Famous Xxii Poems by Famous Poets

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

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De Profundis

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 I

The face, which, duly as the sun, 
Rose up for me with life begun, 
To mark all bright hours of the day 
With hourly love, is dimmed away—
And yet my days go on, go on.

II 

The tongue which, like a stream, could run
Smooth music from the roughest stone, 
And every morning with ' Good day'
Make each day good, is...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII: Love Banishd Heavn

by Michael Drayton
 Love, banish'd Heav'n, on Earth was held in scorn, 
Wand'ring abroad in need and beggary, 
And wanting friends, though of a Goddess born, 
Yet crav'd the alms of such as passed by. 
I, like a man devout and charitable, 
Clothed the naked, lodg'd this wand'ring guest, 
With sighs and tears still furnishing his table 
With what might make the...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XXII. Come va 'l mondo! or mi diletta e piace. HE BLESSES LAURA FOR HER VIRTUE.  How goes the world! now please me and delightWhat most displeased me: now I see and feelMy trials were vouchsafed me for my weal,That peace eternal should brief war requite.O hopes and wishes, ever...Read more of this...

Mesmerism

by Robert Browning
 I.

All I believed is true!
I am able yet
All I want, to get
By a method as strange as new:
Dare I trust the same to you?

II.

If at night, when doors are shut,
And the wood-worm picks,
And the death-watch ticks,
And the bar has a flag of smut,
And a cat's in the water-butt---

III.

And the socket floats and flares,
And the house-beams groan,
And a foot unknown
Is...Read more of this...

Modern Love: XXII

by George Meredith
 What may the woman labour to confess?
There is about her mouth a nervous twitch.
'Tis something to be told, or hidden:--which?
I get a glimpse of hell in this mild guess.
She has desires of touch, as if to feel
That all the household things are things she knew.
She stops before the glass. What sight in view?
A face that seems the latest to...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII: With Fools and Children

by Michael Drayton
 To Folly

With fools and children, good discretion bears; 
Then, honest people, bear with Love and me, 
Nor older yet, nor wiser made by years, 
Amongst the rest of fools and children be; 
Love, still a baby, plays with gauds and toys, 
And, like a wanton, sports with every feather, 
And idiots still are running after boys, 
Then fools and...Read more of this...

Modern Love XXII: What May the Woman

by George Meredith
 What may the woman labour to confess?
There is about her mouth a nervous twitch.
'Tis something to be told, or hidden:--which?
I get a glimpse of hell in this mild guess.
She has desires of touch, as if to feel
That all the household things are things she knew.
She stops before the glass. What sight in view?
A face that seems the latest to...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII

by William Shakespeare
 My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:
How can I then be...Read more of this...

The Hymn

by John Milton
 I

It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

II

Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked...Read more of this...

In Memoriam A. H. H.

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
   Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
   By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
 
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
   Thou madest Life in man and brute;
   Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast...Read more of this...

Lovers Gifts XXII: I Shall Gladly Suffer

by Rabindranath Tagore
 I shall gladly suffer the pride of culture to die out in my house,
if only in some happy future I am born a herd-boy in the Brinda
forest.
The herd-boy who grazes his cattle sitting under the banyan
tree, and idly weaves gunja flowers into garlands, who loves to
splash and plunge in the Jamuna's cool deep stream.
He calls his companions to wake...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII: In Highest Way of Heavn

by Sir Philip Sidney
 In highest way of heav'n the Sun did ride, 
Progressing then from fair twins' golden place: 
Having no scarf of clouds before his face, 
But shining forth of heat in his chief pride; 

When some fair ladies by hard promise tied, 
On horseback met him in his furious race, 
Yet each prepar'd with fan's well-shading grace 
From that foe's...Read more of this...

Lord Walters Wife

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 I

'But where do you go?' said the lady, while both sat under the yew,
And her eyes were alive in their depth, as the kraken beneath the sea-blue.

II

'Because I fear you,' he answered;--'because you are far too fair,
And able to strangle my soul in a mesh of your golfd-coloured hair.'

III

'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason! Such knots are quickly...Read more of this...

Amoretti XXII: This Holy Season

by Edmund Spenser
 This holy season, fit to fast and pray,
Men to devotion ought to be inclin'd:
Therefore I likewise on so holy day,
For my sweet saint some service fit will find.
Her temple fair is built within my mind,
In which her glorious image placed is,
On which my thoughts do day and night attend,
Like sacred priests that never think amiss.
There I to her as...Read more of this...

The Lover's Wish

by Victor Hugo
 ("Si j'étais la feuille.") 
 
 {XXII., September, 1828.} 


 Oh! were I the leaf that the wind of the West, 
 His course through the forest uncaring; 
 To sleep on the gale or the wave's placid breast 
 In a pendulous cradle is bearing. 
 
 All fresh with the morn's balmy kiss would I haste, 
...Read more of this...

Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord Will Provide

by William Cowper
 (Genesis, xxii.14)

The saints should never be dismay'd,
Nor sink in hopeless fear;
For when they least expect His aid,
The Saviour will appear.

This Abraham found: he raised the knife;
God saw, and said, "Forbear!
Yon ram shall yield his meaner life;
Behold the victim there."

Once David seem'd Saul's certain prey;
But hark! the foe's at hand;
Saul turns his arms another way,
To save the invaded land.

When Jonah...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII

by Edmund Spenser
 THis holy season fit to fast and pray,
Men to deuotion ought to be inclynd:
therefore, I lykewise on so holy day,
for my sweet Saynt some seruice fit will find.
Her temple fayre is built within my mind,
in which her glorious ymage placed is,
on which my thoughts doo day and night attend
lyke sacred priests that neuer thinke amisse.
There I to her as...Read more of this...

Gastibelza

by Victor Hugo
 ("Gastibelza, l'homme à la carabine.") 
 
 {XXII., March, 1837.} 


 Gastibelza, with gun the measure beating, 
 Would often sing: 
 "Has one o' ye with sweet Sabine been meeting, 
 As, gay, ye bring 
 Your songs and steps which, by the music, 
 Are reconciled— 
 Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing 
 Will...Read more of this...

Master Hugues Of Saxe-Gotha

by Robert Browning
 An imaginary composer.]

I.

Hist, but a word, fair and soft!
Forth and be judged, Master Hugues!
Answer the question I've put you so oft:
What do you mean by your mountainous fugues?
See, we're alone in the loft,---

II.

I, the poor organist here,
Hugues, the composer of note,
Dead though, and done with, this many a year:
Let's have a colloquy, something to quote,
Make the world prick up...Read more of this...

Song of the Soul XXII

by Kahlil Gibran
 In the depth of my soul there is 
A wordless song - a song that lives 
In the seed of my heart. 
It refuses to melt with ink on 
Parchment; it engulfs my affection 
In a transparent cloak and flows, 
But not upon my lips. 


How can I sigh it? I fear it may 
Mingle with earthly ether; 
To...Read more of this...

Good and Evil XXII

by Kahlil Gibran
 And one of the elders of the city said, "Speak to us of Good and Evil." 

And he answered: 

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil. 

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? 

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when...Read more of this...

Song Of Love

by Victor Hugo
 ("S'il est un charmant gazon.") 
 
 {XXII, Feb. 18, 1834.} 


 If there be a velvet sward 
 By dewdrops pearly drest, 
 Where through all seasons fairies guard 
 Flowers by bees carest, 
 Where one may gather, day and night, 
 Roses, honeysuckle, lily white, 
 I fain would make of it a site 
 For...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII: Wild Is the Foaming Sea

by Mary Darby Robinson
 Wild is the foaming Sea! The surges roar!
And nimbly dart the livid lightnings round!
On the rent rock the angry waves rebound;
Ah me! the less'ning bark is seen no more!
Along the margin of the trembling shore,
Loud as the blast my frantic cries shall sound,
My storm-drench'd limbs the flinty fragments wound,
And o'er my bleeding breast the billows pour!
Phaon! return! ye winds,...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XXII. Più di me lieta non si vede a terra. ON THE SAME SUBJECT.  Than me more joyful never reach'd the shoreA vessel, by the winds long tost and tried,Whose crew, late hopeless on the waters wide,To a good God their thanks, now prostrate, pour;Nor captive from his dungeon ever...Read more of this...

The Gardener XXII: When She Passed by Me

by Rabindranath Tagore
 When she passed by me with quick
steps, the end of her skirt touched
me.
From the unknown island of a 
heart came a sudden warm breath of
spring.
A flutter of a flitting touch brushed
me and vanished in a moment, like a 
torn flower petal blown in the breeze.
It fell upon my heart like a sigh of
her body and whisper of her heart....Read more of this...

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