Famous Strain Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Peri

by Victor Hugo
 Beautiful spirit, come with me 
 Over the blue enchanted sea: 
 Morn and evening thou canst play 
 In my garden, where the breeze 
 Warbles through the fruity trees; 
 No shadow falls upon the day: 
 There thy mother's arms await 
 Her cherished infant at the gate. 
 Of Peris I the loveliest far— 
...Read more of this...

Sappho - A Monodrama

by Robert Southey
 Argument.

To leap from the promontory of LEUCADIA was believed by the Greeks to be
a remedy for hopeless love, if the self-devoted victim escaped with
life. Artemisia lost her life in the dangerous experiment: and Sappho is
said thus to have perished, in attempting to cure her passion for Phaon.


SAPPHO

(Scene the promontory of Leucadia.)

This is the spot:--'tis here Tradition says
That hopeless Love...Read more of this...

The Lovers' Colloquy

by Victor Hugo
 ("Mon duc, rien qu'un moment.") 
 
 {HERNANI, Act V.} 


 One little moment to indulge the sight 
 With the rich beauty of the summer's night. 
 The harp is hushed, and, see, the torch is dim,— 
 Night and ourselves together. To the brim 
 The cup of our felicity is filled. 
 Each sound is mute,...Read more of this...

The Fishermen

by Emile Verhaeren
The spot is flaked with mist, that fills,
Thickening into rolls more dank,
The thresholds and the window-sills,
And smokes on every bank.


The river stagnates, pestilent
With carrion by the current sent
This way and that—and yonder lies
The moon, just like a woman dead,
That they have smothered overhead,
Deep in the skies.


In a few boats alone there gleam
Lamps that light up and magnify
The backs, bent over...Read more of this...

Upon a Little Lady Under the Discipline of an Excellent Person

by Anne Killigrew
 I. 
HOw comes the Day orecast ? the Flaming Sun
Darkn'd at Noon, as if his Course were run ? 
He never rose more proud, more glad, more gay, 
Ne're courted Daphne with a brighter Ray ! 
 And now in Clouds he wraps his Head, 
As if not Daphne, but himself were dead ! 
 And all the little...Read more of this...

I Need Not Go

by Thomas Hardy
 I need not go 
Through sleet and snow 
To where I know 
She waits for me; 
She will wait me there 
Till I find it fair, 
And have time to spare 
From company. 

When I've overgot 
The world somewhat, 
When things cost not 
Such stress and strain, 
Is soon enough 
By cypress sough 
To tell my Love 
I am...Read more of this...

Venus and Adonis

by William Shakespeare
 Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold
That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold.

Venus salutes him with this fair good-morrow;
"O thou clear god, and patron of all light,
From whom each lamp and shining star...Read more of this...

Bingo

by Robert William Service
 The daughter of the village Maire
Is very fresh and very fair,
 A dazzling eyeful;
She throws upon me such a spell
That though my love I dare not tell,
 My heart is sighful.
She has the cutest brown caniche,
The French for "poodle" on a leash,
 While I have Bingo;
A dog of doubtful pedigree,
Part pug or pom or chow maybe,
 But full of...Read more of this...

Fatima

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 O Love, Love, Love! O withering might!
O sun, that from thy noonday height
Shudderest when I strain my sight,
Throbbing thro' all thy heat and light,
 Lo, falling from my constant mind,
 Lo, parch'd and wither'd, deaf and blind,
 I whirl like leaves in roaring wind.

Last night I wasted hateful hours
Below the city's eastern towers:
I thirsted for the brooks, the showers:
I...Read more of this...

A Sailor's Song

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Oh for the breath of the briny deep,
And the tug of the bellying sail,
With the sea-gull's cry across the sky
And a passing boatman's hail.
For, be she fierce or be she gay,
The sea is a famous friend alway.
Ho! for the plains where the dolphins play,
And the bend of the mast and spars,
And a fight at night with the wild sea-sprite
When the...Read more of this...

Peter Quince At The Clavier

by Wallace Stevens
I 

1 Just as my fingers on these keys 
2 Make music, so the self-same sounds 
3 On my spirit make a music, too. 
4 Music is feeling, then, not sound; 
5 And thus it is that what I feel, 
6 Here in this room, desiring you, 

7 Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk, 
8 Is music. It is like the...Read more of this...

The lonesome for they know not What

by Emily Dickinson
 The lonesome for they know not What --
The Eastern Exiles -- be --
Who strayed beyond the Amber line
Some madder Holiday --

And ever since -- the purple Moat
They strive to climb -- in vain --
As Birds -- that tumble from the clouds
Do fumble at the strain --

The Blessed Ether -- taught them --
Some Transatlantic Morn --
When Heaven -- was too...Read more of this...

Monody to the Memory of Chatterton

by Mary Darby Robinson
 Chill penury repress'd his noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of his soul.
GRAY. 


IF GRIEF can deprecate the wrath of Heaven, 
Or human frailty hope to be forgiven ! 
Ere now thy sainted spirit bends its way 
To the bland regions of celestial day; 
Ere now, thy soul, immers'd in purest air 
Smiles at the triumphs of supreme...Read more of this...

The Nightingales Nest

by John Clare
 Up this green woodland-ride let's softly rove,
And list the nightingale— she dwells just here.
Hush ! let the wood-gate softly clap, for fear
The noise might drive her from her home of love ;
For here I've heard her many a merry year—
At morn, at eve, nay, all the live-long day,
As though she lived on song. This very spot,
Just where that old-man's-beard...Read more of this...

The Commination

by Alec Derwent (A D) Hope
 He that is filthy let him be filthy still. 
Rev. 22.11 

Like John on Patmos, brooding on the Four 
Last Things, I meditate the ruin of friends 
Whose loss, Lord, brings this grand new curse to mind 
Now send me foes worth cursing, or send more 
- Since means should be proportionate to ends - 
For mine are few...Read more of this...

To The Chapel Bell

by Robert Southey
 "Lo I, the man who erst the Muse did ask
Her deepest notes to swell the Patriot's meeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter task
For cap and gown to leave my minstrel weeds,"
For yon dull noise that tinkles on the air
Bids me lay by the lyre and go to morning prayer.

Oh how I hate the sound! it is the Knell,
That still...Read more of this...

324. Song—The Charms of Lovely Davies

by Robert Burns
 O HOW shall I, unskilfu’, try
 The poet’s occupation?
The tunefu’ powers, in happy hours,
 That whisper inspiration;
Even they maun dare an effort mair
 Than aught they ever gave us,
Ere they rehearse, in equal verse,
 The charms o’ lovely Davies.


Each eye it cheers when she appears,
 Like Phoebus in the morning,
When past the shower, and every flower
 The garden is...Read more of this...

Take It Easy

by Robert William Service
 When I was boxing in the ring
In 'Frisco back in ninety-seven,
I used to make five bucks a fling
To give as good as I was given.
But when I felt too fighting gay,
And tried to be a dinger-donger,
My second, Mike Muldoon. would say:
"Go easy, kid; you'll stay the longer."

When I was on the Yukon trail
The boys would warn, when things were...Read more of this...

Hymn 16

by Isaac Watts
 Hosannah to Christ.

Mt. 21:9; Luke 19:38,40. 

Hosannah to the royal Son
Of David's ancient line!
His natures two, his person one,
Mysterious and divine.

The root of David here, we find,
And offspring is the same:
Eternity and time are joined
In our Immanuel's name.

Blest he that comes to wretched men
With peaceful news from heav'n!
Hosannah's of the highest strain
To Christ the Lord be giv'n!

Let mortals ne'er...Read more of this...

Bokardo

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 Well, Bokardo, here we are; 
Make yourself at home. 
Look around—you haven’t far 
To look—and why be dumb? 
Not the place that used to be,
Not so many things to see; 
But there’s room for you and me. 
And you—you’ve come. 

Talk a little; or, if not, 
Show me with a sign
Why it was that you forgot 
What was yours...Read more of this...

Psalm LXXII: Great God

by Isaac Watts
 Great God, whose universal sway
The known and unknown worlds obey,
Now give the kingdom to thy Son,
Extend his power, exalt his throne.

The scepter well becomes his hands;
All heaven submits to his commands;
His justice shall avenge the poor,
And pride and rage prevail no more.

With power he vindicates the just,
And treads the oppressor in the dust:
His worship and his fear shall last
Till...Read more of this...

The Sparrow

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
A little bird, with plumage brown,
Beside my window flutters down,
A moment chirps its little strain,
Ten taps upon my window-pane,
And chirps again, and hops along,
To call my notice to its song;
But I work on, nor heed its lay,
Till, in neglect, it flies away.
So birds of peace and hope and love
Come fluttering earthward from above,
To settle on life's window-sills,
And ease our load...Read more of this...

Farewell To Arcady

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
With sombre mien, the Evening gray
Comes nagging at the heels of Day,
And driven faster and still faster
Before the dusky-mantled Master,
The light fades from her fearful eyes,
She hastens, stumbles, falls, and dies.
Beside me Amaryllis weeps;
The swelling tears obscure the deeps
Of her dark eyes, as, mistily,
The rushing rain conceals the sea.
Here, lay my tuneless reed away,—
I have no heart to tempt a...Read more of this...

On Music

by Thomas Moore
 When through life unblest we rove, 
Losing all that made life dear, 
Should some notes we used to love, 
In days of boyhood, meet our ear, 
Oh! how welcome breathes the strain! 
Wakening thoughts that long have slept, 
Kindling former smiles again 
In faded eyes that long have wept. 

Like the gale, that sighs along 
Beds of oriental flowers,...Read more of this...

Second Best

by Rupert Brooke
 Here in the dark, O heart;
Alone with the enduring Earth, and Night,
And Silence, and the warm strange smell of clover;
Clear-visioned, though it break you; far apart
From the dead best, the dear and old delight;
Throw down your dreams of immortality,
O faithful, O foolish lover!
Here's peace for you, and surety; here the one
Wisdom -- the truth! -- "All day the good...Read more of this...

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