Famous Sapless Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dead Boy

...st-fruits, saith the Preacher, the Lord hath taken;
But this was the old tree's late branch wrenched away,
Grieving the sapless limbs, the short and shaken....Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe


Endymion: Book III

...niche and fled.
My fever'd parchings up, my scathing dread
Met palsy half way: soon these limbs became
Gaunt, wither'd, sapless, feeble, cramp'd, and lame.

 "Now let me pass a cruel, cruel space,
Without one hope, without one faintest trace
Of mitigation, or redeeming bubble
Of colour'd phantasy; for I fear 'twould trouble
Thy brain to loss of reason: and next tell
How a restoring chance came down to quell
One half of the witch in me. On a day,
Sitting upon a rock above the ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Eviradnus

...gid and erect? 
 What wait they for—and what do they expect? 
 Blindness fills up the helm 'neath iron brows; 
 Like sapless tree no soul the hero knows. 
 Darkness is now where eyes with flame were fraught, 
 And thrice-bored visor serves for mask of naught. 
 Of empty void is spectral giant made, 
 And each of these all-powerful knights displayed 
 Is only rind of pride and murderous sin; 
 Themselves are held the icy grave within. 
 Rust eats the casques enamoure...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Life

...'d with pleasure, nurs'd with pain; 
AGE steals on with wint'ry face, 
Ev'ry rapt'rous Hope to chase; 
Like a wither'd, sapless tree, 
Bow'd to chilling Fate's decree; 
Strip'd of all its foliage gay, 
Drooping at the close of day; 
What of tedious Life remains? 
Keen regrets and cureless pains; 
Till DEATH appears, a welcome friend, 
To bid the scene of sorrow end....Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

Lines Written Among The Euganean Hills

...f pain did fill;
Every little living nerve
That from bitter words did swerve
Round the tortured lips and brow,
Are like sapless leaflets now
Frozen upon December's bough.

On the beach of a northern sea
Which tempests shake eternally,
As once the wretch there lay to sleep,
Lies a solitary heap,
One white skull and seven dry bones,
On the margin of the stones,
Where a few grey rushes stand,
Boundaries of the sea and land:
Nor is heard one voice of wail
But the sea-mews, as the...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe


Nature

...ip deceit.

O smooth my rugged heart, and there
Engrave thy rev'rend law and fear; 
Or make a new one, since the old
Is sapless grown, 
And a much fitter stone
To hide my dust, than thee to hold....Read more of this...
by Herbert, George

Ode to the West Wind

...ic's level powers 
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below 
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear 
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know 40 
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear 
And tremble and despoil themselves:¡ªO hear! 

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; 
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; 
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share 45 
The impulse of thy strength, only less free 
Than thou, O uncontrollable!¡ªif even 
I ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The House Of Dust: Part 04: 05: The Bitter Love-Song

...? What eyes with the dread night in them?

This I shall say.—I lay by the hot white sand-dunes. .
Small yellow flowers, sapless and squat and spiny,
Stared at the sky. And silently there above us
Day after day, beyond our dreams and knowledge,
Presences swept, and over us streamed their shadows,
Swift and blue, or dark. . . .What did they mean?
What sinister threat of power? What hint of beauty?
Prelude to what gigantic music, or subtle?
Only I know these things leaned over m...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

The Imperfect Enjoyment

...ht its fury stayed:
Where'er it pierced, a **** it found or made -
Now languid lies in this unhappy hour,
Shrunk up and sapless like a withered flower.

Thou treacherous, base deserter of my flame,
False to my passion, fatal to my fame,
Through what mistaken magic dost thou prove
So true to lewdness, so untrue to love?
What oyster-cinder-beggar-common whore
Didst thou e'er fail in all thy life before?
When vice, disease, and scandal lead the way,
With what officious haste dos...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John

The Invitation

...he plains  
To the pools where winter rains 
Image all their roof of leaves  
Where the pine its garland weaves 
Of sapless green and ivy dun 35 
Round stems that never kiss the sun; 
Where the lawns and pastures be 
And the sandhills of the sea; 
Where the melting hoar-frost wets 
The daisy-star that never sets 40 
And wind-flowers and violets 
Which yet join not scent to hue 
Crown the pale year weak and new; 

When the night is left behind 
In the deep east ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The Vale To You, To Me The Heights

...crownèd couple, who supposed the world too small, 
 Now one grave fill! 
 Chiefs blinded by your rage! each bleachèd sapless bone 
 Becomes a pipe 
 Through which siroccos whistle, trodden 'mong the stone 
 By quail and snipe. 
 Folly's liege-men, what boots such murd'rous raid, 
 And mortal feud? 
 I, Eagle, dwell as friend with Leo—none afraid— 
 In solitude: 
 At the same pool we bathe and quaff in placid mood. 
 Kings, he and I; 
 For I to him leave prairie, ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Translation From the Gull Language

...and check'd each arm?
Alas! some withering hand hath thrown
The veil from off that fatal stone,
And pointing now, with sapless finger,
Showeth where dark those letters linger, --
Letters four, and letters three,
T.H.E. D.E.B.T.


At sight thereof, each lifted brand
Powerless falls from every hand;
In vain the Patriot knits his brow, --
Even talk, his staple, fails him now.
In vain the King like a hero treads,
His Lords of the Treasury shake their heads;
And to all his talk o...Read more of this...
by Moore, Thomas

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