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Famous Assaults Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...Man is more frightening than its skeleton.
A nowhere winter evening with wine. A black
porch resists an osier's stiff assaults.
Fixed on an elbow the body bulks
like a glacier's debris a moraine of sorts.
A millennium hence they'll no doubt expose
a fossil bivalve propped behind this gauze
cloth with the print of lips under the print of fringe 
mumbling "Good night" to a window hinge....Read more of this...
by Brodsky, Joseph



....
Man is more frightening than its skeleton.
A nowhere winter evening with wine. A black
porch resists an osier's stiff assaults.
Fixed on an elbow, the body bulks
like a glacier's debris, a moraine of sorts.
A millennium hence, they'll no doubt expose
a fossil bivalve propped behind this gauze
cloth, with the print of lips under the print of fringe, mumbling "Good night" to a window hinge....Read more of this...
by Brodsky, Joseph
...t praise in thee is raisde:
It is a praise to praise, when thou art praisde. 
XXXVI 

Stella, whence doth these new assaults arise,
A conquerd yeelding ransackt heart to winne,
Whereto long since, through my long-battred eyes,
Whole armies of thy beauties entred in?
And there, long since, Loue, thy lieutenant, lies;
My forces razde, thy banners raisd within:
Of conquest, do not these effects suffice,
But wilt new warre vpon thine own begin?
With so sweet voice, an...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip
...one string with our own!

To be drunk with the great human battle of wills—
—Pale, fleeting reflex of the monstrous assaults,
Golden movements of planets in heaven's high vaults—
Till one lives in all that which acts, struggles, and thrills,
And avidly opens one's heart to the law
That rules, dread and stern, the whole universe o'er!...Read more of this...
by Verhaeren, Emile
...rit fate shall shield from firing,
Bomb, carcase, langridge and cold iron,
Nor trust thy doubly-laurell'd head,
To rude assaults of flying lead.
Hence thou, from Yankee troops retreating,
For pure good fortune shalt be beaten,
Not taken oft, released or rescued,
Pass for small change, like simple Prescott;
But captured then, as fates befall,
Shall stand thy fortune, once for all.
Then raise thy daring thoughts sublime,
And dip thy conq'ring pen in rhyme,
And changing war for ...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John



...us Titles, and thy Forms? 
Which cannot give Security, or Rest 
To favour'd Men, or Kingdoms that contest 
With Popular Assaults, or Providential Storms! 
Whilst on th'Omnipotent our Fate depends, 
And They are only safe, whom He alone defends. 
Then let to Heaven our general Praise be sent, 
Which did our farther Loss, our total Wreck prevent. 
And as our Aspirations do ascend, 
Let every Thing be summon'd to attend; 
And let the Poet after God's own Heart 
Direct our Skill ...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...hope in fears and dangers--heard so oft 
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults 
Their surest signal--they will soon resume 
New courage and revive, though now they lie 
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 
As we erewhile, astounded and amazed; 
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!" 
 He scare had ceased when the superior Fiend 
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, 
Ethereal temper, massy, large, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...flies. 
At length a universal hubbub wild 
Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused, 
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 
With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 
Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power 
Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss 
Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 
Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne 
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
Wide on the wasteful Deep! With him enthr...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...d and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee 
To trust thee from my side; imagined wise, 
Constant, mature, proof against all assaults; 
And understood not all was but a show, 
Rather than solid virtue; all but a rib 
Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears, 
More to the part sinister, from me drawn; 
Well if thrown out, as supernumerary 
To my just number found. O! why did God, 
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven 
With Spirits masculine, create at last 
This novelty on eart...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...pon their hearts shall write, 
To guide them in all truth; and also arm 
With spiritual armour, able to resist 
Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts; 
What man can do against them, not afraid, 
Though to the death; against such cruelties 
With inward consolations recompensed, 
And oft supported so as shall amaze 
Their proudest persecutors: For the Spirit, 
Poured first on his Apostles, whom he sends 
To evangelize the nations, then on all 
Baptized, shall them with w...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...apple joined,
Throttled at length in the air expired and fell,
So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,
Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride 
Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall;
And, as that Theban monster that proposed
Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured,
That once found out and solved, for grief and spite
Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep,
So, strook with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend,
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
J...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ll. Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned
All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
Remember that Pellean conqueror,
A youth, how all the beauties of the East
He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;
How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid. 
For Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full
Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond
Higher design than to enjoy his st...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ought to make me Traytor to my self;
Yet the fourth time, when mustring all her wiles,
With blandisht parlies, feminine assaults,
Tongue-batteries, she surceas'd not day nor night
To storm me over-watch't, and wearied out.
At times when men seek most repose and rest,
I yielded, and unlock'd her all my heart,
Who with a grain of manhood well resolv'd
Might easily have shook off all her snares :
But foul effeminacy held me yok't 
Her Bond-slave; O indignity, O blot
To Honour an...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...r of the eye
records bare painted walls, while an electric light
lays the chromium nerves of plumbing raw;
such poverty assaults the ego; caught
naked in the merely actual room,
the stranger in the lavatory mirror
puts on a public grin, repeats our name
but scrupulously reflects the usual terror.

Just how guilty are we when the ceiling
reveals no cracks that can be decoded? when washbowl
maintains it has no more holy calling
than physical ablution, and the towel
dryly discla...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia
...oon the lowering brood were tamed and took  
Meekly her gentle rule and frowned no more. 
Her soft hand put aside the assaults of wrath 40 
And calmly broke in twain 
The fiery shafts of pain  
And rent the nets of passion from her path. 
By that victorious hand despair was slain. 
With love she vanquished hate and overcame 45 
Evil with good in her Great Master's name. 

Her glory is not of this shadowy state  
Glory that with the fleeting season dies; 
But when ...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...tired,
  Endeavours to engage her in caresses
  Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
  Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
  Exploring hands encounter no defence;                                   240
  His vanity requires no response,
  And makes a welcome of indifference.
  (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
  Enacted on this same divan or bed;
  I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
  And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
  Bestows one final...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...e ditches -- 
A tilted derby and a lady at the arm. 

The squeak of oarlocks comes over the lake water
A woman's shriek assaults the ear
While above, in the sky, inured to everything,
The moon looks on with a mindless leer. 

And every evening my one companion
Sits here, reflected in my glass.
Like me, he has drunk of bitter mysteries.
Like me, he is broken, dulled, downcast.


The sleepy lackeys stand beside tables
Waiting for the night to pass
And tipplers with the eyes of ...Read more of this...
by Blok, Aleksandr
...g, know.
No rattling wheels stop short before these gates;
No powder'd pert proficient in the art
Of sounding an alarm, assaults these doors
Till the street rings; no stationary steeds
Cough their own knell, while, heedless of the sound,
The silent circle fan themselves, and quake:
But here the needle plies its busy task,
The pattern grows, the well-depicted flow'r,
Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn,
Unfolds its bosom; buds, and leaves, and sprigs,
And curling tendrils, g...Read more of this...
by Cowper, William
...bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defence; 
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference.
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows one final patronising kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unl...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...leases you.
O my god! you say at breakfast
reading the sports page over the Alpen
as another player breaks his ankle
or assaults the coach.

When I thought of daughters
I wasn't expecting this
but I like this more.
I like all your faults
even your purple moods
when you retreat from everyone
to sit in bed under a quilt.
And when I say 'like'
I mean of course 'love'
but that embarrasses you.
You who feel superior to black and white movies
(coaxed for hours to see Casablanca)
th...Read more of this...
by Ondaatje, Michael

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry