Famous Sprig Poems by Famous Poets

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

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242. The Poet's Progress

...heart by wanton, causeless malice wrung,
His well-won ways-than life itself more dear—
By miscreants torn who ne’er one sprig must wear;
Foil’d, bleeding, tortur’d in th’ unequal strife,
The hapless Poet flounces on through life,
Till, fled each hope that once his bosom fired,
And fled each Muse that glorious once inspir’d,
Low-sunk in squalid, unprotected age,
Dead even resentment for his injur’d page,
He heeds no more the ruthless critics’ rage.
 So by some hedge the genero...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


351. Second Epistle to Robert Graham Esq. of Fintry

...blockheads’ daring into madness stung;
His well-won bays, than life itself more dear,
By miscreants torn, who ne’er one sprig must wear;
Foil’d, bleeding, tortur’d in th’ unequal strife,
The hapless Poet flounders on thro’ life:
Till, fled each hope that once his bosom fir’d,
And fled each muse that glorious once inspir’d,
Low sunk in squalid, unprotected age,
Dead even resentment for his injur’d page,
He heeds or feels no more the ruthless critic’s rage!
So, by some hedge, t...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

A Song To David

...pholding halcyon's ark 
 No longer roar and toss. 

 LVI 
While Israel sits beneath his fig, 
With coral root and amber sprig 
 The wean'd advent'rer sports; 
Where to the palm the jasmine cleaves, 
For ADORATION 'mongst the leaves 
 The gale his peace reports. 

 LVII 
Increasing days their reign exalt, 
Nor in the pink and mottled vault 
 The opposing spirits tilt; 
And, by the coasting reader spi'd, 
The silverlings and crusions glide
 For ADORATION gilt. 

 LVIII 
For ADO...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Before the Throne of Beauty XXVI

...of its sweetness. 

I was engrossed deeply in thought and my spirits were sailing the firmament when a hour, wearing a sprig of grapevine that covered part of her naked body, and a wreath of poppies about her golden hair, suddenly appeared to me. As she she realized my astonishment, she greeted me saying, "Fear me not; I am the Nymph of the Jungle." 

"How can beauty like yours be committed to live in this place? Please tell me who your are, and whence you come?" I asked. Sh...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

Camerons Heart

...him, well hid, but I saw it at last, 
And -- well, 'tis a very old story -- the story of Cameron's past: 
A ring and a sprig o' white heather, a letter or two and a curl, 
A bit of a worn silver chain, and the portrait of Cameron's girl. 

. . . . . 

It chanced in the first of the Sixties that Ally and I and McKean 
Were sinking a shaft on Mundoorin, near Fosberry's puddle-machine. 
The bucket we used was a big one, and rather a weight when 'twas full, 
Though Alister wound...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry


Directions

...the light pouring down into the woods
and breaking into the shapes and tones
of things and you will hear nothing 
but a sprig of a birdsong or leafy
falling of a cone or t through the trees,
and if this is your day you might even 
spot a hare or feel the wing-beats of geese
driving overhead toward some destination.

But it is hard to speak of these things
how the voices of light enter the body
and begin to recite their stories
how the earth holds us painfully against 
ts brea...Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy

Endymion: Book I

...ow he would say, nay,
If any said 'twas love: and yet 'twas love;
What could it be but love? How a ring-dove
Let fall a sprig of yew tree in his path;
And how he died: and then, that love doth scathe,
The gentle heart, as northern blasts do roses;
And then the ballad of his sad life closes
With sighs, and an alas!--Endymion!
Be rather in the trumpet's mouth,--anon
Among the winds at large--that all may hearken!
Although, before the crystal heavens darken,
I watch and dote upo...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot

..., taste, and sense.
Commas and points they set exactly right,
And 'twere a sin to rob them of their mite.
Yet ne'er one sprig of laurel grac'd these ribalds,
From slashing Bentley down to pidling Tibbalds.
Each wight who reads not, and but scans and spells,
Each word-catcher that lives on syllables,
Ev'n such small critics some regard may claim,
Preserv'd in Milton's or in Shakespeare's name.
Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or wor...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Lucky

...ture's nose leads him to this feast.
The buzzard's eyes are built for this: he can see the filet's raw
and he likes the sprig
of parsley in this brown and dusty place.
No abdomens to open here before he eats.
No tearing, slashing with his beak,
no offal-wading
to pick and rip the softest parts.
He does not need to threaten or screech
to keep the other buzzards from his meat.
He circles slowly down,
not a flap, not a shiver in his wide wings,
and lands before his dinner, an es...Read more of this...
by Lux, Thomas

Noah

...ah sighed remembering the green trees.

Clear along the morning stooped a bird ¡ª 10
Lit beside him with a blossomed sprig.
Earth was saved; and Noah danced a jig.

...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried

The Bistro Styx

...crème."This Camembert's
so ripe," she joked, "it's practically grown hair,"
mucking a golden glob complete with parsley sprig
onto a heel of bread.Nothing seemed to fill

her up: She swallowed, sliced into a pear,
speared each tear-shaped lavaliere
and popped the dripping mess into her pretty mouth.
Nowhere the bright tufted fields, weighted

vines and sun poured down out of the south.
"But are you happy?"Fearing, I whispered it
quickly."What?You know, Mother"--

she bit into...Read more of this...
by Dove, Rita

The Cremona Violin

...dore should chance to come, and blushes
Streamed over her. He would not care a fig,
He'd only laugh. She pushed aside a sprig
Of sharp-edged leaves and peered, then she uprose
Amid her bushes. "Sir," said she, "pray whose
Garden do you suppose you're watching? Why
Do you stand there? I really must insist
Upon your leaving. 'Tis unmannerly
To stay so long." The young man gave a twist
And turned about, and in the amethyst
Moonlight he saw her like a nymph half-risen
From the gr...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Englishman In Italy

...great flintstone,
Or in the thick dust
On the path, or straight out of the rock side,
Wherever could thrust
Some burnt sprig of bold hardy rock-flower
Its yellow face up,
For the prize were great butterflies fighting,
Some five for one cup.
So, I guessed, ere I got up this morning,
What change was in store,
By the quick rustle-down of the quail-nets
Which woke me before
I could open my shutter, made fast
With a bough and a stone,
And look through the twisted dead vine-twigs,...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Everlasting Mercy

...ad Man's Thorn, while setting wires, 
Who should come up but Billy Myers, 
A friend of mine, who used to be 
As black a sprig of hell as me, 
With whom I'd planned, to save encroachin', 
Which fields and coverts each should poach in. 
Now when he saw me set my snare, 
He tells me "Get to hell from there. 
This field is mine," he says, "by right; 
If you poach here, there'll be a fight. 
Out now," he says, "and leave your wire; 
It's mine." 
"It ain't." 
"You put." 
"You liar....Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The Sprig of Moss

...in a fright,
And he saw very near him a little stone smooth and white, 

Upon which was traced the delicate design of a Sprig of Moss
But to understand such a design he was at a loss,
Then he recollected the Sprig of Moss lying on the stone,
And with his tears he'd moistened it, but it was gone. 

But its imprint was delicately imprinted on the stone;
Then, taking the stone under his arm, he resolved to go home,
Saying, God has reserved me for some other thing,
And with joy h...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

The White Mans Burden

...led by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent...Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo

Theres something quieter than sleep

...There's something quieter than sleep
Within this inner room!
It wears a sprig upon its breast --
And will not tell its name.

Some touch it, and some kiss it --
Some chafe its idle hand --
It has a simple gravity
I do not understand!

I would not weep if I were they --
How rude in one to sob!
Might scare the quiet fairy
Back to her native wood!

While simple-hearted neighbors
Chat of the "Early dead" --
We -- prone to periphrasi...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Upon Appleton House to My Lord Fairfax

...'d
And Virtue all those Furows till'd.

Hence She with Graces more divine
Supplies beyond her Sex the Line;
And, like a sprig of Misleto,
On the Fairfacian Oak does grow;
Whence, for some universal good,
The Priest shall cut the sacred Bud;
While her glad Parents most rejoice,
And make their Destiny their Choice.

Mean time ye Fields, Springs, Bushes, Flow'rs,
Where yet She leads her studious Hours,
(Till Fate her worthily translates,
And find a Fairfax for our Thwaites)
Empl...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Weathers

...And the little brown nightingale bills his best, 
And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,' 
And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest, 
And citizens dream of the south and west, 
And so do I. 

This is the weather the shepherd shuns, 
And so do I; 
When beeches drip in browns and duns, 
And thresh and ply; 
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe, 
And meadow rivulets overflow, 
And drops on gate bars hang in a row, 
And rooks in families homeward go, 
And so do I....Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd

...e......and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, 
A sprig, with its flower, I break. 

4
In the swamp, in secluded recesses, 
A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song. 

Solitary, the thrush,
The hermit, withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements, 
Sings by himself a song. 

Song of the bleeding throat! 
Death’s outlet song of life—(for well, dear brother, I know 
If thou wast not gifted to si...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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