Famous Whet Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

If only out of vanity

by Staceyann Chin
If only out of vanity
I have wondered what kind of woman I will be
when I am well past the summer of my raging youth
Will I still be raising revolutionary flags
and making impassioned speeches
that stir up anger in the hearts of pseudo-liberals
dressed in navy-blue conservative wear

In those years when I am grateful
I still have a good sturdy bladder
that does not leak...Read more of this...

313. Lament of Mary Queen of Scots

by Robert Burns
 NOW Nature hangs her mantle green
 On every blooming tree,
And spreads her sheets o’ daisies white
 Out o’er the grassy lea;
Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams,
 And glads the azure skies;
But nought can glad the weary wight
 That fast in durance lies.


Now laverocks wake the merry morn
 Aloft on dewy wing;
The merle, in his noontide bow’r,
 Makes woodland echoes...Read more of this...

The Scissors-Grinder

by Vachel Lindsay
 The old man had his box and wheel
For grinding knives and shears.
No doubt his bell in village streets
Was joy to children's ears.
And I bethought me of my youth
When such men came around,
And times I asked them in, quite sure
The scissors should be ground.
The old man turned and spoke to me,
His face at last in view.
And then I thought those...Read more of this...

Hunters Song

by Sir Walter Scott
 The toils are pitched, and the stakes are set, 
Ever sing merrily, merrily; 
The bows they bend, and the knives they whet, 
Hunters live so cheerily. 

It was a stag, a stag of ten, 
Bearing its branches sturdily; 
He came silently down the glen, 
Ever sing hardily, hardily. 

It was there he met with a wounded doe, 
She was...Read more of this...

Bringing in the Wine

by Li Po
 See how the Yellow River's water move out of heaven.
Entering the ocean,never to return.
See how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers,
Though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to snow.
... Oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases
And never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!
Since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!
Spin...Read more of this...

For K.R. on her Sixtieth Birthday

by Richard Wilbur
 Blow out the candles of your cake.
They will not leave you in the dark,
Who round with grace this dusky arc
Of the grand tour which souls must take.

You who have sounded William Blake,
And the still pool, to Plato's mark,
Blow out the candles of your cake.
They will not leave you in the dark.

Yet, for your friends' benighted sake,
Detain your upward-flying spark;
Get...Read more of this...

Fragmentary Blue

by Robert Frost
 Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)--
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet....Read more of this...

Battle Of The Norsemen And The Gaels

by Victor Hugo
 ("Accourez tous, oiseaux de proie!") 
 
 {VII., September, 1825.} 


 Ho! hither flock, ye fowls of prey! 
 Ye wolves of war, make no delay! 
 For foemen 'neath our blades shall fall 
 Ere night may veil with purple pall. 
 The evening psalms are nearly o'er, 
 And priests who follow in our train 
 Have...Read more of this...

The Souls of the Slain

by Thomas Hardy
 I 

 The thick lids of Night closed upon me 
 Alone at the Bill 
 Of the Isle by the Race {1} - 
 Many-caverned, bald, wrinkled of face - 
And with darkness and silence the spirit was on me 
 To brood and be still. 

II 

 No wind fanned the flats of the ocean, 
 Or...Read more of this...

347. Song—Ye Jacobites by Name

by Robert Burns
 YE Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear,
Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear,
 Ye Jacobites by name,
 Your fautes I will proclaim,
Your doctrines I maun blame, you shall hear.


What is Right, and What is Wrang, by the law, by the law?
What is Right and what is Wrang by the law?
 What is Right, and what is...Read more of this...

Captain Carpenter

by John Crowe Ransom
 Captain Carpenter rose up in his prime 
Put on his pistols and went riding out 
But had got wellnigh nowhere at that time 
Till he fell in with ladies in a rout. 

It was a pretty lady and all her train 
That played with him so sweetly but before 
An hour she'd taken a sword with all her main...Read more of this...

Damon The Mower

by Andrew Marvell
 Heark how the Mower Damon Sung,
With love of Juliana stung!
While ev'ry thing did seem to paint
The Scene more fit for his complaint.
Like her fair Eyes the day was fair;
But scorching like his am'rous Care.
Sharp like his Sythe his Sorrow was,
And wither'd like his Hopes the Grass.

Oh what unusual Heats are here,
Which thus our Sun-burn'd Meadows sear!
The Grass-hopper its pipe...Read more of this...

Sonnet LXXXII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET LXXXII. Vinse Annibal, e non seppe usar poi. TO STEFANO COLONNA, COUNSELLING HIM TO FOLLOW UP HIS VICTORY OVER THE ORSINI.  Hannibal conquer'd oft, but never knewThe fruits and gain of victory to get,Wherefore, dear lord, be wise, take care that yetA like misfortune happen not to you.Still in their...Read more of this...

Bringing in the Wine

by Li Bai
See how the Yellow River's water move out of heaven.
Entering the ocean,never to return.
See how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers,
Though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to snow.
... Oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases
And never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!
Since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!
Spin a...Read more of this...

Elegy VI

by John Donne
 Oh, let me not serve so, as those men serve
Whom honour's smokes at once fatten and starve;
Poorly enrich't with great men's words or looks;
Nor so write my name in thy loving books
As those idolatrous flatterers, which still
Their Prince's styles, with many realms fulfil
Whence they no tribute have, and where no sway.
Such services I offer as shall pay
Themselves, I hate...Read more of this...

Poeta Fit Non Nascitur

by Lewis Carroll
 "How shall I be a poet?
How shall I write in rhyme?
You told me once the very wish
Partook of the sublime:
Then tell me how. Don't put me off
With your 'another time'."

The old man smiled to see him,
To hear his sudden sally;
He liked the lad to speak his mind
Enthusiastically,
And thought, "There's no hum-drum in him,
Nor any shilly-shally."

"And would you be a...Read more of this...

Requiescat In Pace!

by Jean Ingelow
My heart is sick awishing and awaiting:
  The lad took up his knapsack, he went, he went his way;
And I looked on for his coming, as a prisoner through the grating
  Looks and longs and longs and wishes for its opening day.
On the wild purple mountains, all alone with no other,
  The strong terrible mountains he longed,...Read more of this...

Holy Sonnet XVII: Since She Whom I Loved

by John Donne
 Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravished,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.
here the admiring her my mind did whet
To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
a...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Whet poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace