Famous Rustic Poems by Famous Poets

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

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133. The Brigs of Ayr

...THE SIMPLE Bard, rough at the rustic plough,
Learning his tuneful trade from ev’ry bough;
The chanting linnet, or the mellow thrush,
Hailing the setting sun, sweet, in the green thorn bush;
The soaring lark, the perching red-breast shrill,
Or deep-ton’d plovers grey, wild-whistling o’er the hill;
Shall he—nurst in the peasant’s lowly shed,
To hardy independence bravely bred,
By early pov...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


91. The Vision

...s vows,
 Would soon been broken.


A “hair-brain’d, sentimental trace”
Was strongly markèd in her face;
A wildly-witty, rustic grace
 Shone full upon her;
Her eye, ev’n turn’d on empty space,
 Beam’d keen with honour.


Down flow’d her robe, a tartan sheen,
Till half a leg was scrimply seen;
An’ such a leg! my bonie Jean
 Could only peer it;
Sae straught, sae taper, tight an’ clean—
 Nane else came near it.


Her mantle large, of greenish hue,
My gazing wonder chiefly drew:
D...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

A poem on the rising glory of America

...s oxen draw 
Th' industrious plough. The Roman heroes too 
Fabricius and Camillus lov'd a life 
Of sweet simplicity and rustic joy; 
And from the busy Forum hast'ning far, 
'Midst woods and fields spent the remains of age. 
How grateful to behold the harvests rise 
And mighty crops adorn the golden plains? 
Fair plenty smiles throughout, while lowing herds 
Stalk o'er the grassy hill or level mead, 
Or at some winding river slake their thirst. 
Thus fares the rustic swain; an...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

By The Fire-Side

...altar bare,
As if thieves don't fear thunder.

XXXVI.

We stoop and look in through the grate,
See the little porch and rustic door,
Read duly the dead builder's date;
Then cross the bridge that we crossed before,
Take the path again---but wait!

XXXVII.

Oh moment, one and infinite!
The water slips o'er stock and stone;
The West is tender, hardly bright:
How grey at once is the evening grown---
One star, its chrysolite!

XXXVIII.

We two stood there with never a third,
But e...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Comus

...,
Which she with precious vialed liquors heals:
For which the shepherds, at their festivals,
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,
If she be right invoked in warbled song;
For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was herself,
In hard-besetting need. This will I try,
And ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

...pelt by th' unlettered Muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply:
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Ev'n in our ashes live their ...Read more of this...
by Gray, Thomas

Epipsychidion (excerpt)

...bare and void interstices.
But the chief marvel of the wilderness
Is a lone dwelling, built by whom or how
None of the rustic island-people know:
'Tis not a tower of strength, though with its height
It overtops the woods; but, for delight,
Some wise and tender Ocean-King, ere crime
Had been invented, in the world's young prime,
Rear'd it, a wonder of that simple time,
An envy of the isles, a pleasure-house
Made sacred to his sister and his spouse.
It scarce seems now a wreck...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Four Quartets 2: East Coker

...hand or the arm
Whiche betokeneth concorde. Round and round the fire
Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles,
Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter
Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes,
Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth
Mirth of those long since under earth
Nourishing the corn. Keeping time,
Keeping the rhythm in their dancing
As in their living in the living seasons
The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harv...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Frances

...Unseen, beneath this sable bower, 
Rustled her dress and rapid tread. 

There was an alcove in that shade, 
Screening a rustic-seat and stand; 
Weary she sat her down and laid 
Her hot brow on her burning hand.

To solitude and to the night, 
Some words she now, in murmurs, said; 
And, trickling through her fingers white, 
Some tears of misery she shed.

' God help me, in my grievous need, 
God help me, in my inward pain; 
Which cannot ask for pity's meed, 
Which has no licen...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

Imitations of Horace: The First Epistle of the Second Book

...he varying verse, the full-resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine.
Though still some traces of our rustic vein
And splayfoot verse remain'd, and will remain.
Late, very late, correctness grew our care,
When the tir'd nation breath'd from civil war.
Exact Racine, and Corneille's noble fire
Show'd us that France had something to admire.
Not but the tragic spirit was our own,
And full in Shakespeare, fair in Otway shone:
But Otway fail'd to polish or refine,...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Lucretius

...ay, and within 
All hollow as the hopes and fears of men?

"But who was he that in the garden snared
Picus and Faunus, rustic Gods? a tale
To laugh at -- more to laugh at in myself -- 
For look! what is it? there? yon arbutus
Totters; a noiseless riot underneath
Strikes through the wood, sets all the tops quivering -- ;
The mountain quickens into Nymph and Faun,
And here an Oread -- how the sun delights
To glance and shift about her slippery sides,
And rosy knees and supple ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Snowbound a Winter Idyl

...tranger hearths in boarding round, 
The moonlit skater's keen delight, 
The sleigh-drive through the frosty night, 
The rustic party, with its rough 
Accompaniment of blind-man's-buff, 
And whirling-plate, and forfeits paid, 
His winter task a pastime made. 
Happy the snow-locked homes wherein 
He tuned his merry violin, 
Or played the athlete in the barn, 
Or held the good dame's winding-yarn, 
Or mirth-provoking versions told 
Of classic legends rare and old, 
Wherein the s...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

The Burden Of Itys

...for roving comrades made,
Warm valleys where the tired student lies
With half-shut book, and many a winding walk
Where rustic lovers stray at eve in happy simple talk.

The harmless rabbit gambols with its young
Across the trampled towing-path, where late
A troop of laughing boys in jostling throng
Cheered with their noisy cries the racing eight;
The gossamer, with ravelled silver threads,
Works at its little loom, and from the dusky red-eaved sheds

Of the lone Farm a flick...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The Deserted Village

...And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service passed, around the pious man,
With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran;
Even children followed with endearing wile,
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed,
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven.
As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swe...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver

The Dream

...the wave
Of woods and corn-fields, and the abodes of men
Scattered at intervals, and wreathing smoke
Arising from such rustic roofs: the hill
Was crowned with a peculiar diadem
Of trees, in circular array, so fixed,
Not by the sport of nature, but of man:
These two, a maiden and a youth, were there
Gazing—the one on all that was beneath
Fair as herself—but the boy gazed on her;
And both were young, and one was beautiful:
And both were young—yet not alike in youth.
As the swe...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Emigrants: Book I

...st gloom obscure!)
Or more substantial farm, well fenced and warm,
Where the full barn, and cattle fodder'd round
Speak rustic plenty; nor the statelier dome
By dark firs shaded, or the aspiring pine,
Close by the village Church (with care conceal'd
By verdant foliage, lest the poor man's grave
Should mar the smiling prospect of his Lord),
Where offices well rang'd, or dove-cote stock'd,
Declare manorial residence; not these
Or any of the buildings, new and trim
With windows ...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte

The Lady of the Lake

...
     With their long fibres swept the ground.
     Here, for retreat in dangerous hour,
     Some chief had framed a rustic bower.
     XXVI.

     It was a lodge of ample size,
     But strange of structure and device;
     Of such materials as around
     The workman's hand had readiest found.
     Lopped of their boughs, their hoar trunks bared,
     And by the hatchet rudely squared,
     To give the walls their destined height,
     The sturdy oak and ash un...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Wood

...our resting-place descry, 
Marked by one roof-tree, towering high 
Above a farm-stead rude. 

Refreshed, erelong, with rustic fare, 
We'll seek a couch of dreamless ease; 
Courage will guard thy heart from fear, 
And Love give mine divinest peace: 
To-morrow brings more dangerous toil, 
And through its conflict and turmoil 
We'll pass, as God shall please....Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

The Wood

...our resting-place descry, 
Marked by one roof-tree, towering high 
Above a farm-stead rude. 

Refreshed, erelong, with rustic fare, 
We'll seek a couch of dreamless ease; 
Courage will guard thy heart from fear, 
And Love give mine divinest peace: 
To-morrow brings more dangerous toil, 
And through its conflict and turmoil 
We'll pass, as God shall please.


[The preceding composition refers, doubtless, to the scenes acted in France during
the last year of the Consulate.]...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

We Are Seven

...;  Her hair was thick with many a curl  That cluster'd round her head.   She had a rustic, woodland air,  And she was wildly clad;  Her eyes were fair, and very fair,  —Her beauty made me glad.   "Sisters and brothers, little maid,  How many may you be?"  "How many? seven in all," she said,  And wondering looked at me.   "And where are they, I pra...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

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