Famous Wondered Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Avons Harvest

...I were the doctor 
And he the friend. “I have had eyes on Avon
For more than half a year,” he said to me, 
“And I have wondered often what it was 
That I could see that I was not to see. 
Though he was in the chair where you are looking, 
I told his wife—I had to tell her something— 
It was a nightmare and an aneurism; 
And so, or partly so, I’ll say it was. 
The last without the first will be enough 
For the newspapers and the undertaker; 
Yet if we doctors were not all imm...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Captain Craig

...at was all his answer: not a word 
Of explanation or suggestion came
From those tight-smiling lips. And when I left, 
I wondered, as I trod the creaking snow 
And had the world-wide air to breathe again,— 
Though I had seen the tremor of his mouth 
And honored the endurance of his hand—
Whether or not, securely closeted 
Up there in the stived haven of his den, 
The man sat laughing at me; and I felt 
My teeth grind hard together with a quaint 
Revulsion—as I recognize it now...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Christabel

...uttering, and uttering fearful moan,
Among the green herbs in the forest alone.
Which when I saw and when I heard,
I wondered what might ail the bird;
For nothing near it could I see,
Save the grass and herbs underneath the old tree.
And in my dream methought I went
To search out what might there be found;
And what the sweet bird's trouble meant,
That thus lay fluttering on the ground.
I went and peered, and could descry
No cause for her distressful cry;
But yet f...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Coffee

..., and the bar closed. It
was two o'clock in the morning. I had to go outside. It was foggy and cold in San
Francisco. I wondered about the fog and felt very human and exposed.
I decided to go visit another girl. We had not been friends for over a year. Once we
were very close. I wondered what she was thinking about now.
I went to her house. She didn't have a door bell. That was a small victory. One must
keep track of all the small victories. I do, anyway.
She answered the doo...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Endymion: Book I

...beams against the zodiac-lion cast,
There blossom'd suddenly a magic bed
Of sacred ditamy, and poppies red:
At which I wondered greatly, knowing well
That but one night had wrought this flowery spell;
And, sitting down close by, began to muse
What it might mean. Perhaps, thought I, Morpheus,
In passing here, his owlet pinions shook;
Or, it may be, ere matron Night uptook
Her ebon urn, young Mercury, by stealth,
Had dipt his rod in it: such garland wealth
Came not by common g...Read more of this...
by Keats, John


Last Instructions to a Painter

..., why so untame 
That fliest love's fires, reserved for other flame?' 
Fixed on his ship, he faced that horrid day 
And wondered much at those that ran away. 
Nor other fear himself could comprehend 
Then, lest heaven fall ere thither he ascend, 
But entertains the while his time too short 
With birding at the Dutch, as if in sport, 
Or waves his sword, and could he them conj?re 
Within its circle, knows himself secure. 
The fatal bark him boards with grappling fire, 
And saf...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Maple

...ittle, and get some city schooling.
She learned shorthand, whatever shorthand may
Have had to do with it--she sometimes wondered.
So, till she found herself in a strange place
For the name Maple to have brought her to,
Taking dictation on a paper pad
And, in the pauses when she raised her eyes,
Watching out of a nineteenth story window
An airship laboring with unshiplike motion
And a vague all-disturbing roar above the river
Beyond the highest city built with hands.
Someone w...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...ace excuse 
Came prologue, and apology too prompt; 
Which, with bland words at will, she thus addressed. 
Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay? 
Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived 
Thy presence; agony of love till now 
Not felt, nor shall be twice; for never more 
Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought, 
The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange 
Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear: 
This tree is not, as we are told, a tree 
Of danger tasted...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

..., contrary, he hears 
On all sides, from innumerable tongues, 
A dismal universal hiss, the sound 
Of publick scorn; he wondered, but not long 
Had leisure, wondering at himself now more, 
His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare; 
His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining 
Each other, till supplanted down he fell 
A monstrous serpent on his belly prone, 
Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power 
Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned, 
According to his doom: h...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Phenomenal Woman

...in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's n...Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya

The Ballad Of Reading Gaol

...not sweet with nimble feet
To dance upon the air!

So with curious eyes and sick surmise
We watched him day by day,
And wondered if each one of us
Would end the self-same way,
For none can tell to what red Hell
His sightless soul may stray.

At last the dead man walked no more
Amongst the Trial Men,
And I knew that he was standing up
In the black dock's dreadful pen,
And that never would I see his face
In God's sweet world again.

Like two doomed ships that pass in storm
We h...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The Ballad of the White Horse

...ught to see Doom he could not see;
How ruin had come and victory,
And both were a surprise.

Even so he had watched and wondered
Under Ashdown from the plains;
With Ethelred praying in his tent,
Till the white hawthorn swung and bent,
As Alfred rushed his spears and rent
The shield-wall of the Danes.

Even so he had watched and wondered,
Knowing neither less nor more,
Till all his lords lay dying,
And axes on axes plying,
Flung him, and drove him flying
Like a pirate to the s...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Charge of the Light Brigade

...eir sabres bare, 
Flashed as they turned in air 
Sabring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while 
All the world wondered: 
Plunged in the battery-smoke 
Right through the line they broke; 
Cossack and Russian 
Reeled from the sabre-stroke 
Shattered and sundered. 
Then they rode back, but not, 
Not the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon behind them 
Volleyed and thundered; 
Stormed at with shot and shell, 
While hors...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Deserted Garden

...robed round with day and night.

And such were theirs: the traveller without,
Pausing at night under the orchard trees,
Wondered and crossed himself in holy doubt,
For through their song and in the murmuring breeze
It seemed angelic choirs were all about
Mingling in universal harmonies,
As though, responsive to the chords they woke,
All Nature into sweet epithalamium broke.

And still they think a spirit haunts the place:
'Tis said, when Night has drawn her jewelled pall
And ...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Everlasting Mercy

...the time to us two boys). 
And while the seconds chafed and gloved me 
I thought of Nell's eyes when she loved me, 
And wondered how my tot would end, 
First Nell cast off and now my friend; 
And in the moonlight dim and wan 
I knew quite well my luck was gone; 
And looking round I felt a spite 
At all who'd come to see me fight; 
The five and forty human faces 
Inflamed by drink and going to races, 
Faces of men who'd never been 
Merry or true or live or clean; 
Who'd never ...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The House Of Dust: Complete (Long)

...under an arc-lamp,
Blown by a bitter wind, she stopped and looked
In through the brilliant windows of a drug-store,
And wondered if she dared to ask for poison:
But it was late, few customers were there,
The eyes of all the clerks would freeze upon her,
And she would wilt, and cry . . . Here, by the river,
She listened to the water slapping the wall,
And felt ***** fascination in its blackness:
But it was cold, the little waves looked cruel,
The stars were keen, and a windy d...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

The Millers Tale

...pt, and didde what him list
Till Sunday, that* the sunne went to rest. *when
This silly carpenter *had great marvaill* *wondered greatly*
Of Nicholas, or what thing might him ail,
And said; "I am adrad*, by Saint Thomas! *afraid, in dread
It standeth not aright with Nicholas:
*God shielde* that he died suddenly. *heaven forbid!*
This world is now full fickle sickerly*. *certainly
I saw to-day a corpse y-borne to chirch,
That now on Monday last I saw him wirch*. *work
"Go up,"...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Princess (prologue)

...ght: she liked it more 
Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. 
But these--what kind of tales did men tell men, 
She wondered, by themselves? 
A half-disdain 
Perched on the pouted blossom of her lips: 
And Walter nodded at me; '~He~ began, 
The rest would follow, each in turn; and so 
We forged a sevenfold story. Kind? what kind? 
Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms, 
Seven-headed monsters only made to kill 
Time by the fire in winter.' 
'Kill him now, 
The tyrant! k...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Three Voices

...she said. 

He left her, and he turned aside:
He sat and watched the coming tide
Across the shores so newly dried. 

He wondered at the waters clear,
The breeze that whispered in his ear,
The billows heaving far and near, 

And why he had so long preferred
To hang upon her every word:
"In truth," he said, "it was absurd." 


The Third Voice 


NOT long this transport held its place:
Within a little moment's space
Quick tears were raining down his face 

His heart stood still,...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Wanderer

..., 
Saw her fair house-flag flutter at the main, 
And slowly saunter seawards, dwindling dim; 

And wished her well, and wondered, as she died, 
How, when her canvas had been sheeted home, 
Her quivering length would sweep into her stride, 
Making the greenness milky with her foam. 

But when we rose next morning, we discerned 
Her beauty once again a shattered thing; 
Towing to dock the Wanderer returned, 
A wounded sea-bird with a broken wing. 

A spar was gone, her rigging'...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

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