Famous Foils Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Honey Harvest

...out at once to loot the heathery heights.

That vintage of the Heather yields so dense
And glutinous a syrup that it foils
Him who would spare the comb and drain from thence
Its dark, full-flavoured spoils:
For he must squeeze to wreck the beautiful
Frail edifice. Not otherwise he sacks
Those many-chambered palaces of wax.

Then let a choice of every kind be made,
And, labelled, set upon your storehouse racks —
Of Hawthorn-honey that of almond smacks:
The lusciou...Read more of this...
by Armstrong, Martin


Jubilate Agno: Fragment B Part 1

...avour, and the very look of him harmonizes the mind. 

Let Jael rejoice with the Plover, who whistles for his live, and foils the marksmen and their guns. 

Let Raguel rejoice with the Cock of Portugal -- God send good Angels to the allies of England! 

Let Hobab rejoice with Necydalus, who is the Greek of a Grub. 

Let Zurishaddai with the Polish Cock rejoice -- The Lord restore peace to Europe. 

Let Zuar rejoice with the Guinea Hen -- The Lord add to his mercies in the WES...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Lara

...find the firmest of the foe 
Recoil before their leader's look and blow; 
Now girt with numbers, now almost alone, 
He foils their ranks, or reunites his own; 
Himself he spared not — once they seem'd to fly — 
Now was the time, he waved his hand on high, 
And shook — Why sudden droops that plumed crest? 
The shaft is sped — the arrow's in his breast! 
That fatal gesture left the unguarded side, 
And Death hath stricken down yon arm of pride. 
The word of triumph fainted fro...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Late Spring

...ir way,
Thronging in haste to kiss the feet of May, 
And mingled with the bloom of later hours, --
Anemonies and cinque-foils, violets blue 
And white, and iris richly gleaming through 
The grasses of the meadow, and a blaze 
Of butter-cups and daisies in the field, 
Filling the air with praise,
As if a silver chime of bells had pealed!
The frozen songs within the breast
Of silent birds that hid in leafless woods, 
Melt into rippling floods 
Of gladness unrepressed. 
Now orio...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

Life

...a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;
And that is life!
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul


Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book

...n cunning, over-reached where least he thought,
To salve his credit, and for very spite,
Still will be tempting him who foils him still,
And never cease, though to his shame the more;
Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,
About the wine-press where sweet must is poured,
Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;
Or surging waves against a solid rock,
Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,
(Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end— 
So Satan, whom repulse upon ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet XCVIII

...y courtesy,E'er traced in dame by Love's soft power inspired,Would seem but foils to those which prompt my lay:Upon the ground was cast her gentle eye,And still methought, though silent, she inquired,"What bears my faithful friend so soon, so far away?" Wrangham.  Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

...ndoostan,
While the blade of a Turkish yataghan
Made a waving streak of vitreous white
Upon the wall, in the firelight.
Foils with buttons broken or lost
Lay heaped on a chair, among them tossed
The boarding-pike of a privateer.
Against the chimney leaned a *****
Two-handed weapon, with edges dull
As though from hacking on a skull.
The rusted blood corroded it still.
My host took up a paper spill
From a heap which lay in an earthen bowl,
And lighted it at a burning coal.
At e...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Lady of the Lake

...
     James will be there; he loves such show,
     Where the good yeoman bends his bow,
     And the tough wrestler foils his foe,
     As well as where, in proud career,
     The high-born filter shivers spear.
     I'll follow to the Castle-park,
     And play my prize;—King James shall mark
     If age has tamed these sinews stark,
     Whose force so oft in happier days
     His boyish wonder loved to praise.'
     XXI.

     The Castle gates were open flung...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Triumph Of Eternity

...As at a goal reposing from his toils,Like earth unclothed of all its vernal foils.Unvaried scene! where neither change nor fate,Nor care, nor sorrow, can our joys abate;Nor finds the light of thought resistance here,More than the sunbeams in a crystal sphere.But no material things can match their flight,Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Victory

...(how many conditionals must we suffer?) 
I'm driving to your side
—an intimate collusion—
packed in the trunk my bag of foils for fencing with pain
glasses of varying spectrum for sun or fog or sun-struck
 rain or bitterest night my sack of hidden
poetries, old glue shredding from their spines

my time exposure of the Leonids
 over Joshua Tree

As if we're going to win this O because

•

If you have a sister I am not she
nor your mother nor you my daughter
nor are we lovers o...Read more of this...
by Rich, Adrienne

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