Famous Wonders Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Little History

...he gets tipsy, tries to seduce the stewardess.
People in the Midwest keep telling him reminds them of Woody
 Allen.
He wonders what that means. I'm funny? A sort of nervous
 intellectual type from New York? A Jew?
Around this time somebody accuses him of not being Jewish enough.
It is said by resentful colleagues that his parents changed their
 name from something that sounded more Jewish.
Everything he publishes is scrutinized with reference to "the
 Jewish question."
It is...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David


A poem on the rising glory of America

...the Euxine to th' Egean Sea. 
Britannia holds the empire of the waves, 
And welcomes ev'ry bold adventurer 
To view the wonders of old Ocean's reign. 
Far to the east our fleets on traffic sail, 
And to the west thro' boundless seas which not 
Old Rome nor Tyre nor mightier Carthage knew. 
Daughter of commerce, from the hoary deep 
New-York emerging rears her lofty domes, 
And hails from far her num'rous ships of trade, 
Like shady forests rising on the waves. 
From Europe's ...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

Beowulf (Modern English)

...s, worthied with treasure,
clasped with noble chains, just as the weapon-smith
worked it in days gone by, adored with wonders,
set it around with boar-images, so that afterwards
no sword or weapon could bite into it. (ll. 1441b-54)

It was no mean assistance that the spokesman
of Hrothgar lent him in his need, that hefted sword
was named Hrunting, it was once the most singular
of elder treasures—its edge was iron, spangled
with venomous runes, hardened in battle-swe...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...omen the wine-hall to cleanse,
the guest-room to garnish. Gold-gay shone the hangings
that were wove on the wall, and wonders many
to delight each mortal that looks upon them.
Though braced within by iron bands,
that building bright was broken sorely; {15a}
rent were its hinges; the roof alone
held safe and sound, when, seared with crime,
the fiendish foe his flight essayed,
of life despairing. -- No light thing that,
the flight for safety, -- essay it who will!
Fo...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Dream On

...ere, then here again,
low-flying amber-wing darting upward
then out of sight.
And the dream has a pain in its heart
the wonders of which are manifold,
or so the story is told....Read more of this...
by Tate, James


Endymion: Book I

...run
To warm their chilliest bubbles in the grass;
Man's voice was on the mountains; and the mass
Of nature's lives and wonders puls'd tenfold,
To feel this sun-rise and its glories old.

 Now while the silent workings of the dawn
Were busiest, into that self-same lawn
All suddenly, with joyful cries, there sped
A troop of little children garlanded;
Who gathering round the altar, seemed to pry
Earnestly round as wishing to espy
Some folk of holiday: nor had they waited
For ma...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Endymion: Book IV

...tides mortality.
A hermit young, I'll live in mossy cave,
Where thou alone shalt come to me, and lave
Thy spirit in the wonders I shall tell.
Through me the shepherd realm shall prosper well;
For to thy tongue will I all health confide.
And, for my sake, let this young maid abide
With thee as a dear sister. Thou alone,
Peona, mayst return to me. I own
This may sound strangely: but when, dearest girl,
Thou seest it for my happiness, no pearl
Will trespass down those cheeks. Co...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Eviradnus

...se," said fair Mahaud, 
 "In your condition are not understood." 
 "Well said," made answer Zeno, "'tis a place 
 Of wonders—I see serpents, and can trace 
 Vampires, and monsters swarming, that arise 
 In mist, through chinks, to meet the gazer's eyes." 
 
 Then Mahaud shuddered, and she said: "The wine 
 The Abbé made me drink as task of mine, 
 Will soon enwrap me in the soundest sleep— 
 Swear not to leave me—that you here will keep." 
 "I swear," cried Joss, a...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Inferno (English)

...rived? O glorious and far-guiding star! 
 Now may the love-led studious hours and long 
 In which I learnt how rich thy wonders are, 
 Master and Author mine of Light and Song, 
 Befriend me now, who knew thy voice, that few 
 Yet hearken. All the name my work hath won 
 Is thine of right, from whom I learned. To thee, 
 Abashed, I grant it. . . Why the mounting sun 
 No more I seek, ye scarce should ask, who see 
 The beast that turned me, nor faint hope have I 
 To force th...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Passage to India

...ING my days, 
Singing the great achievements of the present, 
Singing the strong, light works of engineers, 
Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,) 
In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal,
The New by its mighty railroad spann’d, 
The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires, 
I sound, to commence, the cry, with thee, O soul, 
The Past! the Past! the Past! 

The Past! the dark, unfathom’d retrospect!
The teeming gulf! the sleepers and the shadows! 
The p...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Salut au Monde

...1
O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! 
Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds! 
Such join’d unended links, each hook’d to the next! 
Each answering all—each sharing the earth with all. 

What widens within you, Walt Whitman?
What waves and soils exuding? 
What climes? what persons and lands are here? 
Who are the infants? some playing, some slumbering? 
Who are the girls? who are the married women? 
Who...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Samson Agonistes

...ceive, betray, 
Then as repentant to submit, beseech,
And reconcilement move with feign'd remorse,
Confess, and promise wonders in her change,
Not truly penitent, but chief to try
Her husband, how far urg'd his patience bears,
His vertue or weakness which way to assail:
Then with more cautious and instructed skill
Again transgresses, and again submits;
That wisest and best men full oft beguil'd
With goodness principl'd not to reject 
The penitent, but ever to forgive,
Are dra...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Ancient World

.... 
Embarrassed to carry the same book past 
the water fountain's plaster centaurs 

up to the desk again, I'd take 
The Wonders of the World to the Reading Room 
where Art and Industry met in the mural 
on the dome. The room smelled like two decades 
before I was born, when the name 
carved over the door meant something. 
I never read the second section, 

"Wonders of the Modern World"; 
I loved the promise of my father's blueprints, 
the unfulfilled turquoise schemes, 
but i...Read more of this...
by Doty, Mark

The Bride of Abydos

...st this liberated eye 
Survey'd Earth, Ocean, Sun and Sky, 
As if my spirit pierced them through, 
And all their inmost wonders knew! 
One word alone can paint to thee 
That more than feeling — I was Free! 
Ev'n for thy presence ceased to pine; 
The World — nay — Heaven itself was mine! 

XIX. 

"The shallop of a trusty Moor 
Convey'd me from this idle shore; 
I long'd to see the isles that gem 
Old Ocean's purple diadem: 
I sought by turns, and saw them all: [34] 
But when a...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Human Face

...ame 

On the jungle and the desert 
On the nests, on the broom 
On the echo of my childhood 
I write your name 

On the wonders of nights 
On the white bread of days 
On the seasons betrothed 
I write your name 

d'azur On all my blue rags 
On the sun-molded pond 
On the moon-enlivened lake 
I write your name 

On the fields, on the horizon 
On the wings of birds 
And on the mill of shadows 
I write your name 

On every burst of dawn 
On the sea, on the boats 
On the insane m...Read more of this...
by Eluard, Paul

The Man of Laws Tale

...e courtesy
Make them good cheer, and busily espy* *inquire
Tidings of sundry regnes*, for to lear** *realms **learn
The wonders that they mighte see or hear.

Amonges other thinges, specially
These merchants have him told of Dame Constance
So great nobless, in earnest so royally,
That this Soudan hath caught so great pleasance* *pleasure
To have her figure in his remembrance,
That all his lust*, and all his busy cure**, *pleasure **care
Was for to love her while his life may ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Rape of the Lock

...l its Arms;
The Fair each moment rises in her Charms, 
Repairs her Smiles, awakens ev'ry Grace,
And calls forth all the Wonders of her Face;
Sees by Degrees a purer Blush arise,
And keener Lightnings quicken in her Eyes.
The busy Sylphs surround their darling Care;
These set the Head, and those divide the Hair,
Some fold the Sleeve, while others plait the Gown;
And Betty's prais'd for Labours not her own.


Part 2

NOT with more Glories, in th' Etherial Plain,
The Sun first r...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

The Seasons: Winter

...ruits, 
Thro' the still Night, forsake the Parent-Bough,
That, in the first, grey, Glances of the Dawn,
Looks wild, and wonders at the wintry Waste.

THE Year, yet pleasing, but declining fast,
Soft, o'er the secret Soul, in gentle Gales, 
A Philosophic Melancholly breathes,
And bears the swelling Thought aloft to Heaven.
Then forming Fancy rouses to conceive,
What never mingled with the Vulgar's Dream:
Then wake the tender Pang, the pitying Tear, 
The Sigh for suffering Wort...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

To A Young Lady

...,
And sailing on with swifter pace,
The Cloud displays another face.
In vain the painter, vex'd at heart,
Tried all the wonders of his art;
In vain he begg'd, her form to grace,
One moment she would keep her place:
For, "changing thus with every gale,
Now gay with light, with gloom now pale,
Now high in air with gorgeous train,
Now settling on the darken'd main,
With looks more various than the moon;
A French coquette were drawn as soon."


He spoke; again the air was mild,
T...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

To Think of Time

..., and the snow fall, and fruits ripen, and act upon
 others as
 upon us now—yet not act upon us! 
To think of all these wonders of city and country, and others taking great interest in
 them—and we taking no interest in them! 

To think how eager we are in building our houses! 
To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent! 

(I see one building the house that serves him a few years, or seventy or eighty years at
 most,
I see one building the house that ser...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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