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Famous Xi Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Aiken, Conrad
...o shame the swords. We fly with these,
have always flown, and they
stay with us here, stand still and stay,
while, exiled in the Land of Pa, Li Po
still at the Wine Spring stoops to drink the moon.
And northward now, for fall gives way to spring,
from Sandy Hook and Kitty Hawk they wing,
and he remembers, with the pipes and flutes,
drunk with joy, bewildered by the chance
that brought a friend, and friendship, how, in vain,
he strove to speak, ‘and in long sentences,'...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...eternal theme; 
Notes from yon exaltations caught, 
Unrival'd royalty of thought, 
 O'er meaner strains supreme. 

 XI 
Contemplative—on God to fix 
His musings, and above the six 
 The Sabbath-day he blest; 
'Twas then his thoughts self-conquest prun'd, 
And heav'nly melancholy tun'd, 
 To bless and bear the rest. 

 XII 
Serene—to sow the seeds of peace, 
Rememb'ring, when he watch'd the fleece, 
 How sweetly Kidron purl'd— 
To further knowledge, silence vice, 
And ...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...tellas rayes,
Reason, thou kneeld'st, and offred'st straight to proue,
By reason good, good reason her to loue. 
XI 

In truth, O Loue, with what a boyish kind
Thou doest proceed in thy most serious ways,
That when the heau'n to thee his best displayes,
Yet of that best thou leau'st the best behinde!
For, like a childe that some faire booke doth find,
With gilded leaues or colour'd vellum playes,
Or, at the most, on some fine picture stayes,
But neuer heeds th...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...t
By boulder-stones where lichens mock
The marks on a moth, and small ferns fit
Their teeth to the polished block.

XI.

Oh the sense of the yellow mountain-flowers,
And thorny balls, each three in one,
The chestnuts throw on our path in showers!
For the drop of the woodland fruit's begun,
These early November hours,

XII.

That crimson the creeper's leaf across
Like a splash of blood, intense, abrupt,
O'er a shield else gold from rim to boss,
And lay it for show ...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...tored breast.
Four hundred years have rolled upon their way-
The ruthless demon rules the red man to this day.

XI.

If, in the morning of success, that grand
Invincible discoverer of our land
Had made no lodge or wigwam desolate
To carry trophies to the proud and great; 
If on our history's page there were no blot
Left by the cruel rapine of Cabot, 
Of Verrazin, and Hudson, dare we claim
The Indian of the plains, to-day had been same? 

XII.

For in this brie...Read more of this...



by Hugo, Victor
...t, west, 
 And north and south, at corners four, there rest 
 Four mounts; Aptar, where flourishes the pine, 
 And Toxis, where the elms grow green and fine; 
 Crobius and Bleyda, giants in their might, 
 Against the stormy winds to stand and fight, 
 And these above its diadem uphold 
 Night's living canopy of clouds unrolled. 
 
 The herdsman fears, and thinks its shadow creeps 
 To follow him; and superstition keeps 
 Such hold that Corbus as a terror reigns; 
...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ary night of love and misery,
If Isabel's quick eye had not been wed
To every symbol on his forehead high;
She saw it waxing very pale and dead,
And straight all flush'd; so, lisped tenderly,
"Lorenzo!"--here she ceas'd her timid quest,
But in her tone and look he read the rest.

VIII.
"O Isabella, I can half perceive
"That I may speak my grief into thine ear;
"If thou didst ever any thing believe,
"Believe how I love thee, believe how near
"My soul is to its doom: I ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...wide domain, [2] 
And slavery half forgets her feudal chain; 
He, their unhoped, but unforgotten lord — 
The long self-exiled chieftain is restored: 
There be bright faces in the busy hall, 
Bowls on the board, and banners on the wall; 
Far chequering o'er the pictured window, plays 
The unwonted fagots' hospitable blaze; 
And gay retainers gather round the hearth, 
With tongues all loudness, and with eyes all mirth. 

II. 

The chief of Lara is return'd again: 
And w...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...the hand is busy,
Not sidling a glance at the coin of their neighbour!
'Tis looking downward that makes one dizzy.

XI.

``If you knew their work you would deal your dole.''
May I take upon me to instruct you?
When Greek Art ran and reached the goal,
Thus much had the world to boast _in fructu_---
The Truth of Man, as by God first spoken,
Which the actual generations garble,
Was re-uttered, and Soul (which Limbs betoken)
And Limbs (Soul informs) made new in marble...Read more of this...

by Drinkwater, John
...I come of high possessions lord,
And loving life more than my love of you
I give you love more excellently true.
XI 	What better tale could any lover tell
When age or death his reckoning shall write
Than thus, 'Love taught me only to rebel
Against these things, — the thieving of delight
Without return; the gospellers of fear
Who, loving, yet deny the truth they bear,
Sad-suited lusts with lecherous hands to smear
The cloth of gold they would but dare not wear.Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...of pain, or rage 
Of sickness felt by him in times long past, 
A more than human weight upon his frame had cast. 

XI 

Himself he propped, limbs, body, and pale face, 
Upon a long grey staff of shaven wood: 
And, still as I drew near with gentle pace, 
Upon the margin of that moorish flood 
Motionless as a cloud the old Man stood, 
That heareth not the loud winds when they call 
And moveth all together, if it move at all. 

XII 

At length, himself unsettling, he th...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...e'll try for once a strain more glad, 
With some faint hope his alter'd lay 
May sing these gloomy thoughts away. 

XI. 

"What! not receive my foolish flower? 
Nay then I am indeed unblest: 
On me can thus thy forehead lower? 
And know'st thou not who loves thee best? 
Oh, Selim dear! oh, more than dearest! 
Say is it me thou hat'st or fearest? 
Come, lay thy head upon my breast, 
And I will kiss thee into rest, 
Since words of mine, and songs must fail 
Ev'n from my...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...Yerderers,
Might hope for real hunters at length and not murderers,
And oh the Duke's tailor, he had a hot time on't!

XI.

Now you must know that when the first dizziness
Of flap-hats and buff-coats and jack-boots subsided,
The Duke put this question, ``The Duke's part provided,
``Had not the Duchess some share in the business?''
For out of the mouth of two or three witnesses
Did he establish all fit-or-unfitnesses:
And, after much laying of heads together,
Somebody's c...Read more of this...

by Aiken, Conrad
...ng hours.
And dreams went along her veins, and scattering clouds
Threw streaming shadows on walls and towers.


XI.

Snow falls. The sky is grey, and sullenly glares
With purple lights in the canyoned street.
The fiery sign on the dark tower wreathes and flares . . .
The trodden grass in the park is covered with white,
The streets grow silent beneath our feet . . .
The city dreams, it forgets its past to-night.

And one, from hi...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...untain's southern brow,
     Where broad extended, far beneath,
     The varied realms of fair Menteith.
     With anxious eye he wandered o'er
     Mountain and meadow, moss and moor,
     And pondered refuge from his toil,
     By far Lochard or Aberfoyle.
     But nearer was the copsewood gray
     That waved and wept on Loch Achray,
     And mingled with the pine-trees blue
     On the bold cliffs of Benvenue.
     Fresh vigor with the hope returned,
     With...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ven is clear,
A frown upon the atmosphere,
That hath no business to appear
When skies are blue, and earth is gay. 

XI
A kind of change came in my fate,
My keepers grew compassionate;
I know not what had made them so,
They were inured to sights of woe,
But so it was; - my broken chain
With links unfasten'd did remain,
And it was to liberty to stride
Along my cell from side to side,
And up and down, and then athwart,
And tread it over every part;
And round the pillars one ...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...
Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot:
Let Rustum lay about him as he will,
Or Hatim Tai cry Supper -- heed them not. 

XI.
With me along the strip of Herbage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown,
Where name of Slave and Sultan is forgot --
And Peace is Mahmud on his Golden Throne! 

XII.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, -- and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness --
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! 

XIII.
...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...ld go:  Perhaps when you are at the place  You something of her tale may trace. XI.   I'll give you the best help I can:  Before you up the mountain go,  Up to the dreary mountain-top,  I'll tell you all I know.  'Tis now some two and twenty years,  Since she (her name is Martha Ray)  Gave with a maiden's true good will &nb...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...the notice of the legislature; thereby adding to his other laurels, the ambition of those of an informer. If there exists anywhere, except in his imagination, such a School, is he not sufficiently armed against it by his own intense vanity? The truth is, that there are certain writers whom Mr. S. imagines, like Scrub, to have 'talked of him; for they have laughed consumedly.' 

I think I know enough of most of the writers to whom he is supposed to allude, to a...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...verned the British Isles, 
By the power, for good or ill bestowed, 
Only on those who live by code. 

Oh, that inflexible code of living,
That seems so easy and unconstrained,
The Englishman's code of taking and giving
Rights and privileges pre-ordained,
Based since English life began
On the prime importance of being a man.

IX 
And what a voice he had-gentle, profound, 
Clear masculine!—I melted at the sound. 
Oh, English voices, are there any words 
Those tones ...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things