Famous Aspires Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Away Melancholy

...ther it is enough
That the stuffed
Stone of man's good, growing,
By man's called God.
Away, melancholy, let it go.

Man aspires
To good,
To love
Sighs;

Beaten, corrupted, dying
In his own blood lying
Yet heaves up an eye above
Cries, Love, love.
It is his virtue needs explaining,
Not his failing.

Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go....Read more of this...
by Smith, Stevie


Breadth And Depth

...to wait the ripening hour--
In the least point the loftiest power.

With wanton boughs and pranksome hues,
Aloft in air aspires the stem;
The glittering leaves inhale the dews,
But fruits are not concealed in them.
From the small kernel's undiscerned repose
The oak that lords it o'er the forest grows....Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

Canzone I

...ee restrain;For passions uncontroll'dForfeit that heaven, to which thy soul aspires,Where she is living whom some fancy dead;[Pg 235]While at her fair remainsShe smiles herself, sighing for thee alone;And that her fame, which livesIn many a clime hymn'd by thy tongu...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Dtatue And The Bust The

...pleasure once!'

``And it shall go hard but I contrive
``To listen the while, and laugh in my tomb
``At idleness which aspires to strive.''

------------

So! While these wait the trump of doom,
How do their spirits pass, I wonder,
Nights and days in the narrow room?

Still, I suppose, they sit and ponder
What a gift life was, ages ago,
Six steps out of the chapel yonder.

Only they see not God, I know,
Nor all that chivalry of his,
The soldier-saints who, row on row,

Burn ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Faust In Old Age

...Metaphysicians could have told me this,
But each learns for himself, as in the kiss.

Polonius I poked, not him
To whom aspires spire and hymn,

Who succors children and the very poor;
I pierced the pompous Premier, not Jesus Christ,

I picked Polonius and Moby Dick,
the ego bloomed into an octopus.

Now come I to the exhausted West at last;
I know my vanity, my nothingness,

now I float will-less in despair's dead sea,
Every man my enemy.

Spontaneous, I have too much to say...Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore


For every Bird a Nest

...e too high --
Ah Aristocracy!
The little Wren desires --

Perhaps of twig so fine --
Of twine e'en superfine,
Her pride aspires --

The Lark is not ashamed
To build upon the ground
Her modest house --

Yet who of all the throng
Dancing around the sun
Does so rejoice?...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

From The Graveyard By The Sea

...where the doves parade
Amid the pines vibrates, amid the graves;
Here the noon's justice unites all fires when
The sea aspires forever to begin again and again.
O what a gratification comes after long meditation
O satisfaction, after long meditation or ratiocination
Upon the calm of the gods
Upon the divine serenity, in luxurious contemplation!

What pure toil of perfect lightning enwombs, consumes,
Each various manifold jewel of imperceptible foam,
And how profound a peace ...Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...and gold, 
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 
To that bad eminence; and, from despair 
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 
Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 
Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught, 
His proud imaginations thus displayed:-- 
 "Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven!-- 
For, since no deep within her gulf can hold 
Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen, 
I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent 
Celestial Virtues rising will appear...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 06

.... 
For strength from truth divided, and from just, 
Illaudable, nought merits but dispraise 
And ignominy; yet to glory aspires 
Vain-glorious, and through infamy seeks fame: 
Therefore eternal silence be their doom. 
And now, their mightiest quelled, the battle swerved, 
With many an inroad gored; deformed rout 
Entered, and foul disorder; all the ground 
With shivered armour strown, and on a heap 
Chariot and charioteer lay overturned, 
And fiery-foaming steeds; what stood,...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...o incarnate and imbrute, 
That to the highth of Deity aspired! 
But what will not ambition and revenge 
Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low 
As high he soared; obnoxious, first or last, 
To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet, 
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils: 
Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed, 
Since higher I fall short, on him who next 
Provokes my envy, this new favourite 
Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite, 
Whom, us the more to ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The Second Book

...rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king—
Which every wise and virtuous man attains;
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes, 
Subject himself to anarchy within,
Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.
But to guide nations in the way of truth
By saving doctrine, and from error lead
To know, and, knowing, worship God aright,
Is yet more kingly. This attracts the soul,
Governs the inner man, the nobler part;
That other o'e...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Religio Laici

...d without, and undermin'd within,
It thrives through pain; its own tormentors tires;
And with a stubborn patience still aspires.
To what can reason such effects assign,
Transcending Nature, but to laws divine:
Which in that sacred volume are contain'd;
Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordain'd.

But stay: the Deist here will urge anew,
No supernatural worship can be true:
Because a general law is that alone
Which must to all, and everywhere be known:
A style so large as no...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

Stanzas Written under an Oak in Windsor Forest

...nor shares her joys. 

Nor can the dull pedantic mind,
E'er boast her bright creative fires;
Above constraint her wing aspires, 
Nor rigid spells her flight can bind;
The narrow track of musty schools,
She leaves to plodding VAPID FOOLS. 

To scenes like THESE she bends her way,
HERE the best feelings of the soul
Nor interest taints, nor threats controul, 
Nor vice allures, nor snares betray; 
HERE from each trivial hope remov'd,
Our BARD first sought the MUSE he lov'd. 

St...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

The Indian Burying Ground

...ch the curious eye may trace,
(Now wasted, half, by wearing rains)
The fancies of a older race.

Here still an aged elm aspires,
Beneath whose far -- projecting shade
(And which the shepherd still admires
The children of the forest play'd!

There oft a restless Indian queen
(Pale Shebah, with her braided hair)
And many a barbarous form is seen
To chide the man that lingers there.

By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews,
In habit for the chase array'd,
The hunter still the de...Read more of this...
by Freneau, Philip

The King and the Shepherd

...le maintains. 
Tho' beyond Love's, Ambition's Empire goes; 
For who feels Love, Ambition also knows, 
And proudly still aspires to be possest 
Of Her, he thinks superior to the rest. 

As cou'd be prov'd, but that our plainer Task 
Do's no such Toil, or Definitions ask; 
But to be so rehears'd, as first 'twas told, 
When such old Stories pleas'd in Days of old. 


A King, observing how a Shepherd's Skill 
Improv'd his Flocks, and did the Pastures fill, 
That equal Care th' as...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill

The Man Against the Sky

...s? 
Why trouble him now who sees and hears 
No more than what his innocence requires, 
And therefore to no other height aspires
Than one at which he neither quails nor tires? 
He may do more by seeing what he sees 
Than others eager for iniquities; 
He may, by seeing all things for the best, 
Incite futurity to do the rest.

Or with an even likelihood, 
He may have met with atrabilious eyes 
The fires of time on equal terms and passed 
Indifferently down, until at last 
His o...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

The Statue and the Bust

...his pleasure once!'

"And it shall go hard but I contrive 
To listen the while, and laugh in my tomb 
At idleness which aspires to strive." 


So! While these wait the trump of doom, 
How do their spirits pass, I wonder, 
Nights and days in the narrow room? 

Still, I suppose, they sit and ponder 
What a gift life was, ages ago, 
Six steps out of the chapel yonder.

Only they see not God, I know, 
Nor all that chivalry of his, 
The soldier-saints who, row on row, 

Burn upwar...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts)

...e'er he gives, he gives the best.
355 Yet when the sense of sacred presence fires,
356 And strong devotion to the skies aspires,
357 Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
358 Obedient passions, and a will resign'd;
359 For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
360 For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill;
361 For faith, that panting for a happier seat,
362 Counts death kind Nature's signal of retreat:
363 These goods for man the laws of Heav'n ordain,
364 The...Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel

V

...ns, ****! Folk on t'fucking dole
'ave got about as much scope to aspire
above the **** they're dumped in, ****, as coal
aspires to be chucked on t'fucking fire. 

'OK, forget the aspirations. Look, I know
United's losing gets you fans incensed
and how far the HARP inside you makes you go
but all these Vs: against! against! against! 

Ah'll tell yer then what really riles a bloke.
It's reading on their graves the jobs they did –
Butcher, publican and baker. Me, I'll croak
doin...Read more of this...
by Harrison, Tony

Whoso aspires to gain a rose-cheeked fair,

...Whoso aspires to gain a rose-cheeked fair,
Sharp pricks from fortune's thorns must learn to bear.
See! till this comb was cleft by cruel cuts,
It never dared to touch my lady's hair....Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar

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