Famous Thoughts Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Night Thoughts

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 OH, unhappy stars! your fate I mourn,

Ye by whom the sea-toss'd sailor's lighted,
Who with radiant beams the heav'ns adorn,

But by gods and men are unrequited:
For ye love not,--ne'er have learnt to love!
Ceaselessly in endless dance ye move,
In the spacious sky your charms displaying,

What far travels ye have hasten'd through,
Since, within my loved one's arms delaying,

I've forgotten you and midnight...Read more of this...

Thoughts

by Walt Whitman
 1
OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and
 incorporate
 them into himself or herself. 
2
Of waters, forests, hills; 
Of the earth at large, whispering through medium of me; 
Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the formative chaos, presuming the
 growth,
 fulness, life, now attain’d on the journey; 
(But I see...Read more of this...

Give not vain thoughts free access to thy mind. Drink

by Omar Khayyam
Give not vain thoughts free access to thy mind. Drink
wine throughout the year, and always cups filled to the
brim. Pursue the daughter of the vine and aye rejoice,
for it is better to enjoy the daughter without leave of
law than know the mother with her full consent....Read more of this...

Home Thoughts

by Carl Sandburg
 THE SEA rocks have a green moss.
The pine rocks have red berries.
I have memories of you.

Speak to me of how you miss me.
Tell me the hours go long and slow.

Speak to me of the drag on your heart,
The iron drag of the long days.

I know hours empty as a beggar’s tin cup on a rainy day, empty as a...Read more of this...

Your thoughts dont have words every day

by Emily Dickinson
 Your thoughts don't have words every day
They come a single time
Like signal esoteric sips
Of the communion Wine
Which while you taste so native seems
So easy so to be
You cannot comprehend its price
Nor its infrequency...Read more of this...

Thoughts in a Tranquil Night

by Li Po
 Athwart the bed
I watch the moonbeams cast a trail
So bright, so cold, so frail,
That for a space it gleams
Like hoar-frost on the margin of my dreams.
I raise my head, --
The splendid moon I see:
Then droop my head,
And sink to dreams of thee --
My Fatherland, of thee!...Read more of this...

Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud
About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,
Put out broad leaves, and soon there 's nought to see
Except the straggling green which hides the wood.
Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood
I will not have my thoughts instead of thee
Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly
Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,
Rustle...Read more of this...

Sonnet 75: So are you to my thoughts as food to life

by William Shakespeare
 So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then bettered that the world may...Read more of this...

Night Thoughts Over A Sick Child

by Philip Levine
 Numb, stiff, broken by no sleep, 
I keep night watch. Looking for 
signs to quiet fear, I creep 
closer to his bed and hear 
his breath come and go, holding 
my own as if my own were 
all I paid. Nothing I bring, 
say, or do has meaning here. 

Outside, ice crusts on river 
and pond; wild hare come...Read more of this...

Thoughts Of Phena

by Thomas Hardy
 at news of her death 

Not a line of her writing have I 
Not a thread of her hair, 
No mark of her late time as dame in her dwelling, whereby 
I may picture her there; 
And in vain do I urge my unsight 
To conceive my lost prize 
At her close, whom I knew when her dreams were...Read more of this...

Caboose Thoughts

by Carl Sandburg
 IT’S going to come out all right—do you know?
The sun, the birds, the grass—they know.
They get along—and we’ll get along.

Some days will be rainy and you will sit waiting
And the letter you wait for won’t come,
And I will sit watching the sky tear off gray and gray
And the letter I wait for won’t come.

There will be ac-ci-dents.
I know ac-ci-dents...Read more of this...

Thoughts: Mahomed Akram

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   If some day this body of mine were burned
   (It found no favour alas! with you)
   And the ashes scattered abroad, unurned,
   Would Love die also, would Thought die too?
       But who can answer, or who can trust,
       No...Read more of this...

'Tis wrong with gloomy thoughts your mirth to drown, —

by Omar Khayyam
'Tis wrong with gloomy thoughts your mirth to drown,—
To let grief's millstone weigh your spirits down;
Since none can tell what is to be, 'tis best
With wine and love your heart's desires to crown....Read more of this...

Home Thoughts From The Sea

by Robert Browning
 Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-west died away;
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;
Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;
In the dimmest North-east distance dawned Gibraltar grand and grey;
"Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?"—say,
Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray,
While...Read more of this...

Thoughts in a Garden

by Andrew Marvell
 HOW vainly men themselves amaze 
To win the palm, the oak, or bays, 
And their uncessant labours see 
Crown'd from some single herb or tree, 
Whose short and narrow-verged shade 
Does prudently their toils upbraid; 
While all the flowers and trees do close 
To weave the garlands of repose! 

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here, 
And Innocence thy...Read more of this...

Quiet Night Thoughts

by Li Po
 Before my bed
there is bright moonlight
So that it seems
Like frost on the ground:

Lifting my head
I watch the bright moon,
Lowering my head
I dream that I'm home....Read more of this...

Thoughts On The Shape Of The Human Body

by Rupert Brooke
 How can we find? how can we rest? how can
We, being gods, win joy, or peace, being man?
We, the gaunt zanies of a witless Fate,
Who love the unloving and lover hate,
Forget the moment ere the moment slips,
Kiss with blind lips that seek beyond the lips,
Who want, and know not what we want, and cry
With crooked mouths for Heaven, and...Read more of this...

My Thoughts Of Ye

by Victor Hugo
 ("À quoi je songe?") 
 
 {XXIII., July, 1836.} 


 What do I dream of? Far from the low roof, 
 Where now ye are, children, I dream of you; 
 Of your young heads that are the hope and crown 
 Of my full summer, ripening to its fall. 
 Branches whose shadow grows along my wall, 
...Read more of this...

Thoughts

by Walt Whitman
 OF Public Opinion; 
Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How impassive! How certain and final!) 
Of the President with pale face, asking secretly to himself, What will the people say
 at
 last? 
Of the frivolous Judge—Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor—Of such as
 these,
 standing helpless and exposed; 
Of the mumbling and screaming priest—(soon, soon deserted;)
Of...Read more of this...

Marriage Thoughts: by Morsellin Khan

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Bridegroom
   I give you my house and my lands, all golden with harvest;
   My sword, my shield, and my jewels, the spoils of my strife,
   My strength and my dreams, and aught I have gathered of glory,
   And to-night—to-night, I shall give you my very life.

   Bride
...Read more of this...

Thoughts On Jesus Christs Descent Into Hell

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 THOUGHTS ON JESUS CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL.

[THE remarkable Poem of which this is a literal 
but faint representation, was written when Goethe was only sixteen 
years old. It derives additional interest from the fact of its being 
the very earliest piece of his that is preserved. The few other 
pieces included by Goethe under the title of Religion and...Read more of this...

Thoughts

by Walt Whitman
 1
OF these years I sing, 
How they pass and have pass’d, through convuls’d pains as through parturitions; 
How America illustrates birth, muscular youth, the promise, the sure fulfillment, the
 Absolute
 Success, despite of people—Illustrates evil as well as good; 
How many hold despairingly yet to the models departed, caste, myths, obedience,
 compulsion, and
 to infidelity; 
How few see the...Read more of this...

Its thoughts -- and just One Heart

by Emily Dickinson
 It's thoughts -- and just One Heart --
And Old Sunshine -- about --
Make frugal -- Ones -- Content --
And two or three -- for Company --
Upon a Holiday --
Crowded -- as Sacrament --

Books -- when the Unit --
Spare the Tenant -- long eno' --
A Picture -- if it Care --
Itself -- a Gallery too rare --
For needing more --

Flowers...Read more of this...

O Thou! who know'st the secret thoughts of all,

by Omar Khayyam
O Thou! who know'st the secret thoughts of all,
In time of sorest need who aidest all,
Grant me repentance, and accept my plea,
O Thou who dost accept the pleas of all!...Read more of this...

Thoughts On The Works Of Providence

by Phillis Wheatley
 A R I S E, my soul, on wings enraptur'd, rise
To praise the monarch of the earth and skies,
Whose goodness and benificence appear
As round its centre moves the rolling year,
Or when the morning glows with rosy charms,
Or the sun slumbers in the ocean's arms:
Of light divine be a rich portion lent
To guide my soul, and favour my intend.
Celestial muse,...Read more of this...

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