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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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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
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O, enviable, early days,
When dancing thoughtless pleasure’s maze,
 To care, to guilt unknown!
How ill exchang’d for riper times,
To feel the follies, or the crimes,
 Of others, or my own!
Ye tiny elves that guiltless sport,
 Like linnets in the bush,
Ye little know the ills ye court,
 When manhood is your wish!
 The losses, the crosses,
 That active man engage;
 The fears all, the tears all,
 Of dim declining age!...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...ar,
Resolve to drink, nay, half, to whore, no more;
Where tiny thieves not destin’d yet to swing,
Beat hemp for others, riper for the string:
From these dire scenes my wretched lines I date,
To tell Maria her Esopus’ fate.


“Alas! I feel I am no actor here!”
’Tis real hangmen real scourges bear!
Prepare Maria, for a horrid tale
Will turn thy very rouge to deadly pale;
Will make thy hair, tho’ erst from gipsy poll’d,
By barber woven, and by barber sold,
Though twisted smooth ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...bowed 
His spirit with the thought of boundless power 15 
And inaccessible majesty. Ah why 
Should we in the world's riper years neglect 
God's ancient sanctuaries and adore 
Only among the crowd and under roofs 
That our frail hands have raised? Let me at least 20 
Here in the shadow of this aged wood  
Offer one hymn¡ªthrice happy if it find 
Acceptance in His ear. 

Father thy hand 
Hath reared these venerable columns thou 25 
Didst weave this verdant roof. Th...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...bowed 
His spirit with the thought of boundless power 
And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why 
Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect 
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore 
Only among the crowd, and under roofs, 
That our frail hands have raised? Let me, at least, 
Here, in the shadow of this aged wood, 
Offer one hymn---thrice happy, if it find 
Acceptance in His ear. 
Father, thy hand 
Hath reared these venerable columns, thou 
Didst weave this verdant roof....Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...es strong;
Then to the Mothers brest her softly move,
Which while she drain'd of Milk she fill'd with Love:
But as with riper Years her Virtue grew,
And ev'ry minute adds a Lustre new;
When with meridian height her Beauty shin'd,
And thorough that sparkled her fairer Mind;
When She with Smiles serene and Words discreet
His hidden Soul at ev'ry turn could meet;
Then might y' ha' daily his Affection spy'd,
Doubling that knot which Destiny had ty'd:
While they by sence, not know...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew



...ee,
And prayed to what in marble smiled 
Cold, lifeless, mute, on me.
I did. But listen ! Children spring 
Full soon to riper youth;
And, for Love's vow and Wedlock's ring, 
I sold my early truth. 

'Twas not a grey, bare head, like thine, 
Bent o'er me, when I said,
' That land and God and Faith are mine, 
For which thy fathers bled.'
I see thee not, my eyes are dim; 
But, well I hear thee say,
' O daughter, cease to think of him 
Who led thy soul astray. 

Between you lies ...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte
...fires each human heart:And when the sun completes his daily race,I see her riper age complete each growing grace. When milder planets, warmer skiesO'er winter's frozen reign prevail;When groves are tinged with vernal dyes,And violets scent the wanton gale;Those flowers, the verdure, then recall that ...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...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, 
With the dew of summer swelling, 
There’s a juice of pure delight, 
Cool, ...Read more of this...
by Graves, Robert
...ch they extoll'd his pictures, much his seat,
And flatter'd ev'ry day, and some days eat:
Till grown more frugal in his riper days,
He paid some bards with port, and some with praise,
To some a dry rehearsal was assign'd,
And others (harder still) he paid in kind.
Dryden alone (what wonder?) came not nigh,
Dryden alone escap'd this judging eye:
But still the great have kindness in reserve,
He help'd to bury whom he help'd to starve.

May some choice patron bless each grey goo...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...eason, 
And then to fling me back to the same earth 
Of which they are, as I suppose, the flower—
Not given to know the riper fruit that waits 
For a more comprehensive harvesting. 

Yes, may they come, and soon. Again I say, 
May they come soon!—before too many of them 
Shall be the bloody cost of our defection.
When hell waits on the dawn of a new state, 
Better it were that hell should not wait long,— 
Or so it is I see it who should see 
As far or farther into time tonigh...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...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 let my sorrows sleep.

The Lord grew angry on his throne,
And, with impartial eye,
Measured the mischiefs they had done,
Then let his arrows fly.

How was their insolence surprised
To hear his thunders roll!
And all th...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac
...ive,
Hypocrisy, I saw it in him at once.
Is it so true that second thoughts are best?
Not first, and third, which are a riper first?
Too ripe, too late! they come too late for use.
Ah love, there surely lives in man and beast
Something divine to warn them of their foes:
And such a sense, when first I fronted him,
Said, "trust him not;" but after, when I came
To know him more, I lost it, knew him less;
Fought with what seem'd my own uncharity;
Sat at his table; drank his costl...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...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 herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud bur...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...ring
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 days—
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough,
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
Therefore like her I sometime hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...d so many and fair faces nighSoon his good judgment did the fairest find.Of riper age and higher rank the restGently he beckon'd with his hand aside,And lovingly drew near the perfect one:So courteously her eyes and brow he press'd,All at his choice in fond approval vied—Envy through my sole veins at...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...ere
The. gravid mistress of their care?
 A busy scene, indeed, he sees,
 But not a sign or sound of bees.
 Worms of the riper grave unhid
 By any kindly coffin-lid,
 Obscene and shameless to the light,
 Seethe in insatiate appetite,
 Through putrid offal, while--above
 The hissing blow-fly seeks his love,
 Whose offspring, supping where they supt,
 Consume corruption twice corrupt....Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...Effective colonizer sharply stopped 
502 In the door-yard by his own capacious bloom. 
503 But that this bloom grown riper, showing nibs 
504 Of its eventual roundness, puerile tints 
505 Of spiced and weathery rouges, should complex 
506 The stopper to indulgent fatalist 
507 Was unforeseen. First Crispin smiled upon 
508 His goldenest demoiselle, inhabitant, 
509 She seemed, of a country of the capuchins, 
510 So delicately blushed, so humbly eyed, 
511 Attentive...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace
...ong; 
Then to the Mother's breast her softly move, 
Which while she drained of milk, she filled with love. 
But as with riper years her virtue grew, 
And every minute adds a lustre new, 
When with meridian height her beauty shined, 
And thorough that sparkled her fairer mind, 
When she with smiles serene in words discreet 
His hidden soul at ever turn could meet; 
Then might y'ha' daily his affection spied, 
Doubling that knot which destiny had tied, 
While they by sense, not...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...Childishness
2.18 Did act all folly that it could express.
2.19 My silliness did only take delight,
2.20 In that which riper age did scorn and slight,
2.21 In Rattles, Bables, and such toyish stuff.
2.22 My then ambitious thoughts were low enough.
2.23 My high-born soul so straitly was confin'd
2.24 That its own worth it did not know nor mind.
2.25 This little house of flesh did spacious count,
2.26 Through ignorance, all troubles did surmount,
2.27 Yet this advantage had mi...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne
...fruit of Love may rest 
Some happy future day. 

I kiss it twice, I kiss it thrice, 
The warmth it thence shall win 
To riper life may magnetise 
The baby-oak within. 

But thou, while kingdoms overset, 
Or lapse from hand to hand, 
Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet 
Thine acorn in the land. 

May never saw dismember thee, 
Nor wielded axe disjoint, 
That art the fairest-spoken tree 
From here to Lizard-point. 

O rock upon thy towery-top 
All throats that gurgle sweet! 
All...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry