Famous Vita Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Vita poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous vita poems. These examples illustrate what a famous vita poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Stojanovic, Dejan
...shall not stop until you find Venus:
One woman in all,
And all the women in One.
Until you can say—La Dolce Vita,
Until you find Paradise Lost in only one name,
Until you are able to say—
You are all women in one.
...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...=pagenum>[Pg 287] CANZONE V. Solea dalla fontana di mia vita. MEMORY IS HIS ONLY SOLACE AND SUPPORT. I who was wont from life's best fountain farSo long to wander, searching land and sea,Pursuing not my pleasure, but my star,And alway, a...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...CANZONE VIII. Perchè la vita è breve. IN PRAISE OF LAURA'S EYES: THE DIFFICULTY OF HIS THEME. Since human life is frail,And genius trembles at the lofty theme,I little confidence in either place;But let my...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...LA DIVINA COMMEDIA di Dante Alighieri INFERNO
Inferno: Canto I
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ch? la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era ? cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Tant'? amara che poco ? pi? morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,
dir? de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte.
Io non so ben ridir com'i' v'intrai,
tant'era...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ch? la diritta via era smarrita .
When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era ? cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura !
Ah, it is hard to speak of what it w...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...wail so loud?"
He answered: "I shall tell you in few words.
Questi non hanno speranza di morte
e la lor cieca vita ? tanto bassa,
che 'nvidiosi son d'ogne altra sorte .
Those who are here can place no hope in death,
and their blind life is so abject that they
are envious of every other fate.
Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa ».
The world will let no fame of their...Read more of this...
by
Smart, Christopher
...Let Moyle, house of Moyle rejoice with Phlox a flame-colour'd flower without smell, tentanda via est. Via, veritas, vita sunt Christus.
Let Mount, house of Mount rejoice with Anthera a flowering herb. The Lord lift me up.
Let Dowers, house of Dowers rejoice with The American Nonpareil a beautiful small-bird.
Let Cudworth, house of Cudworth rejoice with the Indian Jaca Tree, which bears large clusters of fruit like apples.
Let Cuthbert, house of...Read more of this...
by
Kees, Weldon
...Last summer, in the blue heat,
Over the beach, in the burning air,
A legless beggar lurched on calloused fists
To where I waited with the sun-dazed birds.
He said, "The summer boils away. My life
Joins to another life; this parched skin
Dries and dies and flakes away,
Becomes your costume when the torn leaves blow."
--Thus in the losing autumn...Read more of this...
by
Bidart, Frank
...(Dante, Vita Nuova)
To all those driven berserk or humanized by love
this is offered, for I need help
deciphering my dream.
When we love our lord is LOVE.
When I recall that at the fourth hour
of the night, watched by shining stars,
LOVE at last became incarnate,
the memory is horror.
In his hands smiling LOVE held my burning
heart, and in his arms,...Read more of this...
by
Rossetti, Christina
...t I can,
Ready to spend and be spent for your sake.
10
Con miglior corso e con migliore stella. - Dante
La vita fugge e non s'arresta un' ora. - Petrarca
Time flies, hope flags, life plies a wearied wing;
Death following hard on life gains ground apace;
Faith runs with each and rears an eager face,
Outruns the rest, makes light of everything,
Spurns earth, and still finds breath to pray and sing;
While love ahead of all uplifts his praise,
Still asks for gra...Read more of this...
by
Sackville-West, Vita
...What time the meanest brick and stone
Take on a beauty not their own,
And past the flaw of builded wood
Shines the intention whole and good,
And all the little homes of man
Rise to a dimmer, nobler span;
When colour's absence gives escape
To the deeper spirit of the shape,
-- Then earth's great architecture swells
Among her mountains and her fells
Under t...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...,
girando s? sovra sua unitate.
Virt? diversa fa diversa lega
col prezioso corpo ch'ella avviva,
nel qual, s? come vita in voi, si lega.
Per la natura lieta onde deriva,
la virt? mista per lo corpo luce
come letizia per pupilla viva.
Da essa vien ci? che da luce a luce
par differente, non da denso e raro;
essa ? formal principio che produce,
conforme a sua bont?, lo turbo e 'l chiaro».
Paradiso: Canto III
Quel sol che pria d'amor mi scald? 'l petto,
d...Read more of this...
by
Alighieri, Dante
...o a vederti e a udirti.
Or ti piaccia gradir la sua venuta:
libertà va cercando, ch'è sì cara,
come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta.
Tu 'l sai, ché non ti fu per lei amara
in Utica la morte, ove lasciasti
la vesta ch'al gran dì sarà sì chiara.
Non son li editti etterni per noi guasti,
ché questi vive, e Minòs me non lega;
ma son del cerchio ove son li occhi casti
di Marzia tua, che 'n vista ancor ti priega,
o santo petto, che per tua la tegni:
per lo suo amore adu...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...SESTINA IV. Chi è fermato di menar sua vita. HE PRAYS GOD TO GUIDE HIS FRAIL BARK TO A SAFE PORT. Who is resolved to venture his vain lifeOn the deceitful wave and 'mid the rocks,Alone, unfearing death, in little bark,Ca...Read more of this...
by
Thoreau, Henry David
...I am a parcel of vain strivings tied
By a chance bond together,
Dangling this way and that, their links
Were made so loose and wide,
Methinks,
For milder weather.
A bunch of violets without their roots,
And sorrel intermixed,
Encircled by a wisp of straw
Once coiled about their shoots,
The law
By which I'm fixed.
A nosegay which Time c...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...SONNET XI. Se la mia vita dall' aspro tormento. HE HOPES THAT TIME WILL RENDER HER MORE MERCIFUL. If o'er each bitter pang, each hidden throeSadly triumphant I my years drag on,Till even the radiance of those eyes is gone,Read more of this...
by
Chaucer, Geoffrey
...t honest, it may not advance,
As for to deale with no such pouraille*, *offal, refuse
But all with rich, and sellers of vitaille*. *victuals
And *ov'r all there as* profit should arise, *in every place where&
Courteous he was, and lowly of service;
There n'as no man nowhere so virtuous.
He was the beste beggar in all his house:
And gave a certain farme for the grant,
None of his bretheren came in his haunt.
For though a widow hadde but one shoe,
So pleasant w...Read more of this...
by
Chaucer, Geoffrey
...s;
Archimori bustum sexto ludique leguntur;
Dat Graios Thebes et vatem septimus vmbria;
Octauo cecidit Tideus, spes, vita Pelasgia;
Ypomedon nono moritur cum Parthonopeo;
Fulmine percussus, decimo Capaneus superatur;
Vndecimo sese perimunt per vulnera fratres;
Argiuam flentem narrat duodenus et igneum.
She tolde eek how Tydeus, er she stente,
Un-to the stronge citee of Thebes,
To cleyme kingdom of the citee, wente,
For his felawe, daun Polymites,
Of which the bro...Read more of this...
by
Wilde, Oscar
...I stood by the unvintageable sea
Till the wet waves drenched face and hair with spray;
The long red fires of the dying day
Burned in the west; the wind piped drearily;
And to the land the clamorous gulls did flee:
'Alas!' I cried, 'my life is full of pain,
And who can garner fruit or golden grain
From these waste fields which travail ceaselessly!'
My nets ...Read more of this...
by
Newbolt, Sir Henry
...There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night --
Ten to make and the match to win --
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"
The sand of t...Read more of this...
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