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Famous Steer Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Dryden, John
...pilot in extremity;
Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near alli'd;
And thin partitions do their bounds divide:
Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?
And all to leave, what with his toil he won
To tha...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...se, their Learning to display,
And theme explain the Meaning quite away

You then whose Judgment the right Course wou'd steer,
Know well each ANCIENT's proper Character,
His Fable, Subject, Scope in ev'ry Page,
Religion, Country, Genius of his Age:
Without all these at once before your Eyes,
Cavil you may, but never Criticize.
Be Homer's Works your Study, and Delight,
Read them by Day, and meditate by Night,
Thence form your Judgment, thence your Maxims bring,
And trace t...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...epics, wars, thou bear’st the
 other
 continents; 
Theirs, theirs as much as thine, the destination-port triumphant: 
—Steer, steer with good strong hand and wary eye, O helmsman—thou carryest great
 companions,
Venerable, priestly Asia sails this day with thee, 
And royal, feudal Europe sails with thee. 

4
Beautiful World of new, superber Birth, that rises to my eyes, 
Like a limitless golden cloud, filling the western sky; 
Emblem of general Maternity, lifted above al...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...amber; and the dairy pails
Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
My little boat, for many quiet hours,
With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimm'd and white,
Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
I must be near the middle of my story.
O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
See it half ...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...rals chose 
For one had much, the other nought to lose; 
Nor better choice all accidents could hit, 
While Hector Harry steers by Will the Wit. 
They both accept the charge with merry glee, 
To fight a battle, from all gunshot free. 
Pleased with their numbers, yet in valour wise, 
They feign a parley, better to surprise; 
They that ere long shall the rude Dutch upbraid, 
Who in the time of treaty durst invade. 

Thick was the morning, and the House was thin, 
The...Read more of this...



by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...re,
Thoughtless of its anxious freight,
Plunges eyeless on for ever,
And he, poor parasite,—
Cooped in a ship he cannot steer,
Who is the captain he knows not,
Port or pilot trows not,—
Risk or ruin he must share.
I scowl on him with my cloud,
With my north wind chill his blood,
I lame him clattering down the rocks,
And to live he is in fear.
Then, at last, I let him down
Once more into his dapper town,
To chatter frightened to his clan,
And forget me, if he can.
...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...u may be the devil 
In your dead-reckoning of what reefs and shoals
Are waiting on the progress of our ship 
Unless you steer it, but you’ll find it irksome 
Alone there in the stern; and some warm day 
There’ll be an inland music in the rigging, 
And afterwards on deck. I’m not affined
Or favored overmuch at Monticello, 
But there’s a mighty swarming of new bees 
About the premises, and all have wings. 
If you hear something buzzing before long, 
Be thoughtful how yo...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
..., eating and drinking like mere brutes? 
Have we not darken’d and dazed ourselves with books long enough? 

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only! 
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, 
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. 

O my brave soul! 
O farther, farther sail! 
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...;
One Invisible now rules in heaven,

On the cross a Saviour they adore.

Victims slay they here,

Neither lamb nor steer,
But the altars reek with human gore."

And he lists, and ev'ry word he weighs,

While his eager soul drinks in each sound:
"Can it be that now before my gaze

Stands my loved one on this silent ground?

Pledge to me thy troth!

Through our father's oath:

With Heav'ns blessing will our love be crown'd."

"Kindly youth, I never can be thine!

'...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...lain 
Lay the snow, 
They fell, -- those lordly pines! 
Those grand, majestic pines! 
'Mid shouts and cheers 
The jaded steers, 
Panting beneath the goad, 
Dragged down the weary, winding road 
Those captive kings so straight and tall, 
To be shorn of their streaming hair, 
And naked and bare, 
To feel the stress and the strain 
Of the wind and the reeling main, 
Whose roar 
Would remind them forevermore 
Of their native forests they should not see again. 
And everywhere ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...ee-studded orchids which were meant
For Cytheraea's brows are hidden here
Unknown to Cytheraea, and by yonder pasturing steer

There is a tiny yellow daffodil,
The butterfly can see it from afar,
Although one summer evening's dew could fill
Its little cup twice over ere the star
Had called the lazy shepherd to his fold
And be no prodigal; each leaf is flecked with spotted gold

As if Jove's gorgeous leman Danae
Hot from his gilded arms had stooped to kiss
The trembling petals...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...The woods of white Colonos are not here,
On our bleak hills the olive never blows,
No simple priest conducts his lowing steer
Up the steep marble way, nor through the town
Do laughing maidens bear to thee the crocus-flowered gown.

Yet tarry! for the boy who loved thee best,
Whose very name should be a memory
To make thee linger, sleeps in silent rest
Beneath the Roman walls, and melody
Still mourns her sweetest lyre; none can play
The lute of Adonais: with his lips Song ...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...himself with the words "and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one." So remon{-} strance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backwards. 

As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...bies and clear diamants.
About his car there wente white alauns*, *greyhounds 
Twenty and more, as great as any steer,
To hunt the lion or the wilde bear,
And follow'd him, with muzzle fast y-bound,
Collars of gold, and torettes* filed round. *rings
An hundred lordes had he in his rout* *retinue
Armed full well, with heartes stern and stout.

With Arcita, in stories as men find,
The great Emetrius the king of Ind,
Upon a *steede bay* trapped in steel, *bay hor...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...slow enlarging on the view,
     Four manned and massed barges grew,
     And, bearing downwards from Glengyle,
     Steered full upon the lonely isle;
     The point of Brianchoil they passed,
     And, to the windward as they cast,
     Against the sun they gave to shine
     The bold Sir Roderick's bannered Pine.
     Nearer and nearer as they bear,
     Spears, pikes, and axes flash in air.
     Now might you see the tartars brave,
     And plaids and plumage d...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ot all to-hewn, ere he asterted*: *escaped
And Constance have they ta'en anon foot-hot*, *immediately
And in a ship all steereless,* God wot, *without rudder
They have her set, and bid her learn to sail
Out of Syria *again-ward to Itale.* *back to Italy*

A certain treasure that she thither lad,* *took
And, sooth to say, of victual great plenty,
They have her giv'n, and clothes eke she had
And forth she sailed in the salte sea:
O my Constance, full of benignity,
O emperor...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...beardless chief, a rebel ere a man, 
So young his hatred to his Prince began. 
Next this, (how wildly will ambition steer!) 
A vermin wriggling in the usurper's ear, 
Bartering his venal wit for sums of gold, 
He cast himself into the saint-like mould; 
Groaned, sighed, and prayed, while godliness was gain, 
The loudest bag-pipe of the squeaking train. 
But, as 'tis hard to cheat a juggler's eyes, 
His open lewdness he could ne'er disguise. 
There split the saint;...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...lt,
And its dew is diffused in a Tear:

The man, doom'd to sail
With the blast of the gale,
Through billows Atlantic to steer,
As he bends o'er the wave
Which may soon be his grave,
The green sparkles bright with a Tear;

The Soldier braves death
For a fanciful wreath
In Glory's romantic career;
But he raises the foe
When in battle laid low,
And bathes every wound with a Tear.

If, with high-bounding pride,
He return to his bride!
Renouncing the gore-crimson'd spear;
All ...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...ffling, even, the pilot's eye, 
Intent to thread the maze­ 

Of rocks, on Bretagne's dangerous coast,
And find a way to steer our band
To the one point obscure, which lost,
Flung us, as victims, on the strand;­
All, elsewhere, gleamed the Gallic sword,
And not a wherry could be moored
Along the guarded land. 

I feared not then­I fear not now; 
The interest of each stirring scene 
Wakes a new sense, a welcome glow, 
In every nerve and bounding vein; 
Alike on turbid Chann...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...ffling, even, the pilot's eye, 
Intent to thread the maze­ 

Of rocks, on Bretagne's dangerous coast,
And find a way to steer our band
To the one point obscure, which lost,
Flung us, as victims, on the strand;­
All, elsewhere, gleamed the Gallic sword,
And not a wherry could be moored
Along the guarded land. 

I feared not then­I fear not now; 
The interest of each stirring scene 
Wakes a new sense, a welcome glow, 
In every nerve and bounding vein; 
Alike on turbid Chann...Read more of this...

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