Famous Forsworn Poems by Famous Poets

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

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133. The Brigs of Ayr

...ld disgrace the building taste
Of any mason reptile, bird or beast:
Fit only for a doited monkish race,
Or frosty maids forsworn the dear embrace,
Or cuifs of later times, wha held the notion,
That sullen gloom was sterling, true devotion:
Fancies that our guid Brugh denies protection,
And soon may they expire, unblest wi’ resurrection!”


AULD BRIG “O ye, my dear-remember’d, ancient yealings,
Were ye but here to share my wounded feelings!
Ye worthy Proveses, an’ mony a Baili...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


Epilogue

...lf pitying overhead
And almost had foregone the freight
Of those dark hours the next day bred
For shame, and almost had forsworn
Service of night for love of morn.

Then broke the whole night in one blow,
Thundering; then all hell with one throe
Heaved, and brought forth beneath the stroke
Death; and all dead things moved and woke
That the dawn's arrows had brought low,
At the great sound of night that broke
Thundering, and all the old world-wide woe;
And under night's loud-s...Read more of this...
by Swinburne, Algernon Charles

Epipsychidion (excerpt)

...or,
No keel has ever plough'd that path before;
The halcyons brood around the foamless isles;
The treacherous Ocean has forsworn its wiles;
The merry mariners are bold and free:
Say, my heart's sister, wilt thou sail with me?
Our bark is as an albatross, whose nest
Is a far Eden of the purple East;
And we between her wings will sit, while Night,
And Day, and Storm, and Calm, pursue their flight,
Our ministers, along the boundless Sea,
Treading each other's heels, unheededly.
...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament (excerpt)

...t--
We run more counter to the soul thereof
Than had we never sworn. I swear no more.
I swore to the great King, and am forsworn.
For once--ev'n to the height--I honour'd him.
'Man, is he man at all?' methought, when first
I rode from our rough Lyonnesse, and beheld
That victor of the Pagan throned in hall--
His hair, a sun that ray'd from off a brow
Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes,
The golden beard that clothed his lips with light--
Moreover, that weird leg...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Long time in wine and rose I took delight,

...ook delight,
But then my business never went aright;
Since wine could not accomplish my desire,
I have abandoned and forsworn it quite....Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar


Pelleas And Ettarre

...l, 
I cannot brook to see your beauty marred 
Through evil spite: and if ye love me not, 
I cannot bear to dream you so forsworn: 
I had liefer ye were worthy of my love, 
Than to be loved again of you--farewell; 
And though ye kill my hope, not yet my love, 
Vex not yourself: ye will not see me more.' 

While thus he spake, she gazed upon the man 
Of princely bearing, though in bonds, and thought, 
`Why have I pushed him from me? this man loves, 
If love there be: yet him I ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Sonnet 152: In loving thee thou knowst I am forsworn

...In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing:
In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjured most,
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost.
For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet 66: Tired with all these for restful death I cry

...estful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disablèd
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.
Tired with all these, from these ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet 88: When thou shalt be disposed to set me light

...place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side, against myself I'll fight,
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted,
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory.
And I by this will be a gainer too;
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myself I do,
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.
Such is my love, to thee...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet CLII

...In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing,
In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjured most;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee
And all my honest faith in thee is lost,
For I have sworn deep oaths of thy dee...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet LXVI

...stful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from thes...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet LXXXVIII

...d place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side against myself I'll fight,
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted,
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory:
And I by this will be a gainer too;
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myself I do,
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.
Such is my love, to thee...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Take O take those Lips away

...TAKE, O take those lips away, 
 That so sweetly were forsworn; 
And those eyes, the break of day, 
 Lights that do mislead the morn! 
But my kisses bring again, 
 Bring again; 
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, 
 Seal'd in vain!...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Take Oh Take Those Lips Away

...Take, oh take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn,
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again,
Seals of love, but sealed in vain.

Hide, oh hide those hills of snow,
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are yet of those that April wears.
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee....Read more of this...
by Fletcher, John Gould

The Blossom

...hee from thy thorn: 
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet; 
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet! 
Do not call it sin in me 
That I am forsworn for thee; 
Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear 
Juno but an Ethiop were; 
And deny himself for Jove, 
Turning mortal for thy love....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Equilibrists

...them cold as steel. 

At length I saw these lovers fully were come 
Into their torture of equilibrium; 
Dreadfully had forsworn each other, and yet 
They were bound each to each, and they did not forget. 

And rigid as two painful stars, and twirled 
About the clustered night their prison world, 
They burned with fierce love always to come near, 
But honor beat them back and kept them clear 
. 
Ah, the strict lovers, they are ruined now! 
I cried in anger. But with puddled b...Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe

The Last Tournament

...
We run more counter to the soul thereof 
Than had we never sworn. I swear no more. 
I swore to the great King, and am forsworn. 
For once--even to the height--I honoured him. 
"Man, is he man at all?" methought, when first 
I rode from our rough Lyonnesse, and beheld 
That victor of the Pagan throned in hall-- 
His hair, a sun that rayed from off a brow 
Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes, 
The golden beard that clothed his lips with light-- 
Moreover, that w...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Scrutiny

...Why should you swear I am forsworn,
Since thine I vowed to be?
Lady, it is already morn,
And 'twas last night I swore to thee
That fond impossibility.

Have I not loved thee much and long,
A tedious twelve hours' space?
I must all other beauties wrong,
And rob thee of a new embrace,
Could I still dote upon thy face.

Not but all joy in thy brown hair
By others may be found;— 
But I m...Read more of this...
by Lovelace, Richard

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