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Famous Draughts Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Pope, Alexander
...-and ev'ry Foe.

A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first Sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless Youth we tempt the Heights of Arts,
While from the bounded Level of our Mind,
Short Views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But more advanc'd, behold with strange Surprize
New, distant Scenes of endless Science rise!
So ple...Read more of this...



by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...l or clod,
God-spawn of lizard-footed clans,
And those dog-headed hulks that trod
Swart necks of the old Egyptians,
Raw draughts of man's beginning God;

The poised hawk, quivering ere he smote,
With plume-like gems on breast and back;
The asps and water-worms afloat
Between the rush-flowers moist and slack;
The cat's warm black bright rising throat.

The purple days of drouth expand
Like a scroll opened out again;
The molten heaven drier than sand,
The hot red heaven wit...Read more of this...

by Tolkien, J R R
...ke gold fall the leaves in the wind,
Long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts of the sweet mead
In lofty halls beyond the West
Beneath the blue vaults of Varda
Wherein the stars tremble in the song of her voice,
Holy and queenly.

Who now shall refill the cup for me?

For now the Kindler, Varda,
The Queen of the Stars, from Mount Everwhite
Has uplifted her hands like clouds,
And all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
And o...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...d; madly did I kiss
The wooing arms which held me, and did give
My eyes at once to death: but 'twas to live,
To take in draughts of life from the gold fount
Of kind and passionate looks; to count, and count
The moments, by some greedy help that seem'd
A second self, that each might be redeem'd
And plunder'd of its load of blessedness.
Ah, desperate mortal! I ev'n dar'd to press
Her very cheek against my crowned lip,
And, at that moment, felt my body dip
Into a warmer air:...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...she left me sleeping: half awake
I sought for her smooth arms and lips, to slake
My greedy thirst with nectarous camel-draughts;
But she was gone. Whereat the barbed shafts
Of disappointment stuck in me so sore,
That out I ran and search'd the forest o'er.
Wandering about in pine and cedar gloom
Damp awe assail'd me; for there 'gan to boom
A sound of moan, an agony of sound,
Sepulchral from the distance all around.
Then came a conquering earth-thunder, and rumble...Read more of this...



by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...nt may rise, that grows amazing tall. 
From Sylvia's Presence now I could not move, 
And from her Eyes took in full Draughts of Love, 
Which sweetly thro' my ravish'd Mind distill'd; 
Yet in the end such Bitterness wou'd yield, 
That oft I sigh'd, ere yet I knew the cause, 
And was a Lover, ere I dream'd I was. 
But Oh! at last, too well my State I knew; 
And now, will shew thee how this Passion grew. 
Then listen, while the pleasing Tale I tell. 



THIRSIS p...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...ts of stars,
Sweep in the sounding stillness of the night?
Or in deaf ease, on thrones of dazzling sheen,
Drinking deep draughts of joy, ye dwell serene?

'Oh, wherefore cheat our youth, if thus it be,
Of one short joy, one lust, one pleasant dream?
Stringing vain words of powers we cannot see,
Blind divinations of a will supreme;
Lost labour! when the circumambient gloom
But hides, if Gods, Gods careless of our doom?

'The rest I give to joy. Even while I speak,
My sand ...Read more of this...

by Tolkien, J R R
...ke gold fall the leaves in the wind,
Long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts
Of the sweet mead in lofty halls
Beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda
Wherein the stars tremble
In the voice of her song, holy and queenly.
Who now shall refill the cup for me?

For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars,
From Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds
And all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
And ou...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...in trains), land piled on land,
Whitewash and weariness, red rockets, dust,
White snows that mocked me, palaces -- with draughts,
And W-stl-nd with the drafts he couldn't pay,
Poor W-ls-n reading his obituary.
Before he died, and H-pe, the man with bones,
And A-tch-s-n a dripping mackintosh
At Council in the Rains, his grating "Sirrr"
Half drowned by H-nt-r's silky: "Bat my lahnd."
Hunterian always: M-rsh-l spinning plates
Or standing on his head; the Rent Bill's roar...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...her hour prepared 
For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please 
True appetite, and not disrelish thirst 
Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream, 
Berry or grape: To whom thus Adam called. 
Haste hither, Eve, and worth thy sight behold 
Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape 
Comes this way moving; seems another morn 
Risen on mid-noon; some great behest from Heaven 
To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe 
This day to be our guest. But go with...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...nade under the drier sea almonds
where the dry old men sat

watching a white schooner stuck in the branches
and playing draughts with the moving frigate birds

those hillsides like broken pots

those ferns that stamped their skeletons on the skin

and those roads that begin reciting their names at vespers

mention them and they will stop
those crabs that were willing to let an epoch pass
those herons like spinsters that doubted their reflections
inquiring, inquiring

those ne...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ontemplating, 
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. 

I inhale great draughts of space; 
The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought; 
I did not know I held so much goodness. 

All seems beautiful to me; 
I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me, I would do the same to
 you.


I will recruit for myself and you as I go;
I will sc...Read more of this...

by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...s,
While sick men shall cast sighs, of sweet health all despairing,
While blind men’s eyes shall thirst after daylight, draughts of daylight,
Or deaf ears shall desire that lipmusic that ’s lost upon them,
While cripples are, while lepers, dancers in dismal limb-dance,
Fallers in dreadful frothpits, waterfearers wild,
Stone, palsy, cancer, cough, lung wasting, womb not bearing,
Rupture, running sores, what more? in brief; in burden,
As long as men are mortal and God merciful,...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...Strong Draughts of Their Refreshing Minds
To drink -- enables Mine
Through Desert or the Wilderness
As bore it Sealed Wine --

To go elastic -- Or as One
The Camel's trait -- attained --
How powerful the Stimulus
Of an Hermetic Mind --...Read more of this...

by Goldsmith, Oliver
...thorn, that lifts its head on high,
Where once the signpost caught the passing eye,
Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired,
Where grey-beard mirth and smiling toil retired,
Where village statesmen talked with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.
Imagination fondly stoops to trace
The parlour splendours of that festive place:
The white-washed wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnished clock that clicked behind the door;
The chest ...Read more of this...

by Crashaw, Richard
...hy dow'r of lights and fires,
By all the eagle in thee, all the dove,
By all thy lives and deaths of love,
By thy large draughts of intellectual day,
And by thy thirsts of love more large than they,
By all thy brim-fill'd bowls of fierce desire,
By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire,
By the full kingdom of that final kiss
That seiz'd thy parting soul and seal'd thee his,
By all the heav'ns thou hast in him,
Fair sister of the seraphim!
By all of him we have in thee,
Le...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...h solemn voice and slow.

No purple flowers,--no garlands green,
Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen,
Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene,
Like gleams of sunshine, flash between
Thick leaves of mistletoe.

This goblet, wrought with curious art,
Is filled with waters, that upstart,
When the deep fountains of the heart,
By strong convulsions rent apart,
Are running all to waste.

And as it mantling passes round,
With fennel is it wreathed and crowned,
Whose seed an...Read more of this...

by Swift, Jonathan
...harmonious from the Skies.

Such is the Poet, fresh in Pay, 
(The third Night's Profits of his Play;) 
His Morning-Draughts 'till Noon can swill, 
Among his Brethren of the Quill: 
With good Roast Beef his Belly full, 
Grown lazy, foggy, fat, and dull: 
Deep sunk in Plenty, and Delight, 
What Poet e'er could take his Flight? 
Or stuff'd with Phlegm up to the Throat, 
What Poet e'er could sing a Note? 
Nor Pegasus could bear the Load, 
Along the high celestial Road; 
The ...Read more of this...

by Lovelace, Richard
...ur careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the deep
Know no such liberty.

When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good

He is, how great should be,
Enlarged winds that curl the flood
Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor ir...Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...ting day;
In which one wants a shawl,
A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:
I cannot ope to every one who taps,
And let the draughts come whistling thro' my hall;
Come bounding and surrounding me,
Come buffeting, astounding me,
Nipping and clipping thro' my wraps and all.
I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows
His nose to Russian snows
To be pecked at by every wind that blows?
You would not peck? I thank you for good will,
Believe, but leave that truth untested still.
...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs