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Famous Fighting Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...tly understood
In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood;
Effects of terror and dear modesty,
Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

''And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,
I have received from many a several fair,
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,
And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.

''The diamond,--why, 'twas ...Read more of this...



by Sidney, Sir Philip
...lere voice lifts thy fame to the skies,
Thou countest Stella thine, like those whose pow'rs
Hauing got vp a breach by fighting well,
Crie Victorie, this faire day all is ours!
O no; her heart is such a cittadell,
So fortified with wit, stor'd with disdaine,
That to win it is all the skill and paine. 
XIII 

Phoebus was iudge betweene Ioue, Mars, and Loue,
Of those three gods, whose armes the fairest were.
Ioues golden shield did sable eagles beare,
Whose t...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...long narrow line of that receding band.



XXVIII.
The lot of those who in the silence wait
Is harder than the fighting soldiers' fate.
Back to the lonely post two women passed, 
With unaccustomed sorrow overcast.
Two sad for sighs, too desolate for tears, 
The dark forebodings of long widowed years
In preparation for the awful blow
Hung on the door of hope the sable badge of woe.



XXIX.
Unhappy Muse! for thee no song remains, 
Save the sad miséréré...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...God, la de dah. 
Peanut butter is the American food. 
We all eat it, being patriotic. 

Ms. Dog is out fighting the dollars, 
rolling in a field of bucks. 
You've got it made if you take the wafer, 
take some wine, 
take some bucks, 
the green papery song of the office. 
What a jello she could make with it, 
the fives, the tens, the twenties, 
all in a goo to feed the baby. 
Andrew Jackson as an hors d'oeuvre, 
la de dah. 
I wish I were the U....Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...all night still walked the round 
(For vigilance and courage both renowned) 
First spied he enemy and gave the 'larm, 
Fighting it single till the rest might arm. 
Such Romand Cocles strid before the foe, 
The falling bridge behind, the stream below. 

Each ran, as chance him guides to several post, 
And all to pattern his example boast. 
Their former trophies they recall to mind 
And to new edge their angry courage grind. 
First entered forward Temple, conqu...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...h alacrity and force renewed 
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
Of fighting elements, on all sides round 
Environed, wins his way; harder beset 
And more endangered than when Argo passed 
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, 
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steered. 
So he with difficulty and labour hard 
Moved on, with difficulty and labour he; 
But, he once passed...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...he Lord of war,
Gaston de Foix: for some untimely star
Led him against thy city, and he fell,
As falls some forest-lion fighting well.
Taken from life while life and love were new,
He lies beneath God's seamless veil of blue;
Tall lance-like reeds wave sadly o'er his head,
And oleanders bloom to deeper red,
Where his bright youth flowed crimson on the ground.

Look farther north unto that broken mound, -
There, prisoned now within a lordly tomb
Raised by a daughter's ...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...ers, and although
I’d rather be the beast that sleeps the sleep
Under it all, his door sealed up and lost,
Than the man fighting it to keep above it,
Yet think of the small birds at roost and not
In nests. Shall I be counted less than they are?
Their bulk in water would be frozen rock
In no time out to-night. And yet to-morrow
They will come budding boughs from tree to tree
Flirting their wings and saying Chickadee,
As if not knowing what you meant by the word storm.<...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at the first fire, killing all
 around, and blowing up overhead.

Fighting at sun-down, fighting at dark; 
Ten o’clock at night, the full moon well up, our leaks on the gain, and
 five feet of water reported; 
The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the afterhold, to give them
 a chance for themselves. 

The transit to and from the magazine is now stopt by the sentinels, 
They see so many strange fa...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...Day
Meet God on a plain alone,"
Said Alfred, "I will speak for you
As for myself, and call it true
That you brought all fighting folk you knew
Lined under Egbert's Stone.

"Though I be in the dust ere then,
I know where you will be."
And shouldering suddenly his spear
He faded like some elfin fear,
Where the tall pines ran up, tier on tier
Tree overtoppling tree.

He shouldered his spear at morning
And laughed to lay it on,
But he leaned on his spear as on a staff...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...s skilly's made in prison 
The right to poach that copse is his'n. 
I'll have no luck tonight," thinks I. 
"I'm fighting to defend a lie. 
And this moonshiny evening's fun 
Is worse than aught I've ever done." 
And thinking that way my heart bled so 
I almost stept to Bill and said so. 
And now Bill's dead I would be glad 
If I could only think I had. 
But no. I put the thought away 
For fear of what my friends would say. 
They'd backed me, see...Read more of this...

by Aiken, Conrad
...breath quiver, and saw her breast
More hurriedly fall and rise.
Her hands made futile gestures, she turned her head
Fighting for breath; her cheeks were flushed to scarlet,—
And, suddenly, she lay dead.

And all the dreams that hurried along her veins
Came to the darkness of a sudden wall.
Confusion ran among them, they whirled and clamored,
They fell, they rose, they struck, they shouted,
Till at last a pallor of silence hushed them all.

What was her name? W...Read more of this...

by Eluard, Paul
...fraid 
Of maternal depths 

And madness and stupidity 
And vulgarity make way 
For humankind and brotherhood 
No longer fighting against life -- 
For an everlasting humankind 

VIII. Liberty 

On my school notebooks 
On my desk, on the trees 
On the sand, on the snow 
I write your name 
On all the read pages 
On all the empty pages 
Stone, blood, paper or ash 
I write your name 

On the golden images 
On the weapons of warriors 
On the crown of kings 
I write your name 

...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...des doubts and terrors met her;  Point after point did she discuss;  And while her mind was fighting thus,  Her body still grew better.   "Alas! what is become of them?  These fears can never be endured,  I'll to the wood."—The word scarce said,  Did Susan rise up from her bed,  As if by magic cured.   Away she posts up hill and down,...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...pe speares strong
They foined* each at other wonder long. *thrust
Thou mightest weene*, that this Palamon *think
In fighting were as a wood* lion, *mad
And as a cruel tiger was Arcite:
As wilde boars gan they together smite,
That froth as white as foam, *for ire wood*. *mad with anger*
Up to the ancle fought they in their blood.
And in this wise I let them fighting dwell,
And forth I will of Theseus you tell.

The Destiny, minister general,
That executeth in t...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...strains of music fall,
          Every sense in slumber dewing.
     Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
     Dream of fighting fields no more;
     Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
     Morn of toil, nor night of waking.

     'No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
          Armor's clang or war-steed champing
     Trump nor pibroch summon here
          Mustering clan or squadron tramping.
     Yet the lark's shrill fife may come
          At the daybreak f...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...
The swelling poison of the several sects, 
Which, wanting vent, the nation's health infects, 
Shall burst its bag; and fighting out their way, 
The various venoms on each other prey. 
The Presbyter, puffed up with spiritual pride, 
Shall on the necks of the lewd nobles ride, 
His brethren damn, the civil power defy, 
And parcel out republic prelacy. 
But short shall be his reign; his rigid yoke 
And tyrant power will puny sects provoke, 
And frogs, and toads, and all...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...af. And then we'd make love. One or two nights
she phoned and I had to bail her out of jail for drunkenness and fighting. 
"These sons of bitches," she said, "just because they buy you a few
drinks they think they can get into your pants." 
"Once you accept a drink you create your own trouble."
"I thought they were interested in me, not just my body."
"I'm interested in you and your body. I doubt, though, that most men can see
beyond your body....Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...rs would be,
not that shark in shark skin, but his pilot fish,
khaki-pants red ****** like you or me.
What worse, I fighting with Maria Concepcion,
plates flying and thing, so I swear: "Not again!"
It was mashing up my house and my family.
I was so broke all I needed was shades and a cup
or four shades and four cups in four-cup Port of Spain;
all the silver I had was the coins on the sea.

You saw them ministers in The Express,
guardians of the poor - one hand at ...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...;For generous valour oft to fortune yields,Too oft the arbitress of fighting fields.The three illustrious Thebans join'd the train,Whose noble names adorn a former strain;Great Ajax with Tydides next appear'd,And he that o'er the sea's broad bosom steer'dIn search of shores unknown with daring pro...Read more of this...

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