Famous Side By Side Poems by Famous Poets

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

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To the Same

by John Milton
 Cyriack, this three years’ day these eyes, though clear, 
To outward view, of blemish or of spot, 
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot; 
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear 
Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not 
Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot 
Of heart...Read more of this...

The Lovers Litany

by Rudyard Kipling
 Eyes of grey -- a sodden quay,
Driving rain and falling tears,
As the steamer wears to sea
In a parting storm of cheers.
 Sing, for Faith and Hope are high --
 None so true as you and I --
 Sing the Lovers' Litany:
 "Love like ours can never die!"

Eyes of black -- a throbbing keel,
Milky foam to left and right;
Whispered converse...Read more of this...

The Firemens Ball

by Vachel Lindsay
 SECTION ONE

"Give the engines room,
Give the engines room."
Louder, faster
The little band-master
Whips up the fluting,
Hurries up the tooting.
He thinks that he stands,
[*] The reins in his hands, 
In the fire-chief's place 
In the night alarm chase. 
The cymbals whang, 
The kettledrums bang: —
"Clear the street, 
Clear the street, 
Clear the street — Boom, boom. 
In the evening gloom, 
In the...Read more of this...

To The Countess Granville

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 MY DEAR LADY GRANVILLE,--

THE reluctance which must naturally be felt by any one in
venturing to give to the world a book such as the present, where
the beauties of the great original must inevitably be diminished,
if not destroyed, in the process of passing through the
translator's hands, cannot but be felt in all its force when that
translator has not penetrated beyond...Read more of this...

Massachusetts To Virginia

by John Greenleaf Whittier
 The blast from Freedom's Northern hills, upon its Southern way,
Bears greeting to Virginia from Massachusetts Bay:
No word of haughty challenging, nor battle bugle's peal,
Nor steady tread of marching files, nor clang of horsemen's steel,

No trains of deep-mouthed cannon along our highways go;
Around our silent arsenals untrodden lies the snow;
And to the land-breeze of our ports, upon their errands far,
A...Read more of this...

Helen all Alone

by Rudyard Kipling
 "In the Same Boat"--A Diversity of Creatures
 There was darkness under Heaven
 For an hour's space--
 Darkness that we knew was given
 Us for special grace.
 Sun and noon and stars were hid,
 God had left His Throne,
 When Helen came to me, she did,
 Helen all alone!

 Side by side (because our fate
 Damned us ere our birth)
...Read more of this...

Although we saw this bright garden

by Emile Verhaeren
Although we saw this bright garden, wherein we pass silently, flower before our eyes, it is rather in us that grows the pleasantest and fairest garden in the world.
For we live all the flowers, all the plants and all the grasses in our laughter and our tears of pure and calm happiness.
For we live all the transparencies of the blue...Read more of this...

Hod Putt

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Here I lie close to the grave 
Of Old Bill Piersol, 
Who grew rich trading with the indians, and who 
Afterwards took the bankrupt law 
And emergeed from it richer than ever. 
Myself grown tired of toil and poverty 
And beholding how Old Bill and others grew in wealth, 
Robbed a traveler one night near Proctor's Grove, 
Killing him...Read more of this...

Paris October 1936

by Cesar Vallejo
 From all of this I am the only one who leaves.
From this bench I go away, from my pants,
from my great situation, from my actions,
from my number split side to side,
from all of this I am the only one who leaves.

From the Champs Elysées or as the strange
alley of the Moon makes a turn,
my death goes away, my cradle...Read more of this...

Qua Cursum Ventus

by Arthur Hugh Clough
 As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay
With canvas drooping, side by side,
Two towers of sail at dawn of day
Are scarce long leagues apart descried;

When fell the night, upsprung the breeze,
And all the darkling hours they plied,
Nor dreamt but each the selfsame seas
By each was cleaving, side by side:

E'en so—but why the tale reveal
Of those, whom year by year unchanged,
Brief...Read more of this...

The Last Ride Together

by Robert Browning
 I.

I said---Then, dearest, since 'tis so,
Since now at length my fate I know,
Since nothing all my love avails,
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,
Since this was written and needs must be---
My whole heart rises up to bless
Your name in pride and thankfulness!
Take back the hope you gave,---I claim
---Only a memory of the same,
---And this beside, if you will...Read more of this...

Psalm 78 part 3

by Isaac Watts
 The punishment of luxury and intemperance.

When Isr'el sins, the Lord reproves
And fills their hearts with dread;
Yet he forgives the men he loves,
And sends them heav'nly bread.

He fed them with a lib'ral hand,
And made his treasures known;
He gave the midnight clouds command
To pour provision down.

The manna, like a morning shower,
Lay thick around their feet
The corn of heav'n, so light, so...Read more of this...

The Negro Girl

by Mary Darby Robinson
 I. 

Dark was the dawn, and o'er the deep
The boist'rous whirlwinds blew;
The Sea-bird wheel'd its circling sweep,
And all was drear to view--
When on the beach that binds the western shore
The love-lorn ZELMA stood, list'ning the tempest's roar.


II. 

Her eager Eyes beheld the main,
While on her DRACO dear
She madly call'd, but call'd in vain,
No sound could DRACO hear,
Save the shrill...Read more of this...

While The Bannock Bakes

by Robert William Service
 Light up your pipe again, old chum, and sit awhile with me;
I've got to watch the bannock bake -- how restful is the air!
You'd little think that we were somewhere north of Sixty-three,
Though where I don't exactly know, and don't precisely care.
The man-size mountains palisade us round on every side;
The river is a-flop with fish, and ripples silver-clear;
The midnight...Read more of this...

We Are Seven

by William Wordsworth
  A simple child, dear brother Jim,  That lightly draws its breath,  And feels its life in every limb,  What should it know of death?   I met a little cottage girl,  She was eight years old, she said;  Her hair was thick with many a curl  That cluster'd round her head.   She had a rustic, woodland air,  And she was wildly clad;  Her eyes were fair, and very fair,  —Her...Read more of this...

The Immortals

by Dorothy Parker
 If you should sail for Trebizond, or die,
Or cry another name in your first sleep,
Or see me board a train, and fail to sigh,
Appropriately, I'd clutch my breast and weep.
And you, if I should wander through the door,
Or sin, or seek a nunnery, or save
My lips and give my cheek, would tread the floor
And aptly mention poison and the...Read more of this...

Who is Kator Anyhow?

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Why, oh why was Kater lifted 
From the darkness, where he drifted 
All unknown, and raised to honour, 
Side by side with Dick O'connor, 
In the Council, free from row? 
Who is Kater, anyhow? 
Did he lend our armies rally, 
Like the recent Billy Dalley? 
Did he lend a Premier money, 
Like -- (No libels here, my sonny. --...Read more of this...

Eureka

by Henry Lawson
 Roll up, Eureka's heroes, on that grand Old Rush afar,
For Lalor's gone to join you in the big camp where you are;
Roll up and give him welcome such as only diggers can,
For well he battled for the rights of miner and of Man.
In that bright golden country that lies beyond our sight,
The record of his honest life shall be...Read more of this...

The Hero of Kalapore

by William Topaz McGonagall
 The 27th Regiment has mutinied at Kalapore;
That was the substance of a telegram, which caused great uproar,
At Sattara, on the evening of the 8th of July,
And when the British officers heard it, they heaved a bitter sigh. 

'Twas in the year of 1857,
Which will long be remembered: Oh! Heaven!
That the Sepoys revolted, and killed their British officers and their...Read more of this...

Two Rivulets

by Walt Whitman
 TWO Rivulets side by side, 
Two blended, parallel, strolling tides, 
Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey. 

For the Eternal Ocean bound, 
These ripples, passing surges, streams of Death and Life,
Object and Subject hurrying, whirling by, 
The Real and Ideal, 

Alternate ebb and flow the Days and Nights, 
(Strands of a Trio twining, Present, Future, Past.) 

In You, whoe’er you...Read more of this...

The Reveille

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Trumpets of the Lancer Corps 
Sound a loud reveille; 
Sound it over Sydney shore, 
Send the message far and wide 
Down the Richmond River side. 
Boot and Saddle, mount and ride, 
Sound a loud reveille. 
Whither go ye, Lancers gay, 
With your bold reveille? 
O'er the ocean far away 
From your sunny southern home, 
Over leagues of trackless foam...Read more of this...

The Whitsun Weddings

by Philip Larkin
 That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
 Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday 
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone. We ran 
Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street
Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thence 
The river's level drifting breadth began, 
Where sky and Lincolnshire and...Read more of this...

Reedy River

by Henry Lawson
 Ten miles down Reedy River 
A pool of water lies, 
And all the year it mirrors 
The changes in the skies, 
And in that pool's broad bosom 
Is room for all the stars; 
Its bed of sand has drifted 
O'er countless rocky bars. 

Around the lower edges 
There waves a bed of reeds, 
Where water rats are hidden 
And...Read more of this...

The Hermit Goes Up Attic

by Maxine Kumin
 Up attic, Lucas Harrison, God rest
his frugal bones, once kept a tidy account
by knifecut of some long-gone harvest.
The wood was new. The pitch ran down to blunt 
the year: 1811, the score: 10, he carved
into the center rafter to represent
his loves, beatings, losses, hours, or maybe
the butternuts that taxed his back and starved
the red squirrels higher up each scabbed...Read more of this...

An Arundel Tomb

by Philip Larkin
 Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd -
The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding...Read more of this...

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