Famous Spared Poems by Famous Poets

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

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To Posterity

by Bertolt Brecht
 Indeed I live in the dark ages!
A guileless word is an absurdity. A smooth forehead betokens
A hard heart. He who laughs
Has not yet heard
The terrible tidings.

Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
And he who walks calmly across the street,
Is he not out of reach...Read more of this...

Success

by Rupert Brooke
 I think if you had loved me when I wanted;
If I'd looked up one day, and seen your eyes,
And found my wild sick blasphemous prayer granted,
And your brown face, that's full of pity and wise,
Flushed suddenly; the white godhead in new fear
Intolerably so struggling, and so shamed;
Most holy and far, if you'd come all too near,
If earth had seen...Read more of this...

Birthdays

by Robert William Service
 Let us have birthdays every day,
(I had the thought while I was shaving)
Because a birthday should be gay,
And full of grace and good behaving.
We can't have cakes and candles bright,
And presents are beyond our giving,
But let lt us cherish with delight
The birthday way of lovely living.

For I have passed three-score and ten
And I can count upon my fingers
The years...Read more of this...

Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem at the Consecration of Pulaskis Banner

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 When the dying flame of day
Through the chancel shot its ray,
Far the glimmering tapers shed
Faint light on the cowled head;
And the censer burning swung,
Where, before the altar, hung
The crimson banner, that with prayer
Had been consecrated there.
And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,
Sung low, in the dim, mysterious aisle.

"Take thy banner! May it wave
Proudly o'er the good and...Read more of this...

The Super

by Robert William Service
 When I was with a Shakespeare show
I played the part of Guildenstern,
Or Rosenkrantz - at least I know
It wasn't difficult to learn;
By Reader, do not at me scoff,
For futhermore I should explain
I was the understudy of
The understudy of the Dane.

Oh how it crabbed me just to think
They barred me from that role divine;
And how I longed to have them...Read more of this...

St. Winefreds Well

by Gerard Manley Hopkins
 ACT I. SC. I

Enter Teryth from riding, Winefred following.

T. WHAT is it, Gwen, my girl? why do you hover and haunt me? 

W. You came by Caerwys, sir? 
T. I came by Caerwys. 
W. There
Some messenger there might have met you from my uncle. 
T. Your uncle met the messenger—met me; and this the message:
Lord Beuno comes to-night. 
W....Read more of this...

Captivity

by Amy Levy
 The lion remembers the forest,
The lion in chains;
To the bird that is captive a vision
Of woodland remains.

One strains with his strength at the fetter,
In impotent rage;
One flutters in flights of a moment,
And beats at the cage.

If the lion were loosed from the fetter,
To wander again;
He would seek the wide silence and shadow
Of his jungle in vain.

He would rage in...Read more of this...

On the Ruins of a Country Inn

by Philip Freneau
 WHERE now these mingled ruins lie 
A temple once to Bacchus rose, 
Beneath whose roof, aspiring high, 
Full many a guest forgot his woes. 

No more this dome, by tempests torn, 
Affords a social safe retreat; 
But ravens here, with eye forlorn, 
And clustering bats henceforth will meet. 

The Priestess of this ruined shrine, 
Unable to survive the stroke,...Read more of this...

The Birds Bargain

by Katharine Tynan
 'O spare my cherries in the net,'
Brother Benignus prayed; 'and I 
Summer and winter, shine and wet,
Will pile the blackbirds' table high.' 

'O spare my youngling peas,' he prayed,
'That for the Abbot's table be; 
And every blackbird shall be fed;
Yea, they shall have their fill,' said he. 

His prayer, his vow, the blackbirds heard, 
And spared his shining garden-plot....Read more of this...

Shadrach OLeary

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 O’Leary was a poet—for a while: 
He sang of many ladies frail and fair, 
The rolling glory of their golden hair, 
And emperors extinguished with a smile. 
They foiled his years with many an ancient wile,
And if they limped, O’Leary didn’t care: 
He turned them loose and had them everywhere, 
Undoing saints and senates with their guile. 

But this...Read more of this...

No matter -- now -- Sweet --

by Emily Dickinson
 No matter -- now -- Sweet --
But when I'm Earl --
Won't you wish you'd spoken
To that dull Girl?

Trivial a Word -- just --
Trivial -- a Smile --
But won't you wish you'd spared one
When I'm Earl?

I shan't need it -- then --
Crests -- will do --
Eagles on my Buckles --
On my Belt -- too --

Ermine -- my familiar Gown --
Say...Read more of this...

The Grocery

by Amy Lowell
 "Hullo, Alice!"
"Hullo, Leon!"
"Say, Alice, gi' me a couple
O' them two for five cigars,
Will yer?"
"Where's your nickel?"
"My! Ain't you close!
Can't trust a feller, can yer."
"Trust you! Why
What you owe this store
Would set you up in business.
I can't think why Father 'lows it."
"Yer Father's a sight more neighbourly
Than you be. That's a fact.
Besides, he knows I got a vote."
"A vote! Oh,...Read more of this...

Modern Love IX: He Felt the Wild Beast

by George Meredith
 He felt the wild beast in him betweenwhiles 
So masterfully rude, that he would grieve 
To see the helpless delicate thing receive 
His guardianship through certain dark defiles. 
Had he not teeth to rend, and hunger too? 
But still he spared her. Once: 'Have you no fear ?' 
He said: 'twas dusk; she in his grasp; none near. 
She...Read more of this...

Jim Carew

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Born of a thoroughbred English race, 
Well proportioned and closely knit, 
Neat, slim figure and handsome face, 
Always ready and always fit, 
Hardy and wiry of limb and thew, 
That was the ne'er-do-well Jim Carew. 
One of the sons of the good old land -- 
Many a year since his like was known; 
Never a game but he took...Read more of this...

To the Belgians

by Laurence Binyon
 O race that Cæsar knew, 
That won stern Roman praise, 
What land not envies you 
The laurel of these days? 
You build your cities rich 
Around each towered hall, —
Without, the statued niche, 
Within, the pictured wall. 
Your ship-thronged wharves, your marts 
With gorgeious Venice vied, 
Peace and her famous arts 
Were yours: though tide on tide 
Of Europe's...Read more of this...

The Afflicted

by Robert William Service
 Softly every night they come
 To the picture show,
That old couple, deaf and dumb
 In the second row;
Wistful watching, hand in hand,
 Proud they understand.

Shut-ins from the world away,
 All in all to each;
Knowing utter joy as they
 Read the lips of speech . . .
Would, I wonder, I be glum
 Were I deaf and dumb?

Were I quieted away,
...Read more of this...

The Grasshopper

by Richard Lovelace
 O thou that swing'st upon the waving ear
Of some well-filled oaten beard,
Drunk ev'ry night with a delicious tear
Dropped thee from heav'n, where now th' art reared,

The joys of earth and air are thine entire,
That with thy feet and wings dost hop and fly;
And, when the poppy works, thou dost retire
To thy carved acorn-bed to lie.

Up with the day, the...Read more of this...

For Some Poems by Matthew Arnold

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 Sweeping the chords of Hellas with firm hand, 
He wakes lost echoes from song's classic shore, 
And brings their crystal cadence back once more 
To touch the clouds and sorrows of a land 
Where God's truth, cramped and fettered with a band 
Of iron creeds, he cheers with golden lore 
Of heroes and the men that long before 
Wrought...Read more of this...

Lines On Hearing That Lady Byron Was Ill

by George (Lord) Byron
 And thou wert sad—yet I was not with thee!
And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near;
Methought that joy and health alone could be
Where I was not—and pain and sorrow here.
And is it thus?—it is as I foretold,
And shall be more so; for the mind recoils
Upon itself, and the wrecked heart lies cold,
While heaviness collects the shattered spoils.
It...Read more of this...

Psalm 39 part 3

by Isaac Watts
 v.9-13 
C. M.
Sick-bed devotion.

God of my life, look gently down,
Behold the pains I feel;
But I am dumb before thy throne,
Nor dare dispute thy will.

Diseases are thy servants, Lord,
They come at thy command;
I'll not attempt a murm'ring word
Against thy chast'ning hand.

Yet I may plead with humble cries,
Remove thy sharp rebukes;
My strength consumes, my spirit dies,
Through thy repeated strokes.

Crushed as a...Read more of this...

The Old Man's Love

by Victor Hugo
 ("Dérision! que cet amour boiteux.") 
 
 {HERNANI, Act III.} 


 O mockery! that this halting love 
 That fills the heart so full of flame and transport, 
 Forgets the body while it fires the soul! 
 If but a youthful shepherd cross my path, 
 He singing on the way—I sadly musing, 
 He in his fields,...Read more of this...

Peace XVIII

by Kahlil Gibran
 The tempest calmed after bending the branches of the trees and leaning heavily upon the grain in the field. The stars appeared as broken remnants of lightning, but now silence prevailed over all, as if Nature's war had never been fought. 

At that hour a young woman entered her chamber and knelt by her bed sobbing bitterly. Her heart...Read more of this...

Wounded

by Robert William Service
 Is it not strange? A year ago to-day,
 With scarce a thought beyond the hum-drum round,
I did my decent job and earned my pay;
 Was averagely happy, I'll be bound.
Ay, in my little groove I was content,
 Seeing my life run smoothly to the end,
With prosy days in stolid labour spent,
 And jolly nights, a pipe, a glass, a...Read more of this...

Blessing The Cornfields

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Sing, O Song of Hiawatha,
Of the happy days that followed,
In the land of the Ojibways,
In the pleasant land and peaceful!
Sing the mysteries of Mondamin,
Sing the Blessing of the Cornfields!
Buried was the bloody hatchet,
Buried was the dreadful war-club,
Buried were all warlike weapons,
And the war-cry was forgotten.
There was peace among the nations;
Unmolested roved the hunters,
Built the birch canoe for sailing,
Caught the...Read more of this...

A Thanksgiving Poem

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
The sun hath shed its kindly light,
Our harvesting is gladly o'er
Our fields have felt no killing blight,
Our bins are filled with goodly store.
From pestilence, fire, flood, and sword
We have been spared by thy decree,
And now with humble hearts, O Lord,
We come to pay our thanks to thee.
We feel that had our merits been
The measure of thy gifts to us,
We erring...Read more of this...

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