Famous Set About Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

The Volunteer

by Robert William Service
 Sez I: My Country calls? Well, let it call.
 I grins perlitely and declines wiv thanks.
Go, let 'em plaster every blighted wall,
 'Ere's ONE they don't stampede into the ranks.
Them politicians with their greasy ways;
 Them empire-grabbers -- fight for 'em? No fear!
I've seen this mess a-comin' from the days
 Of Algyserious and Aggydear:
 I've felt me passion rise...Read more of this...

Urbs Coronata

by Henry Van Dyke
 (Song for the City College of New York) 

O youngest of the giant brood 
Of cities far-renowned;
In wealth and power thou hast passed
Thy rivals at a bound;
And now thou art a queen, New York;
And how wilt thou be crowned? 

"Weave me no palace-wreath of pride,"
The royal city said;
"Nor forge an iron fortress-wall
To frown upon my head;
But let me wear...Read more of this...

A Boston Ballad 1854

by Walt Whitman
 TO get betimes in Boston town, I rose this morning early; 
Here’s a good place at the corner—I must stand and see the show. 

Clear the way there, Jonathan! 
Way for the President’s marshal! Way for the government cannon! 
Way for the Federal foot and dragoons—and the apparitions copiously tumbling.

I love to look on the stars and stripes—I hope...Read more of this...

The Passion

by John Milton
 I

Ere-while of Musick, and Ethereal mirth,
Wherwith the stage of Ayr and Earth did ring,
And joyous news of heav'nly Infants birth,
My muse with Angels did divide to sing;
But headlong joy is ever on the wing,
In Wintry solstice like the shortn'd light
Soon swallow'd up in dark and long out-living night.

II

For now to sorrow must I tune my song,
And set my Harpe...Read more of this...

When I Set Out For Lyonnesse

by Thomas Hardy
 When I set out for Lyonnesse,
A hundred miles away,
The rime was on the spray,
And starlight lit my lonesomeness
When I set out for Lyonnesse
A hundred miles away.

What would bechance at Lyonnesse
While I should sojourn there
No prophet durst declare,
Nor did the wisest wizard guess
What would bechance at Lyonnesse
While I should sojourn there.

When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes,
All...Read more of this...

A Pastoral Upon The Birth Of Prince Charles:presented To The King And Set By Mr Nic. Laniere

by Robert Herrick
 A PASTORAL UPON THE BIRTH OF PRINCE CHARLES:
PRESENTED TO THE KING, AND SET BY MR NIC. LANIERE

THE SPEAKERS: MIRTILLO, AMINTAS, AND AMARILLIS

AMIN. Good day, Mirtillo. MIRT. And to you no less;
And all fair signs lead on our shepherdess.
AMAR. With all white luck to you. MIRT. But say,
What news
Stirs in our sheep-walk? AMIN. None, save that my
ewes,
My wethers, lambs, and...Read more of this...

He found my Being -- set it up --

by Emily Dickinson
 He found my Being -- set it up --
Adjusted it to place --
Then carved his name -- upon it --
And bade it to the East

Be faithful -- in his absence --
And he would come again --
With Equipage of Amber --
That time -- to take it Home --...Read more of this...

Hymn 150

by Isaac Watts
 The offices of Christ. From several scriptures.

Join all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That ever mortals knew,
That angels ever bore:
All are too mean to speak his worth,
Too mean to set my Savior forth.

But O what gentle terms,
What condescending ways,
Doth our Redeemer use
To teach his heav'nly grace!
Mine eyes with joy and wonder see
What forms of love he bears for...Read more of this...

So set its Sun in Thee

by Emily Dickinson
 So set its Sun in Thee
What Day be dark to me --
What Distance -- far --
So I the Ships may see
That touch -- how seldomly --
Thy Shore?...Read more of this...

Fame is a fickle food

by Emily Dickinson
 Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.

Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the
Farmer's Corn --
Men eat of it and die....Read more of this...

284. Song—Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes (older set)

by Robert Burns
 Chorus.—Ca’ the yowes to the knowes,
Ca’ them where the heather grows,
Ca’ them where the burnie rowes,
 My bonie dearie


AS I gaed down the water-side,
There I met my shepherd lad:
He row’d me sweetly in his plaid,
 And he ca’d me his dearie.
 Ca’ the yowes, &c.


Will ye gang down the water-side,
And see the waves sae sweetly glide
Beneath the hazels spreading...Read more of this...

A Dedication. To Charlotte Cushman

by Sidney Lanier
 As Love will carve dear names upon a tree,
Symbol of gravure on his heart to be,

So thought I thine with loving text to set
In the growth and substance of my canzonet;

But, writing it, my tears begin to fall --
This wild-rose stem for thy large name's too small!

Nay, still my trembling hands are fain, are fain
Cut the good letters though...Read more of this...

Quarantine

by Eavan Boland
 In the worst hour of the worst season
 of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking-they were both walking-north.

She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
 He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing...Read more of this...

Persuasion

by John Drinkwater
Persuasion

I 	At any moment love unheralded
Comes, and is king. Then as, with a fall
Of frost, the buds upon the hawthorn spread
Are withered in untimely burial,
So love, occasion gone, his crown puts by,
And as a beggar walks unfriended ways,
With but remembered beauty to defy
The frozen sorrows of unsceptred days.
Or in that later travelling he comes
Upon a bleak oblivion, and tells
Himself, again,...Read more of this...

Musketaquid

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Because I was content with these poor fields, 
Low, open meads, slender and sluggish streams, 
And found a home in haunts which others scorned, 
The partial wood-gods overpaid my love, 
And granted me the freedom of their state, 
And in their secret senate have prevailed 
With the dear, dangerous lords that rule our life, 
Made moon and planets parties...Read more of this...

Sonnet 88: When thou shalt be disposed to set me light

by William Shakespeare
 When thou shalt be disposed to set me light
And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side, against myself I'll fight,
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted,
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory.
And I...Read more of this...

Joy

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 My heart is like a little bird
That sits and sings for very gladness.
Sorrow is some forgotten word, 
And so, except in rhyme, is sadness.

The world is very fair to me –
Such azure skies, such golden weather, 
I’m like a long caged bird set free, 
My heart is lighter than a feather.

I rise rejoicing in my life; 
I live with...Read more of this...

Oh to be idle loving idleness!

by Fernando Pessoa
Oh to be idle loving idleness!

But I am idle all in hate of me;

Ever in action's dream, in the false stress

Of purposed action never set to be.

Like a fierce beast self-penned in a bait-lair,

My will to act binds with excess my action,

Not-acting coils the thought with raged despair,

And acting rage doth paint despair distraction.

Like someone sinking in a treacherous sand,

Each...Read more of this...

There was set before me a mighty hill

by Stephen Crane
 There was set before me a mighty hill,
And long days I climbed
Through regions of snow.
When I had before me the summit-view,
It seemed that my labour
Had been to see gardens
Lying at impossible distances....Read more of this...

To Tirzah

by William Blake
 Whate'er is Born of Mortal Birth,
Must be consumed with the Earth
To rise from Generation free:
Then what have I to do with thee?

The Sexes sprung from Shame & Pride
Blowd in the morn; in evening died
But Mercy changed Death into Sleep;
The Sexes rose to work & weep.

Thou Mother of my Mortal part.
With cruelty didst mould my Heart.
And with false self-deceiving tears.
Didst...Read more of this...

In Allah's name, say, wherefore set the wise

by Omar Khayyam
In Allah's name, say, wherefore set the wise
Their hearts upon this house of vanities?
Whene'er they think to rest them from their toils,
Death takes them by the hand, and says, «Arise.»...Read more of this...

Little Lucy Landman

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Oh, the day has set me dreaming
In a strange, half solemn way
Of the feelings I experienced
On another long past day,—
Of the way my heart made music
When the buds began to blow,
And o' little Lucy Landman
Whom I loved long years ago.
It 's in spring, the poet tells us,
That we turn to thoughts of love,
And our hearts go out a-wooing
With the lapwing...Read more of this...

The Sun Has Set

by Emily Brontë
 The sun has set, and the long grass now 
Waves dreamily in the evening wind; 
And the wild bird has flown from that old gray stone 
In some warm nook a couch to find.

In all the lonely landscape round 
I see no light and hear no sound, 
Except the wind that far away 
Come sighing o'er the healthy sea....Read more of this...

Youve seen Balloons set -- Havent You?

by Emily Dickinson
 You've seen Balloons set -- Haven't You?
So stately they ascend --
It is as Swans -- discarded You,
For Duties Diamond --

Their Liquid Feet go softly out
Upon a Sea of Blonde --
They spurn the Air, as t'were too mean
For Creatures so renowned --

Their Ribbons just beyond the eye --
They struggle -- some -- for Breath --
And yet the Crowd applaud, below...Read more of this...

Elemental Drifts

by Walt Whitman
 1
ELEMENTAL drifts! 
How I wish I could impress others as you have just been impressing me! 

As I ebb’d with an ebb of the ocean of life, 
As I wended the shores I know, 
As I walk’d where the ripples continually wash you, Paumanok,
Where they rustle up, hoarse and sibilant, 
Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Set About poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace