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Famous Mistrust Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Raleigh, Sir Walter
...eads to peril and mishap, 
A true retreat of sorrow and despair, 
An idle boy that sleeps in pleasure's lap, 
A deep mistrust of that which certain seems, 
A hope of that which reason doubtful deems. 

Sith* then thy trains my younger years betrayed, [since] 
And for my faith ingratitude I find; 
And sith repentance hath my wrongs bewrayed*, [revealed] 
Whose course was ever contrary to kind*: [nature] 
False love, desire, and beauty frail, adieu. 
Dead is ...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...earn how to live---
No end to learning:
Earn the means first---God surely will contrive
Use for our earning.
Others mistrust and say, ``But time escapes:
``Live now or never!''
He said, ``What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes!
``Man has Forever.''
Back to his book then: deeper drooped his head
_Calculus_ racked him:
Leaden before, his eyes grew dross of lead:
_Tussis_ attacked him.
``Now, master, take a little rest!''---not he!
(Caution redoubled,
Step two abre...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...et
His face before, but, at first view,
I felt quite sure that God had set
Himself to Satan; who would spend
A minute's mistrust on the end?

XIII.

He strode to Gauthier, in his throat
Gave him the lie, then struck his mouth
With one back-handed blow that wrote
In blood men's verdict there. North, South,
East, West, I looked. The lie was dead,
And damned, and truth stood up instead.

XIV.

This glads me most, that I enjoyed
The heart of the joy, with my c...Read more of this...

by Carman, Bliss
...s too, I'd cry, "A rat!" 
And lunge thereat,— 
Let out at one swift thrust 
The cunning arch-delusion of the dust 
I so mistrust, 


But that I fear I should disclose a face 
Wearing the trace 
Of my own human guise, 
Piteous, unharmful, loving, sad, and wise 
With the speaking eyes. 


I would the house were rid of his grim pranks, 
Moaning from banks 
Of pine trees in the moon, 
Startling the silence like a demoniac loon 
At dead of noon. 


Or whispering his fool-t...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...t eyes 
Home from the rock, sideways he let them glance 
At Enid, where she droopt: his own false doom, 
That shadow of mistrust should never cross 
Betwixt them, came upon him, and he sighed; 
Then with another humorous ruth remarked 
The lusty mowers labouring dinnerless, 
And watched the sun blaze on the turning scythe, 
And after nodded sleepily in the heat. 
But she, remembering her old ruined hall, 
And all the windy clamour of the daws 
About her hollow turret, plu...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...ur outrage sore? But the worst we spared,
``To have called these---Christians, had we dared!
``Let defiance to them pay mistrust of Thee,
``And Rome make amends for Calvary!

XIX.

``By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
``By the infamy, Israel's heritage,
``By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace,
``By the badge of shame, by the felon's place,
``By the branding-tool, the bloody whip,
``And the summons to Christian fellowship,---

XX.

``We boast our proof...Read more of this...

by Brontë, Emily
...go;
I follow fearlessly,
Inquiring not what deeper woe
Stern duty stores for me. 

So foes pursue, and cold allies
Mistrust me, every one:
Let me be false in others' eyes,
If faithful in my own....Read more of this...

by Blok, Aleksandr
...lame, and you are coming fast, 
But I'm afraid that you will change your image yet, 

And will initiate the challenging mistrust 
By changing features, used, at long awaited end. 

Oh, how I will fell -- so low and so pine, 
Unable to overcome my dreams' continued set! 

The distance is such bright! And azure is so fine! 
But I'm afraid that you will change your image yet....Read more of this...

by Rilke, Rainer Maria
...gown,

she drinks quietly from her image. She drinks
what a lover would drink feeling dazed,
searching it, full of mistrust; and she only

beckons to her maid when at the bottom
of her mirror she finds candles, wardrobes,
and the cloudy dregs of a late hour....Read more of this...

by Russell, George William
...YOU look at me with wan, bright eyes
 When in the deeper world I stray:
You fear some hidden ambush lies
 In wait to call me, “Come away.”


What if I see behind the veil
 Your starry self beseeching me,
Or at its stern command grow pale,
 “Let her be free, let her be free”?...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...earing good surprised, 
She dictate false; and mis-inform the will 
To do what God expressly hath forbid. 
Not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins, 
That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me. 
Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve; 
Since Reason not impossibly may meet 
Some specious object by the foe suborned, 
And fall into deception unaware, 
Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warned. 
Seek not temptation then, which to avoid 
Were better, and mo...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...whose germ grew never grain,
And passion dyed in its own pain.

Then he stood up, and trod to dust
Fear and desire, mistrust and trust,
And dreams of bitter sleep and sweet,
And bound for sandals on his feet
Knowledge and patience of what must
And what things may be, in the heat
And cold of years that rot and rust
And alter; and his spirit's meat
Was freedom, and his staff was wrought
Of strength, and his cloak woven of thought.

For what has he whose will sees clear
...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...dered too, 
Who slept with never a roof-tree 
Under the wind and dew. 
The minds of the poor were open, 
There dark mistrust was dead: 
They loved his wizard stories, 
They bought his rhymes with bread.

Those were his days of glory, 
Of faith in his fellow-men. 
Therefore to-day the singer 
Turns beggar once again....Read more of this...

by Ashbery, John
...harted,
Desolate, reluctant as any landscape
To yield what are laws of perspective
After all only to the painter's deep
Mistrust, a weak instrument though
Necessary. Of course some things
Are possible, it knows, but it doesn't know
Which ones. Some day we will try
To do as many things as are possible
And perhaps we shall succeed at a handful
Of them, but this will not have anything
To do with what is promised today, our
Landscape sweeping out from us to disappear
On t...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...pare not, but urge direct in headlong course
Unto some fair far hill that gain I must:
But near arrived the vision soon mistrust,
Rein in, and stand as one who sees the source
Of strong illusion, shaming thought to force
From off his mind the soil of passion's gust. 

My brow I bare then, and with slacken'd speed
Can view the country pleasant on all sides,
And to kind salutation give good heed:
I ride as one who for his pleasure rides,
And stroke the neck of my delighted ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...and flows, 
Fixt on her faith. Now, therefore, I do rest, 
A prophet certain of my prophecy, 
That never shadow of mistrust can cross 
Between us. Grant me pardon for my thoughts: 
And for my strange petition I will make 
Amends hereafter by some gaudy-day, 
When your fair child shall wear your costly gift 
Beside your own warm hearth, with, on her knees, 
Who knows? another gift of the high God, 
Which, maybe, shall have learned to lisp you thanks.' 

He spoke: ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...y to syke;
'A! May it be no bet?' quod Pandarus;
'By god, I shal no-more come here this wyke, 
And god to-forn, that am mistrusted thus;
I see ful wel that ye sette lyte of us,
Or of our deeth! Allas! I woful wrecche!
Mighte he yet live, of me is nought to recche.

'O cruel god, O dispitouse Marte, 
O Furies three of helle, on yow I crye!
So lat me never out of this hous departe,
If that I mente harm or vilanye!
But sith I see my lord mot nedes dye,
And I with him, here I...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...myn olde hat? 
No wonder is, so god me sende hele,
Though wommen drede with us men to dele.

'I sey not this for no mistrust of yow,
Ne for no wys man, but for foles nyce,
And for the harm that in the world is now, 
As wel for foly ofte as for malyce;
For wel wot I, in wyse folk, that vyce
No womman drat, if she be wel avysed;
For wyse ben by foles harm chastysed.

'But now to purpos; leve brother dere, 
Have al this thing that I have seyd in minde,
And keep thee clos...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...d too, 
Who had slept with ne'er a roof-tree 
Under the wind and dew. 
The minds of the poor were open, 
Their dark mistrust was dead. 
They loved his wizard stories, 
They bought his rhymes with bread. 
Those were his days of glory, 
Of faith in his fellow-men. 
Therefore, to-day the singer 
Turns beggar once again....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs