Famous Prevail Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Dialogue between Old England and New

...way thereto, then sigh no more,
293 But if at all thou didst not see 't before.
294 Farewell, dear mother; Parliament, prevail,
295 And in a while you'll tell another tale....Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne


A poem on divine revelation

...e which bridges up her streams, 
Fierce as the storm which tempests all her waves. 


Thus in its dawn did sacred truth prevail, 
In either hemisphere from north to south, 
From east to west through the long tract of day. 
From Shinar's plain to Thule's utmost isle, 
From Persia's bay to Scandanavia's shores. 
Cheer'd by its ray now ev'ry valley smiles, 
And ev'ry lawn smote by its morning beam. 
Now ev'ry hill reflects a purer ray, 
Than when Aurora paints his woods in gold,...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

A Ritual To Read To Each Other

...If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't ...Read more of this...
by Stafford, William

Absalom And Achitophel

...f-defence is Nature's eldest law.
Leave the warm people no considering time;
For then rebellion may be thought a crime.
Prevail yourself of what occasion gives,
But try your title while your father lives:
And that your arms may have a fair pretence,
Proclaim, you take them in the king's defence:
Whose sacred life each minute would expose
To plots from seeming friends and secret foes.
And who can sound the depth of David's soul?
Perhaps his fear, his kindness may control.
He f...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

Beowulf (Modern English)

...w to hold onto his native seat
against the foreign hordes, now that Hygelac was dead.
Nor by this could the miserable prevail upon the noble man,
with any means, to become the king over Heardred,
or wish to choose to wield that kingly power.
Yet Beowulf bolstered him among the people
with friendly advice, good will with great honor,
until he grew older and ruled the Weder-Geats himself. (ll. 2369-79a)

The sons of Ohthere, wracked exiles sought Heardred
over the sea...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Christmas Bells

...men!"


Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Diving into the Wreck

...re the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed

the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and away into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving th...Read more of this...
by Rich, Adrienne

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

...sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.  Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain winds be free
To blow against thee: and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lov...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

Mac Flecknoe

...r souls may fall,
Strike through and make a lucid interval;
But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fogs prevail upon the day:
Besides his goodly fabric fills the eye,
And seems design'd for thoughtless majesty:
Thoughtless as monarch oaks, that shade the plain,
And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign.
Heywood and Shirley were but types of thee,
Thou last great prophet of tautology:
Even I, a dunce of more renown than they,
Was sent before but to prepare th...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

Ode to Beauty

...r splendid Folly throws her veil, 
While Envy's meagre tribe assail 
Thy gentle form, and spotless mind. 

Their spells prevail! no more those eyes 
Shoot undulating fires; 
On thy wan cheek, the young rose dies, 
Thy lip's deep tint expires; 
Dark Melancholy chills thy mind; 
Thy silent tear reveals thy woe; 
TIME strews with thorns thy mazy way, 
Where'er thy giddy footsteps stray, 
Thy thoughtless heart is doom'd to find 
An unrelenting foe. 

'Tis thus, the infant Forest ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Paradise Lost: Book 10

...etold so lately what would come to pass, 
When first this tempter crossed the gulf from Hell. 
I told ye then he should prevail, and speed 
On his bad errand; Man should be seduced, 
And flattered out of all, believing lies 
Against his Maker; no decree of mine 
Concurring to necessitate his fall, 
Or touch with lightest moment of impulse 
His free will, to her own inclining left 
In even scale. But fallen he is; and now 
What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass 
On his ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Respondez!

...! 
Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait! or let it also pass, a dwarf, to other
 spheres!

Let contradictions prevail! let one thing contradict another! and let one line of my poems
 contradict another!
Let the people sprawl with yearning, aimless hands! let their tongues be broken! let their
 eyes
 be discouraged! let none descend into their hearts with the fresh lusciousness of love! 
(Stifled, O days! O lands! in every public and private corruption! 
Smother’d in...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Building of the Ship

...safe from all adversity 
Upon the bosom of that sea 
Thy comings and thy goings be! 
For gentleness and love and trust 
Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; 
And in the wreck of noble lives 
Something immortal still survives! 
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 
We know what Master laid thy keel, 
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 
W...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Comedian As The Letter C

...adow of his fellows from the skies, 
293 And, from their stale intelligence released, 
294 To make a new intelligence prevail? 
295 Hence the reverberations in the words 
296 Of his first central hymns, the celebrants 
297 Of rankest trivia, tests of the strength 
298 Of his aesthetic, his philosophy, 
299 The more invidious, the more desired. 
300 The florist asking aid from cabbages, 
301 The rich man going bare, the paladin 
302 Afraid, the blind man as astronome...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Deserted Village

...hispered praise.

At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service passed, around the pious man,
With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran;
Even children followed with endearing wile,
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed,
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed;
To ...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver

The Medal

...
From hence those tears, that Ilium was our woe: 
Who helps a powerful friend forearms a foe. 
What wonder if the waves prevail so far, 
When he cut down the banks that made the bar? 
Seas follow but their nature to invade; 
But he by art our native strength betrayed. 
So Samson to his foe his force confest, 
And to be shorn lay slumbering on her breast. 
But when this fatal counsel, found too late, 
Exposed its author to the public hate, 
When his just sovereign by no impiou...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

The Missionary

...lorious task; 
Willing the spirit, may the flesh 
Strength for the day receive afresh. 
May burning sun or deadly wind 
Prevail not o'er an earnest mind; 
May torments strange or direst death
Nor trample truth, nor baffle faith.
Though such blood-drops should fall from me
As fell in old Gethsemane,
Welcome the anguish, so it gave
More strength to work­more skill to save.
And, oh ! if brief must be my time,
If hostile hand or fatal clime
Cut short my course­still o'er my grave...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

The Owl And The Sparrow

...s reward;
They slight the generous hearts' esteem,
And sigh for those, who fly from them.


Just when your wishes would prevail,
Some rival bird with gayer tail,
Who sings his strain with sprightlier note,
And chatters praise with livelier throat,
Shall charm your flutt'ring fair one down,
And leave your choice, to hang or drown.


Ev'n I, my son, have felt the smart;
A Pheasant won my youthful heart.
For her I tuned the doleful lay,[4]
For her I watch'd the night away;
In va...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

The Rape of the Lock

...n remains, but well our Pow'r to use,
And keep good Humour still whate'er we lose? 
And trust me, Dear! good Humour can prevail,
When Airs, and Flights, and Screams, and Scolding fail.
Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;
Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul.

So spake the Dame, but no Applause ensu'd;
Belinda frown'd, Thalestris call'd her Prude.
To Arms, to Arms! the fierce Virago cries,
And swift as Lightning to the Combate flies.
All side in Parties, a...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift

...nds:
Not strains of law, nor judge's frown,
Nor topics brought to please the crown,
Nor witness hired, nor jury picked,
Prevail to bring him in convict.
In exile, with a steady heart,
He spent his life's declining part;
Where folly, pride, and faction sway,
Remote from St John, Pope, and Gay.
Alas, poor Dean! his only scope
Was to be held a misanthrope.
This into gen'ral odium drew him,
Which, if he liked, much good may't do him.
His zeal was not to lash our crimes,
But disco...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

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