Famous Foretell Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Poem Upon The Death Of O.C

...e boding Princes falls, and seldom vain.
Whether some Kinder Pow'rs, that wish us well,
What they above cannot prevent, foretell;
Or the great World do by consent presage,
As hollow Seas with future Tempests rage:
Or rather Heav'n, which us so long fore sees,
Their fun'rals celebrate while it decrees.
But never yet was any humane Fate
By nature solemniz'd with so much state.
He unconcern'd the dreadful passage crost;
But oh what pangs that Death did Nature cost!
First the gre...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew


An April Day

...f the plain.

I love the season well,
When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,
Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell
The coming-on of storms.

From the earth's loosened mould
The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;
Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold,
The drooping tree revives.

The softly-warbled song
Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings
Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along
The forest openings.

When the bright sunset fi...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Dark Truth

...
Yon thrush that serenades me daily
From scented snow of hawthorn bloom
Would not trill out his glee so gaily,
Could he foretell his songful breath
Would sadly soon be stilled in death.

Yon lambs that frolic on the lea
And incarnate the joy of life,
Would scarce disport them could they see
The shadow of the butcher's knife:
Oh Nature, with your loving ruth,
You spare them knowledge of Dark Truth.

To sad humanity alone,
(Creation's triumph ultimate)
The grimness of the grave...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

In A Year

...et:
I would die if death bequeathed
Sweet to him.

V.

``Speak, I love thee best!''
He exclaimed:
``Let thy love my own foretell!''
I confessed:
``Clasp my heart on thine
``Now unblamed,
``Since upon thy soul as well
``Hangeth mine!''

VI.

Was it wrong to own,
Being truth?
Why should all the giving prove
His alone?
I had wealth and ease,
Beauty, youth:
Since my lover gave me love,
I gave these.

VII.

That was all I meant,
---To be just,
And the passion I had raised,
To cont...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

In the cicada's cry

...In the cicada's cry
No sign can foretell
How soon it must die. ...Read more of this...
by Basho, Matsuo


MFingal - Canto II

...hands?


"Sir," quoth Honorius, "we presume
You guess from past feats what's to come,
And from the mighty deeds of Gage
Foretell how fierce the war he'll wage.
You doubtless recollected here
The annals of his first great year:
While, wearying out the Tories' patience,
He spent his breath in proclamations;
While all his mighty noise and vapour
Was used in wrangling upon paper,
And boasted military fits
Closed in the straining of his wits;
While troops, in Boston commons placed...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

On the Welch Language

...Much better than to others is their own;
And with such state, predictions from him fell,
As if he did decree, and not foretell.
This spoke King Arthur, who, if fame be true,
Could have compelled mankind to speak it too.
In this one Boadicca valor taught,
And spoke more nobly than her soldiers fought:
Tell me what hero could be more than she,
Who fell at once for fame and liberty?
Nor could a greater sacrifice belong,
Or to her children's, or her country's wrong.
Th...Read more of this...
by Philips, Katherine

Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book

...world? The Wilderness
For thee is fittest place: I found thee there,
And thither will return thee. Yet remember
What I foretell thee; soon thou shalt have cause
To wish thou never hadst rejected, thus
Nicely or cautiously, my offered aid,
Which would have set thee in short time with ease
On David's throne, or throne of all the world,
Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season, 
When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.
Now, contrary—if I read aught in heaven,
Or heaven w...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Ravenna

...f withered bays!

Yet who beneath this night of wars and fears,
From tranquil tower can watch the coming years;
Who can foretell what joys the day shall bring,
Or why before the dawn the linnets sing?
Thou, even thou, mayst wake, as wakes the rose
To crimson splendour from its grave of snows;
As the rich corn-fields rise to red and gold
From these brown lands, now stiff with Winter's cold;
As from the storm-rack comes a perfect star!

O much-loved city! I have wandered far
Fr...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Sonnet 01

...ess in love; O if Jove's will
Have linkt that amorous power to thy soft lay,
Now timely sing, ere the rude Bird of Hate
Foretell my hopeles doom in som Grove ny: 
As thou from yeer to yeer hast sung too late
For my relief; yet hadst no reason why,
Whether the Muse, or Love call thee his mate,
Both them I serve, and of their train am I....Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet LXXX

...sDesire and Reason: and the best shall beat;If mortal spirits here can good foretell. Macgregor.  Alas! I know death makes us all his prey,Nor aught of mercy shows to destined man;How swift the world completes its circling span,And faithless Time ...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Sonnet to the Nightingale

...in love. O if Jove’s will 
Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay, 
Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate 
Foretell my hopeless doom, in some grove nigh;
As thou from year to year hast sung too late 
For my relief, yet had’st no reason why. 
Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate, 
Both them I serve, and of their train am I....Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Death of Cromwell

...eboding princes' falls, and seldom vain. 
Whether some kinder powers that wish us well, 
What they above cannot prevent foretell; 
Or the great world do by consent presage, 
As hollow seas with future tempests rage; 
Or rather heaven, which us so long foresees, 
Their funerals celebrates while it decrees. 
But never yet was any human fate 
By Nature solemnized with so much state. 
He unconcerned the dreadful passage crossed; 
But, oh, what pangs that death did Nature cost! 

...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

The Flight

...he sedge
 Aghast that they were gone!

And, when men prayed them come anew 
 And nest where they were bred,
"Nay, fools foretell what knaves will do,"
 Was all the grey geese said....Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Flight Of The Duchess

...art thou fitted to adore,
``To give thy wondrous self away,
``And take a stronger nature's sway?
``I foresee and could foretell
``Thy future portion, sure and well:
``But those passionate eyes speak true, speak true,
``Let them say what thou shalt do!
``Only be sure thy daily life,
``In its peace or in its strife,
``Never shall be unobserved:
``We pursue thy whole career,
``And hope for it, or doubt, or fear,---
``Lo, hast thou kept thy path or swerved,
``We are beside thee ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Lady of the Lake

...
     If, as my tuneful fathers said,
     This harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed,
     Can thus its master's fate foretell,
     Then welcome be the minstrel's knell.'
     VIII.

     'But ah! dear lady, thus it sighed,
     The eve thy sainted mother died;
     And such the sounds which, while I strove
     To wake a lay of war or love,
     Came marring all the festal mirth,
     Appalling me who gave them birth,
     And, disobedient to my call,
     Wail...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

To The Nightingale

...s in love; O, if Jove's will
Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay,
Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate
Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh;
As thou from year to year hast sung too late
For my relief, yet hadst no reason why:
Whether the Muse, or Love, call thee his mate,
Both them I serve, and of their train am I....Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Two Men (J. L. And R. B.)

...en;
By them like a shrimp was I -
Yet alas! they had to die.

Jack was genius through and through.
Who his future could foretell?
What we sweated blood to do
He would deem a bagatelle.
Yet in youth he had to die,
And an ancient man am I.

Rex was rugged as an oak;
Story-teller born was he.
First of writing, fighting folk,
How he lived prodigiously!
Better man he was than I,
Yet forlorn he had to die.

Jack was made of god-like stuff,
Born to battle for the right;
Rex of fight...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Upon Cupid

...Love, like a gipsy, lately came,
And did me much importune
To see my hand, that by the same
He might foretell my fortune.

He saw my palm; and then, said he,
I tell thee, by this score here,
That thou, within few months, shalt be
The youthful Prince D'Amour here.

I smiled, and bade him once more prove,
And by some cross-line show it,
That I could ne'er be Prince of Love,
Though here the Princely Poet....Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

When Allah mixed my clay, He knew full well

...When Allah mixed my clay, He knew full well
My future acts, and could each one foretell;
Without His will no act of mine was wrought;
Is it then just to punish me in hell?...Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar

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