Famous Norse Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Brother In Need

...he cheers of Norway's sons, and cries 
Towards the beach of Sound. 
What passed that time we watched them meet, 
'Twixt Norse and Danish lord? 
Oh! nothing! only to repeat 
King Gustav's play at Stockholm's seat 
With the Twelfth Charles' sword. 

"A people doomed, whose knell is rung, 
Betrayed by every friend!" -- 
Is the book closed and the song sung? 
Is this our Denmark's end? 
Who set the craven colophon, 
While Germans seized the hold, 
And o'er the last Dane lying pro...Read more of this...
by Ibsen, Henrik


A Florida Sunday

...From cold Norse caves or buccaneer Southern seas
Oft come repenting tempests here to die;
Bewailing old-time wrecks and robberies,
They shrive to priestly pines with many a sigh,
Breathe salutary balms through lank-lock'd hair
Of sick men's heads, and soon -- this world outworn --
Sink into saintly heavens of stirless air,
Clean from confessional. One died, this morn,...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

A Song of Brave Men

...and such" – 
(Where'er, on a wreck titanic, in a scene of wild despair, 
The officers call for assistance, a Swede or a Norse is there.) 

Tale of a wreck titanic, with the last boat over the side, 
And a brave young husband fighting his clinging, hysterical bride; 
He strikes her fair on the temple, while the decks are scarce afloat, 
And he kisses her once on the forehead, and he drops her into the boat. 
So he goes to his death to save her; and she lives to remember and li...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Battle Of Brunanburgh

...ke,
Seven strong earls of the army of Anlaf
Fell on the war-field, numberless numbers,
Shipmen and Scotsmen. 

Then the Norse leader,
Dire was his need of it,
Few were his following,
Fled to his warship;
Fleeted his vessel to sea with the king in it,
Saving his life on the fallow flood. 

Also the crafty one,
Constantinus,
Crept to his north again,
Hoar-headed hero! 

Slender warrant had
He to be proud of
The welcome of war-knives--
He that was reft of his
Folk and his friend...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Norse lullaby

...The sky is dark and the hills are white
As the storm-king speeds from the north to-night,
And this is the song the storm-king sings,
As over the world his cloak he flings:
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;"
He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:
"Sleep, little one, sleep."

On yonder mountain-side a vine
Clings at the foot of a mother pine;
The tree bends...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene


Our Mother Pocahontas

...an April flood
Come roaring in. The newest race
Is born of her resilient grace.
We here renounce our Teuton pride:
Our Norse and Slavic boasts have died:
Italian dreams are swept away,
And Celtic feuds are lost today....

She sings of lilacs, maples, wheat,
Her own soil sings beneath her feet,
Of springtime
And Virginia,
Our Mother, Pocahontas....Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel

Slants at Buffalo New York

...s the Lehigh Valley railroad.
Then acres of steel rails, freight cars, smoke,
And then … the blue lake shore
…Erie with Norse blue eyes … and the white sun....Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Welcome And Farewell

...[Another of the love-songs addressed to Frederica.]




QUICK throbb'd my heart: to norse! haste, haste,

And lo! 'twas done with speed of light;
The evening soon the world embraced,

And o'er the mountains hung the night.
Soon stood, in robe of mist, the oak,

A tow'ring giant in his size,
Where darkness through the thicket broke,

And glared with hundred gloomy eyes.

From out a hill of clouds the moon

With mournful gaze began to peer:
T...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

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