Famous Unlocked Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Servant to Servants

...learn what their names are, let alone 
Their characters, or whether they are safe 
To have inside the house with doors unlocked. 
I'm not afraid of them, though, if they're not 
Afraid of me. There's two can play at that. 
I have my fancies: it runs in the family. 
My father's brother wasn't right. They kept him 
Locked up for years back there at the old farm. 
I've been away once--yes, I've been away. 
The State Asylum. I was prejudiced; 
I wouldn't have sent anyone of mine...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert


Beowulf (Old English)

...f the country whence ye came.”



IV

To him the stateliest spake in answer;
the warriors’ leader his word-hoard unlocked: --
“We are by kin of the clan of Geats,
and Hygelac’s own hearth-fellows we.
To folk afar was my father known,
noble atheling, Ecgtheow named.
Full of winters, he fared away
aged from earth; he is honored still
through width of the world by wise men all.
To thy lord and liege in loyal mood
we hasten hither, to Healfdene’s son,
people-prot...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Comus

...was another meaning in these gifts;
Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet.
 LADY. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips
In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler
Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,
Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb.
I hate when vice can bolt her arguments
And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.
Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,
As if she would her children should be riotous
With her abundance. She...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Homers Seeing-Eye Dog

...im
began to set from the edges in,
like a custard, and then he was awake,
me too, of course, wriggling my ears
while he unlocked his bladder and stream
of dopey wake-up jokes. The one
about the wine-dark pee I hated instantly.
I stood at the ready, like a god
in an epic, but there was never much
to do. Oh now and then I'd make a sure
intervention, save a life, whatever.
But my exploits don't interest you
and of his life all I can say is that
when he'd poured out his work
the ...Read more of this...
by Matthews, William

Love

...re,
Yet in my heart thy image will be there,
To soothe each wayward hour, to lighten care;
Thy simple teachings have unlocked the door
Of life's best thoughts to me, and if I grow
to better manhood, you have made me so."
Upon her bending head and gentle face
A sunbeam fell and lit with mystic grace
Her dark, uplifted eyes, then quickly fled
To mingle with the sunset's dying red.
A sunny face—a noble womanhood,
A heart's wild passion dead, a new-born pride;
One mom...Read more of this...
by Sherrick, Fannie Isabelle


Love And Grief

...way.
Grief, wandering widely, found the key,
And hastened with it, straightway, back to me,
With Love beside him. He unlocked the door
And bade Love enter with him there and stay.
And so the twain abide for evermore.
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

My Friends Light

...I'm waiting for my friend. The gate's unlocked. 
 The banisters are lit so he can walk. 

 I'm waiting for my friend. The times are dull and tough. 
 Anticipation lightens our life. 

 He's driving down the Ring Road, at full speed, 
 the way I did it when he was in need. 

 He will arrive to find the spot at once, 
 the pine is lit well in advance. 

 There is a dog. His eyes are phosphorescent...Read more of this...
by Voznesensky, Andrei

Perished

...ivers, and tell them to run, 
And kiss the snow-drifts and melt them away.”
And the sun came over – a tardy lover –
And unlocked the river, and told it to glide, 
And kissed the snow-drift till it fainted and died.

I called to the robin, “Come back! 
Come up from the south and sing! ”
And robin sailed up on an airy track, 
And smoothed down his feathers and oiled his wing.
And the notes came gushing, gurgling, rushing, 
In trills and quavers, clear, mellow, and strong, 
Till...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Reminder

...from a little wind:
--I wonder now if God allows
    Us only one moment his keys.

    If only then
You could have unlocked the moon on the night,
And I baptized myself in the light
Of your love; we both have entered then the white
    Pure passion, and never again.

    I wonder if only
You had taken me then, how different
Life would have been: should I have spent
Myself in waste, and you have bent
    Your pride, through being lonely?...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

Rosalind and Helen: a Modern Eclogue

...
The torturers with their victim's pain, 
And none knew how; and through their ears
The subtle witchcraft of his tongue
Unlocked the hearts of those who keep
Gold, the world's bond of slavery.
Men wondered, and some sneered to see
One sow what he could never reap;
For he is rich, they said, and young,
And might drink from the depths of luxury.
If he seeks fame, fame never crowned
The champion of a trampled creed; 
If he seeks power, power is enthroned
'Mid ancient rights and ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Snapshots of a Daughter-In-Law

...g
of silk against her knees
and these 
adjusted in reflections of an eye.

Poised, trembling and unsatisfied, before
an unlocked door, that cage of cages,
tell us, you bird, you tragical machine--
is this fertillisante douleur? Pinned down
by love, for you the only natural action,
are you edged more keen
to prise the secrets of the vault? has Nature shown
her household books to you, daughter-in-law,
that her sons never saw?

 7

"To have in this uncertain world some stay
whic...Read more of this...
by Rich, Adrienne

The Artists

...gracefully, O man, with thy palm-bough,
Upon the waning century standest thou,
In proud and noble manhood's prime,
With unlocked senses, with a spirit freed,
Of firmness mild,--though silent, rich in deed,
The ripest son of Time,
Through meekness great, through precepts strong,
Through treasures rich, that time had long
Hid in thy bosom, and through reason free,--
Master of Nature, who thy fetters loves,
And who thy strength in thousand conflicts proves,
And from the desert s...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Heart of Australia

...ift years proved me right – 
Saying: "What shall Australia fight for? And whom shall Australia fight?" 

I wrote of the unlocked rivers in the days when my heart was full, 
And I pleaded for irrigation where they sacrifice all for wool. 
I pictured Australia fighting when the coast had been lost and won – 
With arsenals west of the mountains and every spur its gun. 

And what shall Australia fight for? The reason may yet be found, 
When strange shells scatter the wickets and ...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

When Once The Twilight Locks No Longer

...cid on each hinge,
And swallowed dry the waters of the breast.

When the galactic sea was sucked
And all the dry seabed unlocked,
I sent my creature scouting on the globe,
That globe itself of hair and bone
That, sewn to me by nerve and brain,
Had stringed my flask of matter to his rib.

My fuses are timed to charge his heart,
He blew like powder to the light
And held a little sabbath with the sun,
But when the stars, assuming shape,
Drew in his eyes the straws of sleep
He dr...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan

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