Famous Surrendering Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Alastor: or the Spirit of Solitude

...nguid head; his limbs did rest,
Diffused and motionless, on the smooth brink
Of that obscurest chasm;--and thus he lay,
Surrendering to their final impulses
The hovering powers of life. Hope and Despair,
The torturers, slept; no mortal pain or fear 
Marred his repose; the influxes of sense
And his own being, unalloyed by pain,
Yet feebler and more feeble, calmly fed
The stream of thought, till he lay breathing there
At peace, and faintly smiling. His last sight
Was the great ...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe


An Island

...o bring. 
The floor about me now is like a sward
Grown royally. Now it is like a sea 
That heaves with laurel heavily, 
Surrendering an outworn enmity 
For what has come to be. 

But not for you, returning with your curled
And haggish lips. And why are you alone? 
Why do you stay when all the rest are gone? 
Why do you bring those treacherous eyes that reek 
With venom and hate the while you seek 
To make me understand?—
Laurel from every land, 
Laurel, but not the world?

Fu...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Boot And Saddle

...ay,

(Chorus) "Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!"

Who? My wife Gertrude; that, honest and gay,
Laughs when you talk of surrendering, "Nay!
I've better counsellors; what counsel they?"

(Chorus) "Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!"...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Cavalier Tunes: Boot and Saddle

...fay,
(Chorus)
Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!"

Who? My wife Gertrude; that, honest and gay,
Laughs when you talk of surrendering, "Nay!
I've better counsellors; what counsel they?
(Chorus)
Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!"...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Desiderata

...of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

A...Read more of this...
by Ehrmann, Max


Inferno (English)

...ting eyes, 
 Confessed the theme, and conscious cheeks were hot, 
 Reading, but only when that instant came 
 Where the surrendering lips were kissed, no less 
 Desire beat in us, and whom, for all this pain, 
 No hell shall sever (so great at least our gain), 
 Trembling, he kissed my mouth, and all forgot, 
 We read no more." 
 As thus did one confess 
 Their happier days, the other wept, and I 
 Grew faint with pity, and sank as those who die. 





Canto VI 



 THE miser...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

One Year After

...being wholly free. 
Not all thy potent passion could remove 
The barrier that loomed between to prove 
The full supreme surrendering of me. 
Oh, I was beaten, helpless utterly 
Against the shadow-fact with which I strove. 
For when a cruel power forced me to face 
The truth which poisoned our illicit wine, 
That even I was faithless to my race 
Bleeding beneath the iron hand of thine, 
Our union seemed a monstrous thing and base! 
I was an outcast from thy world and mine. 

I...Read more of this...
by McKay, Claude

Shadblow

...
where already

knives and forks gleam
in anticipation, these trees
in the woods break

into flower--small, white
flags surrendering
to the season....Read more of this...
by Pastan, Linda

Thanatopsis

...hy image. Earth that nourished thee shall claim 
Thy growth to be resolved to earth again  
And lost each human trace surrendering up 
Thine individual being shalt thou go 25 
To mix forever with the elements; 
To be a brother to the insensible rock  
And to the sluggish clod which the rude swain 
Turns with his share and treads upon. The oak 
Shall send his roots abroad and pierce thy mould. 30 
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place 
Shalt thou retire alone nor co...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen

The Artists

...dow to portray.

From her own being torn apart,
Her phantom, beauteous as a dream,
She plunged into the silvery stream,
Surrendering to her spoiler's art.
Creative power soon in your breast unfolded;
Too noble far, not idly to conceive,
The shadow's form in sand, in clay ye moulded,
And made it in the sketch its being leave.
The longing thirst for action then awoke,--
And from your breast the first creation broke.

By contemplation captive made,
Ensnared by your discerning ey...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Dungeon

...t-dell  By sun or moonlight, to the influxes  Of shapes and sounds and shifting elements  Surrendering his whole spirit, of his song  And of his fame forgetful! so his fame  Should share in nature's immortality,  A venerable thing! and so his song  Should make all nature lovelier, and itself  Be lov'd, like nature!—But 'twill not be so;  And youths and maidens most poetical  Wh...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William

The Good Man in Hell

...ror of the qualities,
Perhaps to prove the rule or shame the devil,
Or speak the truth only a stranger sees,

Would he, surrendering quick to obvious hate,
Fill half eternity with cries and tears,
Or watch beside Hell's little wicket gate
In patience for the first ten thousand years,

Feeling the curse climb slowly to his throat
That, uttered, dooms him to rescindless ill,
Forcing his praying tongue to run by rote,
Eternity entire before him still?

Would he at last, grown fa...Read more of this...
by Muir, Edwin

There is a flower that Bees prefer

...he Sun --
Her Progress -- by the Bee -- proclaimed --
In sovereign -- Swerveless Tune --

The Bravest -- of the Host --
Surrendering -- the last --
Nor even of Defeat -- aware --
What cancelled by the Frost --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

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