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Famous Quitting Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...their lives.
Nothing their fury can control, 
While they do wound and prick my soul.

All my attendants are at strife, 
Quitting their place
Unto my face: 
Nothing performs the task of life: 
The elements are let loose to fight, 
And while I live, try out their right.

Oh help, my God! let not their plot
Kill them and me, 
And also thee, 
Who art my life: dissolve the knot, 
As the sun scatters by his light
All the rebellions of the night.

Then shall those powers, which work...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George



...ill,
Our ship rides smooth and well.
The broad Atlantic's bed of foam
Still breaks against our prow;
I shed no tears at quitting home,
Nor will I shed them now!

Against the bulwarks on the poop
I lean, and watch the sun
Behind the red horizon stoop —
His race is nearly run.
Those waves will never quench his light,
O'er which they seem to close,
To-morrow he will rise as bright
As he this morning rose.

How brightly gleams the orb of day
Across the trackless sea!
How lightly ...Read more of this...
by Gordon, Adam Lindsay
...llen; rooks croak
Above the appalling ruin; in bleak light
Of your stormy eye, magic takes flight
Like a daunted witch, quitting castle when real days break.

Fractured pillars frame prospects of rock;
While you stand heroic in coat and tie, I sit
Composed in Grecian tunic and psyche-knot,
Rooted to your black look, the play turned tragic:
Which such blight wrought on our bankrupt estate,
What ceremony of words can patch the havoc?...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia
...crease;
Dispute and pray and fight and groan
For public good, and mean your own;
Prevent the law by fierce attacks
From quitting scores upon your backs;
Lay your old dread, the gallows, low,
And seize the stocks, your ancient foe,
And turn them to convenient engines
To wreak your patriotic vengeance;
While all, your rights who understand,
Confess them in their owner's hand;
And when by clamours and confusions,
Your freedom's grown a public nuisance,
Cry "Liberty," with powerf...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John
...How much grit do you think you've got?
Can you quit a thing that you like a lot?
You may talk of pluck; it's an easy word,
And where'er you go it is often heard;
But can you tell to a jot or guess
Just how much courage you now possess?
You may stand to trouble and keep your grin,
But have you tackled self-discipline?
Have you ever issued commands to you
To...Read more of this...
by Guest, Edgar Albert



...ut me tonight

what did i say see maisie maisie
what did i say see there
this thin track is splitting
and soon we'll be quitting
these woods that i know
we'll be comfortably sitting
by the fire in our home tonight

wait for the ghost of me timothy timothy
wait for the ghost of me there
no snow is falling
in the world that is calling
me now....will you know
it's not me who'll be drawing
the curtains in our home tonight

................ ................

don't be so lazy maisi...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg
...6] SONNET CXLVII. Po, ben puo' tu portartene la scorza. TO THE RIVER PO, ON QUITTING LAURA.  Thou Po to distant realms this frame mayst bear,On thy all-powerful, thy impetuous tide;But the free spirit that within doth bideNor for thy might, nor any might doth care:Not ...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...SONNET XIII. Io mi rivolgo indietro a ciascun passo. ON QUITTING LAURA.  With weary frame which painfully I bear,I look behind me at each onward pace,And then take comfort from your native air,Which following fans my melancholy face;Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...ooks at you with a grin,
And that seems to say: "You may try all day, but you'll never jam me in"?
I'm not a man of the quitting kind, but I never felt so blue
As I sat there gazing at that stiff and studying what I'd do.
Then I rose and I kicked off the husky dogs that were nosing round about,
And I lit a roaring fire in the stove, and I started to thaw Bill out.

Well, I thawed and thawed for thirteen days, but it didn't seem no good;
His arms and legs stuck out like pegs, ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...empests, you untroubl'd Seas, 
That ne'er to be forgot, that luckless Hour, 
In which I put my Fortunes in your Pow'r; 
Quitting my slender, but secure Estate, 
My undisturb'd Repose, my sweet Retreat, 
For Treasures which you ravish'd in a Day,
But swept my Folly, with my Goods, away. 
Then smile no more, nor these false Shews employ,
Thou momentary Calm, thou fleeting Joy; 
No more on me shall these fair Signs prevail, 
Some other Novice may be won to Sail, 
Give me a certa...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...gathered that could not last the day,
love and error were shaken as if by the eye of a storm,
and it would not be until quitting that such a man
might drop his arms, that he had held up all day since the dew....Read more of this...
by Bell, Marvin

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things