Famous Four Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Modern English)

...ul Scyldings,
so long as he lived, ancient and ferocious in war. (ll. 53-58)

From him, the head of the armies, came four children,
counted forth in a chain, awakened in the world,
Heorogar and Hrothgar and good Halga,
and I heard that his daughter was Onela’s queen,
the beloved bedfellow of the Battle-Scylfing. (ll. 59-63)

Then was Hrothgar given success in war,
praises in battle, so that his kinsfolk
eagerly obeyed him until the youth grew hardy,
a great compan...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

...ent, to take the pipe that Evangeline brought him,
And with a coal from the embers had lighted, he slowly continued:--
"Four days now are passed since the English ships at their anchors
Ride in the Gaspereau's mouth, with their cannon pointed against us.
What their design may be is unknown; but all are commanded
On the morrow to meet in the church, where his Majesty's mandate
Will be proclaimed as law in the land. Alas! in the mean time
Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts ...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Hyperion

...might be outspread
A soft and silken mat for Saturn's feet.
One moon, with alteration slow, had shed
Her silver seasons four upon the night,
And still these two were postured motionless,
Like natural sculpture in cathedral cavern;
The frozen God still couchant on the earth,
And the sad Goddess weeping at his feet:
Until at length old Saturn lifted up
His faded eyes, and saw his kingdom gone,
And all the gloom and sorrow ofthe place,
And that fair kneeling Goddess; and then sp...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Inferno (English)

...le
 he spake 
 A voice rose near us: "Hail!" it cried, "for he 
 Returns, who was departed." 
 Scarce
 it ceased 
 When four great spirits approached. They did not show 
 Sadness nor joy, but tranquil-eyed as though 
 Content in their dominion moved. My guide 
 Before I questioned told, "That first ye see, 
 With hand that fits the swordhilt, mark, for he 
 Is Homer, sovereign of the craft we tried, 
 Leader and lord of even the following three, - 
 Horace, and Ovid, and Luca...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Ode To Silence

...e cool-tongued, her the tranquil-hearted,
Whom evermore I follow wistfully,
Wandering Heaven and Earth and Hell and the four seasons through;
Thalia, not you,
Not you, Melpomene,
Not your incomparable feet, O thin Terpsichore, I seek in this great hall,
But one more pale, more pensive, most beloved of you all.
I seek her from afar,
I come from temples where her altars are,
From groves that bear her name,
Noisy with stricken victims now and sacrificial flame,
And cymbals struc...Read more of this...
by St. Vincent Millay, Edna


Snow

..., it’s twelve,
Isn’t it, now? He’s been here half an hour.
He says he left the village store at nine.
Three hours to do four miles—a mile an hour
Or not much better. Why, it doesn’t seem
As if a man could move that slow and move.
Try to think what he did with all that time.
And three miles more to go!”
“Don’t let him go.
Stick to him, Helen. Make him answer you.
That sort of man talks straight on all his life
From the last thing he said himself, stone deaf
To anything anyone ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Song of Myself

...slow—over-hand so sure:
They do not hasten—each man hits in his place. 

13
The ***** holds firmly the reins of his four horses—the block swags
 underneath on its tied-over chain; 
The ***** that drives the dray of the stone-yard—steady and tall he stands,
 pois’d on one leg on the string-piece; 
His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast, and loosens over his hip-band;

His glance is calm and commanding—he tosses the slouch of his hat away from
 his forehead...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Ballad of the White Horse

...
Yet heavy was his hand on sword,
Though light upon the string.

And as he stirred the strings of the harp
To notes but four or five,
The heart of each man moved in him
Like a babe buried alive.

And they felt the land of the folk-songs
Spread southward of the Dane,
And they heard the good Rhine flowing
In the heart of all Allemagne.

They felt the land of the folk-songs,
Where the gifts hang on the tree,
Where the girls give ale at morning
And the tears come easily.

The mig...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Dungeon

...bsp; No man like him the horn could sound,  And no man was so full of glee;  To say the least, four counties round.  Had heard of Simon Lee;  His master's dead, and no one now  Dwells in the hall of Ivor;  Men, dogs, and horses, all are dead;  He is the sole survivor.   His hunting feats have him bereft  Of his right eye, as you may see:  And then, what limbs those ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Four Ages of Man

...1.1 Lo now! four other acts upon the stage,
1.2 Childhood, and Youth, the Manly, and Old-age.
1.3 The first: son unto Phlegm, grand-child to water,
1.4 Unstable, supple, moist, and cold's his Nature.
1.5 The second: frolic claims his pedigree;
1.6 From blood and air, for hot and moist is he.
1.7 The third of fire and choler is compos'd,
1.8 Vindicative, and quarrelsome ...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

The Holy Grail

..., spire beyond spire, 
By grove, and garden-lawn, and rushing brook, 
Climbs to the mighty hall that Merlin built. 
And four great zones of sculpture, set betwixt 
With many a mystic symbol, gird the hall: 
And in the lowest beasts are slaying men, 
And in the second men are slaying beasts, 
And on the third are warriors, perfect men, 
And on the fourth are men with growing wings, 
And over all one statue in the mould 
Of Arthur, made by Merlin, with a crown, 
And peaked wing...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Hunting Of The Snark

...m!"


CONTENTS

Fit the First. The Landing
Fit the Second. The Bellman's Speech
Fit the Third. The Baker's Tale
Fit the Fourth. The Hunting
Fit the Fifth. The Beaver's Lesson
Fit the Sixth. The Barrister's Dream
Fit the Seventh. The Banker's Fate
Fit the Eighth. The Vanishing


Fit the First.

THE LANDING


"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
 As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
 By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Idiot Boy

...ye,  The bane of all that dread the devil.   I to the muses have been bound  These fourteen years, by strong indentures:  Oh gentle muses! let me tell  But half of what to him befel,  For sure he met with strange adventures.   Oh gentle muses! is this kind  Why will ye thus my suit repel?  Why of your further aid bereave me?  And can ye thus unfriended leave me?&n...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Lady of the Lake

...ome pipe of war
     Sends the hold pibroch from afar.'
     XVI.

     Far up the lengthened lake were spied
     Four darkening specks upon the tide,
     That, slow enlarging on the view,
     Four manned and massed barges grew,
     And, bearing downwards from Glengyle,
     Steered full upon the lonely isle;
     The point of Brianchoil they passed,
     And, to the windward as they cast,
     Against the sun they gave to shine
     The bold Sir Roderick's b...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Three Voices

...tered forth his gratitude
In words just short of being rude: 

For it had lost its shape and shine,
And it had cost him four-and-nine,
And he was going out to dine. 

"To dine!" she sneered in acid tone.
"To bend thy being to a bone
Clothed in a radiance not its own!" 

The tear-drop trickled to his chin:
There was a meaning in her grin
That made him feel on fire within. 

"Term it not 'radiance,'" said he:
"'Tis solid nutriment to me.
Dinner is Dinner: Tea is Tea." 

And she...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Triumph of Life

...it in thick lightnings
Were lost: I heard alone on the air's soft stream
The music of their ever moving wings.
All the four faces of that charioteer
Had their eyes banded . . . little profit brings
Speed in the van & blindness in the rear,
Nor then avail the beams that quench the Sun
Or that his banded eyes could pierce the sphere
Of all that is, has been, or will be done.--
So ill was the car guided, but it past
With solemn speed majestically on . . .
The crowd gave way, & ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The Vision of Judgment

...y, Is he not poet laureate, with his own lines on Martin the regicide staring him in the face? 

And 5thly, Putting the four preceding items together, with what conscience dare he call the attention of the laws to the publications of others, be they what they may? 

I say nothing of the cowardice of such a proceeding, its meanness speaks for itself; but I wish to touch upon the motive, which is neither more nor less than that Mr. S. has been laughed at a little in some recent...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Waste Land

...down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?
"What shall we ever do?"

The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.
When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said -
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself, 
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. H...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Three Women

...t to act.
A hot blue day had budded into something.

I wasn't ready. The white clouds rearing
Aside were dragging me in four directions.
I wasn't ready.
I had no reverence.
I thought I could deny the consequence--
But it was too late for that. It was too late, and the face
Went on shaping itself with love, as if I was ready.

SECOND VOICE:
It is a world of snow now. I am not at home.
How white these sheets are. The faces have no features.
They are bald and impossible, like th...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

White Flock

...
And city recollects its fate:
Here ruled Martha and Arackcheyev.



July 1914

I

Smells like burning. For four weeks now
The dry ground on the swamplands bakes.
Today even birds did not sing songs
And the aspen-tree does not shake.

Sun has stopped in divine displeasure
Easter rain did not pelt fields hard.
A one-legged passerby came here
And alone said in the yard:

"Awful times near. For freshly dug graves
There will be not be enough place soon.
Ex...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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