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Famous Shuns Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Hardy, Thomas
...oothing finger, sorrow's smart;
--All the vast various moils that mean a world alive.

But that I fain would wot of shuns my sense--
Those sights of which old prophets tell,
Those signs the general word so well,
Vouchsafed to their unheed, denied my watchings tense.

In graveyard green, behind his monument
To glimpse a phantom parent, friend,
Wearing his smile, and "Not the end!"
Outbreathing softly: that were blest enlightenment;

Or, if a dead Love's lips, whom drea...Read more of this...



by Robinson, Mary Darby
...the heart,
No mean deceit that wings its shaft at Fame,
Or gives to pamper'd Vice a pompous Name;
Then, calm reflection shuns the sordid crowd,
The senseless chaos of the little proud,
Then, indignation stealing through the breast,
Spurns the pert tribe in flimsy greatness drest;
Who, to their native nothingness consign'd,
Sink in contempt­nor leave a trace behind.
Then Fancy paints, in visionary gloom,
The sainted shadows of the laurel'd tomb, 
The Star of Virtue glist'n...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...gle's soaring flight 
 Bears us, all breathless, after it away. 
 The eye that from thy presence fain would stray, 
 Shuns thee in vain; thy mighty shadow thrown 
 Rests on all pictures of the living day, 
 And on the threshold of our time alone, 
 Dazzling, yet sombre, stands thy form, Napoleon! 
 
 Thus, when the admiring stranger's steps explore 
 The subject-lands that 'neath Vesuvius be, 
 Whether he wind along the enchanting shore 
 To Portici from fair Parth...Read more of this...

by Van Doren, Mark
...e rude world. Ridiculous our woe 
If single pity does not love it. So 
Our separate fathers love us. No man shuns 
His poorest child's embrace. We are the sons 
Of such, or ground and sky are soon to go. 

Nor do born brothers judge, as good or ill, 
Their being. Each consents and is the same, 
Or suddenly sweet winds turn into flame 
And floods are on us--fire, earth, water, air 
All hideously parted, as his will 
Withdraws, no longer fatherly and the...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ove abysses many. 
 "Page," said he, 
 "Come here, your eyes than mine can better see, 
 For sight is woman-like and shuns the old; 
 Ah! he can see enough, when years are told, 
 Who backwards looks. But, boy, turn towards the glade 
 And tell me what you see." 
 The boy obeyed, 
 And leaned across the threshold, while the bright, 
 Full moon shed o'er the glade its white, pure light. 
 
 "I see a horse and woman on it now," 
 Said Gasclin, "and companions also s...Read more of this...



by Carroll, Lewis
...And waste of shoes and floors. 

And One (we name him not) that flies the flowers,
That dreads the dances, and that shuns the salads,
They doom to pass in solitude the hours,
Writing acrostic-ballads. 

How late it grows! The hour is surely past
That should have warned us with its double knock?
The twilight wanes, and morning comes at last -
"Oh, Uncle, what's o'clock?" 

The Uncle gravely nods, and wisely winks.
It MAY mean much, but how is one to know?
He opens ...Read more of this...

by Davies, William Henry
...led wasting here.

No doubt it is a selfish thing 
To fly from human suffering; 
No doubt he is a selfish man, 
Who shuns poor creatures, sad and wan.

But 'tis a wretched life to face 
Hunger in almost every place; 
Cursed with a hand that's empty, when 
The heart is full to help all men.

Can I admire the statue great, 
When living men starve at its feet! 
Can I admire the park's green tree, 
A roof for homeless misery!...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...key's drawers, as he ran, 
Discerned love's cause and a new flame began. 
Her wonted joys thenceforth and court she shuns, 
And still within her mind the footman runs: 
His brazen calves, his brawny thighs--the face 
She slights--his feet shaped for a smoother race. 
Poring within her glass she readjusts 
Her looks, and oft-tried beauty now distrusts, 
Fears lest he scorn a woman once assayed, 
And now first wished she e'er had been a maid. 
Great Love, how dost t...Read more of this...

by Graves, Robert
...ficers 
With open arms, and ere we pass
Will make us vocal with Kavasse. 
In old Bagdad we’ll call a halt 
At the S?shuns’ ancestral vault; 
We’ll catch the Persian rose-flowers’ scent, 
And understand what Omar meant.
Bitlis and Mush will know our faces, 
Tiflis and Tomsk, and all such places. 
Perhaps eventually we’ll get 
Among the Tartars of Thibet. 
Hobnobbing with the Chungs and Mings,
And doing wild, tremendous things 
In free adventure, quest and fight...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...ldly plays 
With every freezing gale; 
While down her cold cheek, deadly pale, 
The tear of pensive sorrow strays; 
She shuns, the PITY of the proud, 
Her mind, still triumphs, unsubdu'd 
Nor stoops, its misery to obtrude, 
Upon the vulgar croud. 

Unheeded, and unknown, 
To some bleak wilderness she flies; 
And seated on a moss-clad stone, 
Unwholesome vapours round her rise, 
And hang their mischiefs on her brow; 
The ruffian winds, her limbs expose; 
Still, still, her ...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...ircled in thy icy arms, 
They court thy torpid touch, and doat upon thy Charms? 

HATED IMP,­I brave thy Spell, 
REASON shuns thy barb'rous sway; 
Life, with mirth should glide away, 
Despondency, with guilt should dwell; 
For conscious TRUTH's unruffled mien, 
Displays the dauntless Eye, and patient smile serene....Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...ay
Of the clear Fountain of Eternal Day,
Could it within the humane flow'r be seen,
Remembring still its former height,
Shuns the sweat leaves and blossoms green;
And, recollecting its own Light,
Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express
The greater Heaven in an Heaven less.
In how coy a Figure wound,
Every way it turns away:
So the World excluding round,
Yet receiving in the Day.
Dark beneath, but bright above:
Here disdaining, there in Love.
How loose and...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...u, whom most he seeks,
Hidest thy face? Take heed lest men should say:
Like some old miser, Rustum hoards his fame,
And shuns to peril it with younger men." 

And, greatly moved, then Rustum made reply:--
"O Gudurz, wherefore dost thou say such words?
Thou knowest better words than this to say.
What is one more, one less, obscure or famed,
Valiant or craven, young or old, to me?
Are not they mortal, am not I myself?
But who for men of nought would do great deeds?
Come...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...d by a merciful mother. 


I appear to a heart's cry; I shun a demand; 
My fullness pursues the heart's desire; 
It shuns the empty claim of the voice. 


I appeared to Adam through Eve 
And exile was his lot; 
Yet I revealed myself to Solomon, and 
He drew wisdom from my presence. 


I smiled at Helena and she destroyed Tarwada; 
Yet I crowned Cleopatra and peace dominated 
The Valley of the Nile. 


I am like the ages -- building today 
And destroying tomorr...Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...ealth, and labour sleep,
Alone I wander—Calm untroubled rest,
"Nature's soft nurse," deserts the sigh-swoln breast,
And shuns the eyes, that only wake to weep!...Read more of this...

by Swift, Jonathan
...seat;
Says grace before and after meat;
And calls, without affecting airs,
His household twice a day to prayers.
He shuns apothecaries' shops;
And hates to cram the sick with slops:
He scorns to make his art a trade;
Nor bribes my lady's fav'rite maid.
Old nurse-keepers would never hire
To recommend him to the squire;
Which others, whom he will not name,
Have often practis'd to their shame.

The statesman tells you with a sneer,
His fault is to be too sincere;
And...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...e rocks advancing
Start on the fisher's eye like boat
Of island-pirate or Mainote;
And fearful for his light ca?que,
He shuns the near but doubtful creek:
Though worn and weary with his toil,
And cumbered with his scaly spoil,
Slowly, yet strongly, plies the oar,
Till Port Leone's safer shore
Receives him by the lovely light
That best becomes an Eastern night.


... Who thundering comes on blackest steed,
With slackened bit and hoof of speed?
Beneath the clatt...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...to man,
     Vich-Alpine's summons to his clan,
     Burst be the ear that fails to heed!
     Palsied the foot that shuns to speed!
     May ravens tear the careless eyes,
     Wolves make the coward heart their prize!
     As sinks that blood-stream in the earth,
     So may his heart's-blood drench his hearth!
     As dies in hissing gore the spark,
     Quench thou his light, Destruction dark!
     And be the grace to him denied,
     Bought by this sign to all...Read more of this...

by Johnson, Samuel
...tray'd by vent'rous pride
8 To tread the dreary paths without a guide,
9 As treach'rous phantoms in the mist delude,
10 Shuns fancied ills, or chases airy good.
11 How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice,
12 Rules the bold hand, or prompts the suppliant voice,
13 How nations sink, by darling schemes oppress'd,
14 When vengeance listens to the fool's request.
15 Fate wings with ev'ry wish th' afflictive dart,
16 Each gift of nature, and each grace of art,
17 With ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...rth sprig-muslin drest, 
And citizens dream of the south and west, 
And so do I. 

This is the weather the shepherd shuns, 
And so do I; 
When beeches drip in browns and duns, 
And thresh and ply; 
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe, 
And meadow rivulets overflow, 
And drops on gate bars hang in a row, 
And rooks in families homeward go, 
And so do I....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things