Famous To Die For Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dream Song 36: The high ones die die. They die

by John Berryman
 The high ones die, die. They die. You look up and who's there?
-”Easy, easy, Mr Bones. I is on your side.
I smell your grief.
-”I sent my grief away. I cannot care
forever. With them all align & again I died
and cried, and I have to live.

-”Now there you exaggerate, Sah. We hafta die.
That is our 'pointed task. Love & die.
-”Yes;...Read more of this...

To die -- takes just a little while

by Emily Dickinson
 To die -- takes just a little while --
They say it doesn't hurt --
It's only fainter -- by degrees --
And then -- it's out of sight --

A darker Ribbon -- for a Day --
A Crape upon the Hat --
And then the pretty sunshine comes --
And helps us to forget --

The absent -- mystic -- creature --
That but for love...Read more of this...

We are born at sunset and we die ere morn,

by Fernando Pessoa
We are born at sunset and we die ere morn,

And the whole darkness of the world we know,

How can we guess its truth, to darkness born,

The obscure consequence of absent glow?

Only the stars do teach us light. We grasp

Their scattered smallnesses with thoughts that stray,

And, though their eyes look through night's complete mask,

Yet they speak not the features of the...Read more of this...

Since we must die, why do we live? Why agonize to

by Omar Khayyam
Since we must die, why do we live? Why agonize to
reach a problematic bliss? Since, for some unknown
cause, we may not here remain, why not concern ourselves
about the future pilgrimage? Why disregard our
fate?...Read more of this...

Not all die early dying young --

by Emily Dickinson
 Not all die early, dying young --
Maturity of Fate
Is consummated equally
In Ages, or a Night --

A Hoary Boy, I've known to drop
Whole statured -- by the side
Of Junior of Fourscore -- 'twas Act
Not Period -- that died....Read more of this...

If We Must Die

by Claude McKay
 If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though...Read more of this...

All Things Will Die

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing

 Under my eye;
Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing

 Over the sky.
One after another the white clouds are fleeting;
Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating

 Full merrily;
 Yet all things must die.
The stream will cease to flow;
The wind will cease to blow;
The clouds will cease to fleet;
The heart...Read more of this...

This Me -- that walks and works -- must die

by Emily Dickinson
 This Me -- that walks and works -- must die,
Some fair or stormy Day,
Adversity if it may be
Or wild prosperity
The Rumor's Gate was shut so tight
Before my mind was born
Not even a Prognostic's push
Can make a Dent thereon --...Read more of this...

I Live I Die I Burn I Drown

by Louise Labe
 I live, I die, I burn, I drown
I endure at once chill and cold
Life is at once too soft and too hard
I have sore troubles mingled with joys

Suddenly I laugh and at the same time cry
And in pleasure many a grief endure
My happiness wanes and yet it lasts unchanged
All at once I dry up and grow green

Thus I suffer...Read more of this...

Too scanty twas to die for you

by Emily Dickinson
 Too scanty 'twas to die for you,
The merest Greek could that.
The living, Sweet, is costlier --
I offer even that --

The Dying, is a trifle, past,
But living, this include
The dying multifold -- without
The Respite to be dead....Read more of this...

The Right To Die

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I have no fancy for that ancient cant
That makes us masters of our destinies,
And not our lives, to hold or give them up
As will directs; I cannot, will not think
That men, the subtle worms, who plot and plan
And scheme and calculate with such shrewd wit,
Are such great blund'ring fools as not to know
When they have lived enough. Men court not...Read more of this...

Music When Soft Voices Die

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
MUSIC when soft voices die  
Vibrates in the memory; 
Odours when sweet violets sicken  
Live within the sense they quicken; 

Rose leaves when the rose is dead 5 
Are heap'd for the beloved's bed: 
And so thy thoughts when thou art gone  
Love itself shall slumber on. ...Read more of this...

Do Not Die

by W S Merwin
In each world they may put us
Farther apart
Do not die
As this world is made I might
Live forever...Read more of this...

Fames Boys and Girls who never die

by Emily Dickinson
 Fame's Boys and Girls, who never die
And are too seldom born --...Read more of this...

Die in shame!

by John Matthew
 You hide your face in shame,
But I can see your private parts,
Have you no contrition,
To expose yourself, shamelessly, thus?

Tell me what does it feel,
To be watched while you strain?
Is that why you hang your head in shame;
Has all embarrassment left you?

I know it’s hard; you need your money,
But couldn’t you put the money —
You spend on spirits and tobacco,
To...Read more of this...

In Praise of Songs that Die

by Vachel Lindsay
 AFTER HAVING READ A GREAT DEAL OF GOOD CURRENT POETRY IN THE MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS


Ah, they are passing, passing by,
Wonderful songs, but born to die!
Cries from the infinite human seas,
Waves thrice-winged with harmonies.
Here I stand on a pier in the foam
Seeing the songs to the beach go home,
Dying in sand while the tide flows back,
As it flowed of old...Read more of this...

How to Die

by Siegfried Sassoon
 Dark clouds are smouldering into red 
While down the craters morning burns. 
The dying soldier shifts his head 
To watch the glory that returns; 
He lifts his fingers toward the skies 
Where holy brightness breaks in flame; 
Radiance reflected in his eyes, 
And on his lips a whispered name. 

You’d think, to hear some people talk, 
That lads go...Read more of this...

Youll find -- it when you try to die --

by Emily Dickinson
 You'll find -- it when you try to die --
The Easier to let go --
For recollecting such as went --
You could not spare -- you know.

And though their places somewhat filled --
As did their Marble names
With Moss -- they never grew so full --
You chose the newer names --

And when this World -- sets further back --
As Dying --...Read more of this...

I could die -- to know --

by Emily Dickinson
 I could die -- to know --
'Tis a trifling knowledge --
News-Boys salute the Door --
Carts -- joggle by --
Morning's bold face -- stares in the window --
Were but mine -- the Charter of the least Fly --

Houses hunch the House
With their Brick Shoulders --
Coals -- from a Rolling Load -- rattle -- how -- near --
To the very Square...Read more of this...

Wanting to Die

by Anne Sexton
 Since you ask, most days I cannot remember.
I walk in my clothing, unmarked by that voyage.
Then the almost unnameable lust returns.

Even then I have nothing against life.
I know well the grass blades you mention,
the furniture you have placed under the sun.

But suicides have a special language.
Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.

Twice I have...Read more of this...

Sonnets 08: And You As Well Must Die Beloved Du

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 And you as well must die, beloved dust,
And all your beauty stand you in no stead;
This flawless, vital hand, this perfect head,
This body of flame and steel, before the gust
Of Death, or under his autumnal frost,
Shall be as any leaf, be no less dead
Than the first leaf that fell,--this wonder fled.
Altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost.
Nor shall my love avail you...Read more of this...

All Things Decay And Die

by Robert Herrick
 All things decay with time: The forest sees
The growth and down-fall of her aged trees;
That timber tall, which three-score lustres stood
The proud dictator of the state-like wood,
I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak,
Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke....Read more of this...

Unable are the Loved to die

by Emily Dickinson
 Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity --

Unable they that love -- to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity....Read more of this...

I Live I Die I Burn I Drown

by Delmira Agustini
 I live, I die, I burn, I drown
I endure at once chill and cold
Life is at once too soft and too hard
I have sore troubles mingled with joys

Suddenly I laugh and at the same time cry
And in pleasure many a grief endure
My happiness wanes and yet it lasts unchanged
All at once I dry up and grow green

Thus I suffer...Read more of this...

If I should die

by Emily Dickinson
 If I should die,
And you should live --
And time should gurgle on --
And morn should beam --
And noon should burn --
As it has usual done --
If Birds should build as early
And Bees as bustling go --
One might depart at option
From enterprise below!
'Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand
When we with Daisies lie --
That Commerce will continue --
And Trades...Read more of this...

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