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Famous Cheer Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Whitman, Walt
...idea of perfect and free individuals, 
For that idea the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders, 
The attitude of him cheers up slaves and horrifies foreign despots.

Without extinction is Liberty! without retrograde is Equality! 
They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women; 
Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for
 Liberty. 

11
For the great Idea! 
That, O my brethren—that is the mission of Poets.

S...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...lossom peer;
Upon a branch as bleak as night
It gleamed exultant on my sight,
A fairy beacon burning bright
Of hope and cheer.

"Alas!" said I, "poor foolish thing,
Have you mistaken this for Spring?
Behold, the thrush has taken wing,
And Winter's near."
Serene it seemed to lift its head:
"The Winter's wrath I do not dread,
Because I am," it proudly said,
"A Pioneer.

"Some apple blossom must be first,
With beauty's urgency to burst
Into a world for joy athirst,
A...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ver he may sport himself and play.

 "To Sorrow
 I bade good-morrow,
And thought to leave her far away behind;
 But cheerly, cheerly,
 She loves me dearly;
She is so constant to me, and so kind:
 I would deceive her
 And so leave her,
But ah! she is so constant and so kind.

"Beneath my palm trees, by the river side,
I sat a weeping: in the whole world wide
There was no one to ask me why I wept,--
 And so I kept
Brimming the water-lily cups with tears
 Cold as my fear...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...with the rising moon, returned the wains from the marshes,
Laden with briny hay, that filled the air with its odor.
Cheerily neighed the steeds, with dew on their manes and their fetlocks,
While aloft on their shoulders the wooden and ponderous saddles,
Painted with brilliant dyes, and adorned with tassels of crimson,
Nodded in bright array, like hollyhocks heavy with blossoms.
Patiently stood the cows meanwhile, and yielded their udders
Unto the milkmaid's hand; whil...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...dier! When like yelping hound 
 Pursued by wolves, November comes to bound 
 In joy from rock to rock, like answering cheer 
 To howling January now so near— 
 "Come on!" the Donjon cries to blasts o'erhead— 
 It has seen Attila, and knows not dread. 
 Oh, dismal nights of contest in the rain 
 And mist, that furious would the battle gain, 
 'The tower braves all, though angry skies pour fast 
 The flowing torrents, river-like and vast. 
 From their eight pinnacles ...Read more of this...



by Alighieri, Dante
...ver, if these our path would bar, 
 Then lead me backward in most haste, nor let 
 Their malice part us." 
 He with cheerful
 mien, 
 Gave answer. "Heed not that they boast. Forget 
 The fear thou showest, and in good heart abide, 
 While I go forward. Not these fiends obscene 
 Shall thwart the mandate that the Power supplied 
 By which we came, nor any force to do 
 The things they threaten is theirs; nor think that I 
 Should leave thee helpless here." ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...nt mood, 
Was traced to sickness, fed by solitude: 
And though his lonely habits threw of late 
Gloom o'er his chamber, cheerful was his gate; 
For thence the wretched ne'er unsoothed withdrew, 
For them, at least, his soul compassion knew. 
Cold to the great, contemptuous to the high, 
The humble pass'd not his unheeding eye; 
Much he would speak not, but beneath his roof 
They found asylum oft, and ne'er reproof. 
And they who watch'd might mark that, day by day, 
S...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...rom what the future veils; but with a whole 
And happy heart, that pays its toll 
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer. 

So let the way wind up the hill or down, 
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy: 
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy, 
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown, 
My heart will keep the courage of the quest, 
And hope the road's last turn will be the best....Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...enclosed 
In a tumultuous privacy of Storm." 
Emerson,The Snow Storm. 


The sun that brief December day 
Rose cheerless over hills of gray, 
And, darkly circled, gave at noon 
A sadder light than waning moon. 
Slow tracing down the thickening sky 
Its mute and ominous prophecy, 
A portent seeming less than threat, 
It sank from sight before it set. 
A chill no coat, however stout, 
Of homespun stuff could quite shut out, 
A hard, dull bitterness of cold, 
Th...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...rgest to me, and that is myself; 
And whether I come to my own to-day, or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait. 

My foothold is tenon’d and mortis’d in granite; 
I laugh at what you call dissolution; 
And I know the amplitude of time. 

21
I am the poet of the Body;
And I am the poet of the Soul. 

The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me; 
The first I ...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...refore was God in Golgotha,
Slain as a serf is slain;
And hate He had of prince and peer,
And love He had and made good cheer,
Of them that, like this woman here,
Go powerfully in pain.

"But in this grey morn of man's life,
Cometh sometime to the mind
A little light that leaps and flies,
Like a star blown on the wind.

"A star of nowhere, a nameless star,
A light that spins and swirls,
And cries that even in hedge and hill,
Even on earth, it may go ill
At last with t...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ath: 
Dust long outlasts the storied stone; 
But Thou — thy very dust is gone! 

V. 

Late, late to-night will Dian cheer 
The swain, and chase the boatman's fear; 
Till then — no beacon on the cliff 
May shape the course of struggling skiff; 
The scatter'd lights that skirt the bay, 
All, one by one, have died away; 
The only lamp of this lone hour 
Is glimmering in Zuleika's tower. 
Yes! there is light in that lone chamber, 
And o'er her silken Ottoman 
Are thrown t...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...d, and did not fear 
But that, whene'er was pass'd away 
The childish time, some happier play 95 
My womanhood would cheer. 

I knew the time would pass away; 
And yet, beside the rose-tree wall, 
Dear God, how seldom, if at all, 
Did I look up to pray! 100 

The time is past: and now that grows 
The cypress high among the trees, 
And I behold white sepulchres 
As well as the white rose,¡ª 

When wiser, meeker thoughts are given, 105 
And I have learnt to ...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...0 With mine own fleece, and with my household bread.
4.31 Yea, justice I have done, was I in place,
4.32 To cheer the good and wicked to deface.
4.33 The proud I crush'd, th'oppressed I set free,
4.34 The liars curb'd but nourisht verity.
4.35 Was I a pastor, I my flock did feed
4.36 And gently lead the lambs, as they had need.
4.37 A Captain I, with skill I train'd my band
4.38 And shew'd them how in face of foes to stand.
...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...tion give good heed:
I ride as one who for his pleasure rides,
And stroke the neck of my delighted steed,
And seek what cheer the village inn provides. 

38
An idle June day on the sunny Thames,
Floating or rowing as our fancy led,
Now in the high beams basking as we sped,
Now in green shade gliding by mirror'd stems;
By lock and weir and isle, and many a spot
Of memoried pleasure, glad with strength and skill,
Friendship, good wine, and mirth, that serve not ill 
The hea...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...nd why that ye be clad thus all in black?"

The oldest lady of them all then spake,
When she had swooned, with a deadly cheer*, *countenance
That it was ruthe* for to see or hear. *pity
She saide; "Lord, to whom fortune hath given
Vict'ry, and as a conqueror to liven,
Nought grieveth us your glory and your honour;
But we beseechen mercy and succour.
Have mercy on our woe and our distress;
Some drop of pity, through thy gentleness,
Upon us wretched women let now fall.<...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...pass amain,
     Chiding the rocks that yelled again.
     IX.

     Close on the hounds the Hunter came,
     To cheer them on the vanished game;
     But, stumbling in the rugged dell,
     The gallant horse exhausted fell.
     The impatient rider strove in vain
      To rouse him with the spur and rein,
     For the good steed, his labors o'er,
     Stretched his stiff limbs, to rise no more;
     Then, touched with pity and remorse,
     He sorrowed o'er th...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...after him with hawebake*; *lout 
I speak in prose, and let him rhymes make."
And with that word, he with a sober cheer
Began his tale, and said as ye shall hear.


Notes to the Prologue to The Man of Law's Tale


1. Plight: pulled; the word is an obsolete past tense from
"pluck."

2. No more than will Malkin's maidenhead: a proverbial saying;
which, however, had obtained fresh point from the Reeve's
Tale, to which the host doubtless refers.

3. ...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...mean it hurts you when I stick a pin in my nose?" 
"Yes, it does, I mean it." 
"All right, I won't do it again. Cheer up." 
She kissed me, rather grinning through the kiss and holding the handkerchief to her
nose. We left for my place at closing time. I had some beer and we sat there talking. It
was then that I got the perception of her as a person full of kindness and caring. She
gave herself away without knowing it. At the same time she would...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...d, paid back
I made for him of the same wood a cross;
Not of my body in no foul mannere,
But certainly I made folk such cheer,
That in his owen grease I made him fry
For anger, and for very jealousy.
By God, in earth I was his purgatory,
For which I hope his soul may be in glory.
For, God it wot, he sat full oft and sung,
When that his shoe full bitterly him wrung.* *pinched
There was no wight, save God and he, that wist
In many wise how sore I did him twist.2...Read more of this...

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