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Famous Pace Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Pope, Alexander
...ike Tops, are lash'd asleep.
False Steps but help them to renew the Race,
As after Stumbling, Jades will mend their Pace.
What Crouds of these, impenitently bold,
In Sounds and jingling Syllables grown old,
Still run on Poets in a raging Vein,
Ev'n to the Dregs and Squeezings of the Brain;
Strain out the last, dull droppings of their Sense,
And Rhyme with all the Rage of Impotence!

Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true,
There are as mad, abandon'd Criticks ...Read more of this...



by Marvell, Andrew
...our. 
Thee, the year's monster, let thy dam devour, 
And constant time, to keep his course yet right, 
Fill up thy space with a redoubled night. 
When ag?d Thames was bound with fetters base, 
And Medway chaste ravished before his face, 
And their dear offspring murdered in their sight, 
Thou and thy fellows held'st the odious light. 
Sad change since first that happy pair was wed, 
When all the rivers graced their nuptial bed, 
And Father Neptune promised to resi...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...py,
My Wellingtons
Squelching and squelching through the beautiful red.

This is my property.
Two times a day
I pace it, sniffing
The barbarous holly with its viridian
Scallops, pure iron,

And the wall of the odd corpses.
I love them.
I love them like history.
The apples are golden,
Imagine it ----

My seventy trees
Holding their gold-ruddy balls
In a thick gray death-soup,
Their million
Gold leaves metal and breathless.

O love, O celibate.
Nobod...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...ill you reach with your riding? What is the charm of the chase?
Just the delight and the striding swing of the jubilant pace.
Danger is sweet when you front her,--
In at the death, every hunter!
Now on the breeze the mort is borne
In the long, clear note of the hunting-horn,
Winding merrily, over and over,--
Come, come, come!
Home again, Ranger! home again, Rover!
Turn again, home!


VII

DANCE-MUSIC

Now let the sleep-tune blend with the play-tune,
Weaving the mystical s...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...s round world: With pins of adamant 
And chains they made all fast, too fast they made 
And durable! And now in little space 
The confines met of empyrean Heaven, 
And of this World; and, on the left hand, Hell 
With long reach interposed; three several ways 
In sight, to each of these three places led. 
And now their way to Earth they had descried, 
To Paradise first tending; when, behold! 
Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright, 
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion stee...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...mscription of time wherein
the whole Drama begins and ends, is according to antient rule, and
best example, within the space of 24 hours.



The ARGUMENT.


Samson made Captive, Blind, and now in the Prison at Gaza, there
to labour as in a common work-house, on a Festival day, in the
general cessation from labour, comes forth into the open Air, to a
place nigh, somewhat retir'd there to sit a while and bemoan his
condition. Where he happens at length to be visited...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...sands' incessant fall, 
Importunate hours that hours succeed 
Each clamorous with its own sharp need, 
And duty keeping pace with all. 
Shut down and clasp with heavy lids; 
I hear again the voice that bids 
The dreamer leave his dream midway 
For larger hopes and graver fears: 
Life greatens in these later years, 
The century's aloe flowers to-day! 

Yet, haply, in some lull of life, 
Some Truce of God which breaks its strife, 
The wordling's eyes shall gather dew, 
Drea...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...r war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
   So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
   You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes....Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...nother; even now she loved another,
And on the summit of that hill she stood
Looking afar if yet her lover's steed
Kept pace with her expectancy, and flew.

III

A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
There was an ancient mansion, and before
Its walls there was a steed caparisoned:
Within an antique Oratory stood
The Boy of whom I spake;—he was alone,
And pale, and pacing to and fro: anon
He sate him down, and seized a pen, and traced
Words which I could not guess...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ds to cattle-tract,
And cattle-tract to open-chase,
And open-chase to the very base
Of the mountain where, at a funeral pace,
Round about, solemn and slow,
One by one, row after row,
Up and up the pine-trees go,
So, like black priests up, and so
Down the other side again
To another greater, wilder country,
That's one vast red drear burnt-up plain,
Branched through and through with many a vein
Whence iron's dug, and copper's dealt;
Look right, look left, look straight before,-...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...will be out of humour.   But then he is a horse that thinks!  And when he thinks his pace is slack;  Now, though he knows poor Johnny well,  Yet for his life he cannot tell  What he has got upon his back.   So through the moonlight lanes they go,  And far into the moonlight dale,  And by the church, and o'er the down,  To bring a doctor f...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...and wood for love, *were it not*
And eke that thou no weap'n hast in this place,
Thou should'st never out of this grove pace,
That thou ne shouldest dien of mine hand.
For I defy the surety and the band,
Which that thou sayest I have made to thee.
What? very fool, think well that love is free;
And I will love her maugre* all thy might. *despite
But, for thou art a worthy gentle knight,
And *wilnest to darraine her by bataille*, *will reclaim her
Have here my troth...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...rough the dell his horn resounds,
     From vain pursuit to call the hounds.
     Back limped, with slow and crippled pace,
     The sulky leaders of the chase;
     Close to their master's side they pressed,
     With drooping tail and humbled crest;
     But still the dingle's hollow throat
     Prolonged the swelling bugle-note.
     The owlets started from their dream,
     The eagles answered with their scream,
     Round and around the sounds were cast,
     ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...no wight can well read it at the full.

This Soudan for his privy council sent,
And, *shortly of this matter for to pace*, *to pass briefly by*
He hath to them declared his intent,
And told them certain, but* he might have grace *unless
To have Constance, within a little space,
He was but dead; and charged them in hie* *haste
To shape* for his life some remedy. *contrive

Diverse men diverse thinges said;
And arguments they casten up and down;
Many a subtle reason for...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...,
Into our kneading tubbes will we creep,
And sitte there, abiding Godde's grace.
Go now thy way, I have no longer space
To make of this no longer sermoning:
Men say thus: Send the wise, and say nothing:
Thou art so wise, it needeth thee nought teach.
Go, save our lives, and that I thee beseech."

This silly carpenter went forth his way,
Full oft he said, "Alas! and Well-a-day!,'
And to his wife he told his privity,
And she was ware, and better knew than he
What a...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...their 70's and 80's sat on the benches and discussed selling real estate left
behind by husbands long ago killed by the pace and stupidity of survival. For it all,
there was peace in the air and we walked about and stretched on the lawns and didn't say
much. It simply felt good being together. I bought a couple of sandwiches, some chips and
drinks and we sat on the sand eating. Then I held Cass and we slept together about an
hour. It was somehow better tha...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...The hotel quiets 
 early at night, 
 the aged brace themselves for 
 another sleep, and offshore 
 the sea quickens its pace. I 
 am suddenly 
 old, caught in a strange country 
 for which no man would die.

THOMAS DELAIN: 
from a journal found on his person

 At night wakened by the freight 
 trains boring through the suburbs 
 of Lyon, I watched first light 
 corrode the darkness, disturb 
 what little wildlife was left 
 in the alleys: birds moved from 
 branch to ...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...ages sought,
Is to a glorious circle wrought,
For Notion hath its source in Thought." 

So passed they on with even pace:
Yet gradually one might trace
A shadow growing on his face. 


The Second Voice 


THEY walked beside the wave-worn beach;
Her tongue was very apt to teach,
And now and then he did beseech 

She would abate her dulcet tone,
Because the talk was all her own,
And he was dull as any drone. 

She urged "No cheese is made of chalk":
And ceaseless fl...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...to seek and lear* *learn
An answer suffisant* in this mattere. *satisfactory
And surety will I have, ere that thou pace,* *go
Thy body for to yielden in this place."
Woe was the knight, and sorrowfully siked;* *sighed
But what? he might not do all as him liked.
And at the last he chose him for to wend,* *depart
And come again, right at the yeare's end,
With such answer as God would him purvey:* *provide
And took his leave, and wended forth his way.

He sought...Read more of this...

by Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
...eat souls in the general emptiness'
A piano concerto comes out a kitchen window
A yogi speaks at Ojai
'It's all taking pace in one mind'
On the lawn among the trees
lovers are listening
for the master to tell them they are one
with the universe
Eyes smell flowers and become them
There's a deathless hush
on the freeway tonight
as a Pacific tidal wave a mile high
sweeps in
Los Angeles breathes its last gas
and sinks into the sea like the Titanic all lights lit
Nine minutes lat...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things