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Famous Stand Back Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Markham, Edwin
...ugh Nineveh. 
.................... 
Stand back, ye trembling messengers of ill! 
Women, let go my hair: I am the Queen, 
A whirlwind and a blaze of swords to quell 
Insurgent cities. Let the iron tread 
Of armies shake the earth. Look, lofty towers: 
Assyria goes by upon the wind!" 
And so she babbles by the ancient road, 
While cities turned to dust upon the Earth 
Rise through her wh...Read more of this...



by Marvell, Andrew
...ould to his Memory express.
Then let us to our course of Mourning keep:
Where Heaven leads, 'tis Piety to weep.
Stand back ye Seas, and shrunk beneath the vail
Of your Abysse, with cover'd Head bewail
Your Monarch: We demand not your supplies
To compass in our Isle; our Tears suffice;
Since him away the dismal Tempest rent,
Who once more joyn'd us to the Continent;
Who planted England on the Flandrick shoar,
And stretch'd our frontire to the Indian Ore;
Whose greater ...Read more of this...

by Stevenson, Robert Louis
...ven households, broken faith -
Bywords that cling through all men's years
And drag them surely down to shame and death?
Stand back, O cruel man, O foe of youth,
And let such men as hearken not thy voice
Press freely up the road to truth,
The King's highway of choice. 
...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...e light she gives him for his gaze.
Then, looking on the glory of her charms,
He crushes her resistless in his arms.
Stand back! look not upon this bold embrace,
Nor view the calmness of the wanton's face;
With joy unspeakable and 'bated breath,
She keeps her last, long liaison with death!
...Read more of this...

by Hikmet, Nazim
...ept looking,
 she'd still be looking
but, like a large-colored Chinese lantern,
 the crowd swayed and became confused:
"Stand back! Gang way!
Chiang Kai-shek's executioner
 is hunting down a new head.
Stand back! Make way!"

One in front and one close behind,
two Chinese shot around the corner.
The one in front ran toward Gioconda.
The one racing toward her, it was him, it was him -- yes, him!
Her SI-YA-U,
 her dove,
 SI-YA-U...
A dull hollow stadium s...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...ations. 

The perfect judge fears nothing—he could go front to front before God;
Before the perfect judge all shall stand back—life and death shall stand
 back—heaven
 and hell shall stand back. 

5
Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever; 
Great is Death—sure as life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together.


Has Life much purport?—Ah, Death has the greatest purport....Read more of this...

by Abercrombie, Lascelles
...in of withering and sawfly,
To reach the slimmest of his snaky toes
Into this mounded sward and rumple it;
All trees stand back: taboo is on this soil. — 

The trees have always scrupulously obeyed.
The grass, that elsewhere grows as best it may
Under the larches, countable long nesh blades,
Here in clear sky pads the ground thick and close
As wool upon a Southdown wether's back;
And as in Southdown wool, your hand must sink
Up to the wrist before it find the roots...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...t
It will have roared first and mixed sparks with stars,
And sweeping round it with a flaming sword,
Made the dim trees stand back in wider circle—
Done so much and I know not how much more
I mean it shall not do if I can bind it.
Well if it doesn’t with its draft bring on
A wind to blow in earnest from some quarter,
As once it did with me upon an April.
The breezes were so spent with winter blowing
They seemed to fail the bluebirds under them
Short of the perch their...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...d to his memory express. 
Then let us to our course of mourning keep: 
Where heaven leads, 'tis piety to weep. 
Stand back, ye seas, and shrunk beneath the veil 
Of your abyss, with covered head bewail 
Your Monarch: we demand not your supplies 
To compass in our isle; our tears suffice: 
Since him away the dismal tempest rent, 
Who once more joined us to the continent; 
Who planted England on the Flandric shore, 
And stretched our frontier to the Indian ore; 
Whose g...Read more of this...

by Abercrombie, Lascelles
...in of withering and sawfly,
To reach the slimmest of his snaky toes
Into this mounded sward and rumple it;
All trees stand back: taboo is on this soil. —

The trees have always scrupulously obeyed.
The grass, that elsewhere grows as best it may
Under the larches, countable long nesh blades,
Here in clear sky pads the ground thick and close
As wool upon a Southdown wether's back;
And as in Southdown wool, your hand must sink
Up to the wrist before it find th...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...h to fright 'em, 
And snatch from underneath their noses 
The nozzles of the fire hoses. 
"I am the fire. Back, stand back, 
Or else I'll fetch your skulls a crack; 
D'you see these copper nozzles here? 
They weigh ten pounds a piece, my dear; 
I'm fire of hell come up this minute 
To burn this town and burn you clean, 
You cogwheels in a stopped machine, 
You hearts of snakes, and brains of pigeons, 
You dead devout of dead religions, 
You offspring of the hen and as...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...th were hard as the nether stone.

Beware the man who's crossed in love;
 For pent-up steam must find its vent.
Stand back when he is on the move,
 And lend him all the Continent.

Your patience, Sirs. The Devil took me up
To the burned mountain over Sicily
(Fit place for me) and thence I saw my Earth--
(Not all Earth's splendour, 'twas beyond my need--)
And that one spot I love--all Earth to me,
And her I love, my Heaven. What said I?
My love was safe fro...Read more of this...

by Levi, Primo
...neasy sleep.
At night, under the heavy burden
Of their dreams, their jaws move,
Chewing a non-existant turnip.
'Stand back, leave me alone, submerged people,
Go away. I haven't dispossessed anyone,
Haven't usurped anyone's bread.
No one died in my place. No one.
Go back into your mist.
It's not my fault if I live and breathe,
Eat, drink, sleep and put on clothes.'...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...ands, their pallors. It is so quiet here.
The sheets, the faces, are white and stopped, like clocks.
Voices stand back and flatten. Their visible hieroglyphs
Flatten to parchment screens to keep the wind off.
They paint such secrets in Arabic, Chinese!

I am dumb and brown. I am a seed about to break.
The brownness is my dead self, and it is sullen:
It does not wish to be more, or different.
Dusk hoods me in blue now, like a Mary.
O color o...Read more of this...

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