Famous Unsmiling Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Letter

by Charlotte Bronte
 What is she writing? Watch her now, 
How fast her fingers move !
How eagerly her youthful brow 
Is bent in thought above !
Her long curls, drooping, shade the light, 
She puts them quick aside,
Nor knows, that band of crystals bright, 
Her hasty touch untied.
It slips adown her silken dress, 
Falls glittering at her feet;
Unmarked it falls, for she no...Read more of this...

The Well

by Denise Levertov
 At sixteen I believed the moonlight 
could change me if it would.
 I moved my head
on the pillow, even moved my bed
as the moon slowly
crossed the open lattice.

I wanted beauty, a dangerous
gleam of steel, my body thinner,
my pale face paler.
 I moonbathed
diligently, as others sunbathe.
But the moon's unsmiling stare
kept me awake. Mornings,
I was flushed and cross.

It was on dark...Read more of this...

Shame

by Richard Wilbur
 It is a cramped little state with no foreign policy,
Save to be thought inoffensive. The grammar of the language
Has never been fathomed, owing to the national habit
Of allowing each sentence to trail off in confusion.
Those who have visited Scusi, the capital city,
Report that the railway-route from Schuldig passes
Through country best described as unrelieved.
Sheep are the national product. The faint...Read more of this...

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