Famous Approaching Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Carol of Harvest for 1867

...l never return; 
Them, that day, I saw not.)

I saw the interminable Corps—I saw the processions of armies, 
I saw them approaching, defiling by, with divisions, 
Streaming northward, their work done, camping awhile in clusters of mighty camps. 

No holiday soldiers!—youthful, yet veterans; 
Worn, swart, handsome, strong, of the stock of homestead and workshop,
Harden’d of many a long campaign and sweaty march, 
Inured on many a hard-fought, bloody field. 

9
A pause—the armi...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Endymion: Book IV

..., and thus await
Fearless for power of thought, without thine aid?--
There is a sleepy dusk, an odorous shade
From some approaching wonder, and behold
Those winged steeds, with snorting nostrils bold
Snuff at its faint extreme, and seem to tire,
Dying to embers from their native fire!

 There curl'd a purple mist around them; soon,
It seem'd as when around the pale new moon
Sad Zephyr droops the clouds like weeping willow:
'Twas Sleep slow journeying with head on pillow.
For ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...hina-trees, in the midst of luxuriant gardens,
Stood the houses of planters, with *****-cabins and dove-cots.
They were approaching the region where reigns perpetual summer,
Where through the Golden Coast, and groves of orange and citron,
Sweeps with majestic curve the river away to the eastward.
They, too, swerved from their course; and, entering the Bayou of Plaquemine,
Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious waters,
Which, like a network of steel, extended in ever...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Eviradnus

...y and long. 
 It may be she regrets the change: meanwhile, 
 The valiant knight salutes her with a smile, 
 And then approaching her with friendly mien, 
 Says, "Madam, has your sleep all pleasant been?" 
 
 MRS. NEWTON CROSLAND. 


 




...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Four Quartets 3: The Dry Salvages

...menace and caress of wave that breaks on water,
The distant rote in the granite teeth,
And the wailing warning from the approaching headland
Are all sea voices, and the heaving groaner
Rounded homewards, and the seagull:
And under the oppression of the silent fog
The tolling bell
Measures time not our time, rung by the unhurried
Ground swell, a time
Older than the time of chronometers, older
Than time counted by anxious worried women
Lying awake, calculating the future,
Tryin...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)


Lara

...ctedness and art, 
Now rose the unleaven'd hatred of his heart; 
So little sparing to the foe he fell'd, 
That when the approaching crowd his arm withheld 
He almost turn'd the thirsty point on those 
Who thus for mercy dared to interpose; 
But to a moment's thought that purpose bent; 
Yet look'd he on him still with eye intent, 
As if he loathed the ineffectual strife 
That left a foe, howe'er o'erthrown, with life; 
As if to search how far the wound he gave 
Had sent its vi...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Laughter and Tears IX

...petals, and tremendous silence descended, I heard a rustle of feet though the grass. I took heed and saw a young couple approaching my arbor. The say under a tree where I could see them without being seen. 

After he looked about in every direction, I heard the young man saying, "Sit by me, my beloved, and listen to my heart; smile, for your happiness is a symbol of our future; be merry, for the sparkling days rejoice with us. 

"My soul is warning me of the doubt in your hea...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

Monadnoc

...,
With my music in his brain,
I shall pass as glides my shadow
Daily over hill and meadow.

Through all time
I hear the approaching feet
Along the flinty pathway beat
Of him that cometh, and shall come,—
Of him who shall as lightly bear
My daily load of woods and streams,
As now the round sky-cleaving boat
Which never strains its rocky beams,
Whose timbers, as they silent float,
Alps and Caucasus uprear,
And the long Alleghanies here,
And all town-sprinkled lands that be,
Sai...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...ay declined; they heard, 
And from his presence hid themselves among 
The thickest trees, both man and wife; till God, 
Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud. 
Where art thou, Adam, wont with joy to meet 
My coming seen far off? I miss thee here, 
Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude, 
Where obvious duty ere while appeared unsought: 
Or come I less conspicuous, or what change 
Absents thee, or what chance detains?--Come forth! 
He came; and with him Eve, more loth, th...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Self-Portrait At 28

...now it's a bad title
but I'm giving it to myself as a gift
on a day nearly canceled by sunlight
when the entire hill is approaching
the ideal of Virginia
brochured with goldenrod and loblolly
and I think "at least I have not woken up
with a bloody knife in my hand"
by then having absently wandered
one hundred yards from the house
while still seated in this chair
with my eyes closed.

It is a certain hill
the one I imagine when I hear the word "hill"
and if the apocalypse turn...Read more of this...
by Berman, David

Song of Myself

...ngines and hose-carts, with premonitory tinkles, and color’d lights; 
The steam-whistle—the solid roll of the train of approaching cars;
The slow-march play’d at the head of the association, marching two and two,

(They go to guard some corpse—the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.) 

I hear the violoncello (’tis the young man’s heart’s complaint;) 
I hear the key’d cornet—it glides quickly in through my ears; 
It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breas...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of the Exposition

...imus of all that World, 
Escaped, bequeath’d, vital, fugacious as ever, leaving those dead remains, and now this
 spot
 approaching, filling; 
—And I can hear what maybe you do not—a terrible aesthetical commotion, 
With howling, desperate gulp of -œflower- and -œbower,- 
With -œSonnet to Matilda’s Eyebrow- quite, quite frantic;
With gushing, sentimental reading circles turn’d to ice or stone; 
With many a squeak, (in metre choice,) from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Lon...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Bride of Abydos

..., beguil'd too long 
With Mejnoun's tale, or Sadi's song, [3] 
Till I, who heard the deep tambour [4] 
Beat thy Divan's approaching hour, 
To thee, and to my duty true, 
Warn'd by the sound, to greet thee flew: 
But there Zuleika wanders yet — 
Nay, father, rage not — nor forget 
That none can pierce that secret bower 
But those who watch the women's tower." 

IV. 

"Son of a slave" — the Pacha said — 
"From unbelieving mother bred, 
Vain were a father's hope to see 
Aught th...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Comedian As The Letter C

...e cabildo, the fa?ade 
152 Of the cathedral, making notes, he heard 
153 A rumbling, west of Mexico, it seemed, 
154 Approaching like a gasconade of drums. 
155 The white cabildo darkened, the fa?ade, 
156 As sullen as the sky, was swallowed up 
157 In swift, successive shadows, dolefully. 
158 The rumbling broadened as it fell. The wind, 
159 Tempestuous clarion, with heavy cry, 
160 Came bluntly thundering, more terrible 
161 Than the revenge of music on bassoons....Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Cremona Violin

...s
Of shades and lustres always darting through
Its level, superimposing sheet of blue,
Charlotta did not hear footsteps approaching.
She started at the words: "Am I encroaching?"
"Oh, Heinrich, how you frightened me! I 
thought
We were to meet at three, is it quite that?"
"No, it is not," he answered, "but I've caught
The trick of missing you. One thing is flat,
I cannot go on this way. Life is what
Might best be conjured up by the word: `Hell'.
Dearest, when will you come?" ...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Lady of the Lake

...me to seek afar
     Some refuge from impending war,
     When e'en Clan-Alpine's rugged swarm
     Are cowed by the approaching storm.
     I saw their boats with many a light,
     Floating the livelong yesternight,
     Shifting like flashes darted forth
     By the red streamers of the north;
     I marked at morn how close they ride,
     Thick moored by the lone islet's side,
     Like wild ducks couching in the fen
     When stoops the hawk upon the glen.
 ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Millers Tale

...d the French
of Stratford at Bow.

19. Shot window: A projecting or bow window, whence it was
possible shoot at any one approaching the door.

20. Piment: A drink made with wine, honey, and spices.

21. Because she was town-bred, he offered wealth, or money
reward, for her love.

22. Parish-clerks, like Absolon, had leading parts in the
mysteries or religious plays; Herod was one of these parts,
which may have been an object of competition among the
amateurs of the period.

2...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Rape of the Lock

...this, the Blood the Virgin's Cheek forsook,
A livid Paleness spreads o'er all her Look; 
She sees, and trembles at th' approaching Ill,
Just in the Jaws of Ruin, and Codille.
And now, (as oft in some distemper'd State)
On one nice Trick depends the gen'ral Fate.
An Ace of Hearts steps forth: The King unseen
Lurk'd in her Hand, and mourn'd his captive Queen.
He springs to Vengeance with an eager pace,
And falls like Thunder on the prostrate Ace.
The Nymph exulting fills with ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

The Seasons: Winter

...d
Beneath Life's Pressures -- yet a little while,
And all your Woes are past. Time swiftly fleets,
And wish'd Eternity, approaching, brings
Life undecaying, Love without Allay,
Pure flowing Joy, and Happiness sincere....Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

To a Lady with a Guitar

...
Rock'd in that repose divine 
On the wind-swept Apennine; 
And dreaming some of autumn past  
And some of spring approaching fast 50 
And some of April buds and showers  
And some of songs in July bowers  
And all of love; and so this tree ¡ª 
Oh that such our death may be!¡ª 
Died in sleep and felt no pain 55 
To live in happier form again: 
From which beneath heaven's fairest star  
The artist wrought this loved guitar; 
And taught it justly to reply 
To al...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

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