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Famous Reverence Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...hymns
Of night and day, and the deep heart of man.

There was a Poet whose untimely tomb 
No human hands with pious reverence reared,
But the charmed eddies of autumnal winds
Built o'er his mouldering bones a pyramid
Of mouldering leaves in the waste wilderness:
A lovely youth,--no mourning maiden decked
With weeping flowers, or votive cypress wreath,
The lone couch of his everlasting sleep:
Gentle, and brave, and generous,--no lorn bard
Breathed o'er his dark fate one me...Read more of this...



by Thoreau, Henry David
...r> 

A man may love the truth and practise it, 
Beauty he may admire, 
And goodness not omit, 
As much as may befit 
To reverence. 

But only when these three together meet, 
As they always incline, 
And make one soul the seat, 
And favorite retreat, 
Of loveliness; 

When under kindred shape, like loves and hates 
And a kindred nature, 
Proclaim us to be mates, 
Exposed to equal fates 
Eternally; 

And each may other help, and service do, 
Drawing Love's bands more tight...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...Hydra is an effete tool
Which we ourselves have blunted, what man now
Shall scale the august ancient heights and to old Reverence bow?

One such indeed I saw, but, Ichabod!
Gone is that last dear son of Italy,
Who being man died for the sake of God,
And whose unrisen bones sleep peacefully,
O guard him, guard him well, my Giotto's tower,
Thou marble lily of the lily town! let not the lour

Of the rude tempest vex his slumber, or
The Arno with its tawny troubled gold
O'er-leap...Read more of this...

by Homer,
...he Son of Hyperion answered her: "Queen Demeter, daughter of rich-haired Rhea, I will tell you the truth; for I greatly reverence and pity you in your grief for your trim-ankled daughter. None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-gathering Zeus who gave her to Hades, her father's brother, to be called his buxom wife. And Hades seized her and took her loudly crying in his chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom. Yet, goddess, cease your loud ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...wake him from his place;
But there came one, who with a kindred hand
Touch'd his wide shoulders, after bending low
With reverence, though to one who knew it not.
She was a Goddess of the infant world;
By her in stature the tall Amazon
Had stood a pigmy's height: she would have ta'en
Achilles by the hair and bent his neck;
Or with a finger stay'd Ixion's wheel.
Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx,
Pedestal'd haply in a palace court,
When sages look'd to Egypt...Read more of this...



by Alighieri, Dante
...etreated. Simple it were to understand 
 A Messenger of Heaven he came. My guide 
 Signed me to silence, and to reverence due, 
 While to one stroke of his indignant wand 
 The gate swung open. "Outcast spawn!" he cried, 
 His voice heard vibrant through the aperture grim, 
 "Why spurn ye at the Will that, once defied, 
 Here cast ye grovelling? Have ye felt from Him 
 Aught ever for fresh revolt but harder pains? 
 Has Cerberus' throat, skinned with the threefold...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...gift beyond that bitter boon — our birth. 

XXVII. 

If aught he loved, 'twas Lara; but was shown 
His faith in reverence and in deeds alone; 
In mute attention; and his care, which guess'd 
Each wish, fulfill'd it ere the tongue express'd. 
Still there was haughtiness in all he did, 
A spirit deep that brook'd not to be chid; 
His zeal, though more than that of servile hands, 
In act alone obeys, his air commands; 
As if 'twas Lara's less than /his/ desire 
That ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ey rose. 
Their rising all at once was as the sound 
Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
With awful reverence prone, and as a God 
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven. 
Nor failed they to express how much they praised 
That for the general safety he despised 
His own: for neither do the Spirits damned 
Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast 
Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal.<...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...zles the croud, and sets them all agape. 
Nearer his presence Adam, though not awed, 
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek, 
As to a superiour nature bowing low, 
Thus said. Native of Heaven, for other place 
None can than Heaven such glorious shape contain; 
Since, by descending from the thrones above, 
Those happy places thou hast deigned a while 
To want, and honour these, vouchsafe with us 
Two only, who yet by sovran gift possess 
This spacious ground, in...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...all deaths 
I could endure, without him live no life. 
So saying, from the tree her step she turned; 
But first low reverence done, as to the Power 
That dwelt within, whose presence had infused 
Into the plant sciential sap, derived 
From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while, 
Waiting desirous her return, had wove 
Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn 
Her tresses, and her rural labours crown; 
As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen. 
Great joy he promis...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ht 
His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint. 
Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven 
What love sincere, and reverence in my heart 
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, 
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant 
I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not, 
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, 
Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress, 
My only strength and stay: Forlorn of thee, 
Whither shall I betake me, where subsist? 
While yet we live, scarce one short hour...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ld fear; nor sociably mild, 
As Raphael, that I should much confide; 
But solemn and sublime; whom not to offend, 
With reverence I must meet, and thou retire. 
He ended: and the Arch-Angel soon drew nigh, 
Not in his shape celestial, but as man 
Clad to meet man; over his lucid arms 
A military vest of purple flowed, 
Livelier than Meliboean, or the grain 
Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old 
In time of truce; Iris had dipt the woof; 
His starry helm unbuckled showed ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...slave to despot say — 
Then to the tower had ta'en his way, 
But here young Selim silence brake, 
First lowly rendering reverence meet! 
And downcast look'd, and gently spake, 
Still standing at the Pacha's feet: 
For son of Moslem must expire, 
Ere dare to sit before his sire! 

"Father! for fear that thou shouldst chide 
My sister, or her sable guide, 
Know — for the fault, if fault there be, 
Was mine — then fall thy frowns on me — 
So lovelily the morning shone, 
That — l...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...when amid no earthly moans 
Down down that town shall settle hence 
Hell rising from a thousand thrones 
Shall do it reverence....Read more of this...

by Homer,
...
  And dread avenging Phoebus, son of Jove."

  The Greeks in shouts their joint assent declare,
  The priest to reverence, and release the fair.
  Not so Atrides; he, with kingly pride,
  Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied:

  "Hence on thy life, and fly these hostile plains,
  Nor ask, presumptuous, what the king detains
  Hence, with thy laurel crown, and golden rod,
  Nor trust too far those ensigns of thy god.
  Mine is thy daughter, priest...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...eous rite was paid
     That hospitality could claim,
     Though all unasked his birth and name.
     Such then the reverence to a guest,
     That fellest foe might join the feast,
     And from his deadliest foeman's door
     Unquestioned turn the banquet o'er
     At length his rank the stranger names,
     'The Knight of Snowdoun, James Fitz-James;
     Lord of a barren heritage,
     Which his brave sires, from age to age,
     By their good swords had held ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
The foot that loiters, bidden go,--the glance 
That only seems half-loyal to command,-- 
A manner somewhat fallen from reverence-- 
Or have I dreamed the bearing of our knights 
Tells of a manhood ever less and lower? 
Or whence the fear lest this my realm, upreared, 
By noble deeds at one with noble vows, 
From flat confusion and brute violences, 
Reel back into the beast, and be no more?' 

He spoke, and taking all his younger knights, 
Down the slope city rode, and sharpl...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...to die than to have indigence.
*Thy selve* neighebour will thee despise, *that same*
If thou be poor, farewell thy reverence.
Yet of the wise man take this sentence,
Alle the days of poore men be wick'*, *wicked, evil
Beware therefore ere thou come to that prick*. *point

If thou be poor, thy brother hateth thee,
And all thy friendes flee from thee, alas!
O riche merchants, full of wealth be ye,
O noble, prudent folk, as in this case,
Your bagges be not fill'd wi...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...d me giv'n their land and their treasor, of no account*
Me needed not do longer diligence
To win their love, or do them reverence.
They loved me so well, by God above,
That I *tolde no dainty* of their love. *cared nothing for*
A wise woman will busy her ever-in-one* *constantly
To get their love, where that she hath none.
But, since I had them wholly in my hand,
And that they had me given all their land,
Why should I take keep* them for to please, *care
But* it w...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...wasn't ready. The white clouds rearing
Aside were dragging me in four directions.
I wasn't ready.
I had no reverence.
I thought I could deny the consequence--
But it was too late for that. It was too late, and the face
Went on shaping itself with love, as if I was ready.

SECOND VOICE:
It is a world of snow now. I am not at home.
How white these sheets are. The faces have no features.
They are bald and impossible, like the faces of my ...Read more of this...

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