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Famous Thyme Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Smart, Christopher
...nd apples of ten thousand tribes, 
 And quick peculiar quince. 

 LX 
The wealthy crops of whit'ning rice, 
'Mongst thyme woods and groves of spice, 
 For ADORATION grow; 
And, marshall'd in the fenced land, 
The peaches and pom'granates stand, 
 Where wild carnations blow. 

 LXI 
The laurels with the winter strive; 
The crocus burnishes alive 
 Upon the snow-clad earth: 
For ADORATION myrtles stay 
To keep the garden from dismay, 
 And bless the sight from dearth.Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...bladdery, drink up all, 
Quick, quick, till maggots scamper through my brain; 
Last, throw me on my back i' the seeded thyme, 
And wanton, wishing I were born a bird. 
Put case, unable to be what I wish, 
I yet could make a live bird out of clay: 
Would not I take clay, pinch my Caliban 
Able to fly?--for, there, see, he hath wings, 
And great comb like the hoopoe's to admire, 
And there, a sting to do his foes offence, 
There, and I will that he begin to live, 
Fly to y...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...-sparkling generous light;
And in his left he held a basket full
Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull:
Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still
Than Leda's love, and cresses from the rill.
His aged head, crowned with beechen wreath,
Seem'd like a poll of ivy in the teeth
Of winter hoar. Then came another crowd
Of shepherds, lifting in due time aloud
Their share of the ditty. After them appear'd,
Up-followed by a multitude that rear'd
Their voices to ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ith fennel green, and balm, and golden pines,
Savory, latter-mint, and columbines,
Cool parsley, basil sweet, and sunny thyme;
Yea, every flower and leaf of every clime,
All gather'd in the dewy morning: hie
 Away! fly, fly!--
Crystalline brother of the belt of heaven,
Aquarius! to whom king Jove has given
Two liquid pulse streams 'stead of feather'd wings,
Two fan-like fountains,--thine illuminings
 For Dian play:
Dissolve the frozen purity of air;
Let thy white shoulders si...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...s shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

 You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
 You must go by a w...Read more of this...



by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...s only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation....Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...away love, and our earth is a tomb! 
Flower o' the quince, 
I let Lisa go, and what good in life since? 
Flower o' the thyme--and so on. Round they went. 
Scarce had they turned the corner when a titter 
Like the skipping of rabbits by moonlight,--three slim shapes, 
And a face that looked up . . . zooks, sir, flesh and blood, 
That's all I'm made of! Into shreds it went, 
Curtain and counterpane and coverlet, 
All the bed-furniture--a dozen knots, 
There...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...w thou art gon, 
Now thou art gon, and never must return! 
Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves, 
With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o'regrown, 
And all their echoes mourn. 
The Willows, and the Hazle Copses green, 
Shall now no more be seen, 
Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft layes. 
As killing as the Canker to the Rose, 
Or Taint-worm to the weanling Herds that graze, 
Or Frost to Flowers, that their gay wardrop wear, 
When first the White thorn ...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ves are dumb  
Listening to my sweet pipings. 5 
The wind in the reeds and the rushes  
The bees on the bells of thyme  
The birds on the myrtle bushes  
The cicale above in the lime  
And the lizards below in the grass 10 
Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was  
Listening to my sweet pipings. 

Liquid Peneus was flowing  
And all dark Tempe lay 
In Pelion's shadow outgrowing 15 
The light of the dying day  
Speeded by my sweet pipings. 
The Sileni ...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...th the Sea-Cabbage. 

Let Parosh rejoice with Cacubalus Chickweed. 

Let Hagab rejoice with Serpyllum Mother of Thyme. Hosanna to the memory of Q. Anne. March 8th N.S. 1761 -- God be gracious to old Windsmore. 

Let Shalmai rejoice with Meadow Rue. -- 

Let Habaiah rejoice with Asteriscus Yellow Starwort. 

Let Tel-harsa rejoice with Aparine Clivers. 

Let Rehoboam rejoice with Folium Montanum. God give grace to the Young King.<...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...w thou art gone,
Now thou art gone and never must return!
Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves,
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
And all their echoes, mourn.
The willows, and the hazel copses green,
Shall now no more be seen
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.
As killing as the canker to the rose,
Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,
Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,
When first the white-thorn ...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...er the rill,­a glitt'ring train,
Or swarm along the sultry plain. 
Then in sweet converse let us rove,
Where in the thyme-embroider'd grove, 
The musky air its fragrance pours
Upon the silv'ry scatter'd show'rs; 
To hail soft Zephyr, as she goes
To fan the dew-drop from the rose;
To shelter from the scorching beam,
And muse beside the rippling stream. 

Or when, at twilight's placid hour, 
We stroll to some sequester'd bow'r; 
And watch the haughty Sun retire
Beneath ...Read more of this...

by Betjeman, John
...rely in.
The very turf rejoiced to see
That quite unprecedented three.

Ah! Seaweed smells from sandy caves
And thyme and mist in whiffs,
In-coming tide, Atlantic waves
Slapping the sunny cliffs,
Lark song and sea sounds in the air
And splendour, splendour everywhere....Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...t asleep. Singing birds in their leafy cover 
Cannot wake her, nor shake her the gusty blast. 
Under the purple thyme and the purple clover 
Sleeping at last....Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...>   Can I forget what charms did once adorn  My garden, stored with pease, and mint, and thyme,  And rose and lilly for the sabbath morn?  The sabbath bells, and their delightful chime;  The gambols and wild freaks at shearing time;  My hen's rich nest through long grass scarce espied;  The cowslip-gathering at May's dewy prime;  The swans, that, when I sought th...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...to drink to old Jan's luck, and smoke
His best tobacco for a grand climax.
Here, Jan, a paper, fragrant as crushed thyme,
We'll have the best to wish you luck, or may we choke!"

5
Max Breuck unclasped his broadcloth cloak, and 
sat.
"Well thought of, Franz; here's luck to Mynheer Jan."
The host set down a jar; then to a vat
Lost in the distance of his cellar, ran.
Max took a pipe as graceful as the stem
Of some long tulip, crammed it full, and drew
The punge...Read more of this...

by Betjeman, John
...prospect from the seventh;

To the ninth tee the uphill climb,
A grass and sandy stairway,
And at the top the scent of thyme
And long extent of fairway.

He knew how on a summer day
The sea's deep blue grew deeper,
How evening shadows over Bray
Made that round hill look steeper.

He knew the ocean mists that rose
And seemed for ever staying,
When moaned the foghorn from Trevose
And nobody was playing;

The flip of cards on winter eves,
The whisky and the scoring,
As ...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...ose icy breast no pity warms,
Whose little victims sit in swarms,
And slowly sob on lower forms. 

And one, a green thyme-honoured Bank,
Where flowers are growing wild and rank,
Like weeds that fringe a poisoned tank. 

All birds of evil omen there
Flood with rich Notes the tainted air,
The witless wanderer to snare. 

The fatal Notes neglected fall,
No creature heeds the treacherous call,
For all those goodly Strawn Baits Pall. 

The wandering phantom broke a...Read more of this...

by Sappho,
...s the salt sea 
and over densely flowered fields;

and lucent dew spreads on the earth to quicken
roses and fragile thyme
and the sweet-blooming honey-lotus.

Now while our darling wanders she thinks of
lovely Atthis's love,
and longing sinks deep in her breast.

She cries loudly for us to come!  We hear,
for the night's many tongues
carry her cry across the sea.

...Read more of this...

by Clare, John
...ak are made dearer things to me.

I have a pleasant hill
Which I sit upon for hours,
Where she cropt some sprigs of thyme
And other little flowers;
And she muttered as she did it
As does beauty in a dream,
And I loved her when she hid it
On her breast, so like to cream,
Near the brown mole on her neck that to me a diamond shone;
Then my eye was like to fire, and my heart was like to stone.

There is a small green place
Where cowslips early curled,
Which on Sabbath day...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things