Famous Betwixt Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Old English)

...g up she seized
fast and firm, as she fled to the moor.
He was for Hrothgar of heroes the dearest,
of trusty vassals betwixt the seas,
whom she killed on his couch, a clansman famous,
in battle brave. -- Nor was Beowulf there;
another house had been held apart,
after giving of gold, for the Geat renowned. --
Uproar filled Heorot; the hand all had viewed,
blood-flecked, she bore with her; bale was returned,
dole in the dwellings: ’twas dire exchange
where Dane and G...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Essay on Man

...ascends: 
Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial race, 
From the green myriads in the people grass: 
What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: 
Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 
And hound sagacious(20) on the tainted(21) green: 
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,(22) 
To that which warbles thro' the vernal(23) wood: 
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! 
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Eviradnus

...'s pure spring, 
 The German Emp'ror and the Polish King. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE TWO NEIGHBORS. 
 
 The difference this betwixt the evil pair, 
 Faithless to God—for laws without a care— 
 One was the claw, the other one the will 
 Controlling. Yet to mass they both went still, 
 And on the rosary told their beads each day. 
 But none the less the world believed that they 
 Unto the powers of hell their souls had sold. 
 Even in whispers men each other told 
 The deta...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Frost at Midnight

...ns shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon. ...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Last Instructions to a Painter

...ack against the white. 
Those having lost the nation at tric-trac, 
These now adventuring how to win it back. 
The dice betwixt them must the fate divide 
(As chance doth still in multitudes decide). 
But here the Court does its advantage know, 
For the cheat Turner for them both must throw. 
As some from boxes, he so from the chair 
Can strike the die and still with them goes share. 

Here, Painter, rest a little, and survey 
With what small arts the public game they play. 
...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew


Paradise Lost: Book 02

...but gathers heap, and ruin seems 
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice, 
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 
Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air 
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 
Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled, 
At certain revolutions all the damned 
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change 
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
From beds of raging fire to starve in i...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...fruit, burnished with golden rind, 
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, 
If true, here only, and of delicious taste: 
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks 
Grazing the tender herb, were interposed, 
Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap 
Of some irriguous valley spread her store, 
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose: 
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves 
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine 
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps 
Lu...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...heir way to Earth they had descried, 
To Paradise first tending; when, behold! 
Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright, 
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering 
His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose: 
Disguised he came; but those his children dear 
Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise. 
He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk 
Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape, 
To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act 
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded 
Upon...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Song of Myself

...
 limbs; 
Walking the path worn in the grass, and beat through the leaves of the brush;
Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheat-lot; 
Where the bat flies in the Seventh-month eve—where the great gold-bug drops
 through the dark; 
Where flails keep time on the barn floor; 
Where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow; 
Where cattle stand and shake away flies with the tremulous shuddering of their
 hides;
Where the...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Flight Of The Duchess

...ur times out of five,
With his huntspear he'd contrive
To get the killing-place transfixed,
And pin him true, both eyes betwixt?
And that's why the old Duke would rather
He lost a salt-pit than my father,
And loved to have him ever in call;
That's why my father stood in the hall
When the old Duke brought his infant out
To show the people, and while they passed
The wondrous bantling round about,
Was first to start at the outside blast
As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn
Just...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Holy Grail

...d garden-lawn, and rushing brook, 
Climbs to the mighty hall that Merlin built. 
And four great zones of sculpture, set betwixt 
With many a mystic symbol, gird the hall: 
And in the lowest beasts are slaying men, 
And in the second men are slaying beasts, 
And on the third are warriors, perfect men, 
And on the fourth are men with growing wings, 
And over all one statue in the mould 
Of Arthur, made by Merlin, with a crown, 
And peaked wings pointed to the Northern Star. 
An...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Knights Tale

...
How wonnen* was the regne of Feminie,  *won
By Theseus, and by his chivalry;
And of the greate battle for the nonce
Betwixt Athenes and the Amazons;
And how assieged was Hippolyta,
The faire hardy queen of Scythia;
And of the feast that was at her wedding
And of the tempest at her homecoming.
But all these things I must as now forbear.
I have, God wot, a large field to ear* *plough;
And weake be the oxen in my plough;
The remnant of my tale is long enow.
I will not *le...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...r that gathered in his eye
     He deft the mountain-breeze to dry;
     Until, where Teith's young waters roll
     Betwixt him and a wooded knoll
     That graced the sable strath with green,
     The chapel of Saint Bride was seen.
     Swoln was the stream, remote the bridge,
     But Angus paused not on the edge;
     Though the clerk waves danced dizzily,
     Though reeled his sympathetic eye,
     He dashed amid the torrent's roar:
     His right hand high ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Man of Laws Tale

...h is known*
That Alla guiltless was of all her woe,
I trow an hundred times have they kiss'd,
And such a bliss is there betwixt them two,
That, save the joy that lasteth evermo',
There is none like, that any creature
Hath seen, or shall see, while the world may dure.

Then prayed she her husband meekely
In the relief of her long piteous pine,* *sorrow
That he would pray her father specially,
That of his majesty he would incline
To vouchesafe some day with him to dine:
She pra...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Phases Of The Moon

...w
Out of the up and down, the wagon-wheel
Of beauty's cruelty and wisdom's chatter -
Out of that raving tide - is drawn betwixt
Deformity of body and of mind.

Aherne. Were not our beds far off I'd ring the bell,
Stand under the rough roof-timbers of the hall
Beside the castle door, where all is stark
Austerity, a place set out for wisdom
That he will never find; I'd play a part;
He would never know me after all these years
But take me for some drunken countryman:
I'd stand a...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

The Princess (prologue)

...ivory sphere in sphere, 
The cursed Malayan crease, and battle-clubs 
From the isles of palm: and higher on the walls, 
Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer, 
His own forefathers' arms and armour hung. 

And 'this' he said 'was Hugh's at Agincourt; 
And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon: 
A good knight he! we keep a chronicle 
With all about him'--which he brought, and I 
Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights, 
Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Sacrifice

...mands
I suffer binding, who have loos'd their bands: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

All my Disciples fly; fear puts a bar
Betwixt my friends and me. They leave the star
That brought the wise men of the East from far.
Was ever grief like mine? 

Then from one ruler to another bound
They lead me; urging, that it was not sound
What I taught: Comments would the text confound.
Was ever grief like mine? 

The Priest and rulers all false witness seek
'Gainst him, who seeks not life, b...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George

The Seasons: Winter

...rupt, and sounding far:
Then o'er the sanded Valley, floating, spreads,
Calm, sluggish, silent; till again constrain'd,
Betwixt two meeting Hills, it bursts a Way,
Where Rocks, and Woods o'erhang the turbid Stream. 
There gathering triple Force, rapid, and deep,
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders thro'.

NATURE! great Parent! whose directing Hand
Rolls round the Seasons of the changeful Year,
How mighty! how majestick are thy Works! 
With what a pleasing Dread they...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The White Cliffs

...se.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the footsteps 
Of the messengers of peace!

XXXVIII 
In the depth of the night betwixt midnight and morning, 
In the darkness and silence forerunning the dawn, 
The throb of my heart was a drum-beat of warning, 
My ears were a-strain and my breath was undrawn. 
In the depth of the night, when the old house was sleeping, 
I lying alone in a desolate bed, 
Heard soft on the staircase a slow footstep creeping— 
The ear of the living—the s...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

The Wife of Baths Tale

...o do of gentleness the fair office
Then might they do no villainy nor vice.
Take fire, and bear it to the darkest house
Betwixt this and the mount of Caucasus,
And let men shut the doores, and go thenne,* *thence
Yet will the fire as fair and lighte brenne* *burn
As twenty thousand men might it behold;
*Its office natural aye will it hold,* *it will perform its
On peril of my life, till that it die. natural duty*
Here may ye see well how that gentery* *gentility, nobility
Is ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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