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Famous Charging Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Bukowski, Charles
...that,
there and not there,
breathing, farting,
commenting,
waiting for a thunder
that will not arrive,
waiting for the charging
white horse of
Glory,
waiting for the lovely
female that is not
there,
waiting to WIN,
waiting for the great
dream to
engulf them
but they do nothing,
they clomp in their
sandals,
gnaw at hot dogs
dog style,
gulping at the
meat,
they complain about
losing,
blame the jocks,
drink green
beer,
the parking lot is
jammed with their
unpaid for
cars,
the j...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...
After firing, I see him lean aside, and look eagerly off to note the effect; 
—Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging—(the young colonel leads
 himself
 this
 time, with brandish’d sword;) 
I see the gaps cut by the enemy’s volleys, (quickly fill’d up, no delay;)
I breathe the suffocating smoke—then the flat clouds hover low, concealing all; 
Now a strange lull comes for a few seconds, not a shot fired on either side; 
Then resumed, the chaos louder than ever, with...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
Rode the six hundred.IV

Flash'd all their sabres bare, 
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd: 
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke; 
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd. 
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.V

Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd; 
Storm'd at with sho...Read more of this...

by Stevenson, Robert Louis
...Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And her...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...not lost.' 

Then Enid waited pale and sorrowful, 
And down upon him bare the bandit three. 
And at the midmost charging, Prince Geraint 
Drave the long spear a cubit through his breast 
And out beyond; and then against his brace 
Of comrades, each of whom had broken on him 
A lance that splintered like an icicle, 
Swung from his brand a windy buffet out 
Once, twice, to right, to left, and stunned the twain 
Or slew them, and dismounting like a man 
That skins the wi...Read more of this...



by Aiken, Conrad
...eard boulders of thunder rolling down upon us 
And the plat-plat of drops on the window, 
And we ran to watch the rain 
Charging in wavering clouds across the long grass of the field! 
Or at other times it was because we saw a star 
Slipping easily out of the sky and falling, far off, 
Among pine-dark hills; 
Or because we found a crimson eft 
Darting in the cold grass!

These things interrupted us and left us wondering; 
And the stories, whatever they might have been, 
Were ...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...im full of lead: 
But when you're fighting Johhny Boer you have to use your head; 
He don't believe in front attacks or charging at the run, 
He fights you from a kopje with his little Maxim gun. 
For when the Lord He made the earth, it seems uncommon clear, 
He gave the job of Africa to some good engineer, 
Who started building fortresses on fashions of his own -- 
Lunettes, redoubts, and counterscarps all made of rock and stone. 
The Boer need only bring a gun, for ...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...es going out, and the 
 lack of shelters, 
And the cities hostile and the towns 
 unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high
 prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all 
 night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, 
 saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a 
 temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of 
 vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill
 beating the darknes...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
..., to breathe a while toback. 
When marching in, a seasonable recruit 
Of citizens and merchants held dispute; 
And, charging all their pikes, a sullen band 
Of Presyterian Switzers made a stand. 

Nor could all these the field have long maintained 
But for th' unknown reserve that still remained: 
A gross of English gentry, nobly born, 
Of clear estates, and to no faction sworn, 
Dear lovers of their king, and death to meet 
For country's cause, that glorious think an...Read more of this...

by Stevenson, Robert Louis
...
To Providence, or Babylon or off to Malabar? 

Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea-- 
Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar! 
Quick, and we'll escape them, they're as mad as they can be, 
The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore....Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...Oronoco, 
Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla-Walla; 
Leaving such to The States, they melt, they depart, charging the water and the
 land with names. 

18O expanding and swift! O henceforth, 
Elements, breeds, adjustments, turbulent, quick, and audacious;
A world primal again—Vistas of glory, incessant and branching; 
A new race, dominating previous ones, and grander far—with new contests, 
New politics, new literatures and religions, new inventions and art...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...s division into line,
And drove back the enemy in a very short time. 

Then Lord Anglesey seized on the moment, and charging with the Greys,
Whilst the Inniskillings burst through everything, which they did always;
Then the French infantry fell in hundreds by the swords of the Dragoons;
Whilst the thundering of the cannonade loudly booms. 

And the Eagles of the 45th and 105th were all captured that day,
And upwards of 2000 prisoners, all in grand array;
But, alas! at...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...the six hundred. 

Flashed all their sabres bare, 
Flashed as they turned in air 
Sabring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while 
All the world wondered: 
Plunged in the battery-smoke 
Right through the line they broke; 
Cossack and Russian 
Reeled from the sabre-stroke 
Shattered and sundered. 
Then they rode back, but not, 
Not the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon behind them 
Volleyed and thundered...Read more of this...

by Jeffers, Robinson
...from each 
 other into all the sky, new universes
Jewel the black breast of night; and far off the outer nebulae 
 like charging spearmen again
Invade emptiness.
 No wonder we are so fascinated with 
 fireworks
And our huge bombs: it is a kind of homesickness perhaps for
 the howling fireblast that we were born from.

But the whole sum of the energies
That made and contain the giant atom survives. It will 
 gather again and pile up, the power and the glory--
And n...Read more of this...

by Muir, Edwin
...drumming; it stopped, went on again
And at the corner changed to hollow thunder.
We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afraid.
We had sold our horses in our fathers' time
To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to us
As fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield.
Or illustrations in a book of knights.
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent
By an old command to find our whereabouts
And t...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...d, in prophet's dream,
     The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream;
     Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast
     Of charging steeds, careering fast
     Along Benharrow's shingly side,
     Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride;
     The thunderbolt had split the pine,—
     All augured ill to Alpine's line.
     He girt his loins, and came to show
     The signals of impending woe,
     And now stood prompt to bless or ban,
     As bade the Chieftain of his clan...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...ilment would ensure gold pieces three,
Perchance more gifts anon. 

“I bear the Emperor’s mandate,” then he said, 
“Charging the Marshal straight 
To strike between the double host ahead 
Ere they co-operate,

“Engaging Bl?cher till the Emperor put 
Lord Wellington to flight, 
And next the Prussians. This to set afoot 
Is my emprise to-night.” 

I joined him in the mist; but, pausing, sought
To estimate his say, 
Grouchy had made for Wavre; and yet, on thought, 
I...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...s, hooting their sea-speech; 
Out of the dimness others made reply. 

And as we watched, there came a rush of feet 
Charging the fo'c's'le till the hatchway shook. 
Men all about us thrust their way, or beat, 
Crying, "Wanderer! Down the river! Look!" 

I looked with them towards the dimness; there 
Gleamed like a spirit striding out of night, 
A full-rigged ship unutterably fair, 
Her masts like trees in winter, frosty-bright. 

Foam trembled at her bows like wis...Read more of this...

by Tate, James
...I swerved to avoid hitting a squirrel
in the center of the road and that's when
the deer came charging out of the forest
and forced me to hit the brakes for all I
was worth and I careened back to the other
side of the road just as a skunk came toddling
out of Mrs. Bancroft's front yard and I swung
back perhaps just grazing it a bit. I glanced
quickly in the rearview mirror and in that
instant a groundhog waddled from the side
of the road and ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...flow'd from thee
Disdain'd to sink beneath:
Within our veins its currents be,
Thy spirit on our breath!

Thy name, our charging hosts along,
Shall be the battle-word!
Thy fall, the theme of choral song
From virgin voices pour'd!
To weep would do thy glory wrong:
Thou shalt not be deplored....Read more of this...

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