Famous Presage Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Description of a City Shower

...be wise, then go not far to Dine, 
You spend in Coach-hire more than save in Wine. 
A coming Show'r your shooting Corns presage, 
Old Aches throb, your hollow Tooth will rage. 
Sauntring in Coffee-house is Dulman seen; 
He damns the Climate, and complains of Spleen.

Mean while the South rising with dabbled Wings, 
A Sable Cloud a-thwart the Welkin flings, 
That swill'd more Liquor than it could contain, 
And like a Drunkard gives it up again. 
Brisk Susan whips her Linen fro...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan


A Poem Upon The Death Of O.C

...ether some Kinder Pow'rs, that wish us well,
What they above cannot prevent, foretell;
Or the great World do by consent presage,
As hollow Seas with future Tempests rage:
Or rather Heav'n, which us so long fore sees,
Their fun'rals celebrate while it decrees.
But never yet was any humane Fate
By nature solemniz'd with so much state.
He unconcern'd the dreadful passage crost;
But oh what pangs that Death did Nature cost!
First the great Thunder was shot off, and sent
The Signa...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Baseball and Writing

...lebrity costs privacy!)
Cow's milk, "tiger's milk," soy milk, carrot juice,
brewer's yeast (high-potency--
concentrates presage victory

sped by Luis Arroyo, Hector Lopez--
deadly in a pinch.And "Yes,
it's work; I want you to bear down,
but enjoy it
while you're doing it."
Mr. Houk and Mr. Sain,
if you have a rummage sale,
don't sell Roland Sheldon or Tom Tresh.
Studded with stars in belt and crown,
the Stadium is an adastrium.
O flashing Orion,
your stars are muscled like th...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

...But, ugh! it sounded like a baby's shriek.

Glad was I when I reached the other bank.
Now for a better country. Vain presage!
Who were the strugglers, what war did they wage,
Whose savage trample thus could pad the dank
Soil to a plash? Toads in a poisoned tank,
Or wild cats in a red-hot iron cage -

The fight must so have seemed in that fell cirque.
What penned them there, with all the plain to choose?
No foot-print leading to that horrid mews,
None out of it. Ma...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Hymn To The Penates

...no more, Or when, perchance
With power permitted to alleviate ill
And fit the sufferer for the coming woe,
Some strange presage the SPIRIT breathes, and fills
The breast with ominous fear, and disciplines
For sorrow, pours into the afflicted heart
The balm of resignation, and inspires
With heavenly hope. Even as a Child delights
To visit day by day the favorite plant
His hand has sown, to mark its gradual growth,
And watch all anxious for the promised flower;
Thus to the bles...Read more of this...
by Southey, Robert


In memory of that excellent person Mrs. Mary Lloyd of Bodidrist in Denbigh-shire

...right Lamp shut in some Roman Urn. 
At last, when spent with sickness, grief and age, 
Her Guardian Angel did her death presage: 
(So that by strong impulse she chearfully 
Dispensed blessings, and went home to die; 
That so she might, when to that place removed, 
Marry his Ashes whom she ever loved) 
She dy'd, gain'd a reward, and paid a debt. 
The Sun himself did never brighter set. 
Happy were they that knew her and her end, 
More happy they that did from her descend: 
A d...Read more of this...
by Philips, Katherine

Mac Flecknoe

...point of time, if fame not lie,
On his left hand twelve reverend owls did fly.
So Romulus, 'tis sung, by Tiber's brook,
Presage of sway from twice six vultures took.
Th'admiring throng loud acclamations make,
And omens of his future empire take.
The sire then shook the honours of his head,
And from his brows damps of oblivion shed
Full on the filial dullness: long he stood,
Repelling from his breast the raging god;
At length burst out in this prophetic mood:

Heavens bless my...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

MFingal - Canto I

...But scarce you'd prove it, if you tried,
That e'er one Whig was edified.
Have ye not heard from Parson Walter
Much dire presage of many a halter?
What warnings had ye of your duty,
From our old rev'rend Sam. Auchmuty;
From priests of all degrees and metres,
T' our ***-end man, poor Parson Peters?
Have not our Cooper and our Seabury
Sung hymns, like Barak and old Deborah;
Proved all intrigues to set you free
Rebellion 'gainst the Pow'rs that be;
Brought over many a scripture t...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

Paradise Lost: Book 06

...mazement seised 
The rebel Thrones, but greater rage, to see 
Thus foiled their mightiest; ours joy filled, and shout, 
Presage of victory, and fierce desire 
Of battle: Whereat Michael bid sound 
The Arch-Angel trumpet; through the vast of Heaven 
It sounded, and the faithful armies rung 
Hosanna to the Highest: Nor stood at gaze 
The adverse legions, nor less hideous joined 
The horrid shock. Now storming fury rose, 
And clamour such as heard in Heaven till now 
Was never; ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Politeness

...re formidably set
And waiting for the guns to rattle;
When from the serried ranks of France
The English saw with woeful presage
Under a flaming flag advance
A trumpeter who bore a message.

'Twas from their Marshal, quite polite,
Yet made the English leader shiver.
"We're perched," said he, "upon the height,
While you're exposed beside the river.
We have the vantage, you'll agree,
And your look-out is melancholy;
But being famed for courtesy
We'll let you fire the starting vo...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Presentiment

...

' ' Soon will November days be o'er: '
Well have you spoken, Jane:
My own forebodings tell me more,
For me, I know by presage sure,
They'll ne'er return again.
Ere long, nor sun nor storm to me
Will bring or joy or gloom;
They reach not that Eternity
Which soon will be my home.' 

Eight months are gone, the summer sun
Sets in a glorious sky;
A quiet field, all green and lone,
Receives its rosy dye.
Jane sits upon a shaded stile,
Alone she sits there now;
Her head rests on h...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

Sonnet 107: Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul

...ol,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
And the sad augurs mock their own presage;
Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,
Since spite of him I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes;
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants' crests and tombs ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Death of Cromwell

...ether some kinder powers that wish us well, 
What they above cannot prevent foretell; 
Or the great world do by consent presage, 
As hollow seas with future tempests rage; 
Or rather heaven, which us so long foresees, 
Their funerals celebrates while it decrees. 
But never yet was any human fate 
By Nature solemnized with so much state. 
He unconcerned the dreadful passage crossed; 
But, oh, what pangs that death did Nature cost! 

First the great thunder was shot off, and se...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

The Deserted Village

...ge all declared how much he knew;
'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too;
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
And even the story ran that he could gauge.
In arguing too, the parson owned his skill,
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around,
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.

But past is all his fame. T...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver

The Height of Land

...then began to thin and lessen
Into the gloom and glimmer of ruin.
'Tis overpast. How strange the stars have grown;
The presage of extinction glows on their crests
And they are beautied with impermanence;
They shall be after the race of men
And mourn for them who snared their fiery pinions,
Entangled in the meshes of bright words.

A lemming stirs the fern and in the mosses
Eft-minded things feel the air change, and dawn
Tolls out from the dark belfries of the spruces.
How of...Read more of this...
by Scott, Duncan Campbell

The Iliad: Book VI (excerpt)

...ngue relates!)
The day when thou, imperial Troy! must bend,
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end.
And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind,
My mother's death, the ruin of my kind,
Not Priam's hoary hairs defil'd with gore,
Not all my brothers gasping on the shore,
As thine, Andromache! thy griefs I dread;
I see thee trembling, weeping, captive led.
In Argive looms our battles to design,
And woes, of which so large a part was thine!
To bear the victor's hard commands, o...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

The Moon

...r the theme for the prom is the Tetragrammaton.

A yellow Corsair sails through the disco parking lot
and swaying palms presage the lot of young libertines.

Inside the car a young lady wears a corsage of bullet-sized rodents.
Her date, the handsome cornerback, stretches his talons over the
molded steering wheel.

They park and walk into the lush starlit gardens behind the disco
just as the band is striking up.

Their keen eyes and ears twitch. The other couples
look beautifu...Read more of this...
by Berman, David

The Princess (part 4)

...let me say but this, 
That many a famous man and woman, town 
And landskip, have I heard of, after seen 
The dwarfs of presage: though when known, there grew 
Another kind of beauty in detail 
Made them worth knowing; but in your I found 
My boyish dream involved and dazzled down 
And mastered, while that after-beauty makes 
Such head from act to act, from hour to hour, 
Within me, that except you slay me here, 
According to your bitter statute-book, 
I cannot cease to follo...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Triumph Of Eternity

...ay findIn the pure mirror of the eternal mind.To me it seems at hand a sure presage,Denotes my rise from this terrestrial stage;Then what I gain'd and lost below shall lieSuspended in the balance of the sky,And all our anxious sublunary caresShall seem one tissue of Arachne's snares;Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Upon Appleton House to My Lord Fairfax

...le seem strictly pend,
"The Rule it self to you shall bend.
"Our Abbess too, now far in Age,
"Doth your succession near presage.
"How soft the yoke on us would lye,
"Might such fair Hands as yours it tye!

"Your voice, the sweetest of the Quire,
"Shall draw Heav'n nearer, raise us higher.
"And your Example, if our Head,
"Will soon us to perfection lead.
"Those Virtues to us all so dear,
"Will straight grow Sanctity when here:
"And that, once sprung, increase so fast
"Till Mir...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

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