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Famous Baffled Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Moody, William Vaughn
...deep we deeply will requite. 
Tempt not our weakness, our cupidity! 
For save we let the island men go free, 
Those baffled and dislaureled ghosts 
Will curse us from the lamentable coasts 
Where walk the frustrate dead. 
The cup of trembling shall be drainèd quite, 
Eaten the sour bread of astonishment, 
With ashes of the hearth shall be made white 
Our hair, and wailing shall be in the tent; 
Then on your guiltier head 
Shall our intolerable self-disdain 
Wreak sudd...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...y man's career are certain points 
Whereon he dares not be indifferent; 
The world detects him clearly, if he dare, 
As baffled at the game, and losing life. 
He may care little or he may care much 
For riches, honour, pleasure, work, repose, 
Since various theories of life and life's 
Success are extant which might easily 
Comport with either estimate of these; 
And whoso chooses wealth or poverty, 
Labour or quiet, is not judged a fool 
Because his fellow would choose o...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...rifting cordage of the shattered wreck,
And honey-coloured amber beads our twining limbs will deck.'

But when that baffled Lord of War the Sun
With gaudy pennon flying passed away
Into his brazen House, and one by one
The little yellow stars began to stray
Across the field of heaven, ah! then indeed
She feared his lips upon her lips would never care to feed,

And cried, 'Awake, already the pale moon
Washes the trees with silver, and the wave
Creeps grey and chilly up thi...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...When gained my feet the upward, lighted way, 
 I backward gazed, as one the drowning sea, 
 The deep strong tides, has baffled, and panting lies, 
 On the shelved shore, and turns his eyes to see 
 The league-wide wastes that held him. So mine eyes 
 Surveyed that fear, the while my wearied frame 
 Rested, and ever my heart's tossed lake became 
 More quiet. 
 Then from that pass released, which yet 
 With living feet had no man left, I set 
 My forward steps aslant ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...and did not share 
The common pleasure or the general care; 
He did not follow what they all pursued, 
With hope still baffled, still to be renew'd; 
Nor shadowy honour, nor substantial gain, 
Nor beauty's preference, and the rival's pain: 
Around him some mysterious circle thrown 
Repell'd approach, and showed him still alone; 
Upon his eye sate something of reproof, 
That kept at least frivolity aloof; 
And things more timid that beheld him near, 
In silence gazed, or whis...Read more of this...



by Campbell, Thomas
...ntrol,
Or horror damp the purpose of my soul ? 
No ! my wild heart sat smiling o'er the plan,
'Till Hate fulfilled what baffled love began !

Yes ; let the clay-cold breast that never knew 
One tender pang to generous nature true,
Half-mingling pity with the gall of scorn,
Condemn this heart, that bled in love forlorn !

And ye, proud fair, whose soul no gladness warms,
Save Rapture's homage to your conscious charms !
Delighted idols of a gaudy train,
Ill can your blunter fee...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning, curious—with restless explorations, 
With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish—with never-happy hearts, 
With that sad, incessant refrain, Wherefore, unsatisfied Soul? and Whither, O
 mocking
 Life? 

Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children? 
Who justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassive Earth? 
Who bind it to us? What is this separate Nature, so unnatural? 
What is this Ear...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...r> 

3
Now loud approaching drums! 
Victoria! see’st thou in powder-smoke the banners torn but flying? the rout of the
 baffled? 
Hearest those shouts of a conquering army?

(Ah, Soul, the sobs of women—the wounded groaning in agony, 
The hiss and crackle of flames—the blacken’d ruins—the embers of cities, 
The dirge and desolation of mankind.) 

4
Now airs antique and medieval fill me! 
I see and hear old harpers with their harps, at Welsh festivals:
I hear the minnesing...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...you kill the courageous giant? Will you kill him in the prime of his middle age? 

Steady and long he struggles, 
He is baffled, bang’d, bruis’d—he holds out while his strength holds out, 
The slapping eddies are spotted with his blood—they bear him away—they roll him,
 swing
 him, turn him, 
His beautiful body is borne in the circling eddies, it is continually bruis’d on
 rocks,
Swiftly and out of sight is borne the brave corpse. 

11
I turn, but do not extricate myself,...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...r> 

Shut in from all the world without, 
We sat the clean-winged hearth about, 
Content to let the north-wind roar 
In baffled rage at pane and door, 
While the red logs before us beat 
The frost-line back with tropic heat; 
And ever, when a louder blast 
Shook beam and rafter as it passed, 
The merrier up its roaring draught 
The great throat of the chimney laughed; 
The house-dog on his paws outspread 
Laid to the fire his drowsy head, 
The cat's dark silhouette on the wal...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...e average man the glory of his daily walk and trade, 
To sing, in songs, how exercise and chemical life are never to be baffled; 
Boldly to thee, America, to-day! and thee, Immortal Muse! 
To practical, manual work, for each and all—to plough, hoe, dig,
To plant and tend the tree, the berry, the vegetables, flowers, 
For every man to see to it that he really do something—for every woman too; 
To use the hammer, and the saw, (rip or cross-cut,) 
To cultivate a turn for carpent...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...r
 progress is the needed emblem and sustenance. 

Forever alive, forever forward,
Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble, dissatisfied, 
Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men, 
They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go; 
But I know that they go toward the best—toward something great. 

15
Allons! whoever you are! come forth!
You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...nting breath grew fainter, 
Till his frozen grasp grew feebler, 
Till he reeled and staggered backward, 
And retreated, baffled, beaten,
To the kingdom of Wabasso, 
To the land of the White Rabbit, 
Hearing still the gusty laughter, 
Hearing Shingebis, the diver, 
Singing, "O Kabibonokka, 
You are but my fellow-mortal!"
Shawondasee, fat and lazy, 
Had his dwelling far to southward, 
In the drowsy, dreamy sunshine, 
In the never-ending Summer. 
He it was who sent the wood-...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...fame,
They too will rather die than shame:
For Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding Sire to Son,
Though baffled oft is ever won.
Bear witness, Greece, thy living page!
Attest it many a deathless age!
While Kings, in dusty darkness hid,
Have left a namesless pyramid,
Thy Heroes, though the general doom
Hath swept the column from their tomb,
A mightier monument command,
The mountains of thy native land!
There points thy Muse to stranger's eye
The graves of t...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...holds my heart in fee,
Told of our ancient truce: so from the fight
We straight withdrew our forces, all the three.
Baffled but not dishearten'd she took flight
Scheming new tactics: Love came home with me,
And prompts my measured verses as I write. 

57
In autumn moonlight, when the white air wan
Is fragrant in the wake of summer hence,
'Tis sweet to sit entranced, and muse thereon
In melancholy and godlike indolence:
When the proud spirit, lull'd by mortal prime
To ...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ook.
     There, while close couched the thicket shed
     Cold dews and wild flowers on his head,
     He heard the baffled dogs in vain
     Rave through the hollow pass amain,
     Chiding the rocks that yelled again.
     IX.

     Close on the hounds the Hunter came,
     To cheer them on the vanished game;
     But, stumbling in the rugged dell,
     The gallant horse exhausted fell.
     The impatient rider strove in vain
      To rouse him with the spur a...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...st their best defence, 
The benefit of laws which they dispense. 
No justice to their righteous cause allowed, 
But baffled by an arbitrary crowd; 
And medals graved, their conquest to record, 
The stamp and coin of their adopted lord. 

The man who laughed but once, to see an ass 
Mumbling to make the cross-grained thistles pass, 
Might laugh again to see a jury chaw 
The prickles of unpalatable law. 
The witnesses that, leech-like lived on blood, 
Sucking for th...Read more of this...

by Berry, Wendell
...real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings....Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...e

Carrier’s cart; stared at by neighbours constantly grimacing

Though the grimy nets of the weavers’ cottage windows, baffled

As to who we were and how and why we’d come there.



I never gave it a thought (perhaps I should have) but with

The sense of ‘poet’ in my soul, a book to read and one

To write, night walks in the valley’s hyaline air through

Brambled woods and on down tracks we trekked along

Until the sharp sneck of dawn drew us back to the

One-up one-down...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...e." 

"In all such theories," said he,
"One fixed exception there must be.
That is, the Present Company." 

Baffled, she gave a wolfish bark:
He, aiming blindly in the dark,
With random shaft had pierced the mark. 

She felt that her defeat was plain,
Yet madly strove with might and main
To get the upper hand again. 

Fixing her eyes upon the beach,
As though unconscious of his speech,
She said "Each gives to more than each." 

He could not answer yea ...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things