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Famous Stones Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...old goods
of that earthly king—likewise everything they could find
in Finn’s home, the golden brooches, the artful gemstones.
They led the lordly woman to Denmark,
carrying her back to her kin… (ll. 1151b-59a)

The song was sung, the verses of the minstrel.
Glee mounted back up, bench-voices resounding,
the pourers giving out wine from wondrous ewers.
Then Wealhtheow came forth, proceeding
under her golden adornments to where two good men
sat, nephew and uncle toge...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,



...
Of things which slay their sower, these each day
Sees rife in England, and the gentle feet
Of Beauty tread no more the stones of each unlovely street.

What even Cromwell spared is desecrated
By weed and worm, left to the stormy play
Of wind and beating snow, or renovated
By more destructful hands: Time's worst decay
Will wreathe its ruins with some loveliness,
But these new Vandals can but make a rain-proof barrenness.

Where is that Art which bade the Angels sing
Through L...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...und they covert drear.
Scarce images of life, one here, one there,
Lay vast and edgeways; like a dismal cirque
Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor,
When the chill rain begins at shut of eve,
In dull November, and their chancel vault,
The Heaven itself, is blinded throughout night.
Each one kept shroud, nor to his neighbour gave
Or word, or look, or action of despair.
Creus was one; his ponderous iron mace
Lay by him, and a shatter'd rib of rock
Told of his rage, ere he thus ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John
...
Her unpruned grapes are flung like lariats
Far up the birches out of reach of man.

A state producing precious metals, stones,
And—writing; none of these except perhaps
The precious literature in quantity
Or quality to worry the producer
About disposing of it. Do you know,
Considering the market, there are more
Poems produced than any other thing?
No wonder poets sometimes have to seem
So much more businesslike than businessmen.
Their wares are so much harder to get rid of.
...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...with me.

Or, another time, in warm weather, out in a boat, to lift the lobster-pots, where they are
 sunk
 with heavy stones, (I know the buoys;) 
O the sweetness of the Fifth-month morning upon the water, as I row, just before sunrise,
 toward the buoys; 
I pull the wicker pots up slantingly—the dark-green lobsters are desperate with their
 claws, as I take them out—I insert wooden pegs in the joints of their pincers, 
I go to all the places, one after another, and then ro...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt



...oping in the fields; 
And brown ants in the little wells beneath them; 
And mossy scabs of the worm fence, and heap’d stones, elder, mullen and
 poke-weed.

6
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; 
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he. 

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.


Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, 
A scented gift and remembrancer,...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...ards! 
You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much! 
You doors and ascending steps! you arches! 
You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trodden crossings!
From all that has been near you, I believe you have imparted to yourselves, and now would
 impart the
 same secretly to me; 
From the living and the dead I think you have peopled your impassive surfaces, and the
 spirits
 thereof would be evident and amicable with me. 

4
The earth expanding right hand...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...d's tools were red with rust,
And on his well was a green crust,
And purple thistles upward thrust,
Between the kitchen stones.

But smoke of some good feasting
Went upwards evermore,
And Eldred's doors stood wide apart
For loitering foot or labouring cart,
And Eldred's great and foolish heart
Stood open like his door.

A mighty man was Eldred,
A bulk for casks to fill,
His face a dreaming furnace,
His body a walking hill.

In the old wars of Wessex
His sword had sunken deep,...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K
...Turkish pipe, of which the amber mouth-piece, and sometimes the ball which contains the leaf, is adorned with precious stones, if in possession of the wealthier orders. 

(11) "Maugrabee," Moorish mercenaries. 

(12) "Delis," bravoes who form the forlorn-hope of the cavalry, and always begin the action. 

(13) A twisted fold of felt is used for scimitar practice by the Turks, and few but Mussulman arms can cut through it at a single stroke: sometimes a tough turban is used f...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...flower-like shoe that gems the sod. 

The swarms that hum about her collar-bones 
As the lascivious streams caress the stones, 
Conceal from every scornful jest that flies, 
Her gloomy beauty; and her fathomless eyes 

Are made of shade and void; with flowery sprays 
Her skull is wreathed artistically, and sways, 
Feeble and weak, on her frail vertebrae. 
O charm of nothing decked in folly! they 

Who laugh and name you a Caricature, 
They see not, they whom flesh and blood ...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...nothing worth. 

21
O flesh and blood, comrade to tragic pain
And clownish merriment whose sense could wake
Sermons in stones, and count death but an ache,
All things as vanity, yet nothing vain:
The world, set in thy heart, thy passionate strain
Reveal'd anew; but thou for man didst make
Nature twice natural, only to shake
Her kingdom with the creatures of thy brain. 
Lo, Shakespeare, since thy time nature is loth
To yield to art her fair supremacy;
In conquering one thou h...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...und a people there among their crags, 
Our race and blood, a remnant that were left 
Paynim amid their circles, and the stones 
They pitch up straight to heaven: and their wise men 
Were strong in that old magic which can trace 
The wandering of the stars, and scoffed at him 
And this high Quest as at a simple thing: 
Told him he followed--almost Arthur's words-- 
A mocking fire: "what other fire than he, 
Whereby the blood beats, and the blossom blows, 
And the sea rolls, an...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...er it shone for black.
A wreath of gold *arm-great*, of huge weight, *thick as a man's arm*
Upon his head sate, full of stones bright,
Of fine rubies and clear diamants.
About his car there wente white alauns*, *greyhounds 
Twenty and more, as great as any steer,
To hunt the lion or the wilde bear,
And follow'd him, with muzzle fast y-bound,
Collars of gold, and torettes* filed round. *rings
An hundred lordes had he in his rout* *retinue
Armed full well, with heartes ster...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...air!
     I will not lend that savage groom,
     To break his fall, one downy plume!
     No!—deep amid disjointed stones,
     The wolves shall batten on his bones,
     And then shall his detested plaid,
     By bush and brier in mid-air stayed,
     Wave forth a banner fail and free,
     Meet signal for their revelry.'
     XXIV

     'Hush thee, poor maiden, and be still!'
     'O! thou look'st kindly, and I will.
     Mine eye has dried and wasted been,
...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...is folly he would become wise
Folly is the cloke of knavery.

Shame is Prides cloke. 


PLATE 8

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of
Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God. 

Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.

The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the
stormy sea, and the des...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...s, not the gods, 
Though them indeed his daily face adored: 
And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives 
Squander'd, as stones to exercise a sling, 
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice —
Oh madness of mankind! address'd, adored!' 

Gebir, p. 28. 

I omit noticing some edifying Ithyphallics of Savagius, wishing to keep the proper veil over them, if his grave but somewhat indiscreet worshipper will suffer it; but certainly these teachers of 'great moral lessons' are apt to be...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...
Mother Cybele yokes to the pole of her chariot the lions,
And through the wide-open door comes as a citizen in.
Sacred stones! 'Tis from ye that proceed humanity's founders,
Morals and arts ye sent forth, e'en to the ocean's far isles.
'Twas at these friendly gates that the law was spoken by sages;
In their Penates' defence, heroes rushed out to the fray.
On the high walls appeared the mothers, embracing their infants,
Looking after the march, till the distance 'twas lost.
T...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von
...sun shines on England, it atones 
For low-hung leaden skies, and rain and dim 
Moist fogs that paint the verdure on her stones 
And fill her gentle rivers to the brim. 
When the sun shines on England, shafts of light 
Fall on far towers and hills and dark old trees, 
And hedge-bound meadows of a green as bright— 
As bright as is the blue of tropic seas. 
When the sun shines, it is as if the face 
Of some proud man relaxed his haughty stare, 
And smiled upon us with a sudden g...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer
...re is a chain, you know,
and if your chain
is gold
so much the worse
for you.


Feathers, shells
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.


This could be our revolution:
to love what is plentiful
as much as
what's scarce. ...Read more of this...
by Walker, Alice
...
I'm trading product that is very rare -
I sell your tenderness and loving light.



Song about Song

So many stones have been thrown at me
That I don't fear them any longer
Like elegant tower the westerner stands free
Among tall towers, the taller.
I'm grateful to their builders -- so be gone
Their sadness and their worry, go away,
Early from here I can see the dawn
And here triumphant lives the sun's last ray.
And frequently into my room's window
The wind...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry