Famous Swerving Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dæmonic Love

..., a higher,
Ye shall climb on the heavenly stair,
And selfish preference forbear;
And in right deserving,
And without a swerving
Each from your proper state,
Weave roses for your mate.

Deep, deep are loving eyes,
Flowed with naphtha fiery sweet,
And the point is Paradise
Where their glances meet:
Their reach shall yet be more profound,
And a vision without bound:
The axis of those eyes sun-clear
Be the axis of the sphere;
Then shall the lights ye pour amain
Go without check ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Disguises

...the rocks:— 
Then straight and low 
Leaps forth the levelled line, and in our quarter locks 
The cradle’s rigged; with swerving of the blast 
We go, 
Our Captain last— 
Demands 
‘Who fired that shot?’ Each silent stands— 
Ah, sweet perplexity! 
This too was He. 

I have an arbour wherein came a toad 
Most hideous to see— 
Immediate, seizing staff or goad, 
I smote it cruelly. 
Then all the place with subtle radiance glowed— 
I looked, and it was He!...Read more of this...
by Brown, Thomas Edward

Geraint And Enid

...gentle wife 
What ailed him, hardly knowing it himself, 
Till his eye darkened and his helmet wagged; 
And at a sudden swerving of the road, 
Though happily down on a bank of grass, 
The Prince, without a word, from his horse fell. 

And Enid heard the clashing of his fall, 
Suddenly came, and at his side all pale 
Dismounting, loosed the fastenings of his arms, 
Nor let her true hand falter, nor blue eye 
Moisten, till she had lighted on his wound, 
And tearing off her veil...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Gratitude

...ay brings good above"
My poor deserving;
I only feel that, in the road of Life, true Love
Is leading me along and never swerving. 

Whatever gifts and mercies in my lot may fall,
I would not measure
As worth a certain price in praise, or great or small;
But take and use them all with simple pleasure. 

For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we bless
The Hand that feeds us;
And when we tread the road of Life in cheerfulness,
Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us....Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

Hymns Of The Marshes

...lines linger and curl
As a silver-wrought garment that clings to and follows
the firm sweet limbs of a girl.
Vanishing, swerving, evermore curving again into sight,
Softly the sand-beach wavers away to a dim gray looping of light.
And what if behind me to westward the wall of the woods stands high?
The world lies east: how ample, the marsh and the sea and the sky!
A league and a league of marsh-grass, waist-high, broad in the blade,
Green, and all of a height, and unflecked w...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney


Inferno (English)

...d, so many as these. I saw 
 The shadow of him elect to Peter's seat 
 Who made the great refusal, and the law, 
 The unswerving law that left them this retreat 
 To seal the abortion of their lives, became 
 Illumined to me, and themselves I knew, 
 To God and all his foes the futile crew 
 How hateful in their everlasting shame. 

 I saw these victims of continued death 
 - For lived they never - were naked all, and loud 
 Around them closed a never-ceasing cloud 
 Of horne...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

...As Parmigianino did it, the right hand
Bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer
And swerving easily away, as though to protect
What it advertises. A few leaded panes, old beams,
Fur, pleated muslin, a coral ring run together
In a movement supporting the face, which swims
Toward and away like the hand
Except that it is in repose. It is what is
Sequestered. Vasari says, "Francesco one day set himself
To take his own portrait, looking at himse...Read more of this...
by Ashbery, John

Sonnet 87: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing

...And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgement making.
Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet LXXXVII

...And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnets ix

...d for that riches where is my deserving? 
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, 
And so my patent back again is swerving. 
Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing, 
Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking; 
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, 
Comes home again, on better judgment making. 
 Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter 
 In sleep a King; but waking, no such matter....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Fire of Drift-Wood

...feel, with secret pain,
Their lives thenceforth have separate ends,
  And never can be one again;

The first slight swerving of the heart,
  That words are powerless to express,
And leave it still unsaid in part,
  Or say it in too great excess.

The very tones in which we spake
  Had something strange, I could but mark;
The leaves of memory seemed to make
  A mournful rustling in the dark.

Oft died the words upon our lips,
  As suddenly, from out the fire
Bu...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Flight Of The Duchess

...heaving
Told you no single drop they were leaving,
---Life, that filling her, passed redundant
Into her very hair, back swerving
Over each shoulder, loose and abundant,
As her head thrown back showed the white throat curving;
And the very tresses shared in the pleasure,
Moving to the mystic measure,
Bounding as the bosom bounded.
I stopped short, more and more confounded,
As still her cheeks burned and eyes glistened,
As she listened and she listened:
When all at once a hand ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Holy Grail

...e 
All fast and penance. Saw ye none beside, 
None of your knights?' 

`Yea so,' said Percivale: 
`One night my pathway swerving east, I saw 
The pelican on the casque of our Sir Bors 
All in the middle of the rising moon: 
And toward him spurred, and hailed him, and he me, 
And each made joy of either; then he asked, 
"Where is he? hast thou seen him--Lancelot?--Once," 
Said good Sir Bors, "he dashed across me--mad, 
And maddening what he rode: and when I cried, 
`Ridest tho...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Traveling Through The Dark

...the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all--my only swerving--,
then pushed her over the edge into the river....Read more of this...
by Stafford, William

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