Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Quire Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Dryden, John
...
None but the brave
None but the brave
None but the brave deserves the fair!

Timotheus placed on high
Amid the tuneful quire
With flying fingers touched the lyre;
The trembling notes ascend the sky
And heavenly joys inspire.
The song began from Jove
Who left his blissful seats above— 
Such is the power of mighty love!
A dragon's fiery form belied the god
Sublime on radiant spires he rode
When he to fair Olympia prest,
And while he sought her snowy breast,
Then round her ...Read more of this...



by Carew, Thomas
...udge what fancy could not reach) 
Must be desir'd forever. So the fire 
That fills with spirit and heat the Delphic quire, 
Which, kindled first by thy Promethean breath, 
Glow'd here a while, lies quench'd now in thy death. 
The Muses' garden, with pedantic weeds 
O'erspread, was purg'd by thee; the lazy seeds 
Of servile imitation thrown away, 
And fresh invention planted; thou didst pay 
The debts of our penurious bankrupt age; 
Licentious thefts, that make poetic ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...no strife
In giving limit to her life.
Her high birth, and her graces sweet,
Quickly found a lover meet;
The Virgin quire for her request
The God that sits at marriage feast;
He at their invoking came
But with a scarce-wel-lighted flame; 
And in his Garland as he stood,
Ye might discern a Cipress bud.
Once had the early Matrons run
To greet her of a lovely son,
And now with second hope she goes,
And calls Lucina to her throws;
But whether by mischance or blame
Atropos...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...umbed by one from out the hall of Mark, 
A damsel-errant, warbling, as she rode 
The woodland alleys, Vivien, with her Squire. 

'The fire of Heaven has killed the barren cold, 
And kindled all the plain and all the wold. 
The new leaf ever pushes off the old. 
The fire of Heaven is not the flame of Hell. 

'Old priest, who mumble worship in your quire-- 
Old monk and nun, ye scorn the world's desire, 
Yet in your frosty cells ye feel the fire! 
The fire of He...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...trict Age, and sour Severity,
With their grave saws, in slumber lie.
We, that are of purer fire,
Imitate the starry quire,
Who, in their nightly watchful spheres,
Lead in swift round the months and years.
The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,
Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
And on the tawny sands and shelves
Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
By dimpled brook and fountain-brim,
The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim,
Their merry wa...Read more of this...



by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...graceful maid
As 'mid the virgin train she strayed,
Nor knew her beauty's best attire
Was woven still by the snow-white quire;
At last she came to his hermitage,
Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage,—
The gay enchantment was undone,
A gentle wife, but fairy none.

Then I said, "I covet Truth;
Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat,—
I leave it behind with the games of youth."
As I spoke, beneath my feet
The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath,
Running over the cl...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...stomach do condemn but few:
Yet he more strict my sentence doth renew;
And draws out of the black box of his Breast
Ten quire of paper in which he was drest.
Yet that which was a greater cruelty
Then Nero's Poem he calls charity:
And so the Pelican at his door hung
Picks out the tender bosome to its young.
Of all his Poems there he stands ungirt
Save only two foul copies for his shirt:
Yet these he promises as soon as clean.
But how I loath'd to see my Neighbour g...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...WILLIAM Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at plough,
Robert's kin, and John's, and Ned's,
And the Squire, and Lady Susan, lie in Mellstock churchyard now!

"Gone," I call them, gone for good, that group of local hearts and
heads;
Yet at mothy curfew-tide,
And at midnight when the noon-heat breathes it back from walls and
leads,

They've a way of whispering to me--fellow-wight who yet abide--
In the muted, measured note
Of a ripple under archways, or a lon...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...trict Age, and sowre Severity, 
With their grave Saws in slumber ly. 
We that are of purer fire 
Imitate the Starry Quire, 
Who in their nightly watchfull Sphears, 
Lead in swift round the Months and Years. 
The Sounds, and Seas with all their finny drove 
Now to the Moon in wavering Morrice move, 
And on the Tawny Sands and Shelves, 
Trip the pert Fairies and the dapper Elves; 
By dimpled Brook, and Fountain brim, 
The Wood-Nymphs deckt with Daisies trim, 
Their merr...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...d storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voiced quire below,
In service high and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cell,
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth shew,
And every herb that sips the dew,
Ti...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...One way to be very happy is to be very rich
For then you can buy orchids by the quire and bacon by the flitch.
And yet at the same time People don't mind if you only tip them a dime,
Because it's very funny
But somehow if you're rich enough you can get away with spending
water like money
While if you're not rich you can spend in one evening your salary for
the year
And everybody will just stand around and jeer.
If you are rich y...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,
And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e? 
Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear? 
And silence was in Heaven: $ on Man's behalf 
He ask'd, but all the heavenly quire stood mute, 
Patron or intercessour none appear'd, 
Much less that durst upon his own head draw 
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set. 
And now without redemption all mankind 
Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell 
By doom severe, had not the Son of God, 
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, 
His dearest mediation thus renew'd....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ke, 
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned 
Her crystal mirrour holds, unite their streams. 
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs, 
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune 
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan, 
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance, 
Led on the eternal Spring. Not that fair field 
Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers, 
Herself a fairer flower by gloomy Dis 
Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain 
To see...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...Creator, and his nostrils fill 
With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, 
And joined their vocal worship to the quire 
Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake 
The season prime for sweetest scents and airs: 
Then commune, how that day they best may ply 
Their growing work: for much their work out-grew 
The hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide, 
And Eve first to her husband thus began. 
Adam, well may we labour still to dress 
This garden, still to tend ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...his right; yet at his birth a star, 
Unseen before in Heaven, proclaims him come; 
And guides the eastern sages, who inquire 
His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold: 
His place of birth a solemn Angel tells 
To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night; 
They gladly thither haste, and by a quire 
Of squadroned Angels hear his carol sung. 
A virgin is his mother, but his sire 
The power of the Most High: He shall ascend 
The throne hereditary, and bound his reign 
Wi...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...houldst be great, and sit on David's throne, 
And of thy kingdom there should be no end.
At thy nativity a glorious quire
Of Angels, in the fields of Bethlehem, sung
To shepherds, watching at their folds by night,
And told them the Messiah now was born,
Where they might see him; and to thee they came,
Directed to the manger where thou lay'st;
For in the inn was left no better room.
A Star, not seen before, in heaven appearing,
Guided the Wise Men thither from the East...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.

XII

Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set, 
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.

XIII

Ring out...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...expired.
The triumph to yon realms He shows,--
Remote from earth, where star ne'er glows,

The triumph He for us acquired.
He cometh, Hell to extirpate,

Whom He, by dying, wellnigh kill'd;
He shall pronounce her fearful fate

Hark! now the curse is straight fulfill'd.

Hell sees the victor come at last,
She feels that now her reign is past,

She quakes and fears to meet His sight;
She knows His thunders' terrors dread,
In vain she seeks to hide her head,

Attemp...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...sage.
"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 Miracles it work at last.

"Nor is our Order yet so nice,
"Delight to banish as a Vice.
"Here Pleasure Pie...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Quire poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things