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Famous Touchstone Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Lindsay, Vachel
...he utmost steps of yesterday.
Never a shallow jester any more!
Let not Jack Falstaff spill the ale in vain.
Let Touchstone set the fashions for the wise
And Ariel wreak his fancies through the rain.


II. THE RHYMER'S REPLY. INCENSE AND SPLENDOR

Incense and Splendor haunt me as I go.
Though my good works have been, alas, too few,
Though I do naught, High Heaven comes down to me,
And future ages pass in tall review.
I see the years to come as armie...Read more of this...



by Tebb, Barry
...e at last lifted

And borne on the wind, Dunedin, take it

Hold it hard and fast its light

Is leaping it is freedom’s

Touchstone and firestone.





31



Eir, Ayer or Aire

I’ll still be there

Your wanderings off course

Old Ea, Old Eye, Dead Eye

Make no difference to me.

Eg-an island - is Aire’s

True source, names

Not places matter

With the risings

Of a river

Ea land-by-water

I’ll make my own way

Free, going down river

To the far-off sea.





32


...Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...br> Yet to this faith
My heart with instant sympathy assents;
And I would judge all systems and all faiths
By that best touchstone, from whose test DECEIT
Shrinks like the Arch-Fiend at Ithuriel's spear,
And SOPHISTRY'S gay glittering bubble bursts,
As at the spousals of the Nereid's son,
When that false Florimel, by her prototype
Display'd in rivalry, with all her charms
Dissolved away.

Nor can the halls of Heaven
Give to the human soul such kindred joy,
As hovering o'e...Read more of this...

by Drayton, Michael
...ell; 
Make known the faith that Fortune could not move; 
Compare myu worth with others' base desert; 
Let virtue be the touchstone of my love, 
So may the heav'ns read wonders in my heart; 
Behold the clouds which have eclips'd my sun, 
And view the crosses which my course do let; 
Tell me if ever since the world begun 
So fair a rising had so foul a set, 
And see if Time (if he would strive to prove) 
Can show a second to so pure a love....Read more of this...

by Allingham, William
...A man there came, whence none could tell, 
Bearing a Touchstone in his hand; 
And tested all things in the land 
By its unerring spell. 

Quick birth of transmutation smote 
The fair to foul, the foul to fair; 
Purple nor ermine did he spare, 
Nor scorn the dusty coat. 

Of heirloom jewels, prized so much, 
Were many changed to chips and clods, 
And even statues of the Gods 
Crumbled beneath its touch....Read more of this...



by Lawrence, D. H.
...ant game.
Thought is the welling up of unknown life into consciousness,
Thought is the testing of statements on the touchstone of consciousness,
Thought is gazing onto the face of life, and reading what can be read,
Thought is pondering over experience, and coming to conclusion.
Thought is not a trick, or an exercise, or a set of dodges,
Thought is a man in his wholeness, wholly attending....Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...n,
What wrecks his firm foundations, when 'tis done,
No man of science ever weighed with scales,
Nor made assay with touchstone, no, not one!...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Touchstone poems.


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