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Famous Standards Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Horace,
...backward now and forward
          Wavers the deep array;
     And on the tossing sea of steel
     To and frow the standards reel;
     And the victorious trumpet-peal
          Dies fitfully away.

               LI

     Yet one man for one moment
          Strode out before the crowd;
     Well known was he to all the Three,
          And they gave him greeting loud.
     "Now welcome, welcome, Sextus!
          Now welcome to thy home!
     Why dost thou ...Read more of this...



by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
  Glowed on the marble, where the glass
  Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
  From which a golden Cupidon peeped out                                  80
  (Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
  Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
  Reflecting light upon the table as
  The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
  From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
  In vials of ivory an...Read more of this...

by Wheatley, Phillis
...he taste,
On which an army once did feast,
Sent by an hand unseen;
A creature of the horned race,
Which Britain's royal standards grace;
A gem of vivid green;

II.
A town of gaiety and sport,
Where beaux and beauteous nymphs resort,
And gallantry doth reign;
A Dardan hero fam'd of old
For youth and beauty, as we're told,
And by a monarch slain;

III.
A peer of popular applause,
Who doth our violated laws,
And grievances proclaim.
Th' initials show a vanquish'd tow...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...s so broken
A reason for bragging
That they had the better
In perils of battle
On places of slaughter--
The struggle of standards,
The rush of the javelins,
The crash of the charges,
The wielding of weapons--
The play that they play'd with
The children of Edward. 

Then with their nail'd prows
Parted the Norsemen, a
Blood-redden'd relic of
Javelins over
The jarring breaker, the deep-sea billow,
Shaping their way toward Dyflen again,
Shamed in their souls. 

Also the b...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...o the high seas launch, my thought, his memory.

5
Lo, Soul, by this tomb’s lambency, 
The darkness of the arrogant standards of the world, 
With all its flaunting aims, ambitions, pleasures. 

(Old, commonplace, and rusty saws, 
The rich, the gay, the supercilious, smiled at long,
Now, piercing to the marrow in my bones, 
Fused with each drop my heart’s blood jets, 
Swim in ineffable meaning.) 

Lo, Soul, the sphere requireth, portioneth, 
To each his share, his ...Read more of this...



by Petrarch, Francesco
...e boast,Who love, or faith, in venal bosoms seek:When throng'd your standards most,Ye are encompass'd most by hostile bands.O hideous deluge gather'd in strange lands,That rushing down amainO'erwhelms our every native lovely plain!Alas! if our own handsHave thus our weal ...Read more of this...

by Ashbery, John
...ers came: nights of physical endurance,
Or if, by day, our behavior was anarchically
Correct, at least by New Brutalism standards, all then
Grew taciturn by previous agreement. We were spirited 
Away en bateau, under cover of fudge dark.
It's not the incomplete importunes, but the spookiness
Of the finished product. True, to ask less were folly, yet
If he is the result of himself, how much the better 
For him we ought to be! And how little, finally, 
We take this ...Read more of this...

by Lewis, C S
...> If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present,
Standards, though it may well be)....Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...N paths untrodden, 
In the growth by margins of pond-waters, 
Escaped from the life that exhibits itself, 
From all the standards hitherto publish’d—from the pleasures, profits,
 eruditions,
 conformities, 
Which too long I was offering to feed my soul;
Clear to me, now, standards not yet publish’d—clear to me that my Soul, 
That the Soul of the man I speak for, feeds, rejoices most in comrades; 
Here, by myself, away from the clank of the world, 
Tallying and talk’d to here ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...airy navies grappling in the central blue; 

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm; 

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. 

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law. 

So I triumph'd ere my passion sweepi...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...fic,
Engend'ring visions whims terrific,
O'errun with horrors of coercion,
Fire, blood and thunder in reversion;
King's standards, pill'ries, confiscations,
And Gage's scare-crow proclamations;
Who scarce could rouse, if caught in fray,
Presence of mind to run away;
See nought but halters rise to view,
In all your dreams, and deem them true;
And while these phantoms haunt your brains,
Bow down your willing necks to chains.
Heavens! are ye sons of sires so great,
Immortal ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ll the ends of Heaven, appeared 
Under their Hierarchs in orders bright: 
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced, 
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear 
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve 
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees; 
Or in their glittering tissues bear imblazed 
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love 
Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs 
Of circuit inexpressible they stood, 
Orb within orb, the Father Infinite, 
By whom in bliss imbosomed...Read more of this...

by Pound, Ezra
...
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.

II

In hot summer I have great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,
And the lightning from black heav'n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...ee the sun on splent and spear.
I mark the arrow outen the fern
 That flies so low and sings so clear!

"Advance my standards to that war,
 And bid my good knights prick and ride;
The gled shall watch as fierce a fight
 As e'er was fought on the Border side!"

 'Twas bent beneath and blue above,
 'Twas nodding grass and naked sky,
 Where, ringing up the wastrel wind,
 The eyas stooped upon the pie.

True Thomas sighed above his harp,
 And turned the song on the midmos...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...eaf victor-wreaths behold! 
 Our civic-laurels—honored dead! 
 So bright your triumphs in life's morn, 
 Your maiden-standards hacked and torn, 
 On Austerlitz might lustre shed. 
 
 All that your fathers did re-done— 
 A people's rights all nobly won— 
 Ye tore them living from the shroud! 
 Three glorious days bright July's gift, 
 The Bastiles off our hearts ye lift! 
 Oh! of such deeds be ever proud! 
 
 Of patriot sires ye lineage claim, 
 Their souls shone...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ps of flowers repose, 
 So, in her gulfs are lying 
 Her archipelagoes. 
 
 I love these tall red turrets; 
 These standards brave unrolled; 
 And, like an infant's playthings, 
 These houses decked with gold. 
 I love forsooth these reveries, 
 Though sandstorms make me pant, 
 Voluptuously swaying 
 Upon an elephant. 
 
 Here in this fairy palace, 
 Full of such melodies, 
 Methinks I hear deep murmurs 
 That in the deserts rise; 
 Soft mingling with the mu...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...I. A GAME OF CHESS
 The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out 
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthet...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...uties. I could never be 
An English woman, there was that in me 
Puritan, stubborn that would not agree 
To English standards, though I did not see
The truth, because I thought them, good or ill,
So great a people—and I think so still.

But a day came when I was forced to face
Facts. I was taken down to see the place,
The family place in Devon— and John's mother.
'Of course, you understand,' he said, 'my brother
Will have the place.' He smiled; he was so s...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...reathes you'd have the urge to spit)
their great debates are full of puff their insights comatose

but they concoct the standards in their painted kingdom-comes
they pass down the judgments draped in tongues of holy writ
the people are a mass disease an untissued runny nose
disdained (but somehow soared above) as they subscribe their wit
to the culture of the stately tree (and to pilfering its plums)

they've got there by a rancid myth - that a nation's wisdom blows
from the ...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...ent
With fortitude of obstacle
And toward encouragement

That fine Suspicion, Natures must
Permitted to revere
Departed Standards and the few
Criterion Sources here...Read more of this...

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