Famous Afflicts Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Except the Heaven had come so near

...e would not haunt me so --
I had not hoped -- before --

But just to hear the Grace depart --
I never thought to see --
Afflicts me with a Double loss --
'Tis lost -- and lost to me --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


Hymn To The Penates

...o the grave they go! them POVERTY
Hollow-eyed fiend, the child of WEALTH and POWER,
Bad offspring of worse parents, aye afflicts,
Cankering with her foul mildews the chill'd heart--
Them WANT with scorpion scourge drives to the den
Of GUILT--them SLAUGHTER with the price of death
Buys for her raven brood. Oh not on them
GOD OF ETERNAL JUSTICE! not on them
Let fall thy thunder!

HOUSEHOLD DEITIES!
Then only shall be Happiness on earth
When Man shall feel your sacred power, and...Read more of this...
by Southey, Robert

I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --

...e us back to Scene --
Transmuted -- Vivider --

This seems a Home --
And Home is not --
But what that Place could be --
Afflicts me -- as a Setting Sun --
Where Dawn -- knows how to be --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Inferno (English)

...its rule, as here ye see, 
 Endureth, nor the bitter blast contrives 
 To part us. Love to one death led us. The mode 
 Afflicts me, shrinking, still. The place of Cain 
 Awaits our slayer." 
 They ceased, and I my head 
 Bowed down, and made no answer, till my guide 
 Questioned, "What wouldst thou more?" and replied, 
 "Alas my thought I what sweet keen longings led 
 These spirits, woeful, to their dark abode!" 
 And then to them, - "Francesca, all thy pain 
 Is mine. With...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...inst the wind, 
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth: 
Therefore to his great bidding I submit. 
This most afflicts me, that, departing hence, 
As from his face I shall be hid, deprived 
His blessed countenance: Here I could frequent 
With worship place by place where he vouchsafed 
Presence Divine; and to my sons relate, 
'On this mount he appeared; under this tree 
'Stood visible; among these pines his voice 
'I heard; here with him at this fountain talked: 
So...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Psalm 11

...ne,
His eye surveys the world below:
To him all mortal things are known,
His eyelids search our spirits through.

If he afflicts his saints so far,
To prove their love and try their grace,
What may the bold transgressors fear?
His very soul abhors their ways.

On impious wretches he shall rain
Tempests of brimstone, fire, and death;
Such as he kindled on the plain
Of Sodom, with his angry breath.

The righteous Lord loves righteous souls,
Whose thoughts and actions are sincer...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Samson Agonistes

...found, though sought. Wee see, O friends.
How many evils have enclos'd me round;
Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,
Blindness, for had I sight, confus'd with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who like a foolish Pilot have shipwrack't,
My Vessel trusted to me from above,
Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear, 
Fool, have divulg'd the secret gift of God
To a deceitful Woman : tell me Friends,
Am I not sung and proverbd for a Fool
In every ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet XVI

...d, again,Small medicine give they to my giant pain;Still, as I look on her, afflicts me nought.Love, on the rack who holds me as he brought,Fears when he sees her thus my soul retain,Where still the seraph face and sweet voice reign,Which first his tyranny and triumph wrought.[Pg 248]Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

The Female Vagrant

...p; Now coldly given, now utterly refused,  The fields I for my bed have often used:  But, what afflicts my peace with keenest ruth  Is, that I have my inner self abused,  Foregone the home delight of constant truth,  And clear and open soul, so prized in fearless youth.   Three years a wanderer, often have I view'd,  In tears, the sun towards that country tend  Where my poor heart lost...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Knights Tale

...and for distress. *pined, wasted away
Who feeleth double sorrow and heaviness
But Palamon? that love distraineth* so, *afflicts
That wood* out of his wits he went for woe, *mad
And eke thereto he is a prisonere
Perpetual, not only for a year.
Who coulde rhyme in English properly
His martyrdom? forsooth*, it is not I; *truly
Therefore I pass as lightly as I may.
It fell that in the seventh year, in May
The thirde night (as olde bookes sayn,
That all this story tellen more pla...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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