Famous Unfold Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Familiar Letter

...a treasure your casket may hold?
I'll show you that rhyming's as easy as lying,
If you'll listen to me while the art I unfold.

Here's a book full of words; one can choose as he fancies,
As a painter his tint, as a workman his tool;
Just think! all the poems and plays and romances
Were drawn out of this, like the fish from a pool!

You can wander at will through its syllabled mazes,
And take all you want, not a copper they cost,--
What is there to hinder your picking out phr...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell


Charmides

...milion-finned with eyes of bossy gold
Like flakes of crimson light, and the great deep
His glassy-portaled chamber will unfold,
And we will see the painted dolphins sleep
Cradled by murmuring halcyons on the rocks
Where Proteus in quaint suit of green pastures his monstrous
flocks.

And tremulous opal-hued anemones
Will wave their purple fringes where we tread
Upon the mirrored floor, and argosies
Of fishes flecked with tawny scales will thread
The drifting cordage of the sha...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Comus

...—yet to what end?
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend
The sublime notion and high mystery
That must be uttered to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of Virginity;
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know
More happiness than this thy present lot.
Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,
That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.
Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth
Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spir...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Custer

...This splendid pageant surge before his eyes.
Not in those mighty battle days of old
Did scenes like this upon his sight unfold.
But now it passes. Drums and bugles cease
To dash war billows on the shores of Peace.
The victors smile on fair broad bosomed Sleep
While in her soothing arms, the vanquished cease to weep.



BOOK THIRD.
There is an interval of eight years between Books Second and Third.

I.
As in the long dead days marauding hosts
Of Indians came from far Siberian ...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Discovery

...The petals of the vagina unfold
like Christofer Columbus
taking off his shoes.

Is there anything more beautiful
than the bow of a ship
touching a new world?...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard


Endymion: Book III

...s sheep:
And never was a day of summer shine,
But I beheld its birth upon the brine:
For I would watch all night to see unfold
Heaven's gates, and Aethon snort his morning gold
Wide o'er the swelling streams: and constantly
At brim of day-tide, on some grassy lea,
My nets would be spread out, and I at rest.
The poor folk of the sea-country I blest
With daily boon of fish most delicate:
They knew not whence this bounty, and elate
Would strew sweet flowers on a sterile beach.

...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Isabella or The Pot of Basil

...Love! thou art leading me from wintry cold,
"Lady! thou leadest me to summer clime,
"And I must taste the blossoms that unfold
"In its ripe warmth this gracious morning time."
So said, his erewhile timid lips grew bold,
And poesied with hers in dewy rhyme:
Great bliss was with them, and great happiness
Grew, like a lusty flower in June's caress.

X.
Parting they seem'd to tread upon the air,
Twin roses by the zephyr blown apart
Only to meet again more close, and share
The inw...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Lara

...rs could discern the growth 
Of thoughts that mortal lips must leave half told; 
They choke the feeble words that would unfold. 

XVII. 

In him inexplicably mix'd appear'd 
Much to be loved and hated, sought and fear'd; 
Opinion varying o'er his hidden lot, 
In praise or railing ne'er his name forgot; 
His silence form'd a theme for others' prate — 
They guess'd — they gazed — they fain would know his fate. 
What had he been? what was he, thus unknown, 
Who walk'd their worl...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Music

...nd he must speak,
Calling the fortress to resign
Its treasure, valiant love grows weak,
And hardly dares his purpose to unfold.
Less with his faltering lips than with his eyes
He claims the longed-for prize:
Love fain would tell it all, yet leaves the best untold.

But thou shalt speak for love. Yea, thou shalt teach
The mystery of measured tone,
The Pentecostal speech
That every listener heareth as his own.
For on thy head the cloven tongues of fire,--
Diminished chords that...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...this fair Paradise, your sense; yet such 
Accept your Maker's work; he gave it me, 
Which I as freely give: Hell shall unfold, 
To entertain you two, her widest gates, 
And send forth all her kings; there will be room, 
Not like these narrow limits, to receive 
Your numerous offspring; if no better place, 
Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge 
On you who wrong me not for him who wronged. 
And should I at your harmless innocence 
Melt, as I do, yet publick reason just, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...s 
Of warring Spirits? how, without remorse, 
The ruin of so many glorious once 
And perfect while they stood? how last unfold 
The secrets of another world, perhaps 
Not lawful to reveal? yet for thy good 
This is dispensed; and what surmounts the reach 
Of human sense, I shall delineate so, 
By likening spiritual to corporal forms, 
As may express them best; though what if Earth 
Be but a shadow of Heaven, and things therein 
Each to other like, more than on earth is though...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...he race of Man; 
But I was far deceived; for now I see 
Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste. 
How comes it thus? unfold, celestial Guide, 
And whether here the race of Man will end. 
To whom thus Michael. Those, whom last thou sawest 
In triumph and luxurious wealth, are they 
First seen in acts of prowess eminent 
And great exploits, but of true virtue void; 
Who, having spilt much blood, and done much wast 
Subduing nations, and achieved thereby 
Fame in the world, h...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Song of the Redwood-Tree

...unconfined, uncheck’d by wall or roof, 
Here laugh with storm or sun—here joy—here patiently inure, 
Here heed himself, unfold himself (not others’ formulas heed)—here fill
 his time,
To duly fall, to aid, unreck’d at last, 
To disappear, to serve. 

Thus, on the northern coast, 
In the echo of teamsters’ calls, and the clinking chains, and the music of choppers’ axes,

The falling trunk and limbs, the crash, the muffled shriek, the groan,
Such words combined from the Redwood...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Artists

...as a dream,
She plunged into the silvery stream,
Surrendering to her spoiler's art.
Creative power soon in your breast unfolded;
Too noble far, not idly to conceive,
The shadow's form in sand, in clay ye moulded,
And made it in the sketch its being leave.
The longing thirst for action then awoke,--
And from your breast the first creation broke.

By contemplation captive made,
Ensnared by your discerning eye,
The friendly phantom's soon betrayed
The talisman that roused your ...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Bride of Abydos

...l the dart, and curb the steed, 
Thou, Greek in soul if not in creed, 
Must pore where babbling waters flow, 
And watch unfolding roses blow. 
Would that yon orb, whose matin glow 
Thy listless eyes so much admire, 
Would lend thee something of his fire! 
Thou, who wouldst see this battlement 
By Christian cannon piecemeal rent; 
Nay, tamely view old Stamboul's wall 
Before the dogs of Moscow fall, 
Nor strike one stroke for life or death 
Against the curs of Nazareth! 
Go — ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Giaour

...ot from youth to age;
And thou wilt bless thee from the rage
Of passions fierce and uncontrolled,
Such as thy penitents unfold,
Whose secret sins and sorrows rest
Within thy pure and pitying breast. My days, though few, have passed below
In much of joy, but more of woe;
Yet still in hours of love or strife,
I've 'scaped the weariness of life:
Now leagued with friends, now girt by foes,
I loathed the languor of repose.
Now nothing left to love or hate,
No more with hope or pri...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Growth of Love

...south shall bid,
And hither tempt the pilgrim steps of spring. 

7
In thee my spring of life hath bid the while
A rose unfold beyond the summer's best,
The mystery of joy made manifest
In love's self-answering and awakening smile;
Whereby the lips in wonder reconcile
Passion with peace, and show desire at rest,--
A grace of silence by the Greek unguesst,
That bloom'd to immortalize the Tuscan style 
When first the angel-song that faith hath ken'd
Fancy pourtray'd, above reco...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Rape of the Lock

...r the Shrouds Aerial Whispers breathe,
That seem'd but Zephyrs to the Train beneath.
Some to the Sun their Insect-Wings unfold,
Waft on the Breeze, or sink in Clouds of Gold. 
Transparent Forms, too fine for mortal Sight,
Their fluid Bodies half dissolv'd in Light.
Loose to the Wind their airy Garments flew,
Thin glitt'ring Textures of the filmy Dew;
Dipt in the richest Tincture of the Skies,
Where Light disports in ever-mingling Dies,
While ev'ry Beam new transient Colours f...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

The Three Voices

...,
As might a cat a little bird. 

Then, having wholly overthrown
His views, and stripped them to the bone,
Proceeded to unfold her own. 

"Shall Man be Man? And shall he miss
Of other thoughts no thought but this,
Harmonious dews of sober bliss? 

"What boots it? Shall his fevered eye
Through towering nothingness descry
The grisly phantom hurry by? 

"And hear dumb shrieks that fill the air;
See mouths that gape, and eyes that stare
And redden in the dusky glare? 

"The meado...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Woodland Burial

...dryness over all,
Lay me in some leafy loam where, sheltered from the cold
Little seeds investigate and tender leaves unfold.
There kindly and affectionately, plant a native tree
To grow resplendent before God and hold some part of me.
The roots will not disturb me as they wend their peaceful way
To build the fine and bountiful, from closure and decay.
To seek their small requirements so that when their work is done
I’ll be tall and standing strongly in the beauty of ...Read more of this...
by Ayres, Pam

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