Famous Unmerciful Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Happiness

...hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in th...Read more of this...
by Kenyon, Jane


Lament for the Makers

...to the field 
Enarmit under helm and scheild; 
Victor he is at all mellie:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

That strong unmerciful tyrand 
Takis, on the motheris breast sowkand, 
The babe full of benignitie:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

He takis the campion in the stour, 
The captain closit in the tour, 
The lady in bour full of bewtie:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

He spairis no lord for his piscence, 
Na clerk for his intelligence; 
His awful straik may no man flee:-...Read more of this...
by Dunbar, William

Loves Last Adieu

...ses of Love glad the garden of life,
Though nurtur'd 'mid weeds dropping pestilent dew,
Till Time crops the leaves with unmerciful knife,
Or prunes them for ever, in Love's last adieu!

In vain, with endearments, we soothe the sad heart,
In vain do we vow for an age to be true;
The chance of an hour may command us to part,
Or Death disunite us, in Love's last adieu!

Still Hope, breathing peace, through the grief-swollen breast,
Will whisper, ?Our meeting we yet may renew:?
W...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Peace XVIII

...ned and calamity is seeking possession of my heart. Save him, oh Lord, from the iron paws of War; deliver him from such unmerciful Death, for he is weak, governed by the strong. Oh Lord, save my beloved, who is Thine own son, from the foe, who is Thy foe. Keep him from the forced pathway to Death's door; let him see me, or come and take me to him." 

Quietly a young man entered. His head was wrapped in bandage soaked with escaping life. 

He approached he with a greeting of t...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

The Black Sheep

..., that night of the flowing bowl,
That the man who potlatched the whiskey and landed me into the hole
Was Grubble, that unmerciful bounder, Grubble, of the City Patrol....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William


The Book of Annandale

...be: to know that she had won 
The truth too late—there were the dregs indeed 
Of wisdom, and of love the final thrust 
Unmerciful; and there where now did lie
So plain before her the straight radiance 
Of what was her appointed way to take, 
Were only the bleak ruts of an old road 
That stretched ahead and faded and lay far 
Through deserts of unconscionable years.

But vampire thoughts like these confessed the doubt 
That love denied; and once, if never again, 
They should ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

The Heart of Australia

...out ammunition from England! Mount guns on the cliffs while you may! 
And God pardon our sins as a people if Invasion's unmerciful hand 
Should strike at the heart of Australia drought-cramped on the verge of the land....Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

The Raven

...tly spoken,
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store
    Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
    Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
            Of ‘Never—nevermore’.”

    But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
    Then, upon the velvet sinking, I ...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan

The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face

...on among the reeds,
In ambush the Sitting Bull
Lay with three thousand braves
Crouched in the clefts and caves,
Savage, unmerciful! 

Into the fatal snare
The White Chief with yellow hair
And his three hundred men
Dashed headlong, sword in hand;
But of that gallant band
Not one returned again. 

The sudden darkness of death
Overwhelmed them like the breath
And smoke of a furnace fire:
By the river's bank, and between
The rocks of the ravine,
They lay in their bloody attire. 
...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

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