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Famous Give Way Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...d Hell engulph thy foes,
 Thou liv’st on high for ever.


Still o’er the field the combat burns,
The Tories, Whigs, give way by turns;
 But Fate the word has spoken:
For woman’s wit and strength o’man,
Alas! can do but what they can;
 The Tory ranks are broken.


O that my een were flowing burns!
My voice, a lioness that mourns
 Her darling cubs’ undoing!
That I might greet, that I might cry,
While Tories fall, while Tories fly,
 And furious Whigs pursuing!


What Whi...Read more of this...



by Thomas, Dylan
...ave no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...thunder;—O you sailors! O ships! make quick
 preparation! 
O from his masterful sweep, the warning cry of the eagle! 
(Give way there, all! It is useless! Give up your spoils;)
O sarcasms! Propositions! (O if the whole world should prove indeed a sham, a sell!) 
O I believe there is nothing real but America and freedom! 
O to sternly reject all except Democracy! 
O imperator! O who dare confront you and me? 
O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which builds for manki...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...too: 
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, 
Or being hated don't give way to hating, 
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; 

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; 
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim, 
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
And treat those two impostors just the same:. 
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken 
Twisted by knaves to make a trap ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...ndrons, dahlias, double hyacinths.
All the year through, under glass, under the sky, flowers bud, expand, 
die,
and give way to others, always others. From distant countries 
they have
been brought, and taught to live in the cool temperateness of France.
There is the `Bonapartea' from Peru; the `Napoleone Imperiale';
the `Josephinia Imperatrix', a pearl-white flower, purple-shadowed,
the calix pricked out with crimson points. Malmaison 
wears its flowers
as a ...Read more of this...



by Betjeman, John
...s.

"I'ld like a nice blonde on my knee
And one who won't argue or nag.
Who dares to come hooting at me?
I only give way to a Jag.

"You're barmy or plastered, I'll pass you, you bastard-
I will overtake you. I will!"
As he clenches his pipe, his moment is ripe
And the corner's accepting its kill....Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...on, and soon o'erthrown, 
Felt those Gusts, which since prevail, 
And loftier Palaces assail; 
Whose shaken Turrets now give way, 
With vain Inscriptions, which the Freeze has borne 
Through Ages past, t'extol and to adorn, 
And to our latter Times convey; 
Who did the Structures deep Foundation lay, 
Forcing his Praise upon the gazing Croud, 
And, whilst he moulders in a scanty Shroud, 
Telling both Earth and Skies, he when alive was proud. 
Now down at once comes the su...Read more of this...

by Hope, Alec Derwent (A D)
...nd beneath.

But when the Destined Lover at last shall come, 
For whom alone Fortune reserves the prize 
The thorns give way; he mounts the cobwebbed stair 
Unerring he finds the tower, the door, the room, 
The bed where, waking at his kiss she lies 
Smiling in the loose fragrance of her hair.

That night, embracing on the bed of state, 
He ravishes her century of sleep 
And she repays the debt of that long dream; 
Future and Past compose their vast debate; 
His seed ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither, 
Your schemes, politics, fail—lines give way—substances mock and elude me; 
Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess’d Soul, eludes not; 
One’s-self must never give way—that is the final substance—that out of all
 is
 sure; 
Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life—what at last finally remains?
When shows break up, what but One’s-Self is sure?...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...me out like an old pillow.

we have everything and we have nothing.
some do it well enough for a while and
then give way. fame gets them or disgust
or age or lack of proper diet or ink
across the eyes or children in college
or new cars or broken backs while skiing
in Switzerland or new politics or new wives
or just natural change and decay --
the man you knew yesterday hooking
for ten rounds or drinking for three days and
three nights by the Sawtooth mountains now...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...f is hard to find out;
And according to report, I've heard people say,
'Twas the great crowd on the bridge caused it to give way. 

Just as the vessel entered the water the bridge and staging gave way,
Immersing some three hundred people which caused great dismay
Amongst the thousands of spectators that were standing there,
And in the faces of the bystanders, were depicted despair. 

Then the police boats instantly made for the fatal spot,
And with the aid of dockyard...Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...s sweet bonds (which were so early form'd,)
And once I fondly thought of amaranth
Inwove with silver seven times tried) give way,
And fail; as these green fan-like leaves of fern
Will wither at the touch of Autumn's frost.
Yet there are those , whose patient pity still
Hears my long murmurs; who, unwearied, try
With lenient hands to bind up every wound
My wearied spirit feels, and bid me go
"Right onward 7 "--a calm votary of the Nymph,
Who, from her adamantine rock, poin...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
..., my danger's manifold
2.80 That wonder 'tis, my glass till now doth hold.
2.81 I've done: unto my elders I give way,
2.82 For 'tis but little that a child can say.

Youth. 


3.1 My goodly clothing and beauteous skin
3.2 Declare some greater riches are within,
3.3 But what is best I'll first present to view,
3.4 And then the worst, in a more ugly hue,
3.5 For thus to do we on this Stage assemble,
3.6 Then let not him, which hat...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...to go." 
"You mean that's John's idea." 
"And we live up to it; or I don't know 
What childishness he wouldn't give way to. 
He manages to keep the upper hand 
On his own farm. He's boss. But as to hens: 
We fence our flowers in and the hens range. 
Nothing's too good for them. We say it pays. 
John likes to tell the offers he has had, 
Twenty for this cock, twenty-five for that. 
He never takes the money. If they're worth 
That much t...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...us loosed--away
Flies illusion from the heart!
Yet love lingers lonely,
When passion is mute,
And the blossoms may only
Give way to the fruit.
The husband must enter
The hostile life,
With struggle and strife
To plant or to watch.
To snare or to snatch,
To pray and importune,
Must wager and venture
And hunt down his fortune!
Then flows in a current the gear and the gain,
And the garners are filled with the gold of the grain,
Now a yard to the court, now a wing to the ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...his horse he sat, *with difficulty
He would avalen* neither hood nor hat, *uncover
Nor abide* no man for his courtesy, *give way to
But in Pilate's voice he gan to cry,
And swore by armes, and by blood, and bones,
"I can a noble tale for the nones* *occasion,
With which I will now quite* the Knighte's tale." *match
Our Host saw well how drunk he was of ale,
And said; "Robin, abide, my leve* brother, *dear
Some better man shall tell us first another:
Abide, and let us w...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...r>
The Tantramar marshes 
and the smell of salt hay.
An iron bridge trembles 
and a loose plank rattles
but doesn't give way.

On the left, a red light
swims through the dark:
a ship's port lantern.
Two rubber boots show,
illuminated, solemn.
A dog gives one bark.

A woman climbs in 
with two market bags,
brisk, freckled, elderly.
"A grand night. Yes, sir,
all the way to Boston."
She regards us amicably.

Moonlight as we enter 
the New Brun...Read more of this...

by Bryant, William Cullen
...isappeared. 

Thine for a space are they¡ª 
Yet shalt thou yield thy treasures up at last: 
Thy gates shall yet give way  
Thy bolts shall fall inexorable Past! 40 

All that of good and fair 
Has gone into thy womb from earliest time  
Shall then come forth to wear 
The glory and the beauty of its prime. 

They have not perished¡ªno! 45 
Kind words remembered voices once so sweet  
Smiles radiant long ago  
And features the great soul's apparent seat.<...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...certain we shall you teach* *unless
That it is fair to have a wife in peace.
One of us two must bowe* doubteless: *give way
And since a man is more reasonable
Than woman is, ye must be suff'rable.
What aileth you to grudge* thus and groan? *complain
Is it for ye would have my [love] 14 alone?
Why, take it all: lo, have it every deal,* *whit
Peter! 19 shrew* you but ye love it well *curse
For if I woulde sell my *belle chose*, *beautiful thing*
I coulde walk as fresh ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...oken; 
I see the landmarks of European kings removed; 
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;) 
—Never were such sharp questions ask’d as this day; 
Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God;
Lo! how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest; 
His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere—he colonizes the Pacific, the
 archipelagoes;

With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the newspaper, the wholesale engin...Read more of this...

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