Famous Visage Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lovers Complaint

...gs a-twain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.

Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcass of beauty spent and done:
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven's fell rage,
Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,
Laundering the silken fig...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William


A poem on divine revelation

...ov'reign sway, 
And makes the human nature grow divine. 


Now hideous war forgets one half her rage, 
And smoothes her visage horible to view. 
Celestial graces better sooth the soul, 
Than vocal music, or the charming sound 
Of harp or lyre. More than the golden lyre 
Which Orpheus tun'd in melancholy notes, 
Which almost pierc'd the dull cold ear of death, 
And mov'd the grave to give him back his bride. 


Peace with the graces and fair science now 
Wait on the gospel car...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

Alastor: or the Spirit of Solitude

...ager breath, and feet 
Disturbing not the drifted snow, had paused
In its career; the infant would conceal
His troubled visage in his mother's robe
In terror at the glare of those wild eyes,
To remember their strange light in many a dream
Of after times; but youthful maidens, taught
By nature, would interpret half the woe
That wasted him, would call him with false names
Brother and friend, would press his pallid hand
At parting, and watch, dim through tears, the path 
Of his ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...f these mighty days, and of peace return’d, and the dead that return no
 more, 
A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, accosted me; 
Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of America—chant me
 the
 carol of victory; 
And strike up the marches of Libertad—marches more powerful yet;
And sing me before you go, the song of the throes of Democracy. 

(Democracy—the destin’d conqueror—yet treacherous lip-smiles everywhere, 
And Death and infidelity at every s...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Blood And The Moon

...life; and power,
Like everything that has the stain of blood,
A property of the living; but no stain
Can come upon the visage of the moon
When it has looked in glory from a cloud....Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler


Comus

...
 ELD. BRO. Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon,
That wont'st to love the traveller's benison,
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,
And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here
In double night of darkness and of shades;
Or, if your influence be quite dammed up
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,
Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole
Of some clay habitation, visit us
With thy long levelled rule of streaming light,
And thou shalt be our star of Arcady...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Inferno (English)

...H, strange! ho, Satan!" such the sounds half-heard 
 The thick voice gobbled, the while the foul, inflamed, 
 Distended visage toward us turned, and cast 
 Invective from its bestial throat, that slurred 
 Articulate speech. But here the gentle sage, 
 Who knew beforehand that we faced, to me 
 Spake first, "Regard not; for a threat misaimed 
 Falls idle. Fear not to continue past. 
 His power to us, however else it be, 
 Is not to hinder." Then, that bulk inflate 
 Confronti...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Lara

.... 
He gazed on Ezzelin till Lara cast 
That sidelong smile upon on the knight he pass'd; 
When Kaled saw that smile his visage fell, 
As if on something recognised right well; 
His memory read in such a meaning more 
Than Lara's aspect unto others wore. 
Forward he sprung — a moment, both were gone, 
And all within that hall seem'd left alone; 
Each had so fix'd his eye on Lara's mien, 
All had so mix'd their feelings with that scene, 
That when his long dark shadow through t...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Ozymandias

...o said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Paradise Lost: Book 02

.... 
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge!" 
 Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, 
With faltering speech and visage incomposed, 
Answered: "I know thee, stranger, who thou art-- *** 
That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 
I saw and heard; for such a numerous host 
Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep, 
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 
Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates 
Poured out by millio...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...le he spake, each passion dimmed his face 
Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair; 
Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed 
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. 
For heavenly minds from such distempers foul 
Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware, 
Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm, 
Artificer of fraud; and was the first 
That practised falsehood under saintly show, 
Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge: 
Yet not enough had practised to dece...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...earth the sea, 
Earth and the sea feed air, the air those fires 
Ethereal, and as lowest first the moon; 
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged 
Vapours not yet into her substance turned. 
Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale 
From her moist continent to higher orbs. 
The sun that light imparts to all, receives 
From all his alimental recompence 
In humid exhalations, and at even 
Sups with the ocean. Though in Heaven the trees 
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...news 
From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased 
All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare 
That time celestial visages, yet, mixed 
With pity, violated not their bliss. 
About the new-arrived, in multitudes 
The ethereal people ran, to hear and know 
How all befel: They towards the throne supreme, 
Accountable, made haste, to make appear, 
With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance 
And easily approved; when the Most High 
Eternal Father, from his secret cloud, 
Ami...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Garden Of Eros

...ise, my soul
Passes from higher heights of life to a more supreme goal.

Lo! while we spake the earth did turn away
Her visage from the God, and Hecate's boat
Rose silver-laden, till the jealous day
Blew all its torches out: I did not note
The waning hours, to young Endymions
Time's palsied fingers count in vain his rosary of suns!

Mark how the yellow iris wearily
Leans back its throat, as though it would be kissed
By its false chamberer, the dragon-fly,
Who, like a blue vei...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The Knights Tale

...do not care if I die*
And with that word he caught a great mirror,
And saw that changed was all his colour,
And saw his visage all in other kind.
And right anon it ran him ill his mind,
That since his face was so disfigur'd
Of malady the which he had endur'd,
He mighte well, if that he *bare him low,* *lived in lowly fashion*
Live in Athenes evermore unknow,
And see his lady wellnigh day by day.
And right anon he changed his array,
And clad him as a poore labourer.
And all al...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...gazed.
     Not his the form, nor his the eye,
     That youthful maidens wont to fly.
     XXI.

     On his bold visage middle age
     Had slightly pressed its signet sage,
     Yet had not quenched the open truth
     And fiery vehemence of youth;
     Forward and frolic glee was there,
     The will to do, the soul to dare,
     The sparkling glance, soon blown to fire,
     Of hasty love or headlong ire.
     His limbs were cast in manly could
     For har...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Last Tournament

...hts 
Armed for a day of glory before the King. 

But on the hither side of that loud morn 
Into the hall staggered, his visage ribbed 
From ear to ear with dogwhip-weals, his nose 
Bridge-broken, one eye out, and one hand off, 
And one with shattered fingers dangling lame, 
A churl, to whom indignantly the King, 

`My churl, for whom Christ died, what evil beast 
Hath drawn his claws athwart thy face? or fiend? 
Man was it who marred heaven's image in thee thus?' 

Then, sput...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Seasons: Winter

...try Friends.
The vivid Stars shine out, in radiant Files;
And boundless Ether glows, till the fair Moon
Shows her broad Visage, in the crimson'd East; 
Now, stooping, seems to kiss the passing Cloud:
Now, o'er the pure Cerulean, rides sublime.
Wide the pale Deluge floats, with silver Waves,
O'er the sky'd Mountain, to the low-laid Vale;
From the white Rocks, with dim Reflexion, gleams, 
And faintly glitters thro' the waving Shades.

ALL Night, abundant Dews, unnoted, fall,
An...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Three Voices

...stuff." 

"Yet well-bred men," he faintly said,
"Are not willing to be fed:
Nor are they well without the bread." 

Her visage scorched him ere she spoke:
"There are," she said, "a kind of folk
Who have no horror of a joke. 

"Such wretches live: they take their share
Of common earth and common air:
We come across them here and there: 

"We grant them - there is no escape -
A sort of semi-human shape
Suggestive of the man-like Ape." 

"In all such theories," said he,
"One fix...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Wife of Baths Tale

...te* and made a sorry cheer,** *always **countenance
As wives must, for it is the usage;
And with my kerchief covered my visage;
But, for I was provided with a make,* *mate
I wept but little, that I undertake* *promise
To churche was mine husband borne a-morrow
With neighebours that for him made sorrow,
And Jenkin, oure clerk, was one of tho:* *those
As help me God, when that I saw him go
After the bier, methought he had a pair
Of legges and of feet so clean and fair,
That all...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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