Famous Secrets Poems by Famous Poets

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

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No one has access to the secrets of God behind the

by Omar Khayyam
No one has access to the secrets of God behind the
mysterious curtain; no one [even in mind] can penetrate
there; we have no other dwelling than the earthly
mind. Oh, regret! for this also is an enigma not less
difficult to comprehend.
290...Read more of this...

Secrets is a daily word

by Emily Dickinson
 "Secrets" is a daily word
Yet does not exist --
Muffled -- it remits surmise --
Murmured -- it has ceased --
Dungeoned in the Human Breast
Doubtless secrets lie --
But that Grate inviolate --
Goes nor comes away
Nothing with a Tongue or Ear --
Secrets stapled there
Will emerge but once -- and dumb --
To the Sepulchre --...Read more of this...

Ryton Firs

by Lascelles Abercrombie
The Dream
All round the knoll, on days of quietest air,
Secrets are being told; and if the trees
Speak out — let them make uproar loud as drums — 
'Tis secrets still, shouted instead of whisper'd.

There must have been a warning given once:
No tree, on pain of withering and sawfly,
To reach the slimmest of his snaky toes
Into this mounded sward and rumple...Read more of this...

The Simple Line

by Laura Riding Jackson
 The secrets of the mind convene splendidly,
Though the mind is meek.
To be aware inwardly
of brain and beauty
Is dark too recognizable.
Thought looking out on thought
Makes one an eye:
Which it shall be, both decide.
One is with the mind alone,
The other is with other thoughts gone
To be seen from afar and not known.

When openly these inmost sights
Flash and speak fully,
Each head at...Read more of this...

The Progress of Poesy

by Thomas Gray
 A Pindaric Ode

Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake,
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take:
The laughing flowers that round them blow
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of Music winds along,
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,
Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;
Now rolling down the steep amain,
Headlong, impetuous, see it...Read more of this...

New Years Chimes

by Francis Thompson
 What is the song the stars sing?
(And a million songs are as song of one)
This is the song the stars sing:
(Sweeter song's none)

One to set, and many to sing,
(And a million songs are as song of one)
One to stand, and many to cling,
The many things, and the one Thing,
The one that runs not, the many that run.


The ever new...Read more of this...

Tease

by D. H. Lawrence
 I will give you all my keys, 
You shall be my ch?telaine, 
You shall enter as you please, 
As you please shall go again. 

When I hear you jingling through 
All the chambers of my soul, 
How I sit and laugh at you 
In your vain housekeeping r?le. 

Jealous of the smallest cover, 
Angry at the simplest door; 
Well,...Read more of this...

No one has penetrated the secrets of the Principle

by Omar Khayyam
No one has penetrated the secrets of the Principle
[First Cause]. No one has taken a step outside himself.
I look about and see only insufficiency from pupil to
master, insufficiency in all that the mother brings forth....Read more of this...

We should tell no secrets to the vilely indiscreet; from

by Omar Khayyam
We should tell no secrets to the vilely indiscreet; from
the nightingale, even, should we conceal them. Consider,
then, the torment you inflict on human souls by forcing
them to disrobe thus before the gaze of all....Read more of this...

If the heart knew life's secrets here below,

by Omar Khayyam
If the heart knew life's secrets here below,
At death 'twould know God's secrets too, I trow;
But, if you know naught here, while still yourself,
To-morrow, stripped of self, what can you know?...Read more of this...

O Thou, who knowest the secrets hidden most deeply

by Omar Khayyam
O Thou, who knowest the secrets hidden most deeply
at the bottom of the heart of each, Thou who raisest with
Thy hand all those who fall in distress, give me the power
of renunciation and accept my excuses, O God!—Thou
who givest this power to all, who acceptest the excuses
of all!
338...Read more of this...

The Book of Urizen: Chapter II

by William Blake
 1. Earth was not: nor globes of attraction
The will of the Immortal expanded
Or contracted his all flexible senses.
Death was not, but eternal life sprung

2. The sound of a trumpet the heavens 
Awoke & vast clouds of blood roll'd
Round the dim rocks of Urizen, so nam'd
That solitary one in Immensity

3. Shrill the trumpet: & myriads of Eternity,
Muster around the bleak...Read more of this...

The Fool Rings His Bells

by Walter de la Mare
 Come, Death, I'd have a word with thee; 
And thou, poor Innocency; 
And Love -- a lad with broken wing; 
Apnd Pity, too; 
The Fool shall sing to you, 
As Fools will sing. 

Ay, music hath small sense, 
And a tune's soon told, 
And Earth is old, 
And my poor wits are dense; 
Yet have I secrets, -- dar,...Read more of this...

A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old

by William Butler Yeats
 I have old women's secrets now
That had those of the young;
Madge tells me what I dared not think
When my blood was strong,
And what had drowned a lover once
Sounds like an old song.

Though Margery is stricken dumb
If thrown in Madge's way,
We three make up a solitude;
For none alive to-day
Can know the stories that we know
Or say the things we say:

How...Read more of this...

All thy secrets are known to the wisdom of Heaven

by Omar Khayyam
All thy secrets are known to the wisdom of Heaven
[God]· He knows them hair by hair and vein by vein.
I admit that by power of hypocrisy you may be able
to deceive men, but what will you do before Him who
knows your misdeeds one by one in every detail?...Read more of this...

Under the Sea

by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
Under the sea, the great wide sea
  That sweeps the golden shore;
What treasures lie beneath the waves
  Forevermore!
Ask of the winds, the sobbing winds
  That toss the waves on high;
And fling the burden of their song
  Unto the sky.
Ask of the stars, the jeweled stars
  That sleep within the tide;
Like golden lilies floating far,
 ...Read more of this...

To Sir Robert Wroth

by Ben Jonson
  III. — TO SIR ROBERT WROTH.          Art ta'en with neither's vice nor sport : That at great times, art no ambitious guest    Of sheriff 's dinner, or mayor's feast. Nor com'st to view the better cloth of state,    The richer hangings, or crown-plate ; Nor throng'st (when masquing is) to have a sight   There wasted, some not...Read more of this...

Sweet is the swamp with its secrets

by Emily Dickinson
 Sweet is the swamp with its secrets,
Until we meet a snake;
'Tis then we sigh for houses,
And our departure take

At that enthralling gallop
That only childhood knows.
A snake is summer's treason,
And guile is where it goes....Read more of this...

A Lovers Call XXVII

by Kahlil Gibran
 Where are you, my beloved? Are you in that little 
Paradise, watering the flowers who look upon you 
As infants look upon the breast of their mothers? 


Or are you in your chamber where the shrine of 
Virtue has been placed in your honor, and upon 
Which you offer my heart and soul as sacrifice? 


Or amongst the books,...Read more of this...

Had the human heart an exact knowledge of the secrets

by Omar Khayyam
Had the human heart an exact knowledge of the secrets
of life, it would also know, at the point of death,
the secrets of God. If to-day, when you are with yourself,
you know nothing, what will you know to-morrow
when you shall be separated from yourself?...Read more of this...

Our little secrets slink away --

by Emily Dickinson
 Our little secrets slink away --
Beside God's shall not tell --
He kept his word a Trillion years
And might we not as well --
But for the niggardly delight
To make each other stare
Is there no sweet beneath the sun
With this that may compare --...Read more of this...

You know all secrets of this earthly sphere,

by Omar Khayyam
You know all secrets of this earthly sphere,
Why then remain a prey to empty fear?
You cannot bend things to your will, but yet
Cheer up for the few moments you are here!...Read more of this...

Inheritance—His

by Audre Lorde
 I. 
My face resembles your face
less and less each day. When I was young
no one mistook whose child I was.
Features build coloring
alone among my creamy fine-boned sisters
marked me Byron's daughter.

No sun set when you died, but a door
opened onto my mother. After you left
she grieved her crumpled world aloft
an iron fist sweated with business symbols
a printed blotter dwell in...Read more of this...

Since you all secrets know, my friend, why be a prey

by Omar Khayyam
Since you all secrets know, my friend, why be a prey
to so many vain torments? Suppose things do not fall
in touch with your desires, you can at least be gay while
you still breathe....Read more of this...

This wheel of heaven which tells its secrets to no man,

by Omar Khayyam
This wheel of heaven which tells its secrets to no man,
has killed a thousand Mahmouds [Sultans] and a thousand
Ayaz [favorites]; drink wine, for the life of none
shall ever be restored. Alas! not one of all those who
left the world can again return!...Read more of this...

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