Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Nearer Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...hone.

Yet shall we, for Suns that die,
 Wall our wanderings from desire?
Or, because the Moon is high,
 Scorn to use a nearer fire?
Lest some envious Pharaoh stir,
Make our lives our sepulcher?

Nay! Though Time with petty Fate
 Prison us and Emperors,
By our Arts do we create 
 That which Time himself devours--
Such machines as well may run
'Gainst the Horses of the Sun.

When we would a new abode,
 Space, our tyrant King no more,
Lays the long lance of the road 
 At our fe...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard



...promote their End)
Some Lucky LICENCE answers to the full
Th' Intent propos'd, that Licence is a Rule.
Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take,
May boldly deviate from the common Track.
Great Wits sometimes may gloriously offend,
And rise to Faults true Criticks dare not mend;
From vulgar Bounds with brave Disorder part,
And snatch a Grace beyond the Reach of Art,
Which, without passing thro' the Judgment, gains
The Heart, and all its End at once attains.
In Prospects, thus, some...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...ing him up in gluttonous gobbets—immediately
he had chewed up the unliving entirely, feet and hands. (ll. 736b-45a)

Nearer forth he stepped inside, grabbing in his claws
the mighty-minded warrior at his rest,
the fiend stretching out towards him with his hands.
Beowulf seized him at once with malicious purpose,
setting himself against his arm. Immediately
that keeper of crimes realized that never,
in all of middle-earth or its distant corners,
in any human, had he ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...hers, 'Nay,
It is Narcissus, his own paramour,
Those are the fond and crimson lips no woman can allure.'

And when they nearer came a third one cried,
'It is young Dionysos who has hid
His spear and fawnskin by the river side
Weary of hunting with the Bassarid,
And wise indeed were we away to fly:
They live not long who on the gods immortal come to spy.'

So turned they back, and feared to look behind,
And told the timid swain how they had seen
Amid the reeds some woodland go...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...
He stuns you by degrees—
Prepares your brittle Nature
For the Ethereal Blow
By fainter Hammers—further heard—
Then nearer—Then so slow
Your Breath has time to straighten—
Your Brain—to bubble Cool—
Deals—One—imperial—Thunderbolt—
That scalps your naked Soul—

When Winds take Forests in their Paws—
The Universe—is still—

324

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—
I keep it, staying at Home—
With a Bobolink for a Chorister—
And an Orchard, for a Dome—

So...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily



...of their owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the Basin of Minas,
Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of Grand-Pre,
Dwelt on his goodly acres: and with him, directing his household,
Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of the village.
Stalworth and stately in form was the man of seventy winters;
Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered with snow-flakes;
White as the s...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...Prove that I lie.

Such body lovers have,
Such exacting breath,
That they touch or sigh.
Every touch they give,
Love is nearer death.
Prove that I lie....Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler
...s and the sea
Which men call Artemisium, till he saw Thermopylae

Its steep ravine spanned by a narrow wall,
And on the nearer side a little brood
Of careless lions holding festival!
And stood amazed at such hardihood,
And pitched his tent upon the reedy shore,
And stayed two days to wonder, and then crept at midnight o'er

Some unfrequented height, and coming down
The autumn forests treacherously slew
What Sparta held most dear and was the crown
Of far Eurotas, and passed on...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...at worms that drank it. 
 Gladly
 thence 
 I gazed far forward. Dark and wide the flood 
 That flowed before us. On the nearer shore 
 Were people waiting. "Master, show me whence 
 These came, and who they be, and passing hence 
 Where go they? Wherefore wait they there content, 
 - The faint light shows it, - for their transit o'er 
 The unbridged abyss?" 
 He answered, "When we stand 
 Together, waiting on the joyless strand, 
 In all it shall be told thee." If he meant 
 ...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...ly near: 
But from his visage little could we guess, 
So unrepentant, dark, and passionless, 
Save that when struggling nearer to his last, 
Upon that page his eye was kindly cast; 
And once, as Kaled's answering accents ceased, 
Rose Lara's hand, and pointed to the East: 
Whether (as then the breaking sun from high 
Roll'd back the clouds) the morrow caught his eye, 
Or that 'twas chance, or some remember'd scene 
That raised his arm to point where such had been, 
Scarce Kal...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...all those lines by which men are mistook; 
But when, by shame constrained to go on board, 
He heard how the wild cannon nearer roared, 
And saw himself confined like sheep in pen, 
Daniel then thought he was in lion's den. 
And when the frightful fireships he saw, 
Pregnant with sulphur, to him nearer draw, 
Captain, lieutenant, ensign, all make haste 
Ere in the fiery furnace they be cast-- 
Three children tall, unsinged, away they row, 
Like Shadrack, Meschack, and Abednego...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...nd chaos, and the words 
We saw him say along the zigzag journey
Were doubtless as the words we heard him say
On coming nearer: "Wasn't she an i-deal
Son-of-a-*****? You bet she was an i-deal."

For all her mountains fall a little short,
Her people not quite short enough for Art,
She's still New Hampshire; a most restful state.

Lately in converse with a New York alec
About the new school of the pseudo-phallic,
I found myself in a close corner where
I bad to make an almost fu...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...ave had 
Your cup too full for longer mortal triumph. 
Well, you have had enough, and had it young;
And the old wine is nearer to the lees 
Than you are to the work that you are doing. 

HAMILTON

When does this philological excursion 
Into new lands and languages begin? 

BURR

Anon—that is, already. Only Fortune
Gave me this afternoon the benefaction 
Of your blue back, which I for love pursued, 
And in pursuing may have saved your life— 
Also the world a pounding piece of ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...like to what ye are, 
Great things resolved, which from the lowest deep 
Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 
Nearer our ancient seat--perhaps in view 
Of those bright confines, whence, with neighbouring arms, 
And opportune excursion, we may chance 
Re-enter Heaven; or else in some mild zone 
Dwell, not unvisited of Heaven's fair light, 
Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
Purge off this gloom: the soft delicious air, 
To heal the scar of these corrosive fi...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...n their rich retinue long 
Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold, 
Dazzles the croud, and sets them all agape. 
Nearer his presence Adam, though not awed, 
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek, 
As to a superiour nature bowing low, 
Thus said. Native of Heaven, for other place 
None can than Heaven such glorious shape contain; 
Since, by descending from the thrones above, 
Those happy places thou hast deigned a while 
To want, and honour these, vouchsafe with ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...e band, mindless the while 
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, 
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh. 
Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed 
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; 
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, 
Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers 
Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve: 
Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned 
Or of revived Adonis, or renowned 
Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son; 
Or that, not mystick, whe...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...hing,
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 to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens; 
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go; 
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them; 
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.) 

2
You road I enter upon and look a...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...banner he display'd, and forth he rode
To Thebes-ward, and all his, host beside:
No ner* Athenes would he go nor ride, *nearer
Nor take his ease fully half a day,
But onward on his way that night he lay:
And sent anon Hippolyta the queen,
And Emily her younge sister sheen* *bright, lovely
Unto the town of Athens for to dwell:
And forth he rit*; there is no more to tell. *rode

The red statue of Mars with spear and targe* *shield
So shineth in his white banner large
That all t...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...untain and meadow, moss and moor,
     And pondered refuge from his toil,
     By far Lochard or Aberfoyle.
     But nearer was the copsewood gray
     That waved and wept on Loch Achray,
     And mingled with the pine-trees blue
     On the bold cliffs of Benvenue.
     Fresh vigor with the hope returned,
     With flying foot the heath he spurned,
     Held westward with unwearied race,
     And left behind the panting chase.
     VI.

     'T were long to tell...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...ithout, the fauns of the forest are driven,
But by devotion is lent life more sublime to the stone.
Man is brought into nearer union with man, and around him
Closer, more actively wakes, swifter moves in him the world.
See! the emulous forces in fiery conflict are kindled,
Much, they effect when they strive, more they effect when they join.
Thousands of hands by one spirit are moved, yet in thousands of bosoms
Beats one heart all alone, by but one feeling inspired--
Beats for...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Nearer poems.


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry