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Famous Vellum Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Dickinson, Emily
...-
He lived -- where Dreams were born --

His presence is Enchantment --
You beg him not to go --
Old Volume shake their Vellum Heads
And tantalize -- just so --...Read more of this...



by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...ch rural muse;
Nor lett the busy compasses go round,
When faery Cercles better mark the ground.
Rich Colours on the Vellum cease to lay,
When ev'ry lawne much nobler can display,
When on the daz'ling poppy may be seen
A glowing red, exceeding your carmine;
And for the blew that o're the Sea is borne,
A brighter rises in our standing corn. 
Come then, my Dafnis, and the feilds survey,
And throo' the groves, with your Ardelia stray. 

Come, and lett Sansons World, n...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...est thou leau'st the best behinde!
For, like a childe that some faire booke doth find,
With gilded leaues or colour'd vellum playes,
Or, at the most, on some fine picture stayes,
But neuer heeds the fruit of Writers mind;
So when thou saw'st, in Natures cabinet,
Stella, thou straight lookst babies in her eyes:
In her chekes pit thou didst thy pitfold set,
And in her breast bo-peepe or crouching lies,
Playing and shining in each outward part;
But, fool, seekst not to...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...ily use, and bound for wear;
The rest upon an upper floor;--
Some little luxury there
Of red morocco's gilded gleam
And vellum rich as country cream.

Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these,
Which others often show for pride,
I value for their power to please,
And selfish churls deride;--
One Stradivarius, I confess,
Two Meerschaums, I would fain possess.

Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn,
Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;--
Shall not carved tables ser...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...maidens gay;
I'll weave no compliments to tell 'em!
Vain fool I were,
Did I prefer
Those dolls to these old friends in vellum!

At dead of night
My chamber's bright
Not only with the gas that's burning,
But with the glow
Of long ago,--
Of beauty back from eld returning.

Fair women's looks
I see in books,
I see them, and I hear their laughter,--
Proud, high-born maids,
Unlike the jades
Which men-folk now go chasing after!

Herein again
Speak valiant men
Of all nativities...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...ed my mates who topped the class.
No envy in my heart I found,
Yet bone was worthier to own
Those precious books in vellum bound,
Than I, a dreamer and a drone.

No prize at school I ever gained
(Shirking my studies, I suppose):
Yes, I remember being caned
For lack of love of Latin prose.
For algebra I won no praise,
In grammar I was far from bright:
Yet, oh, how Poetry would raise
In me a rapture of delight!

I never gained a prize at school;
The dullard's cap ad...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...s my Lord;
To all their dated backs he turns you round:
These Aldus printed, those Du Sueil has bound.
Lo, some are vellum, and the rest as good
For all his Lordship knows, but they are wood.
For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look,
These shelves admit not any modern book.

And now the chapel's silver bell you hear,
That summons you to all the pride of pray'r:
Light quirks of music, broken and uneven,
Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven.
On painted ceili...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...d upon my head;
And thus I let the blood down flow
 Into my cerebellum,
And published every Spring or so
 Slim tomes in vellum.

Alas! I am rheumatic now,
 Grey is my crown;
I can no more with brooding brow
 Stand upside-down.
I fear I might in such a pose
 Burst brain blood-vessel;
And that would be a woeful close
 To my rhyme wrestle.

If to write verse I must reverse
 I fear I'm stymied;
In ink of prose I must immerse
 A pen de-rhymèd.
No more to spank the ...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...best thou leav'st the best behind. 

For like a child that some fair book doth find, 
With gilded leaves or colored vellum plays, 
Or at the most on some find picture stays, 
But never heeds the fruit of writer's mind: 

So when thou saw'st in Nature's cabinet 
Stella, thou straight lookst babies in her eyes, 
In her cheek's pit thou didst thy pitfall set: 

And in her breast bopeep or couching lies, 
Playing and shining in each outward part: 
But, fool, seekst not to get...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...where the gothic spires fly
And sway like masts, against a shifting breeze.
Worm-eaten pages, clasped in old brown vellum, 
shrunk
From over-handling, by some anxious monk.
Or Virgin's Hours, bright with gold and graven
With flowers, and rare birds, and all the Saints of Heaven,
And Noah's ark stuck on Ararat, when all the world had sunk.
They soothe us like a song, heard in a garden, 
sung
By youthful minstrels, on the moonlight flung
In cadences and falls, to e...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...he God that makes the roof, Gurth,
The God that makes the road.

"The God that heweth kings in oak
Writeth songs on vellum,
God of gold and flaming glass,
Confregit potentias
Acrcuum, scutum, Gorlias,
Gladium et bellum."

Steel and lightning broke about him,
Battle-bays and palm,
All the sea-kings swayed among
Woods of the Wessex arms upflung,
The trumpet of the Roman tongue,
The thunder of the psalm.

And midmost of that rolling field
Ran Ogier ragingly,
Lashing ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...ge assent.
A silver thread about her head
Her halo was poised. But in the stead
Of her gown, there remained
The vellum, unstained.
Clotilde painted the flowers patiently,
Lingering over each tint and dye.
She could spend great pains, now she had seen
That curious, unimagined green.
A colour so strange
It had seemed to change.
She thought it had altered while she gazed.
At first it had been simple green; then glazed
All over with twisting flames, ea...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...rred to me -
If scribes would only write one book,
 How good 'twould be!
Or if our authors had to scroll
Their words on vellum fair,
Their output might be very small,
 But oh how rare!

So writers of today take note,
If you your souls would save,
Let every line be one to quote
 And to engrave.
Then though you dismally are dead,
You will be cheered to know
your precious prose may still be read
 -Ten years or so....Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Vellum poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs