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Famous Guided Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...irth, but nobler yet
In his own worth, and without title great:
The Sanhedrin long time as chief he rul'd,
Their reason guided, and their passion cool'd;
So dext'rous was he in the crown's defence,
So form'd to speak a loyal nation's sense,
That as their band was Israel's tribes in small,
So fit was he to represent them all.
Now rasher charioteers the seat ascend,
Whose loose careers his steady skill commend:
They, like th'unequal ruler of the day,
Misguide the seasons and mi...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John



...to day. 

REYNOLDS, 'tis thine with magic skill to trace 
The perfect semblance of exterior grace; 
Thy hand, by Nature guided, marks the line 
That stamps perfection on the form divine. 
'Tis thine to tint the lip with rosy die, 
To paint the softness of the melting eye; 
With auburn curls luxuriantly display'd, 
The ivory shoulders polish'd fall to shade; 
To deck the well-turn'd arm with matchless grace, 
To mark the dimpled smile on Beauty's face: 
The task is thine, with...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby
...rt I offer still to thee,
O do not let thy temple be destroyd! 
XLI 

Hauing this day my horse, my hand, my launce
Guided so well that I obtain'd the prize,
Both by the iudgement of the English eyes
And of some sent from that sweet enemy Fraunce;
Horsemen my skill in horsemanship aduaunce,
Towne folkes my strength; a daintier iudge applies
His praise to sleight which from good vse doth rise;
Some luckie wits impute it but to chance;
Others, because of both sides I...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip
...and bad of any situation.
You have an elegant, skeptical mind which enjoys pleasures
Quite unknown to primitive races.

Guided by this mind you cannot fail to see
The soundness of the advice we give you:
Let the sweetness of day fill your lungs
For this we have strict but wise rules.

3
There can be no question of force triumphant
We live in the age of victorious justice.

Do not mention force, or you will be accused
Of upholding fallen doctrines in secret.

He who has power,...Read more of this...
by Milosz, Czeslaw
...r the deadly snare!"
Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste,
Through paths and turnings often trod by day,
Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place
Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise
(For so by certain signs I knew), had met
Already, ere my best speed could prevent,
The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey;
Who gently asked if he had seen such two,
Supposing him some neighbour villager.
Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed
Ye were the two she mea...Read more of this...
by Milton, John



...now floating together,
Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a common misfortune;
Men and women and children, who, guided by hope or by hearsay,
Sought for their kith and their kin among the few-acred farmers
On the Acadian coast, and the prairies of fair Opelousas.
With them Evangeline went, and her guide, the Father Felician.
Onward o'er sunken sands, through a wilderness sombre with forests,
Day after day they glided adown the turbulent river;
Night after night, by th...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ge the system from within 
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens 
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin 
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons 
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
I'd really like to live beside you, baby 
I love your body and your spirit and your clothes 
But you see that line there moving through the station? 
I told you, I told you, told you, I was one of ...Read more of this...
by Cohen, Leonard
...Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, 
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, 
Thy tempering: with like safety guided down 
Return me to my native element: 
Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once 
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,) 
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall, 
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn. 
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound 
Within the visible diurnal sphere; 
Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole, 
More safe I sing...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...hat all Earth or Heaven could bestow 
To make her amiable: On she came, 
Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen, 
And guided by his voice; nor uninformed 
Of nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites: 
Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye, 
In every gesture dignity and love. 
I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud. 
This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfilled 
Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, 
Giver of all things fair! but fairest this 
Of all thy gifts! nor ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...to the manger where thou lay'st;
For in the inn was left no better room.
A Star, not seen before, in heaven appearing,
Guided the Wise Men thither from the East, 
To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold;
By whose bright course led on they found the place,
Affirming it thy star, new-graven in heaven,
By which they knew thee King of Israel born.
Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned
By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spake,
Before the altar and the vested priest,
L...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ef,
And joys behind afflictions lurk!

It asked for light, and it is heard;
God grants that struggling soul repose
And, guided by His holy word,
It wiser than its teachers grows.
It gains the upward path at length,
And passes on from strength to strength,
Leaning on Heaven the while:
Night's shades departing one by one,
It sees at last the rising sun,
And feels his cheering smile.
In all its darkness and distress
For light it sought, to God it cried;
And through the pathless ...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Anne
...wearing furs
and a new dress in the winter of eighteen-ninety.
I read how London is dull on Lord Mayor's Day,
where you guided past groups of robbers, the sad holes
of Whitechapel, clutching your pocketbook, on the way
to Jack the Ripper dissecting his famous bones.
This Wednesday in Berlin, you say, you will
go to a bazaar at Bismarck's house. And I
see you as a young girl in a good world still,
writing three generations before mine. I try
to reach into your page and breathe...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...Ye in the age gone by,
Who ruled the world--a world how lovely then!--
And guided still the steps of happy men
In the light leading-strings of careless joy!
Ah, flourished then your service of delight!
How different, oh, how different, in the day
When thy sweet fanes with many a wreath were bright,
O Venus Amathusia!

Then, through a veil of dreams
Woven by song, truth's youthful beauty glowed,
And life's redundant and rejoicing st...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von
...y brood on life
Until the tempest parts, and it appears
As simple as to the shepherd seems his flock:
A Something to be guided by ideals --
That in themselves are simple and serene --
Of noble deed to foster noble thought,
And noble thought to image noble deed,
Till deed and thought shall interpenetrate,
Making life lovelier, till we come to doubt
Whether the perfect beauty that escapes
Is beauty of deed or thought or some high thing
Mingled of both, a greater boon than eithe...Read more of this...
by Scott, Duncan Campbell
...h, though still a royal ward,
     Risked life and land to be my guard,
     And through the passes of the wood
     Guided my steps, not unpursued;
     And Roderick shall his welcome make,
     Despite old spleen, for Douglas' sake.
     Then must he seek Strath-Endrick glen
     Nor peril aught for me again.'
     XXVII.

     Sir Roderick, who to meet them came,
     Reddened at sight of Malcolm Graeme,
     Yet, not in action, word, or eye,
     Failed aught...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...tever the dark road he may have taken, 
This man who stood on high
And faced alone the sky, 
Whatever drove or lured or guided him,— 
A vision answering a faith unshaken, 
An easy trust assumed of easy trials, 
A sick negation born of weak denials,
A crazed abhorrence of an old condition, 
A blind attendance on a brief ambition,— 
Whatever stayed him or derided him, 
His way was even as ours; 
And we, with all our wounds and all our powers,
Must each await alone at his own he...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...the Sun
Or that his banded eyes could pierce the sphere
Of all that is, has been, or will be done.--
So ill was the car guided, but it past
With solemn speed majestically on . . .
The crowd gave way, & I arose aghast,
Or seemed to rise, so mighty was the trance,
And saw like clouds upon the thunder blast
The million with fierce song and maniac dance
Raging around; such seemed the jubilee
As when to greet some conqueror's advance
Imperial Rome poured forth her living sea
From ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ets, here's my Vision! 
Now you shall judge, all people; yes, you shall 
Judge with my judgment, and by my decision 
Be guided who shall enter heaven or fall. 
I settle all these things by intuition, 
Times present, past, to come, heaven, hell, and all, 
Like King Alfonso(2). When I thus see double, 
I save the Deity some worlds of trouble.' 

CII 

He ceased, and drew forth an MS.; and no 
Persuasion on the part of devils, saints, 
Or angels, now could stop the torrent; so 
...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...t doubt and grope. 
For flattering planets seemed to say 
This child should ills of ages stay, 
By wondrous tongue, and guided pen, 
Bring the flown Muses back to men. 
Perchance not he but Nature ailed, 
The world and nor the infant failed. 
It was not ripe yet to sustain 
A genius of so fine a strain, 
Who gazed upon the sun and moon 
As if he came unto his own, 
And, pregnant with his grander thought, 
Brought the old order into doubt. 
His beauty once their beauty tried; ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...years, and weep;
For how should he who communes with the years
Be sometime not a living spring of tears?

O child, that guided of thine only will
Didst set thy maiden foot against the gate
To strike it open ere thine hour of fate,
Antigone, men say not thou didst ill,
For love's sake and the reverence of his awe
Divinely dying, slain by mortal law;

For love is awful as immortal death.
And through thee surely hath thy brother won
Rest, out of sight of our world-weary sun,
And...Read more of this...
by Swinburne, Algernon Charles

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry