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Famous Bated Breath Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Davies, William Henry
...Thou shalt not laugh, thou shalt not romp, 
Let's grimly kiss with bated breath; 
As quietly and solemnly 
As Life when it is kissing Death. 
Now in the silence of the grave, 
My hand is squeezing that soft breast; 
While thou dost in such passion lie, 
It mocks me with its look of rest.

But when the morning comes at last, 
And we must part, our passions cold, 
You'll think of some new feather, scarf 
To buy with m...Read more of this...



by Field, Eugene
...ounteous vine,
So that its juices, red and blithe,
May cheer these thirsty bones of mine.

"Elsewise with tears and bated breath
Should I survey the life to be.
But oh! How should I hail the death
That brings that--vinous grace to me!"

So sung the dauntless Saracen,
Whereat the Prophet-Chief ordains
That, curst of Allah, loathed of men,
The faithless one shall die in chains.

But one vile Christian slave that lay
A prisoner near that prisoner saith:
"God willing,...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...’

And so for me there is no sting to death,
And so the grave has lost its victory.
It is but crossing – with a bated breath,
And white, set face – a little strip of sea,
To find the loved ones waiting on the shore,
More beautiful, more precious than before....Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
....
Stand back! look not upon this bold embrace,
Nor view the calmness of the wanton's face;
With joy unspeakable and 'bated breath,
She keeps her last, long liaison with death!
...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...y rain, 
You couldn't cross the black-soil plain -- 
You'd have to stop in Booligal." 



"We'd have to stop!" With bated breath 
We prayed that both in life and death 
Our fate in other lines might fall; 
"Oh, send us to our just reward 
In Hay or Hell, but, gracious Lord, 
Deliver us from Booligal!"...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...--
 A "coal-box" blots the "boyou" on my right.
Or else to evil Carnoy I am stealing,
 Past sentinels who hail with bated breath;
Where not a cigarette spark's dim revealing
 May hint our mission in that zone of death.

I see across the shrapnel-seeded meadows
 The jagged rubble-heap of La Boiselle;
Blood-guilty Fricourt brooding in the shadows,
 And Thiepval's chateau empty as a shell.
Down Albert's riven streets the moon is leering;
 The Hanging Virgin takes its...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...t Gilfillan was lowered into the grave,
'Twas then the people's hearts with sorrow did heave;
And with tearful eyes and bated breath,
Mrs Gilfillan lamented her loving husband's death. 

Then she dropped a ringlet of immortelles into his grave,
Then took one last fond look, and in sorrow did leave;
And all the people left with sad hearts that day,
And that ended the Gilfillan burial in the Hill o' Balgay....Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...red. 

And they were supplied with a white flag, fit emblem of death,
Then they started off to O'Neill's farm, with bated breath,
Where their comrades had been left the previous night,
And were lying weltering in their gore, oh! what a horrible sight. 

And when they arrived at the foot of Majuba Hill,
They were stopped by a Boer party, but they meant no ill,
Who asked them what they wanted without dismay,
And when they said, their dead, there was no further delay.Read more of this...

by Gordon, Adam Lindsay
...this 
Softer lips might kiss. 

All is over! this is death, 
And I stand to watch thee die, 
Brave old horse! with bated breath 
Hardly drawn through tight-clenched teeth, 
Lip indented deep, but eye 
Only dull and dry. 

Musing on the husk and chaff 
Gathered where life’s tares are sown, 
Thus I speak, and force a laugh, 
That is half a sneer and half 
An involuntary groan, 
In a stifled tone— 

‘Rest, old friend! thy day, though rife 
With its toil, hath ended soon...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...nt of a base intent;
Pull down established honour; hawk for news
Whatever their loose fantasy invent
And murmur it with bated breath, as though
The abounding gutter had been Helicon
Or calumny a song. How can they know
Truth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone,
And there alone, that have no Solitude?
So the crowd come they care not what may come.
They have loud music, hope every day renewed
And heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb....Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...ld.
To see the children's faces, blackened, that were trampled to death,
And their parents lamenting o'er them with bated breath. 

Oh! it was most lamentable for to hear
The cries of the mothers for their children dear;
And many mothers swooned in grief away
At the sight of their dead children in grim array. 

There was a parent took home a boy by mistake,
And after arriving there his heart was like to break
When it was found to be the body of a neighbour's child...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs