Famous Heretofore Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Dialogue between Old England and New

...76 Her Lilies in my Arms avouch the same.
77 My Sister Scotland hurts me now no more,
78 Though she hath been injurious heretofore.
79 What Holland is, I am in some suspense,
80 But trust not much unto his Excellence.
81 For wants, sure some I feel, but more I fear;
82 And for the Pestilence, who knows how near?
83 Famine and Plague, two sisters of the Sword,
84 Destruction to a Land doth soon afford.
85 They're for my punishments ordain'd on high,
86 Unless thy tears prevent...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne


A Grave

...y while the sea rustles in and out of the
 seaweed;
the birds swim through the air at top speed, emitting cat-calls
 as heretofore—
the tortoise-shell scourges about the feet of the cliffs, in motion
 beneath them;
and the ocean, under the pulsation of lighthouses and noise of
 bell-bouys,
advances as usual, looking as if it were not that ocean in which
 dropped things are bound to sink—
in which if they turn and twist, it is neither with volition nor
 consciousness....Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

A Hymn to God the Father

...read I shall perish on the shore; 
But swear by Thyself that at my death Thy Son 15 
Shall shine as He shines now and heretofore: 
And having done that Thou hast done; 
I fear no more. ...Read more of this...
by Donne, John

A Ramble in St. Jamess Park

...to prick and ****.
There, by a most incestuous birth,
Strange woods spring from the teeming earth;
For they relate how heretofore,
When ancient Pict began to whore,
Deluded of his assignation
(Jilting, it seems, was then in fashion),
Poor pensive lover, in this place
Would frig upon his mother's face;
Whence rows of mandrakes tall did rise
Whose lewd tops fucked the very skies.
Each imitative branch does twine
In some loved fold of Aretine,
And nightly now beneath their shad...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John

An Allusion to Horace

...oome, 
From the shrew'd Judges in the Drawing-Roome. 
I've noe Ambition on that idle score, 
But say with Betty Morice, heretofore 
When a Court-Lady, call'd her Buckleys Whore, 
I please one Man of Witt, am proud on't too, 
Let all the Coxcombs, dance to bed to you. 
Shou'd I be troubled when the Purblind Knight 
Who squints more in his Judgment, than his sight, 
Picks silly faults, and Censures what I write? 
Or when the poor-fed Poets of the Towne 
For Scrapps, and Coach r...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John


Atalantas Race

...ngering month at last gone by, 
Again are all folk round the running place, 
Nor other seems the dismal pageantry 
Than heretofore, but that another face 
Looks o'er the smooth course ready for the race, 
For now, beheld of all, Milanion 
Stands on the spot he twice has looked upon.

But yet--what change is this that holds the maid? 
Does she indeed see in his glittering eye 
More than disdain of the sharp shearing blade,
Some happy hope of help and victory? 
The others seem'...Read more of this...
by Morris, William

Balin and Balan

...thur's host 
Proclaimed him Victor, and the day was won. 

Then Balan added to their Order lived 
A wealthier life than heretofore with these 
And Balin, till their embassage returned. 

'Sir King' they brought report 'we hardly found, 
So bushed about it is with gloom, the hall 
Of him to whom ye sent us, Pellam, once 
A Christless foe of thine as ever dashed 
Horse against horse; but seeing that thy realm 
Hath prospered in the name of Christ, the King 
Took, as in rival he...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford

...hillings.
And yet he knows, God help him! Tell me, now,
If ever there was anything let loose
On earth by gods or devils heretofore
Like this mad, careful, proud, indifferent Shakespeare!
Where was it, if it ever was? By heaven,
'Twas never yet in Rhodes or Pergamon -- 
In Thebes or Nineveh, a thing like this!
No thing like this was ever out of England;
And that he knows. I wonder if he cares.
Perhaps he does.... O Lord, that House in Stratford!...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Geraint And Enid

...ed and found them wanting; and as now 
Men weed the white horse on the Berkshire hills 
To keep him bright and clean as heretofore, 
He rooted out the slothful officer 
Or guilty, which for bribe had winked at wrong, 
And in their chairs set up a stronger race 
With hearts and hands, and sent a thousand men 
To till the wastes, and moving everywhere 
Cleared the dark places and let in the law, 
And broke the bandit holds and cleansed the land. 

Then, when Geraint was whole a...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Lancelot

...hers whom you fear, 
Not fearing for yourself. I say to you,
Fear not for anything—and so be wise 
And amiable again as heretofore; 
Let Modred have his humor, and Agravaine 
His tongue. The two of them have done their worst, 
And having done their worst, what have they done?
A whisper now and then, a chirrup or so 
In corners,—and what else? Ask what, and answer.” 

Still with a frown that had no faith in it, 
Lancelot, pitying Gawaine’s lost endeavour 
To make an evil jest ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Lara

...
Alas! he told not — but he did awake 
To curse the wither'd heart that would not break. 

IX. 

Books, for his volume heretofore was Man, 
With eye more curious he appear'd to scan, 
And oft, in sudden mood, for many a day 
From all communion he would start away: 
And then, his rarely call'd attendants said, 
Through night's long hours would sound his hurried tread 
O'er the dark gallery, where his fathers frown'd 
In rude but antique portraiture around. 
They heard, but wh...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

On The Hurricane

...INDS, that must fulfill 
The Great Disposer's righteous Will; 
Throughout the Land, unlimited you flew, 
Nor sought, as heretofore, with Friendly Aid 
Only, new Motion to bestow 
Upon the sluggish Vapours, bred below, 
Condensing into Mists, and melancholy Shade. 
No more such gentle Methods you pursue, 
But marching now in terrible Array, 
Undistinguish'd was your Prey: 
In vain the Shrubs, with lowly Bent, 
Sought their Destruction to prevent; 
The Beech in vain, with out-s...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill

On the Way

...ut there’s a rustling of it 
Among my memories, and it makes a noise
About as loud as all that I have held 
And fondled heretofore of your same caution. 
But that’s affairs, not feelings. If our friends 
Guessed half we say of them, our enemies 
Would itch in our friends’ jackets. Howsoever,
The world is of a sudden on its head, 
And all are spilled—unless you cling alone 
With Washington. Ask Adams about that. 

HAMILTON

We’ll not ask Adams about anything. 
We fish for liza...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Pelleas And Ettarre

...on him all at once, 
And if ye slay him I reck not: if ye fail, 
Give ye the slave mine order to be bound, 
Bind him as heretofore, and bring him in: 
It may be ye shall slay him in his bonds.' 

She spake; and at her will they couched their spears, 
Three against one: and Gawain passing by, 
Bound upon solitary adventure, saw 
Low down beneath the shadow of those towers 
A villainy, three to one: and through his heart 
The fire of honour and all noble deeds 
Flashed, and he ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Rembrandt to Rembrandt

...dead then, even as you may now 
Anticipate some other mortal strokes 
Attending your felicity; and for that, 
Oblivion heretofore has done some running
Away from graves, and will do more of it.” 

That’s how it is your wiser spirit speaks, 
Rembrandt. If you believe him, why complain? 
If not, why paint? And why, in any event, 
Look back for the old joy and the old roses,
Or the old fame? They are all gone together, 
And Saskia with them; and with her left out, 
They would a...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Samson Agonistes

...on, divides the whole Book as a Tragedy, into Acts
distinguisht each by a Chorus of Heavenly Harpings and Song
between. Heretofore Men in highest dignity have labour'd not a
little to be thought able to compose a Tragedy. Of that honour
Dionysius the elder was no less ambitious, then before of his
attaining to the Tyranny. Augustus Caesar also had begun his
Ajax, but unable to please his own judgment with what he had
begun. left it unfinisht. Seneca the Philosopher is by some...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Dream

...akedness,
Making the cold reality too real!

VIII

A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Wanderer was alone as heretofore,
The beings which surrounded him were gone,
Or were at war with him; he was a mark
For blight and desolation, compassed round
With Hatred and Contention; Pain was mixed
In all which was served up to him, until,
Like to the Pontic monarch of old days,
He fed on poisons, and they had no power,
But were a kind of nutriment; he lived
Through that whic...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Growth of Love

...ite
Within thy sacred temples and adore?
Who shall fill thought and truth with old delight,
And lead my soul in life as heretofore? 

26
The work is done, and from the fingers fall
The bloodwarm tools that brought the labour thro':
The tasking eye that overrunneth all
Rests, and affirms there is no more to do.
Now the third joy of making, the sweet flower
Of blessed work, bloometh in godlike spirit;
Which whoso plucketh holdeth for an hour
The shrivelling vanity of mortal mer...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Sick God

...with paint and lath; 
 But never hath he seemed the old! 

XI 

 Let men rejoice, let men deplore. 
The lurid Deity of heretofore 
 Succumbs to one of saner nod; 
 The Battle-god is god no more....Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

The Vision of Judgment

...d the phrase of 'hell broke loose.' 

LIX 

Here crash'd a sturdy oath of stout John Bull, 
Who damn'd away his eyes as heretofore: 
There Paddy brogued, 'By Jasus!' — 'What's your wull?' 
The temperate Scot exclaim'd: the French ghost swore 
In certain terms I shan't translate in full, 
As the first coachman will; and 'midst the roar, 
The voice of Jonathan was heard to express, 
'Our president is going to war, I guess.' 

LX 

Besides there were the Spaniard, Dutch, and Dan...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

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