Famous Sans Poems by Famous Poets

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

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454. Epistle from Esopus to Maria

...in Hamlet, in Othello roar;
Or, haughty Chieftain, ’mid the din of arms
In Highland Bonnet, woo Malvina’s charms;
While sans-culottes stoop up the mountain high,
And steal from me Maria’s prying eye.
Blest Highland bonnet! once my proudest dress,
Now prouder still, Maria’s temples press;
I see her wave thy towering plumes afar,
And call each coxcomb to the wordy war:
I see her face the first of Ireland’s sons,
And even out-Irish his Hibernian bronze;
The crafty Colonel leaves...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A Letter From Li Po

...itaph,
forgetting about meaning, who himself
had added 'meaning' to the book of >things,'
lies who knows where, himself sans epitaph,
his text, too, lost, forever lost ...
 And yet, no,
text lost and poet lost, these only flow
into that other text that knows no year.
The peachtree in the poem is still here.
The song is in the peachtree and the ear.

IX

The winds of doctrine blow both ways at once.
The wetted finger feels the wind each way,
presaging plums from north, and sno...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

All the Worlds a Stage

...les in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Apparition

...our b?ni de ton premier baiser.
Ma songerie aimant ? me martyriser
s'enivrait savamment du parfum de tristesse
Que m?me sans regret et sans d?boire laisse
La cueillaison d'un R?ve au coeur qui l'a cueilli.
J'errais donc, l'oeil riv? sur le pav? vieilli
Quand avec du soleil aux cheveux, dans la rue
Et dans le soir, tu m'es en riant apparue
Et j'ai cru voir la f?e au chapeau de clart?
Qui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils d'enfant g?t?
Passait, laissant toujours de ses mains mal fer...Read more of this...
by Mallarme, Stephane

Au Lecteur

...ils qui nous remuent!
Aux objets répugnants nous trouvons des appas;
Chaque jour vers l'Enfer nous descendons d'un pas,
Sans horreur, à travers des ténèbres qui puent.
Ainsi qu'un débauché pauvre qui baise et mange
Le sein martyrisé d'une antique catin,
Nous volons au passage un plaisir clandestin
Que nous pressons bien fort comme une vieille orange.
Serré, fourmillant comme un million d'helminthes,
Dans nos cerveaux ribote un peuple de démons,
Et quand nous respirons, la Mor...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles


Ce que je demande

...Une boule
les prières
murmurent
peureuses.
Des «Moi» bêtes
s’ inondent,
sans que tu saches
jamais,
ce que je demande....Read more of this...
by Kraniotis, Dimitris P

Give Me Women Wine and Snuff

...GIVE me women, wine, and snuff 
Untill I cry out "hold, enough!" 
You may do so sans objection 
Till the day of resurrection: 
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be 
My beloved Trinity....Read more of this...
by Keats, John

La Belle Dame sans Merci

...l's side. 

'I saw pale kings and princes too  
Pale warriors death-pale were they all; 
They cried¡ª"La belle Dame sans Merci 
Hath thee in thrall!" 40 

'I saw their starved lips in the gloam 
With horrid warning gap¨¨d wide  
And I awoke and found me here  
On the cold hill's side. 

'And this is why I sojourn here 45 
Alone and palely loitering  
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake  
And no birds sing.' ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Le Gout du Néant

...rit, autrefois amoureux de la lutte,
L'Espoir, dont l'éperon attisait ton ardeur,
Ne veut plus t'enfourcher! Couche-toi sans pudeur,
Vieux cheval dont le pied à chaque obstacle bute. 
Résigne-toi, mon coeur; dors ton sommeil de brute.

Esprit vaincu, fourbu! Pour toi, vieux maraudeur,
L'amour n'a plus de gout, non plus que la dispute;
Adieu donc, chants du cuivre et soupirs de la flûte!
Plaisirs, ne tentez plus un coeur sombre et boudeur!
Le Printemps adorable a perdu son ode...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles

My Ladys Law

...purn, and bid return,
 If that should give her ease.

 With equal heart I'd watch depart
 Each spiced sail from sight;
 Sans bitterness, desiring less
 Great gear than her delight.

 Though Kings made swift with many a gift
 My proven sword to hire--
 I would not go nor serve 'em so--
 Except at her desire.

 With even mind, I'd put behind 
 Adventure and acclaim,
 And clean give o'er, esteeming more
 Her favour than my fame.

 Yet such am I, yea, such am I--
 Sore bond and f...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Spleen (IV)

...Des cloches tout à coup sautent avec furie
Et lance vers le ciel un affreux hurlement,
Ainsi que des esprits errants et sans patrie
Qui se mettent à geindre opiniâtrement 
-- Et de longs corbillards, sans tambours ni musique,
Défilent lentement dans mon âme; l'Espoir,
Vaincu, pleure, et l'angoisse atroce, despotique,
Sur mon crâne incliné plante son drapeau noir....Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles

The Eve Of St. Agnes

...s,--and, in chords that tenderest be,
 He play'd an ancient ditty, long since mute,
 In Provence call'd, "La belle dame sans mercy":
 Close to her ear touching the melody;--
 Wherewith disturb'd, she utter'd a soft moan:
 He ceas'd--she panted quick--and suddenly
 Her blue affrayed eyes wide open shone:
Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone.

 Her eyes were open, but she still beheld,
 Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep:
 There was a painful change, tha...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

The Fish

...ood;
Dateless and deathless, blind and still,
The intricate impulse works its will;
His woven world drops back; and he,
Sans providence, sans memory,
Unconscious and directly driven,
Fades to some dark sufficient heaven.

O world of lips, O world of laughter,
Where hope is fleet, and thought flies after,
Of lights in the clear night, of cries
That drift along the wave and rise
Thin to the glittering stars above,
You know the hands, the eyes of love!
The strife of limbs, the s...Read more of this...
by Brooke, Rupert

The Flaâneur

...ntamed, unscared, unconquered Punch! 
My ear a pleasing torture finds 
In tones the withered sibyl grinds, -- 
The dame sans merci's broken strain, 
Whom I erewhile, perchance, have known, 
When Orleans filled the Bourbon throne, 
A siren singing by the Seine. 

But most I love the tube that spies 
The orbs celestial in their march; 
That shows the comet as it whisks 
Its tail across the planets' disks, 
As if to blind their blood-shot eyes; 
Or wheels so close against the su...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell

The Man of Laws Tale

...r and more how lasted her vitaille*? *victuals
Who fed the Egyptian Mary in the cave
Or in desert? no wight but Christ *sans faille.* *without fail*
Five thousand folk it was as great marvaille
With loaves five and fishes two to feed
God sent his foison* at her greate need. *abundance

She drived forth into our ocean
Throughout our wilde sea, till at the last
Under an hold*, that nempnen** I not can, *castle **name
Far in Northumberland, the wave her cast
And in the sand her ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Old Clock On The Stairs

...L'eternite est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans
cesse ces deux mots seulement dans le silence des tombeaux:
"Toujours! jamais! Jamais! toujours!"--JACQUES BRIDAINE.

Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.
Across its antique portico
Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all,--
"Forever--never!
Never--f...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

...h, make the most of what we may yet spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie;
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and -- sans End! 

XXVI.
Alike for those who for To-day prepare,
And those that after some To-morrow stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! Your Reward is neither Here nor There!" 

XXVII.
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; t...Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar

The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam Of Naishapur

...h, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End!

24

Alike for those who for TODAY prepare,
And those that after a TOMORROW stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!"

25

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discussed
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to S...Read more of this...
by Fitzgerald, Edward

The Sompnours Tale

...master," quoth the wife, "ere that I go,
What will ye dine? I will go thereabout."
"Now, Dame," quoth he, "je vous dis sans doute, 
Had I not of a capon but the liver,
And of your white bread not but a shiver,* *thin slice
And after that a roasted pigge's head,
(But I would that for me no beast were dead,)
Then had I with you homely suffisance.
I am a man of little sustenance.
My spirit hath its fost'ring in the Bible.
My body is aye so ready and penible* *painstaking
To ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

What Kisses Had John Keats?

...uld have made it more,--
 Even eleven.

'Gee! If she'd lured a guy like me
Into her gelid grot
I'd make that Belle Dame sans Merci
 Sure kiss a lot.

'Them poets have their little tricks;
I think John counted kisses for,
Not two or three or five or six
 To rhyme with "sore."'...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

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