Famous Streaks Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Ballad upon a Wedding

...shall do 't at night."

Her cheeks so rare a white was on, 
No daisy makes comparison, 
(Who sees them is undone), 
For streaks of red were mingled there, 
Such as are on a Catherine pear, 
(The side that's next the sun).

Her lips were red, and one was thin 
Compared to that was next her chin, - 
(Some bee had stung it newly); 
But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face, 
I durst no more upon them gaze 
Than on the sun in July.

Her mouth so small, when she does speak 
Thou'dst s...Read more of this...
by Suckling, Sir John


A Distance From The Sea

...The crowd's response was instantaneous. He
Handled it well, I thought--the gait, the tilt of the head, just right.
Long streaks of light were blinding on the waves.
And then we knew our work well worth the time:
The days of sawing, fitting, all those nails,
The tiresome rehearsals, considerations of execution.
But if you want a miracle, you have to work for it,
Lay your plans carefully and keep one jump
Ahead of the crowd. To report a miracle
Is a pleasure unalloyed; but stag...Read more of this...
by Kees, Weldon

By The Fire-Side

...when a brown pair
Of hawks from the wood float with wide wings
Strained to a bell: 'gainst noon-day glare
You count the streaks and rings.

XXXII.

But at afternoon or almost eve
'Tis better; then the silence grows
To that degree, you half believe
It must get rid of what it knows,
Its bosom does so heave.

XXXIII.

Hither we walked then, side by side,
Arm in arm and cheek to cheek,
And still I questioned or replied,
While my heart, convulsed to really speak,
Lay choking in it...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Christmas

...The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars...Read more of this...
by Betjeman, John

Gareth And Lynette

...narrow; this a bridge of single arc 
Took at a leap; and on the further side 
Arose a silk pavilion, gay with gold 
In streaks and rays, and all Lent-lily in hue, 
Save that the dome was purple, and above, 
Crimson, a slender banneret fluttering. 
And therebefore the lawless warrior paced 
Unarmed, and calling, 'Damsel, is this he, 
The champion thou hast brought from Arthur's hall? 
For whom we let thee pass.' 'Nay, nay,' she said, 
'Sir Morning-Star. The King in utter scor...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord


Girl

...er of a cool hand 
placed gently across her fevered brow, said 
she likes to fall asleep beneath the stars, 
that their streaks of light make her believe 
that she too is going somewhere. Infinity, 
she whispers as she closes her eyes, 
descending into thin air, where no arms 
outstretch to catch her. 

Originally published in Magaera, Spring 2005.
Copyright © Lisa Zaran, 2005...Read more of this...
by Zaran, Lisa

Inferno (English)

...iving airs 
 Lift them, and hurl, nor ever hope is theirs 
 Of rest or respite or decreasing pains, 
 But like the long streaks of the calling cranes 
 So came they wailing down the winds, to meet 
 Upsweeping blasts that ever backward beat 
 Or sideward flung them on their walls. And I - 
 "Master who are they next that drive anigh 
 So scourged amidst the blackness?" 

 "These," he said, 
 "So lashed and harried, by that queen are led, 
 Empress of alien tongues, Semiramis,...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Last Instructions to a Painter

...oke repeat 
And finds the drums Louis's march did beat. 

Shake then the room, and all his curtains tear 
And with blue streaks infect the taper clear, 
While the pale ghosts his eye does fixed admire 
Of grandsire Harry and of Charles his sire. 
Harry sits down, and in his open side 
The grisly wound reveals of which he died, 
And ghastly Charles, turning his collar low, 
The purple thread about his neck does show, 
Then whispering to his son in words unheard, 
Through the l...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Mazeppa

...e gave o'er,
Which but prolonged their pain: 
The dizzy race seemed almost done, 
Although no goal was nearly won.
Some streaks announced the coming sun -
How slow, alas! he came!
Methought that mist of dawning grey
Would never dapple into day;
How heavily it rolled away -
Before the eastern flame
Rose crimson, and deposed the stars,
And called the radiance from their cars,
And filled the earth, from his deep throne,
With lonely lustre, all his own.


XVII

'Up rose the sun; ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Paradise Lost: Book 11

...
That God vouchsafes to raise another world 
From him, and all his anger to forget. 
But say, what mean those coloured streaks in Heaven 
Distended, as the brow of God appeased? 
Or serve they, as a flowery verge, to bind 
The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud, 
Lest it again dissolve, and shower the earth? 
To whom the Arch-Angel. Dextrously thou aimest; 
So willingly doth God remit his ire, 
Though late repenting him of Man depraved; 
Grieved at his heart, when lookin...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Prairie

...red dust.. . .
The phantom of a yellow rooster flaunting a scarlet comb, on top of a dung pile crying hallelujah to the streaks of daylight,
The phantom of an old hunting dog nosing in the underbrush for muskrats, barking at a coon in a treetop at midnight, chewing a bone, chasing his tail round a corncrib,
The phantom of an old workhorse taking the steel point of a plow across a forty-acre field in spring, hitched to a harrow in summer, hitched to a wagon among cornshocks in...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Questions of Travel

...ntops 
makes them spill over the sides in soft slow-motion, 
turning to waterfalls under our very eyes. 
--For if those streaks, those mile-long, shiny, tearstains, 
aren't waterfalls yet, 
in a quick age or so, as ages go here, 
they probably will be. 
But if the streams and clouds keep travelling, travelling, 
the mountains look like the hulls of capsized ships, 
slime-hung and barnacled. 

Think of the long trip home. 
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here? 
Wh...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

...ares; the gloom
Pounded with shouts and dying groans,
With the drip of blood on cold, hard stones.
Sabres and lances in streaks of light
Gleamed through the smoke, and at my right
A creese, like a licking serpent's tongue,
Glittered an instant, while it stung.
Streams, and points, and lines of fire!
The livid steel, which man's desire
Had forged and welded, burned white and cold.
Every blade which man could mould,
Which could cut, or slash, or cleave, or rip,
Or pierce, or th...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Four Winds

...was whose silver arrows 
Chased the dark o'er hill and valley; 
He it was whose cheeks were painted 
With the brightest streaks of crimson, 
And whose voice awoke the village, 
Called the deer, and called the hunter.
Lonely in the sky was Wabun; 
Though the birds sang gayly to him, 
Though the wild-flowers of the meadow 
Filled the air with odors for him; 
Though the forests and the rivers 
Sang and shouted at his coming, 
Still his heart was sad within him, 
For he was alone...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Giaour

...neath the clattering iron's sound
The caverned echoes wake around 
In lash for lash, and bound for bound;
The foam that streaks the courser's side
Seems gathered from the ocean-tide:
Though weary waves are sunk to rest,
There's none within his rider's breast;
And though tomorrow's tempest lower,
'Tis calmer than thy heart, young Giaour!
I know thee not, I loathe thy race,
But in thy lineaments I trace
What time shall strengthen, not efface:
Though young and pale, that sallow ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The House Of Dust: Complete (Long)

...the streets for a long while, hearing nothing,
And returned to see it again. And it was so.'


Weave, weave, weave, you streaks of rain!
I am dissolved and woven again . . .
Thousands of faces rise and vanish before me.
Thousands of voices weave in the rain.

'I am the one who rode beside you, blinking
At a dazzle of golden lights.
Tempests of music swept me: I was thinking
Of the gorgeous promise of certain nights:
Of the woman who suddenly smiled at me this day,
Smiled in a...Read more of this...
by Aiken, Conrad

The Lady of the Lake

...elk adorns,
     Or mantles o'er the bison's horns;
     Pennons and flags defaced and stained,
     That blackening streaks of blood retained,
     And deer-skins, dappled, dun, and white,
     With otter's fur and seal's unite,
     In rude and uncouth tapestry all,
     To garnish forth the sylvan hall.
     XXVIII.

     The wondering stranger round him gazed,
     And next the fallen weapon raised:—
     Few were the arms whose sinewy strength
     Sufficed ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...which
the sea fled away in clouds of smoke, and now we saw, it was the
head of Leviathan. his forehead was divided into streaks of green
& purple like those on a tygers forehead: soon we saw his mouth &
red gills hang just above the raging foam tinging the black deep
with beams of blood, advancing toward [PL 19] us with all the
fury of a spiritual existence.
My friend the Angel climb'd up from his station into the mill;
I remain'd alone, & then this appearance was no more, bu...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Palace of Art

...one, a full-fed river winding slow
By herds upon an endless plain,
The ragged rims of thunder brooding low,
With shadow-streaks of rain.

And one, the reapers at their sultry toil.
In front they bound the sheaves. Behind
Were realms of upland, prodigal in oil,
And hoary to the wind.

And one a foreground black with stones and slags,
Beyond, a line of heights, and higher
All barr'd with long white cloud the scornful crags,
And highest, snow and fire.

And one, an English home-...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Seasons: Winter

...travel'd Country of the Air,
Hush'd in still Silence, sleep you, when 'tis calm?

LATE, in the louring Sky, red, fiery, Streaks 
Begin to flush about; the reeling Clouds
Stagger with dizzy Aim, as doubting yet
Which Master to obey: while rising, slow,
Sad, in the Leaden-colour'd East, the Moon
Wears a bleak Circle round her sully'd Orb. 
Then issues forth the Storm, with loud Control,
And the thin Fabrick of the pillar'd Air
O'erturns, at once. Prone, on th'uncertain Main,
De...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

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