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Famous Breaker Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...feet, 
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The King! 
Here is an heir for Uther!" And the fringe 
Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand, 
Lashed at the wizard as he spake the word, 
And all at once all round him rose in fire, 
So that the child and he were clothed in fire. 
And presently thereafter followed calm, 
Free sky and stars: "And this the same child," he said, 
"Is he who reigns; nor could I part in peace 
Till this were told." And saying this...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...of Edward. 

Then with their nail'd prows
Parted the Norsemen, a
Blood-redden'd relic of
Javelins over
The jarring breaker, the deep-sea billow,
Shaping their way toward Dyflen again,
Shamed in their souls. 

Also the brethren,
King and Atheling,
Each in his glory,
Went to his own in his own West-Saxonland,
Glad of the war. 

Many a carcase they left to be carrion,
Many a livid one, many a sallow-skin--
Left for the white-tail'd eagle to tear it, and
Left for the...Read more of this...

by Bosselaar, Laure-Anne
...dorm, with the pride 

 of a child more often punished than praised. 
‘Amuck,’ ‘awkward,’ or ‘knuckles,’ have jaw-
breaker flavors; there’s honey in ‘hunter’s moon,’

 hot pepper in ‘hunk,’ and ‘mellifluous’ has aromas 
of almonds and milk . Those tastes of recompense 
still bitter-sweet today as I roll, bend and shape 

 English in my mouth, repeating its syllables 
like acts of contrition, then sticking out my new tongue —
flavored and sharp — to the ambiguities of...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...oats updrawn,
And built their castles of dissolving sand
To watch them overflow'd, or following up
And flying the white breaker, daily left
The little footprint daily wash'd away. 

A narrow cave ran in beneath the cliff:
In this the children play'd at keeping house.
Enoch was host one day, Philip the next,
While Annie still was mistress; but at times
Enoch would hold possession for a week:
`This is my house and this my little wife.'
`Mine too' said Philip `turn a...Read more of this...

by Henley, William Ernest
...changing, still changeless.
Ceaselessly sowing,
Life, incorruptible life,
Flows from my seed-sheet.

Maker and breaker,
I am the ebb and the flood,
Here and Hereafter,
Sped through the tangle and coil
Of infinite nature,
Viewless and soundless I fashion all being.
Taker and giver,
I am the womb and the grave,
The Now and the Ever...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...ve me these?

Har: Is not thy Nation subject to our Lords?
Thir Magistrates confest it, when they took thee
As a League-breaker and deliver'd bound
Into our hands: for hadst thou not committed
Notorious murder on those thirty men
At Askalon, who never did thee harm,
Then like a Robber stripdst them of thir robes?
The Philistines, when thou hadst broke the league,
Went up with armed powers thee only seeking, 
To others did no violence nor spoil.

Sam: Among the Daughters o...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...t seem'd, of luminous vapor, lay,
And ever in it a low musical note
Swell'd up and died; and, as it swell'd, a ridge
Of breaker issued from the belt, and still
Grew with the growing note, and when the note
Had reach'd a thunderous fullness, on those cliffs
Broke, mixt with awful light (the same as that
Living within the belt) whereby she saw
That all those lines of cliffs were cliffs no more,
But huge cathedral fronts of every age,
Grave, florid, stern, as far as eye could se...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...of the Gods!

Over the crest she flies from,
Into its hollow she drops,
Cringes and clears her eyes from
The wind-torn breaker-tops,
Ere out on the shrieking shoulder
Of a hill-high surge she drives.
Meet her! Meet her and hold her!
Pull for your scoundrel lives!

The thunder below and clamor
The harm that they mean to do!
There goes Thor's own Hammer
Cracking the dark in two!
Close! But the blow has missed her,
Here comes the wind of the blow!
Row or the squall'Il twist...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...=i2>Vengeaunce must fall on thee, thow filthie whoreOf Babilon, thow breaker of Christ's fold,That from achorns, and from the water colde,Art riche become with making many poore.Thow treason's neste that in thie harte dost holdeOf cankard malice, and of myschief moreThan pen can wryte, or may with ...Read more of this...

by Stephens, James
...I am the maker,
The builder, the breaker,
The eagle-winged helper,
The speedy forsaker!

The lance and the lyre,
The water, the fire,
The tooth of oppression,
The lip of desire!

The snare and the wing,
They honey, the sting!
When you seek for me--look
For a different thing!

I, careless and gay,
Never mean what I say,
For my thoughts and my eyes
Look the opposite way!...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...such days endure,
How shall it profit her?
Who shall go groaning to the grave,
With many a meek and mighty slave,
Field-breaker and fisher on the wave,
And woodman and waggoner.

"Bake ye the big world all again
A cake with kinder leaven;
Yet these are sorry evermore--
Unless there be a little door,
A little door in heaven."

And as he wept for the woman
He let her business be,
And like his royal oath and rash
The good food fell upon the ash
And blackened instantly.Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...owers of Carbonek, 
A castle like a rock upon a rock, 
With chasm-like portals open to the sea, 
And steps that met the breaker! there was none 
Stood near it but a lion on each side 
That kept the entry, and the moon was full. 
Then from the boat I leapt, and up the stairs. 
There drew my sword. With sudden-flaring manes 
Those two great beasts rose upright like a man, 
Each gript a shoulder, and I stood between; 
And, when I would have smitten them, heard a voic...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...g the woods; 
The leader wildswan in among the stars 
Would clang it, and lapt in wreaths of glowworm light 
The mellow breaker murmured Ida. Now, 
Because I would have reached you, had you been 
Sphered up with Cassiopëia, or the enthroned 
Persephonè in Hades, now at length, 
Those winters of abeyance all worn out, 
A man I came to see you: but indeed, 
Not in this frequence can I lend full tongue, 
O noble Ida, to those thoughts that wait 
On you, their centre: let me ...Read more of this...

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