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Famous Dune Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...ain Jock Rab.


O come thy ways to me, my Eppie Macnab;
O come thy ways to me, my Eppie Macnab;
 Whate’er thou hast dune, be it late, be it sune,
Thou’s welcome again to thy ain Jock Rab.


What says she, my dearie, my Eppie Macnab?
What says she, my dearie, my Eppie Macnab?
 She let’s thee to wit that she has thee forgot,
And for ever disowns thee, her ain Jock Rab.


 O had I ne’er seen thee, my Eppie Macnab!
 O had I ne’er seen thee, my Eppie Macnab!
 As light ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...m.
 A country fellow at the pleugh,
His acre’s till’d, he’s right eneugh;
A country girl at her wheel,
Her dizzen’s dune, she’s unco weel;
But gentlemen, an’ ladies warst,
Wi’ ev’n-down want o’ wark are curst.
They loiter, lounging, lank an’ lazy;
Tho’ deil-haet ails them, yet uneasy;
Their days insipid, dull, an’ tasteless;
Their nights unquiet, lang, an’ restless.
 An’ev’n their sports, their balls an’ races,
Their galloping through public places,
There’s sic pa...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...the table,
And a dog for the hunt when the game is flush,
And the pick of a gentleman's stable.
There is Dimmock o' Dune, he was here yester-night,
But he 's rotting to-day on Glen Arragh;
'Twas the hand o' MacPherson that gave him the blow,
And the vultures shall feast on his marrow.
But it's heigho for a brave old song
And a glass while we are able;
Here 's a health to death and another cup
To the bright eye over the table.
I can show a broad back and a jolly de...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...Cuddle-doun my bairnie
The dargie day is dune:
Yon’s a siller sternie
Ablow the siller mune.
Like a wabster body
Hingin on a threed
Far abune my laddie
In his wee creepie-bed. ...Read more of this...
by Soutar, William
...nd cried, 'Awake, already the pale moon
Washes the trees with silver, and the wave
Creeps grey and chilly up this sandy dune,
The croaking frogs are out, and from the cave
The nightjar shrieks, the fluttering bats repass,
And the brown stoat with hollow flanks creeps through the dusky
grass.

Nay, though thou art a god, be not so coy,
For in yon stream there is a little reed
That often whispers how a lovely boy
Lay with her once upon a grassy mead,
Who when his cruel plea...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar



...storm loosens:
watered paint poured

dark blue onto the edge
of the page. Haloed grasses,
gilt shadow-edged body of dune…

I could go on like this.
I love the language
of the day's ten thousand aspects,

the creases and flecks 
in the map, these 
brillant gouaches....Read more of this...
by Doty, Mark
...t, and a hundred meres
About it, as the water Moab saw
Come round by the East, and out beyond them flush'd
The long low dune, and lazy-plunging sea.


So all the ways were safe from shore to shore,
But in the heart of Arthur pain was lord.


Then, out of Tristram waking, the red dream
Fled with a shout, and that low lodge return'd,
Mid-forest, and the wind among the boughs.
He whistled his good warhorse left to graze
Among the forest greens, vaulted upon him,
And ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...eap up on the boughs, now stiff and sere?
For your sake, I would go and seek the year,
Faded beyond the purple ranks of dune,
Blown sands of drifted hours, which the moon
Streaks with a ghostly finger, and her sneer
Pulls at my lengthening shadow. Yes, 'tis that!
My shadow stretches forward, and the ground
Is dark in front because the light's behind.
It is grotesque, with such a funny hat,
In watching it and walking I have found
More than enough to occupy my mind....Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy
...its last 
And the flame will go down in the flower.
A briefer length of moon 
Will mark the sea-line and the yellow dune.
Then we may think of this, yet 
There will be something forgotten
And something we should forget.
It will be like all things we know: .
A stone will fail; a rose is sure to go.
It will be quiet then and we may stay Long at the picket gate
But there will be less to say....Read more of this...
by Bontemps, Arna
...y promising

Everything and more than everything, and then suddenly,

At the height of noon seem to rise to the peak or dune-like moon of no return

So that everything is or seems to have become nothing, or of no genuine importance:

And it is not that the departure of hope or its sleep has made it inconceivable

That anything should be or should have been important:

It is the belief that hope itself was not, from the beginning, 
before believing, the most important of all b...Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore
...Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea,
London has swept about you this score years
And bright ships left you this or that in fee:
Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things,
Strange spars of knowledge and dimmed wares of price.
Great minds have sought you- lacking someone else.
You have been second always. Tragical?
No. You preferred it to ...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra
...rt.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
   On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
   Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
   Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away --
 On dune and headland sinks the fire --
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
 Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
 Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe --
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
 Or lesser breeds without the Law --
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
L...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...and a hundred meres 
About it, as the water Moab saw 
Came round by the East, and out beyond them flushed 
The long low dune, and lazy-plunging sea. 

So all the ways were safe from shore to shore, 
But in the heart of Arthur pain was lord. 

Then, out of Tristram waking, the red dream 
Fled with a shout, and that low lodge returned, 
Mid-forest, and the wind among the boughs. 
He whistled his good warhorse left to graze 
Among the forest greens, vaulted upon him,...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ead beneath my eyes. 

Just below me swings the bay, 
Sings a sunny tune, 
But my heart is far away 
Out beyond the dune; 
Clearer far the sea-gulls’ cry 
And the breakers’ roar, 
Than the little waves beneath 
Lapping on the shore. 

For that strip of sapphire sea 
Set against the sky 
Far horizons means to me— 
And the ships go by 
Framed between the empty sky 
And the yellow sands, 
While my freed thoughts follow them 
Out to other lands. 

All its changes who ...Read more of this...
by Mackeller, Dorothea
...great man-seal haul back to the sea and no man knows their path.
Then dark they lie and stark they lie -- rookery, dune, and floe,
And the Northern Lights come down o' nights to dance with the houseless snow;
And God Who clears the grounding berg and steers the grinding floe,
He hears the cry of the little kit-fox and the wind along the snow.
But since our women must walk gay and money buys their gear,
The sealing-boats they filch that way at hazard year by year....Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...Where the sea forever dances
Over lonely cliff and dune,
Where sweet twilight's vapor glances
In a warmer-glowing moon,
Where with the seraglio's graces
Daylong toys the Mussulman,
An enchantress 'mid embraces
Handed me a talisman.

'Mid embraces I was bidden:
"Guard this talisman of mine:
In it secret power is hidden!
Love himself has made it thine.
Neither death nor ills nor aging,
My beloved, does...Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander
...With Kit, Age 7, at the Beach


We would climb the highest dune, 
from there to gaze and come down: 
the ocean was performing; 
we contributed our climb. 

Waves leapfrogged and came 
straight out of the storm. 
What should our gaze mean? 
Kit waited for me to decide. 

Standing on such a hill, 
what would you tell your child? 
That was an absolute vista. 
Those waves raced far, and cold. 

"How ...Read more of this...
by Stafford, William
...y, like the beast of myself
Which I raised from a whelp, to a corner and growl?
The pyramid of my life was nought but a dune,
Barren and formless, spoiled at last by the storm....Read more of this...
by Masters, Edgar Lee

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things