Famous Shriven Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Alexander Crummell—dead

...mother—
To rest.
Long hast thou striven;
Dared where the hills by the lightning of heaven were riven;
Go now, pure shriven.
Who shall come after thee, out of the clay—
Learned one and leader to show us the way?
Who shall rise up when the world gives the test?
Think thou no more of this—
Rest!
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul


In a Castle

...lover. He has sworn to 
fight her lord,
and wed her after. Should he be overborne, she will die 
adoring him, forlorn,
shriven by her great love.
Above, the coronet winks in the darkness. Drip 
-- hiss -- fall the raindrops.
The arras blows out from the wall, and a door bangs in a far-off 
hall.

The candles swale. In the gale the moat below plunges 
and spatters.
Will the lady lose courage and not come?
The rain claps on a loosened rafter.
Is that laughter?

The room is fil...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

Plea

...Of clinging arms, of kisses gladly given;
Luxuriously clean of heart once more,
You rose up, then, and stood before me, shriven.

When this, my day of happiness, is through,
And love, that bloomed so fair, turns brown and brittle,
There is a thing that I shall ask of you-
I, who have given so much, and asked so little.
Some day, when there's another in my stead,
Again you'll feel the need of absolution,
And you will go to her, and bow your head,
And offer her your past, as co...Read more of this...
by Parker, Dorothy

Repentance

...ilation)
When I repent the more I'll win
Celestial approbation. 

So still I sin, and though I fail
To get snow-whitely shriven,
My timing's good: I home to hail
The last bus up to heaven....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

San Francisco Night Windows

...d be forgiven,
And the deep blood subdued before it is gone 
In a savage paternoster to the stone,
Then might we all be shriven....Read more of this...
by Warren, Robert Penn


Single Vision

...Before I am completely shriven
I shall reject my inch of heaven.

Cancel my eyes, and, standing, sink
Into my deepest self; there drink

Memory down. The banner of
My blood, unfurled, will not be love,

Only the pity and the pride
Of it, pinned to my open side.

When I have utterly refined
The composition of my mind,

Shaped language of my marrow till
Its forms are instant to my w...Read more of this...
by Kunitz, Stanley

The Sompnours Tale

...all too sore smart;* *pain
But shew to me all thy confession."
"Nay," quoth the sicke man, "by Saint Simon
I have been shriven* this day of my curate; *confessed
I have him told all wholly mine estate.
Needeth no more to speak of it, saith he,
But if me list of mine humility."
"Give me then of thy good to make our cloister,"
Quoth he, "for many a mussel and many an oyster,
When other men have been full well at ease,
Hath been our food, our cloister for to rese:* *raise, buil...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The waters chased him as he fled

...m as he fled,
Not daring look behind --
A billow whispered in his Ear,
"Come home with me, my friend --
My parlor is of shriven glass,
My pantry has a fish
For every palate in the Year" --
To this revolting bliss
The object floating at his side
Made no distinct reply....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Through the strait pass of suffering --

...of suffering --
The Martyrs -- even -- trod.
Their feet -- upon Temptations --
Their faces -- upon God --

A stately -- shriven -- Company --
Convulsion -- playing round --
Harmless -- as streaks of Meteor --
Upon a Planet's Bond --

Their faith -- the everlasting troth --
Their Expectation -- fair --
The Needle -- to the North Degree --
Wades -- so -- thro' polar Air!...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Troilus And Criseyde: Book 02

...the love of god that us hath wrought,
Swich chere him dooth, that he and I may liven.
Now have I plat to yow myn herte shriven;
And sin ye woot that myn entente is clene, 
Tak hede ther-of, for I non yvel mene.

'And right good thrift, I prey to god, have ye,
That han swich oon y-caught with-oute net;
And be ye wys, as ye ben fair to see,
Wel in the ring than is the ruby set. 
Ther were never two so wel y-met,
Whan ye ben his al hool, as he is youre:
Ther mighty god yet grau...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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