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Famous Paternal Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...dear!
A borther’s sigh! a sister’s tear!
 My Jean’s heart-rending throe!
Farewell, my Bess! tho’ thou’rt bereft
 Of my paternal care.
A faithful brother I have left,
 My part in him thou’lt share!
 Adieu, too, to you too,
 My Smith, my bosom frien’;
 When kindly you mind me,
 O then befriend my Jean!


What bursting anguish tears my heart;
From thee, my Jeany, must I part!
 Thou, weeping, answ’rest—“No!”
Alas! misfortune stares my face,
And points to ruin and disgrace,
 ...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...'s homilies.

He warned her 'gainst seductive youths in scarlet clad and gold,
As much as 'gainst the blandishments paternal of the old;
But kept his gravest warnings for (hereby the ditty hangs)
That snowy-haired Lothario, Lieutenant-General Bangs.

'Twas General Bangs, with Aide and Staff, who tittupped on the way,
When they beheld a heliograph tempestuously at play.
They thought of Border risings, and of stations sacked and burnt --
So stopped to take the messa...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...to forgive!
With how few tears a pardon might be won
From Nature, pleading for a darling son!
Poor pitied youth, by my paternal care,
Rais'd up to all the heights his frame could bear:
Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born,
He would have giv'n his soul another turn:
Gull'd with a patriot's name, whose modern sense
Is one that would by law supplant his prince:
The people's brave, the politician's tool;
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
Whence comes it that religi...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...crape o'er and o'er the mournful continent, 
 Their plans succeed, and each is well content. 
 Thus under Satan's all paternal care 
 They brothers are, this royal bandit pair. 
 Oh, noxious conquerors! with transient rule 
 Chimera heads—ambition can but fool. 
 Their misty minds but harbor rottenness 
 Loathsome and fetid, and all barrenness— 
 Their deeds to ashes turn, and, hydra-bred, 
 The mystic skeleton is theirs to dread. 
 The daring German and the cunning...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

 The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

 The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of ...Read more of this...



by Campbell, Thomas
...d Gertrude climb'd a widow'd father's knee.

A loved bequest,--and I may half impart--
To them that feel the strong paternal tie,
How like a new existence to his heart
That living flower uprose beneath his eye
Dear as she was from cherub infancy,
From hours when she would round his garden play,
To time when as the ripening years went by,
Her lovely mind could culture well repay,
And more engaging grew, from pleasing day to day.

I may not paint those thousand infant c...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...yonder, 
Nothing but the fatal Wawbeek!"
And he looked at Hiawatha 
With a wise look and benignant, 
With a countenance paternal, 
Looked with pride upon the beauty 
Of his tall and graceful figure,
Saying, "O my Hiawatha! 
Is there anything can harm you? 
Anything you are afraid of?"
But the wary Hiawatha 
Paused awhile, as if uncertain, 
Held his peace, as if resolving, 
And then answered, "There is nothing, 
Nothing but the bulrush yonder, 
Nothing but the great Apukwa!"
A...Read more of this...

by Auden, Wystan Hugh (W H)
...>our dishonest mood of denial,the concupiscence of the oppressor. If some traces of the autocratic pose,the paternal strictness he distrusted, stillclung to his utterance and features,it was a protective coloration for one who'd lived among enemies so long:if often he was wrong and, at times, absurd,to us he is no more a personnow but a whole climate of opinion under whom we conduct our different lives:Like weather he can only hinde...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...instructor of his youth, 
And cried in tones of pity and of ruth: 
"Oh, never from the memory of my heart 

Your dear, paternal image shall depart, 
Who while on earth, ere yet by death surprised, 
Taught me how mortals are immortalized; 
How grateful am I for that patient care 
All my life long my language shall declare." 

To-day we make the poet's words our own, 
And utter them in plaintive undertone; 
Nor to the living only be they said, 
But to the other living call...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nd the third sacred morn began to shine, 
Dawning through Heaven. Forth rushed with whirlwind sound 
The chariot of Paternal Deity, 
Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn, 
Itself instinct with Spirit, but convoyed 
By four Cherubick shapes; four faces each 
Had wonderous; as with stars, their bodies all 
And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the wheels 
Of beryl, and careering fires between; 
Over their heads a crystal firmament, 
Whereon a sapphire throne,...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ou Deep, peace, 
Said then the Omnifick Word; your discord end! 
Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim 
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode 
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; 
For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train 
Followed in bright procession, to behold 
Creation, and the wonders of his might. 
Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand 
He took the golden compasses, prepared 
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe 
This universe, and all created things: ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...d alike 
Present; and of his presence many a sign 
Still following thee, still compassing thee round 
With goodness and paternal love, his face 
Express, and of his steps the track divine. 
Which that thou mayest believe, and be confirmed 
Ere thou from hence depart; know, I am sent 
To show thee what shall come in future days 
To thee, and to thy offspring: good with bad 
Expect to hear; supernal grace contending 
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn 
True patience, ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nd sacred feast, 
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed; and dwell 
Long time in peace, by families and tribes, 
Under paternal rule: till one shall rise 
Of proud ambitious heart; who, not content 
With fair equality, fraternal state, 
Will arrogate dominion undeserved 
Over his brethren, and quite dispossess 
Concord and law of nature from the earth; 
Hunting (and men not beasts shall be his game) 
With war, and hostile snare, such as refuse 
Subjection to his empire tyran...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
 In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield shade,
 In winter, fire.

Blest, who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years, slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
 Quiet by day.

Sound sl...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...and young, of the foolish as much as the wise; 
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, 
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, 
Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse, and stuff’d with the stuff that
 is fine;
One of the Great Nation, the nation of many nations, the smallest the same, and
 the largest the same; 
A southerner soon as a northerner—a planter nonchalant and hospitable, down
 by the Oconee I live; 
A Yankee, bound by my own way, ...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...ars?
Remember, all their gifts have fled
With those dissolving years."

"Why, yes;" for memory would recall
My fond paternal joys;
"I could not bear to leave them all--
I'll take-- my-- girl-- and-- boys."

The smiling angel dropped his pen,--
"Why, this will never do;
The man would be a boy again,
And be a father too!"

. . . . . 

And so I laughed,-- my laughter woke
The household with its noise,--
And wrote my dream, when morning broke,
To pleas...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...s of joy,
For the boy would push his sister, and the sister crowd the boy,
Till the father asked for quiet in his grave paternal way,
But the mother hushed the tumult with the words, "Now, Mary, play."

For the dear soul knew that music was a very sovereign balm;
She had sprinkled it over Sorrow and seen its brow grow calm,
In the days of slender harpsichords with tapping tinkling quills,
Or carolling to her spinet with its thin metallic thrills.

So Mary, the househo...Read more of this...

by Bryant, William Cullen
...
Alone shall Evil die  
And Sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign. 

And then shall I behold 
Him by whose kind paternal side I sprung  
And her who still and cold 55 
Fills the next grave¡ªthe beautiful and young. ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...irst of vengeance. 
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
The creator of the nations, 
Looked upon them with compassion, 
With paternal love and pity; 
Looked upon their wrath and wrangling
But as quarrels among children, 
But as feuds and fights of children!
Over them he stretched his right hand, 
To subdue their stubborn natures, 
To allay their thirst and fever, 
By the shadow of his right hand; 
Spake to them with voice majestic 
As the sound of far-off waters, 
Falling into dee...Read more of this...

by Wheatley, Phillis
...long, great Sir, the muse thy praise shall sing,
So long thy praise shal' make Parnassus ring:
Then grant, Mæcenas, thy paternal rays,
Hear me propitious, and defend my lays....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs