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Famous Gauntlet Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Larkin, Philip
...tle dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

They would not think to lie so long.
Such faithfulness in effigy
Was just a detail friends would see:
A sculptor's sweet commissioned grace
Thrown off in helping to prolong
The Latin names around the base.

They would no gue...Read more of this...



by Hugo, Victor
...staves 
 Of hideous biers have not their joints more strong 
 Than are the joinings of these legs; the long 
 Scaled gauntlet fingers look like worms that shine, 
 And battle robes to shroud-like folds incline. 
 The heads are skull-like, and the stony feet 
 Seem for the charnel house but only meet. 
 The pikes have death's-heads carved, and seem to be 
 Too heavy; but the shapes defiantly 
 Sit proudly in the saddle—and perforce 
 The rider looks united to the hor...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...Bring down the moon for genteel Janet;
She's too refined for this gross planet.
She wears garments and you wear clothes,
You buy stockings, she purchases hose.
She say That is correct, and you say Yes,
And she disrobes and you undress.
Confronted by a mouse or moose,
You turn green, she turns chartroose.
Her speech is new-minted, freshly qu...Read more of this...

by Jeffers, Robinson
...But the old can breathe in safety now that they are
Forgetting what youth meant, the being perverse,
Running the fool's gauntlet and being cut
By the whips of the five senses. As for me,
If I should wish to live long it were but
To trade those fevers for tranquillity,
Thinking though that's entire and sweet in the grave
How shall the dead taste the deep treasure they have?...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy Helmet
And Brigandine of brass, thy broad Habergeon. 
Vant-brass and Greves, and Gauntlet, add thy Spear
A Weavers beam, and seven-times-folded shield.
I only with an Oak'n staff will meet thee,
And raise such out-cries on thy clatter'd Iron,
Which long shall not with-hold mee from thy head,
That in a little time while breath remains thee,
Thou oft shalt wish thy self at Gath to boast
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done
To Sa...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...Rule I the nations; 
This is my hammer, 
Mi?lner the mighty; 
Giants and sorcerers 
Cannot withstand it!

These are the gauntlets 
Wherewith I wield it, 
And hurl it afar off; 
This is my girdle; 
Whenever I brace it, 
Strength is redoubled!

The light thou beholdest
Stream through the heavens,
In flashes of crimson,
Is but my red beard 
Blown by the night-wind, 
Affrighting the nations! 
Jove is my brother; 
Mine eyes are the lightning; 
The wheels of my chariot 
Roll in the...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ush and sigh,
     His suit was warm, his hopes were high.
     He sought her yielded hand to clasp,
     And a cold gauntlet met his grasp:
     The phantom's sex was changed and gone,
     Upon its head a helmet shone;
     Slowly enlarged to giant size,
     With darkened cheek and threatening eyes,
     The grisly visage, stern and hoar,
     To Ellen still a likeness bore.—
     He woke, and, panting with affright,
     Recalled the vision of the night.
     ...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs