Famous Shape Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Modern English)

...he lamps of light for those living on land,
and ornamented all the corners of the earth
with limbs and leaves—he also shaped life itself
in all kinds of creatures which quickly scurry about. (ll. 86-98)

So these noble warriors lodged in their delights
blissfully — until their lonely opponent
made evil upon them, the fiend from hell.
That ferocious spirit was named Grendel,
the notorious border-strider, who held the moors,
the swampy stronghold, the lair of water-mo...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Dickinson Poems by Number

...o Gown of Gauze—
No Ringlet, to my Hair,
Nor hopped to Audiences—like Birds,
One Claw upon the Air,

Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
Nor rolled on wheels of snow
Till I was out of sight, in sound,
The House encore me so—

Nor any know I know the Art
I mention—easy—Here—
Nor any Placard boast me—
It's full as Opera—

341

After great pain, a formal feeling comes—
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs—
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...eak, but findeth no language;
All his thoughts were congealed into lines on his face, as the vapors
Freeze in fantastic shapes on the window-panes in the winter.

Then Evangeline lighted the brazen lamp on the table,
Filled, till it overflowed, the pewter tankard with home-brewed
Nut-brown ale, that was famed for its strength in the village of Grand-Pre;
While from his pocket the notary drew his papers and inkhorn,
Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the parties,...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Hyperion

...rion,
Thea, I feel thee ere I see thy face;
Look up, and let me see our doom in it;
Look up, and tell me if this feeble shape
Is Saturn's; tell me, if thou hear'st the voice
Of Saturn; tell me, if this wrinkling brow,
Naked and bare of its great diadem,
Peers like the front of Saturn? Who had power
To make me desolate? Whence came the strength?
How was it nurtur'd to such bursting forth,
While Fate seem'd strangled in my nervous grasp?
But it is so; and I am smother'd up,
And...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Inaugural Poem

...

Give birth again
To the dream.

Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.

Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.

Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.

The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may ha...Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya


On the Pulse of Morning

...r you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts.
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have ...Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...imperial sovereignty, adorned 
With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed 
And judged of public moment in the shape 
Of difficulty or danger, could deter 
Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 
These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 
Refusing to accept as great a share 
Of hazard as of honour, due alike 
To him who reigns, and so much to him due 
Of hazard more as he above the rest 
High honoured sits? Go, therefore, mighty Powers, 
Terror of Heaven, though f...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...cted knowledge: fair it seemed, 
Much fairer to my fancy than by day: 
And, as I wondering looked, beside it stood 
One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven 
By us oft seen; his dewy locks distilled 
Ambrosia; on that tree he also gazed; 
And 'O fair plant,' said he, 'with fruit surcharged, 
'Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet, 
'Nor God, nor Man? Is knowledge so despised? 
'Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste? 
'Forbid who will, none shall fro...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...rnished neck of verdant gold, erect 
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass 
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape 
And lovely; never since of serpent-kind 
Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed, 
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god 
In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed 
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen; 
He with Olympias; this with her who bore 
Scipio, the highth of Rome. With tract oblique 
At first, as one who sought access, but feared 
To interrupt, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

...t actually see them.
And we realize this only at a point where they lapse
Like a wave breaking on a rock, giving up
Its shape in a gesture which expresses that shape.
The forms retain a strong measure of ideal beauty
As they forage in secret on our idea of distortion.
Why be unhappy with this arrangement, since
Dreams prolong us as they are absorbed?
Something like living occurs, a movement 
Out of the dream into its codification.

As I start to forget it
It presents its ster...Read more of this...
by Ashbery, John

Song of the Open Road

...o me. 

3
You air that serves me with breath to speak! 
You objects that call from diffusion my meanings, and give them shape!
You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers! 
You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the roadsides! 
I think you are latent with unseen existences—you are so dear to me. 

You flagg’d walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges! 
You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined sides! you distant ships!
...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Ballad of the White Horse

...DEDICATION 

Of great limbs gone to chaos,
A great face turned to night--
Why bend above a shapeless shroud
Seeking in such archaic cloud
Sight of strong lords and light?

Where seven sunken Englands
Lie buried one by one,
Why should one idle spade, I wonder,
Shake up the dust of thanes like thunder
To smoke and choke the sun?

In cloud of clay so cast to heaven
What shape shall man discern?
These lords may light the mystery
Of mastery or victory,...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Bride of Abydos

...
Late, late to-night will Dian cheer 
The swain, and chase the boatman's fear; 
Till then — no beacon on the cliff 
May shape the course of struggling skiff; 
The scatter'd lights that skirt the bay, 
All, one by one, have died away; 
The only lamp of this lone hour 
Is glimmering in Zuleika's tower. 
Yes! there is light in that lone chamber, 
And o'er her silken Ottoman 
Are thrown the fragrant beads of amber, 
O'er which her fairy fingers ran; [25] 
Near these, with emerald...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Hunting Of The Snark

...Lines?"
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
 "They are merely conventional signs!

"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
 But we've got our brave Captain to thank
(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best--
 A perfect and absolute blank!"

This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out
 That the Captain they trusted so well
Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,
 And that was to tingle his bell.

He was though...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Knights Tale

...ansfigure
Before me sorrowful wretched creature,
Out of this prison help that we may scape.
And if so be our destiny be shape
By etern word to dien in prison,
Of our lineage have some compassion,
That is so low y-brought by tyranny."

And with that word Arcita *gan espy* *began to look forth*
Where as this lady roamed to and fro
And with that sight her beauty hurt him so,
That if that Palamon was wounded sore,
Arcite is hurt as much as he, or more.
And with a sigh he saide pi...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...n the future battle-heath
     His eye beheld the ranks of death:
     Thus the lone Seer, from mankind hurled,
     Shaped forth a disembodied world.
     One lingering sympathy of mind
     Still bound him to the mortal kind;
     The only parent he could claim
     Of ancient Alpine's lineage came.
     Late had he heard, in prophet's dream,
     The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream;
     Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast
     Of charging steeds, careering f...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Three Voices

...like one in dreams he stood,
Then faltered forth his gratitude
In words just short of being rude: 

For it had lost its shape and shine,
And it had cost him four-and-nine,
And he was going out to dine. 

"To dine!" she sneered in acid tone.
"To bend thy being to a bone
Clothed in a radiance not its own!" 

The tear-drop trickled to his chin:
There was a meaning in her grin
That made him feel on fire within. 

"Term it not 'radiance,'" said he:
"'Tis solid nutriment to me.
Din...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Triumph of Life

...
Bends in dark ether from her infant's chair,
So came a chariot on the silent storm
Of its own rushing splendour, and a Shape
So sate within as one whom years deform
Beneath a dusky hood & double cape
Crouching within the shadow of a tomb,
And o'er what seemed the head, a cloud like crape,
Was bent a dun & faint etherial gloom
Tempering the light; upon the chariot's beam
A Janus-visaged Shadow did assume
The guidance of that wonder-winged team.
The Shapes which drew it in thi...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The Vision of Judgment

...rs. Let him take a specimen. Mr. Southey laudeth grievously 'one Mr. Landor,' who cultivates much prevate renown in the shape of Latin verses; and not long ago, the poet laureate dedicated to him, it appeareth, one of his fugitive lyrics, upon the strength of a poem called 'Gebir.' Who could suppose, that in this same Gebir the aforesaid Savage Landor (for such is his grim cognomen) putteth into the infernal regions no less a person than the hero of his friend Mr. Southey's h...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Witch Of Atlas

...sand--(like children chidden,
At her command they ever came and went)--
Since in that cave a dewy splendor hidden
Took shape and motion. With the living form
Of this embodied Power the cave grew warm.

A lovely Lady garmented in light
From her own beauty: deep her eyes as are
Two openings of unfathomable night
Seen through a temple's cloven roof; her hair
Dark; the dim brain whirls dizzy with delight,
Picturing her form. Her soft smiles shone afar;
And her low voice was hear...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

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