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Famous Unwritten Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Sherrick, Fannie Isabelle
...kened by some new unwelcome thought.
Ah! these the words that stir her heart and soul,
And write new truths on life's unwritten scroll.
"Arline, from all the world thou fame hast won.
A crown thou wear'st that fades not with the sun;
Yet chide me not, if now unto thy ear
I speak such words as thou may'st grieve to hear,
For I shall give thee tidings from the shore
Which knows thy face and welcome step no more.
"The two beloved ones left alone, each day,
Grieved more...Read more of this...



by Collins, Billy
...t I might
catch a glimpse of the thing
in the fan of my headlights,
maybe perched on a road sign or a street lamp,
poor unwritten bird, its wings folded,
staring down at me with tiny illuminated eyes....Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...faith soever be hollow,
Whose hope soever grow grey;

Because of the watchwords of kings
That are many and strange and unwritten,
Diverse, and our watchword is one;
Therefore, though seven be the strings,
One string, if the harp be smitten,
Sole sounds, till the tune be done;

Sounds without cadence or change
In a weary monotonous burden,
Be the keynote of mourning or mirth;
Free, but free not to range;
Taking for crown and for guerdon
No man's praise upon earth;

Saying one...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...a voice that cries, "Alas! alas! 
Whatever hath been written shall remain, 
Nor be erased nor written o'er again; 
The unwritten only still belongs to thee: 
Take heed, and ponder well what that shall be." 


As children frightened by a thunder-cloud 
Are reassured if some one reads aloud 
A tale of wonder, with enchantment fraught, 
Or wild adventure, that diverts their thought, 
Let me endeavor with a tale to chase 
The gathering shadows of the time and place, 
And ban...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...ern on the back and loudly cry Whee,
Let's all fail to write just one more letter before we go home, and this round
 of unwritten letters is on me.
No, you never get any fun
Out of things you haven't done,
But they are the things that I do not like to be amid,
Because the suitable things you didn't do give you a lot more trouble than the
 unsuitable things you did.
The moral is that it is probably better not to sin at all, but if some kind of
 sin you must be pursuing...Read more of this...



by Sassoon, Siegfried
...You like my bird-sung gardens: wings and flowers; 
Calm landscapes for emotion; star-lit lawns; 
And Youth against the sun-rise ... ‘Not profound; 
‘But such a haunting music in the sound: 
‘Do it once more; it helps us to forget’.

Last night I dreamt an old recurring scene— 
Some complex out of childhood; (sex, of course!) 
I can’t rememb...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...to a new rhythmus fitted for thee, 
Poems, bridging the way from Life to Death, vaguely wafted in night air, uncaught,
 unwritten, 
Which, let us go forth in the bold day, and write....Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...s safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well. 

Allons! be not detain’d! 
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d! 
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d! 
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge
 expound
 the
 law. 

Mon enfant! I give you my hand! 
I give you my love, more precious than m...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue
In phrases unwritten and measures unsung, 
As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea, 
Is the song that my spirit is singing to me.

In the midnight and tempest when forest trees shiver, 
In the roar of the surf, and the rush of the river, 
In the rustle of leaves and the fall of the rain, 
And on the low breezes I catch the refrain.

From the vapours tha...Read more of this...

by Moore, Thomas
...Written on Returning a Blank Book


Take back the virgin page, 
White and unwritten still; 
Some hand, more calm and sage, 
The leaf must fill. 
Thoughts come, as pure as light 
Pure as even you require; 
But, oh! each word I write 
Love turns to fire. 

Yet let me keep the book: 
Oft shall my heart renew, 
When on its leaves I look, 
Dear thoughts of you. 
Like you, 'tis fair and bright; 
Like you, too bright and fair...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...he sulky strophes willingly 
193 Bore up, in time, the somnolent, deep songs. 
194 Leave room, therefore, in that unwritten book 
195 For the legendary moonlight that once burned 
196 In Crispin's mind above a continent. 
197 America was always north to him, 
198 A northern west or western north, but north, 
199 And thereby polar, polar-purple, chilled 
200 And lank, rising and slumping from a sea 
201 Of hardy foam, receding flatly, spread 
202 In endless l...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...
Each one could be a Jesus mild, 
Each one has been a little child, 
A little child with laughing look, 
A lovely white unwritten book; 
A book that God will take, my friend, 
As each goes out a journey's end. 
The Lord Who gave us Earth and Heaven 
Takes that as thanks for all He's given. 
The book He lent is given back 
All blotted red and smutted black. 

"Open the door," said Jim, "and call." 
Jane gasped "They'll see me. Loose me, Saul." 
She push...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...nlost in the bringing:
That shall be a morning chair,
Poet-dream may sit in,
When it leans out on the air,
Unrhymed and unwritten.

Bring the red cloud from the sun
While he sinketh, catch it.
That shall be a couch,---with one
Sidelong star to watch it,---
Fit for poet's finest Thought,
At the curfew-sounding,--- ;
Things unseen being nearer brought
Than the seen, around him.

Poet's thought,----not poet's sigh!
'Las, they come together!
Cloudy walls divide and fl...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...Oh ye who hold the written clue
 To all save all unwritten things,
And, half a league behind, pursue
 The accomplished Fact with flouts and flings,
 Look! To your knee your baby brings
 The oldest tale since Earth began --
 The answer to your worryings:
 "Once on a time there was a Man."

He, single-handed, met and slew
 Magicians, Armies, Ogres, Kings.
He lonely 'mid his doubting crew --
 "In all ...Read more of this...

by Lehman, David
...rds to empty heaven
by the angels abandoned
for tenure killeth the spirit
(with tenure no man becomes master)
Texts are unwritten with tenure,
under the microscope, sous rature
it turneth the scholar into a drone
decayeth the pipe in his jacket's breast pocket.
Hamlet was not written with tenure,
nor were written Schubert's lieder
nor Manet's Olympia painted with tenure.
No man of genius rises by tenure
Nor woman (I see you smile).
Picasso came not by tenure
nor C...Read more of this...

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