Famous Underworld Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

The Complaint of Lisa

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 There is no woman living who draws breath 
So sad as I, though all things sadden her. 
There is not one upon life's weariest way 
Who is weary as I am weary of all but death. 
Toward whom I look as looks the sunflower 
All day with all his whole soul toward the sun; 
While in the sun's sight...Read more of this...

The Princess: A Medley: Tears Idle Tears

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That...Read more of this...

Christ Crucified

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 Now ere I slept, my prayer had been that I might see my way
To do the will of Christ, our Lord and Master, day by day; 
And with this prayer upon my lips, I knew not that I dreamed, 
But suddenly the world of night a pandemonium seemed.
From forest, and from slaughter house, from bull ring, and from stall,...Read more of this...

Tears Idle Tears

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

  Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which...Read more of this...

Stretcher Case

by Siegfried Sassoon
 He woke; the clank and racket of the train 
Kept time with angry throbbings in his brain. 
Then for a while he lapsed and drowsed again. 

At last he lifted his bewildered eyes 
And blinked, and rolled them sidelong; hills and skies,
Heavily wooded, hot with August haze, 
And, slipping backward, golden for his gaze, 
Acres of harvest. 

Feebly now...Read more of this...

Snake

by D. H. Lawrence
 A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before
me.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the...Read more of this...

Before Sleep

by Ezra Pound
 The lateral vibrations caress me, 
They leap and caress me, 
They work pathetically in my favour, 
They seek my financial good. 

She of the spear stands present. 
The gods of the underworld attend me, O Annubis, 
These are they of thy company. 
With a pathetic solicitude they attend me; 
Undulant, 
Their realm is the lateral courses. 


Light! 
I am...Read more of this...

For the Union Dead

by Robert Lowell
 "Relinquunt Omnia Servare Rem Publicam." 

The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
The airy tanks are dry.

Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
my hand tingled
to burst the bubbles
drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.

My hand draws back. I...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Underworld poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace