Famous Roves Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Progress of Poesy

by Thomas Gray
 A Pindaric Ode

Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake,
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take:
The laughing flowers that round them blow
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of Music winds along,
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,
Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;
Now rolling down the steep amain,
Headlong, impetuous, see it...Read more of this...

The Fortune-Teller a Gypsy Tale

by Mary Darby Robinson
 LUBIN and KATE, as gossips tell,
Were Lovers many a day;
LUBIN the damsel lov'd so well,
That folks pretend to say
The silly, simple, doting Lad,
Was little less than loving mad:
A malady not known of late--
Among the little-loving Great!

KATE liked the youth; but woman-kind
Are sometimes giv'n to range.
And oft, the giddy Sex, we find,
(They know not why)
When most they promise, soonest change,
And...Read more of this...

The LORD and the BRAMBLE

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 To view his stately Walks and Groves, 
A Man of Pow'r and Place
Was hast'ning on; but as he roves,
His Foe the slighted Bramble proves, 
And stops his eager Pace. 
That Shrub was qualify'd to Bite;
And now there went a Tale, 
That this injurious partial Wight
Had bid his Gard'ner rid it quite, 
And throw it o'er the Pail. 

Often the...Read more of this...

C.l.m

by John Masefield
 IN the dark womb where I began 
My mother's life made me a man. 
Through all the months of human birth 
Her beauty fed my common earth. 
I cannot see, nor breathe, nor stir, 
But through the death of some of her. 

Down in the darkness of the grave 
She cannot see the life she gave. 
For all her...Read more of this...

The Assignation

by Friedrich von Schiller
 Hear I the creaking gate unclose?
The gleaming latch uplifted?
No--'twas the wind that, whirring, rose,
Amidst the poplars drifted!
Adorn thyself, thou green leaf-bowering roof,
Destined the bright one's presence to receive,
For her, a shadowy palace-hall aloof
With holy night, thy boughs familiar weave.
And ye sweet flatteries of the delicate air,
Awake and sport her rosy cheek around,
When their light weight the tender feet shall...Read more of this...

Mischievous Joy

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 AS a butterfly renew'd,

When in life I breath'd my last,

To the spots my flight I wing,

Scenes of heav'nly rapture past,

Over meadows, to the spring,
Round the hill, and through the wood.

Soon a tender pair I spy,

And I look down from my seat

On the beauteous maiden's head--

When embodied there I meet

All I lost as soon as dead,
Happy as before am I.

Him...Read more of this...

April Byeway

by Edmund Blunden
    Friend whom I never saw, yet dearest friend,
    Be with me travelling on the byeway now
    In April's month and mood: our steps shall bend
    By the shut smithy with its penthouse brow
    Armed round with many a felly and crackt plough:
  ...Read more of this...

Sonnet 02

by Robert Southey
 Think Valentine, as speeding on thy way
Homeward thou hastest light of heart along,
If heavily creep on one little day
The medley crew of travellers among,
Think on thine absent friend: reflect that here
On Life's sad journey comfortless he roves,
Remote from every scene his heart holds dear,
From him he values, and from her he loves.
And when disgusted with the vain and dull
Whom...Read more of this...

Oh! Doubt Me Not

by Thomas Moore
 Oh! doubt me not -- the season 
Is o'er when Folly made me rove, 
And now the vestal, Reason, 
Shall watch the fire awaked by Love. 
Although this heart was early blown, 
And fairest hands disturb'd the tree, 
They only shook some blossoms down -- 
Its fruit has all been kept for thee. 
Then doubt me not -- the...Read more of this...

All Thats Past

by Walter de la Mare
 Very old are the woods; 
And the buds that break 
Out of the brier's boughs, 
When March winds wake, 
So old with their beauty are-- 
Oh, no man knows 
Through what wild centuries 
Roves back the rose. 
Very old are the brooks; 
And the rills that rise 
Where snow sleeps cold beneath 
The azure skies 
Sing such a history...Read more of this...

137. Song—Farewell to the Banks of Ayr

by Robert Burns
 THE GLOOMY night is gath’ring fast,
Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast,
Yon murky cloud is foul with rain,
I see it driving o’er the plain;
The hunter now has left the moor.
The scatt’red coveys meet secure;
While here I wander, prest with care,
Along the lonely banks of Ayr.


The Autumn mourns her rip’ning corn
By early Winter’s ravage torn;
Across her placid, azure sky,
She sees the...Read more of this...

546. Song—Jockie's taen the parting Kiss

by Robert Burns
 JOCKEY’S taen the parting kiss,
 O’er the mountains he is gane,
And with him is a’ my bliss,
 Nought but griefs with me remain,
Spare my Love, ye winds that blaw,
 Plashy sleets and beating rain!
Spare my Love, thou feath’ry snaw,
 Drifting o’er the frozen plain!


When the shades of evening creep
 O’er the day’s fair, gladsome e’e,
Sound and safely may he...Read more of this...

Rapids at Night

by Duncan Campbell Scott
 Here at the roots of the mountains,
Between the sombre legions of cedars and tamaracks,
The rapids charge the ravine:
A little light, cast by foam under starlight,
Wavers about the shimmering stems of the birches:
Here rise up the clangorous sounds of battle,
Immense and mournful.
Far above curves the great dome of darkness
Drawn with the limitless lines of the stars and the planets.
Deep at...Read more of this...

Robert Gould Shaw

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Why was it that the thunder voice of Fate
Should call thee, studious, from the classic groves,
Where calm-eyed Pallas with still footstep roves,
And charge thee seek the turmoil of the state?
What bade thee hear the voice and rise elate,
Leave home and kindred and thy spicy loaves,
To lead th' unlettered and despised droves
To manhood's home and thunder at the gate?
Far better the...Read more of this...

Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend

by Jane Austen
 In measured verse I'll now rehearse 
The charms of lovely Anna: 
And, first, her mind is unconfined 
Like any vast savannah.

Ontario's lake may fitly speak 
Her fancy's ample bound: 
Its circuit may, on strict survey 
Five hundred miles be found.

Her wit descends on foes and friends 
Like famed Niagara's fall; 
And travellers gaze in wild amaze, 
And listen, one...Read more of this...

30. Song—Composed in August

by Robert Burns
 NOW westlin winds and slaught’ring guns
 Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather;
The moorcock springs on whirring wings
 Amang the blooming heather:
Now waving grain, wide o’er the plain,
 Delights the weary farmer;
And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night,
 To muse upon my charmer.


The partridge loves the fruitful fells,
 The plover loves the mountains;
The woodcock haunts the lonely dells,
 The...Read more of this...

Lines inscribed to P. de Loutherbourg Esq. R. A

by Mary Darby Robinson
 WHERE on the bosom of the foamy RHINE,
In curling waves the rapid waters shine;
Where tow'ring cliffs in awful grandeur rise,
And midst the blue expanse embrace the skies;
The wond'ring eye beholds yon craggy height,
Ting'd with the glow of Evening's fading light:
Where the fierce cataract swelling o'er its bound,
Bursts from its source, and dares the depth profound.
On ev'ry side the headlong...Read more of this...

The Wandering Bard

by Thomas Moore
 What life like that of the bard can be -- 
The wandering bard, who roams as free 
As the mountain lark that o'er him sings, 
And, like that lark a music brings, 
Within him, where'er he comes or goes -- 
A fount that for ever flows! 
The world's to him like some playground, 
Where fairies dance their moonlight round;...Read more of this...

The Rendezvous

by Alan Seeger
 He faints with hope and fear. It is the hour. 
Distant, across the thundering organ-swell, 
In sweet discord from the cathedral-tower, 
Fall the faint chimes and the thrice-sequent bell. 
Over the crowd his eye uneasy roves. 
He sees a plume, a fur; his heart dilates -- 
Soars . . . and then sinks again. It is not hers he...Read more of this...

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