Famous Unfruitful Poems by Famous Poets

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

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To a Childless Woman

by Siegfried Sassoon
 You think I cannot understand. Ah, but I do... 
I have been wrung with anger and compassion for you. 
I wonder if you’d loathe my pity, if you knew. 

But you shall know. I’ve carried in my heart too long 
This secret burden. Has not silence wrought your wrong— 
Brought you to dumb and wintry middle-age, with grey 
Unfruitful...Read more of this...

Nimmo

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 Since you remember Nimmo, and arrive 
At such a false and florid and far drawn 
Confusion of odd nonsense, I connive 
No longer, though I may have led you on. 

So much is told and heard and told again,
So many with his legend are engrossed, 
That I, more sorry now than I was then, 
May live on to be...Read more of this...

The North Ship

by Philip Larkin
 Legend

I saw three ships go sailing by,
Over the sea, the lifting sea,
And the wind rose in the morning sky,
And one was rigged for a long journey.

The first ship turned towards the west,
Over the sea, the running sea,
And by the wind was all possessed
And carried to a rich country.

The second ship turned towards the east,
Over the sea, the quaking sea,
And...Read more of this...

Faint Yet Pursuing

by Coventry Patmore
 Heroic Good, target for which the young
Dream in their dreams that every bow is strung,
And, missing, sigh
Unfruitful, or as disbelievers die,
Thee having miss'd, I will not so revolt,
But lowlier shoot my bolt,
And lowlier still, if still I may not reach,
And my proud stomach teach
That less than highest is good, and may be high.
And even walk in life's uneven way,
Though...Read more of this...

Heroic Poem in Praise of Wine

by Hilaire Belloc
 To exalt, enthrone, establish and defend,
To welcome home mankind's mysterious friend
Wine, true begetter of all arts that be;
Wine, privilege of the completely free;
Wine the recorder; wine the sagely strong;
Wine, bright avenger of sly-dealing wrong,
Awake, Ausonian Muse, and sing the vineyard song!

Sing how the Charioteer from Asia came,
And on his front the little dancing flame
Which marked the God-head. Sing the...Read more of this...

Song of the Future

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 'Tis strange that in a land so strong 
So strong and bold in mighty youth, 
We have no poet's voice of truth 
To sing for us a wondrous song. 
Our chiefest singer yet has sung 
In wild, sweet notes a passing strain, 
All carelessly and sadly flung 
To that dull world he thought so vain. 

"I care for nothing,...Read more of this...

Preparation

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 We must not force events, but rather make
The heart soil ready for their coming, as
The earth spreads carpets for the feet of Spring, 
Or, with the strengthening tonic of the frost, 
Prepares for Winter. Should a July noon
Burst suddenly upon a frozen world
Small joy would follow, even tho' that world
Were longing for the Summer. Should the sting
Of sharp December...Read more of this...

Excursion

by D. H. Lawrence
 I wonder, can the night go by; 
Can this shot arrow of travel fly 
Shaft-golden with light, sheer into the sky 
Of a dawned to-morrow, 
Without ever sleep delivering us
From each other, or loosing the dolorous 
Unfruitful sorrow! 

What is it then that you can see 
That at the window endlessly 
You watch the red sparks whirl and flee
And...Read more of this...

The Snow

by Emile Verhaeren
Uninterruptedly falls the snow,
Like meagre, long wool-strands, scant and slow,
O'er the meagre, long plain disconsolate.
Cold with lovelessness, warm with hate.


Infinite, infinite falls the snow.
Like a moment's time.
Monotonously, in a moment's time;
On the houses it falls and drops, the snow.
Monotonous, whitening them o'er with rime;
It falls on the sheds and their palings below.
And myriad-wise, it falls and lies
In ridgèd waves
In the...Read more of this...

Genius

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 A hundred generations have gone into its making,
With all their love and tenderness, with all their dreams and tears;
Their vanished joy and pleasure, their pain and their heart-breaking,
Have colored this rare blossom of the long-unfruitful years. 

Their victory and their laughter for this have strong men given,
For this have sweet, dead women paid in patience which survives­
That a great...Read more of this...

The Lay of a Golden Goose

by Louisa May Alcott
 Long ago in a poultry yard 
One dull November morn, 
Beneath a motherly soft wing 
A little goose was born. 

Who straightway peeped out of the shell 
To view the world beyond, 
Longing at once to sally forth 
And paddle in the pond. 

"Oh! be not rash," her father said, 
A mild Socratic bird; 
Her mother begged her not...Read more of this...

On The Critical Attitude

by Bertolt Brecht
 The critical attitude
Strikes many people as unfruitful
That is because they find the state
Impervious to their criticism
But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude
Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms
And states can be demolished by it.

Canalising a river
Grafting a fruit tree
Educating a person
Transforming a state
These are instances of fruitful criticism
And at the same time instances of art....Read more of this...

Contentment

by Oliver Wendell Holmes
 "Man wants but little here below."



LITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone,
(A very plain brown stone will do,)
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one,
In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Plain food is quite enough for me;
Three courses are as good as ten;--
If Nature can subsist on three,
Thank...Read more of this...

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