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Famous Craftily Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Petrarch, Francesco
...of golden hairThat wave those beauteous temples round,Cupid spread craftily the snareWith which my captive heart he bound:And from those eyes he caught the rayWhich thaw'd the ice that fenced my breast,Chasing all other thoughts away,With brightness suddenly imprest.But ...Read more of this...



by Schiller, Friedrich von
...r>
"Who dares to look on Cunigond?"
"'Tis the fair page that is so fond."

"He's not ill-shaped in form, I wot,"
He craftily went on;
The Count meanwhile felt cold and hot,
By turns in every bone.
"Is't possible thou seest not, sir,
How he has eyes for none but her?
At table ne'er attends to thee,
But sighs behind her ceaselessly?"

"Behold the rhymes that from him came
His passion to confess"--
"Confess!"--"And for an answering flame,--
The impious knave!--to press.<...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ad sought in vain 
To break him from the intent to which he grew, 
Found her son's will unwaveringly one, 
She answered craftily, 'Will ye walk through fire? 
Who walks through fire will hardly heed the smoke. 
Ay, go then, an ye must: only one proof, 
Before thou ask the King to make thee knight, 
Of thine obedience and thy love to me, 
Thy mother,--I demand. 

And Gareth cried, 
'A hard one, or a hundred, so I go. 
Nay--quick! the proof to prove me to the quick!...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...o fly was vain; to fight was idle;
By foes encompass'd in the middle,
His hope, in stratagems, he found,
And fell right craftily to ground;
Then crept to seek an hiding place,
'Twas all he could, beneath a brace;
Where soon the conq'ring crew espied him,
And where he lurk'd, they caught and tied him.


At once with resolution fatal,
Both Whigs and Tories rush'd to battle.
Instead of weapons, either band
Seized on such arms as came to hand.
And as famed Ovid paints...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...fe's long crime,As one who, bent on harm, waits place and time,Love craftily took up his bow again.My virtue had retired to watch my heart,Thence of weak eyes the danger to repell,When momently a mortal blow there fellWhere blunted hitherto dropt every dart.And thus, o'erpower'd in that first atta...Read more of this...



by Drayton, Michael
...go free 
That far beyond Prometheus did aspire. 
The fire he stole, although of heav'nly kind, 
Which from above he craftily did take, 
Of lifeless clods us living men to make, 
He did bestow in temper of the mind; 
But you broke into Heav'n's immortal store, 
Where Virtue, Honor, Wit, and Beauty lay, 
Which taking thence you have escap'd away, 
Yet stand as free as e'er you did before; 
Yet old Prometheus punish'd for his rape. 
Thus poor thieves suffer when the grea...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...be told?
Is it that mens frayle eyes, which gaze too bold,
she may entangle in that golden snare:
and being caught may craftily enfold,
theyr weaker harts, which are not wel aware?
Take heed therefore, myne eyes, how ye doe stare
henceforth too rashly on that guilefull net,
in which is euer ye entrapped are,
out of her bands ye by no meanes shall get.
Fondnesse it were for any being free,
to couet fetters, though they golden bee....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...sed the doubt 
That love denied; and once, if never again, 
They should be turned away. They might come back— 
More craftily, perchance, they might come back— 
And with a spirit-thirst insatiable
Finish the strength of her; but now, today 
She would have none of them. She knew that love 
Was true, that he was true, that she was true; 
And should a death-bed snare that she had made 
So long ago be stretched inexorably
Through all her life, only to be unspun 
With her l...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...o thrifty* tale sayn, *worthy
But Chaucer (though he *can but lewedly* *knows but imperfectly*
On metres and on rhyming craftily)
Hath said them, in such English as he can,
Of olde time, as knoweth many a man.
And if he have not said them, leve* brother, *dear
In one book, he hath said them in another
For he hath told of lovers up and down,
More than Ovide made of mentioun
In his Epistolae, that be full old.
Why should I telle them, since they he told?
In youth he mad...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...thee a true-love song,
Voiced in act his whole life long,
Yea, all thy sweet life long,
Fair Lady.
Where's he that craftily hath said,
The day of chivalry is dead?
I'll prove that lie upon his head,
Or I will die instead,
Fair Lady.
Is Honor gone into his grave?
Hath Faith become a caitiff knave,
And Selfhood turned into a slave
To work in Mammon's cave,
Fair Lady?
Will Truth's long blade ne'er gleam again?
Hath Giant Trade in dungeons slain
All great contempts of me...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...thou art wys y-nough,
I woot thow nilt it digneliche endyte;
As make it with thise argumentes tough; 
Ne scrivenish or craftily thou it wryte;
Beblotte it with thy teres eek a lyte;
And if thou wryte a goodly word al softe,
Though it be good, reherce it not to ofte.

'For though the beste harpour upon lyve 
Wolde on the beste souned Ioly harpe
That ever was, with alle his fingres fyve,
Touche ay o streng, or ay o werbul harpe,
Were his nayles poynted never so sharpe,
It ...Read more of this...

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