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Famous Subdue Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ine of the scene
With thee did disappear.

Though thoughts, deep-rooted in my heart,
Like pine-trees dark and high,
Subdue the light of noon, and breathe
A low and ceaseless sigh;

This memory brightens o'er the past,
As when the sun, concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs
Shines on a distant field....Read more of this...



by Shakespeare, William
...one,
With wit well blazon'd, smiled or made some moan.

''Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,
Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render,
That is, to you, my origin and ender;
For these, of force, must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.

''O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
Take all these...Read more of this...

by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...t of bloody war, 
Dominion boundless, victory and fame; 
Each bold centurion, and each prætor finds 
A nobler empire to subdue themselves. 


From Rome the mistress of the world in peace, 
Far to the north the golden light ascends; 
To Gaul and Britain and the utmost bound 
Of Thule famous in poetic song, 
Victorious there where not Rome's consuls brave, 
Heroes, or conquering armies, ever came. 
Far in the artic skies a light is seen, 
Unlike that sun, which shall er...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...from Custer's scheme.
Inhuman methods for inhuman foes, 
Who feed on horrors and exult in woes.
To conquer and subdue alone remains
In dealing with the red man on the plains.
The breast that knows no conscience yields to fear, 
Strike! let the Indian meet his master now and here, 


XIX.
With thoughts like these was Custer's mind engaged.
The gentlest are the sternest when enraged.
All felt the swift contagion of his ire, 
For he was one who could aro...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...st breath
Finds envy never conquer'd, but by death.
The great Alcides, ev'ry labour past,
Had still this monster to subdue at last.
Sure fate of all, beneath whose rising ray
Each star of meaner merit fades away!
Oppress'd we feel the beam directly beat,
Those suns of glory please not till they set.

To thee the world its present homage pays,
The harvest early, but mature the praise:
Great friend of liberty! in kings a name
Above all Greek, above all Roman fame:
W...Read more of this...



by Wordsworth, William
...but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.  And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all...Read more of this...

by Sappho,
...On the throne of many hues Immortal Aphrodite 
child of Zeus weaving wiles--I beg you
not to subdue my spirit Queen 
with pain or sorrow 

but come--if ever before 
having heard my voice from far away
you listened and leaving your father's 
golden home you came 

in your chariot yoked with swift lovely
sparrows bringing you over the dark earth
thick-feathered wings swirling down
from the sky through mid-air 

arriving quickly--you Bless...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...hame 
Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced 
With other promises and other vaunts 
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue 
The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know 
How dearly I abide that boast so vain, 
Under what torments inwardly I groan, 
While they adore me on the throne of Hell. 
With diadem and scepter high advanced, 
The lower still I fall, only supreme 
In misery: Such joy ambition finds. 
But say I could repent, and could obtain, 
By act of grace, m...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
Illustrates, when they see all regal power 
Given me to quell their pride, and in event 
Know whether I be dextrous to subdue 
Thy rebels, or be found the worst in Heaven. 
So spake the Son; but Satan, with his Powers, 
Far was advanced on winged speed; an host 
Innumerable as the stars of night, 
Or stars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun 
Impearls on every leaf and every flower. 
Regions they passed, the mighty regencies 
Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...o cattle and each beast; which would not be 
To them made common and divulged, if aught 
Therein enjoyed were worthy to subdue 
The soul of man, or passion in him move. 
What higher in her society thou findest 
Attractive, human, rational, love still; 
In loving thou dost well, in passion not, 
Wherein true love consists not: Love refines 
The thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his seat 
In reason, and is judicious; is the scale 
By which to heavenly love thou mayest asce...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...own; 
For in those days might only shall be admired, 
And valour and heroick virtue called; 
To overcome in battle, and subdue 
Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite 
Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch 
Of human glory; and for glory done 
Of triumph, to be styled great conquerours 
Patrons of mankind, Gods, and sons of Gods; 
Destroyers rightlier called, and plagues of men. 
Thus fame shall be achieved, renown on earth; 
And what most merits fame, in si...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...om thus Michael. Justly thou abhorrest 
That son, who on the quiet state of men 
Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue 
Rational liberty; yet know withal, 
Since thy original lapse, true liberty 
Is lost, which always with right reason dwells 
Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being: 
Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed, 
Immediately inordinate desires, 
And upstart passions, catch the government 
From reason; and to servitude reduce 
Man, till then free. T...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...t aspired. Victorious deeds
Flamed in my heart, heroic acts—one while
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke;
Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the earth,
Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,
Till truth were freed, and equity restored: 
Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear;
At least to try, and teach the erring soul,
Not wilfully misdoing, but unware
Misled; the stubborn only t...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...and hear
So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed'st to talk
Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,
How gloriously. I shall, thou say'st, expel
A brutish monster: what if I withal
Expel a Devil who first made him such?
Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out; 
For him I was not sent, nor yet to free
That people, victor once, now vile and base,
Deservedly made vassal—who, once just,
Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,
But gover...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Anne
...ste, arise,
For thou hast much to do; ­-
To lighten woe, to trample sin,
And foes without and foes within
To combat and subdue.
Earth hath too much of sin and pain:
The bitter cup -­ the binding chain
Dost thou indeed lament?
Let not thy weary spirit sink;
But strive -­ not by one drop or link
The evil to augment.
Strive rather thou, by peace and joy,
The bitter poison to destroy,
The cruel chain to break.
O strive! and if thy strength be small,
Strive yet the mor...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...t the Temple of His Mind, 
And in his body tight does bind 
Satan and all his hellish crew; 
And thus with wrath He did subdue 
The serpent bulk of Nature’s dross, 
Till He had nail’d it to the Cross. 
He took on sin in the Virgin’s womb 
And put it off on the Cross and tomb 
To be worshipp’d by the Church of Rome. 

Was Jesus humble? or did He 
Give any proofs of humility? 
Boast of high things with humble tone, 
And give with charity a stone? 
When but a child He ra...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...s outlaws open villainy maintain; 
They steal not, but in squadrons scour the plain; 
And if their power the passengers subdue, 
The most most have right, the wrong is in the few. 
Such impious axioms foolishly they show, 
For in some soils Republics will not grow: 
Our temperate Isle will no extremes sustain 
Of popular sway or arbitrary reign: 
But slides between them both into the best, 
Secure in freedom, in a monarch blest. 
And, though the climate, vexed with va...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...PAN>My piercing sword sack'd Troy, how many rudeAnd barbarous people are by me subdued?Many ambitious, vain, and amorous thoughtMy unwish'd presence hath to nothing brought;Now am I come to you, while yet your stateIs happy, ere you feel a harder fate.""On these you have no power," she then replied,<...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...AN class=i0>He, with his son, the golden age renew'd;And ere they ruled the world, themselves subdued.Then, as I turn'd my roving eyes around,Quirinus I beheld with laurel crown'd,And five succeeding kings. The sixth was lost,By vice degraded from his regal post;A sentence just, whatever pride may claim,Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...he chariot rolled a captive multitude
Was driven; althose who had grown old in power
Or misery,--all who have their age subdued,
By action or by suffering, and whose hour
Was drained to its last sand in weal or woe,
So that the trunk survived both fruit & flower;
All those whose fame or infamy must grow
Till the great winter lay the form & name
Of their own earth with them forever low,
All but the sacred few who could not tame
Their spirits to the Conqueror, but as soon
As th...Read more of this...

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