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Famous Champions Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...land get o’er,
And drink them to hell, Sir! or ne’er see me more!”


Old poets have sung, and old chronicles tell,
What champions ventur’d, what champions fell:
The son of great Loda was conqueror still,
And blew on the Whistle their requiem shrill.


Till Robert, the lord of the Cairn and the Scaur,
Unmatch’d at the bottle, unconquer’d in war,
He drank his poor god-ship as deep as the sea;
No tide of the Baltic e’er drunker than he.


Thus Robert, victorious, the tro...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...iddel, skill’d in rusty coins,
Blew up each Tory’s dark designs,
 And bared the treason under.


In either wing two champions fought;
Redoubted Staig, who set at nought
 The wildest savage Tory;
And Welsh who ne’er yet flinch’d his ground,
High-wav’d his magnum-bonum round
 With Cyclopeian fury.


Miller brought up th’ artillery ranks,
The many-pounders of the Banks,
 Resistless desolation!
While Maxwelton, that baron bold,
’Mid Lawson’s port entrench’d his hold,
 And...Read more of this...

by Moore, Thomas
...heart-wounds shall weep o'er her blade. 

By the red cloud that hung over Conor's dark dwelling,
When Ulad's three champions lay sleeping in gore -- 
By the billows of war, which so often, high swelling,, 
Have wafted these heroes to victory's shore -- 

We swear to avenge them! -- no joy shall be tasted, 
The harp shall be silent, the maiden unwed, 
Our halls shall be mute, and our fields shall lie wasted, 
Till vengeance is wreak'd on the murderer's head. 

Yes, mo...Read more of this...

by Tate, James
...ill, there's that disagreeable exhalation
from decaying matter, subtle but everpresent.
They walk around erect like champions.
They are smooth-spoken and witty.
When alone, rare occasion, they stare
into the mirror for hours, bewildered.
There was something they meant to say, but didn't: 
"And if we put the statue of the rhinoceros
next to the tweezers, and walk around the room three times,
learn to yodel, shave our heads, call 
our ancestors back from the dea...Read more of this...

by Taylor, Edward
...ill, there's that disagreeable exhalation
from decaying matter, subtle but everpresent.
They walk around erect like champions.
They are smooth-spoken and witty.
When alone, rare occasion, they stare
into the mirror for hours, bewildered.
There was something they meant to say, but didn't: 
"And if we put the statue of the rhinoceros
next to the tweezers, and walk around the room three times,
learn to yodel, shave our heads, call 
our ancestors back from the dea...Read more of this...



by Ali, Muhammad
...every struggle that Joe survived,
For every dispute he endured, to rise,
Joe will go down in history
as a model for champions to come.
While Frazier was a man of few words,
Ali was a world of mouth,
but he found his place in history.
Now his heart can express him well.
Joe Frazier was a silent warrior,
whom Ali silently admired.
One could not rise without the other....Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...Wreathed in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal
Like those champions devoted and brave,
When they plunged in the tyrant their steel,
And to Athens deliverance gave. 

Beloved heroes! your deathless souls roam
In the joy breathing isles of the blest;
Where the mighty of old have their home -
Where Achilles and Diomed rest. 

In fresh myrtle my blade I'll entwine,
Like Harmodious, the gallant and good,
When he...Read more of this...

by Strode, William
...ram's blade and good Sir Lancelot's helme
Had then bedeckt his locks, with fertile store
Of votive reliques which those champions wore:
Untill perhaps (as 'tis with great men found)
Those burdenous honours crusht it to the ground:
But in these merry times 'twere farre more trimme
If pipes and citterns hung on every limbe;
And since the fidlers it hath heard so long,
I'me sure by this time it deserves my song....Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...And neighb'ring stations brought their men 
To meetings where the sport was free, 
And dainty ladies came to see 
Their champions ride; with laugh and song 
The old house rang the whole night long 
On Kiley's Run. 

The station hands were friends I wot 
On Kiley's Run, 
A reckless, merry-hearted lot -- 
All splendid riders, and they knew 
The `boss' was kindness through and through. 
Old Kiley always stood their friend, 
And so they served him to the end 
On Kiley's R...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...All access was thronged; the gates 
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 
(Though like a covered field, where champions bold 
Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 
Defied the best of Paynim chivalry 
To mortal combat, or career with lance), 
Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, 
Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 
In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides. 
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 
In clusters; ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
Astonished. None among the choice and prime 
Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found 
So hardy as to proffer or accept, 
Alone, the dreadful voyage; till, at last, 
Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake:-- 
 "O Progeny of Heaven! Empyreal Thrones! 
With reason hath deep silence and demur 
Seized us, though undismayed. Lon...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...friend’s face 
Come stealing to my side. 

“Dead men on horses long since dead, 
They clustered on the track; 
The champions of the days long fled, 
They moved around with noiseless tread— 
Bay, chestnut, brown, and black. 

“And one man on a big grey steed 
Rode up and waved his hand; 
Said he, ‘We help a friend in need, 
And we have come to give a lead 
To you and Rio Grande. 

“‘For you must give the field the slip; 
So never draw the rein, 
But keep him movin...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...to me of Rustum's deeds.
There are enough foes in the Persian host,
Whom I may meet, and strike, and feel no pang;
Champions enough Afrasiab has, whom thou
Mayst fight; fight them, when they confront thy spear! 
But oh, let there be peace 'twixt thee and me!" 

He ceased, but while he spake, Rustum had risen,
And stood erect, trembling with rage; his club
He left to lie, but had regain'd his spear,
Whose fiery point now in his mail'd right-hand
Blazed bright and baleful,...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Anne
...he Land is free!
The Land is free! Aye, shout it forth once more;
Is she not red with her oppressors' gore? 
We are her champions -- shall we not rejoice?
Are not the tyrants' broad domains our own?
Then wherefore triumph with a faltering voice;
And talk of freedom in a doubtful tone?
Have we not longed through life the reign to see
Of Justice, linked with Glorious Liberty?

Shout you that will, and you that can rejoice
To revel in the riches of your foes.
In praise of de...Read more of this...

by Muir, Edwin
...owsing as in relief from pain.
The cricket chirped, the grating thorn
Stirred, and a little sound was born.
The champions took their posts again.

And all began. The stealthy paw
Slashed out and in. Could nothing save
These rags and tatters from the claw?
Nothing. And yet I never saw
A beast so helpless and so brave.

And now, while the trees stand watching, still
The unequal battle rages there.
The killing beast that cannot kill
Swells and swe...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...ck the Portly at the stroke of the Deficit Demon. 

Then were the people amazed and they called for the champion of champions 
Known as Sir 'Enry the Fishfag unequalled in vilification. 
He is the man, said the people, to wipe out the Deficit Monster, 
If nothing else fetches him through he can at the least talk its head off. 

So he sharpened his lance of Freetrade and he practised in loud-mouthing abusing, 
"Poodlehead," "Craven," and "Mole-eyes" were things tha...Read more of this...

by Graves, Robert
...fit your shaft with a blue jay feather, 
Binding the split tops together, 
From that same hour by fate you’re bound 
As champions of this stony ground, 
Loyal and true in everything,
To serve your Army and your King, 
Prepared to starve and sweat and die 
Under some fierce foreign sky, 
If only to keep safe those joys 
That belong to British boys,
To keep young Prussians from the soft 
Scented hay of father’s loft, 
And stop young Slavs from cutting bows 
And bendy spears fro...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...dedness of things 
 With foes as friends, enfeebling ires 
 And fury-fires by gaingivings! 

IX 

 He scarce impassions champions now; 
They do and dare, but tensely--pale of brow; 
 And would they fain uplift the arm 
 Of that faint form they know not how. 

X 

 Yet wars arise, though zest grows cold; 
Wherefore, at whiles, as 'twere in ancient mould 
 He looms, bepatched with paint and lath; 
 But never hath he seemed the old! 

XI 

 Let men rejoice, let men deplore.<...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...guess 
That he was purchasing The Trap 
To win Wargeilah Handicap. 

They spoke of "spielers from the Bland", 
And "champions from the Castlereagh", 
And gave the youth to understand 
That all of these would stop away, 
And spoil the race, if they should hear 
That they had got The Trap to fear. 

"Keep dark! They'll muster thick as flies 
When once the news gets sent around 
We're giving such a splendid prize -- 
A Snowdon horse worth fifty pound! 
They'll come right...Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...hrink not from the choice however grim, 
Were Justice trampled on and Courage downed; 
Which will they be -- cravens or champions? 
Oh, if a doubt intrude, remember him 
Whose death made Missolonghi holy ground....Read more of this...

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