Famous Sole Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Letter From Li Po

...letter crammed and creviced, crannied full,
storied and stored as the ripe honeycomb
with other faith than this. As of sole pride
and holy loneliness, the intrinsic face
worn by the always changing shape between
end and beginning, birth and death.
How moves that line of daring on the map?
Where was it yesterday, or where this morning
when thunder struck at seven, and in the bay
the meteor made its dive, and shed its wings,
and with them one more Icarus? Where struck
that lig...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad


All Souls Night

...p I could not tell
Whether of her or God he thought the most,
But think that his mind's eye,
When upward turned, on one sole image fell;
And that a slight companionable ghost,
Wild with divinity,
Had so lit up the whole
Immense miraculous house
The Bible promised us,
It seemed a gold-fish swimming in a bowl.

On Florence Emery I call the next,
Who finding the first wrinkles on a face
Admired and beautiful,
And knowing that the future would be vexed
With 'minished beauty, mult...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

Amores (II)

...there is a 
moon sole 
in the blue 
night 

             amorous of waters 
tremulous, 
blinded with silence the 
undulous heaven yearns where 

in tense starlessness 
anoint with ardor 
the yellow lover 

stands in the dumb dark 
svelte 
and 
urgent 

           (again 
love i slowly 
gather 
of thy languorous mouth the 

thrilling 
flower)...Read more of this...
by Cummings, Edward Estlin (E E)

Beowulf (Modern English)

...he remembered the extent of his power,
a sparkling gift, which God had given him,
and he trusted in the grace of the Sole Wielder,
his comfort and assistance. Through these he conquered
the fiend, humbled the hell-ghast. Abjected,
he then fled, deprived of joys, seeking his death-bed,
the enemy of mankind. And still his mother,
greedy and gloomy, wished to go forth
on a sorrowful journey, to avenge her son’s death. (ll. 1258b-78)

Then she came to Heorot, where the...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...less these loaded the lordly gifts,
thanes’ huge treasure, than those had done
who in former time forth had sent him
sole on the seas, a suckling child.
High o’er his head they hoist the standard,
a gold-wove banner; let billows take him,
gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,
mournful their mood. No man is able
to say in sooth, no son of the halls,
no hero ’neath heaven, -- who harbored that freight!



I

Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Essay on Man

...y himself abus'd, or disabus'd; 
Created half to rise, and half to fall; 
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; 
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd: 
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!



ENDNOTES: 

1[His friend, Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke] 
2[to wander] 
3[hidden areas] 
4[explain or defend] 
5[silvery fields, i.e., the heavens] 
6[the planet Jupiter] 
7[ancient Egyptians sometimes worshipped oxen] 
8[the highest level of angels] 
9[pleasure] 
...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Eviradnus

...o perch upon the swivel-gun, nor heed 
 Its murmuring growl when pecking in their greed 
 The mulberries ripe. With insolence the thorn 
 Thrives on the desolation so forlorn. 
 But winter brings revenges; then the Keep 
 Wakes all vindictive from its seeming sleep, 
 Hurls down the heavy rain, night after night, 
 Thanking the season's all-resistless might; 
 And, when the gutters choke, its gargoyles four 
 From granite mouths in anger spit and pour 
 Upon the hat...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Friendship

...I think awhile of Love, and while I think, 
Love is to me a world, 
Sole meat and sweetest drink, 
And close connecting link 
Tween heaven and earth. 
I only know it is, not how or why, 
My greatest happiness; 
However hard I try, 
Not if I were to die, 
Can I explain. 

I fain would ask my friend how it can be, 
But when the time arrives, 
Then Love is more lovely 
Than anything to me, 
And so I'm dumb. 

For if the truth w...Read more of this...
by Thoreau, Henry David

Frost at Midnight

...
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it dim sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,
Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
And makes a toy of Thought.

But O! how oft,
How oft, at school, with most believing mind,
...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Ode to a Nightingale

...f perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. 70 

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell 
To toll me back from thee to my sole self! 
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well 
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf. 
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades 75 
Past the near meadows, over the still stream, 
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep 
In the next valley-glades: 
Was it a vision, or a waking dream? 
Fled is that music:¡ªdo I wake or sleep? 80 ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...itable curb, reserved 
His captive multitude. For he, to be sure, 
In height or depth, still first and last will reign 
Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 
By our revolt, but over Hell extend 
His empire, and with iron sceptre rule 
Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven. 
What sit we then projecting peace and war? 
War hath determined us and foiled with loss 
Irreparable; terms of peace yet none 
Vouchsafed or sought; for what peace will be given 
To us enslaved...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...dian tower: 
Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began. 
O thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned, 
Lookest from thy sole dominion like the God 
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars 
Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call, 
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, 
Of Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams, 
That bring to my remembrance from what state 
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere; 
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down 
Warring in...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...extracting liquid sweet. 
Such whispering waked her, but with startled eye 
On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake. 
O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose, 
My glory, my perfection! glad I see 
Thy face, and morn returned; for I this night 
(Such night till this I never passed) have dreamed, 
If dreamed, not, as I oft am wont, of thee, 
Works of day past, or morrow's next design, 
But of offence and trouble, which my mind 
Knew never till this irksome night: Methought, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...soon 
Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe; 
In woe then; that destruction wide may range: 
To me shall be the glory sole among 
The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred 
What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days 
Continued making; and who knows how long 
Before had been contriving? though perhaps 
Not longer than since I, in one night, freed 
From servitude inglorious well nigh half 
The angelick name, and thinner left the throng 
Of his adorers: He, to be aveng...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...dise descend; 
There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth 
Dominion exercise and in the air, 
Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared; 
Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill. 
My substitutes I send ye, and create 
Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might 
Issuing from me: on your joint vigour now 
My hold of this new kingdom all depends, 
Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit. 
If your joint power prevail, the affairs of Hell 
No detriment need fea...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Samson Agonistes

...amends,
The breath of Heav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet, 
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
This day a solemn Feast the people hold
To Dagon thir Sea-Idol, and forbid
Laborious works, unwillingly this rest
Thir Superstition yields me; hence with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek
This unfrequented place to find some ease,
Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm
Of Hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Bride of Abydos

...d Night's descending shadows hide 
That field with blood bedew'd in vain, 
The desert of old Priam's pride; 
The tombs, sole relics of his reign, 
All — save immortal dreams that could beguile 
The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle! 

III. 

Oh! yet — for there my steps have been! 
These feet have press'd the sacred shore, 
These limbs that buoyant wave hath borne — 
Minstrel! with thee to muse, to mourn, 
To trace again those fields of yore, 
Believing every hillock green 
...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Dungeon

...no one now  Dwells in the hall of Ivor;  Men, dogs, and horses, all are dead;  He is the sole survivor.   His hunting feats have him bereft  Of his right eye, as you may see:  And then, what limbs those feats have left  To poor old Simon Lee!  He has no son, he has no child,  His wife, an aged woman,  Lives with him, near the waterfall,  Upon the village commo...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Seasons: Winter

..., and sad; with all his rising Train,
Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms: Be these my Theme,
These, that exalt the Soul to solemn Thought,
And heavenly musing. Welcome kindred Glooms! 
Wish'd, wint'ry, Horrors, hail! -- With frequent Foot,
Pleas'd, have I, in my cheerful Morn of Life,
When, nurs'd by careless Solitude, I liv'd,
And sung of Nature with unceasing Joy,
Pleas'd, have I wander'd thro' your rough Domains; 
Trod the pure, virgin, Snows, my self as pure:
Heard the Winds...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Vision of Judgment

...rnal revel: 
Though he himself had sharpen'd every sword, 
It almost quench'd his innate thirst of evil. 
(Here Satan's sole good work deserves insertion — 
'Tis, that he has both generals in reveration.) 

VII

Let's skip a few short years of hollow peace, 
Which peopled earth no better, hell as wont, 
And heaven none — they form the tyrant's lease, 
With nothing but new names subscribed upon't; 
'Twill one day finish: meantime they increase, 
'With seven heads and ten horns...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

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