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Famous Vitals Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...suchWhereat who hears them now will marvel much.Death so his hand around my vitals twined,Not silence from its grasp my heart could save,Or succour to its outraged virtue bring:As speech to me was a forbidden thing,To paper and to ink my griefs I gave—Life, not my own, is lost through you who dig my grave. 
Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco



...venty years. 

The curse of hell upon the sleek upstart 
That got the Captain finally on his back 
And took the red red vitals of his heart 
And made the kites to whet their beaks clack clack....Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe
...ow hair in plaits 
Who walked back into burning houses to die with men, 
Or him who as the death spear entered into his vitals 
Made critical comments on its workmanship and aim. 
Are these the Pagans you spoke of? Know your betters and crouch, dogs; 
You that have Vichy water in your veins and worship the event 
Your goddess History (whom your fathers called the strumpet Fortune)....Read more of this...
by Lewis, C S
...he hostile cry 
Roughly salute my ear, enraged I'll fly; 
Send the sharp arrow quivering thro' the heart 
Chill the hot vitals with the venom'd dart; 
Nor heed the shining steel or noisy smoke, 
Gaira and Vengeance shall inspire the stroke....Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas
...a venal band;
A dastard race, who long have sold
Their souls and consciences for gold;
Who wish to stab their country's vitals,
Could they enjoy surviving titles;
With pride behold our mischiefs brewing,
Insult and triumph in our ruin?
Priests, who, if satan should sit down
To make a bible of his own,
Would gladly, for the sake of mitres,
Turn his inspired and sacred writers;
Lawyers, who, should he wish to prove
His claim to his old seat above,
Would, if his cause he'd give ...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John



...than their Queen:
This racks the joints, this fires the veins,
That every labouring sinew strains,
Those in the deeper vitals rage:
Lo, Poverty, to fill the band,
That numbs the soul with icy hand,
And slow-consuming Age.

To each his suff'rings: all are men,
Condemned alike to groan;
The tender for another's pain,
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy thei...Read more of this...
by Gray, Thomas
...e
As Legions of Alarm
Did leap, full flanked, upon the Host --
'Tis Units -- make the Swarm --

A Small Leech -- on the Vitals --
The sliver, in the Lung --
The Bung out -- of an Artery --
Are scarce accounted -- Harms --

Yet might -- by relation
To that Repealless thing --
A Being -- impotent to end --
When once it has begun --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...epares for his own punishment;
What pains, what loathsome maladies,
From luxury and lust arise!

The drunkard feels his vitals waste,
Yet drowns his health to please his taste;
Till all his active powers are lost,
And fainting life draws near the dust.

The glutton groans, and loathes to eat,
His soul abhors delicious meat;
Nature, with heavy loads oppressed,
Would yield to death to be released.

Then how the frighted sinners fly
To God for help with earnest cry!
He hears the...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac
...a few whose days amount
To threescore years and ten;
And all beyond that short account
Is sorrow, toil, and pain.

[Our vitals with laborious strife
Bear up the crazy load,
And drag those poor remains of life
Along the tiresome road.]

Almighty God, reveal thy love,
And not thy wrath alone;
O let our sweet experience prove
The mercies of thy throne!

Our souls would learn the heav'nly art
T' improve the hours we have,
That we may act the wiser part,
And live beyond the grave....Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac
...lls; while that cold heart,Insensible to the devouring flameWhich wastes my vitals, triumphs in my smart.One thought is comfort—that her scorn to bear,Excels e'er prosperous love, with other earthly fair. Woodhouselee.  [Pg 163] Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...earn'd to brave
Rigid Adversity's depressing breath!--
Ah! rather Fortune's worthless favourites!
Who feed on England's vitals--Pensioners
Of base corruption, who, in quick ascent
To opulence unmerited, become
Giddy with pride, and as ye rise, forgetting
The dust ye lately left, with scorn look down
On those beneath ye (tho' your equals once
In fortune , and in worth superior still ,
They view the eminence, on which ye stand,
With wonder, not with envy; for they know
The mean...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...“We are false and evanescent, and aware of our deceit, 
From the straw that is our vitals to the clay that is our feet. 
You may serve us if you must, and you shall have your wage of ashes,—
Though arrears due thereafter may be hard for you to meet. 

“You may swear that we are solid, you may say that we are strong,
But we know that we are neither and we say that you are wrong; 
You may find an easy worship in acclaiming our indulgence, 
B...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...a ruined fort:  There, pains which nature could no more support,  With blindness linked, did on my vitals fall;  Dizzy my brain, with interruption short  Of hideous sense; I sunk, nor step could crawl,  And thence was borne away to neighbouring hospital.   Recovery came with food: but still, my brain  Was weak, nor of the past had memory.  I heard my neighbours, in their beds, complain&nbs...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...ain. 
For God created all to bless. 

But ah! my breast is human still; 
The rising sigh, the falling tear, 
My languid vitals' feeble rill, 
The sickness of my soul declare. 

But yet, with fortitude resigned, 
I'll thank th' inflicter of the blow; 
Forbid the sigh, compose my mind, 
Nor let the gush of mis'ry flow. 

The gloomy mantle of the night, 
Which on my sinking spirit steals, 
Will vanish at the morning light, 
Which God, my East, my sun reveals....Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas
...d unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate....Read more of this...
by McKay, Claude
...z all
 Very common in the fall.)

Truth ez, I’m a-feelin’ sadly;
Things ez goin’ kind o’ badly
Round my heart an’ other vitals
(Brings on poetry recitals
O’ my woes ‘most ev’ry day)
Sence fair Jessica’s away.
 (Kind o’ think thet I will haf ter
 Smoke a leetle less hereafter.)

But, with fun aside, you know,
We’re blamed sorry she must go;
An’ we hope she’ll think, maybe,
‘Z well o’ us ez we o’ she....Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry