Famous Solo Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Solo poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous solo poems. These examples illustrate what a famous solo poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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...e’e,
He croon’d his gamut, one, two, three,
Then in an arioso key,
The wee Apoll
Set off wi’ allegretto glee
His giga solo.
AirTune—“Whistle owre the lave o’t.”Let me ryke up to dight that tear,
An’ go wi’ me an’ be my dear;
An’ then your every care an’ fear
May whistle owre the lave o’t.
Chorus I am a fiddler to my trade,
An’ a’ the tunes that e’er I played,
The sweetest still to wife or maid,
Was whistle owre the lave o’t.
At kirns an’ weddins we’se be there,
An...Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...he brain whirls in a fit. The brain is not evident.
I have gone to that same place without a germ or a stroke.
A little solo act--that lady with the brain that broke.
In this fashion I have become a tree.
I have become a vase you can pick up or drop at will,
inanimate at last. What unusual luck! My body
passively resisting. Part of the leftovers. Part of the kill.
Angels of flight, you soarer, you flapper, you floater,
you gull that grows out of my back in the drreams I pref...Read more of this...
by
Sexton, Anne
...who is
entreating him with his baton
while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius....Read more of this...
by
Collins, Billy
...to the application, to the reading of the roll,
To bringing thee to justice, and marshalling thy soul:
Thou art a human solo, a being cold, and lone,
Wilt have no kind companion, thou reap'st what thou hast sown.
Hast never silent hours, and minutes all too long,
And a deal of sad reflection, and wailing instead of song?
There's Sarah, and Eliza, and Emeline so fair,
And Harriet, and Susan, and she with curling hair!
Thine eyes are sadly blinded, but yet thou mayest see
Six t...Read more of this...
by
Dickinson, Emily
...of an ingénue,
This, no ballad of innocence;
This, the rhyme of a lady who
Followed ever her natural bents.
This, a solo of sapience,
This, a chantey of sophistry,
This, the sum of experiments, --
I loved them until they loved me.
Decked in garments of sable hue,
Daubed with ashes of myriad Lents,
Wearing shower bouquets of rue,
Walk I ever in penitence.
Oft I roam, as my heart repents,
Through God's acre of memory,
Marking stones, in my reverence,
"I loved th...Read more of this...
by
Parker, Dorothy
...t mongrels, wakening one by one,
Give answer all.
When evening dim
Draws round us, then the lonely caterwaul,
Tart solo, sour duet, and general squall, --
These are our hymn.
Women, with tongues
Like polar needles, ever on the jar;
Men, plugless word-spouts, whose deep fountains are
Within their lungs.
Children, with drums
Strapped round them by the fond paternal ass;
Peripatetics with a blade of grass
Between their thumbs.
Vagrants, whose arts
Have caged s...Read more of this...
by
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...are singing in perfect harmony.
So forgive me
if I lower my head now and listen
to the short bass candle as he takes a solo
while my heart
thrums under my shirt--
frog at the edge of a pond--
and my thoughts fly off to a province
made of one enormous sky
and about a million empty branches....Read more of this...
by
Collins, Billy
...l lungo studio e 'l grande amore
che m'ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.
Tu se' lo mio maestro e 'l mio autore;
tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi
lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore.
Vedi la bestia per cu' io mi volsi:
aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,
ch'ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi».
«A te convien tenere altro viaggio»,
rispuose poi che lagrimar mi vide,
«se vuo' campar d'esto loco selvaggio:
ch? questa bestia, per la qual tu gride,
non lascia altrui passar...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...tudy and the intense love
that made me search your volume serve me now.
Tu se' lo mio maestro e 'l mio autore;
tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi
lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore .
You are my master and my author, you-
the only one from whom my writing drew
the noble style for which I have been honored.
Vedi la bestia per cu' io mi volsi:
aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,
ch'ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi ».
You see the beast that made me turn aside;
help me, o fam...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...a red powder seeps through my
veins,
our little crate goes down so publicly
and without meaning it, you see, meaning a solo act,
a cremation of the love,
but instead we seem to be going down right in the middle of a Russian
street,
the flames making the sound of
the horse being beaten and beaten,
the whip is adoring its human triumph
while the flies wait, blow by blow,
straight from United Fruit, Inc....Read more of this...
by
Sexton, Anne
...ay.
So I put the mouthpiece to my lips
and blow into it with all my living breath.
We are all so foolish,
my long bebop solo begins by saying,
so damn foolish
we have become beautiful without even knowing it....Read more of this...
by
Collins, Billy
...ai ch'i' son Piccarda,
che, posta qui con questi altri beati,
beata sono in la spera pi? tarda.
Li nostri affetti, che solo infiammati
son nel piacer de lo Spirito Santo,
letizian del suo ordine formati.
E questa sorte che par gi? cotanto,
per? n'? data, perch? fuor negletti
li nostri voti, e v?ti in alcun canto».
Ond'io a lei: «Ne' mirabili aspetti
vostri risplende non so che divino
che vi trasmuta da' primi concetti:
per? non fui a rimembrar festino;
ma or m'aiuta ci? c...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...en lazos estrechos...
Pero ¿para qué es cansarse?
Como a ti, Filis, te quiero;
que en lo que mereces, éste
es solo encarecimiento.
Ser mujer, ni estar ausente,
no es de amarte impedimento;
pues sabes tú que las almas
distancia ignoran y sexo.
.....
¿Puedo yo dejar de amarte
si tan divina te advierto?
¿Hay causa sin producir?
¿Hay potencia sin objeto?
Pues siendo tú el más hermanso,
grande, soberano exceso
que ha visto en círculos t...Read more of this...
by
Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor
...guardo fui partito,
un poco me volgendo a l 'altro polo,
là onde il Carro già era sparito,
vidi presso di me un veglio solo,
degno di tanta reverenza in vista,
che più non dee a padre alcun figliuolo.
Lunga la barba e di pel bianco mista
portava, a' suoi capelli simigliante,
de' quai cadeva al petto doppia lista.
Li raggi de le quattro luci sante
fregiavan sì la sua faccia di lume,
ch'i' 'l vedea come 'l sol fosse davante.
«Chi siete voi che contro al cieco fiume
fuggita ...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...rsus;
Hinc punctim carpens, mobile stringit iter.
Haud aliter Mensis exundans Manna beatis
Deserto jacuit Stilla gelata Solo:
Stilla gelata Solo, sed Solibus hausta benignis,
Ad sua qua cecidit purior Aftra redit....Read more of this...
by
Marvell, Andrew
...avy at the dawning of the day.
There was no band a-playin' and the only dancin' there
Was Hank the Fin interpretin' his solo in the air.
We climbed the scaffold steps and stood beside the knotted rope.
We watched the hooded hangman and his eyes were dazed with dope.
The Sheriff was in evening dress; a bell began to toll,
A beastly bell that struck a knell of horror to the soul.
As if the doomed one was myself, I shuddered, waiting there.
I spoke no word, then . . . then I he...Read more of this...
by
Service, Robert William
...At intermission I find her backstage
still practicing the piece coming up next.
She calls it the "solo in high dreary."
Her bow niggles at the string like a hand
stroking skin it never wanted to touch.
Probably under her scorn she is sick
that she can't do better by it. As I am,
at the dreary in me, such as the disparity
between all the tenderness I've received
and the amount I've given, and the way
I used to shrug off the imbalance
simply as how things ...Read more of this...
by
Kinnell, Galway
...blanky blank are you?'
And the bell-bird in the ranges -- but his `silver chime' is harsh
When it's heard beside the solo of the curlew in the marsh.
Yes, I heard the shearers singing `William Riley', out of tune,
Saw 'em fighting round a shanty on a Sunday afternoon,
But the bushman isn't always `trapping brumbies in the night',
Nor is he for ever riding when `the morn is fresh and bright',
And he isn't always singing in the humpies on the run --
And the camp-fire'...Read more of this...
by
Lawson, Henry
...I am the only actor.
It is difficult for one woman
to act out a whole play.
The play is my life,
my solo act.
My running after the hands
and never catching up.
(The hands are out of sight -
that is, offstage.)
All I am doing onstage is running,
running to keep up,
but never making it.
Suddenly I stop running.
(This moves the plot along a bit.)
I give speeches, hundreds,
all prayers, all soliloquies.
I say absurd things like:
egss must not quarrel with sto...Read more of this...
by
Sexton, Anne
...ing it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou.
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he ...Read more of this...
by
Service, Robert William
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