Get Your Premium Membership

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).

See also:

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...eep.

Then he turned round; not for the sea-gull's cry 
That wheeled above the temple in his flight, 
Not for the fresh south wind that lovingly 
Breathed on the new-born day and dying night,
But some strange hope 'twixt fear and great delight
Drew round his face, now flushed, now pale and wan,
And still constrained his eyes the sea to scan.

Now a faint light lit up the southern sky,
Not sun or moon, for all the world was gray,
But this a bright cloud seemed, that drew anigh...Read more of this...
by Morris, William



...living face 
 Which now you cannot know: 
The frozen fountain would have leap'd, 
 The buds gone on to blow, 
The warm south wind would have awaked 
 To melt the snow. 

Is she fair now as she lies? 
 Once she was fair; 
Meet queen for any kingly king, 
 With gold-dust on her hair. 
Now there are poppies in her locks, 
 White poppies she must wear; 
Must wear a veil to shroud her face 
 And the want graven there: 
Or is the hunger fed at length, 
 Cast off the care? 

We nev...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina
...It was not like your great and gracious ways! 
Do you, that have naught other to lament, 
Never, my Love, repent 
Of how, that July afternoon, 
You went,
With sudden, unintelligible phrase, 
And frighten'd eye, 
Upon your journey of so many days 
Without a single kiss, or a good-bye? 
I knew, indeed, that you were parting soon; 
And so we sate, within the ...Read more of this...
by St. Vincent Millay, Edna
...Out of childhood into manhood 
Now had grown my Hiawatha, 
Skilled in all the craft of hunters, 
Learned in all the lore of old men, 
In all youthful sports and pastimes, 
In all manly arts and labors.
Swift of foot was Hiawatha; 
He could shoot an arrow from him, 
And run forward with such fleetness, 
That the arrow fell behind him! 
Strong of arm was Hia...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...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 shining Big-Sea-Water, 
...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth



...Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 't is early morn:
Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle-horn. 

'T is the place, and all around it, as of old, the curlews call,
Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall; 

Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts,
And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...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 my heart ache with longing and it seemed to 
me that is was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion. 

I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this 
perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart....Read more of this...
by Tagore, Rabindranath
...Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn 
From his displeasure; in whose look serene, 
When angry most he seemed and most severe, 
What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone? 
So spake our father penitent; nor Eve 
Felt less remorse: they, forthwith to the place 
Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell 
Before him reverent; and both confessed 
Humbly...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...f dropping nuts is heard though all the trees are still  
And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill  
The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore  
And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more. 

And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died 25 
The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side. 
In the cold moist earth we laid her when the forests cast the leaf  
And we wept that one so lovely shoul...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...s the Flag of England? Ye have but my bergs to dare,
Ye have but my drifts to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"

The South Wind sighed: -- "From the Virgins my mid-sea course was ta'en
Over a thousand islands lost in an idle main,
Where the sea-egg flames on the coral and the long-backed breakers croon
Their endless ocean legends to the lazy, locked lagoon.

"Strayed amid lonely islets, mazed amid outer keys,
I waked the palms to laughter -- I tossed the scud in the breeze...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
..."Honor be to Mudjekeewis!" 
Cried the warriors, cried the old men, 
When he came in triumph homeward 
With the sacred Belt of Wampum, 
From the regions of the North-Wind, 
From the kingdom of Wabasso, 
From the land of the White Rabbit.
He had stolen the Belt of Wampum 
From the neck of Mishe-Mokwa, 
From the Great Bear of the mountains, 
From the terror o...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...The South wind said to the palms: 
My lovers sing me psalms; 
But are they as warm as those 
That Laylah's lover knows? 

The North wind said to the firs: 
I have my worshippers; 
But are they as keen as hers? 

The East wind said to the cedars: 
My friends are no seceders; 
But is their faith to me 
As firm as his faith must be? 

The West wind said to the yews...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister
...ould shift a point,
And do not know that you would bring,
If time were suppler in the joint,
Neither the spring nor the south wind
But the hour when you shall pass away
And leave no smoking wick behind,
For all life longs for the Last Day
And there's no man but cocks his ear
To know when Michael's trumpet cries
'That flesh and bone may disappear,
And souls as if they were but sighs,
And there be nothing but God left;
But, I aone being blessed keep
Like some old rabbit to my c...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler
...Epicurean of June; 
Wait I prithee till I come 
Within earshot of thy hum ¡ª 
All without is martyrdom. 

When the south wind in May days 20 
With a net of shining haze 
Silvers the horizon wall  
And with softness touching all  
Tints the human countenance 
With a color of romance 25 
And infusing subtle heats  
Turns the sod to violets  
Thou in sunny solitudes  
Rover of the underwoods  
The green silence dost displace 30 
With thy mellow breezy bass. 

H...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...wn her living face
Which now you cannot know:
The frozen fountain would have leaped,
The buds gone on to blow,
The warm south wind would have awaked
To melt the snow.

"Is she fair now as she lies?
Once she was fair;
Meet queen for any kingly king,
With gold-dust on her hair.
Now these are poppies in her locks,
White poppies she must wear;
Must wear a veil to shroud her face
And the want graven there:
Or is the hunger fed at length,
Cast off the care?

"We never saw her with ...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina
...t,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'

'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--
Why look...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...ous folly as of old ....
And as I gazed methought that in the way
The throng grew wilder, as the woods of June
When the South wind shakes the extinguished day.--
And a cold glare, intenser than the noon
But icy cold, obscured with [[blank]] light
The Sun as he the stars. Like the young moon
When on the sunlit limits of the night
Her white shell trembles amid crimson air
And whilst the sleeping tempest gathers might
Doth, as a herald of its coming, bear
The ghost of her dead M...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...t 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 hod thee -so !
While the boys and maidens dance
About the shambles of slaughter !

I know thee who thou art,
The inmost fiend that curlest
Thy vampire tounge about
Earth's corybantic heart,
Hell's warrior that whirlest
The darts of horror and doubt !

Thou knowest...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister
...The south-wind brings
Life, sunshine, and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire,
But over the dead he has no power,
The lost, the lost he cannot restore,
And, looking over the hills, I mourn
The darling who shall not return.

I see my empty house,
I see my trees repair their boughs,
And he, —the wondrous child,
Whose silver warble wi...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...The South-wind brings 
Life, sunshine and desire, 
And on every mount and meadow 
Breathes aromatic fire; 
But over the dead he has no power, 
The lost, the lost, he cannot restore; 
And, looking over the hills, I mourn 
The darling who shall not return. 
I see my empty house, 
I see my trees repair their boughs; 
And he, the wondrous child, 
Whose silver ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Dont forget to view our wonderful member South Wind poems.


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry