Famous Soft Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Contained in this short Life

by Emily Dickinson
 Contained in this short Life
Are magical extents
The soul returning soft at night
To steal securer thence

As Children strictest kept
Turn soonest to the sea
Whose nameless Fathoms slink away
Beside infinity...Read more of this...

Sonnet to My Beloved Daughter

by Mary Darby Robinson
 WHEN FATE in ruthless rage assail'd my breast,
And Heaven relentless seal'd the harsh decree;
HOPE, placid soother of the mind distress'd;
To calm my rending sorrows­gave me THEE. 

In all the charms of innocence array'd,
'Tis thine to sprinkle patience on my woes;
As from thy voice celestial comfort flows,
Glancing bright lustre o'er each dreary shade. 

Still may thy growing REASON's light divine,
Illume...Read more of this...

How soft a Caterpillar steps --

by Emily Dickinson
 How soft a Caterpillar steps --
I fond one on my Hand
From such a velvet world it comes
Such plushes at command
Its soundless travels just arrest
My slow -- terrestrial eye
Intent upon its own career
What use has it for me --...Read more of this...

Soft as the massacre of Suns

by Emily Dickinson
 Soft as the massacre of Suns
By Evening's Sabres slain...Read more of this...

How soft this Prison is

by Emily Dickinson
 How soft this Prison is
How sweet these sullen bars
No Despot but the King of Down
Invented this repose

Of Fate if this is All
Has he no added Realm
A Dungeon but a Kinsman is
Incarceration -- Home....Read more of this...

Sad-Eyed and Soft and Grey

by William Morris
 Sad-Eyed and soft and grey thou art, o morn!
Across the long grass of the marshy plain
Thy west wind whispers of the coming rain,
Thy lark forgets that May is grown forlorn
Above the lush blades of the springing corn,
Thy thrush within the high elms strives in vain
To store up tales of spring for summer's pain -
Vain day, why wert thou from...Read more of this...

The Daisy follows soft the Sun

by Emily Dickinson
 The Daisy follows soft the Sun --
And when his golden walk is done --
Sits shyly at his feet --
He -- waking -- finds the flower there --
Wherefore -- Marauder -- art thou here?
Because, Sir, love is sweet!

We are the Flower -- Thou the Sun!
Forgive us, if as days decline --
We nearer steal to Thee!
Enamored of the parting West --
The...Read more of this...

The Strayed Reveller

by Matthew Arnold
 1 Faster, faster, 
2 O Circe, Goddess,
3 Let the wild, thronging train 
4 The bright procession 
5 Of eddying forms, 
6 Sweep through my soul! 

7 Thou standest, smiling
8 Down on me! thy right arm,
9 Lean'd up against the column there,
10 Props thy soft cheek;
11 Thy left holds, hanging loosely,
12 The deep cup, ivy-cinctured,
13 I held but now. 

14...Read more of this...

If it were true that a garden flower

by Emile Verhaeren
If it were true that a garden flower or a meadow tree could keep some memory of lovers of other times who admired them in their bloom or their vigour, our love in this hour of long regret would come and entrust to the rose or erect in the oak, before the approach of death, its sweetness or its strength.
Thus...Read more of this...

Music When Soft Voices Die

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
MUSIC when soft voices die  
Vibrates in the memory; 
Odours when sweet violets sicken  
Live within the sense they quicken; 

Rose leaves when the rose is dead 5 
Are heap'd for the beloved's bed: 
And so thy thoughts when thou art gone  
Love itself shall slumber on. ...Read more of this...

Wrestling Match

by Robert William Service
 What guts he had, the Dago lad
Who fought that Frenchman grim with guile;
For nigh an hour they milled like mad,
And mauled the mat in rare old style.
Then up and launched like catapults,
And tangled, twisted, clinched and clung,
Then tossed in savage somersaults,
And hacked and hammered, ducked and swung;
And groaned and grunted, sighed and cried,
Now knotted tight, now springing free;
To bend...Read more of this...

On the Road to Nowhere

by Vachel Lindsay
 On the road to nowhere 
What wild oats did you sow 
When you left your father's house 
With your cheeks aglow? 
Eyes so strained and eager 
To see what you might see? 
Were you thief or were you fool 
Or most nobly free? 

Were the tramp-days knightly, 
True sowing of wild seed? 
Did you dare to make the songs...Read more of this...

What Soft -- Cherubic Creatures

by Emily Dickinson
 What Soft -- Cherubic Creatures --
These Gentlewomen are --
One would as soon assault a Plush --
Or violate a Star --

Such Dimity Convictions --
A Horror so refined
Of freckled Human Nature --
Of Deity -- ashamed --

It's such a common -- Glory --
A Fisherman's -- Degree --
Redemption -- Brittle Lady --
Be so -- ashamed of Thee --...Read more of this...

On the Soft and Gentle Motions of Eudora

by Anne Killigrew
 DIvine Thalia strike th'Harmonious Lute, 
But with a Stroke so Gentle as may sute
 The silent gliding of the Howers,
 Or yet the calmer growth of Flowers;
 Th'ascending or the falling Dew,
 Which none can see, though all find true. 
 For thus alone,
 Can be shewn,
 How downie, how smooth,
 Eudora doth Move,
 How Silken her Actions appear,
...Read more of this...

Afternoon Poem

by Billy Jno Hope
 a lion at the door
swallowed the day
broken with spite
at the inevitable chorus of pop songs
sutured for soft light

i burdened siesta
with a thousand little earthquakes
i listened where you suffered vertigo

flowers have faded
bellies betray
caught the wistful eye
that curved beneath my eyelids

something slime
and panic strewn
we gather the remnants of democracy

silence herds mad laughter
cumulus scorn
haunted horizons running
running to weep...Read more of this...

By All Loves Soft Yet Mighty Powers

by John Wilmot
 By all love's soft, yet mighty powers,
It is a thing unfit,
That men should **** in time of flowers,
Or when the smock's beshit.

Fair nasty nymph, be clean and kind,
And all my joys restore;
By using paper still behind,
And sponges for before.

My spotless flames can ne'er decay,
If after every close,
My smoking prick escape the fray,
Without a bloody nose.

If thou would have me...Read more of this...

Sonnet XIV: Come Soft Aeolian Harp

by Mary Darby Robinson
 Come, soft Aeolian harp, while zephyr plays
Along the meek vibration of thy strings,
As twilight's hand her modest mantle brings,
Blending with sober grey, the western blaze!
O! prompt my Phaon's dreams with tend'rest lays,
Ere night o'er shade thee with its humid wings,
While the lorn Philomel his sorrow sings
In leafy cradle, red with parting rays!
Slow let thy dulcet tones on ether glide,
So...Read more of this...

A soft Sea washed around the House

by Emily Dickinson
 A soft Sea washed around the House
A Sea of Summer Air
And rose and fell the magic Planks
That sailed without a care --
For Captain was the Butterfly
For Helmsman was the Bee
And an entire universe
For the delighted crew....Read more of this...

Stanzas

by Charlotte Bronte
 WHEN fragrant gales and summer show'rs
Call'd forth the sweetly scented flow'rs;
When ripen'd sheaves of golden grain,
Strew'd their rich treasures o'er the plain;
When the full grape did nectar yield,
In tepid drops of purple hue; 
When the thick grove, and thirsty field,
Drank the soft show'r and bloom'd a-new; 
O then my joyful heart did say, 
"Sure this is Nature's Holy-day!" 

But...Read more of this...

To Little Jeanne

by Victor Hugo
 ("Vous eûtes donc hier un an.") 
 
 {September, 1870.} 


 You've lived a year, then, yesterday, sweet child, 
 Prattling thus happily! So fledglings wild, 
 New-hatched in warmer nest 'neath sheltering bough, 
 Chirp merrily to feel their feathers grow. 
 Your mouth's a rose, Jeanne! In these volumes grand 
 Whose pictures please you—while I trembling...Read more of this...

Soft Music

by Robert Herrick
 The mellow touch of music most doth wound
The soul, when it doth rather sigh, than sound....Read more of this...

The Eaglet Mourned

by Victor Hugo
 ("Encore si ce banni n'eût rien aimé sur terre.") 
 
 {V, iv., August, 1832.} 


 Too hard Napoleon's fate! if, lone, 
 No being he had loved, no single one, 
 Less dark that doom had been. 
 But with the heart of might doth ever dwell 
 The heart of love! and in his island cell 
...Read more of this...

Bills Grave

by Robert William Service
 I'm gatherin' flowers by the wayside to lay on the grave of Bill;
 I've sneaked away from the billet, 'cause Jim wouldn't understand;
'E'd call me a silly fat'ead, and larf till it made 'im ill,
 To see me 'ere in the cornfield, wiv a big bookay in me 'and.

For Jim and me we are rough uns, but Bill was...Read more of this...

Strayed Reveller The

by Matthew Arnold
 The Youth

Faster, faster,
O Circe, Goddess,
Let the wild, thronging train
The bright procession
Of eddying forms,
Sweep through my soul!
Thou standest, smiling
Down on me! thy right arm,
Lean'd up against the column there,
Props thy soft cheek;
Thy left holds, hanging loosely,
The deep cup, ivy-cinctured,
I held but now.
Is it, then, evening
So soon? I see, the night-dews,
Cluster'd in thick beads, dim
The agate brooch-stones
On thy white shoulder;
The cool...Read more of this...

Soft hearts

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Unsympathy ful and stone hearts are the place of evils, angels only stay in the hearts that are soft and sympathy ful."
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...

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