Famous Aim Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lovers Complaint

...once, and, nowhere fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
And true to bondage would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William


A poem on divine revelation

...thence towards the burning line. 


These men deserve our song, and those who still, 
With industry severe, and steady aim 
Diffuse the light in this late dreary land, 
In whose lone wastes and solitudes forlorn, 
Death long sat brooding with his raven wing. 
Who many 'a structure of great fame have rais'd, 
College, and school, upon th' Atlantic coast, 
Or inland town, through ev'ry province wide, 
Which rising up like pyramids of fire, 
Give light and glory to the western ...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

A Poets Voice XV

...elf-preservation the first law of Nature? Why, then, does Greed urge you to self-sacrifice in order only to achieve his aim in hurting your brothers? Beware, my brother, of the leader who says, "Love of existence obliges us to deprive the people of their rights!" I say unto you but this: protecting others' rights is the noblest and most beautiful human act; if my existence requires that I kill others, then death is more honorable to me, and if I cannot find someone to kill me...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

A Song To David

...at and med'cine to the soul, 
 Which for translation pants. 

 LXV 
For ADORATION, beyond match, 
The scholar bullfinch aims to catch 
 The soft flute's iv'ry touch; 
And, careless on the hazel spray, 
The daring redbreast keeps at bay 
 The damsel's greedy clutch. 

 LXVI 
For ADORATION in the skies, 
The Lord's philosopher espies 
 The Dog, the Ram, and Rose; 
The planet's ring, Orion's sword; 
Nor is his greatness less ador'd 
 In the vile worm that glows. 

 LXVII 
For AD...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Beowulf (Modern English)

...except the common lands and the lives of men. (ll. 64-73)

Then I have learned it far and wide that the work was proclaimed
to the many tribes throughout this middle-earth,
that they must adorn that folk-stead. And so it happened in his time,
immediately among men, that it was completely finished,
the greatest of halls—he created for it the name Heorot,
he who had the widest authority of his words.
He left no promises unfulfilled and dealt out rings,
riches at his fe...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Custer

...obler man, 
Dear to the heart of each American.
Sound forth his praise from sea to listening sea-
Greece her Achilles claimed, immortal Custer, we.

II.

Intrepid are earth's heroes now as when
The gods came down to measure strength with men.
Let danger threaten or let duty call, 
And self surrenders to the needs of all; 
Incurs vast perils, or, to save those dear, 
Embraces death without one sigh or tear.
Life's martyrs still the endless drama play
Though no great Homer live...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Eviradnus

...meal he passed to the degree 
 Of Prince and Margrave; nor could ever he 
 Be thought brave knight, or she—if woman claim 
 The rank—be reckoned of unblemished fame 
 Till they had breathed the air of ages gone, 
 The funeral odors, in the nest alone 
 Of its dead masters. Ancient was the race; 
 To trace the upward stem of proud Lusace 
 Gives one a vertigo; descended they 
 From ancestor of Attila, men say; 
 Their race to him—through Pagans—they hark back; 
 Bec...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Four Quartets 2: East Coker

...h the disturbance of the spring
And creatures of the summer heat,
And snowdrops writhing under feet
And hollyhocks that aim too high
Red into grey and tumble down
Late roses filled with early snow?
Thunder rolled by the rolling stars
Simulates triumphal cars
Deployed in constellated wars
Scorpion fights against the Sun
Until the Sun and Moon go down
Comets weep and Leonids fly
Hunt the heavens and the plains
Whirled in a vortex that shall bring
The world to that destructive f...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

If

...talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Inferno (English)

...e, flung them here. - 
 Chased forth from Heaven, lest else its beauties end 
 The pure perfection of their stainless claim, 
 Out-herded from the shining gate they came, 
 Where the deep hells refused them, lest the lost 
 Boast something baser than themselves." 

 And I, 
 "Master, what grievance hath their failure cost, 
 That through the lamentable dark they cry?" 

 He answered, "Briefly at a thing not worth 
 We glance, and pass forgetful. Hope in death 
 They have not....Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Lara

...rame, 
Another chief consoled his destined bride, 
The young forgot him, and the old had died; 
"Yet doth he live!" exclaims the impatient heir, 
And sighs for sables which he must not wear. 
A hundred scutcheons deck with gloomy grace 
The Laras' last and longest dwelling-place; 
But one is absent from the mouldering file, 
That now were welcome to that Gothic pile. 

IV. 

He comes at last in sudden loneliness, 
And whence they know not, why they need not guess; 
They more ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Last Instructions to a Painter

...ns, draw our luxury in plumes. 
Or if to score out our compendious fame, 
With Hooke, then, through the microscope take aim, 
Where, like the new Comptroller, all men laugh 
To see a tall louse brandish the white staff. 
Else shalt thou oft thy guiltless pencil curse, 
Stamp on thy palette, not perhaps the worse. 
The painter so, long having vexed his cloth-- 
Of his hound's mouth to feign the raging froth-- 
His desperate pencil at the work did dart: 
His anger reached that ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...To set himself in glory above his peers, 
He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 
If he opposed, and with ambitious aim 
Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms. 
 Nine times the ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...y from each inferior; but who here 
Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
Of endless pain? Where there is, then, no good 
For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
From faction: for none sure will claim in Hell 
Precedence; none whose portion is so small 
Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
Will covet more! With this advantage, then, 
To union, and firm faith, and fi...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Passage to India

...chiev’d,
(The seas all cross’d, weather’d the capes, the voyage done,) 
Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain’d, 
As, fill’d with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found, 
The Younger melts in fondness in his arms. 

12
Passage to more than India!
Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights? 
O Soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like these? 
Disportest thou on waters such as these? 
Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas? 
Then have ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Artists

...its tuneful strains.

The wondering savages soon came
To view the new creation's plan
"Behold!"--the joyous crowds exclaim,--
"Behold, all this is done by man!"
With jocund and more social aim
The minstrel's lyre their awe awoke,
Telling of Titans, and of giant's frays
And lion-slayers, turning, as he spoke,
Even into heroes those who heard his lays.
For the first time the soul feels joy,
By raptures blessed that calmer are,
That only greet it from afar,
That passions wild c...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Growth of Love

...e uséd means to win so pure acquist,
And of my trembling fear that might have misst
Thro' very care the gold at which I aim'd;
And am as happy but to hear thee named,
As are those gentle souls by angels kisst
In pictures seen leaving their marble cist
To go before the throne of grace unblamed. 
Nor surer am I water hath the skill
To quench my thirst, or that my strength is freed
In delicate ordination as I will,
Than that to be myself is all I need
For thee to be most mine: s...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Medal

...ads choking up his way; 
They took, but not rewarded, his advice; 
Villain and wit exact a double price. 
Power was his aim; but thrown from that pretence, 
The wretch turned loyal in his own defence, 
And malice reconciled him to his Prince. 
Him in the anguish of his soul he served, 
Rewarded faster still than he deserved. 
Behold him now exalted into trust, 
His counsels oft convenient, seldom just; 
Even in the most sincere advice he gave 
He had a grudging still to be a ...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

The Seasons: Winter

...
Stretch their long Voyage to the woodland Glade: 
Where, wheeling with uncertain Flight, they mock
The nimble Fowler's Aim. -- Now Nature droops;
Languish the living Herbs, with pale Decay:
And all the various Family of Flowers
Their sunny Robes resign. The falling Fruits, 
Thro' the still Night, forsake the Parent-Bough,
That, in the first, grey, Glances of the Dawn,
Looks wild, and wonders at the wintry Waste.

THE Year, yet pleasing, but declining fast,
Soft, o'er the sec...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Walk

...s meaning,--
'Tis this uniform plan points out the Ruler to me.
Brightly the glittering domes in far-away distance proclaim him.
Out of the kernel of rocks rises the city's high wall.
Into the desert without, the fauns of the forest are driven,
But by devotion is lent life more sublime to the stone.
Man is brought into nearer union with man, and around him
Closer, more actively wakes, swifter moves in him the world.
See! the emulous forces in fiery conflict are kindled,
Much,...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

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