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Famous Furlong Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...ious in our art 
Shall count a little labour unrepaid? 
I have shed sweat enough, left flesh and bone 
On many a flinty furlong of this land. 
Also, the country-side is all on fire 
With rumours of a marching hitherward: 
Some say Vespasian cometh, some, his son. 
A black lynx snarled and pricked a tufted ear; 
Lust of my blood inflamed his yellow balls: 
I cried and threw my staff and he was gone. 
Twice have the robbers stripped and beaten me, 
And once a town declared me f...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert



...brains, no doubt, like galley-slaves the Turk
Pits for his pastime, Christians against Jews.

And more than that - a furlong on - why, there!
What bad use was that engine for, that wheel,
Or brake, not wheel - that harrow fit to reel
Men's bodies out like silk? with all the air
Of Tophet's tool, on earth left unaware,
Or brought to sharpen its rusty teeth of steel.

Then came a bit of stubbed ground, once a wood,
Next a marsh, it would seem, and now mere earth
Des...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...owly up this way.
The lovely lady, Christabel,
Whom her father loves so well,
What makes her in the wood so late,
A furlong from the castle gate?
She had dreams all yesternight
Of her own betrothed knight;
And she in the midnight wood will pray
For the weal of her lover that's far away.

She stole along, she nothing spoke,
The sighs she heaved were soft and low,
And naught was green upon the oak,
But moss and rarest mistletoe:
She kneels beneath the huge oak tre...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...is breed, 
And with head in front of the rest 
Fights on in the lead; 
When the jockeys are out with the whips, 
With a furlong to go, 
And the backers grow white in the lips -- 
Do you think they don't know? 
Do they know? As they come back to weigh 
In a whirlwind of cheers, 
Though the spurs have left marks of the fray, 
Though the sweat on the ears 
Gathers cold, and they sob with distress 
As they roll up the track, 
They know just as well their success 
As the man on th...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...o the front when the flag was let fall, 
For none there could match her, and none tried to catch her -- 
She finished a furlong in front of them all. 

"You bet that I went for the boy, whom I sent for 
The moment he weighed and came out of the stand -- 
"Who paid you to win it? Come, own up this minute." 
"Lord love yer," said he, "why, you lifted your hand." 

`'Twas true, by St Peter, that cursed 'muskeeter' 
Had broke me so broke that I hadn't a brown, 
And you'll find th...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton



...or a guide.

At day-break on a hill they stood
That overlooked the moor;
And thence they saw the bridge of wood,
A furlong from their door.

They wept--and, turning homeward, cried,
"In heaven we all shall meet;"
--When in the snow the mother spied
The print of Lucy's feet.

Then downwards from the steep hill's edge
They tracked the footmarks small;
And through the broken hawthorn hedge,
And by the long stone-wall;

And then an open field they crossed:
The m...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...snow;
Open the daunting map beneath,—
All his county, sea and land,
Dwarfed to measure of his hand;
His day's ride is a furlong space,
His city tops a glimmering haze:
I plant his eyes on the sky-hoop bounding;—
See there the grim gray rounding
Of the bullet of the earth
Whereon ye sail,
Tumbling steep
In the uncontinented deep;—
He looks on that, and he turns pale:
'Tis even so, this treacherous kite,
Farm-furrowed, town-incrusted sphere,
Thoughtless of its anxious freight,
...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...ny, 
The horses in those days were stout, 
They had to run well to win money; 
I don't see such horses about. 
Your six-furlong vermin that scamper 
Half-a-mile with their feather-weight up, 
They wouldn't earn much of their damper 
In a race like the President's Cup. 

The first heat was soon set a-going; 
The Dancer went off to the front; 
The Don on his quarters was showing, 
With Pardon right out of the hunt. 
He rolled and he weltered and wallowed -- 
You'd kick your hat...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...their Circle intact;

Appointing a Colonel from Chatham who managed the Bhamo State Line
(The wich was on mile and one furlong -- a guaranteed twenty-inch gauge),
So Exeter Battleby Tring consented his claims to resign,
And died, on four thousand a month, in the ninetieth year of his age!...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...s, shag and wild,
Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled;
And the bubbling camels beside the load
Sprawled for a furlong adown the road;
And the Persian pussy-cats, brought for sale,
Spat at the dogs from the camel-bale;
And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food;
And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Jumrood;
And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk
A savour of camels and carpets and musk,
A murmur of voices, a reek of smoke,
To tell us the trade of the Khyb...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...a summer's day,
For which the Constable, and his wife also,
And Constance, have y-take the righte way
Toward the sea a furlong way or two,
To playen, and to roame to and fro;
And in their walk this blinde man they met,
Crooked and old, with eyen fast y-shet.* *shut

"In the name of Christ," cried this blind Briton,
"Dame Hermegild, give me my sight again!"
This lady *wax'd afrayed of that soun',* *was alarmed by that cry*
Lest that her husband, shortly for to sayn,
Would her...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...nd dressed* every thing as it should be. *prepared
And shortly up they climbed all the three.
They satte stille well *a furlong way*. *the time it would take
"Now, Pater noster, clum," said Nicholay, to walk a furlong*
And "clum," quoth John; and "clum," said Alison:
This carpenter said his devotion,
And still he sat and bidded his prayere,
Awaking on the rain, if he it hear.
The deade sleep, for weary business,
Fell on this carpenter, right as I guess,
About the curfew-t...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...he town
With a wicked growth of weed. 

The roots were thick and the silt and sand
Were gathered day by day,
Till not a furlong out from land
A shoal had barred the way. 

Then Stavoren town saw evil years,
No ships could out or in,
The boats lay rotting at the piers,
And the mouldy grain in the bin. 

The grass-grown streets were all forlorn,
The town in ruin stood,
The lady's velvet gown was torn,
Her rings were sold for food. 

Her father had perished long ago,
But the lad...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van
...ehind he took no keep*. *heed
His wife bare him a burdoun*, a full strong; *bass 
Men might their routing* hearen a furlong. *snoring

The wenche routed eke for company.
Alein the clerk, that heard this melody,
He poked John, and saide: "Sleepest thou?
Heardest thou ever such a song ere now?
Lo what a compline is y-mell* them all. *among
A wilde fire upon their bodies fall,
Who hearken'd ever such a ferly* thing? *strange 
Yea, they shall have the flow'r of ill en...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...iel? It is hard to keep sight on him, 
The sins of the Israelites ride mighty light on him. 
The scapegoat is leading a furlong or more, 
And Abraham's tiring -- I'll lay six to four! 
He rolls in his stride; he's done, there's no question!" 
But here the old Rabbi brought up a suggestion. 
('Twas strange that in racing he showed so much cunning), 
"It's a hard race," said he, "and I think it would be 
A good thing for someone to take up the running." 
As soon said as done, t...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...oth he,
'Shew forth thine erse, and let the friar see
Where is the nest of friars in this place.'
And *less than half a furlong way of space* *immediately* 
Right so as bees swarmen out of a hive,
Out of the devil's erse there gan to drive
A twenty thousand friars *on a rout.* *in a crowd*
And throughout hell they swarmed all about,
And came again, as fast as they may gon,
And in his erse they creeped every one:
He clapt his tail again, and lay full still.
This friar, when...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry,
 Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer,
Through the Jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh--
 He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear! 
Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade,
 And the whisper spreads and widens far and near.
And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now--
 He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!

Ere the moon has climbed the mountai...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...We miss a Kinsman more
When warranted to see
Than when withheld of Oceans
From possibility

A Furlong than a League
Inflicts a pricklier pain,
Till We, who smiled at Pyrenees --
Of Parishes, complain....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...!
You know who "June" is --
I'd give her --
Roses a day from Zanzibar --
And Lily tubes -- like Wells --
Bees -- by the furlong --
Straits of Blue
Navies of Butterflies -- sailed thro' --
And dappled Cowslip Dells --

Then I have "shares" in Primrose "Banks" --
Daffodil Dowries -- spicy "Stocks" --
Dominions -- broad as Dew --
Bags of Doublons -- adventurous Bees
Brought me -- from firmamental seas --
And Purple -- from Peru --

Now -- have I bought it --
"Shylock"? Say!
Sign...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things