Famous Safe Poems by Famous Poets

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

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safe-home

by Rg Gregory
 don't be so lazy maisie maisie
don't be so lazy please
i know it's snowing
and a hard wind's blowing
but nobody knows
at the rate we're going
what time we'll get home tonight

keep to the path for me timothy timothy
keep to the path for me please
my legs are aching
and my poor back's breaking
and everyone knows
the track you're taking
will not fetch us home tonight

i know...Read more of this...

Second Fig

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!...Read more of this...

O Captain! My Captain!

by Walt Whitman
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, 
the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! 
O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my...Read more of this...

To my Lady Berkeley Afflicted upon her Son My Lord BERKELEYs Early Engaging in the Sea-Service

by Anne Killigrew
 SO the renowned Ithacensian Queen
In Tears for her Telemachus was seen, 
When leaving Home, he did attempt the Ire
Of rageing Seas, to seek his absent Sire: 
Such bitter Sighs her tender Breast did rend; 
But had she known a God did him attend, 
And would with Glory bring him safe again, 
Bright Thoughts would then have dispossess't her Pain....Read more of this...

Young Munro the Sailor

by William Topaz McGonagall
 'Twas on a sunny morning in the month of May,
I met a pretty damsel on the banks o' the Tay;
I said, My charming fair one, come tell to me I pray,
Why do you walk alone on the banks o' the Tay. 

She said, Kind sir, pity me, for I am in great woe
About my young sailor lad, whose name...Read more of this...

Good-by

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Good-by, proud world, I'm going home,
Thou'rt not my friend, and I'm not thine;
Long through thy weary crowds I roam;
A river-ark on the ocean brine,
Long I've been tossed like the driven foam,
But now, proud world, I'm going home.

Good-by to Flattery's fawning face,
To Grandeur, with his wise grimace,
To upstart Wealth's averted eye,
To supple Office low and high,
To crowded halls, to court,...Read more of this...

Psalm 91 part 1

by Isaac Watts
 v.1-7 
L. M.
Safety in public diseases and dangers.

He that hath made his refuge God
Shall find a most secure abode,
Shall walk all day beneath his shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.

Then will I say, "My God, thy power
Shall be my fortress and my tower;
I, that am formed of feeble dust,
Make thine almighty arm my trust."

Thrice happy man! thy...Read more of this...

To T. A

by Rudyard Kipling
 I have made for you a song,
 And it may be right or wrong,
But only you can tell me if it's true;
 I have tried for to explain
 Both your pleasure and your pain,
And, Thomas, here's my best respects to you!

 O there'll surely come a day
 When they'll give you all your pay,
And treat you as a Christian...Read more of this...

Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd

by Walt Whitman
 1
OUT of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me, 
Whispering, I love you, before long I die, 
I have travel’d a long way, merely to look on you, to touch you, 
For I could not die till I once look’d on you, 
For I fear’d I might afterward lose you.

2
(Now we have met, we have...Read more of this...

Safe Despair it is that raves --

by Emily Dickinson
 Safe Despair it is that raves --
Agony is frugal.
Puts itself severe away
For its own perusal.

Garrisoned no Soul can be
In the Front of Trouble --
Love is one, not aggregate --
Nor is Dying double --...Read more of this...

Danger

by Helen Hunt Jackson
 With what a childish and short-sighted sense 
Fear seeks for safety; recons up the days 
Of danger and escape, the hours and ways 
Of death; it breathless flies the pestilence; 
It walls itself in towers of defence; 
By land, by sea, against the storm it lays 
Down barriers; then, comforted, it says: 
"This spot, this hour is safe." Oh,...Read more of this...

Sweet -- safe -- Houses

by Emily Dickinson
 Sweet -- safe -- Houses --
Glad -- gay -- Houses --
Sealed so stately tight --
Lids of Steel -- on Lids of Marble --
Locking Bare feet out --

Brooks of Plush -- in Banks of Satin
Not so softly fall
As the laughter -- and the whisper --
From their People Pearl --

No Bald Death -- affront their Parlors --
No Bold Sickness come
To deface...Read more of this...

The Farm Child's Lullaby

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Oh, the little bird is rocking in the cradle of the wind,
And it's bye, my little wee one, bye;
The harvest all is gathered and the pippins all are binned;
Bye, my little wee one, bye;
The little rabbit's hiding in the golden shock of corn,
The thrifty squirrel's laughing bunny's idleness to scorn;
You are smiling with the angels in your slumber, smile till...Read more of this...

Last Words

by Philip Levine
 If the shoe fell from the other foot 
who would hear? If the door 
opened onto a pure darkness 
and it was no dream? If your life 
ended the way a book ends 
with half a blank page and the survivors 
gone off to Africa or madness? 
If my life ended in late spring 
of 1964 while I walked...Read more of this...

In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husbands Safe Arrival

by Anne Bradstreet
 What shall I render to Thy name 
Or how Thy praises speak? 
My thanks how shall I testify? 
O Lord, Thou know'st I'm weak.

I owe so much, so little can 
Return unto Thy name, 
Confusion seizes on my soul, 
And I am filled with shame.

O Thou that hearest prayers, Lord, 
To Thee shall come all flesh 
Thou hast me...Read more of this...

Psalm 84

by John Milton
 How lovely are thy dwellings fair!
O Lord of Hoasts, how dear
The pleasant Tabernacles are!
Where thou do'st dwell so near.
My Soul doth long and almost die
Thy Courts O Lord to see,
My heart and flesh aloud do crie,
O living God, for thee.
There ev'n the Sparrow freed from wrong
Hath found a house of rest, 
The Swallow there, to lay her young
Hath built...Read more of this...

The Poppy

by Francis Thompson
 To Monica

Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there:
Like a yawn of fire from the grass it came,
And the fanning wind puffed it to flapping flame.

With burnt mouth, red like a lion's, it drank
The blood of the sun as he slaughtered sank,
And dipped its cup in the purpurate shine
When the Eastern conduits...Read more of this...

This Compost

by Walt Whitman
 1
SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest; 
I withdraw from the still woods I loved; 
I will not go now on the pastures to walk; 
I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea; 
I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other flesh, to renew me.

O how...Read more of this...

Christmas

by John Betjeman
 The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers...Read more of this...

Psalm 121

by Isaac Watts
 Divine protection.

Up to the hills I lift mine eyes,
Th' eternal hills beyond the skies;
Thence all her help my soul derives;
There my Almighty refuge lives.

He lives; the everlasting God,
That built the world, that spread the flood;
The heav'ns with all their hosts he made,
And the dark regions of the dead.

He guides our feet, he guards our way;
His morning smiles bless all...Read more of this...

An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penetential Cries

by Jupiter Hammon
 Salvation comes by Christ alone,
The only Son of God;
Redemption now to every one,
That love his holy Word.

Dear Jesus, we would fly to Thee,
And leave off every Sin,
Thy tender Mercy well agree;
Salvation from our King. 

Salvation comes now from the Lord,
Our victorious King.
His holy Name be well ador'd,
Salvation surely bring.

Dear Jesus, give thy Spirit now, 
Thy Grace to every Nation,
That...Read more of this...

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

by Emily Dickinson
 Safe in their Alabaster Chambers --
Untouched my Morning
And untouched by Noon --
Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection --
Rafter of satin,
And Roof of stone.

Light laughs the breeze
In her Castle above them --
Babbles the Bee in a stolid Ear,
Pipe the Sweet Birds in ignorant cadence --
Ah, what sagacity perished here!...Read more of this...

A Year Ago

by Robert William Service
 I'm sitting by the fire tonight,
 The cat purrs on the rug;
The room's abrim with rosy light,
 Suavely soft and snug;
And safe and warm from dark and storm
 It's cosiness I hug.

Then petulant the window pane
 Quakes in the tempest moan,
And cries: "Forlornly in the rain
 There starkly streams a stone,
Where one so dear who shared your cheer
 Now...Read more of this...

Banty Time

by John Hay
I reckon I git your drift, gents,—
You ’low the boy sha’n’t stay;
This is a white man’s country;
You’re Dimocrats, you say;
And whereas, and seein’, and wherefore,
The times bein’ all out o’ j’int,
The ****** has got to mosey
From the limits o’ Spunky P’int!

Le’s reason the thing a minute:
I’m an old-fashioned Dimocrat too,
Though I laid my politics out o’ the way
For to keep...Read more of this...

Lines Written on the Sea-Coast

by Mary Darby Robinson
 SWIFT o'er the bounding deep the VESSEL glides,
Its streamers flutt'ring in the summer gales,
The lofty mast the breezy air derides,
As gaily o'er the glitt'ring surf she sails. 

Now beats each gallant heart with innate joys,
Bright hopes and tender fears alternate vie,
Dear schemes of pure delight the mind employs,
And the soul glistens in the tearful eye. 

The fond expecting Maid...Read more of this...

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