Famous Worlds Poems by Famous Poets

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

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All the Worlds a Stage

by William Shakespeare
 All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like...Read more of this...

Look You Ill Go Pray

by Vachel Lindsay
 Look you, I'll go pray, 
My shame is crying, 
My soul is gray and faint, 
My faith is dying. 
Look you, I'll go pray — 
"Sweet Mary, make me clean, 
Thou rainstorm of the soul, 
Thou wine from worlds unseen."...Read more of this...

Visions of the worlds vanitie

by Edmund Spenser
 One day, whiles that my daylie cares did sleepe,
My spirit, shaking off her earthly prison,
Began to enter into meditation deepe
Of things exceeding reach of common reason;
Such as this age, in which all good is geason,
And all that humble is and meane debaced,
Hath brought forth in her last declining season,
Griefe of good mindes, to see goodnesse disgraced.
On which when as...Read more of this...

Sonnet 69: Those parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view

by William Shakespeare
 Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;
All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,
Utt'ring bare truth, even so as foes commend.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crowned,
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than...Read more of this...

A Tribute to Mr J. Graham Henderson The Worlds Fair Judge

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Thrice welcome home to Hawick, Mr J. Graham Henderson,
For by your Scotch tweeds a great honour you have won;
By exhibiting your beautiful tweeds at the World's Fair
You have been elected judge of Australian and American wools while there. 

You had to pass a strict examination on the wool trade,
But you have been victorious, and not the least afraid,
And has...Read more of this...

The Worlds All Right

by Robert William Service
 Be honest, kindly, simple, true;
Seek good in all, scorn but pretence;
Whatever sorrow come to you,
Believe in Life's Beneficence!

The World's all right; serene I sit,
And cease to puzzle over it.
There's much that's mighty strange, no doubt;
But Nature knows what she's about;
And in a million years or so
We'll know more than to-day we know.
Old Evolution's under way --
 What ho! the...Read more of this...

If this world's things were only based on show, oh!

by Omar Khayyam
If this world's things were only based on show, oh!
then each day would be a feast. Oh! were it not for
these vain threats, each could attain below the aim of his
desires, without a fear.
377...Read more of this...

There is a chalice made with wit profound,

by Omar Khayyam
There is a chalice made with wit profound,
With tokens of the Maker's favour crowned;
Yet the world's Potter takes his masterpiece,
And dashes it to pieces on the ground!...Read more of this...

Souls that are well informed of this world's state,

by Omar Khayyam
Souls that are well informed of this world's state,
Its weal and woe with equal mind await:
For, be it weal we meet, or be it woe,
The weal doth pass, and woe too hath its date....Read more of this...

He, who the world's foundations erst did lay,

by Omar Khayyam
He, who the world's foundations erst did lay,
Doth bruise full many a bosom day by day,
And many a ruby lip and musky tress
Doth coffin in the earth, and shroud with clay....Read more of this...

The world's annoys I rate not at one grain,

by Omar Khayyam
The world's annoys I rate not at one grain,
So I eat once a day I don't complain;
And, since earth's kitchen yields no solid food,
I pester no man with petitions vain....Read more of this...

Make light to me the world's oppressive weight,

by Omar Khayyam
Make light to me the world's oppressive weight,
And hide my failings from the people's hate,
And grant me peace to-day, and on the morrow
Deal with me as Thy mercy may dictate!...Read more of this...

Misgivings

by Herman Melville
 When ocean-clouds over inland hills 
Sweep storming in late autumn brown, 
And horror the sodden valley fills, 
And the spire falls crashing in the town, 
I muse upon my country's ills-- 
The tempest burning from the waste of Time 
On the world's fairest hope linked with man's foulest crime. 

Nature's dark side is heeded now-- 
(Ah! optimist-cheer dishartened flown)--...Read more of this...

Wend I, wander I, past all worlds that be

by Hafez
Wend I, wander I, past all worlds that be;
Ever have I wander’d or e’er the earth was made;
Urg’d like the álien áir o’er land & sea,
Sleepless as sunlight, joyless as its shade.

Not on your earth travel I; sáy not to mé
‘Cease awhile thy wandering, Ó tir’d day!’
Say not, ‘O pilgrim, rest thee; comfort thee’:
Not hére is my journey’s end, Indus...Read more of this...

Tiger

by Alec Derwent (A D) Hope
 At noon thepaper tigers roar 
-- Miroslav Holub

The paper tigers roar at noon; 
The sun is hot, the sun is high. 
They roar in chorus, not in tune, 
Their plaintive, savage hunting cry.

O, when you hear them, stop your ears 
And clench your lids and bite your tongue. 
The harmless paper tiger bears 
Strong fascination for the young.

His forest...Read more of this...

Be not beguiled by world's insidious wiles;

by Omar Khayyam
Be not beguiled by world's insidious wiles;
O foolish ones, ye know her tricks and guiles;
Your precious life-time cast not to the winds;
Haste to seek wine, and court a sweetheart's smile....Read more of this...

The Worlds in this World

by Laure-Anne Bosselaar
 Doors were left open in heaven again: 
drafts wheeze, clouds wrap their ripped pages 
around roofs and trees. Like wet flags, shutters 
flap and fold. Even light is blown out of town,
its last angles caught in sopped
newspaper wings and billowing plastic — 
all this in one American street. 
 Elsewhere, somewhere, a tide 
recedes, incense is lit, an infant...Read more of this...

So far as this world's dealings I have traced,

by Omar Khayyam
So far as this world's dealings I have traced,
I find its favours shamefully misplaced;
Allah be praised! I see myself debarred
From all its boons, and wrongfully disgraced....Read more of this...

Holy Sonnet XIII: What If This Present Were The Worlds Last Night?

by John Donne
 What if this present were the world's last night?
Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell,
The picture of Christ crucified, and tell
Whether that countenance can thee affright,
Tears in his eyes quench the amazing light,
Blood fills his frowns, which from his pierced head fell.
And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell,
Which prayed forgiveness for his foes' fierce spite?
No,...Read more of this...

Worlds

by Richard Wilbur
 For Alexander there was no Far East,
Because he thought the Asian continent
India ended. Free Cathay at least
Did not contribute to his discontent.

But Newton, who had grasped all space, was more
Serene. To him it seemed that he'd but played
With several shells and pebbles on the shore
Of that profundity he had not made.

Swiss Einstein with his relativity -
Most secure of all....Read more of this...

From this world's kitchen crave not to obtain

by Omar Khayyam
From this world's kitchen crave not to obtain
Those dainties, seeming real, but really vain,
Which greedy worldlings gorge to their own loss;
Renounce that loss, so loss shall prove thy gain!...Read more of this...

In Salutation to the Eternal Peace

by Sarojini Naidu
 Men say the world is full of fear and hate,
And all life's ripening harvest-fields await
The restless sickle of relentless fate.

But I, sweet Soul, rejoice that I was born,
When from the climbing terraces of corn
I watch the golden orioles of Thy morn.

What care I for the world's desire and pride,
Who know the silver wings that gleam and glide,
The homing pigeons...Read more of this...

Sonnet 24 - Let the worlds sharpness like a clasping knife

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 Let the world's sharpness, like a clasping knife,
Shut in upon itself and do no harm
In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,
And let us hear no sound of human strife
After the click of the shutting. Life to life—
I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm,
And feel as safe as guarded by a charm
Against the stab of worldlings, who...Read more of this...

We buy new wine and old, our cups to fill,

by Omar Khayyam
We buy new wine and old, our cups to fill,
And sell for two grains this world's good and ill;
Know you where you will go to after death?
Set wine before me, and go where you will!...Read more of this...

All All And All The Dry Worlds Lever

by Dylan Thomas
 I

All all and all the dry worlds lever,
Stage of the ice, the solid ocean,
All from the oil, the pound of lava.
City of spring, the governed flower,
Turns in the earth that turns the ashen
Towns around on a wheel of fire.

How now my flesh, my naked fellow,
Dug of the sea, the glanded morrow,
Worm in the scalp, the staked and fallow.
All all...Read more of this...

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