Famous Arduous Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A British-Roman Song

...began!

 Soon to send forth again a brood,
 Unshakable, we pray, that clings
 To Rome's thrice-hammered hardihood--
 In arduous things.

 Strong heart with triple armour bound,
 Beat strongly, for thy life-blood runs,
 Age after Age, the Empire round--
 In us thy Sons

 Who, distant from the Seven Hills,
 Loving and serving much, require
 Thee-thee to guard 'gainst home-born ills
 The Imperial Fire!...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard


A Study (A Soul)

...face is steadfast toward the shadowy land,
 For dim beyond it looms the light of day;
 Her feet are steadfast; all the arduous way
That foot-track hath not wavered on the sand.
She stands there like a beacon thro' the night,
 A pale clear beacon where the storm-drift is;
She stands alone, a wonder deathly white;
She stands there patient, nerved with inner might,
 Indomitable in her feebleness,
Her face and will athirst against the light....Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

Ad Se Ipsum

...DEAR sir, good-morrow! Five years back,
When you first girded for this arduous track,
And under various whimsical pretexts
Endowed another with your damned defects,
Could you have dreamed in your despondent vein
That the kind God would make your path so plain?
Non nobis, domine! O, may He still
Support my stumbling footsteps on the hill!...Read more of this...
by Stevenson, Robert Louis

An Essay On Criticism

...dites,
When to repress, and when indulge our Flights:
High on Parnassus' Top her Sons she show'd,
And pointed out those arduous Paths they trod,
Held from afar, aloft, th' Immortal Prize,
And urg'd the rest by equal Steps to rise;
Just Precepts thus from great Examples giv'n,
She drew from them what they deriv'd from Heav'n
The gen'rous Critick fann'd the Poet's Fire,
And taught the World, with Reason to Admire.
Then Criticism the Muse's Handmaid prov'd,
To dress her Charms, ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Beowulf (Old English)

...erry at heart the highways measured,
well-known roads. Courageous men
carried the head from the cliff by the sea,
an arduous task for all the band,
the firm in fight, since four were needed
on the shaft-of-slaughter {23d} strenuously
to bear to the gold-hall Grendel’s head.
So presently to the palace there
foemen fearless, fourteen Geats,
marching came. Their master-of-clan
mighty amid them the meadow-ways trod.
Strode then within the sovran thane
fearless in figh...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


By Rugged Ways

...the unrelenting years;
But 'twixt our sighs and moans and tears,
We still can smile, we still can sing,
Despite the arduous journeying.
For faith and hope their courage lend,
And rest and light are at the end.
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

Canzone IX

...>, in your bright eyesSoft glancing round, I mark a holy light,Pointing the arduous way that heavenward lies;And to my practised sight,From thence, where Love enthroned, asserts his might,Visibly, palpably, the soul beams forth.This is the beacon guides to deeds of worth,And urges me to seek the glorious goal;Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

His Mind like Fabrics of the East

...layed to the despair
Of everyone but here and there
An humble Purchaser --
For though his price was not of Gold --
More arduous there is --
That one should comprehend the worth
Was all the price there was --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Inferno (English)

...eness 
 Must fail to be sufficient. 
 First
 I said, 
 Fearing, to him who through the darkness led, 
 "O poet, ere the arduous path ye press 
 Too far, look in me, if the worth there be 
 To make this transit. &Aelig;neas once, I know, 
 Went down in life, and crossed the infernal sea; 
 And if the Lord of All Things Lost Below 
 Allowed it, reason seems, to those who see 
 The enduring greatness of his destiny, 
 Who in the Empyrean Heaven elect was called 
 Sire of the Ete...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

My Portion is Defeat -- today --

...-
Less Paeans -- fewer Bells --
The Drums don't follow Me -- with tunes --
Defeat -- a somewhat slower -- means --
More Arduous than Balls --

'Tis populous with Bone and stain --
And Men too straight to stoop again --,
And Piles of solid Moan --
And Chips of Blank -- in Boyish Eyes --
And scraps of Prayer --
And Death's surprise,
Stamped visible -- in Stone --

There's somewhat prouder, over there --
The Trumpets tell it to the Air --
How different Victory
To Him who has it ...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France

...he antique debt, 
Came back the generous path of Lafayette; 
And when of a most formidable foe 
She checked each onset, arduous to stem -- 
Foiled and frustrated them -- 
On those red fields where blow with furious blow 
Was countered, whether the gigantic fray 
Rolled by the Meuse or at the Bois Sabot, 
Accents of ours were in the fierce melee; 
And on those furthest rims of hallowed ground 
Where the forlorn, the gallant charge expires, 
When the slain bugler has long cease...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Artists

...d from his sight
Frail man to dark mortality's abode,
And granted him a late return to light,
Only by treading reason's arduous road,--
When each immortal turned his face away,
She, the compassionate, alone
Took up her dwelling in that house of clay,
With the deserted, banished one.
With drooping wing she hovers here
Around her darling, near the senses' land,
And on his prison-walls so drear
Elysium paints with fond deceptive hand.

While soft humanity still lay at rest,
With...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Capture of Havana

...;
And by the Earl of Albemarle the British troops were commanded,
All eager for to fight as soon as they were landed. 

Arduous and trying was the work the British had to do,
Yet with a hearty goodwill they to it flew;
While the tropical sun on them blazed down,
But the poor soldiers wrought hard and didn't frown. 

The bombardment was opened on the 30th of June,
And from the British battleships a fierce cannonade did boom;
And continued from six in the morning till two o'clo...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

The Fight With The Dragon

...blessed Lord
As a mere servant walked abroad,
The fathers, on that holy ground,
This famous Order chose to found,
That arduous duty to fulfil
To overcome one's own self-will!
'Twas idle glory moved thee there:
So take thee hence from out my sight!
For who the Lord's yoke cannot bear,
To wear his cross can have no right."

A furious shout now raise the crowd,
The place is filled with outcries loud;
The brethren all for pardon cry;
The youth in silence droops his eye--
Mutely ...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Fount Of Tears

...All hot and grimy from the road,
Dust gray from arduous years,
I sat me down and eased my load
Beside the Fount of Tears.
The waters sparkled to my eye,
Calm, crystal-like, and cool,
And breathing there a restful sigh,
I bent me to the pool.
When, lo! a voice cried: "Pilgrim, rise,
Harsh tho' the sentence be,
And on to other lands and skies—
This fount is not for thee.
"Pass on, but calm thy ne...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

The Task: Book II The Time-Piece (excerpts)

...s. But ah! not such,
Or seldom such, the hearers of his song.
Fastidious, or else listless, or perhaps
Aware of nothing arduous in a task
They never undertook, they little note
His dangers or escapes, and haply find
Their least amusement where he found the most.
But is amusement all? Studious of song,
And yet ambitious not to sing in vain,
I would not trifle merely, though the world
Be loudest in their praise who do no more.
Yet what can satire, whether grave or gay?
It may c...Read more of this...
by Cowper, William

Thoughts On The Works Of Providence

...in the ocean's arms:
Of light divine be a rich portion lent
To guide my soul, and favour my intend.
Celestial muse, my arduous flight sustain
And raise my mind to a seraphic strain!
Ador'd for ever be the God unseen,
Which round the sun revolves this vast machine,
Though to his eye its mass a point appears:
Ador'd the God that whirls surrounding spheres,
Which first ordain'd that mighty Sol should reign
The peerless monarch of th' ethereal train:
Of miles twice forty million...Read more of this...
by Wheatley, Phillis

We Meet at the Judgment and I Fear It Not

...eds that turned
Her sacred beauty from my songs that burned.
We now as comrades through the stars may take
The rich and arduous quests I did forsake.
Grant me a seraph-guide to thread the throng
And quickly find that woman-soul so strong.
I dream that in her deeply-hidden heart
Hurt love lived on, though we were apart,
A brooding secret mercy like your own
That blooms to-day to vindicate your throne....Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel

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