Famous Sing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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I Too Sing America

by Langston Hughes
 I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides, 
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America....Read more of this...

On Hearing The Princess Royal{1} Sing

by Victor Hugo
 ("Dans ta haute demeure.") 
 
 {Bk. III. ix., 1881.} 


 In thine abode so high 
 Where yet one scarce can breathe, 
 Dear child, most tenderly 
 A soft song thou dost wreathe. 
 
 Thou singest, little girl— 
 Thy sire, the King is he: 
 Around thee glories whirl, 
 But all things sigh in...Read more of this...

Sing To Me

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 Sing to me! Something of sunlight and bloom, 
I am so compassed with sorrow and gloom, 
I am so sick with the world’s noisse and strife, -
Sing of the beauty and brightness of life –
Sing to me, sing to me! 

Sing to me! Something that’s jubilant, glad! 
I am so weary, my soul so sad.
All my earth riches are...Read more of this...

To hear an Oriole sing

by Emily Dickinson
 To hear an Oriole sing
May be a common thing --
Or only a divine.

It is not of the Bird
Who sings the same, unheard,
As unto Crowd --

The Fashion of the Ear
Attireth that it hear
In Dun, or fair --

So whether it be Rune,
Or whether it be none
Is of within.

The "Tune is in the Tree --"
The Skeptic -- showeth me --
"No Sir! In...Read more of this...

Sonnet 39: O how thy worth with manners may I sing

by William Shakespeare
 O, how thy worth with manners may I sing,
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine own praise to mine own self bring?
And what is't but mine own when I praise thee?
Even for this let us divided live,
And our dear love lose name of single one,
That by this separation I may give
That due to thee which...Read more of this...

To-night pour wine, and sing a dulcet air,

by Omar Khayyam
To-night pour wine, and sing a dulcet air,
And I upon thy lips will hang, O fair;
Yea, pour some wine as rosy as thy cheeks,
My mind is troubled like thy ruffled hair....Read more of this...

One's-Self I Sing

by Walt Whitman
 ONE’S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person; 
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse. 

Of Physiology from top to toe I sing; 
Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse—I say the
 Form complete is worthier far; 
The Female equally with the male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, 
Cheerful—for freest action form’d,...Read more of this...

I Sing The Body Electric

by Philip Levine
 People sit numbly at the counter 
waiting for breakfast or service. 
Today it's Hartford, Connecticut 
more than twenty-five years after 
the last death of Wallace Stevens. 
I have come in out of the cold 
and wind of a Sunday morning 
of early March, and I seem to be 
crying, but I'm only freezing 
and unpeeled. The waitress brings 
me...Read more of this...

Lift Every Voice and Sing

by James Weldon Johnson
 Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new...Read more of this...

The Bird must sing to earn the Crumb

by Emily Dickinson
 The Bird must sing to earn the Crumb
What merit have the Tune
No Breakfast if it guaranty

The Rose content may bloom
To gain renown of Lady's Drawer
But if the Lady come
But once a Century, the Rose
Superfluous become --...Read more of this...

Sing A Song Of Sixpence

by Mother Goose
Sing a song of sixpence,
   A pocket full of rye;
Four-and-twenty blackbirds
   Baked in a pie!

When the pie was opened
   The birds began to sing;
Was not that a dainty dish
   To set before the king?

The king was in his counting-house,
   Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlor,
  ...Read more of this...

Sing Sweet Harp

by Thomas Moore
 Sing, sweet Harp, oh sing to me 
Some song of ancient days, 
Whose sounds, in this sad memory, 
Long-buried dreams shall raise; -- 
Some lay that tells of vanish'd fame, 
Whose light once round us shone, 
Of noble pride, now turn'd to shame, 
And hopes for ever gone. 
Sing, sad Harp, thus sing to me; 
Alike our doom is...Read more of this...

Why Do Birds Sing?

by Robert William Service
 Let poets piece prismatic words,
Give me the jewelled joy of birds!

What ecstasy moves them to sing?
Is it the lyric glee of Spring,
The dewy rapture of the rose?
Is it the worship born in those
Who are of Nature's self a part,
The adoration of the heart?

Is it the mating mood in them
That makes each crystal note a gem?
Oh mocking bird and nightingale,
Oh...Read more of this...

Occasion makes me sing the praise of wine when I surround

by Omar Khayyam
Occasion makes me sing the praise of wine when I surround
myself with men and things I love. O Devotee!
canst thou be happy here below knowing that wisdom is
your Lord? Then know, at least, that wisdom is my
slave....Read more of this...

O Sing Fair Lady When With Me

by Alexander Pushkin
O sing, fair lady, when with me
Sad songs of Georgia no more:
They bring into my memory
Another life, a distant shore.

Your beautiful, your cruel tune
Brings to my memory, alas,
The steppe, the night - and with the moon
Lines of a far, unhappy lass.

Forgetting at the sight of you
That shadow fateful, shadow dear,
I hear you singing - and anew
I picture it before me,...Read more of this...

Very True the Linnets Sing

by Walter Savage Landor
 Very true, the linnets sing 
Sweetest in the leaves of spring: 
You have found in all these leaves 
That which changes and deceives, 
And, to pine by sun or star, 
Left them, false ones as they are. 
But there be who walk beside 
Autumn's, till they all have died, 
And who lend a patient ear 
To low notes from...Read more of this...

Bind me -- I still can sing --

by Emily Dickinson
 Bind me -- I still can sing --
Banish -- my mandolin
Strikes true within --

Slay -- and my Soul shall rise
Chanting to Paradise --
Still thine....Read more of this...

I Will Sing You One-O

by Robert Frost
 It was long I lay
Awake that night
Wishing that night
Would name the hour
And tell me whether
To call it day
(Though not yet light)
And give up sleep.
The snow fell deep
With the hiss of spray;
Two winds would meet,
One down one street,
One down another,
And fight in a smother
Of dust and feather.
I could not say,
But feared the cold
Had checked the pace
Of the tower clock
By tying...Read more of this...

Milton: But in the Wine-presses the Human Grapes Sing not nor Dance

by William Blake
 But in the Wine-presses the human grapes sing not nor dance: 
They howl and writhe in shoals of torment, in fierce flames consuming,
In chains of iron and in dungeons circled with ceaseless fires,
In pits and dens and shades of death, in shapes of torment and woe:
The plates and screws and racks and saws and cords and fires and cisterns
The...Read more of this...

I sing to use the Waiting

by Emily Dickinson
 I sing to use the Waiting
My Bonnet but to tie
And shut the Door unto my House
No more to do have I

Till His best step approaching
We journey to the Day
And tell each other how We sung
To Keep the Dark away....Read more of this...

Gentle Lady Do Not Sing

by James Joyce
 Gentle lady, do not sing 
Sad songs about the end of love; 
Lay aside sadness and sing 
How love that passes is enough. 

Sing about the long deep sleep 
Of lovers that are dead, and how 
In the grave all love shall sleep: 
Love is aweary now....Read more of this...

Dark Prophecy: I Sing Of Shine

by Etheridge Knight
 And, yeah brothers
while white America sings about the unsinkable molly brown
(who was hustling the titanic
when it went down)
I sing to thee of Shine
the stoker who was hip enough to flee the fucking ship
and let the white folks drown
with screams on their lips
(jumped his black ass into the dark sea, Shine did,
broke free from the straining steel).
Yeah, I sing to...Read more of this...

Jueju, No. 3 of 4 (Two Golden Orioles Sing in the Green Willows)

by Du Fu
 Two (measure word) golden orioles sing green willow One row white egrets on blue sky Window contain west mountain thousand autumn snow Door moor east Wu ten thousand li boat Two golden orioles sing in the green willows, A row of white egrets against the blue sky. The window frames the western hills' snow of...Read more of this...

O Word I Love to Sing

by Claude McKay
 O word I love to sing! thou art too tender 
For all the passions agitating me; 
For all my bitterness thou art too tender, 
I cannot pour my red soul into thee. 

O haunting melody! thou art too slender, 
Too fragile like a globe of crystal glass; 
For all my stormy thoughts thou art too slender, 
The burden from...Read more of this...

Sing All Ye People!

by J R R Tolkien
 Sing now, ye people of the Tower of Anor,
For the Realm of Sauron is ended for ever,
And the Dark Tower is thrown down.

Sing and rejoice, ye people of the Tower of Guard,
For your watch hath not been in vain,
And the Black Gate is broken,
And your King hath passed through,
And he is victorious.

Sing and be glad, all ye children of...Read more of this...

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