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Famous Spread Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...d the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows.
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village.
Strongly built were the hous...Read more of this...



by Keats, John
...dead leaf fell, there did it rest.
A stream went voiceless by, still deadened more
By reason of his fallen divinity
Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds
Press'd her cold finger closer to her lips.

 Along the margin-sand large foot-marks went,
No further than to where his feet had stray'd,
And slept there since. Upon the sodden ground
His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead,
Unsceptred; and his realmless eyes were closed;
While his bow'd head seem'...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...that where my Master led 
 With ease I followed, although without were none 
 But deep that stream beyond their wading spread, 
 And closed those gates beyond their breach had been, 
 Had they sought entry with us. 
 Of
 coolest green 
 Stretched the wide lawns we midmost found, for there, 
 Intolerant of itself, was Hell made fair 
 To accord with its containing. 
 Grave,
 austere, 
 Quiet-voiced and slow, of seldom words were they 
 That walked that verdure. 
 ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...r'd word. 
"'Tis he!" — "'Tis who?" they question far and near, 
Till louder accents rang on Lara's ear; 
So widely spread, few bosoms well could brook 
The general marvel, or that single look; 
But Lara stirr'd not, changed not, the surprise 
That sprung at first to his arrested eyes 
Seem'd now subsided, neither sunk nor raised 
Glanced his eye round, though still the stranger gazed; 
And drawing nigh, exclaim'd, with haughty sneer, 
"'Tis he! — how came he thence? — wh...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ut the unsleeping eyes of God to rest; 
Wide over all the plain, and wider far 
Than all this globous earth in plain outspread, 
(Such are the courts of God) the angelick throng, 
Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend 
By living streams among the trees of life, 
Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared, 
Celestial tabernacles, where they slept 
Fanned with cool winds; save those, who, in their course, 
Melodious hymns about the sovran throne 
Alternate all night long...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
..., leap, roll on, float on, 
To be a sailor of the world, bound for all ports, 
A ship itself, (see indeed these sails I spread to the sun and air,) 
A swift and swelling ship, full of rich words—full of joys....Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...d oft at Bible meetings, o'er the rest
Arising, did his holy oily best,
Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven,
To spread the Word by which himself had thriven."
How like you this old satire?' 

`Nay,' she said
`I loathe it: he had never kindly heart,
Nor ever cared to better his own kind,
Who first wrote satire, with no pity in it.
But will you hear MY dream, for I had one
That altogether went to music? Still
It awed me.' 

Then she told it, having dream'd
O...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...bare-stript heart, 
And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my feet.


Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the
 argument of the earth; 
And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, 
And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own;
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters
 and lovers; 
And that a kelson of the creation is love; 
And limitless ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...love you receive, you shall only answer with passionate kisses of
 parting, 
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you. 

12
Allons! after the GREAT COMPANIONS! and to belong to them!
They too are on the road! they are the swift and majestic men; they are the greatest
 women. 
Over that which hinder’d them—over that which retarded—passing impediments large or small,

Committers of crimes, committers of many beautiful virtues, 
En...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...our or five,
The heart of each man moved in him
Like a babe buried alive.

And they felt the land of the folk-songs
Spread southward of the Dane,
And they heard the good Rhine flowing
In the heart of all Allemagne.

They felt the land of the folk-songs,
Where the gifts hang on the tree,
Where the girls give ale at morning
And the tears come easily.

The mighty people, womanlike,
That have pleasure in their pain
As he sang of Balder beautiful,
Whom the heavens love...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...nother — and another — and another — 
"Oh! — no more — yet now my more than brother!" 
Far, wide, through every thicket spread, 
The fearful lights are gleaming red; 
Nor these alone — for each right hand 
Is ready with a sheathless brand. 
They part, pursue, return, and wheel 
With searching flambeau, shining steel; 
And last of all, his sabre waving, 
Stern Giaffir in his fury raving: 
And now almost they touch the cave — 
Oh! must that grot be Selim's grave? 

XXIII.Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...e least motion which they made,  It seem'd a thrill of pleasure.   The budding twigs spread out their fan,  To catch the breezy air;  And I must think, do all I can,  That there was pleasure there.   If I these thoughts may not prevent,  If such be of my creed the plan,  Have I not reason to lament  What man has made of man? Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...s of purity, her floor and ceil.
Upon her masts, Adventure, Pride, and Zeal,
To fortune's wind the sails of purpose spread:
And at the prow make figured maidenhead
O'erride the seas and answer to the wheel. 
And let him deep in memory's hold have stor'd
Water of Helicon: and let him fit
The needle that doth true with heaven accord:
Then bid her crew, love, diligence and wit
With justice, courage, temperance come aboard,
And at her helm the master reason sit. 

16
...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...
     To fence each crevice from the wind.
     The lighter pine-trees overhead
     Their slender length for rafters spread,
     And withered heath and rushes dry
     Supplied a russet canopy.
     Due westward, fronting to the green,
     A rural portico was seen,
     Aloft on native pillars borne,
     Of mountain fir with bark unshorn
     Where Ellen's hand had taught to twine
     The ivy and Idaean vine,
     The clematis, the favored flower
     Which b...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your Teacher.

She has a world of rea...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...Was at my feet, & Heaven above my head
When a strange trance over my fancy grew
Which was not slumber, for the shade it spread
Was so transparent that the scene came through
As clear as when a veil of light is drawn
O'er evening hills they glimmer; and I knew
That I had felt the freshness of that dawn,
Bathed in the same cold dew my brow & hair
And sate as thus upon that slope of lawn
Under the self same bough, & heard as there
The birds, the fountains & the Ocean hold
Sweet ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...iversal hue 
Of many-colour'd flame, until its tinges 
Reach'd even our speck of earth, and made a new 
Aurora borealis spread its fringes 
O'er the North Pole; the same seen, when ice-bound, 
By Captain Parry's crew, in 'Melville's Sound.' 

XXVIII 

And from the gate thrown open issued beaming 
A beautiful and mighty Thing of Light, 
Radiant with glory, like a banner streaming 
Victorious from some world-o'erthrowing fight: 
My poor comparisons must needs be teeming 
Wi...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...ing, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. 
 "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
"Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
 "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
"I never know what you are thinking. Think."
 I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...all the world could see 
Whence come the powers of all just governments. 
The tree of Liberty grew and changed and spread, 
But the seed was English. 
 I am American bred,
I have seen much to hate here— much to forgive,
But in a world where England is finished and dead,
I do not wish to live....Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...coward,
And eclipses of Sun and Moon.

But the enemy won't get to divide
Our lands for his fun:
Holy Mary will spread on her own
Over great sorrows a white gown"

II

From the burning forests is flying
Sweet smell of the evergreens.
Over children soldiers' wives are moaning
Cry of widows through village rings.

Not in vain were the prayers rendered,
The earth was thirsty for rain:
The stomped-over fields with red dampness
Were covered and covered...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things