Famous Manly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Absalom And Achitophel

...ther, inspir'd by some diviner lust,
His father got him with a greater gust;
Or that his conscious destiny made way,
By manly beauty to imperial sway.
Early in foreign fields he won renown,
With kings and states alli'd to Israel's crown:
In peace the thoughts of war he could remove,
And seem'd as he were only born for love.
Whate'er he did, was done with so much ease,
In him alone, 'twas natural to please:
His motions all accompani'd with grace;
And Paradise was open'd in his...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John


All the Worlds a Stage

...spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Beowulf (Modern English)

...people
completely, or else I would succumb to the slaughter,
fixed in the fiend’s grip. I must perform
this deed of manly courage, or else I will await
my final day here in this mead-hall.” (ll. 631-38)

These words were most pleasing to the woman,
the boasting speech of the Geat—she went gold-laden,
the generous queen of her people to sit by her lord. (ll. 639-41)

Then there were again, as before, within the hall
glorious words spoken and a tribe in high spirits...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...ovran he sat, come safe from battle,
kinsman by kinsman. His kindly lord
he first had greeted in gracious form,
with manly words. The mead dispensing,
came through the high hall Haereth’s daughter,
winsome to warriors, wine-cup bore
to the hands of the heroes. Hygelac then
his comrade fairly with question plied
in the lofty hall, sore longing to know
what manner of sojourn the Sea-Geats made.
“What came of thy quest, my kinsman Beowulf,
when thy yearnings suddenly ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Comus

...US. Imports their loss, beside the present need?
 LADY. No less than if I should my brothers lose.
 COMUS. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?
 LADY. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips.
 COMUS. Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came,
And the swinked hedger at his supper sat.
I saw them under a green mantling vine,
That crawls along the side of yon small hill,
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;
Their port w...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Custer

...men who leaned o'er Hamilton's rude bier
And saw his dead dear face without a tear, 
Strong souls who early learned the manly art
Of keeping from the eye what's in the heart, 
Soldiers who look unmoved on death's pale brow, 
Avert their eyes, to hide their moisture now.
The briny flood forced back from shores of woe, 
Needs but to touch the strands of joy to overflow.



XLIV.
About the captives welcoming warriors crowd, 
All eyes are wet, and Brewster sobs aloud.
Alas, the r...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Eviradnus

...e now already knows, 
 She has refused to marry, although oft 
 Entreated. It is time an arm less soft 
 Than hers—a manly arm—supported her; 
 Like to the rainbow she, one might aver, 
 Shining on high between the cloud and rain, 
 Or like the ewe that gambols on the plain 
 Between the bear and tiger; innocent, 
 She has two neighbors of most foul intent: 
 For foes the Beauty has, in life's pure spring, 
 The German Emp'ror and the Polish King. 
 
 VI. 
 
 TH...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...m: 
His fair large front and eye sublime declared 
Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks 
Round from his parted forelock manly hung 
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad: 
She, as a veil, down to the slender waist 
Her unadorned golden tresses wore 
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved 
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied 
Subjection, but required with gentle sway, 
And by her yielded, by him best received, 
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Poem of Joys

...no bounds;
To emerge, and be of the sky—of the sun and moon, and the flying clouds, as one with
 them.


O the joy of a manly self-hood! 
Personality—to be servile to none—to defer to none—not to any tyrant, known
 or
 unknown, 
To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic, 
To look with calm gaze, or with a flashing eye,
To speak with a full and sonorous voice, out of a broad chest, 
To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the earth. 

14
...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of Myself

...11
Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore; 
Twenty-eight young men, and all so friendly: 
Twenty-eight years of womanly life, and all so lonesome. 

She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank; 
She hides, handsome and richly drest, aft the blinds of the window.

Which of the young men does she like the best? 
Ah, the homeliest of them is beautiful to her. 

Where are you off to, lady? for I see you; 
You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in y...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Song of the Broad-Axe

...h the other more hard-faced lands;
Lands rich as lands of gold, or wheat and fruit lands; 
Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged ores; 
Lands of coal, copper, lead, tin, zinc; 
LANDS OF IRON! lands of the make of the axe! 

3
The log at the wood-pile, the axe supported by it;
The sylvan hut, the vine over the doorway, the space clear’d for a garden, 
The irregular tapping of rain down on the leaves, after the storm is lull’d, 
The wailing and moaning at intervals, the...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Everlasting Gospel

...doubt and experiment 
Certainly was not what Christ meant. 
What was He doing all that time, 
From twelve years old to manly prime? 
Was He then idle, or the less 
About His Father’s business? 
Or was His wisdom held in scorn 
Before His wrath began to burn 
In miracles throughout the land, 
That quite unnerv’d the Seraph band? 
If He had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus, 
He’d have done anything to please us; 
Gone sneaking into synagogues, 
And not us’d the Elders and Pries...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Four Ages of Man

...1.1 Lo now! four other acts upon the stage,
1.2 Childhood, and Youth, the Manly, and Old-age.
1.3 The first: son unto Phlegm, grand-child to water,
1.4 Unstable, supple, moist, and cold's his Nature.
1.5 The second: frolic claims his pedigree;
1.6 From blood and air, for hot and moist is he.
1.7 The third of fire and choler is compos'd,
1.8 Vindicative, and quarrelsome dispos'd.
1.9 The last, of earth and heavy melancholy,
1.10 So...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

The General Prologue

...
A sheaf of peacock arrows bright and keen
Under his belt he bare full thriftily.
Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly:
His arrows drooped not with feathers low;
And in his hand he bare a mighty bow.
A nut-head  had he, with a brown visiage:
Of wood-craft coud* he well all the usage: *knew
Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer*, *small shield
And by his side a sword and a buckler,
And on that other side a gay daggere,
Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spear:
A Chri...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Knights Tale

...to fight.
But shortly for to speaken of this thing,
With Creon, which that was of Thebes king,
He fought, and slew him manly as a knight
In plain bataille, and put his folk to flight:
And by assault he won the city after,
And rent adown both wall, and spar, and rafter;
And to the ladies he restored again
The bodies of their husbands that were slain,
To do obsequies, as was then the guise*. *custom

But it were all too long for to devise* *describe
The greate clamour, and the...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Lady of the Lake

...dare,
     The sparkling glance, soon blown to fire,
     Of hasty love or headlong ire.
     His limbs were cast in manly could
     For hardy sports or contest bold;
     And though in peaceful garb arrayed,
     And weaponless except his blade,
     His stately mien as well implied
     A high-born heart, a martial pride,
     As if a baron's crest he wore,
     And sheathed in armor bode the shore.
     Slighting the petty need he showed,
     He told of his b...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Pleasures of Melancholy

...ne forgiving look.
Nor seldom let the Moor on Desdemone
Pour the misguided threats of jealous rage.
By soft degrees the manly torrent steals
From my swollen eyes; and at a brother's woe
My big heart melts in sympathizing tears.

What are the splendours of the gaudy court,
Its tinsel trappings, and its pageant pomps?
To me far happier seems the banish'd lord,
Amid Siberia's unrejoicing wilds
Who pines all lonesome, in the chambers hoar
Of some high castle shut, whose windows d...Read more of this...
by Warton, Thomas

The Rape of the Lock

...and one Plebeian Card.
With his broad Sabre next, a Chief in Years,
The hoary Majesty of Spades appears;
Puts forth one manly Leg, to sight reveal'd;
The rest his many-colour'd Robe conceal'd.
The Rebel-Knave, who dares his Prince engage,
Proves the just Victim of his Royal Rage. 
Ev'n mighty Pam that Kings and Queens o'erthrow,
And mow'd down Armies in the Fights of Lu,
Sad Chance of War! now, destitute of Aid,
Falls undistinguish'd by the Victor Spade.

Thus far both Armies...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

The White Cliffs

...n Booth Bay.

XXV 
'So, Susan, my dear,' the letter began, 
'You've fallen in love with an Englishman. 
Well, they're a manly, attractive lot, 
If you happen to like them, which I do not. 
I am a Yankee through and through, 
And I don't like them, or the things they do. 
Whenever it's come to a knock-down fight 
With us, they were wrong, and we right; 
If you don't believe me, cast your mind 
Back over history, what do you find? 
They certainly had no justification 
For that ...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

The Wife of Baths Tale

...t worldly women love the best.
This knight he stood not still, as doth a beast,
But to this question anon answer'd
With manly voice, that all the court it heard,
"My liege lady, generally," quoth he,
"Women desire to have the sovereignty
As well over their husband as their love
And for to be in mast'ry him above.
This is your most desire, though ye me kill,
Do as you list, I am here at your will."
In all the court there was no wife nor maid
Nor widow, that contraried what he ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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