Famous Shall Poems by Famous Poets

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

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To What Shall I Compare Her?

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 TO what shall I compare her,
That is as fair as she?
For she is fairer - fairer
Than the sea.
What shall be likened to her,
The sainted of my youth?
For she is truer - truer
Than the truth.

As the stars are from the sleeper,
Her heart is hid from me;
For she is deeper - deeper
Than the sea.
Yet in my dreams I view her
Flush rosy...Read more of this...

I Shall Forget You Presently

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 IV

I SHALL forget you presently, my dear,
So make the most of this, your little day, 
Your little month, your little half a year,
Ere I forget, or die, or move away,
And we are done forever; by and by
I shall forget you, as I said, but now,
If you entreat me with your loveliest lie
I will protest you with my favorite vow....Read more of this...

Soon shall I go, by time and fate deplored,

by Omar Khayyam
Soon shall I go, by time and fate deplored,
Of all my precious pearls not one is bored;
Alas! there die with me a thousand truths
To which these fools fit audience ne'er accord....Read more of this...

Precious to Me -- She still shall be --

by Emily Dickinson
 Precious to Me -- She still shall be --
Though She forget the name I bear --
The fashion of the Gown I wear --
The very Color of My Hair --

So like the Meadows -- now --
I dared to show a Tress of Theirs
If haply -- She might not despise
A Buttercup's Array --

I know the Whole -- obscures the Part --
The...Read more of this...

Who shall deliver me?

by Christina Rossetti
 God strengthen me to bear myself; 
That heaviest weight of all to bear, 
Inalienable weight of care.

All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.

I lock my door upon myself, 
And bar them out; but who shall wall 
Self from myself, most loathed of all?

If I could once lay down myself, 
And start...Read more of this...

When we shall have lost my soul and thine, they will

by Omar Khayyam
When we shall have lost my soul and thine, they will
place bricks upon thy tomb and mine. Then, in order
to cover other tombs with bricks, they will throw my dust
and thine into the kiln of the brick-maker....Read more of this...

Sonnet 81: Or I shall live your epitaph to make

by William Shakespeare
 Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten,
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten.
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die;
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombèd in men's eyes shall...Read more of this...

How long shall I trouble myself with the care of knowing

by Omar Khayyam
How long shall I trouble myself with the care of knowing
whether I possess or do not possess—if I ought or
ought not to pass life gaily? Fill ever the cup of wine,
O cupbearer! for I do not know whether I shall breathe
out this breath that I am actually breathing or not....Read more of this...

Bestir thee, ere death's cup for thee shall flow,

by Omar Khayyam
Bestir thee, ere death's cup for thee shall flow,
And blows of ruthless fortune lay thee low;
Acquire some substance here, there is none there,
For those who thither empty-handed go!...Read more of this...

And We Shall Not Get Excited

by Yehuda Amichai
 And we shall not get excited. Because a translator
May not get excited. Calmly, we shall pass on
Words from man to son, from one tongue
To others' lips, un-
Knowingly, like a father who passes on
The features of his dead father's face
To his son, and he himself is like neither of them. Merely a mediator.


We shall remember the things we held in...Read more of this...

I shall keep singing!

by Emily Dickinson
 I shall keep singing!
Birds will pass me
On their way to Yellower Climes --
Each -- with a Robin's expectation --
I -- with my Redbreast --
And my Rhymes --

Late -- when I take my place in summer --
But -- I shall bring a fuller tune --
Vespers -- are sweeter than Matins -- Signor --
Morning -- only the seed of Noon --...Read more of this...

Sonnet 63: Against my love shall be as I am now

by William Shakespeare
 Against my love shall be, as I am now,
With Time's injurious hand crushed and o'erworn;
When hours have drained his blood and filled his brow
With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn
Hath travelled on to age's steepy night,
And all those beauties whereof now he's king
Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
For such a time...Read more of this...

Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

by William Shakespeare
 When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise...Read more of this...

We shall not stay here long, but while we do,

by Omar Khayyam
We shall not stay here long, but while we do,
'Tis folly wine and sweethearts to eschew;
Why ask if earth etern or transient be?
Since you must go, it matters not to you....Read more of this...

Where Shall the Lover Rest

by Sir Walter Scott
 Where shall the lover rest 
Whom the fates sever 
From the true maiden's breast, 
Parted for ever?-- 
Where, through groves deep and high, 
Sounds the fair billow, 
Where early violets die, 
Under the willow.

Chorus.

Soft shall be his pillow.

There, through the summer day, 
Cool streams are laving; 
There, while the tempests sway, 
Scarce are boughs waving; 
There, thy rest shall...Read more of this...

Drink thou of wine before thy name shall vanish from

by Omar Khayyam
Drink thou of wine before thy name shall vanish from
this world, for, when this nectar enters thy heart, sorrow
disappears. Unbind strand by strand the hair of thy
charming idol, before the jointure of thy frame itself is
loosed....Read more of this...

Sonnet 101: O truant Muse what shall be thy amends

by William Shakespeare
 O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
Make answer, Muse. Wilt thou not haply say,
"Truth needs no colour with his colour fixed,
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay,
But best is best, if never intermixed"?
Because he needs no praise, wilt...Read more of this...

Of Nature I shall have enough

by Emily Dickinson
 Of Nature I shall have enough
When I have entered these
Entitled to a Bumble bee's
Familiarities....Read more of this...

I Shall Return

by Claude McKay
 I shall return again; I shall return 
To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes 
At golden noon the forest fires burn, 
Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies. 
I shall return to loiter by the streams 
That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses, 
And realize once more my thousand dreams 
Of waters rushing down the mountain...Read more of this...

Sonnet 70: That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect

by William Shakespeare
 That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater being wooed of time,
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present'st a pure unstainèd prime.
Thou hast passed by the...Read more of this...

To-morrow I shall have surmounted the mountain

by Omar Khayyam
To-morrow I shall have surmounted the mountain
which separates us, and with indescribable happiness
take the cup in my hand. My mistress longs for me,
the day is bright; if I do not hasten to enjoy myself
in such a moment, when shall I find enjoyment?...Read more of this...

Shall the Harp Then Be Silent

by Thomas Moore
 Shall the Harp then be silent, when he who first gave 
To our country a name, is withdrawn from all eyes? 
Shall a Minstrel of Erin stand mute by the grave 
Where the first -- where the last of her Patriots lies? 

No -- faint though the death-song may fall from his lips, 
Though his Harp, like his soul,...Read more of this...

What if I say I shall not wait!

by Emily Dickinson
 What if I say I shall not wait!
What if I burst the fleshly Gate --
And pass escaped -- to thee!

What if I file this Mortal -- off --
See where it hurt me -- That's enough --
And wade in Liberty!

They cannot take me -- any more!
Dungeons can call -- and Guns implore
Unmeaning -- now -- to me --

As laughter --...Read more of this...

Not that We did shall be the test

by Emily Dickinson
 Not that We did, shall be the test
When Act and Will are done
But what Our Lord infers We would
Had We diviner been --...Read more of this...

What shall I your true love tell?

by Francis Thompson
 What shall I your true love tell, 
Earth forsaking maid? 
What shall I your true love tell 
When life's spectre's laid? 
"Tell him that, our side the grave, 
Maid may not believe 
Life should be so sad to have, 
That's so sad to leave!" 
What shall I your true love tell 
When I come to him? 
What shall I...Read more of this...

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