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Famous Pledge Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...s, 
 By the descending rill. 

 LIII 
rich almonds color to the prime 
For ADORATION; tendrils climb, 
 And fruit-trees pledge their gems; 
And Ivis with her gorgeous vest,
Builds for her eggs her cunning nest, 
 And bell-flowers bow their stems. 

 LIV 
With vinous syrup cedars spout; 
From rocks pure honey gushing out, 
 For ADORATION springs; 
All scenes of painting crowd the map 
Of nature; to the mermaid's pap 
 The scaled infant clings. 

 LV 
The spotted ounce and play...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher



...e Frisian men in the beer-hall. (ll. 1076-94)

Then on both sides, they plighted their troth,
fixed by this peaceful pledge. Without reservation,
Finn swore by oaths all this to Hengest,
that he would hold those woeful survivors
in honor, by the judgment of his advisers,
so that no man, by word or by deed,
should break the compact, nor through malicious works
ever begrudge it—even though they now followed
the killer of their own ring-giver, prince-less,
when it was...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...eud will happen;
from sword-clash dread of your Danish clan
he vaunts him safe, from the Victor-Scyldings.
He forces pledges, favors none
of the land of Danes, but lustily murders,
fights and feasts, nor feud he dreads
from Spear-Dane men. But speedily now
shall I prove him the prowess and pride of the Geats,
shall bid him battle. Blithe to mead
go he that listeth, when light of dawn
this morrow morning o’er men of earth,
ether-robed sun from the south shall beam!”...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...rld prizes action, life and talk: 
No prejudice to what next world may prove, 
Whose new laws and requirements, my best pledge 
To observe then, is that I observe these now, 
Shall do hereafter what I do meanwhile. 
Let us concede (gratuitously though) 
Next life relieves the soul of body, yields 
Pure spiritual enjoyment: well, my friend, 
Why lose this life i' the meantime, since its use 
May be to make the next life more intense? 

Do you know, I have often had a dream 
(W...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...votion the full reconcilement
betwixt his animal and spiritual desires,
such welcome hour of bliss standeth for certain pledge
of happiness perdurable: and coud he sustain
this great enthusiasm, then the unbounded promise
would keep fulfilment; since the marriage of true minds
is thatt once fabled garden, amidst of which was set
the single Tree that bore such med'cinable fruit
that if man ate thereof he should liv for ever.
Friendship is in loving rather than in being lov'd,
...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour



...Count Lara's ear to know, 
To-morrow, here, or elsewhere, as may best 
Beseem your mutual judgment, speak the rest; 
I pledge myself for thee, as not unknown, 
Though, like Count Lara, now return'd alone 
From other lands, almost a stranger grown; 
And if from Lara's blood and gentle birth 
I augur right of courage and of worth, 
He will not that untainted line belie, 
Nor aught that knighthood may accord deny." 
"To-morrow be it," Ezzelin replied, 
"And here our several wor...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...
But most they for their darling Charles complain, 
And were it burnt, yet less would be their pain. 
To see that fatal pledge of sea command 
Now in the ravisher De Ruyter's hand, 
The Thames roared, swooning Medway turned her tide, 
And were they mortal, both for grief had died. 

The court in farthing yet itself does please, 
(And female Stuart there rules the four seas), 
But fate does still accumulate our woes, 
And Richmond her commands, as Ruyter those. 

After this lo...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...I

PRELUDE

Daughter of Psyche, pledge of that last night
When, pierced with pain and bitter-sweet delight,
She knew her Love and saw her Lord depart,
Then breathed her wonder and her woe forlorn
Into a single cry, and thou wast born?
Thou flower of rapture and thou fruit of grief;
Invisible enchantress of the heart;
Mistress of charms that bring relief
To sorrow, and to joy impart
A heave...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van
...those armies bright 
Which, but th' Omnipotent, none could have foiled! 
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 
Of hope in fears and dangers--heard so oft 
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults 
Their surest signal--they will soon resume 
New courage and revive, though now they lie 
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 
As we erewhile, astounded and amazed; 
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!" ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...us answered smooth:-- 
 "Dear daughter--since thou claim'st me for thy sire, 
And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge 
Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys 
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change 
Befallen us unforeseen, unthought-of--know, 
I come no enemy, but to set free 
From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host 
Of Spirits that, in our just pretences armed, 
Fell with us from on high. From th...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...o lived; nor on the virtue thought 
Of that life-giving plant, but only used 
For prospect, what well used had been the pledge 
Of immortality. So little knows 
Any, but God alone, to value right 
The good before him, but perverts best things 
To worst abuse, or to their meanest use. 
Beneath him with new wonder now he views, 
To all delight of human sense exposed, 
In narrow room, Nature's whole wealth, yea more, 
A Heaven on Earth: For blissful Paradise 
Of God the garden w...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...im midst, and without end. 
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, 
If better thou belong not to the dawn, 
Sure pledge of day, that crownest the smiling morn 
With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere, 
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. 
Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul, 
Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise 
In thy eternal course, both when thou climbest, 
And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fallest. 
Moon, that now...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...eart; fear here no dearth: 
'But of the tree whose operation brings 
'Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set 
'The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith, 
'Amid the garden by the tree of life, 
'Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste, 
'And shun the bitter consequence: for know, 
'The day thou eatest thereof, my sole command 
'Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die, 
'From that day mortal; and this happy state 
'Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world 
'Of woe an...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...sun, the wind, bring rain
 And I know what the rainbow writes across the east or west in a half-circle:
 A love-letter pledge to come again.. . .
 Towns on the Soo Line,
 Towns on the Big Muddy,
 Laugh at each other for cubs
 And tease as children.

Omaha and Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Paul, sisters in a house together, throwing slang, growing up.
Towns in the Ozarks, Dakota wheat towns, Wichita, Peoria, Buffalo, sisters throwing slang, growing up.. . .
Out of prairie-...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl
...thor I, sole cause: if aught seem vile,
As vile hath been my folly, who have profan'd
The mystery of God giv'n me under pledge
Of vow, and have betray'd it to a woman,
A Canaanite, my faithless enemy. 
This well I knew, nor was at all surpris'd,
But warn'd by oft experience: did not she
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal
The secret wrested from me in her highth
Of Nuptial Love profest, carrying it strait
To them who had corrupted her, my Spies,
And Rivals? In this other was...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...down the road to bliss 
Down to the red house, uncertain 
like a beggar's bowl hanging unto the cliff 
of withdrawn pledges, where the well is 
deepest... 

I have dared to live 
beneath the great untamed. 

To every good, to every 
flicker of stars along the pine 
shadows; 
To every tussle with lucid dusk, 
To every moonlit pledge, to 
every turn made to outleap 
silvery pollen, 

I have desired to listen - to listen -
to the ripening of seasons.... 

Wi...Read more of this...
by Nwakanma, Obi
...remedy nor rede*. *counsel
But took his leave, and homeward he him sped;
Let him beware, his necke lieth *to wed*. *in pledge*

How great a sorrow suff'reth now Arcite!
The death he feeleth through his hearte smite;
He weepeth, waileth, crieth piteously;
To slay himself he waiteth privily.
He said; "Alas the day that I was born!
Now is my prison worse than beforn:
*Now is me shape* eternally to dwell *it is fixed for me*
Not in purgatory, but right in hell.
Alas! that ever I...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...air,
     This western frontier scanned with care?—
     In Benvenue's most darksome cleft,
     A fair though cruel pledge was left;
     For Douglas, to his promise true,
     That morning from the isle withdrew,
     And in a deep sequestered dell
     Had sought a low and lonely cell.
     By many a bard in Celtic tongue
     Has Coir-nan-Uriskin been sung
     A softer name the Saxons gave,
     And called the grot the Goblin Cave.
     XXVI.

     It was a...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...r while our cloisters echoed frosty feet, 
And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, 
We did but talk you over, pledge you all 
In wassail; often, like as many girls-- 
Sick for the hollies and the yews of home-- 
As many little trifling Lilias--played 
Charades and riddles as at Christmas here, 
And ~what's my thought~ and ~when~ and ~where~ and ~how~, 
As here at Christmas.' 
She remembered that: 
A pleasant game, she thought: she liked it more 
Than magic music, fo...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...Drinke to me, onely, with thine eyes, 
And I will pledge with mine; 
Or leave a kisse but in the cup, 
And Ile not looke for wine. 
The thirst, that from the soule doth rise, 
Doth aske a drinke divine: 
But might I of Jove's Nectar sup, 
I would not change for thine. 
I sent thee, late, a rosie wreath, 
Not so much honoring thee, 
As giving it a hope, that there 
It could not withered bee. 
But ...Read more of this...
by Jonson, Ben

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry