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Famous Thyself Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...! I, caitiff, whither shall I flee?
Who shall unto thy Son my meane* be?                 *medium of approach
Who, but thyself, that art of pity well?*                      *fountain
Thou hast more ruth on our adversity
Than in this world might any tongue tell!

                               R.

Redress me, Mother, and eke me chastise!
For certainly my Father's chastising
I dare not abiden in no wise,
So hideous is his full reckoning.
Mother! of whom our j...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...respect to Himself, as an Individual. The business of Man not to pry into God, but
to study himself.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; 
The proper study of Mankind is Man. 
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,(28) 
A being darkly wise, and rudely great: 
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, 
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, 
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest, 
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast; 
In doubt his Mi...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...y-side, which is always empty without thee;
Take from the shelf overhead thy pipe and the box of tobacco;
Never so much thyself art thou as when through the curling
Smoke of the pipe or the forge thy friendly and jovial face gleams
Round and red as the harvest moon through the mist of the marshes."
Then, with a smile of content, thus answered Basil the blacksmith,
Taking with easy air the accustomed seat by the fireside:--
"Benedict Bellefontaine, thou hast ever thy jest ...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...detain her vesture's hem 40 
Nor the palest rose she flung 
From her summer diadem. 

Though thou loved her as thyself  
As a self of purer clay; 
Though her parting dims the day 45 
Stealing grace from all alive; 
Heartily know  
When half-gods go 
The gods arrive. ...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...ty to city exiled, from wrack to wrack 
 Slain out of life, to find the native hell 
 Whence envy loosed her. 
 For thyself were
 well 
 To follow where I lead, and thou shalt see 
 The spirits in pain, and hear the hopeless woe, 
 The unending cries, of those whose only plea 
 Is judgment, that the second death to be 
 Fall quickly. Further shalt thou climb, and go 
 To those who burn, but in their pain content 
 With hope of pardon; still beyond, more high, 
 Holier...Read more of this...



by Tagore, Rabindranath
...rnesses of worlds leaving my track on many a star and planet. 

It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, 
and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune. 

The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, 
and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end. 

My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said `Here art thou!' 

The question an...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...h both thou 
And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
To waste eternal days in woe and pain? 
And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven 
Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here and scorn, 
Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, 
False fugitive; and to thy speed add wings, 
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 
Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...g speech, 
Turned him, all ear to hear new utterance flow. 
Sole partner, and sole part, of all these joys, 
Dearer thyself than all; needs must the Power 
That made us, and for us this ample world, 
Be infinitely good, and of his good 
As liberal and free as infinite; 
That raised us from the dust, and placed us here 
In all this happiness, who at his hand 
Have nothing merited, nor can perform 
Aught whereof he hath need; he who requires 
From us no other service than t...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...p horrour chilled 
At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold: 
But he thus, overjoyed; 'O fruit divine, 
'Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt, 
'Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit 
'For Gods, yet able to make Gods of Men: 
'And why not Gods of Men; since good, the more 
'Communicated, more abundant grows, 
'The author not impaired, but honoured more? 
'Here, happy creature, fair angelick Eve! 
'Partake thou also; happy though thou art, 
'Happier thou maye...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...st asperses 
The tempted with dishonour foul; supposed 
Not incorruptible of faith, not proof 
Against temptation: Thou thyself with scorn 
And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong, 
Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then, 
If such affront I labour to avert 
From thee alone, which on us both at once 
The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare; 
Or daring, first on me the assault shall light. 
Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn; 
Subtle he needs must be, who c...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...s 
Were such, as under government well seemed; 
Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part 
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright. 
So having said, he thus to Eve in few. 
Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done? 
To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed, 
Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge 
Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied. 
The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat. 
Which when the Lord God heard, without delay 
To judgement he pro...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...Moor,
Doubts to be solv’d, the map incognita, blanks to be fill’d, 
The foot of man unstay’d, the hands never at rest, 
Thyself, O soul, that will not brook a challenge. 

9
The medieval navigators rise before me, 
The world of 1492, with its awaken’d enterprise;
Something swelling in humanity now like the sap of the earth in spring, 
The sunset splendor of chivalry declining. 

And who art thou, sad shade? 
Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary, 
With majestic lim...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...what thou appearest! 
My Selim, thou art sadly changed: 
This morn I saw thee gentlest, dearest: 
But now thou'rt from thyself estranged. 
My love thou surely knew'st before, 
It ne'er was less, nor can be more. 
To see thee, hear thee, near thee stay, 
And hate the night, I know not why, 
Save that we meet not but by day; 
With thee to live, with thee to die, 
I dare not to my hope deny: 
Thy cheek, thine eyes, thy lips to kiss, 
Like this — and this — no more than ...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...the Temple’s highest steeple, 
And when He humbled Himself to God 
Then descended the cruel rod. 
‘If Thou Humblest Thyself, Thou humblest Me. 
Thou also dwell’st in Eternity. 
Thou art a Man: God is no more: 
Thy own Humanity learn to adore, 
For that is My spirit of life. 
Awake, arise to spiritual strife, 
And Thy revenge abroad display 
In terrors at the last Judgement Day. 
God’s mercy and long suffering 
Is but the sinner to judgement to bring. 
...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...n; and "Woe is me, my knights," he cried, 
"Had I been here, ye had not sworn the vow." 
Bold was mine answer, "Had thyself been here, 
My King, thou wouldst have sworn." "Yea, yea," said he, 
"Art thou so bold and hast not seen the Grail?" 

`"Nay, lord, I heard the sound, I saw the light, 
But since I did not see the Holy Thing, 
I sware a vow to follow it till I saw." 

`Then when he asked us, knight by knight, if any 
Had seen it, all their answers were as one...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...thine.
     And then for suitors proud and high,
     To bend before my conquering eye,—
     Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say,
     That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway.
     The Saxon scourge, Clan-Alpine's pride,
     The terror of Loch Lomond's side,
     Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay
     A Lennox foray—for a day.'—
     XII..

     The ancient bard her glee repressed:
     'Ill hast thou chosen theme for jest!
     For who, through all this ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ttest thee where thou art not receiv'd,
 Where thou wert well, from thennes art thou weiv'd"
i.e.
"Thou joinest thyself where thou art rejected, and art declined
or departed from the place where thou wert well." The moon
portends the fortunes of Constance.

8. Fand: endeavour; from Anglo-Saxon, "fandian," to try

9. Feng: take; Anglo-Saxon "fengian", German, "fangen".

10. Him and her on which thy limbes faithfully extend: those
who in faith we...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...br> O pitiable foolish young man!
O horrible! O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon
thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity, to which thou art
going in such career.
I said. perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal
lot & we will contemplate together upon it and see whether your
lot or mine is most desirable
So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into
the church vault at the end of which was a mill: thro' the mill 
we went, and...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...his epitaph and tomb.' 
'Repent'st thou not,' said Michael, 'of some past 
Exaggeration? something which may doom 
Thyself if false, as him if true? Thou wast 
Too bitter — is it not so? — in thy gloom 
Of passion?' — 'Passion!' cried the phantom dim, 
'I loved my country, and I hated him. 

LXXXIV 

'What I have written, I have written: let 
The rest be on his head or mine!' So spoke 
Old 'Nominis Umbra'; and while speaking yet, 
Away he melted in celestial smoke.Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...kneeled fair adown,
And saide", "Deare sister Alisoun,
As help me God, I shall thee never smite:
That I have done it is thyself to wite,* *blame
Forgive it me, and that I thee beseek."* *beseech
And yet eftsoons* I hit him on the cheek, *immediately; again
And saidde, "Thief, thus much am I awreak.* *avenged
Now will I die, I may no longer speak."

But at the last, with muche care and woe
We fell accorded* by ourselves two: *agreed
He gave me all the bridle in min...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things