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Famous Stayed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Davidson, John
...he uneasy stir.
The blood-stained flame that filled the dome,
Scentless and silent, shrouded her.

How long she stayed I cannot tell;
But when she felt his perfidy,
She marched across the floor of hell;
And all the damned stood up to see.

The devil stopped her at the brink:
She shook him off; she cried, 'Away!'
'My dear, you have gone mad, I think.'
'I was betrayed: I will not stay.'

Across the weltering deep she ran;
A stranger thing was never seen:
The...Read more of this...



by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...us
Where now and then we paddled for the mail 
And incidental small commodities 
That perfect exile might require, and stayed 
The night after the voyage with an antique 
Survival of a broader world than ours
Whom Asher called The Admiral. This time, 
A little out of sorts and out of tune 
With paddling, I let Asher go alone, 
Sure that his heart was happy. Then it was 
That hell came. I sat gazing over there
Across the water, watching the sun’s last fire 
Above ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...tless damsel, flying the mad pursuit
Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood
That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.
The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;
Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil,
And through the porch and inlet of each s...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ps of servants many baskets bear. 
 Then were, in mystery, preparations made, 
 And they departed—for till night none stayed. 
 But 'twixt the branches gazers could descry 
 The blackened hall lit up most brilliantly. 
 None dared approach—and this the reason why. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CUSTOM OF LUSACE. 
 
 When died a noble Marquis of Lusace 
 'Twas custom for the heir who filled his place 
 Before assuming princely pomp and power 
 To sup one night in Corbus' olden ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...
Of careless lions holding festival!
And stood amazed at such hardihood,
And pitched his tent upon the reedy shore,
And stayed two days to wonder, and then crept at midnight o'er

Some unfrequented height, and coming down
The autumn forests treacherously slew
What Sparta held most dear and was the crown
Of far Eurotas, and passed on, nor knew
How God had staked an evil net for him
In the small bay at Salamis, - and yet, the page grows dim,

Its cadenced Greek delights me not,...Read more of this...



by Alighieri, Dante
...y words are weak. 
 Thy wisdom further than the things I speak 
 Can search the event that would be." 
 Here I
 stayed 
 My steps amid the darkness, and the Shade 
 That led me heard and turned, magnanimous, 
 And saw me drained of purpose halting thus, 
 And answered, "If thy coward-born thoughts be clear, 
 And all thy once intent, infirmed of fear, 
 Broken, then art thou as scared beasts that shy 
 From shadows, surely that they know not why 
 Nor wherefore. ....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 
As many miles aloft. That fury stayed-- 
Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, 
Nor good dry land--nigh foundered, on he fares, 
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail. 
As when a gryphon through the wilderness 
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, 
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 
Had from his wakeful custody pu...Read more of this...

by Ashbery, John
...odel
In the silence of the studio as he considers
Lifting the pencil to the self-portrait.
How many people came and stayed a certain time,
Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you
Like light behind windblown fog and sand,
Filtered and influenced by it, until no part
Remains that is surely you. Those voices in the dusk
Have told you all and still the tale goes on
In the form of memories deposited in irregular
Clumps of crystals. Whose curved hand contro...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...e didn’t leave you
Much say in the matter, and I’m just as glad
We’re not in for a night of him. No sleep
If he had stayed. The least thing set him going.
It’s quiet as an empty church without him.”

“But how much better off are we as it is?
We’ll have to sit here till we know he’s safe.”

“Yes, I suppose you’ll want to, but I shouldn’t.
He knows what he can do, or he wouldn’t try.
Get into bed I say, and get some rest.
He won’t come back, and ...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...afely cover 
The dull red brands with ashes over, 
And while, with care, our mother laid 
The work aside, her steps she stayed 
One moment, seeking to express 
Her grateful sense of happiness 
For food and shelter, warmth and health, 
And love's contentment more than wealth, 
With simple wishes (not the weak, 
Vain prayers which no fulfilment seek, 
But such as warm the generous heart, 
O'er-prompt to do with Heaven its part) 
That none might lack, that bitter night, 
For bre...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...nd knocks 
I stopped: I couldn't fight nor box. 
Bill missed his swing, the light was tricky, 
But I went down, and stayed down, dicky. 
"Get up," cried Jim. I said, "I will." 
Then all the gang yelled, "Out him, bill. 
Out him." Bill rushed . . . and Clink, Clink, Clink. 
Time! And Jim's knee, and rum to drink. 
And round the ring there ran a titter: 
"Saved by the call, the bloody quitter." 

They drove (a dodge that never fai...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...f round our lady's chamber
A balcony none of the hardest to clamber;
And that Jacynth the tire-woman, ready in waiting,
Stayed in call outside, what need of relating?
And since Jacynth was like a June rose, why, a fervent
Adorer of Jacynth of course was your servant;
And if she had the habit to peep through the casement,
How could I keep at any vast distance?
And so, as I say, on the lady's persistence,
The Duke, dumb-stricken with amazement,
Stood for a while in a sultry smo...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...den of old;
     For ere that steep ascent was won,
     High in his pathway hung the sun,
     And many a gallant, stayed perforce,
     Was fain to breathe his faltering horse,
     And of the trackers of the deer
     Scarce half the lessening pack was near;
     So shrewdly on the mountain-side
     Had the bold burst their mettle tried.
     V.

     The noble stag was pausing now
     Upon the mountain's southern brow,
     Where broad extended, far beneat...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...tion born of weak denials,
A crazed abhorrence of an old condition, 
A blind attendance on a brief ambition,— 
Whatever stayed him or derided him, 
His way was even as ours; 
And we, with all our wounds and all our powers,
Must each await alone at his own height 
Another darkness or another light; 
And there, of our poor self dominion reft, 
If inference and reason shun 
Hell, Heaven, and Oblivion,
May thwarted will (perforce precarious, 
But for our conservation better thus)...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...love. In the morning Cass was up making breakfast. She seemed quite calm and
happy. She was singing. I stayed in bed and enjoyed her happiness. Finally she came over
and shook me, 
"Up, bastard! Throw some cold water on your face and pecker and come enjoy the
feast!" 
I drove her to the beach that day. It was a weekday and not yet summer so things were
splendidly deserted. Beach bums in rags slept on the lawns above the sand. Others sat on
sto...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ed 
And wrung it. 'Doubt my word again!' he said. 
'Come, listen! here is proof that you were missed: 
We seven stayed at Christmas up to read; 
And there we took one tutor as to read: 
The hard-grained Muses of the cube and square 
Were out of season: never man, I think, 
So mouldered in a sinecure as he: 
For while our cloisters echoed frosty feet, 
And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, 
We did but talk you over, pledge you all 
In wassail; often, like a...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...ere stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore. 
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; 
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door, 40 
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door: 
Perched, and sat, and nothing more. 

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling 
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,¡ª 
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said,...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...we followed with hand-in-hand innocence,

Returning at sunset, our hands full of violets.



3

The garden at Oakes stayed barren, thc bare soil cumbered with builder’s waste,

Resisting our listless endeavours. The jobbing gardener stirred Paraquat,

Muttering under his breath as he sheltered in the garage from the sudden rain.

He left the seeding to another day, left it too late to sow, grumbled

As he turfed it the day after our move with Brenda alone,

Scrubb...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...h the stamp of race.
A singular vision in such a place.

He moved the candle to the tall
Chiffonier; the Shadow stayed on the wall.
He threw his cloak upon a chair,
And still the lady's face was there.
From every corner of the room
He saw, in the patch of light, the gloom
That was the lady. Her violet bloom
Was almost brighter than that which came
From his candle's tulip-flame.
He set the filigree hands; he laid
The watch in the case which he had made;...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...Johnnie and his friends; 
They took me to the country
For long week-ends;
I never was so happy,
I never had such fun,
I stayed many weeks in England
Instead of just one.

VIII 
John had one of those English faces 
That always were and will always be 
Found in the cream of English places 
Till England herself sink into the sea— 
A blond, bowed face with prominent eyes 
A little bit bluer than English skies. 
You see it in ruffs and suits of armour, 
You see it in wigs ...Read more of this...

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