Famous Direst Poems by Famous Poets

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

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249. Sappho Redivivus: A Fragment

...and bid me fear;
Above the world, on wings of Love, I rise—
I know its worst, and can that worst despise;
Let Prudence’ direst bodements on me fall,
M[ontgomer]y, rich reward, o’erpays them all!


Mild zephyrs waft thee to life’s farthest shore,
Nor think of me and my distress more,—
Falsehood accurst! No! still I beg a place,
Still near thy heart some little, little trace:
For that dear trace the world I would resign:
O let me live, and die, and think it mine!


“I burn, I b...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


300. Scots Prologue for Mr. Sutherland

...emale charms
’Gainst headlong, ruthless, mad Rebellion’s arms:
She fell, but fell with spirit truly Roman,
To glut that direst foe—a vengeful woman;
A woman, (tho’ the phrase may seem uncivil,)
As able and as wicked as the Devil!
One Douglas lives in Home’s immortal page,
But Douglasses were heroes every age:
And tho’ your fathers, prodigal of life,
A Douglas followed to the martial strife,
Perhaps, if bowls row right, and Right succeeds,
Ye yet may follow where a Douglas lea...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

Ainsi Va le Monde

...
Subjection curb'd the tongue that dar'd complain. 
Imputed guilt each virtuous victim led 
Where all the fiends their direst mischiefs spread; 
Where, thro' long ages past, with watchful care, 
THY TYRANTS, GALLIA, nurs'd the witch DESPAIR. 
Where in her black BASTILE the harpy fed 
On the warm crimson drops, her fangs had shed; 
Where recreant malice mock'd the suff'rer's sigh, 
While regal lightnings darted from her eye.­ 
Where deep mysterious whispers murmur'd round, 
A...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

Hyperion

...her trembling arms
Upon the precincts of this nest of pain,
And sidelong fix'd her eye on Saturn's face:
There saw she direst strife; the supreme God
At war with all the frailty of grief,
Of rage, of fear, anxiety, revenge,
Remorse, spleen, hope, but most of all despair.
Against these plagues he strove in vain; for Fate
Had pour'd a mortal oil upon his head,
A disanointing poison: so that Thea,
Affrighted, kept her still, and let him pass
First onwards in, among the fallen t...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Long too Long O Land!

...you learn’d from joys and prosperity only; 
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish—advancing, grappling with direst
 fate,
 and
 recoiling not; 
And now to conceive, and show to the world, what your children en-masse really are; 
(For who except myself has yet conceiv’d what your children en-masse really are?) 


 5...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Ode to Envy

...tear; 
Thy breast recoils from friendship's flame; 
Sick'ning thou hear'st the trump of Fame; 
Worth gives to thee, the direst pang; 
The Lover's rapture wounds thy heart, 
The proudest efforts of prolific art 
Shrink from thy poisonous fang. 

In vain the Sculptor's lab'ring hand 
Calls fine proportion from the Parian stone; 
In vain the Minstrel's chords command
The soft vibrations of seraphic tone; 
For swift thy violating arm 
Tears from perfection ev'ry charm; 
Nor rosy ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

The Adieu to Love

...grief shall emulate his smart; 
And by its sadly proud excess, 
Make every pang he suffers less; 
For oft in passion's direst woes, 
The veriest wretch can yield repose; 
While from the voice of kindred grief, 
We gain a sad, but kind relief. 

AH LOVE! thou barb'rous fickle boy,
Thou semblance of delusive joy,
Too long my heart has been thy slave:
For thou hast seen me wildly rave,
And with impetuous frenzy haste,
Heedless across the thorny waste,
And drink the cold dews, e...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

The Missionary

...for the day receive afresh. 
May burning sun or deadly wind 
Prevail not o'er an earnest mind; 
May torments strange or direst death
Nor trample truth, nor baffle faith.
Though such blood-drops should fall from me
As fell in old Gethsemane,
Welcome the anguish, so it gave
More strength to work­more skill to save.
And, oh ! if brief must be my time,
If hostile hand or fatal clime
Cut short my course­still o'er my grave, 
Lord, may thy harvest whitening wave. 
So I the culture ...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

The Nithsdale Widow and Her Son

...garden wall,
And with his horse trod down everything, the poor widow's all,
Then having finished this barbarous act of direst cruelty,
The monster rejoined his comrades shouting right merrily: 

"There, you old devil, that's what you really deserve,
For you and your rascally rebels ought to starve";
Then the party rode off, laughing at the mischief that was done,
Leaving the poor widow to mourn and her only son. 

When the widow found herself deprived of her all,
She wrung h...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

To Rinaldo

...ring, scorching vein, 
Rolls a revolving tide of pain; 
That struggling with the Storms of FATE, 
Provokes her darkest, direst, HATE. 
O, BARD ADMIR'D ! if ought could move 
The soul of Apathy to love; 
If, o'er my aching, bleeding breast, 
Ought could diffuse the balm of rest, 
The pow'r is thine ­for oh ! thy lays 
Warm'd by thy Mind's transcendent blaze, 
Dart thro' my frame with force divine, 
While all my rending woes combine, 
And thronging round thy glorious LYRE, 
In ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

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