Famous Fretted Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Absalom And Achitophel

...ss, unfixt in principles and place;
In pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of disgrace.
A fiery soul, which working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay:
And o'er inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near alli'd;
And thin partitions do their bounds divide:
Else, why should he, with ...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John


Alastor: or the Spirit of Solitude

...tions. Calm he still pursued
The stream, that with a larger volume now 
Rolled through the labyrinthine dell; and there
Fretted a path through its descending curves
With its wintry speed. On every side now rose
Rocks, which, in unimaginable forms,
Lifted their black and barren pinnacles
In the light of evening, and its precipice
Obscuring the ravine, disclosed above,
'Mid toppling stones, black gulfs and yawning caves,
Whose windings gave ten thousand various tongues
To the l...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Beowulf (Modern English)

...mission.
I wish to resume my watch by the sea against wrathful hosts!” (ll. 312-19)

 

V.

The street was stone-fretted, guiding the way
for the men in rows. Their war-byrnies glittered,
hard and hand-linked, shining ringed iron
sang in their setting, when they came marching
even to the hall, in their terrible war-coats.
Wearied from the sea, they set down broad shields,
bosses shower-hardened, against the wall of the building,
then bent down to benches, sarks ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...y by day the Danes should honor,
the folk of Hengest favor with rings,
even as truly, with treasure and jewels,
with fretted gold, as his Frisian kin
he meant to honor in ale-hall there.
Pact of peace they plighted further
on both sides firmly. Finn to Hengest
with oath, upon honor, openly promised
that woful remnant, with wise-men’s aid,
nobly to govern, so none of the guests
by word or work should warp the treaty, {16h}
or with malice of mind bemoan themselves
a...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bride of Abydos The

...redeem'd from time; 
And o'er those scrolls, not oft so mute, 
Reclines her now neglected lute; 
And round her lamp of fretted gold 
Bloom flowers in urns of China's mould; 
The richest work of Iran's loom, 
And Sheeraz' tribute of perfume; 
All that can eye or sense delight 
Are gather'd in that gorgeous room: 
But yet it hath an air of gloom. 
She, of this Peri cell the sprite, 
What doth she hence, and on so rude a night? 

VI. 

Wrapt in the darkest sable vest, 
Which no...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)


Corn

...rooding mind
He mourned his fate unkind.
In dust, in rain, with might and main,
He nursed his cotton, cursed his grain,
Fretted for news that made him fret again,
Snatched at each telegram of Future Sale,
And thrilled with Bulls' or Bears' alternate wail --
In hope or fear alike for ever pale.
And thus from year to year, through hope and fear,
With many a curse and many a secret tear,
Striving in vain his cloud of debt to clear,
At last
He woke to find his foolish dreaming pa...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

Custer

...flight alone.

IV.

He who was born for battle and for strife
Like some caged eagle frets in peaceful life; 
So Custer fretted when detained afar
From scenes of stirring action and of war.
And as the captive eagle in delight, 
When freedom offers, plumes himself for flight
And soars away to thunder clouds on high, 
With palpitating wings and wild exultant cry, 

V.

So lion-hearted Custer sprang to arms, 
And gloried in the conflict's loud alarms.
But one dark shadow marred ...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

...proud, impute to these the fault,
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle, and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn, or animated bust,
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have...Read more of this...
by Gray, Thomas

Endymion: Book I

...r'd in western cloudiness, that takes
The semblance of gold rocks and bright gold sands,
Islands, and creeks, and amber-fretted strands
With horses prancing o'er them, palaces
And towers of amethyst,--would I so tease
My pleasant days, because I could not mount
Into those regions? The Morphean fount
Of that fine element that visions, dreams,
And fitful whims of sleep are made of, streams
Into its airy channels with so subtle,
So thin a breathing, not the spider's shuttle,
Cir...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Isabella or The Pot of Basil

...uring, "Where? O where?"

XXXI.
But Selfishness, Love's cousin, held not long
Its fiery vigil in her single breast;
She fretted for the golden hour, and hung
Upon the time with feverish unrest--
Not long--for soon into her heart a throng
Of higher occupants, a richer zest,
Came tragic; passion not to be subdued,
And sorrow for her love in travels rude.

XXXII.
In the mid days of autumn, on their eves
The breath of Winter comes from far away,
And the sick west continually bere...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

Lara

...ly lies. 
He wandering mused, and as the moonbeam shone 
Through the dim lattice o'er the floor of stone, 
And the high fretted roof, and saints, that there 
O'er Gothic windows knelt in pictured prayer, 
Reflected in fantastic figures grew, 
Like life, but not like mortal life, to view; 
His bristling locks of sable, brow of gloom, 
And the wide waving of his shaken plume, 
Glanced like a spectre's attributes, and gave 
His aspect all that terror gives the grave. 

XII. 

'T...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Panthea

...
Nor ever falls the swift white-feathered snow,
Nor ever doth the red-toothed lightning dare
To wake them in the silver-fretted night
When we lie weeping for some sweet sad sin, some dead delight.

Alas! they know the far Lethaean spring,
The violet-hidden waters well they know,
Where one whose feet with tired wandering
Are faint and broken may take heart and go,
And from those dark depths cool and crystalline
Drink, and draw balm, and sleep for sleepless souls, and anodyne.
...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...rs overlaid 
With golden architrave; nor did there want 
Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven; 
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon 
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence 
Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 
Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 
In wealth and luxury. Th' ascending pile 
Stood fixed her stately height, and straight the doors, 
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
Within, her ample spaces o...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Passage to India

...ongs. 

Then, not your deeds only, O voyagers, O scientists and inventors, shall be justified, 
All these hearts, as of fretted children, shall be sooth’d, 
All affection shall be fully responded to—the secret shall be told; 
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up, and hook’d and link’d
 together;
The whole Earth—this cold, impassive, voiceless Earth, shall be completely justified;

Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish’d and compacted by the the Son of God...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Pickthorn Manor

...m-hued, with bricks
Bloomed in the sun like roses, low and long, Gabled, 
and with quaint tricks
Of chimneys carved and fretted. Out of these
Grey smoke was shaken, which the faint Spring breeze
Tossed into nothing. Then a thrush's 
song

XVII
Needled its way through sound of bees and river. The 
notes fell, round and starred, between young leaves,
Trilled to a spiral lilt, stopped on a quiver. The Lady Eunice 
listens and believes.
Gervase has many tales of her dear Lord, Hi...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Bride of Abydos

...redeem'd from time; 
And o'er those scrolls, not oft so mute, 
Reclines her now neglected lute; 
And round her lamp of fretted gold 
Bloom flowers in urns of China's mould; 
The richest work of Iran's loom, 
And Sheeraz' tribute of perfume; 
All that can eye or sense delight 
Are gather'd in that gorgeous room: 
But yet it hath an air of gloom. 
She, of this Peri cell the sprite, 
What doth she hence, and on so rude a night? 

VI. 

Wrapt in the darkest sable vest, 
Which no...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Emigrants: Book I

...es; around her run,
On the rough shingles, or the chalky bourn,
Her gay unconscious children, soon amus'd;
Who pick the fretted stone, or glossy shell,
Or crimson plant marine: or they contrive
The fairy vessel, with its ribband sail
And gilded paper pennant: in the pool,
Left by the salt wave on the yielding sands,
They launch the mimic navy--Happy age!
Unmindful of the miseries of Man!--
Alas! too long a victim to distress,
Their Mother, lost in melancholy thought,
Lull'd f...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte

The Hound of Heaven

...e margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clange d bars,
Fretted to dulcet jars and silvern chatter
The pale ports of the moon.

I said to Dawn --- be sudden, to Eve --- be soon,
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover.
Float thy vague veil about me lest He see.
I tempted all His servitors but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him, their fickleness to me,
Their t...Read more of this...
by Thompson, Francis

The Palace of Art

...phantasms weeping tears of blood,
And horrible nightmares,


And hollow shades enclosing hearts of flame,
And, with dim fretted foreheads all,
On corpses three-months-old at noon she came,
That stood against the wall.


A spot of dull stagnation, without light
Or power of movement, seem'd my soul,
'Mid onward-sloping motions infinite
Making for one sure goal.


A still salt pool, lock'd in with bars of sand,
Left on the shore, that hears all night
The plunging seas draw backw...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The White Cliffs

...ate a phase
For one as cool and beautiful as she.

We were not friends or foes. She seemed to be
Always a little irked— fretted to find
That other women lived among mankind.
Now for the first time after years of meeting,
Never exchanging more than formal greeting,
She spoke to me— that sharp determined way
People will speak when they have things to say.

XLVII 
ROSAMUND: Susan, go home with your offspring. Fly. 
Live in America. SUSAN: Rosamund, why? 
ROSAMUND: Why, my dear g...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

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