Famous Astern Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Alphonso Of Castile

...I Alphonso live and learn,
Seeing nature go astern.
Things deteriorate in kind,
Lemons run to leaves and rind,
Meagre crop of figs and limes,
Shorter days and harder times.
Flowering April cools and dies
In the insufficient skies;
Imps at high Midsummer blot
Half the sun's disk with a spot;
'Twill not now avail to tan
Orange cheek, or skin of man:
Roses bleach, the goats are dry,
Lisbon quakes, the pe...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Strayed Reveller The

...To either bow
Firm harness'd by the mane; a chief
With shout and shaken spear,
Stands at the prow, and guides them; but astern
The cowering merchants, in long robes,
Sit pale beside their wealth
Of silk-bales and of balsam-drops,
Of gold and ivory,
Of turquoise-earth and amethyst,
Jasper and chalcedony,
And milk-barred onyx-stones.
The loaded boat swings groaning
In the yellow eddies;
The Gods behold him.
They see the Heroes
Sitting in the dark ship
On the foamless, long-heav...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew

The Aged Pilot Man

..., "Snub up your boat I pray,
Snub up your boat, snub up, alas,
Snub up while yet you may."

Our captain cast one glance astern,
Then forward glanced he,
And said, "My wife and little ones
I never more shall see."

Said Dollinger the pilot man,
In noble words, but few,--
"Fear not, but lean on Dollinger,
And he will fetch you through."

The boat drove on, the frightened mules
Tore through the rain and wind,
And bravely still, in danger's post,
The whip-boy strode behind.

"Com...Read more of this...
by Twain, Mark

The Destroyers

...lpools close!

A shadow down the sickened wave
 Long since her slayer fled:
But hear their chattering quick-fires rave
 Astern, abeam, ahead!
Panic that shells the drifting spar --
 Loud waste with none to check --
Mad fear that rakes a scornful star
 Or sweeps a consort's deck.

Now, while their silly smoke hangs thick,
 Now ere their wits they find,
Lay in and lance them to the quick --
 Our gallied whales are blind!
Good luck to those that see end end,
 Good-bye to those t...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Strayed Reveller

...w
188 Firm harness'd by the mane; a chief
189 With shout and shaken spear,
190 Stands at the prow, and guides them; but astern
191 The cowering merchants, in long robes,
192 Sit pale beside their wealth
193 Of silk-bales and of balsam-drops,
194 Of gold and ivory,
195 Of turquoise-earth and amethyst,
196 Jasper and chalcedony,
197 And milk-barred onyx-stones.
198 The loaded boat swings groaning
199 In the yellow eddies;
200 The Gods behold him. 

201 They see the Heroes
202 S...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew


The Wanderer

...drunken seamen struggled with the sail. 

While with sick hearts her mates put out of mind 
Their little children, left astern, ashore, 
And the gale's gathering made the darkness' blind, 
Water and air one intermingled roar. 

Then we forgot her, for the fiddlers played, 
Dancing and singing held our merry crew; 
The old ship moaned a little as she swayed. 
It blew all night, oh, bitter hard it blew! 

So that at midnight I was called on deck 
To keep an anchor-watch: I hear...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

There was a Child went Forth

...white or brown, three
 miles
 off,

The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the tide—the little boat
 slack-tow’d
 astern,
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping, 
The strata of color’d clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint, away solitary by
 itself—the
 spread of purity it lies motionless in, 
The horizon’s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud; 
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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