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Famous Temporal Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...LORD, we thank, and thee adore,
 For temporal gifts we little merit;
At present we will ask no more—
 Let William Hislop give the spirit....Read more of this...



by Moody, William Vaughn
...imbs in the rose: -- 
The untaught hearts with the high heart that knew 
This mountain fortress for no earthly hold 
Of temporal quarrel, but the bastion old 
Of spiritual wrong, 
Built by an unjust nation sheer and strong, 
Expugnable but by a nation's rue 
And bowing down before that equal shrine 
By all men held divine, 
Whereof his band and he were the most holy sign. 


VII 

O bitter, bitter shade! 
Wilt thou not put the scorn 
And instant tragic question from thine...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...uggesting permanence
Nor darkness to purify the soul
Emptying the sensual with deprivation
Cleansing affection from the temporal.
Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker
Over the strained time-ridden faces
Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration
Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind
That blows before and after time,
Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs
Time before and time a...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...e aim
Never here to be realised;
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying;
We, content at the last
If our temporal reversion nourish
(Not too far from the yew-tree)
The life of significant soil....Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...their souls find place, and forget what is done and undone.
Thou art more than the Gods who number the days of our temporal breath;
Let these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death.
Therefore now at thy feet I abide for a season in silence. I know
I shall die as my fathers died, and sleep as they sleep, even so.
For the glass of the years is brittle wherein we gaze for a span;
A little soul for a little bears up this corpse which is man.
So ...Read more of this...



by Rumi, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad
...p style="">i was dead
i came alive
i was tears
i became laughter all because of love
when it arrived
my temporal life
from then on
changed to eternal love said to me
you are not
crazy enough
you don’t
fit this house i went and
became crazy
crazy enough
to be in chains love said
you are not
intoxicated enough
you don’t
fit the group i went and
got drunk
drunk enough
to overflow
with light-headednes...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...oil,
The Stygian web of waters--if your song
Be quenched not, O our brethren, but be strong
As ere ye too shook off our temporal coil;VII

If yet these twain survive your worldly breath,
Joy trampling sorrow, life devouring death,
If perfect life possess your life all through
And like your words your souls be deathless too,
To-night, of all whom night encompasseth,
My soul would commune with one soul of you.VIII

Above the sunset might I see thine eyes
That were above the...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...should spit upon a rosary?
Am I become so shrunken? Would to God
I too might feel that frenzied faith whose touch
Makes temporal the most enduring grief;
Though it must walk a while, as is its wont,
With wild lamenting! Would I too might weep
Where weeps the world and hangs its piteous wreaths
For its new dead! Not Truth, but Faith, it is
That keeps the world alive. If all at once
Faith were to slacken,—that unconscious faith
Which must, I know, yet be the corner-stone
Of...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...or the remnant that is left. 

Let Agur bless with the Cockatrice -- The consolation of the world is deceitful, and temporal honour the crown of him that creepeth. 

Let Ithiel bless with the Baboon, whose motions are regular in the wilderness, and who defendeth himself with a staff against the assailant. 

Let Ucal bless with the Cameleon, which feedeth on the Flowers and washeth himself in the dew. 

Let Lemuel bless with the Wolf, which is a dog without a m...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...ous to Musgrave. 

For he was blest as a merchant. 

For the blessing of Jacob was in the spirit and Esau's for temporal thrift. 

For the story of Orpheus is of the truth. 

For there was such a person a cunning player on the harp. 

For he was a believer in the true God and assisted in the spirit. 

For he play'd upon the harp in the spirit by breathing upon the strings. 

For this will affect every thing that is sustaind by the spirit, even ever...Read more of this...

by Brooke, Rupert
...They say there's a high windless world and strange,
Out of the wash of days and temporal tide,
Where Faith and Good, Wisdom and Truth abide,
`Aeterna corpora', subject to no change.
There the sure suns of these pale shadows move;
There stand the immortal ensigns of our war;
Our melting flesh fixed Beauty there, a star,
And perishing hearts, imperishable Love. . . .

Dear, we know only that we sigh, kiss, smile;
Each ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...an, crush his strength, 
Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms; 
And fix far deeper in his head their stings 
Than temporal death shall bruise the victor's heel, 
Or theirs whom he redeems; a death, like sleep, 
A gentle wafting to immortal life. 
Nor after resurrection shall he stay 
Longer on earth, than certain times to appear 
To his disciples, men who in his life 
Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge 
To teach all nations what of him they learned 
A...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...v.19,9,20-22 
L. M.
Praise for temporal blessings; or, Common and special mercies.

We bless the Lord, the just, the good,
Who fills our hearts with joy and food:
Who pours his blessings from the skies,
And loads our days with rich supplies.

He sends the sun his circuit round,
To cheer the fruits, to warm the ground;
He bids the clouds with plenteous rain
Refresh the thirsty eart...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...less firm and strong? 
I say not, as the common voice doth say, 
That all things which beneath the moon have being 
Are temporal, and subject to decay: 
But I say rather, though not all agreeing 
With some, that ween the contrary in thought: 
That all this whole shall one day come to nought. 


10 

As that brave son of Aeson, which by charms 
Achieved the golden fleece in Colchid land, 
Out of the earth engendered men of arms 
Of Dragons' teetch, sown in the sacred sand;...Read more of this...

by Brown, Thomas Edward
...d some one come, and say, 
'Lo! I have gather'd faggots in the wood!' 
 E'en let him stay, 
And light a fire, and fan a temporal mood! 

So sit till morning! when the light is grown 
 That he the path can read, 
 Then bid the man God-speed! 
His morning is not thine: yet must thou own 
They have a cheerful warmth--those ashes on the stone....Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...only fire's the jolly fire 
Where you can guzzle port with Squire, 
And back and praise his damned opinions 
About his temporal dominions. 
You let him give the man who digs, 
A filthy hut unfit for pigs, 
Without a well, without a drain, 
With mossy thatch that lets in rain, 
Without a 'lotment, 'less he rent it, 
And never meat, unless he scent it, 
But weekly doles of 'leven shilling 
To make a grown man strong and willing, 
To do the hardest work on earth 
And feed h...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...l, or beg, or borrow thy dispence*. *expense

Thou blamest Christ, and sayst full bitterly,
He misdeparteth* riches temporal; *allots amiss
Thy neighebour thou witest* sinfully, *blamest
And sayst, thou hast too little, and he hath all:
"Parfay (sayst thou) sometime he reckon shall,
When that his tail shall *brennen in the glede*, *burn in the fire*
For he not help'd the needful in their need."

Hearken what is the sentence of the wise:
Better to die than to have indi...Read more of this...

by Belloc, Hilaire
...can drink strong ale
Let us put it away to infallible truth
That always shall prevail.

And thank the Lord
For the temporal sword
And howling heretics too.
And all good things
Our Christendom brings
But especially barley brew!
With my row-ti-tow
Ti-oodly-ow
Especially barley brew!...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
It is enthroned in the heart of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice....Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Temporal poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things