Famous Indite Poems by Famous Poets

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

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390. Song—A Health to them that's awa

...freedom to them that wad write,
There’s nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard,
 But they whom the truth would indite.


 Here’s a Health to them that’s awa,
 An’ here’s to them that’s awa!
Here’s to Maitland and Wycombe, let wha doesna like ’em
 Be built in a hole in the wa’;
 Here’s timmer that’s red at the heart
 Here’s fruit that is sound at the core;
And may he be that wad turn the buff and blue coat
 Be turn’d to the back o’ the door.


 Here’s a health to them...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


Astrophel and Stella

...oth for your loue and skill, your name
You seek to nurse at fullest breasts of Fame,
Stella behold, and then begin to indite. 
XVI 

In nature, apt to like, when I did see
Beauties which were of many carrets fine,
My boiling sprites did thither then incline,
And, Loue, I thought that I was full of thee:
But finding not those restlesse flames in mee,
Which others said did make their souls to pine,
I thought those babes of some pinnes hurt did whine,
By my soul iudg...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip

Josephs Coat

...Wounded I sing, tormented I indite, 
Thrown down I fall into a bed, and rest: 
Sorrow hath chang'd its note: such is his will 
Who changeth all things, as him pleaseth best. 
For well he knows, if but one grief and smart 
Among my many had his full career, 
Sure it would carry with it ev'n my heart, 
And both would run until they found a bier 
To fetch the body; both being due to grief...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George

Longevity

...find the word;
In any doubt he helps me out - a most amazing bird.
This line that lies before your eyes he helped me to indite;
I sling the ink but often think it's he who ought to write.
It's he who should in mystic mood concoct poetic screeds,
And I who ought to drop my crot and crackle sunflower seeds.

A parrot nears a hundred years (or so the legend goes),
So were I he this century I might see to its close.
Then I might swing within my ring while revolutions roar,
And wa...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Mother Mind

...said,
This cunning brain and patient hand
Shall fashion something to be read.
Men often came to me, and prayed
I should indite a fitting verse
For fast, or festival, or in
Some stately pageant to rehearse.
(As if, than Balaam more endowed,
I of myself could bless or curse.)

Reluctantly I bade them go,
Ungladdened by my poet-mite;
My heart is not so churlish but
Its loves to minister delight.

But not a word I breathe is mine
To sing, in praise of man or God;
My Master calls,...Read more of this...
by Howe, Julia Ward


Not Every Day Fit For Verse

...d am to prophesy:
No, but when the spirit fills
The fantastic pannicles,
Full of fire, then I write
As the Godhead doth indite.
Thus enraged, my lines are hurl'd,
Like the Sibyl's, through the world:
Look how next the holy fire
Either slakes, or doth retire;
So the fancy cools:--till when
That brave spirit comes again....Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...e: 
Since first this subject for heroick song 
Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late; 
Not sedulous by nature to indite 
Wars, hitherto the only argument 
Heroick deem'd chief mastery to dissect 
With long and tedious havock fabled knights 
In battles feign'd; the better fortitude 
Of patience and heroick martyrdom 
Unsung; or to describe races and games, 
Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, 
Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, 
Bases and tinsel trappings, g...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet XVIII

...But say what muse can dare so bold a flight?Full oft I strove in measure to indite;But ah, the pen, the hand, the vein I boast,At once were vanquish'd by the mighty theme! Nott.  [Pg 17] Ashamed at times that I ...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

The General Prologue

...t was his gown, with sleeves long and wide.
Well could he sit on horse, and faire ride.
He coulde songes make, and well indite,
Joust, and eke dance, and well pourtray and write.
So hot he loved, that by nightertale* *night-time
He slept no more than doth the nightingale.
Courteous he was, lowly, and serviceable,
And carv'd before his father at the table.

A YEOMAN had he, and servants no mo'
At that time, for *him list ride so* *it pleased him so to ride*
And he was clad...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Knights Tale

...prison,
Freely to go, where him list over all,
In such a guise, as I you tellen shall
This was the forword*, plainly to indite, *promise
Betwixte Theseus and him Arcite:
That if so were, that Arcite were y-found
Ever in his life, by day or night, one stound* *moment
In any country of this Theseus,
And he were caught, it was accorded thus,
That with a sword he shoulde lose his head;
There was none other remedy nor rede*. *counsel
But took his leave, and homeward he him spe...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Man of Laws Tale

...ld, I have no English dign* *worthy
Unto thy malice, and thy tyranny:
And therefore to the fiend I thee resign,
Let him indite of all thy treachery
'Fy, mannish,* fy! O nay, by God I lie; *unwomanly woman
Fy, fiendlike spirit! for I dare well tell,
Though thou here walk, thy spirit is in hell.

This messenger came from the king again,
And at the kinge's mother's court he light,* *alighted
And she was of this messenger full fain,* *glad
And pleased him in all that e'er she mig...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Plea of the Simla Dancers

...
 The ghosts of waltzes shall perplex your brain,
And murmurs of past merriment pursue
 Your 'wildered clerks that they indite in vain;
And when you count your poor Provincial millions,
 The only figures that your pen shall frame
Shall be the figures of dear, dear cotillions
 Danced out in tumult long before you came.

Yea! "See Saw" shall upset your estimates,
 "Dream Faces" shall your heavy heads bemuse,
Because your hand, unheeding, desecrates
 Our temple; fit for higher, ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Three Taverns

...A little through your eyes into your soul. 
I trust they were alive, and are alive 
Today; for there be none that shall indite
So much of nothing as the man of words 
Who writes in the Lord’s name for his name’s sake 
And has not in his blood the fire of time 
To warm eternity. Let such a man— 
If once the light is in him and endures—
Content himself to be the general man, 
Set free to sift the decencies and thereby 
To learn, except he be one set aside 
For sorrow, more of p...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Writing

...When words we want, Love teacheth to indite;
And what we blush to speak, she bids us write....Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

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