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Famous Rivalry Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wilde, Oscar
...ily?

Still by the light and laughing sea
Poor Polypheme bemoans his fate;
O Singer of Persephone!

And still in boyish rivalry
Young Daphnis challenges his mate;
Dost thou remember Sicily?

Slim Lacon keeps a goat for thee,
For thee the jocund shepherds wait;
O Singer of Persephone!
Dost thou remember Sicily?...Read more of this...



by Masters, Edgar Lee
...ght train pulled in,
Quick off the steps jumped Cully Green
And Martin Vise, and began to fight
To settle their ancient rivalry,
Striking each other with fists that sounded
Like the blows of knotted clubs.
Now it seemed to me that Cully was winning,
When his bloody face broke into a grin
Of sickly cowardice, leaning on Martin
And whining out "We're good friends, Mart,
You know that I'm your friend."
But a terrible punch from Martin knocked him
Around and around and in...Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...ittering bubble bursts,
As at the spousals of the Nereid's son,
When that false Florimel, by her prototype
Display'd in rivalry, with all her charms
Dissolved away.

Nor can the halls of Heaven
Give to the human soul such kindred joy,
As hovering o'er its earthly haunts it feels,
When with the breeze it wantons round the brow
Of one beloved on earth; or when at night
In dreams it comes, and brings with it the DAYS
And JOYS that are no more, Or when, perchance
With power p...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...-
Ah, all concede the truth (who hear):
There's no such voice as Jessie's.

Of other charms she hath such store
All rivalry excelling,
Though I used adjectives galore,
They'd fail me in the telling;
But now discretion stays my hand--
Adieu, eyes, voice, and tresses.
Of all the husbands in the land
There's none so fierce as Jessie's....Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...labor, that in lasting fruit outgrows 
Far noisier schemes, accomplish'd in repose, 
Too great for haste, too high for rivalry. 

Yes, while on earth a thousand discords ring, 
Man's fitful uproar mingling with his toil, 
Still do thy sleepless ministers move on, 

Their glorious tasks in silence perfecting; 
Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil, 
Laborers that shall not fail, when man is gone....Read more of this...



by Gibran, Kahlil
...ssion and your appetite. 

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. 

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements? 

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. 

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...s home, to dwellA Laurel, green and bright, whose hues might wellIn rivalry with proudest emeralds stand:Plough'd by my pen and by my heart-sighs fann'd,Cool'd by the soft rain from mine eyes that fell,It grew in grace, upbreathing a sweet smell,Unparallel'd in any age or land.Fair fame, bright ho...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...iname>Macgregor.  Had Polycletus in proud rivalryOn her his model gazed a thousand years,Not half the beauty to my soul appears,In fatal conquest, e'er could he descry.But, Simon, thou wast then in heaven's blest sky,Ere she, my fair one, left her native spheres,Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...ey far away,
Where canopied on herbs amaracine
We too might waste the summer-tranced day
Matching our reeds in sportive rivalry,
While far beneath us frets the troubled purple of the sea.

But sweeter far if silver-sandalled foot
Of some long-hidden God should ever tread
The Nuneham meadows, if with reeded flute
Pressed to his lips some Faun might raise his head
By the green water-flags, ah! sweet indeed
To see the heavenly herdsman call his white-fleeced flock to feed.Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...ned behind
All beauty, like a strength where graces cling,--
The jewel and heart of light, which everything
Wrestled in rivalry to hold enshrined. 
Ah! since thou'rt fled, and I in each fair sight
The sweet occasion of my joy deplore,
Where shall I seek thee best, or whom invite
Within thy sacred temples and adore?
Who shall fill thought and truth with old delight,
And lead my soul in life as heretofore? 

26
The work is done, and from the fingers fall
The bloodwarm tools...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...d and bound him as I wove...
Such was my love: ha-ha!

By this I gained his strength and height
Without his rivalry.
But in my triumph I lost sight
Of afterhaps. Soon he,
Being bark-bound, flagged, snapped, fell outright,
And in his fall felled me!...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ween
     And patches bright of bracken green,
     And heather black, that waved so high,
     It held the copse in rivalry.
     But where the lake slept deep and still
     Dank osiers fringed the swamp and hill;
     And oft both path and hill were torn
     Where wintry torrent down had borne
     And heaped upon the cumbered land
     Its wreck of gravel, rocks, and sand.
     So toilsome was the road to trace
     The guide, abating of his pace,
     Led sl...Read more of this...

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