Famous Riper Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet I

by William Shakespeare
 FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament
And only...Read more of this...

Psalm 25 part 1

by Isaac Watts
 v.1-11 
S. M.
Waiting for pardon and direction.

I Lift my soul to God,
My trust is in his name:
Let not my foes that seek my blood
Still triumph in my shame.

Sin, and the powers of hell,
Persuade me to despair:
Lord, make me know thy cov'nant well,
That I may 'scape the snare.

From the first dawning light
Till the dark ev'ning rise,
For thy salvation, Lord, I...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXXVI

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XXXVI. Mentre che 'l cor dagli amorosi vermi. HAD SHE NOT DIED SO EARLY, HE WOULD HAVE LEARNED TO PRAISE HER MORE WORTHILY.  While on my heart the worms consuming prey'dOf Love, and I with all his fire was caught;The steps of my fair wild one still I soughtTo trace o'er...Read more of this...

Sonnet I: From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase

by William Shakespeare
 From fairest creatures we desire increase, 
That thereby beauty's rose might never die, 
But as the riper should by time decease, 
His tender heir might bear his memory: 
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, 
Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel, 
Making a famine where abundance lies, 
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. 
Thou...Read more of this...

Apostasy

by Charlotte Bronte
 THIS last denial of my faith, 
Thou, solemn Priest, hast heard; 
And, though upon my bed of death,
I call not back a word.
Point not to thy Madonna, Priest,­
Thy sightless saint of stone; 
She cannot, from this burning breast,
Wring one repentant moan. 

Thou say'st, that when a sinless child, 
I duly bent the knee,
And prayed to what in marble smiled...Read more of this...

Canzone XV

by Francesco Petrarch
CANZONE XV. In quella parte dov' Amor mi sprona. HE FINDS HER IMAGE EVERYWHERE.  When Love, fond Love, commands the strain,The coyest muse must sure obey;Love bids my wounded breast complain,And whispers the melodious lay:Yet when such griefs restrain the muse's wing,How shall she dare to soar, or how attempt...Read more of this...

Psalm 129

by Isaac Watts
 Persecutors punished.

Up from my youth, may Isr'el say,
Have I been nursed in tears;
My griefs were constant as the day,
And tedious as the years.

Up from my youth I bore the rage
Of all the sons of strife;
Oft they assailed my riper age,
But not destroyed my life.

Their cruel plow had torn my flesh
With furrows long and deep;
Hourly they vexed my wounds afresh,
Nor...Read more of this...

Sonnet XLIX

by Francesco Petrarch
[Pg 273] SONNET XLIX. Tranquillo porto avea mostrato Amore. DEATH HAS ROBBED HIM IN ONE MOMENT OF THE FRUIT OF HIS LIFE.  From life's long storm of trouble and of tearsLove show'd a tranquil haven and fair end'Mid better thoughts which riper age attend,That vice lays bare and virtue...Read more of this...

Sonnet CCI

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CCI. Real natura, angelico intelletto. ON THE KISS OF HONOUR GIVEN BY CHARLES OF LUXEMBURG TO LAURA AT A BANQUET.  A kingly nature, an angelic mind,A spotless soul, prompt aspect and keen eye,Quick penetration, contemplation highAnd truly worthy of the breast which shrined:In bright assembly lovely ladies join'dTo grace...Read more of this...

105. Despondency: An Ode

by Robert Burns
 OPPRESS’D with grief, oppress’d with care,
A burden more than I can bear,
 I set me down and sigh;
O life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
 To wretches such as I!
Dim backward as I cast my view,
 What sick’ning scenes appear!
What sorrows yet may pierce me through,
 Too justly I may fear!
 Still caring, despairing,
 Must...Read more of this...

John Brown

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 Though for your sake I would not have you now 
So near to me tonight as now you are, 
God knows how much a stranger to my heart 
Was any cold word that I may have written; 
And you, poor woman that I made my wife,
You have had more of loneliness, I fear, 
Than I—though I have been the...Read more of this...

On an Invitation to the United States

by Thomas Hardy
 I 

My ardours for emprize nigh lost 
Since Life has bared its bones to me, 
I shrink to seek a modern coast 
Whose riper times have yet to be; 
Where the new regions claim them free 
From that long drip of human tears 
Which peoples old in tragedy 
Have left upon the centuried years. 

II 

For, wonning in these...Read more of this...

The Talking Oak

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Once more the gate behind me falls; 
Once more before my face 
I see the moulder'd Abbey-walls, 
That stand within the chace. 

Beyond the lodge the city lies, 
Beneath its drift of smoke; 
And ah! with what delighted eyes 
I turn to yonder oak. 

For when my passion first began, 
Ere that, which in me burn'd, 
The love, that...Read more of this...

A Forest Hymn

by William Cullen Bryant
THE GROVES were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft and lay the architrave  
And spread the roof above them¡ªere he framed 
The lofty vault to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood 5 
Amidst the cool and silence he knelt down  
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And...Read more of this...

Sonnet 1: From fairest creatures we desire increase

by William Shakespeare
 From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory;
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only...Read more of this...

Cherry-Time

by Robert Graves
 Cherries of the night are riper
Than the cherries pluckt at noon 
Gather to your fairy piper 
When he pipes his magic tune: 
 Merry, merry, 
 Take a cherry; 
 Mine are sounder, 
 Mine are rounder, 
 Mine are sweeter 
 For the eater
 Under the moon. 
And you’ll be fairies soon. 

In the cherry pluckt at night,...Read more of this...

Sonnet CII

by William Shakespeare
 My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear:
That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
Our love was new and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing
And stops her pipe in growth of...Read more of this...

A Forest Hymn

by William Cullen Bryant
The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 
And spread the roof above them,---ere he framed 
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, 
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down, 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplication. For his...Read more of this...

454. Epistle from Esopus to Maria

by Robert Burns
 FROM those drear solitudes and frowsy cells,
Where Infamy with sad Repentance dwells;
Where turnkeys make the jealous portal fast,
And deal from iron hands the spare repast;
Where truant ’prentices, yet young in sin,
Blush at the curious stranger peeping in;
Where strumpets, relics of the drunken roar,
Resolve to drink, nay, half, to whore, no more;
Where tiny thieves not destin’d yet to swing,
Beat hemp...Read more of this...

Sweet Sister

by Victor Hugo
 ("Vous qui ne savez pas combien l'enfance est belle.") 


 Sweet sister, if you knew, like me, 
 The charms of guileless infancy, 
 No more you'd envy riper years, 
 Or smiles, more bitter than your tears. 
 
 But childhood passes in an hour, 
 As perfume from a faded flower; 
 The joyous voice of early...Read more of this...

Sonnet 102: My love is strengthened though more weak in seeming

by William Shakespeare
 My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear;
That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere.
Our love was new, and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,
And stops her pipe in growth of riper...Read more of this...

The Bees and the Flies

by Rudyard Kipling
 "The Mother Hive"-- Actions and Reactions

A Farmer of the Augustan Age
Perused in Virgil's golden page
The story of the secret won
From Proteus by Cyrene's son--
How the dank sea-god showed the swain
Means to restore his hives again.
More briefly, how a slaughtered bull
Breeds honey by the bellyful.

The egregious rustic put to death
A bull by stopping of its breath,
Disposed the carcass in a...Read more of this...

Sonnets xiv

by William Shakespeare
 MY love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming; 
I love not less, though less the show appear: 
That love is merchandised whose rich esteeming 
The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere. 
Our love was new, and then but in the spring, 
When I was wont to greet it with my lays; 
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing 
And...Read more of this...

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