Famous Betraying Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Comforters

by Rudyard Kipling
 Until thy feet have trod the Road
 Advise not wayside folk,
 Nor till thy back has borne the Load
 Break in upon the broke.

 Chase not with undesired largesse
 Of sympathy the heart
 Which, knowing her own bitterness,
 Presumes to dwell apart.

 Employ not that glad hand to raise
 The God-forgotten head
 To Heaven and all the neighbours' gaze--
...Read more of this...

The Talisman

by Alexander Pushkin
 Where the sea forever dances
Over lonely cliff and dune,
Where sweet twilight's vapor glances
In a warmer-glowing moon,
Where with the seraglio's graces
Daylong toys the Mussulman,
An enchantress 'mid embraces
Handed me a talisman.

'Mid embraces I was bidden:
"Guard this talisman of mine:
In it secret power is hidden!
Love himself has made it thine.
Neither death nor ills nor aging,
My beloved, does it ban,
Nor in gales and...Read more of this...

Thermopylae

by Constantine P Cavafy
 Honor to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae.
Never betraying what is right,
consistent and just in all they do
but showing pity also, and compassion;
generous when they're rich, and when they're poor,
still generous in small ways,
still helping as much as they can;
always speaking the truth,
yet without hating those who lie.
And even more honor is due to...Read more of this...

By This Pitch And Motion

by Jennifer Reeser
 In the upstairs hallway, complacent sunlight
stings the walls with gold and translucent almond
over Turkish runners betraying patterns
faded with travel.

At their raveled edges, my daughter slumbers
in the room from which this lost sun arranges
through a window high on an eastern sill of
drapes and black lacquer.

Past the pillowcase where her blonde head swivels
in a dream of chocolate, or paint and horses,
I...Read more of this...

Corinnas Going A-Maying

by Robert Herrick
 Get up, get up for shame! the blooming morn
Upon her wings presents the god unshorn.
See how Aurora throws her fair
Fresh-quilted colours through the air!
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see
The dew bespangled herb and tree.
Each flower has wept and bowed toward the east
Above an hour since,—yet you not dressed;
Nay! not so much as out of bed?
When all the birds have...Read more of this...

Sonnet 151: Love is too young to know what conscience is

by William Shakespeare
 Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.
For thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,
But,...Read more of this...

Finrods Song

by J R R Tolkien
 He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps.
Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever...Read more of this...

The Land

by Rudyard Kipling
 When Julius Fabricius, Sub-Prefect of the Weald,
In the days of Diocletian owned our Lower River-field,
He called to him Hobdenius-a Briton of the Clay,
Saying: "What about that River-piece for layin'' in to hay?"

And the aged Hobden answered: "I remember as a lad
My father told your father that she wanted dreenin' bad.
An' the more that you neeglect her the less you'll...Read more of this...

A Little History

by David Lehman
 Some people find out they are Jews.
They can't believe it.
Thy had always hated Jews.
As children they had roamed in gangs on winter nights in the old
 neighborhood, looking for Jews.
They were not Jewish, they were Irish.
They brandished broken bottles, tough guys with blood on their
 lips, looking for Jews.
They intercepted Jewish boys walking alone and beat them up.
Sometimes they...Read more of this...

470. Song—She says she loes me best of a'

by Robert Burns
 SAE flaxen were her ringlets,
 Her eyebrows of a darker hue,
Bewitchingly o’er-arching
 Twa laughing e’en o’ lovely blue;
Her smiling, sae wyling.
 Wad make a wretch forget his woe;
What pleasure, what treasure,
 Unto these rosy lips to grow!
Such was my Chloris’ bonie face,
 When first that bonie face I saw;
And aye my Chloris’ dearest charm—
 She says, she lo’es me...Read more of this...

Sonnet CLI

by William Shakespeare
 Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no father reason;
But,...Read more of this...

To Edward Jenkinson Esq

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 Fair Youth! who wish the Wars may cease, 
We own you better form'd for Peace. 
Nor Pallas you, nor Mars shou'd follow; 
Your Gods are Cupid and Apollo; 
Who give sweet Looks, and early Rhimes, 
Bespeaking Joys, and Halcyon Times. 
Your Face, which We, as yet, may praise, 
Calls for the Myrtle, and the Bays. 
The Martial Crowns Fatigues...Read more of this...

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