Famous Exceeding Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A fuzzy fellow without feet

...A fuzzy fellow, without feet,
Yet doth exceeding run!
Of velvet, is his Countenance,
And his Complexion, dun!

Sometime, he dwelleth in the grass!
Sometime, upon a bough,
From which he doth descend in plush
Upon the Passer-by!

All this in summer.
But when winds alarm the Forest Folk,
He taketh Damask Residence --
And struts in sewing silk!

Then, finer than a Lady,
Emerges in the spring!
A Feath...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


A Hymn Of Heavenly Beauty

...than these,
As these are fairer than the land and seas?

For far above these heavens, which here we see,
Be others far exceeding these in light,
Not bounded, not corrupt, as these same be,
But infinite in largeness and in height,
Unmoving, uncorrupt, and spotless bright,
That need no sun t' illuminate their spheres,
But their own native light far passing theirs.

And as these heavens still by degrees arise,
Until they come to their first Mover's bound,
That in his mighty com...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund

A proper trewe idyll of camelot

...keth of itself, and sayeth by that winke
Ye which a maiden sholde not knowe nor never even thinke;
Which winke ben more exceeding swift nor human thought ben thunk,
And leaveth doubting if so be that winke ben really wunke;
And soch an eye ye catte-fysshe hath when that he ben on dead
And boyled a goodly time and served with capers on his head;
A rayless eye, a bead-like eye, whose famisht aspect shows
It hungereth for ye verdant banks whereon ye wild time grows;
An eye that ...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene

A Song To David

...iant, pious, good, and clean, 
Sublime, contemplative, serene, 
 Strong, constant, pleasant, wise! 
Bright effluence of exceeding grace; 
Best man!—the swiftest and the race, 
 The peril, and the prize! 

 V 
Great—from the lustre of his crown, 
From Samuel's horn, and God's renown, 
 Which is the people's voice; 
For all the host, from rear to van, 
Applauded and embrac'd the man— 
 The man of God's own choice. 

 VI 
Valiant—the word, and up he rose; 
The fight—he triumph'd...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Absalom And Achitophel

...prov'd his wit; his saint-like grace
A church vermilion, and a Moses' face.
His memory, miraculously great,
Could plots exceeding man's belief, repeat;
Which therefore cannot be accounted lies,
For human wit could never such devise.
Some future truths are mingled in his book;
But, where the witness fail'd, the Prophet spoke:
Some things like visionary flights appear;
The spirit caught him up, the Lord knows where:
And gave him his rabbinical degree,
Unknown to foreign univers...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John


Balin and Balan

...e, and perish traitors. Woods have tongues, 
As walls have ears: but thou shalt go with me, 
And we will speak at first exceeding low. 
Meet is it the good King be not deceived. 
See now, I set thee high on vantage ground, 
From whence to watch the time, and eagle-like 
Stoop at thy will on Lancelot and the Queen.' 

She ceased; his evil spirit upon him leapt, 
He ground his teeth together, sprang with a yell, 
Tore from the branch, and cast on earth, the shield, 
Drove his m...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Beneath Thy Cross

...eneath thy cross, 
To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss, 
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved 
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; 
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; 
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon 
Which hid their faces in a starless sky, 
A horror of great darkness at broad noon-- 
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er, 
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; 
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more 
And smite a rock....Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

Emblems of Love

...wonder of it, that here
Being—the world and we—is suffered to be!—
But, lying on thy breast one notable day,
Sudden exceeding agony of love
Made my mind a trance of infinite knowledge.
I was not: yet I saw the will of God
As light unfashion’d, unendurable flame,
Interminable, not to be supposed;
And there was no more creature except light,—
The dreadful burning of the lonely God’s
Unutter’d joy. And then, past telling, came
Shuddering and division in the light:
T...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...om, till the heart of the maiden
Swelled and obeyed its power, like the tremulous tides of the ocean.
Ah! she was fair, exceeding fair to behold, as she stood with
Naked snow-white feet on the gleaming floor of her chamber!
Little she dreamed that below, among the trees of the orchard,
Waited her lover and watched for the gleam of her lamp and her shadow.
Yet were her thoughts of him, and at times a feeling of sadness
Passed o'er her soul, as the sailing shade of clouds in th...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Geraint And Enid

...
A stranger meeting them had surely thought 
They rode so slowly and they looked so pale, 
That each had suffered some exceeding wrong. 
For he was ever saying to himself, 
'O I that wasted time to tend upon her, 
To compass her with sweet observances, 
To dress her beautifully and keep her true'-- 
And there he broke the sentence in his heart 
Abruptly, as a man upon his tongue 
May break it, when his passion masters him. 
And she was ever praying the sweet heavens 
To save...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Goblin Market

...and wept
As if her heart would break.

Day after day, night after night,
Laura kept watch in vain,
In sullen silence of exceeding pain.
She never caught again the goblin cry:
"Come buy, come buy,"
She never spied the goblin men
Hawking their fruits along the glen:
But when the noon waxed bright
Her hair grew thin and gray;
She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn
To swift decay, and burn
Her fire away.

One day remembering her kernel-stone
She set it by a wall that faced...Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

Inferno (English)

...My downward eyes, and no more spake until 
 The bank we reached, and on the stream beheld 
 A bark ply toward us. 
 Of exceeding eld, 
 And hoary showed the steersman, screaming shrill, 
 With horrid glee the while he neared us, "Woe 
 To ye, depraved! - Is here no Heaven, but ill 
 The place where I shall herd ye. Ice and fire 
 And darkness are the wages of their hire 
 Who serve unceasing here - But thou that there 
 Dost wait though live, depart ye. Yea, forbear! 
 A dif...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Mirage

...The hope I dreamed of was a dream,
Was but a dream; and now I wake,
Exceeding comfortless, and worn, and old,
For a dream's sake.

I hang my harp upon a tree,
A weeping willow in a lake;
I hang my silent harp there, wrung and snapped
For a dream's sake.

Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;
My silent heart, lie still and break:
Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed
For a dream's sake....Read more of this...
by Rossetti, Christina

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...; we are one, 
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself. 
So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied. 
O glorious trial of exceeding love, 
Illustrious evidence, example high! 
Engaging me to emulate; but, short 
Of thy perfection, how shall I attain, 
Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung, 
And gladly of our union hear thee speak, 
One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof 
This day affords, declaring thee resolved, 
Rather than death, or aught than death more drea...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Abnormal Is Not Courage

...n, nor Faustus. But Penelope. 
The thing steady and clear. Then the crescendo. 
The real form. The culmination. And the exceeding. 
Not the surprise. The amazed understanding. The marriage, 
Not the month's rapture. Not the exception. The beauty 
That is of many days. Steady and clear. 
It is the normal excellence, of long accomplishment....Read more of this...
by Gilbert, Jack

The Holidays

...

We must have employment to give us enjoyment
And pass the time cheerfully away; 
And study and reading give pleasure, exceeding
The pleasures of toys and of play. 

To school now returning­to study and learning
With eagerness Harry applied; 
He felt no aversion to books or exertion, 
Nor yet for the holidays sigh'd....Read more of this...
by Taylor, Jane

The Holy Grail

...nce I past 
Far through a ruinous city, and I saw 
That man had once dwelt there; but there I found 
Only one man of an exceeding age. 
"Where is that goodly company," said I, 
"That so cried out upon me?" and he had 
Scarce any voice to answer, and yet gasped, 
"Whence and what art thou?" and even as he spoke 
Fell into dust, and disappeared, and I 
Was left alone once more, and cried in grief, 
"Lo, if I find the Holy Grail itself 
And touch it, it will crumble into dust." ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Marriage Of Geraint

...d upon the scarf, 
Dyeing it; and his quick, instinctive hand 
Caught at the hilt, as to abolish him: 
But he, from his exceeding manfulness 
And pure nobility of temperament, 
Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrained 
From even a word, and so returning said: 

'I will avenge this insult, noble Queen, 
Done in your maiden's person to yourself: 
And I will track this vermin to their earths: 
For though I ride unarmed, I do not doubt 
To find, at some place I shall come at, ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Thorn

...e was plain;  She was with child, and she was mad,  Yet often she was sober sad  From her exceeding pain.  Oh me! ten thousand times I'd rather,  That he had died, that cruel father! XIV.   Sad case for such a brain to hold  Communion with a stirring child!  Sad case, as you may think, for one  Who had a brain so wild!  Last Christmas when we talked of this,&nbs...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Triumph Of Death

...r the spriteWas gone. If this be that fools call to die,Death seem'd in her exceeding fair to be. Anna Hume. [LINES 103 TO END.]  And now closed in the last hour's narrow spanOf that so glorious and so brief career,Ere the dark pass so terrible to man!<...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

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