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Famous Flattering Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Donne, John
...tly, and doth divorce
Her from her native, and her long-kept course,
And roars, and braves it, and in gallant scorn,
In flattering eddies promising retorn,
She flouts the channel, who thenceforth is dry;
Then say I, That is she, and this am I.
Yet let not thy deep bitterness beget
Careless despair in me, for that will whet
My mind to scorn; and Oh, love dulled with pain
Was ne'er so wise, nor well armed as disdain.
Then with new eyes I shall survey thee, and spy
Death...Read more of this...



by Shakespeare, William
...is I do to captivate the eye
Of the fair breeder that is standing by.'

What recketh he his rider's angry stir,
His flattering 'Holla,' or his 'Stand, I say?'
What cares he now for curb of pricking spur?
For rich caparisons or trapping gay?
He sees his love, and nothing else he sees,
Nor nothing else with his proud sight agrees.

Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 
In limning out a well-proportion'd steed,
His art with nature's workmanship at strife,
As if t...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...nd, calm in conscience, whole in heart,
I went my tranquil way. 

Yet, sometimes, I still feel a wish,
The fond and flattering pain
Of passion's anguish to create,
In her young breast again.
Bright was the lustre of her eyes,
When they caught fire from mine;
If I had power­this very hour,
Again I 'd light their shine. 

But where she is, or how she lives,
I have no clue to know;
I 've heard she long my absence pined,
And left her home in woe.
But busied, then,...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...ose ways and thine are one way and the same.XXII


But if the riddles that in sleep we read,
And trust them not, be flattering truth indeed,
As he that rose our mightiest called them,--he,
Much higher than thou as thou much higher than we-- 
There, might we say, all flower of all our seed,
All singing souls are as one sounding sea.XXXIII


All those that here were of thy kind and kin,
Beside thee and below thee, full of love,
Full-souled for song,--and one alone above...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...king Ahab into fraud,
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues
Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies
To his destruction, as I had in charge:
For what he bids I do. Though I have lost
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
To be beloved of God, I have not lost
To love, at least contemplate and admire, 
What I see excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
What can be then less in...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...Gold,
Though offer'd only, by the sent conceiv'd 
Her spurious first-born; Treason against me?
Thrice she assay'd with flattering prayers and sighs,
And amorous reproaches to win from me
My capital secret, in what part my strength
Lay stor'd in what part summ'd, that she might know:
Thrice I deluded her, and turn'd to sport
Her importunity, each time perceiving
How openly, and with what impudence
She purpos'd to betray me, and (which was worse
Then undissembl'd hate) with wh...Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...less sees decline
In the broad shipless sea—perhaps may know
Such heartless pain, such blank despair as mine;
And, if a flattering cloud appears to show
The fancied semblance of a distant sail, 
Then melts away—anew his spirits fail,
While the lost hope but aggravates his woe!
Ah! so for me delusive Fancy toils,
Then, from contrasted truth—my feeble soul recoils....Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...die.


Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the dee...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...to me
What thou saw'st in the nethermost depths of the sea."

His daughter hears this with emotions soft,
And with flattering accent prays she:
"That fearful sport, father, attempt not too oft!
What none other would dare, he hath ventured for thee;
If thy heart's wild longings thou canst not tame,
Let the knights, if they can, put the squire to shame."

The king then seizes the goblet in haste,
In the gulf he hurls it with might:
"When the goblet once more in my hand...Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...impell'd them on,
Reckless of tempest, hunger, or the sword,
Till order'd to retreat, they knew not why,
From all their flattering prospects, they became
The prey of dark suspicion and regret 6 :
Then, in despondence, sunk the unnerv'd arm
Of gallant Loyalty--At every turn
Shame and disgrace appear'd, and seem'd to mock
Their scatter'd squadrons; which the warlike youth,
Unable to endure, often implor'd,
As the last act of friendship, from the hand
Of some brave comrade, to r...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...y, 
She on earth and he in heaven.
And he wooed her with caresses, 
Wooed her with his smile of sunshine, 
With his flattering words he wooed her, 
With his sighing and his singing, 
Gentlest whispers in the branches, 
Softest music, sweetest odors, 
Till he drew her to his bosom, 
Folded in his robes of crimson, 
Till into a star he changed her, 
Trembling still upon his bosom; 
And forever in the heavens 
They are seen together walking, 
Wabun and the Wabun-Annung, 
Wab...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...es to my lot,
By God, I shall him quiten* every groat! *pay him off
I shall him telle what a great honour
It is to be a flattering limitour
And his office I shall him tell y-wis".
Our Host answered, "Peace, no more of this."
And afterward he said unto the frere,
"Tell forth your tale, mine owen master dear."


Notes to the Prologue to the Friar's tale


1. On the Tale of the Friar, and that of the Sompnour which
follows, Tyrwhitt has remarked that they "are we...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...on dwelling upon lond,
Upon a day he got him more money
Than that the parson got in moneths tway;
And thus with feigned flattering and japes*, *jests
He made the parson and the people his apes.
But truely to tellen at the last,
He was in church a noble ecclesiast.
Well could he read a lesson or a story,
But alderbest* he sang an offertory: *best of all
For well he wiste, when that song was sung,
He muste preach, and well afile* his tongue, *polish
To winne silver, as ...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...instrel's lay as thine.
     And then for suitors proud and high,
     To bend before my conquering eye,—
     Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say,
     That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway.
     The Saxon scourge, Clan-Alpine's pride,
     The terror of Loch Lomond's side,
     Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay
     A Lennox foray—for a day.'—
     XII..

     The ancient bard her glee repressed:
     'Ill hast thou chosen theme for jest!
     For who, ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Than was th' assembly of this blissful host
But O this scorpion, this wicked ghost,* *spirit
The Soudaness, for all her flattering
Cast* under this full mortally to sting. *contrived

The Soudan came himself soon after this,
So royally, that wonder is to tell,
And welcomed her with all joy and bliss.
And thus in mirth and joy I let them dwell.
The fruit of his matter is that I tell;
When the time came, men thought it for the best
That revel stint,* and men go to t...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...ems:
"Thou art alone the Queen of earthly Queens." 

The welcome given to Commander-in-Chief Lord Wolseley was very flattering,
The people cheered him until the streets did ring;
And the foreign princes were watched with rivetted admiration,
And caused among the sight-seers great consternation, 

And private householders seemed to vie with each other,
In the lavishness of their decorations, and considered it no bother;
And never before in the memory of man,
Has there been...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...un shines, it is as if the face 
Of some proud man relaxed his haughty stare, 
And smiled upon us with a sudden grace, 
Flattering because its coming is so rare. 

VII 
The English are frosty 
When you're no kith or kin 
Of theirs, but how they alter 
When once they take you in! 
The kindest, the truest, 
The best friends ever known, 
It's hard to remember 
How they froze you to a bone. 
They showed me all London, 
Johnnie and his friends; 
They took me to the country...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...
Must to the wastes of Nature go,-- 
'Tis because a general hope 
Was quenched, and all must doubt and grope. 
For flattering planets seemed to say 
This child should ills of ages stay, 
By wondrous tongue, and guided pen, 
Bring the flown Muses back to men. 
Perchance not he but Nature ailed, 
The world and nor the infant failed. 
It was not ripe yet to sustain 
A genius of so fine a strain, 
Who gazed upon the sun and moon 
As if he came unto his own, 
And, pre...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...that then
Must to the wastes of nature go,—
'Tis because a general hope
Was quenched, and all must doubt and grope
For flattering planets seemed to say,
This child should ills of ages stay,—
By wondrous tongue and guided pen
Bring the flown muses back to men. —
Perchance, not he, but nature ailed,
The world, and not the infant failed,
It was not ripe yet, to sustain
A genius of so fine a strain,
Who gazed upon the sun and moon
As if he came unto his own,
And pregnant wit...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...ks,
Shy to illumine; and I seek it too.
This does not come with houses or with gold,
With place, with honour, and a flattering crew;
'Tis not in the world's market bought and sold--
But the smooth-slipping weeks
Drop by, and leave its seeker still untired;
Out of the heed of mortals he is gone,
He wends unfollow'd, he must house alone;
Yet on he fares, by his own heart inspired.

Thou too, O Thyrsis, on like quest wast bound;
Thou wanderedst with me for a little hour!...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs