Famous Enterprise Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Distance From The Sea

...asy. It was our making. Yet sometimes
When the torrent of that time
Comes pouring back, I wonder at our courage
And our enterprise. It was as though the world
Had been one darkening, abandoned hall
Where rows of unlit candles stood; and we
Not out of love, so much, or hope, or even worship, but
Out of the fear of death, came with our lights
And watched the candles, one by one, take fire, flames
Against the long night of our fear. We thought
That we could never die. Now I am l...Read more of this...
by Kees, Weldon


A Song To David

...he stupendous force 
 On which all strength depends; 
From Whose right arm, beneath Whose eyes, 
All period, pow'r, and enterprise 
 Commences, reigns, and ends. 

 XIX 
Angels—their ministry and meed, 
Which to and fro with blessings speed, 
 Or with their citherns wait; 
Where Michael with his millions bows, 
Where dwells the seraph and his spouse 
 The cherub and her mate. 

 XX 
O David, scholar of the Lord! 
Of God and Love—the Saint elect 
 For infinite applause— 
To ru...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

A Tale of Two Cities

...y Charnock pitched on -- evil day!
 Go Her way.
Though the argosies of Asia at Her doors
 Heap their stores,
Though Her enterprise and energy secure
 Income sure,
Though "out-station orders punctually obeyed"
 Swell Her trade --
Still, for rule, administration, and the rest,
 Simla's best....Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Among School Children

...presences
That passion, piety or affection knows,
And that all heavenly glory symbolise -
O self-born mockers of man's enterprise;

 VIII

Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...elight in music, their curiosity, good temper, and
 open-handedness—the whole composite make, 
The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amativeness, 
The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population, 
The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold-digging,
Wharf-hemm’d cities, railroad and steamboat lines, intersecting all points, 
Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the north-east, north-west,
 south-w...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Bride of Abydos The

...th found — may find — a place: 
But open speech, and ready hand, 
Obedience to their chief's command; 
A soul for every enterprise, 
That never sees with terror's eyes; 
Friendship for each, and faith to all, 
And vengeance vow'd for those who fall, 
Have made them fitting instruments 
For more than ev'n my own intents. 
And some — and I have studied all 
Distinguish'd from the vulgar rank, 
But chiefly to my council call 
The wisdom of the cautious Frank — 
And some to highe...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Captain Craig

...The fretful qualms of my novitiate, 
For most part, to an undigested pride. 
Only, I live convinced that I regret 
This enterprise no more than I regret
My life; and I am glad that I was born. 

That evening, at “The Chrysalis,” I found 
The faces of my comrades all suffused 
With what I chose then to denominate 
Superfluous good feeling. In return,
They loaded me with titles of odd form 
And unexemplified significance, 
Like “Bellows-mender to Prince Æolus,” 
“Pipe-filler to...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

from the Ansty Experience

...e there for scurrying over - haste
is everything and the beat is all

fireworks feed the fancy - a great ah
rewards the enterprise that fills
night skies with flashing bountifuls
of way-out stars - poetry has to be
in service to this want (is fed
into the system gracelessly)
there can be no standing-still or
stopping-by no take a little time

and see what blossoms here - we're into
poetry in motion and all that ****
and i can accept it all - what stirs
the surface of the ocea...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

Gareth And Lynette

...in; 
Whom Gareth looking after said, 'My men, 
Our one white lie sits like a little ghost 
Here on the threshold of our enterprise. 
Let love be blamed for it, not she, nor I: 
Well, we will make amends.' 

With all good cheer 
He spake and laughed, then entered with his twain 
Camelot, a city of shadowy palaces 
And stately, rich in emblem and the work 
Of ancient kings who did their days in stone; 
Which Merlin's hand, the Mage at Arthur's court, 
Knowing all arts, had touc...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Marriage

...This institution,
perhaps one should say enterprise
out of respect for which
one says one need not change one's mind
about a thing one has believed in,
requiring public promises
of one's intention
to fulfill a private obligation:
I wonder what Adam and Eve
think of it by this time,
this firegilt steel
alive with goldenness;
how bright it shows --
"of circular traditions and impostures,
committing m...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...yriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league, 
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
And hazard in the glorious enterprise 
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 
In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest 
From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved 
He with his thunder; and till then who knew 
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, 
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, 
Though changed in outward lust...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...on to invade 
Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 
Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find 
Some easier enterprise? There is a place 
(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven 
Err not)--another World, the happy seat 
Of some new race, called Man, about this time 
To be created like to us, though less 
In power and excellence, but favoured more 
Of him who rules above; so was his will 
Pronounced among the Gods, and by an oath 
That shook Heaven's whole circumf...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The First Book

...me was then
For long indulgence to their fears or grief: 
Unanimous they all commit the care
And management of this man enterprise
To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt
At first against mankind so well had thrived
In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,
Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,
Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
So to the coast of Jordan he directs
His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles, 
Wh...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The Second Book

...nd all thy heart is set on high designs, 
High actions. But wherewith to be achieved?
Great acts require great means of enterprise;
Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,
A carpenter thy father known, thyself
Bred up in poverty and straits at home,
Lost in a desert here and hunger-bit.
Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire
To greatness? whence authority deriv'st?
What followers, what retinue canst thou gain,
Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude, 
Longer than thou...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Passage to India

...oul, that will not brook a challenge. 

9
The medieval navigators rise before me, 
The world of 1492, with its awaken’d enterprise;
Something swelling in humanity now like the sap of the earth in spring, 
The sunset splendor of chivalry declining. 

And who art thou, sad shade? 
Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary, 
With majestic limbs, and pious, beaming eyes,
Spreading around, with every look of thine, a golden world, 
Enhuing it with gorgeous hues. 

As the chief hist...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Persuasion

...at ease, and hunger in my heart
Back to my pain and lonely to depart.
VI 	Not anything you do can make you mine,
For enterprise with equal charity
In duty as in love elect will shine,
The constant slave of mutability.
Nor can your words for all their honey breath
Outsing the speech of many an older rhyme,
And though my ear deliver them from death
One day or two, it is so little time.
Nor does your beauty in its excellence
Excel a thousand in the daily sun,
Yet mus...Read more of this...
by Drinkwater, John

Samson Agonistes

...sign'd
Against thee but safe custody, and hold:
That made for me, I knew that liberty
Would draw thee forth to perilous enterprises,
While I at home sate full of cares and fears
Wailing thy absence in my widow'd bed;
Here I should still enjoy thee day and night
Mine and Loves prisoner, not the Philistines,
Whole to my self, unhazarded abroad,
Fearless at home of partners in my love. 
These reasons in Loves law have past for good,
Though fond and reasonless to some perhaps:
An...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Bride of Abydos

...th found — may find — a place: 
But open speech, and ready hand, 
Obedience to their chief's command; 
A soul for every enterprise, 
That never sees with terror's eyes; 
Friendship for each, and faith to all, 
And vengeance vow'd for those who fall, 
Have made them fitting instruments 
For more than ev'n my own intents. 
And some — and I have studied all 
Distinguish'd from the vulgar rank, 
But chiefly to my council call 
The wisdom of the cautious Frank — 
And some to highe...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Giaour

...ecause the ladies are more circumspect than in the 'olden time', or because the Christians have better fortune, or less enterprise. The story, when entire, contained the adventures of a female slave, who was thrown, in the Mussulman manner, into the sea for infidelity, and avenged by a young Venetian, her lover, at the time the Seven Islands were possessed by the Republic of Venice, and soon after the Arnauts were beaten back from the Morea, which they had ravaged for some ti...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Lovers of the Poor

...ll
Sweetly abortive, hinting at fat fruit,
Judge it high time that fiftyish fingers felt
Beneath the lovelier planes of enterprise.
To resurrect. To moisten with milky chill.
To be a random hitching post or plush.
To be, for wet eyes, random and handy hem.
Their guild is giving money to the poor.
The worthy poor. The very very worthy
And beautiful poor. Perhaps just not too swarthy?
Perhaps just not too dirty nor too dim
Nor--passionate. In truth, what they could wish
Is--som...Read more of this...
by Brooks, Gwendolyn

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