Famous Despots Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Oceans Song

by Victor Hugo
 We walked amongst the ruins famed in story 
Of Rozel-Tower, 
And saw the boundless waters stretch in glory 
And heave in power. 

O Ocean vast! We heard thy song with wonder, 
Whilst waves marked time. 
"Appear, O Truth!" thou sang'st with tone of thunder, 
"And shine sublime! 

"The world's enslaved and hunted down by beagles, 
To despots sold. 
Souls...Read more of this...

To a Certain Cantatrice

by Walt Whitman
 HERE, take this gift! 
I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General, 
One who should serve the good old cause, the great Idea, the progress and freedom of the
 race; 
Some brave confronter of despots—some daring rebel; 
—But I see that what I was reserving, belongs to you just as much as to any. 

 5...Read more of this...

414. Impromptu on Dumourier's Desertion of the French Republican Army

by Robert Burns
 YOU’RE welcome to Despots, Dumourier;
You’re welcome to Despots, Dumourier:
 How does Dampiere do?
 Ay, and Bournonville too?
Why did they not come along with you, Dumourier?


I will fight France with you, Dumourier;
I will fight France with you, Dumourier;
 I will fight France with you,
 I will take my chance with you;
By my soul, I’ll dance with you, Dumourier.


Then let us...Read more of this...

The Ocean's Song

by Victor Hugo
 ("Nous nous promenions à Rozel-Tower.") 
 
 {Bk. VI. iv., October, 1852.} 


 We walked amongst the ruins famed in story 
 Of Rozel-Tower, 
 And saw the boundless waters stretch in glory 
 And heave in power. 
 
 O ocean vast! we heard thy song with wonder, 
 Whilst waves marked time. 
 "Appeal, O Truth!" thou...Read more of this...

466. Ode for General Washington's Birthday

by Robert Burns
 NO Spartan tube, no Attic shell,
 No lyre Æolian I awake;
’Tis liberty’s bold note I swell,
 Thy harp, Columbia, let me take!
See gathering thousands, while I sing,
A broken chain exulting bring,
 And dash it in a tyrant’s face,
And dare him to his very beard,
And tell him he no more is feared—
 No more the despot of Columbia’s race!
A tyrant’s...Read more of this...

Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte

by George (Lord) Byron
 I 
'Tis done -- but yesterday a King! 
And arm'd with Kings to strive -- 
And now thou art a nameless thing: 
So abject -- yet alive! 
Is this the man of thousand thrones, 
Who strew'd our earth with hostile bones, 
And can he thus survive? 
Since he, miscall'd the Morning Star, 
Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so...Read more of this...

Gone

by Adam Lindsay Gordon
 IN Collins Street standeth a statute tall, 
A statue tall, on a pillar of stone, 
Telling its story, to great and small, 
Of the dust reclaimed from the sand waste lone; 
Weary and wasted, and worn and wan, 
Feeble and faint, and languid and low, 
He lay on the desert a dying man; 
Who has gone, my friends, where...Read more of this...

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