Famous Resist Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Power Of Song

by Friedrich von Schiller
 The foaming stream from out the rock
With thunder roar begins to rush,--
The oak falls prostrate at the shock,
And mountain-wrecks attend the gush.
With rapturous awe, in wonder lost,
The wanderer hearkens to the sound;
From cliff to cliff he hears it tossed,
Yet knows not whither it is bound:
'Tis thus that song's bright waters pour
From sources never known before.

In union with those dreaded...Read more of this...

Conroys Gap

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 This was the way of it, don't you know -- 
Ryan was "wanted" for stealing sheep, 
And never a trooper, high or low, 
Could find him -- catch a weasel asleep! 
Till Trooper Scott, from the Stockman's Ford -- 
A bushman, too, as I've heard them tell -- 
Chanced to find him drunk as a lord 
Round at the...Read more of this...

An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwells Return from Ireland

by Andrew Marvell
 The forward youth that would appear 
Must now forsake his Muses dear, 
Nor in the shadows sing 
His numbers languishing. 
'Tis time to leave the books in dust, 
And oil th' unused armour's rust, 
Removing from the wall 
The corslet of the hall. 
So restless Cromwell could not cease 
In the inglorious arts of peace, 
But through advent'rous war...Read more of this...

Hymn 157

by Isaac Watts
 Satan's devices.

Now Satan comes with dreadful roar
And threatens to destroy;
He worries whom he can't devour
With a malicious joy.

Ye sons of God, oppose his rage,
Resist, and he'll begone;
Thus did our dearest Lord engage
And vanquish him alone.

Now he appears almost divine,
Like innocence and love;
But the old serpent lurks within
When he assumes the dove.

Fly from the false deceiver's tongue,
Ye sons of Adam,...Read more of this...

A Forest Hymn

by William Cullen Bryant
The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 
And spread the roof above them,---ere he framed 
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, 
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down, 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplication. For his...Read more of this...

Hymn 125

by Isaac Watts
 Christ's compassion to the weak and tempted.

Heb. 4:15,16; 5:7; Matt. 12:20. 

With joy we meditate the grace
Of our High Priest above;
His heart is made of tenderness,
His bowels melt with love.

Touched with a sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For he has felt the same.

But spotless, innocent, and pure,
The great Redeemer stood,
While Satan's fiery darts he...Read more of this...

Last Lines

by Anne Bronte
 Jan 7th

A dreadful darkness closes in
On my bewildered mind;
O let me suffer and not sin,
Be tortured yet resigned. 

Through all this world of whelming mist
Still let me look to Thee,
And give me courage to resist
The Tempter till he flee.

Weary I am -- O give me strength
And leave me not to faint;
Say Thou wilt comfort me at length
And pity my...Read more of this...

Ae Fond Kiss And Then We Sever

by Robert Burns
 Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me,
Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy;
Naething could resist my Nancy;
But to see her was...Read more of this...

The Ring Of Polycrates - A Ballad

by Friedrich von Schiller
 Upon his battlements he stood,
And downward gazed in joyous mood,
On Samos' Isle, that owned his sway,
"All this is subject to my yoke;"
To Egypt's monarch thus he spoke,--
"That I am truly blest, then, say!"

"The immortals' favor thou hast known!
Thy sceptre's might has overthrown
All those who once were like to thee.
Yet to avenge them one lives still;
I cannot call thee blest,...Read more of this...

The Bible is an antique Volume --

by Emily Dickinson
 The Bible is an antique Volume --
Written by faded men
At the suggestion of Holy Spectres --
Subjects -- Bethlehem --
Eden -- the ancient Homestead --
Satan -- the Brigadier --
Judas -- the Great Defaulter --
David -- the Troubador --
Sin -- a distinguished Precipice
Others must resist --
Boys that "believe" are very lonesome --
Other Boys are "lost" --
Had but the Tale a warbling...Read more of this...

Forbidden Fruit

by Michael Lally
 all the forbidden fruit I ever
dreamt of--or was taught to
resist and fear--ripens and
blossoms under the palms of my
hands as they uncover and explore
you--and in the most secret
corners of my heart as it discovers
and adores you--the forbidden fruit
of forgiveness--the forbidden fruit
of finally feeling the happiness
you were afraid you didn't deserve--
the forbidden fruit of my life's labor
--the just payment I have...Read more of this...

Unholy Trinity

by Robert William Service
 Though Virtue hurt you Vice is nice;
Aye, Parson says it's wrong,
Yet for my pleasing I'll suffice
With Women, Wine and Song.
But though it be with jocund glee
my tavern voice is ringing,
Had I to chuck on of the three,
By gad! I'd give up singing.

Bu not the vine. What draught divine
Could better souse my throttle?
God never meant that mellow wine
Should languish in...Read more of this...

Landscape of a Pissing Multitude

by Federico García Lorca
 The men kept to themselves:
they were waiting for the swiftness of the last cyclists.
The women kept to themselves:
they were expecting the death of a boy on a Japanese schooner.
They all kept to themselves-
dreaming of the open beaks of dying birds,
the sharp parasol that punctures
a recently flattened toad,
beneath silence with a thousand ears
and tiny mouths of water
in the canyons that...Read more of this...

Be not cast down by the troubles which we call vicissitudes

by Omar Khayyam
Be not cast down by the troubles which we call vicissitudes
here below. Let us occupy ourselves only in
drinking pure wine, limpid wine, the color of a rose.
Wine, friend, is the blood of the world. The world is
our murderer; how shall we resist drinking the blood of
the heart of him who spills ours?...Read more of this...

Hymn 118

by Isaac Watts
 Moses and Christ; or, Sins against the law and gospel.

John 1:17; Heb. 3:3,5,6; 10:28,29. 

The law by Moses came,
But peace, and truth, and love,
Were brought by Christ, a nobler name,
Descending from above.

Amidst the house of God
Their diff'rent works were done;
Moses a faithful servant stood,
But Christ a faithful Son.

Then to his new commands
Be strict obedience paid;
O'er all his Father's house...Read more of this...

Epitaph on her Son H. P

by Katherine Philips
 WHat on Earth deserves our trust ?
Youth and Beauty both are dust.
Long we gathering are with pain,
What one moment calls again.
Seven years childless, marriage past,
A Son, a son is born at last :
So exactly lim'd and fair.
Full of good Spirits, Meen, and Air,
As a long life promised,
Yet, in less than six weeks dead.
Too promising, too great a mind
In so...Read more of this...

My Mistress Commanding Me to Return Her Letters

by Thomas Carew
 SO grieves th' adventurous merchant, when he throws 
All the long toil'd-for treasure his ship stows 
Into the angry main, to save from wrack 
Himself and men, as I grieve to give back 
These letters : yet so powerful is your sway 
As if you bid me die, I must obey. 
Go then, blest papers, you shall kiss those...Read more of this...

Novel

by Arthur Rimbaud
 I.

No one's serious at seventeen.
--On beautiful nights when beer and lemonade
And loud, blinding cafés are the last thing you need
--You stroll beneath green lindens on the promenade.

Lindens smell fine on fine June nights!
Sometimes the air is so sweet that you close your eyes;
The wind brings sounds--the town is near--
And carries scents of vineyards and beer. . .

II.

--Over there, framed...Read more of this...

How Human Nature dotes

by Emily Dickinson
 How Human Nature dotes
On what it can't detect.
The moment that a Plot is plumbed
Prospective is extinct --

Prospective is the friend
Reserved for us to know
When Constancy is clarified
Of Curiosity --

Of subjects that resist
Redoubtablest is this
Where go we --
Go we anywhere
Creation after this?...Read more of this...

The Teak Forest

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Whether I loved you who shall say?
   Whether I drifted down your way
   In the endless River of Chance and Change,
   And you woke the strange
   Unknown longings that have no names,
   But burn us all in their hidden flames,
       ...Read more of this...

peach-power

by Rg Gregory
 peaches exude this thrall - 
reminders of those luscious
whereabouts that lips 
best find their precious sips
to cry let this be all

they lull so well endowed
with dreams of wanting flesh
who can resist their touch
not they who wishing much
sigh o you do me proud

and yield in fruitful dreams
to the nectars of delight
that peaches bosom forth
(no better biter’s worth)
or so the vision...Read more of this...

A Woman Waits for Me

by Walt Whitman
 A WOMAN waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking, 
Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were
 lacking. 

Sex contains all, 
Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations, 
Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk;
All hopes, benefactions, bestowals, 
All the passions, loves, beauties, delights of...Read more of this...

Sonnet LXII

by Francesco Petrarch
[Pg 85] SONNET LXII. Se bianche non son prima ambe le tempie. THOUGH NOT SECURE AGAINST THE WILES OF LOVE, HE FEELS STRENGTH ENOUGH TO RESIST THEM.  Till silver'd o'er by age my temples grow,Where Time by slow degrees now plants his grey,Safe shall I never be, in danger's wayRead more of this...

Milking Time

by Robert William Service
 There's a drip of honeysuckle in the deep green lane;
There's old Martin jogging homeward on his worn old wain;
There are cherry petals falling, and a cuckoo calling, calling,
And a score of larks (God bless 'em) . . . but it's all pain, pain.
For you see I am not really there at all, not at all;
For you see I'm in...Read more of this...

From Samson Agonistes i

by John Milton
 OH how comely it is and how reviving 
To the Spirits of just men long opprest! 
When God into the hands of thir deliverer 
Puts invincible might 
To quell the mighty of the Earth, th' oppressour, 
The brute and boist'rous force of violent men 
Hardy and industrious to support 
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue 
The righteous and all...Read more of this...

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