Famous South Wind Poems by Famous Poets

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

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To His Two Children

by Li Po
 In the land of Wu the mulberry leaves are green,
And thrice the silkworms have gone to sleep.
In East Luh where my family stay,
I wonder who is sowing those fields of ours.
I cannot be back in time for the spring doings,
Yet I can help nothing, traveling on the river.
The south wind blowing wafts my homesick spirit
And carries it up to...Read more of this...

The Best Thing In The World

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 What's the best thing in the world? 
June-rose, by May-dew impearled; 
Sweet south-wind, that means no rain; 
Truth, not cruel to a friend; 
Pleasure, not in haste to end; 
Beauty, not self-decked and curled 
Till its pride is over-plain; 
Light, that never makes you wink; 
Memory, that gives no pain; 
Love, when, so, you're loved again. 
What's the best...Read more of this...

Thus may Cyprus (SIC TE DIVA)

by Horace
Thus may Cyprus' heavenly queen,
     Thus Helen's brethren, stars of brightest sheen,
       Guide thee! May the Sire of wind
     Each truant gale, save only Zephyr, bind!
       So do thou, fair ship, that ow'st
     Virgil, thy precious...Read more of this...

The Hour Before Dawn

by William Butler Yeats
 A cursing rogue with a merry face,
A bundle of rags upon a crutch,
Stumbled upon that windy place
Called Cruachan, and it was as much
As the one sturdy leg could do
To keep him upright while he cursed.
He had counted, where long years ago
Queen Maeve's nine Maines had been nursed,
A pair of lapwings, one old sheep,
And not a house to the plain's...Read more of this...

Bride Song

by Christina Rossetti
 From 'The Prince's Progress' 

TOO late for love, too late for joy, 
 Too late, too late! 
You loiter'd on the road too long, 
 You trifled at the gate: 
The enchanted dove upon her branch 
 Died without a mate; 
The enchanted princess in her tower 
 Slept, died, behind the grate; 
Her heart was starving all this...Read more of this...

The Princes Progress (excerpt)

by Christina Rossetti
 "Too late for love, too late for joy,
Too late, too late!
You loitered on the road too long,
You trifled at the gate:
The enchanted dove upon her branch
Died without a mate.
The enchanted princess in her tower
Slept, died, behind the grate;
Her heart was starving all this while
You made it wait.

"Ten years ago, five years ago,
One year ago,
Even then you had arrived in...Read more of this...

Calvin Campbell

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Ye who are kicking against Fate,
Tell me how it is that on this hill-side,
Running down to the river,
Which fronts the sun and the south-wind,
This plant draws from the air and soil
Poison and becomes poison ivy?
And this plant draws from the same air and soil
Sweet elixirs and colors and becomes arbutus?
And both flourish?
You may blame Spoon River for what it...Read more of this...

Hora Stellatrix

by Amy Lowell
 The stars hang thick in the apple tree,
The south wind smells of the pungent sea,
Gold tulip cups are heavy with dew.
The night's for you, Sweetheart, for you!
Starfire rains from the vaulted blue.
Listen! The dancing of unseen leaves.
A drowsy swallow stirs in the eaves.
Only a maiden is sorrowing.
'T is night and spring, Sweetheart, and spring!
Starfire lights your heart's blossoming.
In the...Read more of this...

My Psalm

by John Greenleaf Whittier
I mourn no more my vanished years
    Beneath a tender rain,
    An April rain of smiles and tears,
    My heart is young again.

    The west-winds blow, and, singing low,
    I hear the glad streams run;
    The windows of my soul I throw
...Read more of this...

Lovers Gifts LII: Tired of Waiting

by Rabindranath Tagore
 Tired of waiting, you burst your bonds, impatient flowers, before
the winter had gone. Glimpses of the unseen comer reached your
wayside watch, and you rushed out running and panting, impulsive
jasmines, troops of riotous roses.
You were the first to march to the breach of death, your
clamour of colour and perfume troubled the air. You laughed and
pressed and pushed each other, bared...Read more of this...

A South Wind -- has a pathos

by Emily Dickinson
 A South Wind -- has a pathos
Of individual Voice --
As One detect on Landings
An Emigrant's address.

A Hint of Ports and Peoples --
And much not understood --
The fairer -- for the farness --
And for the foreignhood....Read more of this...

The South Wind Say So

by Carl Sandburg
 IF the oriole calls like last year
when the south wind sings in the oats,
if the leaves climb and climb on a bean pole
saying over a song learnt from the south wind,
if the crickets send up the same old lessons
found when the south wind keeps on coming,
we will get by, we will keep on coming,
we will get by, we will...Read more of this...

The Spirit of Poetry

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 There is a quiet spirit in these woods,
That dwells where'er the gentle south-wind blows;
Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade,
The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air,
The leaves above their sunny palms outspread.
With what a tender and impassioned voice
It fills the nice and delicate ear of thought,
When the fast ushering star of morning comes
O'er-riding the gray hills with...Read more of this...

Lament for Boromir

by J R R Tolkien
 Through Rohan over fen and field where the long grass grows,
The West Wind comes walking, and about the walls it goes.
'What news from the West, O wandering wind, do you bring to me tonight?
Have you seen Boromir the Tall by moon or by starlight?'
'I saw him ride over seven streams, over waters wide and grey.
I saw him walk in...Read more of this...

The Twins

by Aleister Crowley
 [Dedicated to Austin Osman Spare]


Have pity ! show no pity !
Those eyes that send such shivers
Into my brain and spine : oh let them
Flame like the ancient city
Swallowed up by the sulphurous rivers
When men let angels fret them !

Yea ! let the south wind blow,
And the Turkish banner advance,
And the word go out : No quarter !
But I shall...Read more of this...

The Lotus

by Rabindranath Tagore
 On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, 
and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded. 

Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my 
dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind. 

That vague sweetness made...Read more of this...

Lost

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 You left me with the autumn time; 
When the winter stripped the forest bare, 
Then dressed it in his spotless rime; 
When frosts were lurking in the air
You left me here and went away.
The winds were cold; you could not stay.

You sought a warmer clime, until
The south wind, artful maid, should break
The winter's trumpets, and should fill
The air with...Read more of this...

Hiawathas Fasting

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 You shall hear how Hiawatha 
Prayed and fasted in the forest, 
Not for greater skill in hunting, 
Not for greater craft in fishing, 
Not for triumphs in the battle, 
And renown among the warriors, 
But for profit of the people, 
For advantage of the nations.
First he built a lodge for fasting, 
Built a wigwam in the forest, 
By the...Read more of this...

The Evening Star

by Walter Savage Landor
 Smiles soon abate; the boisterous throes 
Of anger long burst forth; 
Inconstantly the south-wind blows, 
But steadily the north. 

Thy star, O Venus! often changes 
Its radiant seat above, 
The chilling pole-star never ranges -- 
'Tis thus with Hate and Love....Read more of this...

The Day Is A Poem (September 19 1939)

by Robinson Jeffers
 This morning Hitler spoke in Danzig, we hear his voice.
A man of genius: that is, of amazing
Ability, courage, devotion, cored on a sick child's soul,
Heard clearly through the dog wrath, a sick child
Wailing in Danzig; invoking destruction and wailing at it.
Here, the day was extremely hot; about noon
A south wind like a blast from hell's mouth spilled a slight...Read more of this...

The English Flag

by Rudyard Kipling
 Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack,
remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately
when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts,
and seemed to see significance in the incident. -- DAILY PAPERS.


Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro --
And what should they know of England who only England know?...Read more of this...

Sonnet IV

by Alan Seeger
 Up at his attic sill the South wind came 
And days of sun and storm but never peace. 
Along the town's tumultuous arteries 
He heard the heart-throbs of a sentient frame: 
Each night the whistles in the bay, the same 
Whirl of incessant wheels and clanging cars: 
For smoke that half obscured, the circling stars 
Burnt like his youth...Read more of this...

South Wind

by Siegfried Sassoon
 Where have you been, South Wind, this May-day morning,— 
With larks aloft, or skimming with the swallow, 
Or with blackbirds in a green, sun-glinted thicket? 

Oh, I heard you like a tyrant in the valley; 
Your ruffian haste shook the young, blossoming orchards;
You clapped rude hands, hallooing round the chimney, 
And white your pennons streamed along the river. 

You...Read more of this...

Low Barometer

by Robert Seymour Bridges
 The south-wind strengthens to a gale,
Across the moon the clouds fly fast,
The house is smitten as with a flail,
The chimney shudders to the blast.

On such a night, when Air has loosed
Its guardian grasp on blood and brain,
Old terrors then of god or ghost
Creep from their caves to life again;

And Reason kens he herits in
A haunted house. Tenants unknown
Assert their...Read more of this...

Lilacs

by Amy Lowell
Lilacs,
False blue,
White,
Purple,
Color of lilac,
Your great puffs of flowers
Are everywhere in this my New England.
Among your heart-shaped leaves
Orange orioles hop like music-box birds and sing
Their little weak soft songs;
In the crooks of your branches
The bright eyes of song sparrows sitting on spotted eggs
Peer restlessly through the light and shadow
Of all Springs.
Lilacs in dooryards
Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;
Lilacs watching a...Read more of this...

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