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Famous Fainting Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Dryden, John
..., whispers me within;
Desire of greatness is a god-like sin.

Him staggering so when Hell's dire agent found,
While fainting virtue scarce maintain'd her ground,
He pours fresh forces in, and thus replies:

Th'eternal God, supremely good and wise,
Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain;
What wonders are reserv'd to bless your reign?
Against your will your arguments have shown,
Such virtue's only giv'n to guide a throne.
Not that your father's mildness I contemn;
B...Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...nd twine
My perennial nest.

211

Come slowly—Eden!
Lips unused to Thee—
Bashful—sip thy Jessamines—
As the fainting Bee—

Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums—
Counts his nectars—
Enters—and is lost in Balms.

213

Did the Harebell loose her girdle
To the lover Bee
Would the Bee the Harebell hallow
Much as formerly?

Did the "Paradise"—persuaded—
Yield her moat of pearl—
Would the Eden be an Eden,
Or the Earl—an Earl?

214

A ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...lids curtain'd up their jewels dim,
Endymion: yet hourly had he striven
To hide the cankering venom, that had riven
His fainting recollections. Now indeed
His senses had swoon'd off: he did not heed
The sudden silence, or the whispers low,
Or the old eyes dissolving at his woe,
Or anxious calls, or close of trembling palms,
Or maiden's sigh, that grief itself embalms:
But in the self-same fixed trance he kept,
Like one who on the earth had never stept.
Aye, even as de...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...My charming rod, my potent river spells;
Yes, every thing, even to the pearly cup
Meander gave me,--for I bubbled up
To fainting creatures in a desert wild.
But woe is me, I am but as a child
To gladden thee; and all I dare to say,
Is, that I pity thee; that on this day
I've been thy guide; that thou must wander far
In other regions, past the scanty bar
To mortal steps, before thou cans't be ta'en
From every wasting sigh, from every pain,
Into the gentle bosom of thy love...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...y pleasure, all imagin'd good,
Was the warm tremble of a devout kiss,--
Even then, that moment, at the thought of this,
Fainting I fell into a bed of flowers,
And languish'd there three days. Ye milder powers,
Am I not cruelly wrong'd? Believe, believe
Me, dear Endymion, were I to weave
With my own fancies garlands of sweet life,
Thou shouldst be one of all. Ah, bitter strife!
I may not be thy love: I am forbidden--
Indeed I am--thwarted, affrighted, chidden,
By thing...Read more of this...



by Ginsberg, Allen
...a package of cigarettes a can- 
 dle and fell off the bed, and continued along 
 the floor and down the hall and ended fainting 
 on the wall with a vision of ultimate **** and 
 come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness, 
who sweetened the snatches of a million girls trembling 
 in the sunset, and were red eyed in the morning 
 but prepared to sweeten the snatch of the sun 
 rise, flashing buttocks under barns and naked 
 in the lake, 
who went out whoring through Colora...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...ess hours, 
 Their bended stems erect, and opening fair 
 Accept the white light and the warmer air 
 Of morning, so my fainting heart anew 
 Lifted, that heard his comfort. Swift I spake, 
 "O courteous thou, and she compassionate! 
 Thy haste that saved me, and her warning true, 
 Beyond my worth exalt me. Thine I make 
 My will. In concord of one mind from now, 
 O Master and my Guide, where leadest thou 
 I follow." 
 And we, with no more words' delay, 
 W...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...hat beam with FRIENDSHIP'S ray,
And glance ineffable delight,
Shall shrink from LIFE'S translucid day, 
And close their fainting orbs, in DEATH'S impervious night. 

Then what remains for mortal pow'r;
But TIME'S dull journey to beguile;
To deck with joy, the winged hour,
To meet its sorrows with a patient smile; 
And when the toilsome pilgrimage shall end, 
To greet the tyrant, as a welcome friend....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...is wonted pride 
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears. 
Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound 
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
His mighty standard. That proud honour claimed 
Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall: 
Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
Th' imperial ensign; which, full high advanced, 
Shone like a meteor streami...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nal Air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and giv'n me o're
To deaths benumming Opium as my only cure. 
Thence faintings, swounings of despair,
And sense of Heav'ns desertion.
I was his nursling once and choice delight,
His destin'd from the womb,
Promisd by Heavenly message twice descending.
Under his special eie
Abstemious I grew up and thriv'd amain;
He led me on to mightiest deeds
Above the nerve of mortal arm
Against the uncircumcis'd, our enemies. 
...Read more of this...

by Goldsmith, Oliver
...d!

Ah, no!—To distant climes, a dreary scene,
Where half the convex world intrudes between,
Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.
Far different there from all that charmed before,
The various terrors of that horrid shore;
Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray
And fiercely shed intolerable day;
Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;
Those poisonous fields with rank...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ell my largess shall repay
His welcome speed, and weary way.'
The Tartar lighted at the gate,
But scarce upheld his fainting weight!
His swarthy visage spake distress,
But this might be from weariness;
His garb with sanguine spots was dyed,
But these might be from his courser's side;
He drew the token from his vest -
Angel of Death! 'tis Hassan's cloven crest!
His calpac rent - his caftan red -
'Lady, a fearful bride thy son hath wed:
Me, not from mercy, did they spare,
B...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...ile those frumious jaws
 Went savagely snapping around--
He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,
 Till fainting he fell to the ground.

The Bandersnatch fled as the others appeared
 Led on by that fear-stricken yell:
And the Bellman remarked "It is just as I feared!"
 And solemnly tolled on his bell.

He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace
 The least likeness to what he had been:
While so great was his fright that his waistcoat turned...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...rife,
     For man endowed with mortal life
     Whose shroud of sentient clay can still
     Feel feverish pang and fainting chill,
     Whose eye can stare in stony trance
     Whose hair can rouse like warrior's lance,
     'Tis hard for such to view, unfurled,
     The curtain of the future world.
     Yet, witness every quaking limb,
     My sunken pulse, mine eyeballs dim,
     My soul with harrowing anguish torn,
     This for my Chieftain have I borne!—
  ...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...f all thy bellowing renegado priests, 
That preach up thee for God, dispense thy laws, 
And with thy stum ferment their fainting cause, 
Fresh fumes of madness raise, and toil and sweat, 
To make the formidable cripple great? 
Yet should thy crimes succeed, should lawless power 
Compass those ends thy greedy hopes devour, 
Thy canting friends thy mortal foes would be, 
Thy god and theirs will never long agree; 
For thine, if thou hast any, must be one 
That lets the world and...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...to raise,
For I was sunk in silence - lost
In this last loss, of all the most;
And then the sighs he would suppress
Of fainting nature's feebleness,
More slowly drawn, grew less and less:
I listen'd, but I could not hear;
I call'd, for I was wild with fear;
I knew 'twas hopeless, but my dread
Would not be thus admonished;
I call'd, and thought I heard a sound -
I burst my chain with one strong bound,
And rush'd to him: - I found him not,
I only stirr'd in this black spot,
I ...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...e collects the Force of Female Lungs,
Sighs, Sobs, and Passions, and the War of Tongues.
A Vial next she fills with fainting Fears,
Soft Sorrows, melting Griefs, and flowing Tears.
The Gnome rejoicing bears her Gift away,
Spreads his black Wings, and slowly mounts to Day.

Sunk in Thalestris' Arms the Nymph he found,
Her Eyes dejected and her Hair unbound. 
Full o'er their Heads the swelling Bag he rent,
And all the Furies issued at the Vent.
Belinda burns...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...s! 

LXXXVII.
Would but the Desert of the Fountain yield
One glimpse -- If dimly, yet indeed, reveal'd
To which the fainting Traveller might spring,
As springs the trampled herbage of the field! 

LXXXVIII.
Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire! 

LXXXIX.
Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane,
The Moon of Heav'n is rising on...Read more of this...

by Thomson, James
...r looks
More horrible. Can human Hearts endure
Th'assembled Mischiefs, that besiege them round:
Unlist'ning Hunger, fainting Weariness,
The Roar of Winds, and Waves, the Crush of Ice,
Now, ceasing, now, renew'd, with louder Rage,
And bellowing round the Main: Nations remote,
Shook from their Midnight-Slumbers, deem they hear
Portentous Thunder, in the troubled Sky.
More to embroil the Deep, Leviathan,
And his unweildy Train, in horrid Sport,
Tempest the loosen'd Brine...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...he gloom
Of their own shadow walked, and called it death ...
And some fled from it as it were a ghost,
Half fainting in the affliction of vain breath.
But more with motions which each other crost
Pursued or shunned the shadows the clouds threw
Or birds within the noonday ether lost,
Upon that path where flowers never grew;
And weary with vain toil & faint for thirst
Heard not the fountains whose melodious dew
Out of their mossy cells forever burst
Nor felt the...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs