore to see it play
And chase the sultriness of day,
As springing high the silver dew
In whirls fantastically flew,
And flung luxurious coolness round
The air, and verdure o’er the ground.
‘Twas sweet, when cloudless stars were bright,
To view the wave of watery light,
And hear its melody by night.
And oft had Hassan’s childhood played
Around the verge of that cascade;
And oft upon his mother’s breast
That sound ha...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Holy Grail

...into a cell 
Of great piled stones; and lying bounden there 
In darkness through innumerable hours 
He heard the hollow-ringing heavens sweep 
Over him till by miracle--what else?-- 
Heavy as it was, a great stone slipt and fell, 
Such as no wind could move: and through the gap 
Glimmered the streaming scud: then came a night 
Still as the day was loud; and through the gap 
The seven clear stars of Arthur's Table Round-- 
For, brother, so one night, because they roll 
Through...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The House Of Dust: Complete (Long)

...faulter leers at a chaos of figures,
And runs among them, and is beaten down;
The sick man coughs and hears the chisels ringing;
The tired clown
Sees the enormous crowd, a million faces,
Motionless in their places,
Ready to laugh, and seize, and crush and tear . . .
The dancer smooths her hair,
Laces her golden slippers, and runs through the door
To dance once more,
Hearing swift music like an enchantment rise,
Feeling the praise of a thousand eyes.

As darkness falls
The wal...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

The Lady of the Lake

...ed.
     Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast,
     Burst down like torrent from its crest;
     With short and springing footstep pass
     The trembling bog and false morass;
     Across the brook like roebuck bound,
     And thread the brake like questing hound;
     The crag is high, the scaur is deep,
     Yet shrink not from the desperate leap:
     Parched are thy burning lips and brow,
     Yet by the fountain pause not now;
     Herald of battle, fate, ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Millers Tale

...e, keep silence.

33. Curfew-time: Eight in the evening, when, by the law of
William the Conqueror, all people were, on ringing of a bell, to
extinguish fire and candle, and go to rest; hence the word
curfew, from French, "couvre-feu," cover-fire.

34. Absolon chewed grains: these were grains of Paris, or
Paradise; a favourite spice.

35. Under his tongue a true love he bare: some sweet herb;
another reading, however, is "a true love-knot," which may
have been of the nature o...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

White Flock

...

But soon that place, where, leaning to the windows
The tender birches make dry rustling sound,
The voices will be ringing of the shadows
And roses will in blackened wreaths be wound.

And further onward still -- the light is generous
Unbearably as though ¡®t were red hot wine..
And now the wind, all redolent and heated,
In perfect vigor has enflamed my mind.



x x x

Oh, this was a cold day
In Peter's wonderful town!
The shadow grew dense, and the sundo...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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