Famous Winsome Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief

by Rudyard Kipling
 O woe is me for the merry life
 I led beyond the Bar,
And a treble woe for my winsome wife
 That weeps at Shalimar.

They have taken away my long jezail,
 My shield and sabre fine,
And heaved me into the Central jail
 For lifting of the kine.

The steer may low within the byre,
 The Jat may tend his grain,
But there'll...Read more of this...

The Forest Path

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Oh, the charm of idle dreaming
Where the dappled shadows dance,
All the leafy aisles are teeming
With the lure of old romance! 

Down into the forest dipping,
Deep and deeper as we go,
One might fancy dryads slipping
Where the white-stemmed birches grow. 

Lurking gnome and freakish fairy
In the fern may peep and hide . . . 
Sure their whispers low and airy
Ring us...Read more of this...

A Childs Laughter

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 ALL the bells of heaven may ring,
All the birds of heaven may sing,
All the wells on earth may spring,
All the winds on earth may bring
All sweet sounds together---
Sweeter far than all things heard,
Hand of harper, tone of bird,
Sound of woods at sundawn stirred,
Welling water's winsome word,
Wind in warm wan weather,

One thing yet there is, that none
Hearing ere its chime...Read more of this...

Threnody

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 The south-wind brings
Life, sunshine, and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire,
But over the dead he has no power,
The lost, the lost he cannot restore,
And, looking over the hills, I mourn
The darling who shall not return.

I see my empty house,
I see my trees repair their boughs,
And he, —the wondrous child,
Whose silver warble wild
Outvalued every pulsing sound
Within the air's...Read more of this...

The Ballad Of Caseys Billy-Goat

by Robert William Service
 You've heard of "Casey at The Bat,"
 And "Casey's Tabble Dote";
 But now it's time
 To write a rhyme
 Of "Casey's Billy-goat."

Pat Casey had a billy-goat he gave the name of Shamus,
Because it was (the neighbours said) a national disgrace.
And sure enough that animal was eminently famous
For masticating every rag of laundry round the place.
For shirts to skirts prodigiously...Read more of this...

Queen Hilda of Virland

by Henry Lawson
 PART I 
Queen Hilda rode along the lines, 
And she was young and fair; 
And forward on her shoulders fell 
The heavy braids of hair: 
No gold was ever dug from earth 
Like that burnished there – 
No sky so blue as were her eyes 
Had man seen anywhere. 

'Twas so her gay court poets sang, 
And we believed...Read more of this...

383. Song—My Wife's a winsome wee thing

by Robert Burns
 Chorus.—She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a lo’esome wee thing,
 This dear wee wife o’ mine.


I NEVER saw a fairer,
I never lo’ed a dearer,
And neist my heart I’ll wear her,
 For fear my jewel tine,
 She is a winsome, &c.


The warld’s wrack we share o’t;
The warstle and the care o’t;
Wi’ her I’ll blythely...Read more of this...

The Hard Times In Elfland

by Sidney Lanier
 A Story of Christmas Eve.

Strange that the termagant winds should scold
The Christmas Eve so bitterly!
But Wife, and Harry the four-year-old,
Big Charley, Nimblewits, and I,

Blithe as the wind was bitter, drew
More frontward of the mighty fire,
Where wise Newfoundland Fan foreknew
The heaven that Christian dogs desire --

Stretched o'er the rug, serene and grave,
Huge nose on heavy paws reclined,
With never a drowning...Read more of this...

Daisy

by Francis Thompson
 Where the thistle lifts a purple crown 
Six foot out of the turf, 
And the harebell shakes on the windy hill-- 
O breath of the distant surf!-- 

The hills look over on the South, 
And southward dreams the sea; 
And with the sea-breeze hand in hand 
Came innocence and she. 

Where 'mid the gorse the raspberry 
Red for the...Read more of this...

Ireland

by Sidney Lanier
 Written for the Art Autograph during the Irish Famine, 1880.


Heartsome Ireland, winsome Ireland,
Charmer of the sun and sea,
Bright beguiler of old anguish,
How could Famine frown on thee?

As our Gulf-Stream, drawn to thee-ward,
Turns him from his northward flow,
And our wintry western headlands
Send thee summer from their snow,

Thus the main and cordial current
Of our love sets over sea, --
Tender, comely, valiant...Read more of this...

My Favourite Fan

by Robert William Service
 Being a writer I receive
Sweet screeds from folk of every land;
Some are so weird you'd scarce believe,
And some quite hard to understand:
But as a conscientious man
I type my thanks to all I can. 

So when I got a foreign scrawl
That spider-webbed across the page,
Said I: "This is the worst of all;
No doubt a child of tender age
Has written it,...Read more of this...

Lost

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 "He ought to be home," said the old man, "without there's something amiss. 
He only went to the Two-mile -- he ought to be back by this. 
He would ride the Reckless filly, he would have his wilful way; 
And, here, he's not back at sundown -- and what will his mother say? 
"He was always his mother's idol,...Read more of this...

Shore Twilight

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Lo, find we here when the ripe day is o'er
A kingdom of enchantment by the shore! 

Behold the sky with early stars ashine,
A jewelled flagon brimmed with purple wine. 

Like a dumb poet's soul the troubled sea
Moans of its joy and sorrow wordlessly; 

But the glad winds that utter naught of grief
Make silver speech by headland and by reef....Read more of this...

Love Of The Woodland

by Victor Hugo
 ("Orphée au bois du Caystre.") 
 
 {Bk. I. ii.} 


 Orpheus, through the hellward wood 
 Hurried, ere the eve-star glowed, 
 For the fauns' lugubrious hoots 
 Followed, hollow, from crookèd roots; 
 Aeschylus, where Aetna smoked, 
 Gods of Sicily evoked 
 With the flute, till sulphur taint 
 Dulled and lulled the echoes faint; 
...Read more of this...

Paul McNeely

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Dear Jane! dear winsome Jane!
How you stole in the room (where I lay so ill)
In your nurse's cap and linen cuffs,
And took my hand and said with a smile:
"You are not so ill -- you'll soon be well."
And how the liquid thought of your eyes
Sank in my eyes like dew that slips
Into the heart of a flower.
Dear Jane! the...Read more of this...

Tam OShanter

by Robert Burns
 A Tale

"Of Brownyis and of Bogilis full is this Buke."
 —Gawin Douglas.

When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neebors neebors meet,
As market-days are wearing late,
An' folk begin to tak' the gate;
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles,
That lie between us and our...Read more of this...

310. Tam o' Shanter: A Tale

by Robert Burns
 WHEN chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet;
As market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate,
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An’ getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering...Read more of this...

A Baby Running Barefoot

by D. H. Lawrence
 When the bare feet of the baby beat across the grass
The little white feet nod like white flowers in the wind, 
They poise and run like ripples lapping across the water;
And the sight of their white play among the grass 
Is like a little robin’s song, winsome,
Or as two white butterflies settle in the cup of one flower
For a...Read more of this...

Chicago Weather

by Eugene Field
 To-day, fair Thisbe, winsome girl!
Strays o'er the meads where daisies blow, 
Or, ling'ring where the brooklets purl, 
Laves in the cool, refreshing flow.
To-morrow, Thisbe, with a host
Of amorous suitors in her train, 
Comes like a goddess forth to coast
Or skate upon the frozen main.
To-day, sweet posies mark her track, 
While birds sing gayly in the trees; 
To-morrow morn, her...Read more of this...

Four Riddles

by Lewis Carroll
 I 

There was an ancient City, stricken down
With a strange frenzy, and for many a day
They paced from morn to eve the crowded town,
And danced the night away. 

I asked the cause: the aged man grew sad:
They pointed to a building gray and tall,
And hoarsely answered "Step inside, my lad,
And then you'll see it all." 


Yet what are all...Read more of this...

A Mans Requirements

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 I 

Love me Sweet, with all thou art, 
Feeling, thinking, seeing; 
Love me in the lightest part, 
Love me in full being. 

II 

Love me with thine open youth 
In its frank surrender; 
With the vowing of thy mouth, 
With its silence tender. 

III 

Love me with thine azure eyes, 
Made for earnest grantings; 
Taking colour from the skies,...Read more of this...

The Bride

by D. H. Lawrence
 My love looks like a girl to-night, 
But she is old. 
The plaits that lie along her pillow 
Are not gold, 
But threaded with filigree silver, 
And uncanny cold. 

She looks like a young maiden, since her brow 
Is smooth and fair, 
Her cheeks are very smooth, her eyes are closed. 
She sleeps a rare 
Still winsome sleep, so...Read more of this...

Sonnet 04

by Alan Seeger
 If I was drawn here from a distant place, 
'Twas not to pray nor hear our friend's address, 
But, gazing once more on your winsome face, 
To worship there Ideal Loveliness. 
On that pure shrine that has too long ignored 
The gifts that once I brought so frequently 
I lay this votive offering, to record 
How sweet your quiet...Read more of this...

Lord Ullins Daughter

by Thomas Campbell
 A chieftain, to the Highlands bound, 
Cries, ``Boatman, do not tarry! 
And I'll give thee a silver pound 
To row us o'er the ferry!''-- 

``Now, who be ye, would cross Lochgyle, 
This dark and stormy weather?'' 
``O, I'm the chief of Ulva's isle, 
And this, Lord Ullin's daughter.-- 

``And fast before her father's men 
Three days we've fled together,...Read more of this...

The Seafarer

by Ezra Pound
 (From the early Anglo-Saxon text) 

May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
Hardship endured oft.
Bitter breast-cares have I abided,
Known on my keel many a care's hold,
And dire sea-surge, and there I oft spent
Narrow nightwatch nigh the ship's head
While she tossed close to cliffs. Coldly afflicted,
My feet were by frost benumbed.
Chill its chains...Read more of this...

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