Famous Sorry Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Avons Harvest

...ds 
That have so little weight in the true balance.
“Your name is Resignation for an hour,” 
He said; “and I’m a little sorry for you. 
So be resigned. I shall not praise your work, 
Or strive in any way to make you happy. 
My purpose only is to make you know
How clearly I have known that you have known 
There was a reason waited on your coming, 
And, if it’s in me to see clear enough, 
To fish the reason out of a black well 
Where you see only a dim sort of glimmer
That has ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Beowulf (Modern English)

...conceived
by the young thane, to those who lost their nerve before.
Wiglaf made a speech, the son of Weohstan,
a man sorry-hearted, looking upon the unloved:
“Alas, one could say, who wishes to speak the sooth
that our lord, who gave you those treasures,
that war-tackle, that you stand there wearing,
when he often handed out helmet and byrnie
to his hall-sitters on the ale-benches,
a ruler to his retainers, the most powerful
he could find anywhere far or near—
one ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Impossible To Tell

...short,
One day while walking along the street together

They see the corpse of a Chinese man before them,
And Bob said, sorry, he forgot the rest.
Of course he thought that his joke was a dummy,

Impossible to tell--a dead-end challenge.
But here it is, as Elliot told it to me:
The dead man's widow came to the rabbis weeping,

Begging them, if they could, to resurrect him.
Shocked, the tall rabbi said absolutely not.
But the short rabbi told her to bring the body

Into the st...Read more of this...
by Pinsky, Robert

Let It Enfold You

...i tell
him.

He must do what he
must do, he has a 
wife, a house, children.
expenses, most probably
a girlfreind.

I am sorry for him
he is caught.

I walk onto the blazing
sunshine.
the whole day is
mine
temporailiy,
anyhow.

(the whole world is at the
throat of the world,
everybody feels angry,
short-changed, cheated,
everybody is despondent,
dissillusioned)

I welcomed shots of
peace, tattered shards of
happiness.

I embraced that stuff
like the hottest number,
like high h...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

Longing

...I am not sorry for my soul
That it must go unsatisfied,
For it can live a thousand times,
Eternity is deep and wide.

I am not sorry for my soul,
But oh, my body that must go
Back to a little drift of dust
Without the joy it longed to know....Read more of this...
by Teasdale, Sara


Maple

...aughter
As well as could a mother. And again
It may have been their one lapse into fancy
'Twould be too bad to make him sorry for
By bringing it up to him when be was too old.
Your father feels us round him with our questing,
And holds us off unnecessarily,
As if he didn't know what little thing
Might lead us on to a discovery.
It was as personal as be could be
About the way he saw it was with you
To say your mother, bad she lived, would be
As far again as from being born to ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

On the Way

...or all you know,
The tree that is to fall for your last house 
Is now a sapling. You may have to wait 
So long as to be sorry; though I doubt it, 
For you are not at home in your new Eden 
Where chilly whispers of a likely frost
Accumulate already in the air. 
I think a touch of ermine, Hamilton, 
Would be for you in your autumnal mood 
A pleasant sort of warmth along the shoulders. 

HAMILTON

If so it is you think, you may as well
Give over thinking. We are done with ermine...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Snow

...I shall out in it. But the horses
Are rested and it’s time to say good-night,
And let you get to bed again. Good-night,
Sorry I had to break in on your sleep.”

“Lucky for you you did. Lucky for you
You had us for a half-way station
To stop at. If you were the kind of man
Paid heed to women, you’d take my advice
And for your family’s sake stay where you are.
But what good is my saying it over and over?
You’ve done more than you had a right to think
You could do—now. You know ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Ballad of the White Horse

...isher on the wave,
And woodman and waggoner.

"Bake ye the big world all again
A cake with kinder leaven;
Yet these are sorry evermore--
Unless there be a little door,
A little door in heaven."

And as he wept for the woman
He let her business be,
And like his royal oath and rash
The good food fell upon the ash
And blackened instantly.

Screaming, the woman caught a cake
Yet burning from the bar,
And struck him suddenly on the face,
Leaving a scarlet scar.

King Alfred stood ...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Bride of Abydos

...be the most beautiful; and if he then does not comprehend fully what is feebly expressed in the above line, I shall be sorry for us both. For an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer of this, perhaps of any age, on the analogy (and the immediate comparison excited by that analogy) between "painting and music," see vol. iii. cap. 10, "De L'Allemagne." And is not this connexion still stronger with the original than the copy? with the colouring of Natur...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Everlasting Mercy

...the Dymock wench 
Bore twins, poor things, on Dog Hill bench; 
And how he'd owned to one Court 
And how Judge made him sorry for't. 
Jack set a jew's harp twanging drily; 
"gimme another cup," said Riley. 
A dozen more were in their glories 
With laughs and smokes and smutty stories; 
And Jimmy joked and took his sup 
And sang his song of "Up, come up." 
Jane brought the bowl of stewing gin 
And poured the egg and lemon in, 
And whisked it up and served it out 
While bawdy q...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The Knights Tale

...woundes all be-bled;
Conteke* with bloody knife, and sharp menace. *contention, discord
All full of chirking* was that sorry place. *creaking, jarring noise
The slayer of himself eke saw I there,
His hearte-blood had bathed all his hair:
The nail y-driven in the shode* at night, *hair of the head 
The colde death, with mouth gaping upright.
Amiddes of the temple sat Mischance,
With discomfort and sorry countenance;
Eke saw I Woodness* laughing in his rage, *Madness
Armed...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Man Against the Sky

...tars 
Came out again to shine on joys and wars 
More primitive, and all arrayed for doom, 
He may have proved a world a sorry thing
In his imagining, 
And life a lighted highway to the tomb. 

Or, mounting with infirm unsearching tread, 
His hopes to chaos led, 
He may have stumbled up there from the past, 
And with an aching strangeness viewed the last 
Abysmal conflagration of his dreams,— 
A flame where nothing seems 
To burn but flame itself, by nothing fed; 
And while it...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

The Man of Laws Tale

...reature
Throughout the sea of Greece, unto the strait
Of Maroc*, as it was her a venture: *Morocco; Gibraltar
On many a sorry meal now may she bait,
After her death full often may she wait*, *expect
Ere that the wilde waves will her drive
Unto the place *there as* she shall arrive. *where

Men mighten aske, why she was not slain?
Eke at the feast who might her body save?
And I answer to that demand again,
Who saved Daniel in the horrible cave,
Where every wight, save he, mast...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Most Beautiful Woman In Town

...to the West End
Bar. I sat and waited for Cass. Hours went by . After I was fairly drunk the bartender
said to me, "I'm sorry about your girlfriend."
"What is it?" I asked. 
"I'm sorry, didn't you know?" 
"No." 
"Suicide. She was buried yesterday." 
"Buried?" I asked. It seemed as though she would walk through the doorway at
any moment. How could she be gone? 
"Her sisters buried her." 
"A suicide? Mind telling me how?" 
"She cut her throat." 
"I see. Give me another drink." ...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

The Road Not Taken

...Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 
And sorry I could not travel both 
And be one traveler, long I stood 
And looked down one as far as I could 
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair, 
And having perhaps the better claim 
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; 
Though as for that, the passing there 
Had worn them really about the same, 

And both th...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Vision of Judgment

...m the young cherubs and saints hoary — 
(I say young, begging to be understood 
By looks, not years; and should be very sorry 
To state, they were not older than St. Peter, 
But merely that they seem'd a little sweeter. 

XXXI 

The cherubs and the saints bow'd down before 
That arch-angelic Hierarch, the first 
Of essences angelical, who wore 
The aspect of a god; but this ne'er nursed 
Pride in his heavenly bosom, in whose core 
No thought, save for his Master's service, du...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Wife of Baths Tale

...at shall I sayn?
Aha! by God, I have my tale again.
When that my fourthe husband was on bier,
I wept algate* and made a sorry cheer,** *always **countenance
As wives must, for it is the usage;
And with my kerchief covered my visage;
But, for I was provided with a make,* *mate
I wept but little, that I undertake* *promise
To churche was mine husband borne a-morrow
With neighebours that for him made sorrow,
And Jenkin, oure clerk, was one of tho:* *those
As help me God, when th...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

Three Women

...
Regarding me with attention.
The moon's concern is more personal:
She passes and repasses, luminous as a nurse.
Is she sorry for what will happen? I do not think so.
She is simply astonished at fertility.

When I walk out, I am a great event.
I do not have to think, or even rehearse.
What happens in me will happen without attention.
The pheasant stands on the hill;
He is arranging his brown feathers.
I cannot help smiling at what it is I know.
Leaves and petals attend me. I ...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

To a Mouse

...
          Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
          Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
          Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
          An' fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
          'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

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