Famous Determination Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford

...y
But what's in that prodigious grand new House.
I gather something happening in his boyhood
Fulfilled him with a boy's determination
To make all Stratford 'ware of him. Well, well,
I hope at last he'll have his joy of it,
And all his pigs and sheep and bellowing beeves,
And frogs and owls and unicorns, moreover,
Be less than hell to his attendant ears.
Oh, past a doubt we'll all go down to see him.

He may be wise. With London two days off,
Down there some wind of heaven may...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Carol of Words

...y, nothing dreading, 
Sunshine, storm, cold, heat, forever withstanding, passing, carrying, 
The Soul’s realization and determination still inheriting, 
The fluid vacuum around and ahead still entering and dividing,
No balk retarding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking, 
Swift, glad, content, unbereav’d, nothing losing, 
Of all able and ready at any time to give strict account, 
The divine ship sails the divine sea. 

10
Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especi...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Lui Et Elle

...,
Which she drags apathetic away, though without retreating into her shell.

Agelessly silent,
And with a grim, reptile determination,
Cold, voiceless age-after-age behind him, serpents' long obstinacy
Of horizontal persistence.

Little old man
Scuffling beside her, bending down, catching his opportunity,
Parting his steel-trap face, so suddenly, and seizing her scaly ankle,
And hanging grimly on,
Letting go at last as she drags away,
And closing his steel-trap face.

His ste...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

Rahel to Varnhagen

...etrable merit 
On any woman as you say there is 
On this one. Not a mask? I thank you, sir, 
But you see more with your determination, 
I fear, than with your prudence or your conscience;
And you have never met me with my eyes 
In all the mirrors I’ve made faces at. 
No, I shall never call you strange again: 
You are the young and inconvincible 
Epitome of all blind men since Adam.
May the blind lead the blind, if that be so? 
And we shall need no mirrors? You are saying 
Wha...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Salut au Monde

...back there, where you stand; 
(You will come forward in due time to my side.) 

My spirit has pass’d in compassion and determination around the whole earth; 
I have look’d for equals and lovers, and found them ready for me in all lands;
I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them. 

13
O vapors! I think I have risen with you, and moved away to distant continents, and fallen
 down
 there, for reasons; 
I think I have blown with you, O winds; 
O waters, I have finge...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Sonnet 13: O that you were your self! But love you are

...you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination; then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know,
You had a father; let your son ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet XIII

...you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination: then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son s...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Criminal V

...e earth offers me back to You before the Ending." 

His expression then changed. He arose and his eyes now glittered in determination. He fashioned a thick and heavy stick from the branch of the tree, and pointed it toward the city, shouting, "I asked for bread with all the strength of my voice, and was refused. Not I shall obtain it by the strength of my muscles! I asked for bread in the name of mercy and love, but humanity did not heed. I shall take it now in the name of ev...Read more of this...
by Gibran, Kahlil

To Oratists

...TO oratists—to male or female, 
Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power to use words. 
Are you full-lung’d and limber-lipp’d from long trial? from vigorous practice?
 from
 physique? 
Do you move in these broad lands as broad as they? 
Come duly to the divine power to use words?

For only at last, after many years—after chastity, friendship, procreation, prudence,
 and
 nakedness; 
After tread...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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