Famous So Long Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Long Island Sound

by Emma Lazarus
 I see it as it looked one afternoon 
In August,-by a fresh soft breeze o'erblown. 
The swiftness of the tide, the light thereon, 
A far-off sail, white as a crescent moon. 
The shining waters with pale currents strewn, 
The quiet fishing-smacks, the Eastern cove, 
The semi-circle of its dark, green grove. 
The luminous grasses, and the merry sun 
In...Read more of this...

After Long Drought

by Mark Van Doren
 After long drought, commotion in the sky; 
After dead silence, thunder. Then it comes, 
The rain. It slashes leaves, and doubly drums 
On tin and shingle; beats and bends awry 
The flower heads; puddles dust, and with a sigh 
Like love sinks into grasses, where it hums 
As bees did once, among chrysanthemums 
And asters when the summer thought...Read more of this...

Long Sight In Age

by Philip Larkin
 They say eyes clear with age, 
As dew clarifies air 
To sharpen evenings, 
As if time put an edge 
Round the last shape of things 
To show them there; 
The many-levelled trees, 
The long soft tides of grass 
Wrinkling away the gold 
Wind-ridden waves- all these, 
They say, come back to focus 
As we grow old....Read more of this...

How long these cries, these groans against the things

by Omar Khayyam
How long these cries, these groans against the things
of this world? Rise, rather, and pass gaily every instant.
When the universe shall be re-dressed in green from end
to end, drink wine in a ruby cup, full to the brim....Read more of this...

On The New Forcers Of Conscience Under The Long Parliament

by John Milton
 Because you have thrown of your Prelate Lord,
And with stiff Vowes renounc'd his Liturgie
To seise the widdow'd whore Pluralitie
From them whose sin ye envi'd, not abhor'd,
Dare ye for this adjure the Civill Sword
To force our Consciences that Christ set free,
And ride us with a classic Hierarchy
Taught ye by meer A. S. and Rotherford?
Men whose Life, Learning, Faith and pure...Read more of this...

Happy As The Day Is Long

by Edward Taylor
 I take the long walk up the staircase to my secret room.
Today's big news: they found Amelia Earhart's shoe, size 9.
1992: Charlie Christian is bebopping at Minton's in 1941.
Today, the Presidential primaries have failed us once again.
We'll look for our excitement elsewhere, in the last snow
that is falling, in tomorrow's Gospel Concert in Springfield.
It's a good day to be...Read more of this...

How long wilt thou pass thy life in adoring thyself, and

by Omar Khayyam
How long wilt thou pass thy life in adoring thyself, and
seeking the cause of annihilation of thy being? Drink
wine, for a life that is followed by death is better spent
in sleep or drunkenness....Read more of this...

Long Years apart -- can make no

by Emily Dickinson
 Long Years apart -- can make no
Breach a second cannot fill --
The absence of the Witch does not
Invalidate the spell --

The embers of a Thousand Years
Uncovered by the Hand
That fondled them when they were Fire
Will stir and understand --...Read more of this...

Finding A Long Gray Hair

by Jane Kenyon
 I scrub the long floorboards
in the kitchen, repeating
the motions of other women
who have lived in this house.
And when I find a long gray hair
floating in the pail,
I feel my life added to theirs....Read more of this...

The Long Trail

by Rudyard Kipling
 There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,
 And the ricks stand grey to the sun,
Singing: "Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the dover,
 "And your English summer's done."
 You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind,
 And the thresh of the deep-sea rain;
 You have heard the song --...Read more of this...

Long Guns

by Carl Sandburg
 THEN came, Oscar, the time of the guns.
And there was no land for a man, no land for a country,
 Unless guns sprang up
 And spoke their language.
The how of running the world was all in guns.

The law of a God keeping sea and land apart,
The law of a child sucking milk,
The law of stars held together,
 They slept...Read more of this...

At the time when I had long suffered

by Emile Verhaeren
At the time when I had long suffered and the hours were snares to me, you appeared to me as the welcoming light that shines from the windows on to the snow in the depths of winter evenings.
The brightness of your hospitable soul touched my heart lightly without wounding it, like a hand of tranquil warmth.
Then came a holy trust,...Read more of this...

We Two—How Long We were Fool'd

by Walt Whitman
 WE two—how long we were fool’d! 
Now transmuted, we swiftly escape, as Nature escapes; 
We are Nature—long have we been absent, but now we return; 
We become plants, leaves, foliage, roots, bark; 
We are bedded in the ground—we are rocks;
We are oaks—we grow in the openings side by side; 
We browse—we are two among the wild herds, spontaneous as...Read more of this...

On this long storm the Rainbow rose

by Emily Dickinson
 On this long storm the Rainbow rose --
On this late Morn -- the Sun --
The clouds -- like listless Elephants --
Horizons -- straggled down --

The Birds rose smiling, in their nests --
The gales -- indeed -- were done --
Alas, how heedless were the eyes --
On whom the summer shone!

The quiet nonchalance of death --
No Daybreak -- can bestir --
The...Read more of this...

I Am Like One That For Long Days Had Sate

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 I AM like one that for long days had sate,
With seaward eyes set keen against the gale,
On some lone foreland, watching sail by sail,
The portbound ships for one ship that was late;
And sail by sail, his heart burned up with joy,
And cruelly was quenched, until at last
One ship, the looked-for pennant at its mast,
Bore gaily, and dropt safely past...Read more of this...

Twas a long Parting -- but the time

by Emily Dickinson
 'Twas a long Parting -- but the time
For Interview -- had Come --
Before the Judgment Seat of God --
The last -- and second time

These Fleshless Lovers met --
A Heaven in a Gaze --
A Heaven of Heavens -- the Privilege
Of one another's Eyes --

No Lifetime -- on Them --
Appareled as the new
Unborn -- except They had beheld --
Born infiniter --...Read more of this...

Long Distance I

by Tony Harrison
 Your bed's got two wrong sides. You life's all grouse.
I let your phone-call take its dismal course:

Ah can't stand it no more, this empty house!

Carrots choke us wi'out your mam's white sauce!

Them sweets you brought me, you can have 'em back.
Ah'm diabetic now. Got all the facts.
(The diabetes comes hard on the track
of two coronaries and cataracts.)

Ah've allus liked...Read more of this...

As long as the friend (God) will pour for me the wine

by Omar Khayyam
As long as the friend [God] will pour for me the wine
which rejoices my soul, as long as the heavens have
not deposited a hundred kisses upon my head and feet,
whatever they may do, when the moment comes, to induce
me to renounce drinking, how can I renounce it,
God not having ordered me to?...Read more of this...

The Long Race

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 Up the old hill to the old house again 
Where fifty years ago the friend was young 
Who should be waiting somewhere there among 
Old things that least remembered most remain, 
He toiled on with a pleasure that was pain
To think how soon asunder would be flung 
The curtain half a century had hung 
Between the two ambitions they...Read more of this...

All Day Long

by Carl Sandburg
 ALL day long in fog and wind,
The waves have flung their beating crests
Against the palisades of adamant.
My boy, he went to sea, long and long ago,
Curls of brown were slipping underneath his cap,
He looked at me from blue and steely eyes;
Natty, straight and true, he stepped away,
My boy, he went to sea.
All day long in fog and wind,
The waves...Read more of this...

I Love The Naked Ages Long Ago

by Charles Baudelaire
 I love the naked ages long ago 
When statues were gilded by Apollo, 
When men and women of agility 
Could play without lies and anxiety, 
And the sky lovingly caressed their spines, 
As it exercised its noble machine. 
Fertile Cybele, mother of nature, then, 
Would not place on her daughters a burden, 
But, she-wolf sharing her heart with the...Read more of this...

214. Song—How Long and Dreary is the Night

by Robert Burns
 HOW long and dreary is the night,
 When I am frae my dearie!
I sleepless lie frae e’en to morn,
 Tho’ I were ne’er so weary:
I sleepless lie frae e’en to morn,
 Tho’ I were ne’er sae weary!


When I think on the happy days
 I spent wi’ you my dearie:
And now what lands between us lie,
 How can I be...Read more of this...

Long I Thought that Knowledge

by Walt Whitman
 LONG I thought that knowledge alone would suffice me—O if I could but obtain
 knowledge! 
Then my lands engrossed me—Lands of the prairies, Ohio’s land, the southern
 savannas,
 engrossed me—For them I would live—I would be their orator; 
Then I met the examples of old and new heroes—I heard of warriors, sailors, and all
 dauntless persons—And it seemed to...Read more of this...

The Long-Nosed Fair

by Christopher Smart
 Once on a time I fair Dorinda kiss'd, 
Whose nose was too distinguish'd to be miss'd; 
My dear, says I, I fain would kiss you closer, 
But tho' your lips say aye--your nose says, no, Sir.-- 
The maid was equally to fun inclin'd, 
And plac'd her lovely lily-hand behind; 
Here, swain, she cry'd, may'st thou securely kiss, 
Where there's...Read more of this...

How long these arguments upon the five and the four,

by Omar Khayyam
How long these arguments upon the five and the four,
O cupbearer? In comprehending one, O cupbearer! it is
difficult to grasp a hundred thousand. We are all of earth,
O cupbearer! strike the harp: we are all as the wind,
bring the wine, O cupbearer!...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member So Long poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace