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Famous Sisyphus Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
..., to be honest, never yet rejoiced
In the world's progress--scarce, indeed, discerned;
(For still it seems that God's a Sisyphus
With the world for stone).
You shake your head. I'm base,
Ignoble? Who is noble--you or I?
I was not once thus? Ah, my friend, we are
As the Fates make us.
This time is the third;
The second time the flask fell from my hand,
Its drowsy juices spilt upon the board;
And there my face fell flat, and all the life
Crept from my limbs, and hand and foot w...Read more of this...
by Levy, Amy



...To bear a weight that cannot be borne, 
Sisyphus, even you aren't that strong, 
Although your heart cannot be torn 
Time is short and Art is long. 
Far from celebrated sepulchers 
Toward a solitary graveyard 
My heart, like a drum muffled hard 
Beats a funeral march for the ill-starred. 

—Many jewels are buried or shrouded 
In darkness and oblivion's clouds, 
Far from any pick or drill bit, 

Man...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...to cinders turneth,
But with these drops the flame again reviving, 
Still more and more it to my torment turneth. 
With Sisyphus thus do I roll the stone, 
And turn the wheel with damned Ixion....Read more of this...
by Drayton, Michael
...e day die,
Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus
Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!...Read more of this...
by Cullen, Countee

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things