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Famous Descended Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...mix'd.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
And true to bondage would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she w...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...rom the house, 
Perceives that it waits a little while in the door—that it was fittest for its days, 
That its life has descended to the stalwart and well-shaped heir who approaches,
And that he shall be fittest for his days. 

Any period, one nation must lead, 
One land must be the promise and reliance of the future. 

These States are the amplest poem, 
Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,
Here the doings of men correspond with the broadcast...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...a-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village.
Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of hemlock,
Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries.
Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows; and gables projecting
Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway.
There in the t...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...alone 
 Of its dead masters. Ancient was the race; 
 To trace the upward stem of proud Lusace 
 Gives one a vertigo; descended they 
 From ancestor of Attila, men say; 
 Their race to him—through Pagans—they hark back; 
 Becoming Christians, race they thought to track 
 Through Lechus, Plato, Otho to combine 
 With Ursus, Stephen, in a lordly line. 
 Of all those masters of the country round 
 That were on Northern Europe's boundary found— 
 At first were waves and...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...p I knew 
 The greatest of the fierce Uberti crew, 
 Who asked me, with contempt near-waiting, "Tell 
 Of whom thou art descended?" 
 I
 replied, 
 Concealing nothing. With lifted brows he eyed 
 My face in silence some brief while, and then, - 
 "Foes were they ever to my part, and me. 
 It yet must linger in the minds of men 
 How twice I broke them." 
 "Twice ye learned them
 flee," 
 - I answered boldly, - "but they twice returned; 
 And others fled more late ...Read more of this...



by Gibran, Kahlil
...valley. 

When the birds took shelter among the boughs, and the flowers folded their petals, and tremendous silence descended, I heard a rustle of feet though the grass. I took heed and saw a young couple approaching my arbor. The say under a tree where I could see them without being seen. 

After he looked about in every direction, I heard the young man saying, "Sit by me, my beloved, and listen to my heart; smile, for your happiness is a symbol of our future...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ominations ministrant, 
Accompanied to Heaven-gate; from whence 
Eden, and all the coast, in prospect lay. 
Down he descended straight; the speed of Gods 
Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes winged. 
Now was the sun in western cadence low 
From noon, and gentle airs, due at their hour, 
To fan the earth now waked, and usher in 
The evening cool; when he, from wrath more cool, 
Came the mild Judge, and Intercessour both, 
To sentence Man: The voice of God the...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...er you are! 
You daughter or son of England! 
You of the mighty Slavic tribes and empires! you Russ in Russia! 
You dim-descended, black, divine-soul’d African, large, fine-headed, nobly-form’d,
 superbly
 destin’d, on equal terms with me! 
You Norwegian! Swede! Dane! Icelander! you Prussian!
You Spaniard of Spain! you Portuguese! 
You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France! 
You Belge! you liberty-lover of the Netherlands! 
You sturdy Austrian! you Lombard! Hun! Bohemian! farme...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...otected his neck—he held his bride by the hand;

She had long eyelashes—her head was bare—her coarse straight locks
 descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach’d to her feet.

The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside; 
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile; 
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and weak, 
And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him, 
And brought water, and fill’d a tub for...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...
Cursing the Rulers before the people 
Even to the Temple’s highest steeple, 
And when He humbled Himself to God 
Then descended the cruel rod. 
‘If Thou Humblest Thyself, Thou humblest Me. 
Thou also dwell’st in Eternity. 
Thou art a Man: God is no more: 
Thy own Humanity learn to adore, 
For that is My spirit of life. 
Awake, arise to spiritual strife, 
And Thy revenge abroad display 
In terrors at the last Judgement Day. 
God’s mercy and long suffering...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...k to their pits; her stature shrunk;
In short, the soul in its body sunk
Like a blade sent home to its scabbard.
We descended, I preceding;
Crossed the court with nobody heeding,
All the world was at the chase,
The courtyard like a desert-place,
The stable emptied of its small fry;
I saddled myself the very palfrey
I remember patting while it carried her,
The day she arrived and the Duke married her.
And, do you know, though it's easy deceiving
Oneself in such matters...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...took leave
Of those fair fields I love, when to the skies
The fragrant Earth was smiling in surprise
At that her heaven-descended, quick reprieve,
I wander'd forth my sorrow to relieve
Yet walk'd amid sweet pleasure in such wise
As Adam went alone in Paradise,
Before God of His pity fashion'd Eve. 
And out of tune with all the joy around
I laid me down beneath a flowering tree,
And o'er my senses crept a sleep profound;
In which it seem'd that thou wert given to me,
Rendi...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...om his morning cloud, appears
     The sun of May through summer tears.
     The savage soldiery, amazed,
     As on descended angel gazed;
     Even hardy Brent, abashed and tamed,
     Stood half admiring, half ashamed.
     VIII.

     Boldly she spoke: 'Soldiers, attend!
     My father was the soldier's friend,
     Cheered him in camps, in marches led,
     And with him in the battle bled.
     Not from the valiant or the strong
     Should exile's daughter ...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...saw the stable and the church, & I took him to the
altar and open'd the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, into which
I descended driving the Angel before me, soon we saw seven houses
of brick, one we enterd; in it were a [PL 20] number of monkeys,
baboons, & all of that species chaind by the middle, grinning and
snatching at one another, but witheld by the shortness of their
chains: however I saw that they sometimes grew numerous, and then
the weak were caught by the strong ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...r the Cardinal
Would certainly be vexed. Of all
His customers the old prelate
Was the most important, for his state
Descended to his watches and rings,
And he gave his mistresses many things
To make them forget his age and smile
When he paid visits, and they could while
The time away with a diamond locket
Exceedingly well. So they picked his pocket,
And he paid in jewels for his slobbering kisses.
This watch was made to buy him blisses
From an Austrian countess on...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...becometh, when he hath a mind. The following is his portrait of our late gracious sovereign: 

(Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his view; and he exclaims to
his ghostly guide) — 

'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us? what wretch 
Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow? 
Listen! him yonder who, bound down supine, 
Shrinks yelling from that sword there, engine-hung. 
He t...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...well ye mighte bear you unto me.* *if you could conduct
But, for ye speaken of such gentleness yourself well
As is descended out of old richess, towards me*
That therefore shalle ye be gentlemen;
Such arrogancy is *not worth a hen.* *worth nothing
Look who that is most virtuous alway,
*Prive and apert,* and most intendeth aye *in private and public*
To do the gentle deedes that he can;
And take him for the greatest gentleman.
Christ will,* we claim of him our gen...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...of her contemplations calm,
With open eyes, closed feet, and folded palm.

And, when the whirlwinds and the clouds descended
From the white pinnacles of that cold hill,
She passed at dewfall to a space extended,
Where, in a lawn of flowering asphodel
Amid a wood of pines and cedars blended,
There yawned an inextinguishable well
Of crimson fire, full even to the brim,
And overflowing all the margin trim:--

Within the which she lay when the fierce war
Of wintry winds shoo...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...e and bounding vein; 
Alike on turbid Channel sea, 
Or in still wood of Normandy, 
I feel as born again. 

The rain descended that wild morn 
When, anchoring in the cove at last, 
Our band, all weary and forlorn, 
Ashore, like wave-worn sailors, cast­ 
Sought for a sheltering roof in vain, 
And scarce could scanty food obtain 
To break their morning fast. 

Thou didst thy crust with me divide, 
Thou didst thy cloak around me fold; 
And, sitting silent by thy side, 
I ...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...do not fear to awake.



Escape

"My dear, if we could only
Reach all the way to the seas"
"Be quiet" and descended the stairs
Losing breath and looking for keys.

Past the buildings, where sometime
We danced and had fun and drank wine
Past the white columns of Senate
Where it's dark, dark again.

"What are you doing, you madman!"
"No, I am only in love with thee!
This evening is wide and noisy,
Ship will have lots of fun at the sea!"

Horro...Read more of this...

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