Famous Vestige Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Seth Compton

by Edgar Lee Masters
When I died, the circulating library
Which I built up for Spoon River,
And managed for the good of inquiring minds,
Was sold at auction on the public square,
As if to destroy the last vestige
Of my memory and influence.
For those of you who could not see the virtue
Of knowing Volney's "Ruins" as well as Butler's "Analogy"
And "Faust" as well as "Evangeline,"
Were really the...Read more of this...

Harmonie du Soir

by Charles Baudelaire
 Voici venir les temps o? vibrant sur sa tige
Chaque fleur s'?vapore ainsi qu'un encensoir;
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir;
Valse m?lancolique et langoureux vertige! 
Chaque fleur s'?vapore ainsi qu'un encensoir;
Le violon fr?mit comme un coeur qu'on afflige;
Valse m?lancolique et langoureux vertige!
Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir.
Le violon fr?mit comme un coeur qu'on...Read more of this...

Love Among The Ruins

by Robert Browning
 I

Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles
 Miles and miles
On the solitary pastures where our sheep
 Half-asleep
Tinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stop
 As they crop— 
Was the site once of a city great and gay,
 (So they say)
Of our country's very capital, its prince
 Ages since
Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far
 Peace or war.

II

Now—the country...Read more of this...

Fit the Second ( Hunting of the Snark )

by Lewis Carroll
 The Bellman's Speech 

The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies--
Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!
Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,
The moment one looked in his face! 
He had bought a large map representing the sea, 
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A...Read more of this...

Remember

by Christina Rossetti
 Remember me when I am gone away,
 Gone far away into the silent land;
 When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
 You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
 Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then...Read more of this...

The Sea

by Lewis Carroll
 There are certain things -a spider, a ghost,
The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three - 
That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most
Is a thing they call the SEA.

Pour some salt water over the floor - 
Ugly I'm sure you'll allow it to be:
Suppose it extended a mile or more,
That's very like the SEA.

Beat a dog...Read more of this...

The Law Of Laws

by Robert William Service
 If we could roll back History
 A century, let's say,
And start from there, I'm sure that we
 Would find things as to-day:
In all creation's cosmic range
 No vestige of a change.

Turn back a thousand years, the same
 Unchangement we would view;
Cause and Effect their laws proclaim,
 The truest of the true,
And in life's mechanistic groove
 The Universe would move.

Grim...Read more of this...

A Sea Dirge

by Lewis Carroll
 There are certain things--as, a spider, a ghost,
 The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three--
That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most
 Is a thing they call the Sea.

Pour some salt water over the floor--
 Ugly I'm sure you'll allow it to be:
Suppose it extended a mile or more,
 That's very like the Sea.

Beat a dog...Read more of this...

The Mother Mourns

by Thomas Hardy
 When mid-autumn's moan shook the night-time, 
 And sedges were horny, 
And summer's green wonderwork faltered 
 On leaze and in lane, 

I fared Yell'ham-Firs way, where dimly 
 Came wheeling around me 
Those phantoms obscure and insistent 
 That shadows unchain. 

Till airs from the needle-thicks brought me 
 A low lamentation, 
As 'twere of a tree-god disheartened,...Read more of this...

The Harvest

by Duncan Campbell Scott
 Sun on the mountain,
Shade in the valley,
Ripple and lightness
Leaping along the world,
Sun, like a gold sword
Plucked from the scabbard,
Striking the wheat-fields,
Splendid and lusty,
Close-standing, full-headed,
Toppling with plenty;
Shade, like a buckler
Kindly and ample,
Sweeping the wheat-fields
Darkening and tossing;
There on the world-rim
Winds break and gather
Heaping the mist
For the pyre of the sunset;
And still as a shadow,
In the dim westward,
A cloud sloop of amethyst
Moored...Read more of this...

Jasmines

by Claude McKay
 Your scent is in the room. 
Swiftly it overwhelms and conquers me! 
Jasmines, night jasmines, perfect of perfume, 
Heavy with dew before the dawn of day! 
Your face was in the mirror. I could see 
You smile and vanish suddenly away, 
Leaving behind the vestige of a tear. 
Sad suffering face, from parting grown so dear! 
Night jasmines cannot...Read more of this...

The Wild Honey-Suckle

by Philip Freneau
 Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,
Hid in this silent, dull retreat,
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,
Unseen thy little branches greet;
...No roving foot shall crush thee here,
...No busy hand provoke a tear.

By Nature's self in white arrayed,
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,
And planted here the gaurdian shade,
And sent soft waters murmuring by;
...Thus quietly thy summer goes,
...Thy days declinging to...Read more of this...

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