Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Expect Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Smart, Christopher
...he Lord His tithe, 
And make the widow's heart-strings blythe; 
 Resort with those that weep: 
As you from all and each expect, 
For all and each thy love direct, 
 And render as you reap. 

 XLVII 
The slander and its bearer spurn, 
And propagating praise sojourn 
 To make thy welcome last; 
Turn from Old Adam to the New; 
By hope futurity pursue; 
 Look upwards to the past. 

 XLVIII 
Control thine eye, salute success, 
Honor the wiser, happier bless, 
 And for thy ...Read more of this...



by Walker, Alice
...Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul....Read more of this...

by Tate, James
...o lie down on, to connect, reveal,
explore, to imbue meaning on the day's extravagant labor. 
And yet it's cruel to expect too much. 
It's a rare species of bird 
that refuses to be categorized.
Its song is barely audible.
It is like a dragonfly in a dream--
here, then there, then here again,
low-flying amber-wing darting upward
then out of sight.
And the dream has a pain in its heart
the wonders of which are manifold,
or so the story is told....Read more of this...

by Taylor, Edward
...o lie down on, to connect, reveal,
explore, to imbue meaning on the day's extravagant labor. 
And yet it's cruel to expect too much. 
It's a rare species of bird 
that refuses to be categorized.
Its song is barely audible.
It is like a dragonfly in a dream--
here, then there, then here again,
low-flying amber-wing darting upward
then out of sight.
And the dream has a pain in its heart
the wonders of which are manifold,
or so the story is told....Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...blustering wind that comes from neighboring glade. 
 Strange in this dream-like place, so drear and lone, 
 The guest expected should be living one! 
 The seven lights from seven arms make glow 
 Almost with life the staring eyes that show 
 On the dim frescoes—and along the walls 
 Is here and there a stool, or the light falls 
 O'er some long chest, with likeness to a tomb. 
 Yet was displayed amid the mournful gloom 
 Some copper vessels, and some crockery ware. 
...Read more of this...



by Walker, Alice
...Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.


Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a par...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...st, 
And murmurs rise, and Otho's brow's o'ercast, 
"I know my friend! his faith I cannot fear, 
If yet he be on earth, expect him here; 
The roof that held him in the valley stands 
Between my own and noble Lara's lands; 
My halls from such a guest had honour gain'd, 
Nor had Sir Ezzelin his host disdain'd, 
But that some previous proof forbade his stay, 
And urged him to prepare against to-day; 
The word I pledge for his I pledge again, 
Or will myself redeem his knighthood...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...eir master, led by Ashburnham. 
To them succeeds a desipicable rout, 
But know the word and well could face about; 
Expectants pale, with hopes of spoil allured, 
Though yet but pioneers, and led by Stew'rd. 
Then damning cowards ranged the vocal plain, 
Wood these command, the Knight of the Horn and Cane. 
Still his hook-shoulder seems the blow to dread, 
And under's armpit he defends his head. 
The posture strange men laughed at of his poll, 
Hid with his el...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...replied. 
Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, 
Proud limitary Cherub! but ere then 
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel 
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King 
Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, 
Us'd to the yoke, drawest his triumphant wheels 
In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved. 
While thus he spake, the angelick squadron bright 
Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns 
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round 
With ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nt of his fury thus opposed. 
O argument blasphemous, false, and proud! 
Words which no ear ever to hear in Heaven 
Expected, least of all from thee, Ingrate, 
In place thyself so high above thy peers. 
Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn 
The just decree of God, pronounced and sworn, 
That to his only Son, by right endued 
With regal scepter, every soul in Heaven 
Shall bend the knee, and in that honour due 
Confess him rightful King? unjust, thou sayest, 
Flatly...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...owers. 
But, that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt 
To God or thee, because we have a foe 
May tempt it, I expected not to hear. 
His violence thou fearest not, being such 
As we, not capable of death or pain, 
Can either not receive, or can repel. 
His fraud is then thy fear; which plain infers 
Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love 
Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced; 
Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy breast, 
Adam, mis-thought of ...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
..., if backward
It’s from regret for something you have passed
And failed to see the good of. Never mind,
Things must expect to come in front of us
A many times—I don’t say just how many—
That varies with the things—before we see them.
One of the lies would make it out that nothing
Ever presents itself before us twice.
Where would we be at last if that were so?
Our very life depends on everything’s
Recurring till we answer from within.
The thousandth time may pr...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...p; My gentle reader, I perceive  How patiently you've waited,  And I'm afraid that you expect  Some tale will be related.   O reader! had you in your mind  Such stores as silent thought can bring,  O gentle reader! you would find  A tale in every thing.  What more I have to say is short,  I hope you'll kindly take it;  It is n...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ars are fled since that morning,
And with them all my head's adorning.
Nor did the old Duchess die outright,
As you expect, of suppressed spite,
The natural end of every adder
Not suffered to empty its poison-bladder:
But she and her son agreed, I take it,
That no one should touch on the story to wake it,
For the wound in the Duke's pride rankled fiery,
So, they made no search and small inquiry---
And when fresh Gipsies have paid us a visit, I've
Noticed the couple were n...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...me was done by me:
4.4 As was their praise, or shame, so mine must be.
4.5 Now age is more, more good ye do expect;
4.6 But more my age, the more is my defect.
4.7 But what's of worth, your eyes shall first behold,
4.8 And then a world of dross among my gold.
4.9 When my Wild Oats were sown, and ripe, and mown,
4.10 I then receiv'd a harvest of mine own.
4.11 My reason, then bad judge, how little hope
4.12 Such empty seed sh...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...as her a venture: *Morocco; Gibraltar
On many a sorry meal now may she bait,
After her death full often may she wait*, *expect
Ere that the wilde waves will her drive
Unto the place *there as* she shall arrive. *where

Men mighten aske, why she was not slain?
Eke at the feast who might her body save?
And I answer to that demand again,
Who saved Daniel in the horrible cave,
Where every wight, save he, master or knave*, *servant
Was with the lion frett*, ere he astart?** *d...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...>
As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.

The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction

Expect poison from the standing water. 

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than
enough.

Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!

The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the
beard of earth.

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, ...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...s, and stays.
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest -
I too awaited the expected guest. 
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,
One of the low on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...ugh vain life's uncertain dance,
The dupes of whim, the slaves of chance.


From me, not famed for much goodnature,
Expect not compliment, but satire;
To draw your picture quite unable,
Instead of fact accept a Fable.


One morn, in Æsop's noisy time,
When all things talk'd, and talk'd in rhyme,
A cloud exhaled by vernal beams
Rose curling o'er the glassy streams.
The dawn her orient blushes spread,
And tinged its lucid skirts with red,
Wide waved its folds with g...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...nched granite did not view,
And it appeared that that I, awake, my
Unforgettable, saw you..

But then the unexpected night
Covered the before-autumn town,
That, so as to assist my flight,
The ashen shadows melted down.

I only took with me the cross,
That you had given on day of treason
That wormwood steppe should be in bloom
And winds, like sirens, sing in season.

And here upon an empty wall
He keeps me from the broodings dour
And I don't fea...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Expect poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things