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Famous Rebels Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...ill ushers in a worse!
 Such havock, howling all abroad,
 Their utter ruin bring,
 The base apostates to their God,
 Or rebels to their King.


 Note 1. The last birthday of Prince Charles Edward. [back]...Read more of this...



by Dryden, John
...wn from thence,
Like fiends, were harden'd in impenitence.
Some by their monarch's fatal mercy grown,
From pardon'd rebels, kinsmen to the throne;
Were rais'd in pow'r and public office high;
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.

Of these the false Achitophel was first:
A name to all succeeding ages curst.
For close designs, and crooked counsels fit;
Sagacious, bold and turbulent of wit:
Restless, unfixt in principles and place;
In pow'r unpleas'd, imp...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...ach mountain range where a wounded man can hide, 
Till your gold has lighted the moonless night on the plains where the rebels ride; 
Till the future is proved, and the past is bribed from the son of the land's dead lover – 
You may hold the land – you may hold the land just as far as your rifles cover....Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...s are form'd to serue
The inward light, and that the heauenly part
Ought to be King, from whose rules who do swerue,
Rebels to nature, striue for their owne smart.
It is most true, what we call Cupids dart
An image is, which for ourselues we carue,
And, foolse, adore in temple of our hart,
Till that good god make church and churchmen starue.
True, that true beautie virtue is indeed,
Whereof this beautie can be but a shade,
Which, elements with mortal mixture...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...ng
 From Harrison's down to the Park!

There was a row in Silver Street -- the regiments was out,
They called us "Delhi Rebels", an' we answered "Threes about!"
That drew them like a hornet's nest -- we met them good an' large,
The English at the double an' the Irish at the charge.
 Then it was: -- "Belts . . .

There was a row in Silver Street -- an' I was in it too;
We passed the time o' day, an' then the belts went whirraru!
I misremember what occurred, but...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...nna-Gael.
If black is black or white is white, in black and white it's down,
They're only traitors to the Queen and rebels to the Crown.

"Cleared", honourable gentlemen! Be thankful it's no more: --
The widow's curse is on your house, the dead are at your door.
On you the shame of open shame, on you from North to South
The hand of every honest man flat-heeled across your mouth.

"Less black than we were painted"? -- Faith, no word of black was said;
The light...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...puritan, 
You knew the plot and silently agreed, 
Salving your conscience with a pious lie!
Yes, all of you -- hounds, rebels, thieves! Bring back
My ship!
Too late, -- I rave, -- they cannot hear 
My voice: and if they heard, a drunken laugh 
Would be their answer; for their minds have caught
The fatal firmness of the fool's resolve, 
That looks like courage but is only fear. 
They'll blunder on, and lose my ship, and drown, --
Or blunder home to England and be hanged.<...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...vereign power what mortal knows?
If be command, who dares oppose?
With strength he girds himself around,
And treads the rebels to the ground.]

[Who shall pretend to teach him skill,
Or guide the counsels of his will?
His wisdom, like a sea divine,
Flows deep and high beyond our line.]

[His name is holy, and his eye
Burns with immortal jealousy
He hates the sons of pride, and sheds
His fiery vengeance on their heads.]

[The beaming of his piercing sight
Bring dar...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...folly benefits mankind;
And rarely av'rice taints the tuneful mind.
Allow him but his plaything of a pen,
He ne'er rebels, or plots, like other men:
Flight of cashiers, or mobs, he'll never mind;
And knows no losses while the Muse is kind.
To cheat a friend, or ward, he leaves to Peter;
The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre,
Enjoys his garden and his book in quiet;
And then--a perfect hermit in his diet.
Of little use the man you may suppose,
Who says in v...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...fur fedeli a Dio, ma per s? fuoro . 

They now commingle with the coward angels, 
the company of those who were not rebels 
nor faithful to their God, but stood apart. 


Caccianli i ciel per non esser men belli, 
n? lo profondo inferno li riceve, 
ch'alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d'elli ». 

The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened, 
have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them- 
even the wicked cannot glory in them." 


E io: «Maestro, che ? tant...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...ies o'er, by sudden pressings,
Of Hanoverians, Swiss and Hessians,
Feasted with blood his Scottish clan,
And hang'd all rebels to a man,
Divided their estates and pelf,
And took a goodly share himself.
All this with spirit energetic,
He did by second-sight prophetic.


Thus stored with intellectual riches,
Skill'd was our 'Squire in making speeches;
Where strength of brains united centers
With strength of lungs surpassing Stentor's.
But as some muskets so contrive...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...d Malcolm hung, or seem'd to hang.
How changed from him, who bold as lion,
Stood Aid-de-camp to Gen'ral Tryon,
Made rebels vanish once, like witches,
And saved his life, but dropp'd his breeches.
I scarce had made a fearful bow,
And trembling ask'd him, "How d'ye do;"
When lifting up his eyes so wide,
His eyes alone, his hands were tied;
With feeble voice, as spirits use,
Now almost choak'd by gripe of noose;


"Ah, fly my friend, he cried, escape,
And keep yourself f...Read more of this...

by Wheatley, Phillis
...res
"Each Theban bosom with rebellious fires;
"No reason her imperious temper quells,
"But all her father in her tongue rebels;
"Wrap her own sons for her blaspheming breath,
"Apollo! wrap them in the shades of death."
Latona ceas'd, and ardent thus replies
The God, whose glory decks th' expanded skies.

"Cease thy complaints, mine be the task assign'd
"To punish pride, and scourge the rebel mind."
This Phoebe join'd.--They wing their instant flight;
Thebes tr...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
..., when they see all regal power 
Given me to quell their pride, and in event 
Know whether I be dextrous to subdue 
Thy rebels, or be found the worst in Heaven. 
So spake the Son; but Satan, with his Powers, 
Far was advanced on winged speed; an host 
Innumerable as the stars of night, 
Or stars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun 
Impearls on every leaf and every flower. 
Regions they passed, the mighty regencies 
Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones, 
In their ...Read more of this...

by Butler, Samuel
..., no man
Should leave her till she have prevailed; and, true,
A man will yield for pity, if he can,
But if the flesh rebels what can he do?
I could not. Hence I grieve my whole life long
The wrong I did, in that I did no wrong.

iii

Had I been some young sailor, continent
Perforce three weeks and then well plied with wine,
I might in time have tried to yield consent
And almost (though I doubt it) made her mine.
Or had it been but once and never again...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...f before, as decked for war, 
Bears in his belt the scimitar 
Stain'd with the best of Amaut blood
When in the pass the rebels stood,
And few returned to tell the tale
Of what befell in Parne's vale.
The pistols which his girdle bore
Were those that once a pasha wore,
Which still, though gemmed and bossed with gold,
Even robbers tremble to behold.
'Tis said he goes to woo a bride
More true than her who left his side;
The faithless slave that broke her bower,
And - wor...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...
For the absent ones who knew not where to lay their outlawed heads. 

But a whisper went through Buckland, to the rebels only known, 
That the man across the border had a chance to hold his own. 
There were men that came in darkness, quiet, grim and travel-worn, 
And, by twos, and threes, the young men stole away to join Kinghorn. 

Slipping powder-horns and muskets from beneath the floors and thatch, 
There were boys who kissed their mothers ere they softly dro...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...enium outward stared,
Sat Harmon Whitney, to that eminence,
By merit raised in ribaldry and guile,
And to the assembled rebels thus he spake:
"Whether to lie supine and let a clique
Cold-blooded, scheming, hungry, singing psalms,
Devour our substance, wreck our banks and drain
Our little hoards for hazards on the price
Of wheat or pork, or yet to cower beneath
The shadow of a spire upreared to curb
A breed of lackeys and to serve the bank
Coadjutor in greed, that is the quest...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...>And her, that with dishevell'd tresses flew,Half-arm'd, half-clad, her rebels to subdue.Her partner too in lawless love I spied,A Roman harlot, an incestuous bride.But Tadmor's queen, with nobler fires inflamed,The pristine glory of the sex reclaim'd,Who in the spring of life, in beauty's bloom,<...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...seeking a shore 
Where in his own way a man might worship his God. 
Never more English than when they dared to be 
Rebels against her-that stem intractable sense 
Of that which no man can stomach and still be free, 
Writing: 'When in the course of human events. . .'
Writing it out so all the world could see 
Whence come the powers of all just governments. 
The tree of Liberty grew and changed and spread, 
But the seed was English. 
 I am American bred...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things