Famous Symptoms Poems by Famous Poets

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

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I could not prove the Years had feet --

by Emily Dickinson
 I could not prove the Years had feet --
Yet confident they run
Am I, from symptoms that are past
And Series that are done --

I find my feet have further Goals --
I smile upon the Aims
That felt so ample -- Yesterday --
Today's -- have vaster claims --

I do not doubt the self I was
Was competent to me --
But something awkward in...Read more of this...

Turtle Swan

by Mark Doty
 Because the road to our house
is a back road, meadowlands punctuated
by gravel quarry and lumberyard,
there are unexpected travelers
some nights on our way home from work.
Once, on the lawn of the Tool

and Die Company, a swan;
the word doesn't convey the shock
of the thing, white architecture
rippling like a pond's rain-pocked skin,
beak lifting to hiss at my approach.
Magisterial, set down in elegant...Read more of this...

Symptoms of Love

by Robert Graves
 Love is universal migraine,
A bright stain on the vision
Blotting out reason. 

Symptoms of true love
Are leanness, jealousy,
Laggard dawns; 

Are omens and nightmares -
Listening for a knock,
Waiting for a sign: 

For a touch of her fingers
In a darkened room,
For a searching look. 

Take courage, lover!
Could you endure such pain
At any hand but hers?...Read more of this...

139. Lines on Meeting with Lord Daer

by Robert Burns
 THIS 1 wot ye all whom it concerns,
I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns,
 October twenty-third,
A ne’er-to-be-forgotten day,
Sae far I sprackl’d up the brae,
 I dinner’d wi’ a Lord.


I’ve been at drucken writers’ feasts,
Nay, been *****-fou ’mang godly priests—
 Wi’ rev’rence be it spoken!—
I’ve even join’d the honour’d jorum,
When mighty Squireships of the quorum,
 Their hydra drouth did sloken.


But wi’ a...Read more of this...

At The Window

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 Every morning, as I walk down
From my dreary lodgings, toward the town,
I see at a window, near the street,
The face of a woman, fair and sweet,
With soft brown eyes and chestnut hair,
And red lips, warm with the kisses left there.
And she stands there as long as she can see
The man who walks just ahead of me.

At night, when I...Read more of this...

For the Better

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 A Quack, to no true Skill in Physick bred, 
With frequent Visits cursed his Patient's Bed; 
Enquiring, how he did his Broths digest, 
How chim'd his Pulse, and how he took his Rest:
If shudd'ring Cold by Burnings was pursu'd,
And at what time the Aguish Fit renew'd. 
The waining Wretch, each day become more faint, 
In like proportion doubles his...Read more of this...

The Duties of an Aide-de-camp

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Oh, some folk think vice-royalty is festive and hilarious, 
The duties of an A.D.C. are manifold and various, 
So listen, whilst I tell in song 
The duties of an aide-de-cong. 
Whatsoever betide 
To the Governor's side 
We must stick -- or the public would eat him -- 
For each bounder we see 
Says, "Just introduce me 
To His Lordship...Read more of this...

WARS and RUMORS OF WARS

by Emanuel Xavier
 “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars;
see that ye not be troubles;
all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet”
-Matthew 24:6

1.
I escape the horrors of war 
with a towel and a room
Offering myself 
to Palestinian and Jewish boys
as a ‘piece’ to the Middle East
when I should be concerned with the untimely deaths
of dark-skinned...Read more of this...

228. To Alex. Cunningham Esq. Writer Edinburgh

by Robert Burns
 MY godlike friend—nay, do not stare,
 You think the phrase is odd-like;
But “God is love,” the saints declare,
 Then surely thou art god-like.


And is thy ardour still the same?
 And kindled still at ANNA?
Others may boast a partial flame,
 But thou art a volcano!


Ev’n Wedlock asks not love beyond
 Death’s tie-dissolving portal;
But thou, omnipotently fond,
 May’st promise love immortal!


Thy...Read more of this...

Circumstantial Evidence

by Ellis Parker Butler
 She does not mind a good cigar
 (The kind, that is, I smoke);
She thinks all men quite stupid are,
 (But laughs whene’er I joke).

She says she does not care for verse
 (But praises all I write);
She says that punning is a curse,
 (But then mine are so bright!)

She does not like a big moustache
 (You see that mine is...Read more of this...

To Delia: On Her Endeavouring To Conceal Her Grief At Parting

by William Cowper
 Ah! wherefore should my weeping maid suppress
Those gentle signs of undissembled woe?
When from soft love proceeds the deep distress,
Ah, why forbid the willing tears to flow?

Since for my sake each dear translucent drop
Breaks forth, best witness of thy truth sincere,
My lips should drink the precious mixture up,
And, ere it falls, receive the trembling tear.

Trust me, these symptoms of thy...Read more of this...

Symptoms

by Sophie Hannah
 Although you have given me a stomach upset,
Weak knees, a lurching heart, a fuzzy brain,
A high-pitched laugh, a monumental phone bill,
A feeling of unworthiness, sharp pain
When you are somewhere else, a guilty conscience,
A longing, and a dread of what’s in store,
A pulse rate for the Guinness Book of Records -
Life now is better than it was before.

Although you have...Read more of this...

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