Famous True Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within...Read more of this...

A Tongue -- to tell Him I am true!

by Emily Dickinson
 A Tongue -- to tell Him I am true!
Its fee -- to be of Gold --
Had Nature -- in Her monstrous House
A single Ragged Child --

To earn a Mine -- would run
That Interdicted Way,
And tell Him -- Charge thee speak it plain --
That so far -- Truth is True?

And answer What I do --
Beginning with the Day
That Night --...Read more of this...

Tis true -- They shut me in the Cold --

by Emily Dickinson
 'Tis true -- They shut me in the Cold --
But then -- Themselves were warm
And could not know the feeling 'twas --
Forget it -- Lord -- of Them --

Let not my Witness hinder Them
In Heavenly esteem --
No Paradise could be -- Conferred
Through Their beloved Blame --

The Harm They did -- was short -- And since
Myself -- who bore it...Read more of this...

If you have sense, true senselessness attain,

by Omar Khayyam
If you have sense, true senselessness attain,
And the Etern Cupbearer's goblet drain,
If not, true senselessness is not for you,
Not every fool true senselessness can gain!...Read more of this...

Sonnet 110: Alas tis true I have gone here and there

by William Shakespeare
 Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there,
And made myself a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,
Made old offences of affections new.
Most true it is that I have looked on truth
Askance and strangely. But, by all above,
These blenches gave my heart another youth,
And worse essays proved thee my best of love.
Now...Read more of this...

My true condition I may thus explain

by Omar Khayyam
My true condition I may thus explain
In two short verses which the whole contain:
«From love to Thee I now lay down my life,
In hope Thy love will raise me up again.»...Read more of this...

Sonnet CXVI: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

by William Shakespeare
 Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and...Read more of this...

The True Christians

by Henry Vaughan
 So stick up ivy and the bays,
And then restore the heathen ways.
Green will remind you of the spring,
Though this great day denies the thing.
And mortifies the earth and all
But your wild revels, and loose hall.
Could you wear flowers, and roses strow
Blushing upon your breasts' warm snow,
That very dress your lightness will
Rebuke, and wither at the ill.
The brightness of this...Read more of this...

The True Knowledge

by Oscar Wilde
 Thou knowest all; I seek in vain
What lands to till or sow with seed -
The land is black with briar and weed,
Nor cares for falling tears or rain.

Thou knowest all; I sit and wait
With blinded eyes and hands that fail,
Till the last lifting of the veil
And the first opening of the gate.

Thou knowest all; I cannot see.
I trust I...Read more of this...

If it were true that a garden flower

by Emile Verhaeren
If it were true that a garden flower or a meadow tree could keep some memory of lovers of other times who admired them in their bloom or their vigour, our love in this hour of long regret would come and entrust to the rose or erect in the oak, before the approach of death, its sweetness or its strength.
Thus...Read more of this...

True

by Charles Bukowski
 one of Lorca's best lines
is,
"agony, always
agony ..." 
think of this when you
kill a 
cockroach or
pick up a razor to 
shave 
or awaken in the morning
to 
face the
sun....Read more of this...

Sonnet 93: So shall I live supposing thou art true

by William Shakespeare
 So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceivèd husband; so love's face
May still seem love to me, though altered new,
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place.
For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
In many's looks, the false heart's history
Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange,
But...Read more of this...

True and False Comforts

by William Cowper
 O God, whose favorable eye,
The sin-sick soul revives,
Holy and heavenly is the joy
Thy shining presence gives.

Not such as hypocrites suppose,
Who with a graceless heart
Taste not of Thee, but drink a dose,
Prepared by Satan's art.

Intoxicating joys are theirs,
Who while they boast their light,
And seem to soar above the stars,
Are plunging into night.

Lull'd in a soft and fatal sleep,
They sin and...Read more of this...

Very True the Linnets Sing

by Walter Savage Landor
 Very true, the linnets sing 
Sweetest in the leaves of spring: 
You have found in all these leaves 
That which changes and deceives, 
And, to pine by sun or star, 
Left them, false ones as they are. 
But there be who walk beside 
Autumn's, till they all have died, 
And who lend a patient ear 
To low notes from...Read more of this...

Sonnets CXVI: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

by William Shakespeare
 Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and...Read more of this...

The power to be true to You

by Emily Dickinson
 The power to be true to You,
Until upon my face
The Judgment push his Picture --
Presumptuous of Your Place --

Of This -- Could Man deprive Me --
Himself -- the Heaven excel --
Whose invitation -- Yours reduced
Until it showed too small --...Read more of this...

A True Maid

by Matthew Prior
 No, no; for my virginity,
When I lose that, says Rose, I'll die:
Behind the elms last night, cried Dick,
Rose, were you not extremely sick?...Read more of this...

If It Is True What the Prophets Write

by William Blake
 If it is true, what the Prophets write,
That the heathen gods are all stocks and stones,
Shall we, for the sake of being polite,
Feed them with the juice of our marrow-bones?

And if Bezaleel and Aholiab drew
What the finger of God pointed to their view,
Shall we suffer the Roman and Grecian rods
To compel us to worship them as gods?

They stole them...Read more of this...

To lovers true, what matters dark or fair?

by Omar Khayyam
To lovers true, what matters dark or fair?
Or if the loved one silk or sackcloth wear,
Or lie on down or dust, or rise to heaven?
Yea, though she sink to hell, he'll seek her there....Read more of this...

Is it true dear Sue?

by Emily Dickinson
 Is it true, dear Sue?
Are there two?
I shouldn't like to come
For fear of joggling Him!
If I could shut him up
In a Coffee Cup,
Or tie him to a pin
Till I got in --
Or make him fast
To "Toby's" fist --
Hist! Whist! I'd come!...Read more of this...

True Enjoyment

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 VAINLY wouldst thou, to gain a heart,

Heap up a maiden's lap with gold;
The joys of love thou must impart,

Wouldst thou e'er see those joys unfold.
The voices of the throng gold buys,

No single heart 'twill win for thee;
Wouldst thou a maiden make thy prize,

Thyself alone the bribe must be.

If by no sacred tie thou'rt bound,

Oh youth, thou must thyself restrain!
Well...Read more of this...

What shall I your true love tell?

by Francis Thompson
 What shall I your true love tell, 
Earth forsaking maid? 
What shall I your true love tell 
When life's spectre's laid? 
"Tell him that, our side the grave, 
Maid may not believe 
Life should be so sad to have, 
That's so sad to leave!" 
What shall I your true love tell 
When I come to him? 
What shall I...Read more of this...

She went.—O whither too, O one true love

by Hafez
She went.—O whither too, O one true love,
Went my sad heart, thou knowest. Lo my prayer
Followeth thee, & faith that nought may move.

With prayer I came, & now with pleading strong
I leave thee, that my flinchless trust thou share;
So shall God aid us, who to him belong.

Though all earth censure me, by Heaven I swear,
Though tyranny me test with trial...Read more of this...

The Last Rhyme of True Thomas

by Rudyard Kipling
 The King has called for priest and cup,
 The King has taken spur and blade
To dub True Thomas a belted knight,
 And all for the sake o' the songs he made.

They have sought him high, they have sought him low,
 They have sought him over down and lea;
They have found him by the milk-white thorn
 That guards the gates...Read more of this...

My True Love Hath My Heart And I Have His

by Sir Philip Sidney
 My true-love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange, one for the other giv'n.
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a better bargain driv'n.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides;
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his, because...Read more of this...

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