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Famous Distrust Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Schwartz, Delmore
...he Ace of Spades. They fear
Loves offered suddenly, turning from the mantelpiece,
Sweet with decision. And they distrust
The fireworks by the lakeside, first the spuft,
Then the colored lights, rising.
Tentative, hesitant, doubtful, they consume
Greedily Caesar at the prow returning,
Locked in the stone of his act and office.
While the brass band brightly bursts over the water
They stand in the crowd lining the shore
Aware of the water beneath Him. They kn...Read more of this...



by Schiller, Friedrich von
...annot I ever attain to true peace, excepting through knowledge,
Or is the system upheld only by fortune and law?
Must I distrust the gently-warning impulse, the precept
That thou, Nature, thyself hast in my bosom impressed,
Till the schools have affixed to the writ eternal their signet,
Till a mere formula's chain binds down the fugitive soul?
Answer me, then! for thou hast down into these deeps e'en descended,--
Out of the mouldering grave thou didst uninjured return.
Is...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...fearful. "Master, hard," I said, 
 "This saying to me." And he, as one that long 
 Was customed, answered, "No distrust must wrong 
 Its Maker, nor thy cowarder mood resume 
 If here ye enter. This the place of doom 
 I told thee, where the lost in darkness dwell. 
 Here, by themselves divorced from light, they fell, 
 And are as ye shall see them." Here he lent 
 A hand to draw me through the gate, and bent 
 A glance upon my fear so confident 
 That I, ...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...it; 
And when the time that you think far away
Shall come for you to say it—say it, boy; 
Let there be no confusion or distrust 
In you, no snarling of a life half lived, 
Nor any cursing over broken things 
That your complaint has been the ruin of.
Live to see clearly and the light will come 
To you, and as you need it.—But there, there, 
I’m going it again, as Isaac says, 
And I’ll stop now before you go to sleep.— 
Only be sure that you growl cautiously,
And a...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...I don't know what it is,
 but I distrust myself
 when I start to like a girl
 a lot.

 It makes me nervous.
 I don't say the right things
 or perhaps I start
 to examine,
 evaluate,
 compute
 what I am saying.

 If I say, "Do you think it's going to rain?"
 and she says, "I don't know,"
 I start thinking : Does she really like me? 

 In other words
 I get a little creepy. 
...Read more of this...



by Marvell, Andrew
...s--his feet shaped for a smoother race. 
Poring within her glass she readjusts 
Her looks, and oft-tried beauty now distrusts, 
Fears lest he scorn a woman once assayed, 
And now first wished she e'er had been a maid. 
Great Love, how dost thou triumph and how reign, 
That to a groom couldst humble her disdain! 
Stripped to her skin, see how she stooping stands, 
Nor scorns to rub him down with those fair hands, 
And washing (lest the scent her crime disclose) 
His sw...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...e children of the South;
His dealings with reporters who affect a weekly bust
Have given to his violet eyes a shadow of distrust;
In glorious abandon his brown hair wanders back
From the grand Websterian forehead
Of little Mack.

No matter what the item is, if there's an item in it,
You bet your life he's on to it and nips it in a minute!
From multifarious nations, countries, monarchies, and lands,
From Afric's sunny fountains and India's coral strands,
From Greenland's i...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...What about these likes of myself, that draw me so close by tender directions and
 indirections?

I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my
 enemies—as I
 myself do; 
I charge you, too, forever, reject those who would expound me—for I cannot expound
 myself;

I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me; 
I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free. 

After me, vista!
O, I see life is not short, but immeasurabl...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
Rural repast; permitting him the while 
Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change 
Those notes to tragick; foul distrust, and breach 
Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt, 
And disobedience: on the part of Heaven 
Now alienated, distance and distaste, 
Anger and just rebuke, and judgement given, 
That brought into this world a world of woe, 
Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery 
Death's harbinger: Sad talk!yet argument 
Not less but more heroick than the wrath 
Of ster...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e should belong 
To me transgressour; who, for thee ordained 
A help, became thy snare; to me reproach 
Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise: 
But infinite in pardon was my Judge, 
That I, who first brought death on all, am graced 
The source of life; next favourable thou, 
Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf'st, 
Far other name deserving. But the field 
To labour calls us, now with sweat imposed, 
Though after sleepless night; for see!the morn, 
All unconcerned...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...k;
And forty days Eliah without food
Wandered this barren waste; the same I now.
Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?"
 Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend, now undisguised:—
"'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate
Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,
Kept not my happy station, but was driven 
With them from bliss to the bottomless Deep—
Yet to that hideous place not so confined
By rigour unconniving but that oft,...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
..., injuries, insults, 
Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,
Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting
Without distrust or doubt, that He may know
What I can suffer, how obey? Who best
Can suffer best can do, best reign who first
Well hath obeyed—just trial ere I merit
My exaltation without change or end.
But what concerns it thee when I begin
My everlasting Kingdom? Why art thou
Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition? 
Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...—Let the theory of America still be management, caste, comparison! (Say! what other
 theory
 would you?) 
Let them that distrust birth and death still lead the rest! (Say! why shall they not lead
 you?)

Let the crust of hell be neared and trod on! let the days be darker than the nights! let
 slumber bring less slumber than waking time brings! 
Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it was all made! 
Let the heart of the young man still exile itself from the heart ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...t and small,
``Nine-and-ninety flew ope at our touch, should the hundredth appal?
``In the least things have faith, yet distrust in the greatest of all?
``Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift,
``That I doubt his own love can compete with it? Here, the parts shift?
``Here, the creature surpass the Creator,---the end, what Began?
``Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man,
``And dare doubt he alone shall not help him, who yet alone can?
``Wou...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...-time wasted as it flees;
And, marvelling at the rigor that gainsays
The heart's sweet impulse, my reward decrees.

Distrust this angel purity, fair soul!
It is to guilt thy pity armeth me;
Could being lavish its unmeasured whole,
It ne'er could give a gift to rival thee!

Thee--the dear guilt I ever seek to shun,
O tyranny of fate, O wild desires!
My virtue's only crown can but be won
In that last breath--when virtue's self expires!...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...,
Too small the merit show.

I bow my forehead to the dust,
I veil mine eyes for shame,
And urge, in trembling self-distrust,
A prayer without a claim.

I see the wrong that round me lies,
I feel the guilt within;
I hear, with groan and travail-cries,
The world confess its sin.
Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

Not mine to look where cherubim
And seraphs may not see,
...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...aid;
     To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu,
     Will friends and allies flock enow;
     Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief,
     Will bind to us each Western Chief
     When the loud pipes my bridal tell,
     The Links of Forth shall hear the knell,
     The guards shall start in Stirling's porch;
     And when I light the nuptial torch,
     A thousand villages in flames
     Shall scare the slumbers of King James!—
     Nay, Ellen, blench not thus ...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...'s exalted stage,
Baffle the wise diviners of our age;
Take heed, hold fast the rope of mother wit.
These augurs all distrust their own presage....Read more of this...

by Baudelaire, Charles
...l maid, a Mantle for thy sake, 
And weave it of my jealousy, a gown 
Heavy, barbaric, stiff, and weighted down 
With my distrust, and broider round the hem 
Not pearls, but all my tears in place of them. 
And then thy wavering, trembling robe shall be 
All the desires that rise and fall in me 
From mountain-peaks to valleys of repose, 
Kissing thy lovely body's white and rose. 
For thy humiliated feet divine, 
Of my Respect I'll make thee Slippers fine 
Which, prisoni...Read more of this...

by Kinnell, Galway
...Wait, for now.
Distrust everything, if you have to.
But trust the hours. Haven't they
carried you everywhere, up to now?
Personal events will become interesting again.
Hair will become interesting.
Pain will become interesting.
Buds that open out of season will become lovely again.
Second-hand gloves will become lovely again,
their memories are what...Read more of this...

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