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Famous Bewail Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Marvell, Andrew
...Heaven leads, 'tis Piety to weep.
Stand back ye Seas, and shrunk beneath the vail
Of your Abysse, with cover'd Head bewail
Your Monarch: We demand not your supplies
To compass in our Isle; our Tears suffice;
Since him away the dismal Tempest rent,
Who once more joyn'd us to the Continent;
Who planted England on the Flandrick shoar,
And stretch'd our frontire to the Indian Ore;
Whose greater Truths obscure the Fables old,
Whether of British Saints or Worthy's told;
And in ...Read more of this...



by McGonagall, William Topaz
...crowd what was wrong;
And twenty ready tongues tells him the sad tale,
And when he heard it the poor boy's fate he did bewail. 

And he cried, "Here! Something must be done and quickly too,
Do you hear! Every blessed soul of you;
Come, each one give a few pence to the poor boy,
And it will help to fill his heart with joy." 

Then the wood-cutter gave a golden coin away,
So the crowd subscribed largely without delay;
Which made the poor boy's heart feel gay,
Then the ...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...ce of her love and loving mate, 
Whose loss hath made her so unfortunate, 
Ev'n thus do I, with many a deep sad groan, 
Bewail my turtle true, who now is gone, 
His presence and his safe return still woos, 
With thousand doleful sighs and mournful coos. 
Or as the loving mullet, that true fish, 
Her fellow lost, nor joy nor life do wish, 
But launches on that shore, there for to die, 
Where she her captive husband doth espy. 
Mine being gone, I lead a joyless life, 
I...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...ou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love....Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...Such utmost beauty? Alas, thou dost pine
For one as sorrowful: thy cheek is pale
For one whose cheek is pale: thou dost bewail
His tears, who weeps for thee. Where dost thou sigh?
Ah! surely that light peeps from Vesper's eye,
Or what a thing is love! 'Tis She, but lo!
How chang'd, how full of ache, how gone in woe!
She dies at the thinnest cloud; her loveliness
Is wan on Neptune's blue: yet there's a stress
Of love-spangles, just off yon cape of trees,
Dancing upon the w...Read more of this...



by Spenser, Edmund
...do I daily starve, wanting my lively food:
Now do I always die, wanting thy timely mirth.
And if I waste, who will bewail my heavy chance?
And if I starve, who will record my cursed end?
And if I die, who will say: "This was Immerito"?...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...traightway tremble face to face
With thee, with thee, across the stellar ring --
Yea, where thine absence I could ne'er bewail
Longer than lasts that little blank of bliss
When lips draw back, with recent pressure pale,
To round and redden for another kiss --
Would not my lonesome heart still sigh for thee
What time the drear kiss-intervals must be?


II.

So do the mottled formulas of Sense
Glide snakewise through our dreams of Aftertime;
So errors breed in reeds and gra...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...th_Chancellor gives, then does recall 
Orders; amazed, at last gives none at all. 

St Alban's writ to, that he may bewail 
To Master Louis, and tell coward tale 
How yet the Hollanders do make a noise, 
Threaten to beat us, and are naughty boys. 
Now Dolman's dosobedient, and they still 
Uncivil; his unkindness would us kill. 
Tell him our ships unrigged, our forts unmanned, 
Our money spent; else 'twere at his command. 
Summon him therefore of his word and p...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...r valves of gold:
And if he moves his dwelling-place, his heavens also move
Where'er he goes, and all his neighbourhood bewail his loss.
Such are the spaces called Earth and such its dimension.
As to that false appearance which appears to the reasoner
As of a globe rolling through voidness, it is a delusion of Ulro.
The microscope knows not of this nor the telescope: they alter
The ratio of the spectator's organs, but leave objects untouch'd.
For every space l...Read more of this...

by Howe, Julia Ward
...now leave all that may be left of home 
For a great and earnest day of counsel. 
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. 
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means 
Whereby the great human family can live in peace... 
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, 
But of God - 
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask 
That a general congress of women without limit of natio...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...d,
No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded so;
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heav'n. 
Which shall I first bewail,
Thy Bondage or lost Sight,
Prison within Prison
Inseparably dark?
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)
The Dungeon of thy self; thy Soul
 (Which Men enjoying sight oft without cause complain)
Imprison'd now indeed,
In real darkness of the body dwells,
Shut up from outward light 
To incorporate with gloomy night;
For inward light alas
Puts forth no...Read more of this...

by Gray, Thomas
...unroll?
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,
Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!
No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail.
All hail, ye genuine kings! Britannia's issue, hail!

"Girt with many a baron bold
Sublime their starry fronts they rear;
And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old
In bearded majesty, appear.
In the midst a form divine!
Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line:
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,
Attempered sweet to virgin grace.
What str...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...aven leads, 'tis piety to weep. 
Stand back, ye seas, and shrunk beneath the veil 
Of your abyss, with covered head bewail 
Your Monarch: we demand not your supplies 
To compass in our isle; our tears suffice: 
Since him away the dismal tempest rent, 
Who once more joined us to the continent; 
Who planted England on the Flandric shore, 
And stretched our frontier to the Indian ore; 
Whose greater truths obscure the fables old, 
Whether of British saints or Worthies told; ...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...r than wisdom. 

It is a flame spirit in you ever gathering more of itself, 

While you, heedless of its expansion, bewail the withering of your days. 

It is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave. 

There are no graves here. 

These mountains and plains are a cradle and a stepping-stone. 

Whenever you pass by the field where you have laid your ancestors look well thereupon, and you shall see yourselves and your children dancing hand in hand...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...vain might Liberty invoke
The spirit to its bondage broke
Or raise the neck that courts the yoke:
No more her sorrows I bewail,
Yet this will be a mournful tale,
And they who listen may believe,
Who heard it first had cause to grieve.

Far, dark, along the blue sea glancing,
The shadows of the rocks advancing
Start on the fisher's eye like boat
Of island-pirate or Mainote;
And fearful for his light ca?que,
He shuns the near but doubtful creek:
Though worn and weary with h...Read more of this...

by Lovelace, Richard
...strike his frost-stretched wings, dissolve, and fly
This Etna in epitome.

Dropping December shall come weeping in,
Bewail th' usurping of his reign;
But when in show'rs of old Greek we begin,
Shall cry he hath his crown again!

Night as clear Hesper shall our tapers whip
From the light casements where we play,
And the dark hag from her black mantle strip,
And stick there everlasting day.

Thus richer than untempted kings are we,
That asking nothing, nothing need:
Tho...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...im for walking with my Biddy Brown. 

Chorus 

So the policeman took Barney Magee to jail,
Which made him shout and bewail
That ever he met with Biddy Brown,
The greatest deceiver in Dublin town. 

Chorus 

So I bade farewell to Biddy Brown,
The greatest jilter in Dublin town,
Because she proved untrue to me,
And was going about with Barney Magee....Read more of this...

by Wheatley, Phillis
...ss sisters join
Th' increasing woe, and swell the crystal brine;
The poor, who once his gen'rous bounty fed,
Droop, and bewail their benefactor dead.
In death the friend, the kind companion lies,
And in one death what various comfort dies!
Th' unhappy mother sees the sanguine rill
Forget to flow, and nature's wheels stand still,
But see from earth his spirit far remov'd,
And know no grief recalls your best-belov'd:
He, upon pinions swifter than the wind,
Has left mortalit...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...rd vengeance haunts thy name,
And guilt consigns thee o'er to shame,
Avenging furies round thee wait,
And e'en thy foes bewail thy fate.


But see, with gentler looks and air,
Sophia comes. Ye youths beware!
Her fancy paints her still in prime,
Nor sees the moving hand of time;
To all her imperfections blind,
Hears lovers sigh in every wind,
And thinks her fully ripen'd charms,
Like Helen's, set the world in arms.


Oh, save it but from ridicule,
How blest the sta...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...y
To earth could all of paradise convey,
A little dust are now -- to feeling cold.
And yet I live -- but that I live bewail,
Sunk the loved light that through the tempest led
My shattered bark, bereft of mast and sail:
Hushed be for aye the song that breathed love's fire!
Lost is the theme on which my fancy fed,
And turned to mourning my once tuneful lyre....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs