Famous Whereto Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet 117: Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all

by William Shakespeare
 Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
Wherein I should your great deserts repay,
Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day;
That I have frequent been with unknown minds,
And given to time your own dear-purchased right;
That I have hoisted sail to all the winds
Which should transport me farthest from your sight.
Book both my...Read more of this...

Bahnhofstrasse

by James Joyce
 The eyes that mock me sign the way
Whereto I pass at eve of day. 

Grey way whose violet signals are
The trysting and the twining star. 

Ah star of evil! star of pain!
Highhearted youth comes not again 

Nor old heart's wisdom yet to know
The signs that mock me as I go....Read more of this...

The Daguerreotype

by William Vaughn Moody
 This, then, is she, 
My mother as she looked at seventeen, 
When she first met my father. Young incredibly, 
Younger than spring, without the faintest trace 
Of disappointment, weariness, or tean 
Upon the childlike earnestness and grace 
Of the waiting face. 
Those close-wound ropes of pearl 
(Or common beads made precious by their use) 
Seem heavy for so slight...Read more of this...

Sonnet CXVIII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CXVIII. Nom d' atra e tempestosa onda marina. HE IS LED BY LOVE TO REASON.  No wearied mariner to port e'er fledFrom the dark billow, when some tempest's nigh,As from tumultuous gloomy thoughts I fly—Thoughts by the force of goading passion bred:Nor wrathful glance of heaven so surely spedDestruction...Read more of this...

Since so Ye Please

by Sir Thomas Wyatt
 Since so ye please to hear me plain,
And that ye do rejoice my smart,
Me list no lenger to remain
To such as be so overthwart.

But cursed be that cruel heart
Which hath procur'd a careless mind
For me and mine unfeigned smart,
And forceth me such faults to find.

More than too much I am assured
Of thine intent, whereto to trust;
A speedless proof I...Read more of this...

Acon and Rhodope

by Walter Savage Landor
 The Year's twelve daughters had in turn gone by,
Of measured pace tho' varying mien all twelve,
Some froward, some sedater, some adorn'd
For festival, some reckless of attire.
The snow had left the mountain-top; fresh flowers
Had withered in the meadow; fig and prune
Hung wrinkling; the last apple glow'd amid
Its freckled leaves; and weary oxen blinkt
Between the trodden corn and twisted vine,
Under whose...Read more of this...

The Benefactors

by Rudyard Kipling
 Ah! What avails the classic bent
 And what the cultured word,
Against the undoctored incident
 That actually occurred?


And what is Art whereto we press
 Through paint and prose and rhyme--
When Nature in her nakedness
 Defeats us every time?


It is not learning, grace nor gear,
 Nor easy meat and drink,
But bitter pinch of pain and fear
 That makes creation think.


When in...Read more of this...

Armand Barbes

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 Fire out of heaven, a flower of perfect fire,
That where the roots of life are had its root
And where the fruits of time are brought forth fruit;
A faith made flesh, a visible desire,
That heard the yet unbreathing years respire
And speech break forth of centuries that sit mute
Beyond all feebler footprint of pursuit;
That touched the highest of hope, and went...Read more of this...

A Singer

by William Allingham
 That which he did not feel, he would not sing; 
What most he felt, religion it was to hide 
In a dumb darkling grotto, where the spring 
Of tremulous tears, arising unespied, 
Became a holy well that durst not glide 
Into the day with moil or murmuring; 
Whereto, as if to some unlawful thing, 
He sto]e, musing or praying...Read more of this...

Sonnet CXXIV

by William Shakespeare
   If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd'
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls:
It fears not...Read more of this...

The Last Department

by Rudyard Kipling
 Twelve hundred million men are spread
 About this Earth, and I and You
 Wonder, when You and I are dead,
 "What will those luckless millions do?"

None whole or clean, " we cry, "or free from stain
Of favour." Wait awhile, till we attain
 The Last Department where nor fraud nor fools,
Nor grade nor greed, shall trouble us again.

Fear, Favour, or...Read more of this...

Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state

by William Shakespeare
 If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered,
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls.
It fears not policy, that...Read more of this...

Rest

by George William Russell
 ON me to rest, my bird, my bird:
 The swaying branches of my heart
Are blown by every wind toward
 The home whereto their wings depart.


Build not your nest, my bird, on me;
 I know no peace but ever sway:
O lovely bird, be free, be free,
 On the wild music of the day.


But sometimes when your wings would rest,
 And...Read more of this...

The Church-Builder

by Thomas Hardy
 The church flings forth a battled shade 
Over the moon-blanched sward: 
The church; my gift; whereto I paid 
My all in hand and hoard; 
Lavished my gains 
With stintless pains 
To glorify the Lord. 

I squared the broad foundations in 
Of ashlared masonry; 
I moulded mullions thick and thin, 
Hewed fillet and ogee; 
I circleted 
Each sculptured head 
With...Read more of this...

Modern Love XL: I Bade My Lady Think

by George Meredith
 I bade my Lady think what she might mean. 
Know I my meaning, I? Can I love one, 
And yet be jealous of another? None 
Commits such folly. Terrible Love, I ween, 
Has might, even dead, half sighing to upheave 
The lightless seas of selfishness amain: 
Seas that in a man's heart have no rain 
To fall and still...Read more of this...

Ode On The Insurrection In Candia

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 STR. 1

I laid my laurel-leaf
At the white feet of grief,
Seeing how with covered face and plumeless wings,
With unreverted head
Veiled, as who mourns his dead,
Lay Freedom couched between the thrones of kings,
A wearied lion without lair,
And bleeding from base wounds, and vexed with alien air.

STR. 2

Who was it, who, put poison to thy mouth,
Who lulled with craft or chant thy...Read more of this...

Sonnet CII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET CII. S' Amor non è, che dunque è quel ch' i' sento? THE CONTRADICTIONS OF LOVE.  If no love is, O God, what fele I so?And if love is, what thing and which is he?If love be gode, from whence cometh my woe?If it be wicke, a wonder thinketh meWhen...Read more of this...

Ave atque Vale (In memory of Charles Baudelaire)

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 SHALL I strew on thee rose or rue or laurel, 
 Brother, on this that was the veil of thee? 
 Or quiet sea-flower moulded by the sea, 
Or simplest growth of meadow-sweet or sorrel, 
 Such as the summer-sleepy Dryads weave, 
 Waked up by snow-soft sudden rains at eve? 
Or wilt thou rather, as on earth before,...Read more of this...

Sonnet 137: Thou blind fool Love what dost thou to mine eyes

by William Shakespeare
 Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is, take the worst to be.
If eyes corrupt by overpartial looks,
Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my...Read more of this...

From Victor Hugo

by Thomas Hardy
 Child, were I king, I'd yield my royal rule, 
 My chariot, sceptre, vassal-service due, 
My crown, my porphyry-basined waters cool, 
My fleets, whereto the sea is but a pool, 
 For a glance from you! 

Love, were I God, the earth and its heaving airs, 
 Angels, the demons abject under me, 
Vast chaos with its teeming womby...Read more of this...

Sonnet CXXXVII

by William Shakespeare
 Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
If eyes corrupt by over-partial looks
Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my...Read more of this...

The Faerie Queene: Book I Canto I

by Edmund Spenser
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall...Read more of this...

Sonnet XL

by Edmund Spenser
 MArk when she smiles with amiable cheare,
And tell me whereto can ye lyken it:
when on each eyelid sweetly doe appeare,
an hundred Graces as in shade to sit.
Lykest it seemeth in my simple wit
vnto the fayre sunshine in somers day:
that when a dreadfull storme away is flit,
thrugh the broad world doth spred his goodly ray
At sight whereof each bird that...Read more of this...

These heavens resemble an inverted cup,

by Omar Khayyam
These heavens resemble an inverted cup,
Whereto the wise with awe keep gazing up;
So stoops the bottle o'er his love, the cup,
Feigning to kiss, and gives her blood to sup!...Read more of this...

Sonnet CXVII

by William Shakespeare
 Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
Wherein I should your great deserts repay,
Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day;
That I have frequent been with unknown minds
And given to time your own dear-purchased right
That I have hoisted sail to all the winds
Which should transport me farthest from your sight.
Book both my...Read more of this...

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