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Famous Hereditary Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...f lands, and bards to corroborate!
Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face, 
To him the hereditary countenance bequeath’d, both mother’s and father’s, 
His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees, 
Built of the common stock, having room for far and near, 
Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love, 
Plunging his seminal muscle into its...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt



...the fellow’s indolence, 
And his malignant oily swarthiness 
Housing a reptile blood that I could see 
Beneath it, like hereditary venom
Out of old human swamps, hardly revealed 
Itself the proper spawning-ground of pity. 
But so it was. Pity, or something like it, 
Was in the poison of his proximity; 
For nothing else that I have any name for
Could have invaded and so mastered me 
With a slow tolerance that eventually 
Assumed a blind ascendency of custom 
That saw not even ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...els hear his carol sung. 
A virgin is his mother, but his sire 
The power of the Most High: He shall ascend 
The throne hereditary, and bound his reign 
With Earth's wide bounds, his glory with the Heavens. 
He ceased, discerning Adam with such joy 
Surcharged, as had like grief been dewed in tears, 
Without the vent of words; which these he breathed. 
O prophet of glad tidings, finisher 
Of utmost hope! now clear I understand 
What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ast.
"Lay institution": she taught me we didn't think
God lived in it. The rabbi is just a teacher.

But what about the hereditary priests,
Descendants of the Cohanes of the Temple,
Like Walter Holtz--I called him Uncle Walter,
When I was small. A big man with a face
Just like a boxer dog or a cartoon sergeant.
She told me whenever he helped a pretty woman
Try on a shoe in his store, he'd touch her calf
And ask her, "How does that feel?" I was too little
To get the point but ...Read more of this...
by Pinsky, Robert
...[Composed for the merry party already mentioned, 
on the occasion of the departure for France of the hereditary prince, 
who was one of the number, and who is especially alluded to in the 
3rd verse.]

O'ER me--how I cannot say,--

Heav'nly rapture's growing.
Will it help to guide my way

To yon stars all-glowing?
Yet that here I'd sooner be,

To assert I'm able,
Where, with wine and harmony,

I may thump the table.

Wonder not, my dearest friends,

What 't...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang



...ot, whose luckless head
Thy jewel'd circlet, lin'd with thorns, has bound;
And who, by custom's laws, obtains from thee
Hereditary right to rule, uncheck'd,
Submissive myriads: for untemper'd power,
Like steel ill form'd, injures the hand
It promis'd to protect--Unhappy France!
If e'er thy lilies, trampled now in dust,
And blood-bespotted, shall again revive
In silver splendour, may the wreath be wov'n
By voluntary hands; and Freemen, such
As England's self might boast, unite...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...pastures not his own, the master took;  My Father dared his greedy wish gainsay;  He loved his old hereditary nook,  And ill could I the thought of such sad parting brook.   But when he had refused the proffered gold,  To cruel injuries he became a prey,  Sore traversed in whate'er he bought and sold:  His troubles grew upon him day by day,  Till all his substance fell into decay. &nb...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...aim the Strings, 
Converting to His Praise, the most Harmonious Things. 

Ye Senators presiding by our Choice, 
And You Hereditary Peers! 
Praise Him by Union, both in Heart and Voice; 
Praise Him, who your agreeing Council steers, 
Producing sweeter Sounds than the according Spheres. 

Praise Him, ye native Altars of the Earth! 
Ye Mountains of stupendious size! 
Praise Him, ye Trees and Fruits which there have birth, 
Praise Him, ye Flames that from their Bowels rise, 
All ...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...e sky of morning, 
Wildly glaring at each other;
In their faces stem defiance, 
In their hearts the feuds of ages, 
The hereditary hatred,
The ancestral thirst of vengeance. 
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
The creator of the nations, 
Looked upon them with compassion, 
With paternal love and pity; 
Looked upon their wrath and wrangling
But as quarrels among children, 
But as feuds and fights of children!
Over them he stretched his right hand, 
To subdue their stubborn natures, 
T...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...by sudden passion shaken,
     As terriers shake a rat at play,
   He finds, all blindly, he has taken
     The old, Hereditary way.

   Yet, in the moment of communion,
     The very heart of passion's fire,
   His spirit spurns the mortal union,
     "Not this, not this, the Soul's desire!"

        *        *        *        *

   Oh You, by whom my life is riven,
     And reft away from my control,
   Take back the hours of passion given!
     Love me one m...Read more of this...
by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things