Famous Likest Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Hymn In Honour Of Beauty

...rkness be enshrined ever,
That it of loving eyes be viewed never?

But, in your choice of loves, this well advise,
That likest to yourselves ye them select,
The which your forms' first source may sympathize,
And with like beauty's parts be inly deckt;
For, if you loosely love without respect,
It is no love, but a discordant war,
Whose unlike parts amongst themselves do jar.

For love is a celestial harmony
Of likely hearts compos'd of stars' concent,
Which join together in sw...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund


An Hymn In Honour Of Beauty

...rkness be enshrined ever,
That it of loving eyes be viewed never?

But, in your choice of loves, this well advise,
That likest to yourselves ye them select,
The which your forms' first source may sympathize,
And with like beauty's parts be inly deckt;
For, if you loosely love without respect,
It is no love, but a discordant war,
Whose unlike parts amongst themselves do jar.

For love is a celestial harmony
Of likely hearts compos'd of stars' concent,
Which join together in sw...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund

Beowulf (Old English)

...beheld that hand, on the high roof gazing,
foeman’s fingers, -- the forepart of each
of the sturdy nails to steel was likest, --
heathen’s “hand-spear,” hostile warrior’s
claw uncanny. ’Twas clear, they said,
that him no blade of the brave could touch,
how keen soever, or cut away
that battle-hand bloody from baneful foe.



XV

THERE was hurry and hest in Heorot now
for hands to bedeck it, and dense was the throng
of men and women the wine-hall to cleanse,
th...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Comus

...ere the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
 That likest thy Narcissus are?
 O, if thou have
 Hid them in some flowery cave,
 Tell me but where,
 Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere!
 So may'st thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies!


 COMUS. Can any mortal mixture of earthUs mould
Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?
Sure something holy lodges ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

From Arcades

...he love-lorn Nightingale 
 Nightly to thee her sad Song mourneth well. 
 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle Pair 
 That likest thy Narcissus are? 
 O if thou have 
 Hid them in som flowry Cave, 
 Tell me but where 
 Sweet Queen of Parly, Daughter of the Sphear! 
 So maist thou be translated to the skies, 
And give resounding grace to all Heav'ns Harmonies! 

John Milton. 1608-1674 

315. From' Comus' 
iii. Sabrina 

The Spirit sings: SABRINA fair 
 Listen where thou art sitti...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Il Penseroso

...cies fond with gaudy shapes possess,
As thick and numberless
............As the gay motes that people the sun-beams,
Or likest hovering dreams,
............The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.
But, hail! thou Goddess sage and holy!
Hail, divinest Melancholy!
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight,
And therefore to our weaker view
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;
Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
Or that ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

In Memoriam A. H. H.: 55. The wish that of the living whol

...The wish, that of the living whole 
No life may fail beyond the grave,
Derives it not from what we have
The likest God within the soul?
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life;
That I, considering everywhere
Her secret meaning in her deeds,
And finding that of fifty seeds
She often brings but one to bear,

I falter where I firmly trod,
And falling with my weight of care...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

MFingal - Canto II

...Place Reverence, Grace and Excellence,
Where neither claim'd the least pretence;
Transform by patent's magic words
Men, likest devils, into Lords;
Whence commoners, to Peers translated,
Are justly said to be created.
Now where commissioners you saw,
Shall boards of nobles deal you law;
Long-robed comptrollers judge your rights,
And tide-waiters start up in knights.
While Whigs subdued, in slavish awe,
Our wood shall hew, our water draw,
And bless the mildness, when past hope,...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

Paradise Lost: Book 02

...es and dizzy swum 
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, 
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
All th' host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid 
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 
Portentous held me; but, familiar grown, 
I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
The most averse--thee chiefly, who, full...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 03

..., 
Thrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there 
He staid not to inquire: Above them all 
The golden sun, in splendour likest Heaven, 
Allured his eye; thither his course he bends 
Through the calm firmament, (but up or down, 
By center, or eccentrick, hard to tell, 
Or longitude,) where the great luminary 
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick, 
That from his lordly eye keep distance due, 
Dispenses light from far; they, as they move 
Their starry dance in numbers that comp...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 06

..., or to what things 
Liken on earth conspicuous, that may lift 
Human imagination to such highth 
Of Godlike power? for likest Gods they seemed, 
Stood they or moved, in stature, motion, arms, 
Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven. 
Now waved their fiery swords, and in the air 
Made horrid circles; two broad suns their shields 
Blazed opposite, while Expectation stood 
In horrour: From each hand with speed retired, 
Where erst was thickest fight, the angelick throng, 
And...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...ardening tools as Art yet rude, 
Guiltless of fire, had formed, or Angels brought. 
To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorned, 
Likest she seemed, Pomona when she fled 
Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime, 
Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove. 
Her long with ardent look his eye pursued 
Delighted, but desiring more her stay. 
Oft he to her his charge of quick return 
Repeated; she to him as oft engaged 
To be returned by noon amid the bower, 
And all things in best order to invite 
No...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book

...d new, with those
Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect
Epicurean, and the Stoic severe. 
These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home,
Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
These rules will render thee a king complete
Within thyself, much more with empire joined."
 To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied:—
"Think not but that I know these things; or, think
I know them not, not therefore am I short
Of knowing what I ought. He who receives
Light from above, from the Fo...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The Second Book

...as oft assay."
 He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;
Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band
Of Spirits likest to himself in guile,
To be at hand and at his beck appear,
If cause were to unfold some active scene
Of various persons, each to know his part; 
Then to the desert takes with these his flight,
Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God,
After forty days' fasting, had remained,
Now hungering first, and to himself thus said:—
 "Where will this end...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet IV: Virtue Alas

...e some rest. 
Thou set'st a bate between my soul and wit. 
If vain love have my simple soul oppress'd, 
Leave what thou likest not, deal not thou with it. 

The scepter use in some old Cato's breast; 
Churches or schools are for thy seat more fit. 
I do confess, pardon a fault confess'd, 
My mouth too tender is for thy hard bit. 

But if that needs thou wilt usurping be, 
The little reason that is left in me, 
And still th'effect of thy persuasions prove: 

I swear, my heart ...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip

Sonnet IX

...o Christall: for nought may them seuer;
nor vnto glasse: such basenesse mought offend her;
Then to the Maker selfe they likest be,
whose light doth lighten all that here we see....Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund

The Drug-Shop or Endymion in Edmonstoun

...s: strychnine, a pallid dust 
Of tiny grains, like bones ground fine; and next 
The muddy green of arsenic, all livid, 
Likest the face of one long dead -- they creep 
Along the dusty shelf like deadly beetles, 
Whose fangs are carved with runnels, that the blood 
May run down easily to the blind mouth 
That snaps and gapes; and high above them there, 
My master's pride, a cobwebbed, yellow pot 
Of honey from Mount Hybla. Do the bees 
Still moan among the low sweet purple clo...Read more of this...
by Benet, Stephen Vincent

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold

...n the World below --

Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde --
Her Cheek -- a Beryl hewn --
Her Eye unto the Summer Dew
The likest I have known --

Her Lips of Amber never part --
But what must be the smile
Upon Her Friend she could confer
Were such Her Silver Will --

And what a privilege to be
But the remotest Star --
For Certainty She take Her Way
Beside Your Palace Door --

Her Bonnet is the Firmament --
The Universe -- Her Shoe --
The Stars -- the Trinkets at Her Belt --
Her...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Quality of Mercy

...ptered sway;
It is enthroned in the heart of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

To The One Of Fictive Music

...mage that is sure,
Among the arrant spices of the sun,
O bough and bush and scented vine, in whom
We give ourselves our likest issuance. 

Yet not too like, yet not so like to be
Too near, too clear, saving a little to endow
Our feigning with the strange unlike, whence springs
The difference that heavenly pity brings.
For this, musician, in your girdle fixed
Bear other perfumes. On your pale head wear
A band entwining, set with fatal stones.
Unreal, give back to us what once ...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

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