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Famous Leading Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
..., like stars storm hidden, rise
To radiate with splendor all his skies.
The stubborn Cheyennes, cowed at last by fear, 
Leading the captive pair, o'er spring-touched hills appear.



XLII.
With breath suspended, now the whole command
Waits the approach of that equestrian band.
Nearer it comes, still nearer, then a cry, 
Half sob, half shriek, goes piercing God's blue sky, 
And Brewster, like a nimble-footed doe, 
Or like an arrow hurrying from a bow, 
Shoots swiftly through t...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler



...ins
Who thus one lamb did lose. Paths there were many,
Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny,
And ivy banks; all leading pleasantly
To a wide lawn, whence one could only see
Stems thronging all around between the swell
Of turf and slanting branches: who could tell
The freshness of the space of heaven above,
Edg'd round with dark tree tops? through which a dove
Would often beat its wings, and often too
A little cloud would move across the blue.

 Full in the middle of t...Read more of this...
by Keats, John
...d-fearing man,
Yet lying thus inactive, doubt and gloom.
He seem'd, as in a nightmare of the night,
To see his children leading evermore
Low miserable lives of hand-to-mouth,
And her, he loved, a beggar: then he pray'd
`Save them from this, whatever comes to me.'
And while he pray'd, the master of that ship
Enoch had served in, hearing his mischance,
Came, for he knew the man and valued him,
Reporting of his vessel China-bound,
And wanting yet a boatswain. Would he go?
There ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...

I only know that every day brings good above"
My poor deserving;
I only feel that, in the road of Life, true Love
Is leading me along and never swerving. 

Whatever gifts and mercies in my lot may fall,
I would not measure
As worth a certain price in praise, or great or small;
But take and use them all with simple pleasure. 

For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we bless
The Hand that feeds us;
And when we tread the road of Life in cheerfulness,
Our very heart-beats pra...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van
...would not fear
"Thine eyes by gazing; but I cannot live
"Another night, and not my passion shrive.

IX.
"Love! thou art leading me from wintry cold,
"Lady! thou leadest me to summer clime,
"And I must taste the blossoms that unfold
"In its ripe warmth this gracious morning time."
So said, his erewhile timid lips grew bold,
And poesied with hers in dewy rhyme:
Great bliss was with them, and great happiness
Grew, like a lusty flower in June's caress.

X.
Parting they seem'd to ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John



...t casement, casting many a longing look 
Out across the hazy gloaming - out beyond the brawling brook! 
Over pathways leading skyward - over crag and swelling cone, 

Past long hillocks looking like to waves of ocean turned to stone; 
Yearning for a bliss unworldly, yearning for a brighter change, 
Yearning for the mystic Aidenn, built beyond this mountain range. 


Happy years, amongst these valleys, happy years have come and gone, 
And my youthful hopes and friend...Read more of this...
by Kendall, Henry
..., and away, and away,
Like a tone and its terce--
Till the chord dissolves, and the dancers stay,
And reverse.

Violins leading, take up the measure,
Turn with the tune again,--clarinets clear
Answer their pleading,--harps full of pleasure
Sprinkle their silver like light on the mere.
Semiquaver notes,
Merry little motes,
Tangled in the haze
Of the lamp's golden rays,
Quiver everywhere
In the air,
Like a spray,--
Till the fuller stream of the might of the tune,
Gliding like a...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van
...h old, 
With faltering speech and visage incomposed, 
Answered: "I know thee, stranger, who thou art-- *** 
That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 
I saw and heard; for such a numerous host 
Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep, 
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 
Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates 
Poured out by millions her victorious bands, 
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
Keep residence; if all I...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...et past 
Of blowing myrrh and balm: if thou accept 
My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon 
Lead then, said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled 
In tangles, and made intricate seem straight, 
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy 
Brightens his crest; as when a wandering fire, 
Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night 
Condenses, and the cold environs round, 
Kindled through agitation to a flame, 
Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends, 
Hovering and blazing wit...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...w answered soon. 
Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong, 
Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err 
The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw 
Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste 
The savour of death from all things there that live: 
Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest 
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid. 
So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell 
Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock 
Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, 
Against the da...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...aus twain, 
I see, in one, the Suez canal initiated, open’d, 
I see the procession of steamships, the Empress Eugenie’s leading the van;
I mark, from on deck, the strange landscape, the pure sky, the level sand in the distance;

I pass swiftly the picturesque groups, the workmen gather’d, 
The gigantic dredging machines. 

In one, again, different, (yet thine, all thine, O soul, the same,) 
I see over my own continent the Pacific Railroad, surmounting every barrier;
I see con...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...
AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road, 
Healthy, free, the world before me, 
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. 

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune; 
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road. 

The earth—that is sufficient; 
I do not want the constellations any nearer; 
I know they are very well where they are; 
I know they suffice for those who belong t...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...is there!
Twang harps, and squeal, you thin violins,
That the dancers may dance, and never discover
The old stone stair leading down to the river
With the chestnut-tree branches hanging over
Her and her lover.
Theodore, still her lover!
The evening passed like this, in a half faint,
Delirium with waking intervals
Which were the entr'acts. Under the restraint
Of a large company, the constant calls
For oranges or syrops from the stalls
Outside, the talk, the passing to and fro,...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy
...my favorite's step advance
     The lightest in the courtly dance,
     The cause of every gallant's sigh,
     And leading star of every eye,
     And theme of every minstrel's art,
     The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!'
     XI.

     'Fair dreams are these,' the maiden cried,—
     Light was her accent, yet she sighed,—
     'Yet is this mossy rock to me
     Worth splendid chair and canopy;
     Nor would my footstep spring more gay
     In courtly dance than...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...ou art silent: is it well?' 

Thereto Sir Lancelot answered, `It is well: 
Yet better if the King abide, and leave 
The leading of his younger knights to me. 
Else, for the King has willed it, it is well.' 

Then Arthur rose and Lancelot followed him, 
And while they stood without the doors, the King 
Turned to him saying, `Is it then so well? 
Or mine the blame that oft I seem as he 
Of whom was written, "A sound is in his ears"? 
The foot that loiters, bidden go,--the glanc...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
dens.
All night beneath the ruins, then their sullen flames faded
emerge round the gloomy king,
With thunder and fire: leading his starry hosts thro' the
waste wilderness [PL 27]he promulgates his ten commands, 
glancing his beamy eyelids over the deep in dark dismay,
Where the son of fire in his eastern cloud, while the
morning plumes her golden breast,
Spurning the clouds written with curses, stamps the stony
law to dust, loosing the eternal horses from the dens of night,
...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...
21. Because she was town-bred, he offered wealth, or money
reward, for her love.

22. Parish-clerks, like Absolon, had leading parts in the
mysteries or religious plays; Herod was one of these parts,
which may have been an object of competition among the
amateurs of the period.

23 ."The nighe sly maketh oft time the far lief to be loth": a
proverb; the cunning one near at hand oft makes the loving one
afar off to be odious.

24. Kyked: Looked; "keek" is still used in some p...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...night that long sad sigh. 

I saw the gardens, after our tea
(Crumpets and marmalade, toast and cake)
And Drake's Walk, leading down to the sea;
Lady Jean was startled I'd heard of Drake,
For the English always find it a mystery
That Americans study English history.

I saw the picture of every son—
Percy, the eldest, and John; and Bill
In Chinese Customs, and the youngest one
Peter, the sailor, at Osborne still;
And the daughter, Enid, married, alas,
To a civil servant in far...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer
...en this somewhere before
wading through a dark muddy street I'm going to the shadow play 
Ramazan night
a paper lantern leading the way
maybe nothing like this ever happened
maybe I read it somewhere an eight-year-old boy
 going to the shadow play
Ramazan night in Istanbul holding his grandfather's hand 
 his grandfather has on a fez and is wearing the fur coat
 with a sable collar over his robe
 and there's a lantern in the servant's hand
 and I can't contain myself for joy
...Read more of this...
by Hikmet, Nazim
...nvict face, blazes up like gasoline,
and it howls on its way like a wounded wheel,
and leaves tracks full of warm blood leading toward the
 night.

And it pushes me into certain corners, into some moist
 houses,
into hospitals where the bones fly out the window,
into shoeshops that smell like vinegar,
and certain streets hideous as cracks in the skin.

There are sulphur-colored birds, and hideous intestines
hanging over the doors of houses that I hate,
and there are false tee...Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry