Famous Banded Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Alfred Lord Tennyson - The Coming Of Arthur

...Merlin through his craft, 
And while the people clamoured for a king, 
Had Arthur crowned; but after, the great lords 
Banded, and so brake out in open war.' 

Then while the King debated with himself 
If Arthur were the child of shamefulness, 
Or born the son of Gorlos, after death, 
Or Uther's son, and born before his time, 
Or whether there were truth in anything 
Said by these three, there came to Cameliard, 
With Gawain and young Modred, her two sons, 
Lot's wife, the Q...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord


Bridge-Guard in the Karroo

...the scarred ravine.

And the solemn firmament marches,
 And the hosts of heaven rise
Framed through the iron arches --
 Banded and barred by the ties,

Till we feel the far track humming,
 And we see her headlight plain,
And we gather and wait her coming --
 The wonderful north-bound train.

(Few, forgotten and lonely,
 Where the white car-windows shine --
No, not combatants-only
 Details guarding the line.)

Quick, ere the gift escape us!
 Out of the darkness we reach
For a ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Gallios Song

...zed Provincials drew--
All day long at their ruler's feet
Howled for the blood of the Jew.
Insurrection with one accord
Banded itself and woke,
And Paul was about to open his mouth
When Achaia's Deputy spoke--

"Whether the God descend from above
Or the Man ascend upon high,
Whether this maker of tents be Jove
Or a younger deity--
I will be no judge between your gods
And your godless bickerings.
Lictor, drive them hence with rods--
I care for none of these things!

Were it a ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Light and Dark

...he time of learning,
To the passion laden
 Turn with eager yearning.


While the heart is burning
 Heaven with earth is banded:
To the stars returning
 Go not empty-handed.


Ah, the snow-frail maiden!
 Somehow truth has missed her,
Left the heart unladen
 For its burdened sister....Read more of this...
by Russell, George William

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...r dungeon, not our safe retreat 
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 
From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 
Banded against his throne, but to remain 
In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 
Under th' inevitable curb, reserved 
His captive multitude. For he, to be sure, 
In height or depth, still first and last will reign 
Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 
By our revolt, but over Hell extend 
His empire, and with iron sceptre rule 
Us here, as wit...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Paradise Lost: Book 05

...him, saw without their light 
Rebellion rising; saw in whom, how spread 
Among the sons of morn, what multitudes 
Were banded to oppose his high decree; 
And, smiling, to his only Son thus said. 
Son, thou in whom my glory I behold 
In full resplendence, Heir of all my might, 
Nearly it now concerns us to be sure 
Of our Omnipotence, and with what arms 
We mean to hold what anciently we claim 
Of deity or empire: Such a foe 
Is rising, who intends to erect his throne 
Equal ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 06

...beams innumerable 
Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shields 
Various, with boastful argument portrayed, 
The banded Powers of Satan hasting on 
With furious expedition; for they weened 
That self-same day, by fight or by surprise, 
To win the mount of God, and on his throne 
To set the Envier of his state, the proud 
Aspirer; but their thoughts proved fond and vain 
In the mid way: Though strange to us it seemed 
At first, that Angel should with Angel war, 
And in ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Prelude to an Evening

...ou shall he listening for the low wind,
The warning sibilance of pines.

You like a waning moon, and I accusing
Our too banded Eumenides,
While you pronounce Noes wanderingly
And smooth the heads of the hungry children....Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe

Samson Agonistes

...t with thir whole united powers 
In fight withstand me single and unarm'd,
Nor in the house with chamber Ambushes
Close-banded durst attaque me, no not sleeping,
Till they had hir'd a woman with their gold
Breaking her Marriage Faith to circumvent me.
Therefore without feign'd shifts let be assign'd
Some narrow place enclos'd, where sight may give thee.
Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;
Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy Helmet
And Brigandine of brass, thy broad...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window

...ries.
Old lichened halls, sun-shaded by huge cedar-trees,
The layered branches horizontal stretched, like Japanese
Dark-banded prints. Carven cathedrals, on a sky
Of faintest colour, where the gothic spires fly
And sway like masts, against a shifting breeze.
Worm-eaten pages, clasped in old brown vellum, 
shrunk
From over-handling, by some anxious monk.
Or Virgin's Hours, bright with gold and graven
With flowers, and rare birds, and all the Saints of Heaven,
And Noah's ark st...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Black Cottage

...We chanced in passing by that afternoon 
To catch it in a sort of special picture 
Among tar-banded ancient cherry trees, 
Set well back from the road in rank lodged grass, 
The little cottage we were speaking of, 
A front with just a door between two windows, 
Fresh painted by the shower a velvet black. 
We paused, the minister and I, to look. 
He made as if to hold it at arm's length 
Or put the leaves aside that framed it in. 
"Pretty," he said. ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde

...or the Virgin's dress.
Should it be of pink, or damasked blue?
Or perhaps lilac with gold shotted through?
Should it be banded with yellow and white
Roses, or sparked like a frosty night?
Or a crimson sheen
Over some sort of green?
But Clotilde's eyes saw nothing new
In all the garden, no single hue
So lovely or so marvellous
That its use would not seem impious.
So on she walked,
And the others talked.
Sister Elisabeth edged away
From what her companion had to say,
For Sister...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Great Adventure of Max Breuck

...ager to take Christine
And crush her to his lips. How bear delay?
He broke into a run. In front, a line
Of candle-light banded the cobbled street.
Hilverdink's tavern! Not for many a day
Had he been there to take his old, accustomed seat.

49
"Why, Max! Stop, Max!" And 
out they came pell-mell,
His old companions. "Max, where have you been?
Not drink with us? Indeed you serve us well!
How many months is it since we have seen
You here? Jan, Jan, you slow, old doddering goat!
H...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Lay Of The Bell

...
"Freedom! Equality!"--to blood
Rush the roused people at the sound!
Through street, hall, palace, roars the flood,
And banded murder closes round!
The hyena-shapes (that women were!),
Jest with the horrors they survey;
They hound--they rend--they mangle there--
As panthers with their prey!
Naught rests to hollow--burst the ties
Of life's sublime and reverent awe;
Before the vice the virtue flies,
And universal crime is law!
Man fears the lion's kingly tread;
Man fears the ti...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Pool

...Are you alive? 
I touch you. 
You quiver like a sea-fish. 
I cover you with my net. 
What are you - banded one?...Read more of this...
by Doolittle, Hilda

The Siege of Corinth

...ground 
Against the foe may still be found, 
Desperate groups, of twelve or ten, 
Make a pause, and turn again — 
With banded backs against the wall, 
Fiercely stand, or fighting fall. 

There stood an old man — his hairs were white, 
But his veteran arm was full of might: 
So gallantly bore he the brunt of the fray, 
The dead before him on that day, 
In a semicircle lay; 
Still he combated unwounded, 
Though retreating, unsurrounded. 
Many a scar of former fight 
Lurk'd ben...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Soudan, The Sphinxes, The Cup, The Lamp

...n as a yoke; 
 And under his, more feared than other rules, 
 He holds his people bound, like tamèd bulls. 
 Asia is banded with his paths of war; 
 He is more of a scourge than Attila. 
 He triumphs glorious—but, day by day, 
 The earth falls at his feet, piecemeal away; 
 And the bricks for his tomb's wall, one by one, 
 Are being shaped—are baking in the sun. 
 
 THE THIRD SPHINX. 
 
 Equal to archangel, for one short while, 
 Was Nimroud, builder of tall Babe...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

The Swarm

...ea!
The white busts of marshals, admirals, generals
Worming themselves into niches.

How instructive this is!
The dumb, banded bodies
Walking the plank draped with Mother France's upholstery
Into a new mausoleum,
An ivory palace, a crotch pine.

The man with gray hands smiles --
The smile of a man of business, intensely practical.
They are not hands at all
But asbestos receptacles.
Pom! Pom! 'They would have killed me.'

Stings big as drawing pins!
It seems bees have a notion...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

The Triumph of Life

...one on the air's soft stream
The music of their ever moving wings.
All the four faces of that charioteer
Had their eyes banded . . . little profit brings
Speed in the van & blindness in the rear,
Nor then avail the beams that quench the Sun
Or that his banded eyes could pierce the sphere
Of all that is, has been, or will be done.--
So ill was the car guided, but it past
With solemn speed majestically on . . .
The crowd gave way, & I arose aghast,
Or seemed to rise, so mighty ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

You Ask Me Why Tho Ill at Ease

...by degrees to fullness wrought,
The strength of some diffusive thought
Hath time and space to work and spread.

Should banded unions persecute
Opinion, and induce a time
When single thought is civil crime,
And individual freedom mute;

Tho' Power should make from land to land
The name of Britain trebly great--
Tho' every channel of the State
Should fill and choke with golden sand--

Yet waft me from the harbour-mouth,
Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky,
And I will see before I d...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

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