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Famous Detain Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...il fair science! thou 
Transplanted from the eastern climes dost bloom 
In these fair regions, Greece and Rome no more 
Detain the muses on Cithæron's brow, 
Or old Olympus crown'd with waving woods; 
Or Hæmus' top where once was heard the harp, 
Sweet Orpheus' harp that ravish'd hell below 
And pierc'd the soul of Orcus and his bride, 
That hush'd to silence by the song divine 
Thy melancholy waters, and the gales 
O Hebrus! which o'er thy sad surface blow. 
No more the ...Read more of this...



by Dryden, John
...ken pomps, thy steps proclaim,
And stammering babes are taught to lisp thy name.
How long wilt thou the general joy detain;
Starve, and defraud the people of thy reign?
Content ingloriously to pass thy days
Like one of virtue's fools that feeds on praise;
Till thy fresh glories, which now shine so bright,
Grow stale and tarnish with our daily sight.
Believe me, royal youth, thy fruit must be,
Or gather'd ripe, or rot upon the tree.
Heav'n has to all allotted, soon...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...uishing sultana's lay, 
 A voice for very sweets that scarce can win its way. 
 
 Him, whether Paestum's solemn fane detain, 
 Shrouding his soul with meditation's power; 
 Or at Pozzuoli, to the sprightly strain 
 Of tarantella danced 'neath Tuscan tower, 
 Listening, he while away the evening hour; 
 Or wake the echoes, mournful, lone and deep, 
 Of that sad city, in its dreaming bower 
 By the volcano seized, where mansions keep 
 The likeness which they wore at...Read more of this...

by Pessoa, Fernando
...

Thanking the fruit but for the forecome flower

Which the less active senses best enjoy.

Thus with deceit do I detain the heart

Of which deceit's self knows itself a part....Read more of this...

by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...song,
And clothe you both in solemn vest,
And over the mountains haste along,
Lest wandering folk, that are abroad,
Detain you on the valley road.

'And when he has crossed the Irthing flood,
My merry bard! he hastes, he hastes
Up Knorren Moor, through Halegarth Wood,
And reaches soon that castle good
Which stands and threatens Scotland's wastes.

'Bard Bracy! bard Bracy! your horses are fleet,
Ye must ride up the hall, your music so sweet,
More loud tha...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...ting—the mother kisses her son—the son kisses his mother; 
(Loth is the mother to part—yet not a word does she speak to detain him;) 
The tumultuous escort—the ranks of policemen preceding, clearing the way; 
The unpent enthusiasm—the wild cheers of the crowd for their favorites; 
The artillery—the silent cannons, bright as gold, drawn along, rumble lightly over
 the
 stones;
(Silent cannons—soon to cease your silence! 
Soon, unlimber’d, to begin the red business;) 
All the m...Read more of this...

by Wilbur, Richard
...Blow out the candles of your cake.
They will not leave you in the dark.

Yet, for your friends' benighted sake,
Detain your upward-flying spark;
Get us that wish, though like the lark
You whet your wings till dawn shall break:
Blow out the candles of your cake....Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ay bring her, one of these days,
To fix you fast with as fine a spell,
Fit you each with his Spanish phrase;
But do not detain me now; for she lingers
There, like sunshine over the ground,
And ever I see her soft white fingers
Searching after the bud she found.

V.

Flower, you Spaniard, look that you grow not,
Stay as you are and be loved for ever!
Bud, if I kiss you 'tis that you blow not:
Mind, the shut pink mouth opens never!
For while it pouts, her fingers wrestl...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...gue shadow of surmise  
Flits across her bosom young  
Of a joy apart from thee  
Free be she fancy-free; 
Nor thou detain her vesture's hem 40 
Nor the palest rose she flung 
From her summer diadem. 

Though thou loved her as thyself  
As a self of purer clay; 
Though her parting dims the day 45 
Stealing grace from all alive; 
Heartily know  
When half-gods go 
The gods arrive. ...Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...This mound in some remote and dateless day
Rear'd o'er a Chieftain of the Age of Hills,
May here detain thee Traveller! from thy road
Not idly lingering. In his narrow house
Some Warrior sleeps below: his gallant deeds
Haply at many a solemn festival
The Bard has harp'd, but perish'd is the song
Of praise, as o'er these bleak and barren downs
The wind that passes and is heard no more.
Go Traveller on thy way, and contemplate
Glory's brief pagean...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...rtle is 
Breathing its fragrance into space. 
I want to free myself from the 
Quilted slumber of wrong. Do not 
Detain me, my blamer! 


Cavil me not by mention of the 
Lions of the forest or the 
Snakes of the valley, for 
Me soul knows no fear of earth and 
Accepts no warning of evil before 
Evil comes. 


Advise me not, my blamer, for 
Calamities have opened my heart and 
Tears have cleanses my eyes, and 
Errors have taught me the language 
Of the hearts. 
...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...s life.

Yet no shady vale can stay him,
Nor can flowers,
Round his knees all-softly twining
With their loving eyes detain him;
To the plain his course he taketh,
Serpent-winding,

Social streamlets
Join his waters. And now moves he
O'er the plain in silv'ry glory,
And the plain in him exults,
And the rivers from the plain,
And the streamlets from the mountain,
Shout with joy, exclaiming: "Brother,
Brother, take thy brethren with thee,
With thee to thine aged father,
...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...s and bright where it's breaking--
 Awkward water to sweep.
 "Mines reported in the fairway,
 "Warn all traffic and detain.
"'Sent up Unity, Cralibel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden
 Gain."

 Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making
 Lumpy and strong in the bight.
 Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
 And the jackdaws wild with fright!
 "Mines located in the fairway,
 "Boats now working up the chain,
 "Sweepers--Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, ...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...wers to the North;
Bookworm, break this sloth urbane;
A greater Spirit bids thee forth,
Than the gray dreams which thee detain.

Mark how the climbing Oreads
Beckon thee to their arcades;
Youth, for a moment free as they,
Teach thy feet to feel the ground,
Ere yet arrive the wintry day
When Time thy feet has bound.
Accept the bounty of thy birth;
Taste the lordship of the earth.

I heard and I obeyed,
Assured that he who pressed the claim,
Well-known, but loving n...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...me relate 
My story, which perhaps thou hast not heard; 
And day is not yet spent; till then thou seest 
How subtly to detain thee I devise; 
Inviting thee to hear while I relate; 
Fond! were it not in hope of thy reply: 
For, while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven; 
And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear 
Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst 
And hunger both, from labour, at the hour 
Of sweet repast; they satiate, and soon fill, 
Though pleasant; but thy words, ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ere obvious duty ere while appeared unsought: 
Or come I less conspicuous, or what change 
Absents thee, or what chance detains?--Come forth! 
He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first 
To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed; 
Love was not in their looks, either to God, 
Or to each other; but apparent guilt, 
And shame, and perturbation, and despair, 
Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile. 
Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief. 
I he...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...class=i0>Grasp the whole world, yet nothing can obtain.His prisoner Love nor frees, nor will detain;In toils he holds me not, nor will release;He slays me not, nor yet will he unchain;Nor joy allows, nor lets my sorrow cease.Sightless I see my fair; though mute, I mourn;I scorn existence, and yet court its stay;Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...v'd Phaon from the youthful train,
Through rugged dells, o'er craggy rocks to rove; 
Then how can she his vagrant heart detain,
Whose Lyre throbs only to the touch of Love!...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...letter must pass o'er,
E'er read by him to whose loved hand
'Tis sent from England's shore. 
Remote colonial wilds detain
Her husband, loved though stern;
She, 'mid that smiling English scene,
Weeps for his wished return....Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...brood
Stern o'er the desert solitude
Where seas of sand toss their hot surges high;
Nor Genius should the midnight song
Detain thee in some milder mood
The palmy plains among
Where Gambia to the torches light
Flows radiant thro' the awaken'd night.

Ah, linger not to hear the song!
Genius avenge thy children's wrong!
The Daemon COMMERCE on your shore
Pours all the horrors of his train,
And hark! where from the field of gore
Howls the hyena o'er the slain!
Lo! where the fl...Read more of this...

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