Famous Roughest Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Lesbia Hath a Beaming Eye

by Thomas Moore
 Lesbia hath a beaming eye, 
But no one knows for whom it beameth; 
Right and left its arrows fly, 
But what they aim at no one dreameth. 
Sweeter 'tis to gaze upon 
My Nora's lid that seldom rises; 
Few its looks, but every one, 
Like unexpected light, surprises! 
Oh, my Nora Creina, dear, 
My gentle, bashful Nora Creina, 
Beauty...Read more of this...

Ode to Meditation

by Mary Darby Robinson
 SWEET CHILD OF REASON! maid serene; 
With folded arms, and pensive mien, 
Who wand'ring near yon thorny wild, 
So oft, my length'ning hours beguil'd; 
Thou, who within thy peaceful call, 
Canst laugh at LIFE'S tumultuous care, 
While calm repose delights to dwell 
On beds of fragrant roses there; 
Where meek-ey'd PATIENCE waits to greet 
The woe-worn Trav'ller's weary feet,...Read more of this...

Growltigers Last Stand

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 GROWLTIGER was a Bravo Cat, who lived upon a barge;
In fact he was the roughest cat that ever roamed at large.
From Gravesend up to Oxford he pursued his evil aims,
Rejoicing in his title of "The Terror of the Thames."

His manners and appearance did not calculate to please;
His coat was torn and seedy, he was baggy at the knees;
One ear...Read more of this...

When I hoped I recollect

by Emily Dickinson
 When I hoped, I recollect
Just the place I stood --
At a Window facing West --
Roughest Air -- was good --

Not a Sleet could bite me --
Not a frost could cool --
Hope it was that kept me warm --
Not Merino shawl --

When I feared -- I recollect
Just the Day it was --
Worlds were lying out to Sun --
Yet how Nature...Read more of this...

So Breaks The Sun

by Ben Jonson
 So breaks the sun earth's rugged chains,
 Wherein rude winter bound her veins;
So grows both stream and source of price,
 That lately fettered were with ice.
So naked trees get crisped heads,
 And colored coats the roughest meads,
And all get vigor, youth, and spright,
 That are but looked on by his light....Read more of this...

Conroys Gap

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 This was the way of it, don't you know -- 
Ryan was "wanted" for stealing sheep, 
And never a trooper, high or low, 
Could find him -- catch a weasel asleep! 
Till Trooper Scott, from the Stockman's Ford -- 
A bushman, too, as I've heard them tell -- 
Chanced to find him drunk as a lord 
Round at the...Read more of this...

De Profundis

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 I

The face, which, duly as the sun, 
Rose up for me with life begun, 
To mark all bright hours of the day 
With hourly love, is dimmed away—
And yet my days go on, go on.

II 

The tongue which, like a stream, could run
Smooth music from the roughest stone, 
And every morning with ' Good day'
Make each day good, is...Read more of this...

The Christ of the Never

by Henry Lawson
 With eyes that are narrowed to pierce
To the awful horizons of land,
Through the blaze of hot days, and the fierce
White heat-waves that flow on the sand;
Through the Never Land westward and nor'ward,
Bronzed, bearded, and gaunt on the track,
Low-voiced and hard-knuckled, rides forward
The Christ of the Outer Out-back.

For the cause that will ne'er be relinquished
Despite all the cynics on earth---
In...Read more of this...

The Wreck of the Hesperus

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
That ope in the month of May.

The skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his month,
And he watched how the...Read more of this...

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