Famous Yesteryear Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Schoolfellow

by Sir Henry Newbolt
 Our game was his but yesteryear; 
We wished him back; we could not know 
The self-same hour we missed him here 
He led the line that broke the foe. 

Blood-red behind our guarded posts 
Sank as of old and dying day; 
The battle ceased; the mingled hosts 
Weary and cheery went their way: 

"To-morrow well may bring," we said,...Read more of this...

This is the holy hour when the lamp is lit

by Emile Verhaeren
This is the holy hour when the lamp is lit: everything is calm and comforting this evening; and the silence is such that you could hear the falling of feathers.
This is the holy hour when gently the beloved comes, like the breeze or smoke, most gently, most slowly. At first, she says nothing—and I listen; and I catch a glimpse...Read more of this...

The First Rain

by Yehuda Amichai
 The first rain reminds me
Of the rising summer dust.
The rain doesn't remember the rain of yesteryear.
A year is a trained beast with no memories.
Soon you will again wear your harnesses,
Beautiful and embroidered, to hold
Sheer stockings: you
Mare and harnesser in one body.

The white panic of soft flesh
In the panic of a sudden vision
Of ancient saints....Read more of this...

Mae Marsh Motion Picture Actress

by Vachel Lindsay
 I

The arts are old, old as the stones
From which man carved the sphinx austere.
Deep are the days the old arts bring:
Ten thousand years of yesteryear.


II

She is madonna in an art
As wild and young as her sweet eyes:
A frail dew flower from this hot lamp
That is today's divine surprise.

Despite raw lights and gloating mobs
She is not seared: a picture still:
Rare...Read more of this...

Do Not Accept

by Yehuda Amichai
 Do not accept these rains that come too late.
Better to linger. Make your pain
An image of the desert. Say it's said
And do not look to the west. Refuse

To surrender. Try this year too
To live alone in the long summer,
Eat your drying bread, refrain
 From tears. And do not learn from

Experience. Take as an example my youth,
My return late at...Read more of this...

You

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Only a long, low-lying lane
That follows to the misty sea,
Across a bare and russet plain
Where wild winds whistle vagrantly;
I know that many a fairer path
With lure of song and bloom may woo,
But oh ! I love this lonely strath
Because it is so full of you. 

Here we have walked in elder years,
And here your truest memories wait,
This spot is...Read more of this...

Companioned

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 I walked to-day, but not alone,
Adown a windy, sea-girt lea,
For memory, spendthrift of her charm,
Peopled the silent lands for me. 

The faces of old comradeship
In golden youth were round my way,
And in the keening wind I heard
The songs of many an orient day. 

And to me called, from out the pines
And woven grasses, voices dear,
As if from elfin lips...Read more of this...

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