RETIREMENT POEMS

This page is specially prepared for retirement poems. You can reach newest and popular retirement poems from this page. You can vote and comment on the retirement poems you read.

The Deserted Village

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visits paid,
And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed:
.....
Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith
Retirement

O, let me be alone a while,
No human form is nigh.
And may I sing and muse aloud,
No mortal ear is by.
.....

Anne Brontë
On Retirement

A hermit's house beside a stream
With forests planted round,
Whatever it to you may seem
More real happiness I deem
.....
Philip Freneau

Philip Freneau
To Sarah, While Singing.

Written at the Cottage of T. LEWIS, Esq. Woodbury Downs.


In the retirement of this lovely spot,
.....
Thomas Gent

Thomas Gent
On The Way

(Philadelphia, 1794)

Note.- The following imaginary dialogue between
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, which is not based upon
.....
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson
Retirement

Spirit of solitude, silence, and rest,
Take me once more, like a child, to your breast!
Weary of worldliness, turmoil, and hate,
Welcome me back, if it be not too late,
.....
John L. Stoddard

John L. Stoddard
Retirement

My gentle friend! I hold no creed so false
As that which dares to teach that we are born
For battle only, and that in this life
The soul, if it would burn with starlike power,
.....

Henry Timrod
Lines. Addressed To The Rev. J. T. Becher, [1] On His Advising The Author To Mix More With Society.

1.

Dear BECHER, you tell me to mix with mankind;
I cannot deny such a precept is wise;
.....

George Gordon Byron
To My Father (upon His Retirement)

In all the land our race was once excelling.
In richer regions it e'en now possesses
Broad seats and fruitful; but by fate's hard stresses

.....

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Habakkuk

Now leave the Porch, to vision now retreat,
Where the next rapture glows with varying heat;
Now change the time, and change the Temple scene,
The following Seer forewarns a future reign.
.....
Thomas Parnell

Thomas Parnell
Hannah

Now Crowds more off, retiring trumpetts sound
On Eccho's dying in their last rebound,
The notes of fancy seem no longer strong,
But sweetning closes fitt a private song.
.....
Thomas Parnell

Thomas Parnell
Retirement

O, let me be alone a while,
No human form is nigh.
And may I sing and muse aloud,
No mortal ear is by.
.....

Anne Brontë
On Myselfe

Good Heav'n, I thank thee, since it was design'd
I shou'd be fram'd, but of the weaker kinde,
That yet, my Soul, is rescu'd from the Love
Of all those Trifles, which their Passions move.
.....

Anne Kingsmill Finch
Homecoming

What was is ... since 1930;
the boys in my old gang
are senior partners. They start up
bald like baby birds
.....

Robert Lowell
To James Norton Esq.

Think you I have not skill to gather gold,
If I could love it as some others do?
Or that I lack the spirit of a bold
And resolute man in any cause thatâ??s true,
.....

Charles Harpur
Retirement

If the whole weight of what we think and feel,
Save only far as thought and feeling blend
With action, were as nothing, patriot Friend!
From thy remonstrance would be no appeal;
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Esteem Of Literature

Literature plays an important role in the life,
Without it human can't work rife.

Literature is a kind of enjoyment ,
.....
Sahaj Sabharwal

Sahaj Sabharwal
Sonnet Lxxxi.

HE may be envied, who with tranquil breast
Can wander in the wild and woodland scene,
When summer's glowing hands have newly dress'd
The shadowy forests, and the copses green;
.....

Charlotte Smith
On The Projected Kendal And Windermere Railway

Is then no nook of English ground secure
From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown
In youth, and 'mid the busy world kept pure
As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown,
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
The Retirement Of Mars

He pauses on his way, and gazing back
across the desert ways of splintered steel
recalls the noon, and sees his weary track,
and sees the bloody imprint of his heel.
.....

Leon Gellert
A Magic Moment I Remember

A magic moment I remember:
I raised my eyes and you were there,
A fleeting vision, the quintessence
Of all that's beautiful and rare
.....

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
Retirement

Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;
From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.
.....
William Cowper

William Cowper
Olney Hymn 46: Retirement

Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;
From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.
.....
William Cowper

William Cowper
Birdwatchers Of America

Itâ??s all very well to dream of a dove that saves,
Picassoâ??s or the Popeâ??s,
The one that annually coos in Our Ladyâ??s ear
Half the worldâ??s hopes,
.....

Anthony Evan Hecht
Memory

A pen--to register; a key--
That winds through secret wards
Are well assigned to Memory
By allegoric Bards.
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
To Sarah, While Singing

Written at the Cottage of T. LEWIS, Esq. Woodbury Downs.


In the retirement of this lovely spot,
.....
Thomas Gent

Thomas Gent
Roscoe - Prose

In the service of mankind to be
A guardian god below; still to employ
The mind's brave ardor in heroic aims,
Such as may raise us o'er the grovelling herd,
.....

Washington Irving
The Duellist. Book Ii.

Deep in the bosom of a wood,
Out of the road, a Temple[4] stood:
Ancient, and much the worse for wear,
It call'd aloud for quick repair,
.....

Charles Churchill
The Prelude - Book Twelfth

IMAGINATION AND TASTE, HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTORED

Long time have human ignorance and guilt
Detained us, on what spectacles of woe
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Rural Life In England - Prose

Oh! friendly to the best pursuits of man,
Friendly to thought, to virtue and to peace,
Domestic life in rural pleasures past!
- COWPER.
.....

Washington Irving
The Prelude - Book Ninth

RESIDENCE IN FRANCE

Even as a river, partly (it might seem)
Yielding to old remembrances, and swayed
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Paradise Regained - The Fourth Book

Perplex'd and troubl'd at his bad success
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope,
So oft, and the perswasive Rhetoric
.....
John Milton

John Milton
Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book

Perplexed and troubled at his bad success
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope
So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
.....
John Milton

John Milton
Sarah Walker

It was very hot. Not a breath of air was stirring throughout the western wing of the Greyport Hotel, and the usual feverish life of its four hundred inmates had succumbed to the weather. The great veranda was deserted; the corridors were desolated; no footfall echoed in the passages; the lazy rustle of a wandering skirt, or a passing sigh that was half a pant, seemed to intensify the heated silence. An intoxicated bee, disgracefully unsteady in wing and leg, who had been holding an inebriated conversation with himself in the corner of my window pane, had gone to sleep at last and was snoring. The errant prince might have entered the slumberous halls unchallenged, and walked into any of the darkened rooms whose open doors gaped for more air, without awakening the veriest Greyport flirt with his salutation. At times a drowsy voice, a lazily interjected sentence, an incoherent protest, a long-drawn phrase of saccharine tenuity suddenly broke off with a gasp, came vaguely to the ear, as if indicating a half-suspended, half-articulated existence somewhere, but not definite enough to indicate conversation. In the midst of this, there was the sudden crying of a child.

I looked up from my work. Through the camera of my jealously guarded window I could catch a glimpse of the vivid, quivering blue of the sky, the glittering intensity of the ocean, the long motionless leaves of the horse-chestnut in the road, all utterly inconsistent with anything as active as this lamentation. I stepped to the open door and into the silent hall.

.....

Bret Harte (francis)
The Recluse - Book First

HOME AT GRASMERE

Once to the verge of yon steep barrier came
A roving school-boy; what the adventurer's age
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Metamorphoses: Book 06

Pallas, attending to the Muse's song,
Approv'd the just resentment of their wrong;
And thus reflects: While tamely I commend
Those who their injur'd deities defend,
.....
Ovid

Ovid
Written In Zimmermann's Solitude

Hail, melancholy sage! whose thoughtful eye,
Shrunk from the mere spectator's careless gaze,
And, in retirement sought the social smile,
The heart-endearing aspect, and the voice
.....
Matilda Betham

Matilda Betham
Retirement

Fresh fields and woods! the Earth's fair face,
God's foot-stool, and man's dwelling-place.
I ask not why the first Believer
Did love to be a country liver?
.....

Henry Vaughan
Upon The Priory Grove, His Usual Retirement

Hail sacred shades! cool, leavy House!
Chaste treasurer of all my vows,
And wealth! on whose soft bosom laid
My love's fair steps I first betrayed:
.....

Henry Vaughan
An Invitation To Maecenas

Dear, noble friend! a virgin cask
Of wine solicits your attention;
And roses fair, to deck your hair,
And things too numerous to mention.
.....
Eugene Field

Eugene Field
An Invitation To Mëcenas

Dear, noble friend! a virgin cask
Of wine solicits your attention;
And roses fair, to deck your hair,
And things too numerous to mention.
.....
Eugene Field

Eugene Field
The Perverted Village After Goldsmith

Sweet Auburn! liveliest village of the plain,
Where Health and Slander welcome every train,
Whence smiling innocence, its tribute paid,
Retires in terror, wounded and dismayed
.....

Ambrose Bierce
Calling Lucasta From Her Retirement. Ode

I.
From the dire monument of thy black roome,
Wher now that vestal flame thou dost intombe,
As in the inmost cell of all earths wombe.
.....
Richard Lovelace

Richard Lovelace
Lines Addressed To The Rev. J. T. Becher, On His Advising The Author To Mix More With Society

Dear BECHER, you tell me to mix with mankind;
I cannot deny such a precept is wise;
But retirement accords with the tone of my mind:
I will not descend to a world I despise.
.....
George Gordon Lord Byron

George Gordon Lord Byron
Ch 01 Manner Of Kings Story 15

A vezier, who had been removed from his post, entered the circle of dervishes and the blessing of their society took such effect upon him that he became contented in his mind. When the king was again favourably disposed towards him and ordered him to resume his office, he refused and said: "Retirement is better than occupation."

Those who have sat down in the corner of safety
Have bound the teeth of dogs and tongues of men.
.....

Saadi Shirazi
Fragment

SO here confin'd, and but to female Clay,
ARDELIA's Soul mistook the rightful Way:
Whilst the soft Breeze of Pleasure's tempting Air
Made her believe, Felicity was there;
.....

Anne Kingsmill Finch
Sam Goes To It

Sam Small had retired from the Army,
In the old Duke of Wellington's time,
So when present unpleasantness started,
He were what you might call... past his prime.
.....

Marriott Edgar
A Longing

O Lord! I have become weary of human assemblages!
When the heart is sad no pleasure in assemblages can be

I seek escape from tumult, my heart desires
.....

Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Written From Dublin, To A Lady In The Country.

A wretch, in smoaky Dublin pent,
Who rarely sees the Firmament,
You graciously invite, to view
The Sun's enliv'ning Rays with you;
.....

Mary Barber
Upon The Hill And Grove At Bill-borow

To the Lord Fairfax.

See how the arched Earth does here
Rise in a perfect Hemisphere!
.....
Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell