Famous Outward Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Modern English)

...of the land, dear and old, had ruled them a long time. (ll. 26-31)

There in the harbor stood a ringed prow,
icy and outward-bound, a nobleman’s vessel.
Then they laid down their beloved prince,
the dispenser of rings, in the bosom of the ship,
the notorious by the mast. There were many treasures,
brought from far-ways, adornments laden there—
I’ve never heard of a ship equipped more fit
with war-weapons and battle-shirts,
with swords and with sarks. Many treasures
...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Beowulf (Old English)

...hgar’s hearth-companions
he slew in slumber, in sleep devoured,
fifteen men of the folk of Danes,
and as many others outward bore,
his horrible prey. Well paid for that
the wrathful prince! For now prone he saw
Grendel stretched there, spent with war,
spoiled of life, so scathed had left him
Heorot’s battle. The body sprang far
when after death it endured the blow,
sword-stroke savage, that severed its head.
Soon, {23a} then, saw the sage companions
who waited wit...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bishop Blougrams Apology

...rs. 
Go write your lively sketches! be the first 
"Blougram, or The Eccentric Confidence"-- 
Or better simply say, "The Outward-bound." 
Why, men as soon would throw it in my teeth 
As copy and quote the infamy chalked broad 
About me on the church-door opposite. 


You will not wait for that experience though, 
I fancy, howsoever you decide, 
To discontinue--not detesting, not 
Defaming, but at least--despising me! 

Over his wine so smiled and talked his hour 
Sylvester Blo...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Blight

...ld;
And in the midst of spoils and slaves, we thieves
And pirates of the universe, shut out
Daily to a more thin and outward rind,
Turn pale and starve. Therefore, to our sick eyes,
The stunted trees look sick, the summer short,
Clouds shade the sun, which will not tan our hay,
And nothing thrives to reach its natural term;
And life, shorn of its venerable length,
Even at its greatest space is a defeat,
And dies in anger that it was a dupe;
And, in its highest noon...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Comus

...on
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal. But, when lust,
By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,
Lets ill defilement to the inward parts,
The soul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose
The div...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Inferno (English)

...o high 
 With envious hates that swells, that now the sack 
 Bursts, and pours out in ruin, and spreads its wrack 
 Far outward, was mine alike, while clearer air 
 Still breathed I. Citizens who knew me there 
 Called me Ciacco. For the vice I fed 
 At rich men's tables, in this filth I lie 
 Drenched, beaten, hungered, cold, uncomforted, 
 Mauled by that ravening greed; and these, as I, 
 With gluttonous lives the like reward have won." 

 I answered, "Piteous is thy state ...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Lara

...nd. 

XXIV. 

"To-morrow! — ay, to-morrow!" — further word 
Than those repeated none from Lara heard; 
Upon his brow no outward passion spoke, 
From his large eye no flashing anger broke; 
Yet there was something fix'd in that low tone 
Which shew'd resolve, determined, though unknown. 
He seized his cloak — his head he slightly bow'd, 
And passing Ezzelin he left the crowd; 
And as he pass'd him, smiling met the frown 
With which that chieftain's brow would bear him down: 
I...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...et not for those, 
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, 
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, 
And high disdain from sense of injured merit, 
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, 
And to the fierce contentions brought along 
Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 
His utmost power with adverse power opposed 
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
And shook ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...
For heavenly minds from such distempers foul 
Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware, 
Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm, 
Artificer of fraud; and was the first 
That practised falsehood under saintly show, 
Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge: 
Yet not enough had practised to deceive 
Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down 
 The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount 
 Saw him disfigured, more than could befall 
 Spirit of happy sort; his gestures...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...uence of thy looks, receive 
Access in every virtue; in thy sight 
More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were 
Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on, 
Shame to be overcome or over-reached, 
Would utmost vigour raise, and raised unite. 
Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel 
When I am present, and thy trial choose 
With me, best witness of thy virtue tried? 
So spake domestick Adam in his care 
And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought 
Less attr...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...easts, or slain, 
Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid; 
And thought not much to clothe his enemies; 
Nor he their outward only with the skins 
Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more. 
Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness, 
Arraying, covered from his Father's sight. 
To him with swift ascent he up returned, 
Into his blissful bosom reassumed 
In glory, as of old; to him appeased 
All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man 
Recounted, mixing intercession...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Samson Agonistes

...Men enjoying sight oft without cause complain)
Imprison'd now indeed,
In real darkness of the body dwells,
Shut up from outward light 
To incorporate with gloomy night;
For inward light alas
Puts forth no visual beam.
O mirror of our fickle state,
Since man on earth unparallel'd!
The rarer thy example stands,
By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.
For him I reckon not in high estate 
Whom long de...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

...all activity, secret or public:
Whispers of the word that can't be understood
But can be felt, a chill, a blight
Moving outward along the capes and peninsulas
Of your nervures and so to the archipelagoes
And to the bathed, aired secrecy of the open sea.
This is its negative side. Its positive side is
Making you notice life and the stresses
That only seemed to go away, but now,
As this new mode questions, are seen to be
Hastening out of style. If they are to become classics
Th...Read more of this...
by Ashbery, John

Snowbound a Winter Idyl

...er thoughts and things! 
How many a poor one's blessing went 
With thee beneath the low green tent 
Whose curtain never outward swings! 

As one who held herself a part 
Of all she saw, and let her heart 
Against the household bosom lean, 
Upon the motley-braided mat 
Our yougest and our dearest sat, 
Lifting her large, sweet, asking eyes, 
Now bathed in the unfading green 
And holy peace of Paradise. 
Oh, looking from some heavenly hill, 
Or from the shade of saintly palms, ...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

Song of Myself

...orward life, and does not wait at the end to
 arrest it, 
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

All goes onward and outward—nothing collapses; 
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. 

7
Has any one supposed it lucky to be born? 
I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to die, and I know it. 

I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-wash’d babe, and am not
 contain’d between my hat and boots;
And peruse manifold ob...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Cremona Violin

...her eyes were swimming,
Her prodded ears were aching and confused.
The first notes from the orchestra sent skimming
Her outward consciousness. Her brain was fused
Into the music, Theodore's music! Used
To hear him play, she caught his single tone.
For all she noticed they two were alone.

Part Fourth
Frau Altgelt waited in the chilly street,
Hustled by lackeys who ran up and down
Shouting their coachmen's names; forced to retreat
A pace or two by lurching chairmen; thrown
Rud...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Deserted Garden

...ey knew; and here where morning-glories cling
Round carven forms of carefullest artifice,
They made a bower where every outward thing
Should comment on the cause of their own bliss;
With flowers of liveliest hue encompassing
That flower that the beloved body is
That rose that for the banquet of Love's bee
Has budded all the æons of past eternity.

But their choice seat was where the garden wall,
Crowning a little summit, far and near,
Looks over tufted treetops onto all
The p...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...ve Senses. the chief inlets
of Soul in this age
Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is
the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
Energy is Eternal Delight
_______________________________________

PLATE 5

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough
to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place &
governs the unwilling.
And being restraind it by degrees becomes passive till it is
only the shadow of desire.
The history...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Seasons: Winter

...and to hoary Caves;
Where Angel-Forms are seen, and Voices heard,
Sigh'd in low Whispers, that abstract the Soul,
From outward Sense, far into Worlds remote.

NOW, when the Western Sun withdraws the Day, 
And humid Evening, gliding o'er the Sky,
In her chill Progress, checks the straggling Beams,
And robs them of their gather'd, vapoury, Prey,
Where Marshes stagnate, and where Rivers wind,
Cluster the rolling Fogs, and swim along 
The dusky-mantled Lawn: then slow descend,
O...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

The Triumph Of Fame

...survey'd,An angel soul in angel form array'd;Nor less his brother seem'd in outward grace,But hell within belied a beauteous face.Then Nerva, who retrieved the falling throne,And Trajan, by his conquering eagles known.[Pg 386]Adrian, and Antonine the just and good,H...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

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