Famous Besiege Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet CIX

by William Shakespeare
 O, never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify.
As easy might I from myself depart
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie:
That is my home of love: if I have ranged,
Like him that travels I return again,
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my...Read more of this...

Sonnets xvii

by William Shakespeare
 O NEVER say that I was false of heart, 
Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify! 
As easy might I from myself depart, 
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie: 
That is my home of love; if I have ranged, 
Like him that travels I return again, 
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,...Read more of this...

De Hortis Julii Martialis

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 MY Martial owns a garden, famed to please,
Beyond the glades of the Hesperides;
Along Janiculum lies the chosen block
Where the cool grottos trench the hanging rock.
The moderate summit, something plain and bare,
Tastes overhead of a serener air;
And while the clouds besiege the vales below,
Keeps the clear heaven and doth with sunshine glow.
To the June stars that circle in the skies
The...Read more of this...

Sonnet 109: O never say that I was false of heart

by William Shakespeare
 O, never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seemed my flame to qualify.
As easy might I from my self depart
As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie.
That is my home of love; if I have ranged,
Like him that travels I return again,
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for...Read more of this...

Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

by William Shakespeare
 When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise...Read more of this...

On The Death Of A Fair Infant Dying Of A Cough

by John Milton
 I

O fairest flower no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken Primrose fading timelesslie,
Summers chief honour if thou hadst outlasted
Bleak winters force that made thy blossome drie;
For he being amorous on that lovely die
That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss
But kill'd alas, and then bewayl'd his fatal bliss.

II

For since grim Aquilo his charioter
By boistrous rape th' Athenian damsel got,
He thought...Read more of this...

Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady

by Alexander Pope
 What beck'ning ghost, along the moon-light shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
'Tis she!--but why that bleeding bosom gor'd,
Why dimly gleams the visionary sword?
Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell,
Is it, in heav'n, a crime to love too well?
To bear too tender, or too firm a heart,
To act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in...Read more of this...

Our Son

by Barry Tebb
 Quarter to three: I wake again at the hour of his birth

Thirty years ago and now he paces corridors of dark

In nightmares of self-condemnation where random thoughts

Besiege his fevered imagination – England’s 

Imminent destruction, his own, the world’s…

Sixty to eighty cigarettes a day, unavailing depot injections,

Failed abscondings, failed everything: Eton and Balliol

Hold no sway on ward one, nor even...Read more of this...

The Merry Maid

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 OH, I am grown so free from care
Since my heart broke!
I set my throat against the air, 
I laugh at simple folk! 

There's little kind and little fair
Is worth its weight in smoke
To me, that's grown so free from care 
Since my heart broke! 

Lass, if to sleep you would repair
As peaceful as you woke,
Best not besiege your lover...Read more of this...

Sonnet II: When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow

by William Shakespeare
 When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, 
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, 
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, 
Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held: 
Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies, 
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days, 
To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, 
Were an all-eating shame...Read more of this...

The Storm

by George Herbert
 If as the winds and waters here below 
Do fly and flow, 
My sighs and tears as busy were above;
Sure they would move 
And much affect thee, as tempestuous times 
Amaze poor mortals, and object their crimes. 

Stars have their storms, ev'n in a high degree,
As well as we. 
A throbbing conscience spurred by remorse
Hath a strange force: 
It...Read more of this...

A Wish

by Matthew Arnold
 I ask not that my bed of death
From bands of greedy heirs be free;
For these besiege the latest breath
Of fortune's favoured sons, not me.

I ask not each kind soul to keep
Tearless, when of my death he hears;
Let those who will, if any, weep!
There are worse plagues on earth than tears.

I ask but that my death may find
The freedom to...Read more of this...

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