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Famous Courted Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...st, nor yet my education, O:
Resolv’d was I at least to try to mend my situation, O.


In many a way, and vain essay, I courted Fortune’s favour, O;
Some cause unseen still stept between, to frustrate each endeavour, O;
Sometimes by foes I was o’erpower’d, sometimes by friends forsaken, O;
And when my hope was at the top, I still was worst mistaken, O.


Then sore harass’d and tir’d at last, with Fortune’s vain delusion, O,
I dropt my schemes, like idle dreams, and came to th...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...length I reach’d the bonie glen,
 Where early life I sported;
I pass’d the mill and trysting thorn,
 Where Nancy aft I courted:
Wha spied I but my ain dear maid,
 Down by her mother’s dwelling!
And turn’d me round to hide the flood
 That in my een was swelling.


Wi’ alter’d voice, quoth I, “Sweet lass,
 Sweet as yon hawthorn’s blossom,
O! happy, happy may he be,
 That’s dearest to thy bosom:
My purse is light, I’ve far to gang,
 And fain would be thy lodger;
I’ve serv’d my ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...y a faithless Bully drawn,
At some Hedge-Tavern lies in Pawn;
Or to Jamaica seems transported,
Alone, and by no Planter courted;
Or, near Fleet-Ditch's oozy Brinks,
Surrounded with a Hundred Stinks,
Belated, seems on watch to lie,
And snap some Cull passing by;
Or, struck with Fear, her Fancy runs
On Watchmen, Constables and Duns,
From whom she meets with frequent Rubs;
But, never from Religious Clubs;
Whose Favour she is sure to find,
Because she pays them all in Kind.
CORIN...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan
...bought trick on men - 
Gay were the hours, and winged with joys they flew,
When first the town her early beauties knew;
Courted, admired, and loved, with presents fed;
Youth in her looks, and pleasure in her bed;
Till fate, or her ill angel, thought it fit
To make her dote upon a man of wit,
Who found 'twas dull to love above a day;
Made his ill-natured jest, and went away.
Now scorned by all, forsaken, and oppressed,
She's a momento mori to the rest;
Diseased, decayed, to ta...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John
...

[Dorinda] Now thy Envy makes me smile. 
That indeed were worth his while: 
Chloe next thyself decay'd, 
And no more a courted Maid. 

[Silvia] Next myself! Young Nymph, forbear. 
Still the Swains allow me Fair, 
Tho' not what I was that Day, 
When Colon bore the Prize away; 
When– 

[Dorinda] –Oh, hold! that Tale will last, 
Till all the Evening Sports are past; 
Till no Streak of Light is seen, 
Nor Footstep prints the flow'ry Green. 
What thou wert, I need not know, 
What...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill



...embodied first smile back on me the treasure 
Long sought across the seas and back of summer skies. 


Dear face, when courted Death shall claim my limbs and find them 
Laid in some desert place, alone or where the tides 
Of war's tumultuous waves on the wet sands behind them 
Leave rifts of gasping life when their red flood subsides, 


Out of the past's remote delirious abysses 
Shine forth once more as then you shone, -- beloved head, 
Laid back in ecstasy between our bli...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan
...to shed;
The SACRED TEAR, that from Reflection's eye,
Drops on the ashes of the sainted dead. 

Lov'd by the grave, and courted by the young,
In social comforts eminently blest;
All hearts rever'd the precepts of thy tongue,
And Envy's self thy eloquence confess'd. 

Who could like thee the soul's wild tumults paint,
Or wake the torpid ear with lenient art?
Touch the nice sense with pity's dulcet plaint,
Or soothe the sorrows of the breaking heart? 

Who can forget thy penetr...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby
...sweet, and languish unto death;
And Jove oft-times bent to lascivious sport,
And coming where Endymion did resort,
Hath courted him, inflamed with desire,
Thinking some nymph was cloth'd in boy's attire.
And often-times the simple rural swains,
Beholding him in crossing o'er the plains,
Imagined, Apollo from above
Put on this shape, to win some maiden's love....Read more of this...
by Drayton, Michael
...y Neptune's might;
4 The one Abydos, the other Sestos hight.
5 At Sestos Hero dwelt; Hero the fair,
6 Whom young Apollo courted for her hair,
7 And offer'd as a dower his burning throne,
8 Where she could sit for men to gaze upon.
9 The outside of her garments were of lawn,
10 The lining purple silk, with gilt stars drawn;
11 Her wide sleeves green, and border'd with a grove,
12 Where Venus in her naked glory strove
13 To please the careless and disdainful eyes
14 Of proud Ad...Read more of this...
by Marlowe, Christopher
...
Whilst the deep secrets beyond practice go. 

33

Nor di'd he when his ebbing fame went less, 
But when fresh laurels courted him to live; 
He seem'd but to prevent some new success, 
As if above what triumphs earth could give. 

34

His latest victories still thickest came, 
As near the center motion does increase, 
Till he, press'd down by his own weighty name, 
Did, like the vestal, under spoils decrease. 

35

But first the ocean as a tribute sent 
That giant prince of ...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...he knows me not.
Indeed, for me it's hard to think,
 Although my pow's like snow,
She was the lass so fresh and pink
 I courted long ago.

I wronged her, yet it's sadly true
 She wanted to be wronged:
They mostly do, although 'tis you,
 The male bloke who is thonged.
Well, anyway I left her then
 To sail across the sea,
And no doubt she had other men,
 And soon lost sight of me.

So now she is a paunchy dame
 And mistress of the inn,
With temper tart and tounge to blame,
 Mou...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...ur plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are ...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...in green-gold medals dressed,
planned to command and terrorize the rest,

the many wives 
who lead hens' lives
of being courted and despised;

deep from raw throats
a senseless order floats
all over town. A rooster gloats

over our beds
from rusty irons sheds
and fences made from old bedsteads,

over our churches 
where the tin rooster perches,
over our little wooden northern houses,

making sallies 
from all the muddy alleys,
marking out maps like Rand McNally's:

glass-head...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth
...s, bound for th' Isles
Of Javan or Gadier
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An Amber sent of odorous perfume 
Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;
Some rich Philistian Matron she may seem,
And now at nearer view, no other certain
Than Dalila thy wife.

Sam: My Wife, my Traytress, let her not come near me.

Cho: Yet on she moves, now stands & eies thee fixt,
About t'have spoke, but now, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ur plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. 

The cut worm forgives the plow.

Dip him in the river who loves water.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time. 
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...ur plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are ...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...Something's wrong in Pigeon-land;
'Tisn't as it used to be,
When the pilgrim, corn in hand,
Courted us with laughing glee;
When we crooned with pinions furled,
Tamest pigeons in the world.

When we packed each arm and shoulder,
Never deeming man a menace;
Surly birds were never bolder
Than our dainty doves of Venice:
Who would have believed a pigeon
Could become wild as a widgeon.

Well, juts blame it on the War,
When Venetians grew thinner,
And ga...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...goodly earth and air
Are bann'd, and barr'd - forbidden fare;
But this was for my father's faith
I suffer'd chains and courted death;
That father perish'd at the stake
For tenets he would not forsake;
And for the same his lineal race
In darkness found a dwelling-place;
We were seven - who now are one,
Six in youth, and one in age,
Finish'd as they had begun,
Proud of Persecution's rage;
One in fire, and two in field,
Their belief with blood have seal'd,
Dying as their father...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...aughters to ruin be led,
"And submit to our will, one and all !
"It is fit, that whoever I choose to defend--
"Shall be courted, and feasted, and lov'd as a friend,
"While before them the good and enlighten'd shall bend,
"While they sit in the Banquetting Hall."

Now the Topers grew bold, and each talk'd of his right,
One would fain be a Baron, another a Knight;
And another, (because at the Tournament fight
He had vanquished his foes, one and all)
Demanded a track of rich lan...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby
...To talk with wits in dirty shoes;
Despised the fools with stars and garters,
So often seen caressing Chartres.
He never courted men in station,
Nor persons held in admiration.
Of no man's greatness was afraid,
Because he sought for no man's aid.
Though trusted long in great affairs,
He gave himself no haughty airs.
Without regarding private ends,
Spent all his credit for his friends;
And only chose the wise and good;
No flatterers; no allies in blood;
But succoured virtue in ...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things