Famous Quit Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lovers Complaint

...ht think sometime it saw
The carcass of beauty spent and done:
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven's fell rage,
Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,
Laundering the silken figures in the brine
That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,
And often reading what contents it bears;
As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,
In clamours of all size...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William


An Essay On Criticism

...ite dull Receits how Poems may be made:
These leave the Sense, their Learning to display,
And theme explain the Meaning quite away

You then whose Judgment the right Course wou'd steer,
Know well each ANCIENT's proper Character,
His Fable, Subject, Scope in ev'ry Page,
Religion, Country, Genius of his Age:
Without all these at once before your Eyes,
Cavil you may, but never Criticize.
Be Homer's Works your Study, and Delight,
Read them by Day, and meditate by Night,
Thence fo...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Beowulf (Old English)

...Famed was this Beowulf: {0a} far flew the boast of him,
son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.
So becomes it a youth to quit him well
with his father’s friends, by fee and gift,
that to aid him, aged, in after days,
come warriors willing, should war draw nigh,
liegemen loyal: by lauded deeds
shall an earl have honor in every clan.

Forth he fared at the fated moment,
sturdy Scyld to the shelter of God.
Then they bore him over to ocean’s billow,
loving clansmen, as l...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

California Plush

...some place else then in Bishop, thats the way I feel
too.and another thing is my drinking problem. I made up my mind
to quit my drinking, after all what it did to me and what happen.
 This is one thing I'll never forget as longs as I live I never want
to go through all this mess again. This sure did teach me lot of things
that I never knew before. So Howard you can let me know soon
as possible. I sure would appreciate it.

P.S From Your Friend
I hope you can read my Wally Du ...Read more of this...
by Bidart, Frank

Essay on Man

...balance(10) and the rod, 
Re-judge his justice, be the GOD of GOD! 
In Pride, in reas'ning Pride, our error lies; 
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. 
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 
Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods. 
Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell, 
Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel; 
And who but wishes to invert the laws 
Of ORDER, sins against th' Eternal Cause.

V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, 
Earth for whose use? Pri...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander


Haiku (Never Published)

...
with cherry blossoms.

 Winter Haiku
I didn't know the names 
of the flowers--now
my garden is gone.

I slapped the mosquito
and missed.
What made me do that?

Reading haiku
I am unhappy,
longing for the Nameless.

A frog floating 
in the drugstore jar:
summer rain on grey pavements.
 (after Shiki)

On the porch
in my shorts;
auto lights in the rain.

Another year
has past-the world
is no different.

The first thing I looked for 
in my old garden was
The Cherry Tree.

My old...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

Lara

...urn'd, and met the inquisitorial tone — 
"My name is Lara! — when thine own is known, 
Doubt not my fitting answer to requite 
The unlook'd for courtesy of such a knight. 
'Tis Lara! — further wouldst thou mark or ask? 
I shun no question, and I wear no mask." 
"Thou shunn'st no question! Ponder — is there none 
Thy heart must answer, though thine ear would shun? 
And deem'st thou me unknown too? Gaze again! 
At least thy memory was not given in vain. 
Oh! never canst thou ca...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Lucretius

...l can tell
Whether I mean this day to end myself.
Or lend an ear to Plato where he says,
That men like soldiers may not quit the post
Allotted by the Gods. But he that holds
The Gods are careless, wherefore need he care 
Greatly for them, nor rather plunge at once,
Being troubled, wholly out of sight, and sink
Past earthquake -- ay, and gout and stone, that break
Body toward death, and palsy, death-in-life,
And wretched age -- and worst disease of all,
These prodigies of myri...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Mementos

...t 
Trembled from pole to pole with light; 
Even then, upon her homeward way, 
Long­long her wandering steps delayed 
To quit the sombre forest shade, 
Through which her eerie pathway lay. 

You ask if she had beauty's grace ? 
I know not­but a nobler face 
My eyes have seldom seen; 
A keen and fine intelligence, 
And, better still, the truest sense 
Were in her speaking mien. 
But bloom or lustre was there none, 
Only at moments, fitful shone 
An ardour in her eye, 
That kind...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

Mountains

...fetters, living there for evermore; 
All the blooms of Beauty near him, gleaming on that quiet shore? 


``Ere you quit this ancient casement, tell me, is it well to yearn 
For the evanescent visions, vanished never to return? 
Is it well that I should with to leave this dreary world behind, 
Seeking for your fair Utopia, which perchance I may not find? 
Passing through a gloomy forest, scaling steeps like prison walls, 
Where the scanty sunshine wavers and the moon...Read more of this...
by Kendall, Henry

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...but malice; lifted up so high 
I sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher 
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit 
The debt immense of endless gratitude, 
So burdensome still paying, still to owe, 
Forgetful what from him I still received, 
And understood not that a grateful mind 
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once 
Indebted and discharged; what burden then 
O, had his powerful destiny ordained 
Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood 
Then happy; no unbounded...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...d 
In this perfidious fraud, contagion spread 
Both of thy crime and punishment: Henceforth 
No more be troubled how to quit the yoke 
Of God's Messiah; those indulgent laws 
Will not be now vouchsafed; other decrees 
Against thee are gone forth without recall; 
That golden scepter, which thou didst reject, 
Is now an iron rod to bruise and break 
Thy disobedience. Well thou didst advise; 
Yet not for thy advice or threats I fly 
These wicked tents devoted, lest the wrath 
Im...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...mayest repent, 
And one bad act with many deeds well done 
Mayest cover: Well may then thy Lord, appeased, 
Redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim; 
But longer in this Paradise to dwell 
Permits not: to remove thee I am come, 
And send thee from the garden forth to till 
The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil. 
He added not; for Adam at the news 
Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood, 
That all his senses bound; Eve, who unseen 
Yet all had heard, w...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Samson Agonistes

...s Bride, 
Unclean, unchaste.
Down Reason then, at least vain reasonings down,
Though Reason here aver
That moral verdit quits her of unclean :
Unchaste was subsequent, her stain not his.
But see here comes thy reverend Sire
With careful step, Locks white as doune,
Old Manoah: advise
Forthwith how thou oughtst to receive him.

Sam: Ay me, another inward grief awak't, 
With mention of that name renews th' assault.

Man: Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem,
Though in this ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Bride of Abydos

...ore free her timid bosom beat, 
The maid pursued her silent guide; 
And though her terror urged retreat, 
How could she quit her Selim's side? 
How teach her tender lips to chide? 

VII. 

They reach'd at length a grotto, hewn 
By nature, but enlarged by art, 
Where oft her lute she wont to tune, 
And oft her Koran conn'd apart: 
And oft in youthful reverie 
She dream'd what Paradise might be; 
Where woman's parted soul shall go 
Her Prophet had disdain'd to show; 
But Selim'...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Living Dead

...

Yes, I have played with Lady Rhyme,
And had a long and lovely innings;
And when the Umpire calls my time
I'll blandly quit and take my winnings.
I'll hie me to some Sleepydale,
And feed the ducks and pat the poodles,
And prime my paunch with cakes and ale,
And blether with the village noodles.

And then some day you'll idly scan
The Times obituary column,
And say: "Dear me, the poor old man!"
And for a moment you'll look solemn.
"So all this time he's been alive -
In realms...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Raven

...tonian shore!
    Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
    Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
    And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
    And the lamp...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan

The Tables Turned

...An Evening Scene on the Same Subject

Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his m...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Vision of Judgment

...rs,) 
For some resource to turn himself about, 
And claim the help of his celestial peers, 
To aid him ere he should be quite worn out 
By the increased demand for his remarks: 
Six angels and twelve saints were named his clerks. 

V

This was a handsome board — at least for heaven; 
And yet they had even then enough to do, 
So many conqueror's cars were daily driven, 
So many kingdoms fitted up anew; 
Each day too slew its thousands six or seven, 
Till at the crowning carnag...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Wife of Baths Tale

...hem chide.
For, though the Pope had sitten them beside,
I would not spare them at their owen board,
For, by my troth, I quit* them word for word *repaid
As help me very God omnipotent,
Though I right now should make my testament
I owe them not a word, that is not quit* *repaid
I brought it so aboute by my wit,
That they must give it up, as for the best
Or elles had we never been in rest.
For, though he looked as a wood* lion, *furious
Yet should he fail of his conclusion.
The...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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