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Famous Repine Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...forest’s monarch throws
 His army shade,
Yet green the juicy hawthorn grows,
 Adown the glade.


“Then never murmur nor repine;
Strive in thy humble sphere to shine;
And trust me, not Potosi’s mine,
 Nor king’s regard,
Can give a bliss o’ermatching thine,
 A rustic bard.


“To give my counsels all in one,
Thy tuneful flame still careful fan:
Preserve the dignity of Man,
 With soul erect;
And trust the Universal Plan
 Will all protect.


“And wear thou this”—she solemn said,
A...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...e world his fame.
His mercy ev'n th'offending crowd will find:
For sure he comes of a forgiving kind.
Why should I then repine at Heaven's decree;
Which gives me no pretence to royalty?
Yet oh that Fate, propitiously inclin'd,
Had rais'd my birth, or had debas'd my mind;
To my large soul, not all her treasure lent,
And then betray'd it to a mean descent.
I find, I find my mounting spirits bold,
And David's part disdains my mother's mold.
Why am I scanted by a niggard-birth?
M...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...that lowers,
Shall never more be thine.
The silence of that dreamless sleep
I envy now too much to weep;
Nor need I to repine
That all those charms have pass'd away,
I might have watch'd through long decay.

The flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd
Must fall the earliest prey;
Though by no hand untimely snatch'd,
The leaves must drop away:
And yet it were a greater grief
To watch it withering, leaf by leaf,
Than see it pluck'd to-day;
Since earthly eye but ill can bear
To trace...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...nger's eyes 
Our law, our creed, our God denies, 
Nor shall one wandering thought of mine 
At such, our Prophet's will, repine: 
No! happier made by that decree! 
He left me all in leaving thee. 
Deep were my anguish, thus compell'd 
To wed with one I ne'er beheld: 
This wherefore should I not reveal? 
Why wilt thou urge me to conceal! 
I know the Pacha's haughty mood 
To thee hath never boded good: 
And he so often storms at naught, 
Allah! forbid that e'er he ought! 
And wh...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...rs 30 
Shall never more be thine. 
The silence of that dreamless sleep 
I envy now too much to weep; 
Nor need I to repine 
That all those charms have pass'd away 35 
I might have watch'd through long decay. 

The flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd 
Must fall the earliest prey; 
Though by no hand untimely snatch'd. 
The leaves must drop away. 40 
And yet it were a greater grief 
To watch it withering leaf by leaf  
Than see it pluck'd to-day; 
Since earthly eye ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)



...ving child to thee: 
As comes to me or cloud or sun, 
Father! thy will, not mine, be done! 
Oh, ne'er will I at life repine: 
Enough that thou hast made it mine. 
When falls the shadow cold of death 
I yet will sing, with parting breath, 
As comes to me or shade or sun, 
Father! thy will, not mine, be done!...Read more of this...
by Adams, Sarah Fuller Flower
...t - I would have given
My life but to have called her mine
In the full view of earth and heaven;
For I did oft and long repine 
That we could only meet by stealth.

VIII

'For lovers there are many eyes,
And such there were on us; the devil
On such occasions should be civil -
The devil! - I'm loth to do him wrong,
It might be some untoward saint, 
Who would not be at rest too long,
But to his pious bile gave vent -
But one fair night, some lurking spies 
Surprised and seized ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...nt and yearn; 
And stronger task did fate assign, 
Task that a giant's strength might strain; 
To suffer long and ne'er repine, 
Be calm in frenzy, smile at pain. 

Pale with the secret war of feeling, 
Sustained with courage, mute, yet high; 
The wounds at which she bled, revealing 
Only by altered cheek and eye; 

She bore in silence­but when passion 
Surged in her soul with ceaseless foam, 
The storm at last brought desolation, 
And drove her exiled from her home. 

And si...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte
...ll subdues, and makes remiss the hands 
Of mightiest? Sense of pleasure we may well 
Spare out of life perhaps, and not repine, 
But live content, which is the calmest life: 
But pain is perfect misery, the worst 
Of evils, and, excessive, overturns 
All patience. He, who therefore can invent 
With what more forcible we may offend 
Our yet unwounded enemies, or arm 
Ourselves with like defence, to me deserves 
No less than for deliverance what we owe. 
Whereto with look compo...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...voured lot,
My exaltation to afflictions high!
Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!
I will not argue that, nor will repine.
But where delays he now? Some great intent
Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,
I lost him, but so found as well I saw
He could not lose himself, but went about
His Father's business. What he meant I mused—
Since understand; much more his absence now 
Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
But I to wait with patience am inured;
M...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...THOUGH love repine and reason chafe  
There came a voice without reply ¡ª 
'T is man's perdition to be safe, 
When for the truth he ought to die.  ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...Fancy's dreams destroy?
Did I not tell thee, years before,
Life was for labour, not for joy?
Cease, selfish spirit, to repine;
O'er thine own ills no longer grieve;
Lo, there are sufferings worse than thine,
Which thou mayst labour to relieve.
If Time indeed too swiftly flies,
Gird on thine armour, haste, arise,
For thou hast much to do; ­-
To lighten woe, to trample sin,
And foes without and foes within
To combat and subdue.
Earth hath too much of sin and pain:
The bitter c...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Anne
...nger's eyes 
Our law, our creed, our God denies, 
Nor shall one wandering thought of mine 
At such, our Prophet's will, repine: 
No! happier made by that decree! 
He left me all in leaving thee. 
Deep were my anguish, thus compell'd 
To wed with one I ne'er beheld: 
This wherefore should I not reveal? 
Why wilt thou urge me to conceal! 
I know the Pacha's haughty mood 
To thee hath never boded good: 
And he so often storms at naught, 
Allah! forbid that e'er he ought! 
And wh...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...to Art, her slave,
And that's your Venus, whence we turn
To yonder girl that fords the burn!
You acquiesce, and shall I repine?
What, man of music, you grown grey
With notes and nothing else to say,
Is this your sole praise from a friend,
``Greatly his opera's strains intend,
``Put in music we know how fashions end!''
I gave my youth; but we ride, in fine.

IX.

Who knows what's fit for us? Had fate
Proposed bliss here should sublimate
My being---had I signed the bond---
Stil...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...Engand, if our good we knew, 
Would we possess the freedom we pursue! 
The lavish government can give no more; 
Yet we repine, and plenty makes us poor. 
God tried us once; our rebel fathers fought; 
He glutted them with all the power they sought, 
Till, mastered by their own usurping brave, 
The free-born subject sunk into a slave. 
We loathe our manna, and we long for quails; 
Ah! what is man, when his own wish prevails! 
How rash, how swift to plunge himself in ill, 
Prou...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...terrible the toil 
Of him who steps on foreign soil, 
Resolved to plant the gospel vine, 
Where tyrants rule and slaves repine; 
Eager to lift Religion's light 
Where thickest shades of mental night 
Screen the false god and fiendish rite; 
Reckless that missionary blood, 
Shed in wild wilderness and wood, 
Has left, upon the unblest air, 
The man's deep moan­the martyr's prayer. 
I know my lot­I only ask 
Power to fulfil the glorious task; 
Willing the spirit, may the flesh ...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte
...ng her Part impartial, and severe, 
The Offspring of thy Sin shall soon resign 
That Life, for which thou must not once repine; 
But with submissive Grief his Fate deplore, 
And bless the Hand, that does inflict no more. 

Shall I then pay but Part, and owe the Whole? 
My Body's Fruit, for my offending Soul? 
Shall I no more endure (the King demands) 
And 'scape thus lightly his offended Hands? 
Oh! let him All resume, my Crown, my Fame; 
Reduce me to the Nothing, whence I ca...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...ice to leave
This hated land behind,
Wert thou not chain'd to me
With friendships flowery chains.

Burst them! I'll not repine.
No noble friend
Would stay his fellow-captive,
If means of flight appear.

The remembrance
Of his dear friend's freedom
Gives him freedom
In his dungeon.

Thou go'st,--I'm left.
But e'en already
The last year's winged spokes
Whirl round the smoking axle.

I number the turns
Of the thundering wheel;
The last one I bless.--
Each bar then is broken, I'm...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...m of the earth, 
Which all her harvests were nor worth? 
Not mine,--I never called thee mine, 
Bur Nature's heir,--if I repine, 
And seeing rashly torn and moved 
Nor what I made, but what I loved, 
Grow early old with grief that thou 
Must to the wastes of Nature go,-- 
'Tis because a general hope 
Was quenched, and all must doubt and grope. 
For flattering planets seemed to say 
This child should ills of ages stay, 
By wondrous tongue, and guided pen, 
Bring the flown Muses...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...ossom of the earth,
Which all her harvests were not worth?
Not mine, I never called thee mine,
But nature's heir,— if I repine,
And, seeing rashly torn and moved,
Not what I made, but what I loved.
Grow early old with grief that then
Must to the wastes of nature go,—
'Tis because a general hope
Was quenched, and all must doubt and grope
For flattering planets seemed to say,
This child should ills of ages stay,—
By wondrous tongue and guided pen
Bring the flown muses back to m...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things