Famous Work Of Art Poems by Famous Poets

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

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227. Verses on Friars' Carse Hermitage (First Version)

...THOU whom chance may hither lead,
Be thou clad in russet weed,
Be thou deckt in silken stole,
Grave these maxims on thy soul.


Life is but a day at most,
Sprung from night, in darkness lost:
Hope not sunshine every hour,
Fear not clouds will always lour.


Happiness is but a name,
Make content and ease thy aim,
Ambition is a meteor-gleam;
Fame, an idle re...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


Barmaid

...g change, and scorning what men say,
Of posing as a dove among the pots,
Nor often gives her dignity away.
Her head's a work of art, and, if her eyes
Be tired and ignorant, she has a waist;
Cheaply the Mode she shadows; and she tries
From penny novels to amend her taste;
And, having mopped the zinc for certain years,
And faced the gas, she fades and disappears....Read more of this...
by Henley, William Ernest

Behind the Scenes

...ely robes of Hamlet sit, 
Or as Macbeth he rave and storm, 
Or plays burlesque to please the pit, 

'Tis each and all a work of art, 
That constant care and practice means -- 
The actor who creates a part 
Has done his work behind the scenes....Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

If you refuse me once and think again

...If you refuse me once, and think again,
I will complain.
You are deceiv'd, love is no work of art,
It must be got and born,
Not made and worn,
By every one that hath a heart.

Or do you think they more than once can die,
Whom you deny?
Who tell you of a thousand deaths a day,
Like the old poets feign
And tell the pain
They met, but in the common way?

Or do you think 't too soon to yield,
And quit the field?
Nor is that right, they yield that...Read more of this...
by Suckling, Sir John

Meditations In Time Of Civil War

...moon-luminous
It lay five hundred years.
Yet if no change appears
No moon; only an aching heart
Conceives a changeless work of art.
Our learned men have urged
That when and where 'twas forged
A marvellous accomplishment,
In painting or in pottery, went
From father unto son
And through the centuries ran
And seemed unchanging like the sword.
Soul's beauty being most adored,
Men and their business took
Me soul's unchanging look;
For the most rich inheritor,
Knowing that none co...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler


The Growth of Love

...wit
With justice, courage, temperance come aboard,
And at her helm the master reason sit. 

16
This world is unto God a work of art,
Of which the unaccomplish'd heavenly plan
Is hid in life within the creature's heart,
And for perfection looketh unto man.
Ah me! those thousand ages: with what slow
Pains and persistence were his idols made,
Destroy'd and made, ere ever he could know
The mighty mother must be so obey'd. 
For lack of knowledge and thro' little skill
His childish...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Life-Clock

...wrapped in sleep,All silent and alone,It ticks and ticks the livelong night,And never runneth down.Oh! wondrous is that work of art,Which knells the passing hour;But art ne’er formed, nor mind conceived,The life-clock’s magic power.[Pg 006]Not set in gold, nor decked with gems,By wealth and pride possessed;But rich or poor, or high or low,Each bears it in his breast.Such is the clock that measures life,—Of flesh and spirit blended,—And thus ’t will run within the breast,Till ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

The Orient Express

...of lives, and the train
Passing, after all unchangeable
And not now ever to stop, like a heart --
It is like any other work of art,
It is and never can be changed.
Behind everything there is always
The unknown unwanted life....Read more of this...
by Jarrell, Randall

The Portrait

...The portrait there above my bed
They tell me is a work of art;
My Wife,--since twenty years she's dead:
Her going nearly broke my heart.
Alas! No little ones we had
To light our hearth with joy and glee;
Yet as I linger lone and sad
 I know she's waiting me.

The picture? Sargent painted it,
And it has starred in many a show.
Her eyes are on me where I sit,
And follow me where'er I go.
She'll smile like tha...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

To Rosabelle

...kind;
And high ideals fired that infant mind.
Once more she backed, once more a space apart
Considered and reviewed her work of art:
Doubtful at first, and gravely yet awhile;
Till all her features blossomed in a smile.
And the child, waking at the call of bliss,
To each she ran, and took and gave a kiss....Read more of this...
by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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