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Famous Vespers Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Mary Darby
...ng red;
The Twilight veil spread slowly;
While ZORIETTO, near the wood
Where long a little cross had stood,
Was singing Vespers holy.

And now she kiss'd her Holly-beads,
And now she cross'd her breast;
The night-dew fell from ev'ry tree--
It fell upon her rosary,
Like tears of Heav'n twice bless'd!

She knelt upon the brown moss, cold,
She knelt, with eyes, mild beaming!
The day had clos'd, she heard a sigh!
She mark'd the dear and frosty sky
With starry lustre gleaming....Read more of this...



by Scott, Sir Walter
...ume thy wizard elm! the fountain lending, 
And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy; 
Thy numbers sweet with nature’s vespers blending, 
With distant echo from the fold and lea, 
And herd-boy’s evening pipe, and hum of housing bee. 

Yet, once again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp! 
Yet, once again, forgive my feeble sway, 
And little reck I of the censure sharp 
May idly cavil at an idle lay. 
Much have I owed thy strains on life’s long way, 
Through secret woes the ...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...with my Redbreast --
And my Rhymes --

Late -- when I take my place in summer --
But -- I shall bring a fuller tune --
Vespers -- are sweeter than Matins -- Signor --
Morning -- only the seed of Noon --...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...r to his eyes;
And from her chamber-window he would catch
Her beauty farther than the falcon spies;
And constant as her vespers would he watch,
Because her face was turn'd to the same skies;
And with sick longing all the night outwear,
To hear her morning-step upon the stair.

IV.
A whole long month of May in this sad plight
Made their cheeks paler by the break of June:
"To morrow will I bow to my delight,
"To-morrow will I ask my lady's boon."--
"O may I never se...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...and ever at this hour
Those who may cross the water, hear that bell
Which calls the maniacs, each one from his cell,
To vespers." "As much skill as need to pray
In thanks or hope for their dark lot have they
To their stern Maker," I replied. "O ho!
You talk as in years past," said Maddalo.
" 'Tis strange men change not. You were ever still
Among Christ's flock a perilous infidel,
A wolf for the meek lambs--if you can't swim
Beware of Providence." I look'd ...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...e will let me in 
To hear the manner of thy fight and fall; 
Then, when I come within her counsels, then 
From prime to vespers will I chant thy praise 
As prowest knight and truest lover, more 
Than any have sung thee living, till she long 
To have thee back in lusty life again, 
Not to be bound, save by white bonds and warm, 
Dearer than freedom. Wherefore now thy horse 
And armour: let me go: be comforted: 
Give me three days to melt her fancy, and hope 
The third nigh...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...e broken pots

those ferns that stamped their skeletons on the skin

and those roads that begin reciting their names at vespers

mention them and they will stop
those crabs that were willing to let an epoch pass
those herons like spinsters that doubted their reflections
inquiring, inquiring

those nettles that waited
those Sundays, those Sundays

those Sundays when the lights at the road's end were an occasion

those Sundays when my mother lay on her back
those Sundays when t...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...d miss till, past retrieve,
Blasted lay that rose-acacia
We're so proud of! _Hy, Zy, Hine ..._
'St, there's Vespers! _Plena grati
Ave, Virgo!_ Gr-r-r---you swine!...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...heaven:--Porphyro grew faint:
She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint.

 Anon his heart revives: her vespers done,
 Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees;
 Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one;
 Loosens her fragrant boddice; by degrees
 Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees:
 Half-hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed,
 Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees,
 In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed,
But dares not look behind, or all the cha...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...sunbeams crawl,
     Inch after inch, along the wall.
     The lark was wont my matins ring,
     The sable rook my vespers sing;
     These towers, although a king's they be,
     Have not a hall of joy for me.

     No more at dawning morn I rise,
     And sun myself in Ellen's eyes,
     Drive the fleet deer the forest through,
     And homeward wend with evening dew;
     A blithesome welcome blithely meet,
     And lay my trophies at her feet,
     While fl...Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...er name and spreads his arms . . . No use! 
She will not come, the woman that he waits. 


But the long vespers close. The priest on high 
Raises the thing that Christ's own flesh enforms; 
And down the Gothic nave the crowd flows by 
And through the portal's carven entry swarms. 
Maddened he peers upon each passing face 
Till the long drab procession terminates. 
No princess passes out with proud majestic pace. 
She has not come, the woman tha...Read more of this...

by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'

'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--
Why look'st thou so?'--'With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.'

PART TWO

THE Sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
...Read more of this...

by Gluck, Louise
...In your extended absence, you permit me
use of earth, anticipating
some return on investment. I must report
failure in my assignment, principally
regarding the tomato plants.
I think I should not be encouraged to grow
tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold
the heavy rains, the cold nights that come
so often here, while other regions get
twe...Read more of this...

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