Famous Storied Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Letter From Li Po

...e self's circle so embraced:
too near, too dear, for pure assessment: no,
a letter crammed and creviced, crannied full,
storied and stored as the ripe honeycomb
with other faith than this. As of sole pride
and holy loneliness, the intrinsic face
worn by the always changing shape between
end and beginning, birth and death.
How moves that line of daring on the map?
Where was it yesterday, or where this morning
when thunder struck at seven, and in the bay
the meteor made its div...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad


A Little Litany

...e earth.

Or shutting out his shining skies awhile
Built you about him for a house of gold
To see in pictured walls his storied world
Return upon him as a tale is told.

Or found his mirror there; the only glass
That would not break with that unbearable light
Till in a corner of the high dark house
God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.

Star of his morning; that unfallen star
In that strange starry overturn of space
When earth and sky changed places for an hour
And ...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

A poem on divine revelation

...live unsullied when each strain shall die: 
Shall undefac'd remain when sculptur'd stone, 
And monument, and bust, and storied urn 
Perpetuates its sage and king no more. 


The pow'r of torture and reproach was vain, 
But what not torture or reproach could do, 
Dark superstition did in part effect. 
That superstition, which saint John beheld, 
Rise in thick darkness from th' infernal lake. 
Locust and scorpion in the smoke ascend, 
False teacher, heretic, and Antichrist. 
T...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

Beowulf (Modern English)

...ll. 2752-66)

Likewise he saw hanging over the hoard,
a high standard all-golden, greatest of handiwork,
woven with storied skill, and from it
poured illumination so that he could perceive
the barrow floor, look across the jewelry.
There was no longer any sign of the dragon there,
seized by the sword-edge. Then as I have heard
he plundered the hoard in the tomb, all alone,
the old work of giants, the cups and dishes
loading up his bosom at his own discretion.
The ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bride of Abydos The

...ling-place how narrow? 
Without — can only strangers breathe 
The name of him that was beneath: 
Dust long outlasts the storied stone; 
But Thou — thy very dust is gone! 

V. 

Late, late to-night will Dian cheer 
The swain, and chase the boatman's fear; 
Till then — no beacon on the cliff 
May shape the course of struggling skiff; 
The scatter'd lights that skirt the bay, 
All, one by one, have died away; 
The only lamp of this lone hour 
Is glimmering in Zuleika's tower. 
Y...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)


Cleon

...amen haul their net. 
The image of the sun-god on the phare, 
Men turn from the sun's self to see, is mine; 
The P?o'er-storied its whole length, 
As thou didst hear, with painting, is mine too. 
I know the true proportions of a man 
And woman also, not observed before; 
And I have written three books on the soul, 
Proving absurd all written hitherto, 
And putting us to ignorance again. 
For music,--why, I have combined the moods, 
Inventing one. In brief, all arts are mine; ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Comus

...'T is not vain or fabulous
(Though so esteemed by shallow igrlorance)
What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,
Storied of old in high immortal verse
Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles,
And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell;
For such there be, but unbelief is blind.
 Within the navel of this hideous wood,
Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,
Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries,
And here to every thi...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Dionysus

...I bring ye wine from above,
From the vats of the storied sun;
For every one of yer love,
And life for every one.
Ye shall dance on hill and level;
Ye shall sing in hollow and height
In the festal mystical revel,
The rapurous Bacchanal rite!
The rocks and trees are yours,
And the waters under the hill,
By the might of that which endures,
The holy heaven of will!
I kindle a flame like a torrent
To rush from ...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister

Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

...ophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle, and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn, or animated bust,
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre;

But Knowledge to th...Read more of this...
by Gray, Thomas

Hospital Window

...n, 
offices new built dark glassed in blueish heaven--The East 
50's & 60's covered with castles & watertowers, seven storied 
tar-topped house-banks over York Avenue, late may-green trees 
surrounding Rockefellers' blue domed medical arbor-- 
Geodesic science at the waters edge--Cars running up 
East River Drive, & parked at N.Y. Hospital's oval door 
where perfect tulips flower the health of a thousand sick souls 
trembling inside hospital rooms. Triboro bridge stee...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

Il Penseroso

...never fail
To walk the studious cloister's pale,
And love the high embowed roof,
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voiced quire below,
In service high and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cel...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Ode to H.H. The Nizam Of Hyderabad

...s hoard and hold 
The legends of their centuried sleep; 
Your birds of peace white-pinioned float 
O'er ruined fort and storied plain, 
Your faithful stewards sleepless guard 
The harvests of your gold and grain.

God give you joy, God give you grace 
To shield the truth and smite the wrong, 
To honour Virtue, Valour, Worth. 
To cherish faith and foster song. 
So may the lustre of your days 
Outshine the deeds Firdusi sung, 
Your name within a nation's prayer, 
Your music on ...Read more of this...
by Naidu, Sarojini

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

...acket, tied
With crimson tape, and sealed. "Inside
Are seeds of many differing flowers,
To occupy your utmost powers
Of storied vision, and these swords
Are the finest which my shop affords.
Go home and use them; do not spare
Yourself; let that be all your care.
Whatever you have means to buy
Be very sure I can supply."
He slowly walked to the window, flung
It open, and in the grey air rung
The sound of distant matin bells.
I took my parcels. Then, as tells
An ancient mumblin...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Ancient World

...ce; 
falling asleep I used to repeat a new word 
to myself, telemetry, liking the way 
it seemed to allude to something storied. 
The earth was whorled marble, 
at that distance. Even the stuck-on porticoes 
and collonades downtown were narrative, 

somehow, but the buildings my father engineered 
were without stories. All I wanted 
was something larger than our ordinary sadness -- 
greater not in scale but in context, 
memorable, true to a proportioned, 
subtle form. Last ye...Read more of this...
by Doty, Mark

The Bride of Abydos

...ling-place how narrow? 
Without — can only strangers breathe 
The name of him that was beneath: 
Dust long outlasts the storied stone; 
But Thou — thy very dust is gone! 

V. 

Late, late to-night will Dian cheer 
The swain, and chase the boatman's fear; 
Till then — no beacon on the cliff 
May shape the course of struggling skiff; 
The scatter'd lights that skirt the bay, 
All, one by one, have died away; 
The only lamp of this lone hour 
Is glimmering in Zuleika's tower. 
Y...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Lady of the Lake

...with bursting heart,
     Remained in lordly bower apart,
     Where played, with many-coloured gleams,
     Through storied pane the rising beams.
     In vain on gilded roof they fall,
     And lightened up a tapestried wall,
     And for her use a menial train
     A rich collation spread in vain.
     The banquet proud, the chamber gay,
     Scarce drew one curious glance astray;
     Or if she looked, 't was but to say,
     With better omen dawned the day
  ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The New Colossus

...s world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
...Read more of this...
by Lazarus, Emma

The Rendezvous

...
She will not come, the woman that he waits. 


But in an arch where deepest shadows fall 
He sits and studies the old, storied panes, 
And the calm crucifix that from the wall 
Looks on a world that quavers and complains. 
Hopeless, abandoned, desolate, aghast, 
On modes of violent death he meditates. 
And the tower-clock tolls five, and he admits at last, 
She will not come, the woman that he waits. 


Through the stained rose the winter daylight dies, 
And all the tide of ...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Sick God

...beam: 
 His haloes rayed the very gore, 
 And corpses wore his glory-gleam. 

IV 

 Often an early King or Queen, 
And storied hero onward, knew his sheen; 
 'Twas glimpsed by Wolfe, by Ney anon, 
 And Nelson on his blue demesne. 

V 

 But new light spread. That god's gold nimb 
And blazon have waned dimmer and more dim; 
 Even his flushed form begins to fade, 
 Till but a shade is left of him. 

VI 

 That modern meditation broke 
His spell, that penmen's pleadings dealt a...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

The Wanderer

...To see the clouds his spirit yearned toward so 
Over new mountains piled and unploughed waves, 
Back of old-storied spires and architraves 
To watch Arcturus rise or Fomalhaut,

And roused by street-cries in strange tongues when day 
Flooded with gold some domed metropolis, 
Between new towers to waken and new bliss 
Spread on his pillow in a wondrous way:

These were his joys. Oft under bulging crates, 
Coming to market with his morning load, 
The peasant found h...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

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