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Famous Shunning Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...m,
 To bless himself alone?
 Mark maiden-innocence a prey
 To love-pretending snares:
 This boasted Honour turns away,
 Shunning soft Pity’s rising sway,
Regardless of the tears and unavailing pray’rs!
 Perhaps this hour, in Misery’s squalid nest,
 She strains your infant to her joyless breast,
And with a mother’s fears shrinks at the rocking blast!


“Oh ye! who, sunk in beds of down,
 Feel not a want but what yourselves create,
 Think, for a moment, on his wretched fate,
 W...Read More



by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...> 
Reason is dark, else why heroic deem'd 
Fell suicide, as if 'twere fortitude 
And higher merit to recede from life, 
Shunning the ills of poverty, or pain, 
Or wasting sickness, or the victor's sword, 
Than to support with patience fully tried 
As Job, thence equall'd with him in renown. 


Shut from the light of revelation clear 
The world lay hid in shades, and reason's lamp 
Serv'd but to show how dark it was; but now 
The joyous time with hasty steps advanc'd, 
Whe...Read More

by Dryden, John
...other he;
Another he would be too hard to find,
See then whom thou canst see not far behind.
Zadoc the priest whom, shunning, pow'r and place,
His lowly mind advanc'd to David's grace:
With him the Sagan of Jerusalem,
Of hospitable soul and noble stem;
Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
The Prophet's sons by such example led,
To learning and to loyalty were bred:
For colleges on bounteous kings depend,
And never reb...Read More

by Pope, Alexander
...Pleasure to be charm'd with Wit.
But in such Lays as neither ebb, nor flow,
Correctly cold, and regularly low,
That shunning Faults, one quiet Tenour keep;
We cannot blame indeed--but we may sleep.
In Wit, as Nature, what affects our Hearts
Is nor th' Exactness of peculiar Parts;
'Tis not a Lip, or Eye, we Beauty call,
But the joint Force and full Result of all.
Thus when we view some well-proportion'd Dome,
The World's just Wonder, and ev'n thine O Rome!)
No sing...Read More

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...e other hand, 
Our minds have got a way of running 
To things that aren't quite so grand, 
Which, maybe, we are best in shunning.

For some of us still like to see 
The poor man in his dwelling narrow, 
The hollyhock, the bumblebee, 
The meadow lark, and chirping sparrow.

We like the man who soars and sings 
With high and lofty inspiration; 
But he who sings of common things 
Shall always share our admiration....Read More



by Clare, John
...eams are,
Or its companionable star,
The evening primrose opes anew
Its delicate blossoms to the dew;
And, hermit-like, shunning the light,
Wastes its fair bloom upon the night,
Who, blindfold to its fond caresses,
Knows not the beauty it possesses;
Thus it blooms on while night is by;
When day looks out with open eye,
Bashed at the gaze it cannot shun,
It faints and withers and is gone....Read More

by Chudleigh, Lady Mary
...Passion, Bigottry, and Pride,
Not sway'd by Int'rest, nor to Parties ty'd,
Contemning Riches, and abhorring strife,
And shunning all the noisy Pomps of Life,
You live the aweful Wonders of your time,
Without the least Suspicion of a Crime:
I shall with Joy the highest Deference pay,
and heedfully attend to all you say.
From such, Reproofs shall always welcome prove,
As being th' Effects of Piety and Love.
But those from me can challenge no Respect,
Who on us all witho...Read More

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...t in our lives

We must all repent us!
So confess, with pious trust,

All your sins momentous!
Error's crooked pathways shunning.

Let us, on the straight road running,
Honestly content us!

Yes! we've oft, when waking, dream'd,

Let's confess it rightly;
Left undrain'd the brimming cup,

When it sparkled brightly;
Many a shepherd's-hour's soft blisses,

Many a dear mouth's flying kisses
We've neglected lightly.

Mute and silent have we sat,

Whilst the blockheads pra...Read More

by Dickinson, Emily
...hbor to --
And Heaven -- a convenient Grace
For Show, or Company --

Have any like Myself
Preserved the Charm secure
By shunning carefully the Place
All Seasons of the Year,

Excepting March -- 'Tis then
My Villages be seen --
And possibly a Steeple --
Not afterward -- by Men --...Read More

by Southey, Robert
...wed hearth--for PEACE is there!

Yes I have loved you long. I call on you
Yourselves to witness with what holy joy,
Shunning the polished mob of human kind,
I have retired to watch your lonely fires
And commune with myself. Delightful hours
That gave mysterious pleasure, made me know
All the recesses of my wayward heart,
Taught me to cherish with devoutest care
Its strange unworldly feelings, taught me too
The best of lessons--to respect myself!

Nor have I ever ceas'...Read More

by Byron, George (Lord)
...et why do I ask?---to distraction a prey,
Thy reason has perish'd, with Love's last adieu!

Oh! who is yon Misanthrope, shunning mankind?
From cities to caves of the forest he flew:
There, raving, he howls his complaint to the wind;
The mountains reverberate Love's last adieu!

Now Hate rules a heart which in Love's easy chains,
Once Passion's tumultuous blandishments knew;
Despair now inflames the dark tide of his veins,
He ponders, in frenzy, on Love's last adieu!

How he e...Read More

by Clare, John
...drops on slender threads
Wi broad hood leaves above their heads
Like white robd maids in summer hours
Neath umberellas shunning showers
These neath the barkmens crushing treads
Oft perish in their blooming beds
Thus stript of boughs and bark in white
Their trunks shine in the mellow light
Beneath the green surviving trees
That wave above them in the breeze
And waking whispers slowly bends
As if they mournd their fallen friends
Each morning now the weeders meet
To cut the thi...Read More

by Trumbull, John
...end:
Whence plain it seems, though satan once
O'erlook'd with scorn each brainless dunce,
And blundering brutes in Eden shunning,
Chose out the serpent for his cunning;
Of late he is not half so nice,
Nor picks out aids because they're wise:
For had he stood upon perfection,
His present friends had lost th' election,
And fared as hard, in this proceeding,
As owls and asses did in Eden.


"Yet fools are often dangerous enemies;
As meanest reptiles are most venomous:
Nor e'...Read More

by Milton, John
...
About the mother tree, a pillared shade 
High over-arched, and echoing walks between: 
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade: Those leaves 
They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe; 
And, with what skill they had, together sewed, 
To gird their waist; vain covering, if to hide 
Their guilt and dreaded shame! O, how unlike 
To that first naked glory! Such of late 
Columbus found...Read More

by Petrarch, Francesco
...risome or high,No place has been where strong will has not hied,Her shunning, at whose sight my senses die,And, cold as marble, I am laid aside:Wherefore if I return to see you late,Sure 'tis no fault, unworthy of excuse,That from my death awhile I held aloof:At all to turn to what men shun, their...Read More

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...avy Curb do's sway; 
Truth an equal Part sustains, 
All indulg'd the loosen'd Reins: 
In the Box fits vig'rous Health, 
Shunning miry Paths of Wealth: 
Gaiety with easy Smiles, 
Ev'ry harsher Step beguiles; 
Whilst of Nature, or of Fate 
Only This I wou'd intreat: 
The Equipage might not decay, 
Till the worn Carriage drops away....Read More

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