Famous Beat Back Poems by Famous Poets

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

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In The Foam

...whitening wave,
And dasheth thee and me apart.
I sweep out seaward: -- be thou brave.
And reach the shore, Sweetheart.

Beat back the backward-thrusting sea.
Thy weak white arm his blows may thwart,
Christ buffet the wild surge for thee
Till thou'rt ashore, Sweetheart.

Ah, now thy face grows dim apace,
And seems of yon white foam a part.
Canst hear me through the water-bass,
Cry: "To the Shore, Sweetheart?"

Now Christ thee soothe upon the Shore,
My lissome-armed sea-Britoma...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney


O Star of France

..., 
This cross, thy livid face, thy pierced hands and feet, 
The spear thrust in thy side. 

4
O star! O ship of France, beat back and baffled long!
Bear up, O smitten orb! O ship, continue on! 

Sure, as the ship of all, the Earth itself, 
Product of deathly fire and turbulent chaos, 
Forth from its spasms of fury and its poisons, 
Issuing at last in perfect power and beauty,
Onward, beneath the sun, following its course, 
So thee, O ship of France! 

Finish’d the days, the c...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Street Cries

...ack
And rabble of souls,' sighed Sense,
`Their eyes upturned and begged and burned
In brimstone lakes, and a Hand above
Beat back the hands that upward yearned --'
`Nay!' quoth Love --

"`Yea, yea, sweet Prince; thyself shalt see,
Wilt thou but down this slope with me;
'Tis palpable,' whispered Sense.
-- At the foot of the hill a living rill
Shone, and the lilies shone white above;
`But now 'twas black, 'twas a river, this rill,'
(`Black?' quoth Love)

"`Ay, black, but lo! th...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Book of Annandale

...e for them; but something else 
There was that foundered reason, overwhelmed it, 
And with a chilled, intuitive rebuff 
Beat back the self-cajoling sophistries 
That his half-tutored thought would half-project.

What was it, then? Had he become transformed 
And hardened through long watches and long grief 
Into a loveless, feelingless dead thing 
That brooded like a man, breathed like a man,— 
Did everything but ache? And was a day
To come some time when feeling should return...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

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