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Famous Terrors Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...peii perished! 

Hey! 
Gentlemen! 
Amateurs 
of sacrilege, 
crime, 
and carnage, 
have you seen 
the terror of terrors ¨C 
my face 
when 
I 
am absolutely calm? 

I feel 
my ¡°I¡± 
is much too small for me. 
Stubbornly a body pushes out of me. 

Hello! 
Who¡¯s speaking? 
Mamma? 
Mamma! 
Your son is gloriously ill! 
Mamma! 
His heart is on fire. 
Tell his sisters, Lyuda and Olya, 
he has no nook to hide in. 

Each word, 
each joke, 
which his sc...Read more of this...
by Mayakovsky, Vladimir



...Britannia for her sons; 
Undeluged with seas of Indian blood, 
Which cruel Spain on southern regions spilt; 
To gain by terrors what the gen'rous breast 
Wins by fair treaty, conquers without blood. 



EUGENIO. 
High in renown th' intreprid hero stands, 
From Europes shores advent'ring first to try 
New seas, new oceans, unexplor'd by man. 
Fam'd Cabot too may claim our noblest song, 
Who from th' Atlantic surge descry'd these shores, 
As on he coasted from the Mexic bay 
To...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...h sightless cycles run,
Linked to a little system, and one sun-
Where all my love is folly and the crowd
Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,
The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath-
(Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)
What tho' in worlds which own a single sun
The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,
Yet thine is my resplendency, so given
To bear my secrets thro' the upper Heaven!
Leave tenantless thy crystal home, and fly,
With all thy train, athw...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan
...fliction,
loathsome and long-lasting, that had come upon his people,
the malice-grim vengeance, the greatest of night-terrors. (ll. 189-93)

Among his own Hygelac’s thane had heard,
good among the Geats, about the deeds of Grendel.
He was the strongest of power among
mankind in those days of this life,
noble and well-grown. He ordered an excellent wave-glider
readied for himself—he stated he wished to seek
the war-king across the swan-road,
the famous prince who st...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...she thanked,
in wisdom’s words, that her will was granted,
that at last on a hero her hope could lean
for comfort in terrors. The cup he took,
hardy-in-war, from Wealhtheow’s hand,
and answer uttered the eager-for-combat.
Beowulf spake, bairn of Ecgtheow: --
“This was my thought, when my thanes and I
bent to the ocean and entered our boat,
that I would work the will of your people
fully, or fighting fall in death,
in fiend’s gripe fast. I am firm to do
an earl’s b...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,



...table
With playing cards, fiddle with pentagrams
Or barbituric acids, or dissect
The recurrent image into pre-conscious terrors—
To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams; all these are usual
Pastimes and drugs, and features of the press:
And always will be, some of them especially
When there is distress of nations and perplexity
Whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgware Road.
Men's curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend
The poi...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...world hath slandered thee
And mocked thee. On thy dim and shadowy brow
They place an iron crown, and call thee king
Of terrors, and the spoiler of the world,
Deadly assassin, that strik'st down the fair,
The loved, the good--that breath'st upon the lights
Of virtue set along the vale of life,
And they go out in darkness. I am come,
Not with reproaches, not with cries and prayers,
Such as have stormed thy stern insensible ear
From the beginning. I am come to speak
Thy praises...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...was on Essex' coast. 

Fresh messengers still the sad news assure; 
More timorous now we are than first secure. 
False terrors our believing fears devise, 
And the French army one from Calais spies. 
Bennet and May and those of shorter reach 
Change all for guineas, and a crown for each, 
But wiser men and well foreseen in chance 
In Holland theirs had lodged before, and France. 
Whitehall's unsafe; the court all meditates 
To fly to Windsor and mure up the gates. 
Each does...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...sobbing ebbs, and uproar gathering high;
The scared, hoarse raven on its cradle croaks,
And stockdove-flocks in hurried terrors fly,
While the blue hawk hangs o'er them in the sky.—
The hedger hastens from the storm begun,
To seek a shelter that may keep him dry;
And foresters low bent, the wind to shun,
Scarce hear amid the strife the poacher's muttering gun.

The ploughman hears its humming rage begin,
And hies for shelter from his naked toil;
Buttoning his doublet closer t...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen
...eres,
And all the live World's throbbing heart shall be
One with our heart; the stealthy creeping years
Have lost their terrors now, we shall not die,
The Universe itself shall be our Immortality....Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...
That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw 
My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth 
Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round, 
That rest or intermission none I find. 
Before mine eyes in opposition sits 
Grim Death, my son and foe, who set them on, 
And me, his parent, would full soon devour 
For want of other prey, but that he knows 
His end with mine involved, and knows that I 
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane, 
Whenever that shall be: so Fate pron...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...s,
Wherever silent sorrow flees,
Where pensive contemplation dwells,
Where he the tears of anguish sees,
Where thousand terrors on him glare,
Harmonious streams are yet behind--
He sees the Graces sporting there,
With feeling silent and refined.
Gentle as beauty's lines together linking,
As the appearances that round him play,
In tender outline in each other sinking,
The soft breath of his life thus fleets away.
His spirit melts in the harmonious sea,
That, rich in rapture, r...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von
...ng steps they go,
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.
Far different there from all that charmed before,
The various terrors of that horrid shore;
Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray
And fiercely shed intolerable day;
Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;
Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crowned,
Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;
Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
The rattling terr...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver
...learn to adore, 
For that is My spirit of life. 
Awake, arise to spiritual strife, 
And Thy revenge abroad display 
In terrors at the last Judgement Day. 
God’s mercy and long suffering 
Is but the sinner to judgement to bring. 
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray— 
And take revenge at the Last Day.’ 
Jesus replied, and thunders hurl’d: 
‘I never will pray for the world. 
Once I did so when I pray’d in the Garden; 
I wish’d to take with Me a bodily pardon.’ 
Can that which...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
... And cannot find her idiot boy.   Your pony's worth his weight in gold,  Then calm your terrors, Betty Foy!  She's coming from among the trees,  And now all full in view she sees  Him whom she loves, her idiot boy.   And Betty sees the pony too:  Why stand you thus Good Betty Foy?  It is no goblin, 'tis no ghost,  'Tis he whom you so long have lost,  He whom ...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...e worst his fears foreshow?—
     Thus Ellen, dizzy and astound,
     As sudden ruin yawned around,
     By crossing terrors wildly tossed,
     Still for the Douglas fearing most,
     Could scarce the desperate thought withstand,
     To buy his safety with her hand.
     XXXII.

     Such purpose dread could Malcolm spy
     In Ellen's quivering lip and eye,
     And eager rose to speak,—but ere
     His tongue could hurry forth his fear,
     Had Douglas mark...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...tay on horribly; 
Or, seeing in death too small a thing to fear, 
He may go forward like a stoic Roman 
Where pangs and terrors in his pathway lie,— 
Or, seizing the swift logic of a woman,
Curse God and die. 

Or maybe there, like many another one 
Who might have stood aloft and looked ahead, 
Black-drawn against wild red, 
He may have built, unawed by fiery gules
That in him no commotion stirred, 
A living reason out of molecules 
Why molecules occurred, 
And one for smilin...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...r evermore.

    And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
    So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
    “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
            This it is and nothing more.”

    Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, tr...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan
...d-Deep, appears, 
Surge after Surge, the rising, wat'ry, War.
Whitening, the angry Billows rowl immense,
And roar their Terrors, thro' the shuddering Soul
Of feeble Man, amidst their Fury caught,
And, dash'd upon his Fate: Then, o'er the Cliff, 
Where dwells the Sea-Mew, unconfin'd, they fly,
And, hurrying, swallow up the steril Shore.

THE Mountain growls; and all its sturdy Sons
Stoop to the Bottom of the Rocks they shade:
Lone, on its Midnight-Side, and all aghast, 
The da...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James
...

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye 
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry