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Famous Seemly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Spenser, Edmund
...eyes had plac'd
A goodly pattern, to whose perfect mould
He fashion'd them as comely as he could;
That now so fair and seemly they appear,
As nought may be amended anywhere.

That wondrous pattern, wheresoe'er it be,
Whether in earth laid up in secret store,
Or else in heaven, that no man may it see
With sinful eyes, for fear it to deflore,
Is perfect Beauty, which all men adore;
Whose face and feature doth so much excel
All mortal sense, that none the same may tell....Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...high;
 The Mother grieved beside --
"But the Mother saw Him die
 And took Him when He died.
 (He died! He died!)
 "Seemly and undefiled
 His burial-place was made --
 Is it well, is it well with the child?
 For I know not where he is laid."

On the dawning of Easter Day
 Comes Mary Magdalene;
But the Stone was rolled away,
 And the Body was not within --
 (Within! Within!)
 "Ah, who will answer my word?
 The broken mother prayed.
 "They have taken away my Lord,
 ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...here
For some garment to clothe her fair skin;
But though he had breeches and waistcoats to spare,
He had nothing quite seemly for Barbree to wear,
Who, half shrammed to death, stood and cried on a chair
At the caddle she found herself in.

There was one thing to do, and that one thing he did,
He lent her some clouts of his own,
And she took 'em perforce; and while in 'em she slid,
Tim turned to the winder, as modesty bid,
Thinking, "O that the picter my duty keeps hid
To...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...eyes had plac'd
A goodly pattern, to whose perfect mould
He fashion'd them as comely as he could;
That now so fair and seemly they appear,
As nought may be amended anywhere.

That wondrous pattern, wheresoe'er it be,
Whether in earth laid up in secret store,
Or else in heaven, that no man may it see
With sinful eyes, for fear it to deflore,
Is perfect Beauty, which all men adore;
Whose face and feature doth so much excel
All mortal sense, that none the same may tell....Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...e of shepheards praise,
Young Astrophel the rusticke lasses loue:
Far passing all the pastors of his daies,
In all that seemly shepheard might behoue.
In one thing onely fayling of the best,
That he was not so happie as the rest.

For from the time that first the Nymph his mother
Him forth did bring, and taught her lambs to feed:
A sclender swaine excelling far each other,
In comely shape, like her that did him breed.
He grew vp fast in goodnesse and in grace,
And...Read more of this...



by Spenser, Edmund
...e of shepheards praise,
Young Astrophel the rusticke lasses loue:
Far passing all the pastors of his daies,
In all that seemly shepheard might behoue.
In one thing onely fayling of the best,
That he was not so happie as the rest.

For from the time that first the Nymph his mother
Him forth did bring, and taught her lambs to feed:
A sclender swaine excelling far each other,
In comely shape, like her that did him breed.
He grew vp fast in goodnesse and in grace,
And...Read more of this...

by Thompson, Francis
...rought

To measure of the sculptor's thought -
Slurred by those added braveries;
So for thy spirit did devise
Its Maker seemly garniture,
Of its own essence parcel pure, -
From grave simplicities a dress,
And reticent demurenesses,
And love encinctured with reserve;
Which the woven vesture should subserve.
For outward robes in their ostents
Should show the soul's habiliments.
Therefore I say,--Thou'rt fair even so,
But better Fair I use to know.

The violet would ...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...ing in these wide marshes, swine in sty, 
 With all men's scorn to chase them down." 

 And I, 
 "Master, it were a seemly thing to see 
 This boaster trampled in the putrid sea, 
 Who dared approach us, knowing of all we know." 

 He answered, "Well thy wish, and surely so 
 It shall be, e'er the distant shore we view." 
 And I looked outward through the gloom, and lo! 
 The envious eaters of that dirt combined 
 Against him, leapt upon him, before, behind, 
 Dra...Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...Rest thee beneath this hazel; its green boughs
Afford a grateful shade, and to the eye
Fair is its fruit: Stranger! the seemly fruit
Is worthless, all is hollowness within,
For on the grave of ROSAMUND it grows!
Young lovely and beloved she fell seduced,
And here retir'd to wear her wretched age
In earnest prayer and bitter penitence,
Despis'd and self-despising: think of her
Young Man! and learn to reverence Womankind!...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...then, 
Let them come up so to go down again. 

Up ambles country justice on his pad, 
And vest bespeaks to be more seemly clad. 
Plain gentlemen in stagecoach are o'erthrown 
And deputy-lieutenants in their own. 
The portly burgess through the weather hot 
Does for his corporation sweat and trot; 
And all with sun and choler come adust 
And threaten Hyde to raise a greater dust. 
But fresh as from the Mint, the courtiers fine 
Salute them, smiling at their va...Read more of this...

by Hood, Thomas
...all dream furnitures in preservation: 

There walketh she with keys quite silver bright, 
In perfect hose and shoes of seemly black, 
Apron and stomacher of lily white, 
And decent order follows in her track: 
The burnished plate grows lustrous in her sight, 
And polished floors and tables shine her back....Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...e's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me.
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O, therefore, love, be of thyself so wary
As I not for myself, but for thee will,
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gav'st me thine, n...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...e's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O, therefore, love, be of thyself so wary
As I, not for myself, but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gavest me thine, not ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...
 For some garment to clothe her fair skin; 
But though he had breeches and waistcoats to spare, 
He had nothing quite seemly for Barbree to wear, 
Who, half shrammed to death, stood and cried on a chair 
 At the caddle she found herself in. 

There was one thing to do, and that one thing he did, 
 He lent her some clouts of his own, 
And she took 'em perforce; and while in 'em she slid, 
Tim turned to the winder, as modesty bid, 
Thinking, "O that the picter my duty kee...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Loy;
And she was cleped* Madame Eglentine. *called
Full well she sang the service divine,
Entuned in her nose full seemly;
And French she spake full fair and fetisly* *properly
After the school of Stratford atte Bow,
For French of Paris was to her unknow.
At meate was she well y-taught withal;
She let no morsel from her lippes fall,
Nor wet her fingers in her sauce deep.
Well could she carry a morsel, and well keep,
That no droppe ne fell upon her breast.
In ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...r'd was
With waves green, and bright as any glass.
A citole  in her right hand hadde she,
And on her head, full seemly for to see,
A rose garland fresh, and well smelling,
Above her head her doves flickering
Before her stood her sone Cupido,
Upon his shoulders winges had he two;
And blind he was, as it is often seen;
A bow he bare, and arrows bright and keen.

Why should I not as well eke tell you all
The portraiture, that was upon the wall
Within the temple of mi...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
.... 

"'Give me,' he has said, 'but the matter 
 And means the gods lot her, 
My brain could evolve a creation 
 More seemly, more sane.' 

- "If ever a naughtiness seized me 
 To woo adulation 
From creatures more keen than those crude ones 
 That first formed my train - 

"If inly a moment I murmured, 
 'The simple praise sweetly, 
But sweetlier the sage'--and did rashly 
 Man's vision unrein, 

"I rue it! . . . His guileless forerunners, 
 Whose brains I ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...p desiring,
Tenements uncouth I was fain to house in;
"Let such lodging be for a breath-while," thought I,
"Soon a more seemly.

"Then, high handiwork will I make my life-deed,
Truth and Light outshow; but the ripe time pending,
Intermissive aim at the thing sufficeth."
Thus I ... But lo, me!

Mistress, friend, place, aims to be bettered straightway,
Bettered not has Fate or my hand's achieving;
Sole the showance those of my onward earth-track--
Never tran...Read more of this...

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