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Famous Forsook Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wheatley, Phillis
...Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;
Majestic grandeur!  From the zephyr's wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.
  Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are
    spread!
But the west glories in...Read more of this...



by Wilde, Oscar
...h such strange arts this flower did allure
That all forgotten was the asphodel,
And the brown bee, the lily's paramour,
Forsook the cup where he was wont to dwell,
For not a thing of earth it seemed to be,
But stolen from some heavenly Arcady.

In vain the sad narcissus, wan and white
At its own beauty, hung across the stream,
The purple dragon-fly had no delight
With its gold dust to make his wings a-gleam,
Ah! no delight the jasmine-bloom to kiss,
Or brush the rain-pear...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ou here, good swain? Hath any ram
Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,
Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?
How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook?
 SPIR. O my loved master's heir, and his next joy,
I came not here on such a trivial toy
As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth
Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth
That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought
To this my errand, and the care it brought.
But, oh ! my virgin Lady...Read more of this...

by Jonson, Ben
...ves, and think it fit, For their own capital crimes, to indict my wit ; I that have suffer'd this ;  and though forsook Of fortune, have not alter'd yet my look, Or so myself abandon'd, as because Men are not just, or keep no holy laws Of nature and society, I should faint ;If it may stand with your soft blush, to hear Yourself but told unto yourself, and see In my character what your features be, You will not from the paper slightly pass :...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...ce,
With panting hounds beguiled of their prey:
So after long pursuit and vain assay,
When I all weary had the chase forsook,
The gentle deer return'd the self-same way,
Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brook.
There she beholding me with milder look,
Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide:
Till I in hand her yet half trembling took,
And with her own goodwill her firmly tied.
Strange thing, me seem'd, to see a beast so wild,
So goodly won, w...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...f-form'd threat in utterance there had died, 
Some imprecation of despairing pride; 
His eye was almost seal'd, but not forsook 
Even in its trance the gladiator's look, 
That oft awake his aspect could disclose, 
And now was fix'd in horrible repose. 
They raise him — bear him: hush! he breathes, he speaks! 
The swarthy blush recolours in his cheeks, 
His lip resumes its red, his eye, though dim, 
Rolls wide and wild, each slowly quivering limb 
Recalls its function, but...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...ght?"
Not knowing of thee, thy face not knowing, O mother,
O light wherethrough the darkness is as light.

Men that forsook thee hast thou not forsaken,
Races of men that knew not hast thou known;
Nations that slept thou hast doubted not to waken,
Worshippers of strange Gods to make thine own.

All old grey histories hiding thy clear features,
O secret spirit and sovereign, all men's tales,
Creeds woven of men thy children and thy creatures,
They have woven for vestur...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...every creature talk'd at once,
Or like the variegated gabble,
That crazed the carpenters of Babel.
Each party soon forsook the quarrel,
And let the other go on parol,
Eager to know what fearful matter
Had conjured up such general clatter;
And left the church in thin array,
As though it had been lecture-day.
Our 'Squire M'Fingal straitway beckon'd
The Constable to stand his second;
And sallied forth with aspect fierce
The crowd assembled to disperse.


The Moderat...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...r obscure, 
Can execute their airy purposes, 
And works of love or enmity fulfil. 
For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
To bestial gods; for which their heads as low 
Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 
Of despicable foes. With these in troop 
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 
Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns; 
To whose bright image nigntly by the...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...from such deformities be free, 
And, for his Maker's image sake, exempt? 
Their Maker's image, answered Michael, then 
Forsook them, when themselves they vilified 
To serve ungoverned Appetite; and took 
His image whom they served, a brutish vice, 
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. 
Therefore so abject is their punishment, 
Disfiguring not God's likeness, but their own; 
Or if his likeness, by themselves defaced; 
While they pervert pure Nature's healthful rules 
To lo...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ammation which no cooling herb
Or rnedcinal liquor can asswage,
Nor breath of Vernal 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 ...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...ssler --
Tyranny bethought

Make of his only Boy a Target
That surpasses Death --
Stolid to Love's supreme entreaty
Not forsook of Faith --

Mercy of the Almighty begging --
Tell his Arrow sent --
God it is said replies in Person
When the cry is meant --...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...ow of himself 
75 That lay elsewhere around him. Severance 
76 Was clear. The last distortion of romance 
77 Forsook the insatiable egotist. The sea 
78 Severs not only lands but also selves. 
79 Here was no help before reality. 
80 Crispin beheld and Crispin was made new. 
81 The imagination, here, could not evade, 
82 In poems of plums, the strict austerity 
83 Of one vast, subjugating, final tone. 
84 The drenching of stale lives no mo...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...ridge that's in the dale,  And now the thought torments her sore,  Johnny perhaps his horse forsook,  To hunt the moon that's in the brook,  And never will be heard of more.   And now she's high upon the down,  Alone amid a prospect wide;  There's neither Johnny nor his horse,  Among the fern or in the gorse;  There's neither doctor nor his guid...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...named the place,
     And, pressing forward like the wind,
     Left clamor and surprise behind.
     The fisherman forsook the strand,
     The swarthy smith took dirk and brand;
     With changed cheer, the mower blithe
     Left in the half-cut swath his scythe;
     The herds without a keeper strayed,
     The plough was in mid-furrow staved,
     The falconer tossed his hawk away,
     The hunter left the stag at hay;
     Prompt at the signal of alarms,
   ...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...now tries his wily Arts,
And wins (oh shameful Chance!) the Queen of Hearts.
At this, the Blood the Virgin's Cheek forsook,
A livid Paleness spreads o'er all her Look; 
She sees, and trembles at th' approaching Ill,
Just in the Jaws of Ruin, and Codille.
And now, (as oft in some distemper'd State)
On one nice Trick depends the gen'ral Fate.
An Ace of Hearts steps forth: The King unseen
Lurk'd in her Hand, and mourn'd his captive Queen.
He springs to Vengeance...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...scholar poor,
Of pregnant parts and quick inventive brain,
Who, tired of knocking at preferment's door,
One summer-morn forsook
His friends, and went to learn the gypsy-lore,
And roamed the world with that wild brotherhood,
And came, as most men deemed, to little good,
But came to Oxford and his friends no more.

But once, years after, in the country lanes,
Two scholars, whom at college erst he knew,
Met him, and of his way of life enquired;
Whereat he answered, that the ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...broke 
Which freed her from the unchristian yoke, 
With him his gentle daughter came; 
Nor there, since Menelaus' dame 
Forsook her lord and land, to prove 
What woes await on lawless love, 
Had fairer form adorn'd the shore 
Than she, the matchless stranger, bore. 

X. 


The wall is rent, the ruins yawn, 
And, with to-morrow's earliest dawn, 
O'er the disjointed mass shall vault 
The foremost of the fierce assault. 
The bands are rank'd; the chosen van 
Of Tarta...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...he circling skies.—The father next, who erst by Heaven's commandForsook his home, and sought the promised land;The hallow'd scene of wide-redeeming grace:And to the care of Heaven consign'd his race.Then Jacob, cheated in his amorous vows,Who led in either hand a Syrian spouse;And youthful Jos...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...es woulde preach prevent it
And me of olde Roman gestes* teach *stories
How that Sulpitius Gallus left his wife
And her forsook for term of all his
For nought but open-headed* he her say** *bare-headed **saw
Looking out at his door upon a day.
Another Roman 27 told he me by name,
That, for his wife was at a summer game
Without his knowing, he forsook her eke.
And then would he upon his Bible seek
That ilke* proverb of Ecclesiast, *same
Where he commandeth, and forbidd...Read more of this...

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