Famous Gladiators Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Ave Ceasar

...Long ago the Gladiators, 
When the call to combat came, 
Marching past the massed spectators, 
Hailed the Emp'ror with acclaim! 
Voices ringing with the fury 
Of the strife so soon to be, 
Cried, "O Caesar, morituri 
salutamus te!" 

Nowadays the massed spectators 
See the unaccustomed sight -- 
Legislative gladiators 
Marching to their last great fight; 
Young and old, ...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton


Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford

...have it, and have more than I'm foretelling;
And there'll be such a roaring at the Globe
As never stunned the bleeding gladiators.
He'll have to change the color of its hair
A bit, for now he calls it Cleopatra.
Black hair would never do for Cleopatra.
But you and I are not yet two old women,
And you're a man of office. What he does
Is more to you than how it is he does it, -- 
And that's what the Lord God has never told him.
They work together, and the Devil helps 'em;
They...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV To Richard Boyle

...n, never to be play'd;
And there a summerhouse, that knows no shade;
Here Amphitrite sails through myrtle bow'rs;
There gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Unwater'd see the drooping sea horse mourn,
And swallows roost in Nilus' dusty urn.

My Lord advances with majestic mien,
Smit with the mighty pleasure, to be seen:
But soft--by regular approach--not yet--
First through the length of yon hot terrace sweat;
And when up ten steep slopes you've dragg'd your thighs,
Just at h...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Her Death And After

...r wrong,
Her husband neared; and to shun his view
By her hallowed mew
I went from the tombs among

To the Cirque of the Gladiators which faced--
That haggard mark of Imperial Rome,
Whose Pagan echoes mock the chime
Of our Christian time:
It was void, and I inward clomb.

Scarce had night the sun's gold touch displaced
From the vast Rotund and the neighboring dead
When her husband followed; bowed; half-passed,
With lip upcast;
Then, halting, sullenly said:

"It is noised that ...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

Morituri Salutamus: Poem for the Fiftieth Anniversary

...
Et fugiunt freno non remorante dies. 
Ovid, Fastorum, Lib. vi.
"O C?sar, we who are about to die 
Salute you!" was the gladiators' cry 
In the arena, standing face to face 
With death and with the Roman populace. 
O ye familiar scenes,--ye groves of pine, 
That once were mine and are no longer mine,-- 
Thou river, widening through the meadows green 
To the vast sea, so near and yet unseen,-- 
Ye halls, in whose seclusion and repose 

Phantoms of fame, like exhalations, rose ...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth


The Garden of Janus

...my bed is tinged with blood and foam.
The vault yet blazes with the sun
Writhing above the West, brave hippodrome
Whose gladiators shock and shun
As the blue night devours them, crested comb
Of sleep's dead sea
That eats the shores of life, rings round eternity!

II

So, he is gone whose giant sword shed flame
Into my bowels; my blood's bewitched;
My brain's afloat with ecstasy of shame.
That tearing pain is gone, enriched
By his life-spasm; but he being gone, the same
Myself...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister

The Goblet of Life

...ge than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers,
Lost vision to restore.

It gave new strength, and fearless mood;
And gladiators, fierce and rude,
Mingled it in their daily food;
And he who battled and subdued,
A wreath of fennel wore.

Then in Life's goblet freely press,
The leaves that give it bitterness,
Nor prize the colored waters less,
For in thy darkness and distress
New light and strength they give!

And he who has not learned to know
How false its sparkling buhbles...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

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