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Famous Volume Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...g cry;
Or rapt Isaiah’s wild, seraphic fire;
Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.


Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme,
 How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed;
How He, who bore in Heaven the second name,
 Had not on earth whereon to lay His head:
 How His first followers and servants sped;
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land:
 How he, who lone in Patmos banished,
Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand,
And heard great Bab’lon’s doom pronounc’d ...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...ces about twenty stanzas at the end of Duan First, which he cancelled when he came to print the price in his Kilmarnock volume. Seven of these he restored in printing his second edition, as noted on p. 174. The following are the verses which he left unpublished.]


 Note 1. Duan, a term of Ossian’s for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his Cath-Loda, vol. 2 of M’Pherson’s translation.—R. B. [back]
Note 2. The seven s...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...y as Rembrandt a drawing or etching;
It is nothing at all, if you only know how.

Well; imagine you've printed your volume of verses:
Your forehead is wreathed with the garland of fame,
Your poems the eloquent school-boy rehearses,
Her album the school-girl presents for your name;

Each morning the post brings you autograph letters;
You'll answer them promptly,-- an hour isn't much
For the honor of sharing a page with your betters,
With magistrates, members of Congress, a...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...moved slowly. Where the mountain, riven,
Exposed those black depths to the azure sky,
Ere yet the flood's enormous volume fell
Even to the base of Caucasus, with sound
That shook the everlasting rocks, the mass
Filled with one whirlpool all that ample chasm;
Stair above stair the eddying waters rose, 
Circling immeasurably fast, and laved
With alternating dash the gnarlèd roots
Of mighty trees, that stretched their giant arms
In darkness over it. I' the midst was lef...Read more of this...

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...sten,
 comrades of posterity,
to the agitator
 the rabble-rouser.

Stifling
 the torrents of poetry,
I’ll skip
 the volumes of lyrics;
as one alive,
 I’ll address the living.
I’ll join you
 in the far communist future,
I who am
 no Esenin super-hero.

My verse will reach you
 across the peaks of ages,
over the heads
 of governments and poets.

My verse 
 will reach you
not as an arrow
 in a cupid-lyred chase,
not as worn penny
Reaches a numismatist,
not as the...Read more of this...



by Campbell, Thomas
...ers a couch had strown;
Her cheek reclining, and her snowy arm
On hillock by the pine-tree half o'ergrown:
And aye that volume on her lap is thrown,
Which every heart of human mould endears;
With Shakspear's self she speaks and smiles alone,
And no intruding visitation fears,
To shame the unconscious laugh, or stop her sweetest tears.

And naught within the grove was heard or seen
But stock-doves plaining through its gloom profound,
Or winglet of the fairy humming-bird,
L...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...onte.

 «O de li altri poeti onore e lume

vagliami 'l lungo studio e 'l grande amore

che m'ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.

 Tu se' lo mio maestro e 'l mio autore;

tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi

lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore.

 Vedi la bestia per cu' io mi volsi:

aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,

ch'ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi».

 «A te convien tenere altro viaggio»,

rispuose poi che lagrimar mi vide,

«se vuo' campar d'esto loco selvaggio:...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...
Alas! he told not — but he did awake 
To curse the wither'd heart that would not break. 

IX. 

Books, for his volume heretofore was Man, 
With eye more curious he appear'd to scan, 
And oft, in sudden mood, for many a day 
From all communion he would start away: 
And then, his rarely call'd attendants said, 
Through night's long hours would sound his hurried tread 
O'er the dark gallery, where his fathers frown'd 
In rude but antique portraiture around. 
They he...Read more of this...

by Riley, James Whitcomb
...y Ghost!

Oh, there were times when every patriot breast
Was riotous with sentiments expressed
In tones that swelled in volume till the sound
Of lusty war itself was well-nigh drowned.
Oh, those were times when happy eyes with tears
Brimmed o'er as all the misty doubts and fears
Were washed away, and Hope with gracious mien,
Reigned from her throne again a sovereign queen.
Until at last, upon a day like this
When flowers were blushing at the summer's kiss,
And when th...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...te
fora di sua materia s? digiuno
 esto pianeto, o, s? come comparte
lo grasso e 'l magro un corpo, cos? questo
nel suo volume cangerebbe carte.
 Se 'l primo fosse, fora manifesto
ne l'eclissi del sol per trasparere
lo lume come in altro raro ingesto.
 Questo non ?: per? ? da vedere
de l'altro; e s'elli avvien ch'io l'altro cassi,
falsificato fia lo tuo parere.
 S'elli ? che questo raro non trapassi,
esser conviene un termine da onde
lo suo contrario pi? passar no...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ess pulse of care  
And come like the benediction 35 
That follows after prayer. 

Then read from the treasured volume 
The poem of thy choice  
And lend to the rhyme of the poet 
The beauty of thy voice. 40 

And the night shall be filled with music  
And the cares that infest the day  
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs  
And as silently steal away....Read more of this...

by Nin, Anais
..."Am I, at bottom, that fervent little Spanish Catholic child who chastised herself for loving toys, who forbade herself the enjoyment of sweet foods, who practiced silence, who humiliated her pride, who adored symbols, statues, burning candles, incense, the caress of nuns, organ music, for whom Communion was a great event? I was so exalted by the idea of e...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...on,
And since then he hath spoke of every one
These noble wives, and these lovers eke.
Whoso that will his large volume seek
Called the Saintes' Legend of Cupid:
There may he see the large woundes wide
Of Lucrece, and of Babylon Thisbe;
The sword of Dido for the false Enee;
The tree of Phillis for her Demophon;
The plaint of Diane, and of Hermion,
Of Ariadne, and Hypsipile;
The barren isle standing in the sea;
The drown'd Leander for his fair Hero;
The teares of Hel...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...solemn grace 
Concluded, and we sought the gardens: there 
One walked reciting by herself, and one 
In this hand held a volume as to read, 
And smoothed a petted peacock down with that: 
Some to a low song oared a shallop by, 
Or under arches of the marble bridge 
Hung, shadowed from the heat: some hid and sought 
In the orange thickets: others tost a ball 
Above the fountain-jets, and back again 
With laughter: others lay about the lawns, 
Of the older sort, and murmured tha...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...and slept, 
Filled through and through with Love, a happy sleep. 

Deep in the night I woke: she, near me, held 
A volume of the Poets of her land: 
There to herself, all in low tones, she read. 


'Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white; 
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; 
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font: 
The fire-fly wakens: wake thou with me. 

Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost, 
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me....Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,¡ª 
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 
"'T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door; 5 
Only this and nothing more." 

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December 
And each separate dying ember wrought i...Read more of this...

by Thomson, James
...est Mankind,
With Arts, and Arms, and humaniz'd a World,
Rous'd at th'inspiring Thought -- I throw aside
The long-liv'd Volume, and, deep-musing, hail
The sacred Shades, that, slowly-rising, pass 
Before my wondering Eyes -- First, Socrates,
Truth's early Champion, Martyr for his God:
Solon, the next, who built his Commonweal,
On Equity's firm Base: Lycurgus, then,
Severely good, and him of rugged Rome,
Numa, who soften'd her rapacious Sons.
Cimon sweet-soul'd, and Aristi...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...> 

XCIX 

He had written Wesley's life: — here turning round 
To Satan, 'Sir, I'm ready to write yours, 
In two octavo volumes, nicely bound, 
With notes and preface, all that most allures 
The pious purchaser; and there's no ground 
For fear, for I can choose my own reviews: 
So let me have the proper documents, 
That I may add you to my other saints.' 

C 

Satan bow'd, and was silent. 'Well, if you, 
With amiable modesty, decline 
My offer, what says Michael? Ther...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...in general, one which has influenced
our generation profoundly; I mean The Golden Bough; I have used especially the
two volumes Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Anyone who is acquainted with
these works will immediately recognise in the poem certain references to
vegetation ceremonies.
 Macmillan Cambridge.

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Line 20. Cf. Ezekiel 2:1.
23. Cf. Ecclesiastes 12:5.
31. V. Tristan und Isolde, i, verses 5-8.
42.<...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...eke the Parables* of Solomon, *Proverbs
Ovide's Art, 29 and bourdes* many one; *jests
And alle these were bound in one volume.
And every night and day was his custume
(When he had leisure and vacation
From other worldly occupation)
To readen in this book of wicked wives.
He knew of them more legends and more lives
Than be of goodde wives in the Bible.
For, trust me well, it is an impossible
That any clerk will speake good of wives,
(*But if* it be of holy saintes...Read more of this...

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