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Famous Snare Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Davidson, John
...o keep their vows.

Then out into the night she went,
And, stooping, crept by hedge and tree;
Her rose-bush flung a snare of scent,
And caught a happy memory.

She fell, and lay a minute's space;
She tore the sward in her distress;
The dewy grass refreshed her face;
She rose and ran with lifted dress.

She started like a morn-caught ghost
Once when the moon came out and stood
To watch; the naked road she crossed,
And dived into the murmuring wood.

The branche...Read more of this...



by Wilde, Oscar
...e stream, which well he knew,
For oftentimes with boyish careless shout
The green and crested grebe he would pursue,
Or snare in woven net the silver trout,
And down amid the startled reeds he lay
Panting in breathless sweet affright, and waited for the day.

On the green bank he lay, and let one hand
Dip in the cool dark eddies listlessly,
And soon the breath of morning came and fanned
His hot flushed cheeks, or lifted wantonly
The tangled curls from off his forehead, wh...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ced words of glozing courtesy,
Baited with reasons not unplausible,
Wind me into the easy-hearted man,
And hug him into snares. When once her eye
Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,
I shall appear some harmless villager
Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.
But here she comes; I fairly step aside,
And hearken, if I may her business hear.

The LADY enters.

 LADY. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true,
My best guide now. Methought it wa...Read more of this...

by Homer,
...so and hyacinths and the narcissus which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many, to be a snare for the bloom-like girl -- a marvellous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy. And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to ta...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...rough the copses singing,
And his shadow dances along,
And I know not which I should follow,
Shadow or song!

O Hunter, snare me his shadow!
O Nightingale, catch me his strain!
Else moonstruck with music and madness
I track him in vain!...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...zzelin was lost, 
He play'd the courteous lord and bounteous host: 
Perchance his strife with Otho made him dread 
Some snare prepared for his obnoxious head; 
Whate'er his view, his favour more obtains 
With these, the people, than his fellow thanes. 
If this were policy, so far 'twas sound, 
The million judged but of him as they found; 
From him by sterner chiefs to exile driven 
They but required a shelter, and 'twas given. 
By him no peasant mourn'd his rifled cot...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...o canisters and mats,
Drain sweet maple-juice in vats.
No bird is safe that cuts the air,
From their rifle or their snare;
No fish in river or in lake,
But their long hands it thence will take;
And the country's iron face
Like wax their fashioning skill betrays,
To fill the hollows, sink the hills,
Bridge gulfs, drain swamps, build dams and mills,
And fit the bleak and howling place
For gardens of a finer race,
The world-soul knows his own affair,
Fore-looking when his ha...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...time was, our first parents had been warned 
The coming of their secret foe, and 'scaped, 
Haply so 'scaped his mortal snare: For now 
Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down, 
The tempter ere the accuser of mankind, 
To wreak on innocent frail Man his loss 
Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell: 
Yet, not rejoicing in his speed, though bold 
Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast, 
Begins his dire attempt; which nigh the birth 
Now rolling boils in his ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...inward fraud; to warn all creatures from thee 
Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form, pretended 
To hellish falshood, snare them! But for thee 
I had persisted happy; had not thy pride 
And wandering vanity, when least was safe, 
Rejected my forewarning, and disdained 
Not to be trusted; longing to be seen, 
Though by the Devil himself; him overweening 
To over-reach; but, with the serpent meeting, 
Fooled and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee 
To trust thee from my side; im...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...o Wife
(O that I never had! fond wish too late)
Was in the Vale of Sorec, Dalila,
That specious Monster, my accomplisht snare. 
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the same end; still watching to oppress
Israel's oppressours: of what now I suffer
She was not the prime cause, but I my self,
Who vanquisht with a peal of words (O weakness!)
Gave up my fort of silence to a Woman.

Chor: In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy Countries Enemy,
Thou ...Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...gs to this gentle pair;
Love's tide that launched on with a blast too strong
Sweeps toward the foaming reef, the hidden snare,
Baffling with fond illusion's siren-song,
Too faint, on idle shoals, to linger there
Far from Youth's glowing dream, bore them along,
With purple sail and steered by seraph hands
To isles resplendent in the sunset of romance.

And out of this old house a flowery fane,
A bridal bower, a pearly pleasure-dome,
They built, and furnished it with gold a...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...h whom I'd planned, to save encroachin', 
Which fields and coverts each should poach in. 
Now when he saw me set my snare, 
He tells me "Get to hell from there. 
This field is mine," he says, "by right; 
If you poach here, there'll be a fight. 
Out now," he says, "and leave your wire; 
It's mine." 
"It ain't." 
"You put." 
"You liar." 
"You closhy put." 
"You bloody liar." 
"This is my field." 
"This is my wire." 
"I'm ruler here.Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...le laurels burn with deathless flame
To light thine altar; He too loves thee well,
Who saw old Merlin lured in Vivien's snare,
And the white feet of angels coming down the golden stair,

Loves thee so well, that all the World for him
A gorgeous-coloured vestiture must wear,
And Sorrow take a purple diadem,
Or else be no more Sorrow, and Despair
Gild its own thorns, and Pain, like Adon, be
Even in anguish beautiful; - such is the empery

Which Painters hold, and such the herit...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...br>

Now will I turn to Arcita again,
That little wist how nighe was his care,
Till that Fortune had brought him in the snare.
The busy lark, the messenger of day,
Saluteth in her song the morning gray;
And fiery Phoebus riseth up so bright,
That all the orient laugheth at the sight,
And with his streames* drieth in the greves** *rays **groves
The silver droppes, hanging on the leaves;
And Arcite, that is in the court royal
With Theseus, his squier principal,
Is ris'n, an...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...hiefs, with hound and trawl; who came
     To share their monarch's sylvan game,
     Themselves in bloody toils were snared,
     And when the banquet they prepared,
     And wide their loyal portals flung,
     O'er their own gateway struggling hung.
     Loud cries their blood from Meggat's mead,
     From Yarrow braes and banks of Tweed,
     Where the lone streams of Ettrick glide,
     And from the silver Teviot's side;
     The dales, where martial clans did ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...fare?"* *what means all
Constance answered; "Sir, it is Christ's might, this ado?*
That helpeth folk out of the fiendes snare:"
And *so farforth* she gan our law declare, *with such effect*
That she the Constable, ere that it were eve,
Converted, and on Christ made him believe.

This Constable was not lord of the place
Of which I speak, there as he Constance fand,* *found
But kept it strongly many a winter space,
Under Alla, king of Northumberland,
That was full wise, and...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...shoulde wedden after their estate,
For youth and eld* are often at debate. *age
But since that he was fallen in the snare,
He must endure (as other folk) his care.
Fair was this younge wife, and therewithal
As any weasel her body gent* and small. *slim, neat
A seint* she weared, barred all of silk, *girdle
A barm-cloth* eke as white as morning milk *apron
Upon her lendes*, full of many a gore**. *loins **plait
White was her smock*, and broider'd all before,...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...t plan,
Stretch'd forth one foot, and thus began.


"My son, my son, of love beware,
And shun the cheat of beauty's snare;
That snare more dreadful to be in,
Than huntsman's net, or horse-hair gin.
"By others' harms learn to be wise,"
As ancient proverbs well advise.
Each villany, that nature breeds,
From females and from love proceeds.
'Tis love disturbs with fell debate
Of man and beast the peaceful state:
Men fill the world with war's alarms,
When female tr...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...al into Gold transmute. 

XLVI.
Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare
Blaspheme the twisted tendril as Snare?
A Blessing, we should use it, should we not?
And if a Curse -- why, then, Who set it there? 

XLVII.
But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me
The Quarrel of the Universe let be:
And, in some corner of the Hubbub couch'd,
Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee. 

XLVIII.
For in and out, above, about, below,
'Tis nothing but a Magic...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...SPAN>But he that follow'd next with step sedateDrew round his foe the viewless snare of fate;While, with consummate art, he kept at bayThe raging foe, and conquer'd by delay.Another Fabius join'd the stoic pair,The Pauli and Marcelli famed in war;With them the victor in the friendly strife,Read more of this...

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