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Famous Overcome Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...ulture
On a tall mountain, citied to the top,
Crowded with culture!
All the peaks soar, but one the rest excels;
Clouds overcome it;
No! yonder sparkle is the citadel's
Circling its summit.
Thither our path lies; wind we up the heights:
Wait ye the warning?
Our low life was the level's and the night's;
He's for the morning.
Step to a tune, square chests, erect each head,
'Ware the beholders!
This is our master, famous calm and dead,
Borne on our shoulders.

Sleep, crop and he...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert



...the Lord had already given them
the weft of war-fortune, to the Wederish men,
aid and assistance, so that they would overcome
their enemy entirely through a singular strength,
by one’s own might. The truth is revealed,
that mighty God has ruled over mankind
for many wide years. (ll. 696b-702a)

                               The demon came in the dark night,
a shadow-slider gliding. The bowmen slept,
those who must keep hold over the horned hall,
all except for on...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...line lingered.
All was silent within; and in vain at the door and the windows
Stood she, and listened and looked, till, overcome by emotion,
"Gabriel!" cried she aloud with tremulous voice; but no answer
Came from the graves of the dead, nor the gloomier grave of the living.
Slowly at length she returned to the tenantless house of her father.
Smouldered the fire on the hearth, on the board was the supper untasted,
Empty and drear was each room, and haunted with phantoms of te...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...orld.

The eyes see there materials for building,
See the difficulties, too, and the obstacles.
The mind seeks a way to overcome these obstacles.
The hand seeks tools to cut the wood,
To till the soil, and harness the power of the waters.
Then the hand seeks other hands to help,
A community of hands to help-
Thus the dream becomes not one man's dream alone,
But a community dream.
Not my dream alone, but our dream.
Not my world alone,
But your world and my world,
Belonging to ...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston
...st
note of the wood thrush. Easeful air 
presses through the screen 
with the wild, complex song 
of the bird, and I am overcome


by ordinary contentment. 
What hurt me so terribly 
all my life until this moment? 
How I love the small, swiftly 
beating heart of the bird 
singing in the great maples; 
its bright, unequivocal eye....Read more of this...
by Kenyon, Jane



...querable will, 
And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
And courage never to submit or yield: 
And what is else not to be overcome? 
That glory never shall his wrath or might 
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 
With suppliant knee, and deify his power 
Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 
Doubted his empire--that were low indeed; 
That were an ignominy and shame beneath 
This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods, 
And this empyreal sybstance, cannot fail;...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...is punished; whence these raging fires 
Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 
Our purer essence then will overcome 
Their noxious vapour; or, inured, not feel; 
Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 
In temper and in nature, will receive 
Familiar the fierce heat; and, void of pain, 
This horror will grow mild, this darkness light; 
Besides what hope the never-ending flight 
Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 
Worth waiting--since our...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...n bold, 
Will save us trial what the least can do 
Single against thee wicked, and thence weak. 
The Fiend replied not, overcome with rage; 
But, like a proud steed reined, went haughty on, 
Champing his iron curb: To strive or fly 
He held it vain; awe from above had quelled 
His heart, not else dismayed. Now drew they nigh 
The western point, where those half-rounding guards 
Just met, and closing stood in squadron joined, 
A waiting next command. To whom their Chief, 
Gabr...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...
Victor; though brutish that contest and foul, 
When reason hath to deal with force, yet so 
Most reason is that reason overcome. 
So pondering, and from his armed peers 
Forth stepping opposite, half-way he met 
His daring foe, at this prevention more 
Incensed, and thus securely him defied. 
Proud, art thou met? thy hope was to have reached 
The highth of thy aspiring unopposed, 
The throne of God unguarded, and his side 
Abandoned, at the terrour of thy power 
Or potent to...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ight 
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 attributed to her faith sincere, 
Thus her reply with accent swee...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...
Thou leadest me; and to the hand of Heaven submit, 
However chastening; to the evil turn 
My obvious breast; arming to overcome 
By suffering, and earn rest from labour won, 
If so I may attain. -- So both ascend 
In the visions of God. It was a hill, 
Of Paradise the highest; from whose top 
The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken, 
Stretched out to the amplest reach of prospect lay. 
Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round, 
Whereon, for different cause, the Tempter...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...ue course adjourn, 
Man's voice commanding, 'Sun, in Gibeon stand, 
'And thou moon in the vale of Aialon, 
'Till Israel overcome! so call the third 
From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him 
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win. 
Here Adam interposed. O sent from Heaven, 
Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things 
Thou hast revealed; those chiefly, which concern 
Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find 
Mine eyes true-opening, and my heart much eased; 
Erewhile ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...holy, as of a Plant;
Select, and Sacred, Glorious for a while,
The miracle of men: then in an hour
Ensnar'd, assaulted, overcome, led bound,
Thy Foes derision, Captive, Poor, and Blind
Into a Dungeon thrust, to work with Slaves?
Alas methinks whom God hath chosen once
To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err,
He should not so o'rewhelm, and as a thrall 
Subject him to so foul indignities,
Be it but for honours sake of former deeds.

Sam: Appoint not heavenly disposition,...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...els sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea! 
And to all generals that lost engagements! and all overcome heroes! 
And the numberless unknown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known. 

19
This is the meal equally set—this is the meat for natural hunger; 
It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous—I make appointments
 with all;
I will not have a single person slighted or left away; 
The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited; ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...y as Jerusalem,
           terrible as an army with banners.

22:006:005 Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy
           hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.

22:006:006 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the
           washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one
           barren among them.

22:006:007 As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks.

22:006:008 There are thr...Read more of this...
by Bible, The
...rvant walked abroad,
The fathers, on that holy ground,
This famous Order chose to found,
That arduous duty to fulfil
To overcome one's own self-will!
'Twas idle glory moved thee there:
So take thee hence from out my sight!
For who the Lord's yoke cannot bear,
To wear his cross can have no right."

A furious shout now raise the crowd,
The place is filled with outcries loud;
The brethren all for pardon cry;
The youth in silence droops his eye--
Mutely his garment from him throw...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von
...ll speak, or elles go my way!"
Our Host answer'd; "*Tell on a devil way*; *devil take you!*
Thou art a fool; thy wit is overcome."
"Now hearken," quoth the Miller, "all and some:
But first I make a protestatioun.
That I am drunk, I know it by my soun':
And therefore if that I misspeak or say,
*Wite it* the ale of Southwark, I you pray: *blame it on*
For I will tell a legend and a life
Both of a carpenter and of his wife,
How that a clerk hath *set the wrighte's cap*." *foo...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...cked from the dark heart of the long hills roll 
The torrents, dashed to the vale: and yet her will 
Bred will in me to overcome it or fall. 

But when I told the king that I was pledged 
To fight in tourney for my bride, he clashed 
His iron palms together with a cry; 
Himself would tilt it out among the lads: 
But overborne by all his bearded lords 
With reasons drawn from age and state, perforce 
He yielded, wroth and red, with fierce demur: 
And many a bold knight started...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...e
Whose name the fresh world thinks already old--
"For in the battle Life & they did wage
She remained conqueror--I was overcome
By my own heart alone, which neither age
"Nor tears nor infamy nor now the tomb
Could temper to its object."--"Let them pass"--
I cried--"the world & its mysterious doom
"Is not so much more glorious than it was
That I desire to worship those who drew
New figures on its false & fragile glass
"As the old faded."--"Figures ever new
Rise on the bubble,...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...who shall cope him first.

This dismal cry rings sadly in her ear,
Through which it enters to surprise her heart;
Who, overcome by doubt and bloodless fear,
With cold-pale weakness numbs each feeling part:
Like soldiers, when their captain once doth yield,
They basely fly and dare not stay the field.

Thus stands she in a trembling ecstasy;
Till, cheering up her senses all dismay'd,
She tells them 'tis a causeless fantasy,
And childish error, that they are afraid;
Bids them ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry