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Famous Frigate Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by McGonagall, William Topaz
...to ye
A great and heroic naval fight,
Which will fill your hearts with delight. 

The fight was between the French Frigate "Pique" and the British Frigate "Blanche,"
But the British crew were bold and staunch;
And the battle was fought in West Indian waters in the year of 1795,
And for to gain the victory the French did nobly strive. 

And on the morning of the 4th of January while cruising off Gadulope,
The look-out man from the foretop loudly spoke,
And cried, "Sai...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...As our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine,
Made play for her bully the Ship of the Line;
So we, her bold daughters by iron and fire,
Accost and decoy to our masters' desire.

Now, pray you, consider what toils we endure,
Night-walking wet sea-lanes, a guard and a lure;
Since half of our trade is that same pretty sort
As mettlesome wenches do practise in port.

For...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...n us upon thy breast; 
 Rose-posied pillow, crystallized with spray, 
 Where pools pellucid mirror sunny ray. 
 
 A frigate fretting yonder smoothest sky, 
 Like pauseless petrel poising o'er a wreck, 
 Strikes bright athwart the dearly dazzled eye, 
 Until it lessens to scarce certain speck, 
 'Neath Venus, sparkling on the agate-sprinkled beach, 
 For fisher's sailing-signal, just and true, 
 Until Aurora frights her from the view. 
 
 In summer, steamer-smoke s...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...Hogarth his wife. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus at Adgecomb. 

Let Dawn, house of Dawn rejoice with The Frigate Bird which is found upon the coasts of India. 

Let Horton, house of Horton rejoice with Birdlime -- Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus against the destruction of Small Birds. 

Let Arne, house of Arne rejoice with The Jay of Bengal. God be gracious to Arne his wife to Michael and Charles Burney. 

Let Westbrooke, house of Westbroo...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...quick sailing
(Thick weather prevailing )
We leave them behind ( as we do now and then)
We are sure of a gun from
Each frigate we run from,
Which is often destruction to poor honest men!

Broadsides the Atlantic
We tumble short-handed,
With shot-holes to plug and new canvas to bend;
And off the Azores,
Dutch, Dons and Monsieurs
Are waiting to terrify poor honest men.

Napoleon's embargo
Is laid on all cargo
Which comfort or aid to King George may intend;
And since roll, ...Read more of this...



by Walcott, Derek
...almonds
where the dry old men sat

watching a white schooner stuck in the branches
and playing draughts with the moving frigate birds

those hillsides like broken pots

those ferns that stamped their skeletons on the skin

and those roads that begin reciting their names at vespers

mention them and they will stop
those crabs that were willing to let an epoch pass
those herons like spinsters that doubted their reflections
inquiring, inquiring

those nettles that waited
those S...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...he magazine is now stopt by the sentinels, 
They see so many strange faces, they do not know whom to trust.

Our frigate takes fire; 
The other asks if we demand quarter? 
If our colors are struck, and the fighting is done? 

Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain, 
We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our part
 of the fighting.

Only three guns are in use; 
One is directed by the captain himself against the e...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...h high emprise
     For one kind glance of those bright eyes.
     Permit me first the task to guide
     Your fairy frigate o'er the tide.'
     The maid, with smile suppressed and sly,
     The toil unwonted saw him try;
     For seldom, sure, if e'er before,
     His noble hand had grasped an oar:
     Yet with main strength his strokes he drew,
     And o'er the lake the shallop flew;
     With heads erect and whimpering cry,
     The hounds behind their passag...Read more of this...

by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...to rise
 Death teeming in by her portholes
Raced down decks, round messes of mortals. 

 11

Then a lurch forward, frigate and men;
'All hands for themselves' the cry ran then;
 But she who had housed them thither
Was around them, bound them or wound them with her. 

 12

Marcus Hare, high her captain,
Kept to her—care-drowned and wrapped in
 Cheer's death, would follow
His charge through the champ-white water-in-a-wallow, 

 13

All under Channel to bury in a beach ...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...and on the outward tack,
We are paid in the coin of the white man's trade -- the bezant is hard, ay, and black.
The frigate-bird shall carry my word to the Kling and the Orang-Laut
How a man may sail from a heathen coast to be robbed in a Christian port;
How a man may be robbed in Christian port while Three Great Captains there
Shall dip their flag to a slaver's rag -- to show that his trade is fair!"...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry --
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll --
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul....Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...ugh never yet, in any Port --
Their coming, mentioned -- be --

If spoken by the distant Bird --
If met in Ether Sea
By Frigate, or by Merchantman --
No notice -- was -- to me --...Read more of this...

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