Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Reviled Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...meekly pleaded.

'Woe's the day!' he sadly said,
With a slowly shaking head,
And a look of pity;
'Ury's honest lord reviled,
Mock of knave and sport of child,
In his own good city!

'Speak the word, and, master mine,
As we charged on Tilly's line,
And his Walloon lancers,
Smiting through their midst we'll teach
Civil look and decent speech
To these boyish prancers!'

'Marvel not, mine ancient friend,
Like beginning, like the end,'
Quoth the Laird of Ury;
'Is the sinful se...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...e, for now I know 
Why Giaffir always seem'd thy foe; 
And I, alas! am Giaffir's child, 
Form whom thou wert contemn'd, reviled. 
If not thy sister — wouldst thou save 
My life, oh! bid me be thy slave!" 

XII. 

"My slave, Zuleika! — nay, I'm thine; 
But, gentle love, this transport calm, 
Thy lot shall yet be link'd with mine; 
I swear it by our Prophet's shrine, 
And be that thought thy sorrow's balm. 
So may the Koran verse display'd [29] 
Upon its steel direc...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...dom, not more strong than mild,
Love beholds them, each without misgiving
Reconciled.

Each on earth alike of earth reviled,
Hated, feared, derided, and forgiving,
Each alike had heaven at heart, and smiled.

Both bright names, clothed round with man's thanksgiving,
Shine, twin stars above the storm-drifts piled,
Dead and deathless, whom we saw not living
Reconciled....Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...an thou canst: I have missed the only way.' 

So till the dusk that followed evensong 
Rode on the two, reviler and reviled; 
Then after one long slope was mounted, saw, 
Bowl-shaped, through tops of many thousand pines 
A gloomy-gladed hollow slowly sink 
To westward--in the deeps whereof a mere, 
Round as the red eye of an Eagle-owl, 
Under the half-dead sunset glared; and shouts 
Ascended, and there brake a servingman 
Flying from out of the black wood, and crying, 
'T...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...Sabine heard in ecstasy the calling, 
 In winning rhyme, 
 Of Saldane's earl so noble, ay, and wealthy, 
 Name e'er reviled— 
 Oh! this chill wind, etc. 
 
 "(Let me upon this bench be shortly resting, 
 So weary, I!) 
 That noble bore her smiling, unresisting, 
 By yonder high 
 And ragged road that snakes towards the summit 
 Where crags are piled— 
 Oh! this chill wind, etc. 
 
 "I saw her pass beside my lofty station— 
 A glance—'twas all! 
 And yet I loa...Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...My Soul -- accused me -- And I quailed --
As Tongue of Diamond had reviled
All else accused me -- and I smiled --
My Soul -- that Morning -- was My friend --

Her favor -- is the best Disdain
Toward Artifice of Time -- or Men --
But Her Disdain -- 'twere lighter bear
A finger of Enamelled Fire --...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...e, for now I know 
Why Giaffir always seem'd thy foe; 
And I, alas! am Giaffir's child, 
Form whom thou wert contemn'd, reviled. 
If not thy sister — wouldst thou save 
My life, oh! bid me be thy slave!" 

XII. 

"My slave, Zuleika! — nay, I'm thine; 
But, gentle love, this transport calm, 
Thy lot shall yet be link'd with mine; 
I swear it by our Prophet's shrine, 
And be that thought thy sorrow's balm. 
So may the Koran verse display'd [29] 
Upon its steel direc...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...ngs us toils and pains and wounds
For charming Sissy Knott!"

But Sissy Knott still wailed and wept,
And still her fate reviled;
For who could patch her dolly up -
Who, who could mend her child?

Then out her doting mother came,
And soothed her daughter then;
"Grieve not, my darling, I will sew
Your dolly up again!"

Joy soon succeeded unto grief,
And tears were soon dried up,
And dignities were heaped upon
Clow's noble yellow pup.

Him all that goodly company
Did as deli...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
.... No, Good God, for my misery! I 
cannot face
the shame, to be a mother, and not married, and the poor child to 
be reviled
for having no father. Merciful Mother, Holy Virgin, take 
away this sin I did.
Let the baby not be. Only take the stigma off of me!

I have told no one but you, Holy Mary. My mother would 
call me "whore",
and spit upon me; the priest would have me repent, and have
the rest of my life spent in a convent. I am no whore, 
no bad wom...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...Thou canst save amid despair.
     Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
          Though banished, outcast, and reviled—
     Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;
          Mother, hear a suppliant child!
                                              Ave Maria!

     Ave Maria! undefiled!
          The flinty couch we now must share
     Shall seem with down of eider piled,
          If thy protection hover there.
     The murky cavern's heavy air
          Shall...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...A flying word from here and there 
Had sown the name at which we sneered, 
To be reviled and then revered: 
A presence to be loved and feared-- 
We cannot hide it, or deny 
That we, the gentlemen who jeered, 
May be forgotten by and by. 

He came when days were perilous 
And hearts of men were sore beguiled, 
And having made his note of us, 
He pondered and was reconciled. 
Was ever master yet so mild 
As he, and so untamable? 
W...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...erything they caught. 

The world around him was a gift 
Of anguish to his eyes and ears, 
And one that he had long reviled 
As fit for devils, not for seers.
Where, then, was there a place for him 
That on this other side of death 
Saw nothing good, as he had seen 
No good come out of Nazareth? 

Yet here there was a reticence,
And I believe his only one, 
That hushed him as if he beheld 
A Presence that would not be gone. 
In such a silence he confessed 
How muc...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...Wild:
(Just turn that bannock over there; it's getting nicely brown.)
I might be in my grave by now, forgotten and reviled,
Or rotting like a sickly cur in some far, foreign town.
I might be that vile thing I was, -- it all seems like a dream;
I owed a man a grudge one time that only life could pay;
And yet it's half-forgotten now -- how petty these things seem!
(But that's "another story", pal; I'll tell it you some day.)

How strange two "irresponsibles" should...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Reviled poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things