Famous Tested Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Advent

...We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it a...Read more of this...
by Kavanagh, Patrick


Barbie Doll

...herry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs. 

She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs. 

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up...Read more of this...
by Piercy, Marge

Beowulf (Modern English)

...led to men.
Then a great cry was heaved up after the banquet,
a mighty clamor at morning. The famous prince,
a noble tested true, sat unblithe, suffering
powerfully, enduring the tearing away of his thanes.
Afterwards they looked upon the trace of that loathed one,
that accursed ghast. That struggle was too strong,
hateful and long-lasting. And it was no longer a time
than the next night, when Grendel did it all again,
more violent killing, and mourned it not,
feud ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Beowulf (Old English)

...when morn had come
and we all at the banquet-board sat down.
Then was song and glee. The gray-haired Scylding,
much tested, told of the times of yore.
Whiles the hero his harp bestirred,
wood-of-delight; now lays he chanted
of sooth and sadness, or said aright
legends of wonder, the wide-hearted king;
or for years of his youth he would yearn at times,
for strength of old struggles, now stricken with age,
hoary hero: his heart surged full
when, wise with winters, h...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bishop Blougrams Apology

...-furniture 
But settler's-implements (enough for three) 
And started for Australia--there, I hope, 
By this time he has tested his first plough, 
And studied his last chapter of St. John....Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert


By an Autumn Fire

...
Cheery old tale and gay old song; 
Ours is the joyance of ripe fruition, 
Attained ambition. 
Ours is the treasure of tested loving, 
Friendship that needs no further proving; 

No more of springtime hopes, sweet and uncertain,
Here we have largess of summer in fee­
Pile high the logs till the flame be leaping,
At bay the chill of the autumn keeping,
While pilgrim-wise, we may go a-reaping
In the fairest meadow of memory!...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament (excerpt)

...Ye might have moved slow-measure to my tune,
Not stood stockstill. I made it in the woods,
And heard it ring as true as tested gold."


But Dagonet with one foot poised in his hand,
"Friend, did ye mark that fountain yesterday
Made to run wine?--but this had run itself
All out like a long life to a sour end--
And them that round it sat with golden cups
To hand the wine to whosoever came--
The twelve small damosels white as Innocence,
In honour of poor Innocence the babe,
Who ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

On Quitting

...when you're all alone.
How much grit do you think you've got?
Can you turn from joys that you like a lot?
Have you ever tested yourself to know
How far with yourself your will can go?
If you want to know if you have grit,
Just pick out a joy that you like, and quit.

It's bully sport and it's open fight;
It will keep you busy both day and night;
For the toughest kind of a game you'll find
Is to make your body obey your mind.
And you never will know what is meant by grit
Unles...Read more of this...
by Guest, Edgar Albert

Questions of Travel

...en clogs 
carelessly clacking over 
a grease-stained filling-station floor. 
(In another country the clogs would all be tested. 
Each pair there would have identical pitch.) 
--A pity not to have heard 
the other, less primitive music of the fat brown bird 
who sings above the broken gasoline pump 
in a bamboo church of Jesuit baroque: 
three towers, five silver crosses. 
--Yes, a pity not to have pondered, 
blurr'dly and inconclusively, 
on what connection can exist for cent...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

...urface, letting one ramble
Back home from them so that these
Even stronger possibilities can remain
Whole without being tested. Actually
The skin of the bubble-chamber's as tough as
Reptile eggs; everything gets "programmed" there
In due course: more keeps getting included 
Without adding to the sum, and just as one
Gets accustomed to a noise that
Kept one awake but now no longer does,
So the room contains this flow like an hourglass
Without varying in climate or quality
(Exc...Read more of this...
by Ashbery, John

Song of the Open Road

...whelms law, and mocks all authority and all argument
 against
 it. 

Here is the test of wisdom; 
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools; 
Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it, to another not having it; 
Wisdom is of the Soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities, and is content, 
Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things; 
Something there is in the float of the sigh...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Auction Sale

...m to room,
And see the patient care, the tender touch,
The love that sought to brighten up the gloom,
The woman-courage tested overmuch.
Amid those things so intimate and dear,
Where now the mob invades with brutal tread,
I think: "What happiness is buried here,
What dreams are withered and what hopes are dead!"

Oh, woman dear, and were you sweet and glad
Over the lining of your little nest!
What ponderings and proud ideas you had!
What visions of a shrine of peace and rest!...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Garden Of Eros

...sight,
Flooding with waves of song this silent dell, -
Ah! there is something more in that bird's flight
Than could be tested in a crucible! -
But the air freshens, let us go, why soon
The woodmen will be here; how we have lived this night of June!...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The Last Tournament

...might have moved slow-measure to my tune, 
Not stood stockstill. I made it in the woods, 
And heard it ring as true as tested gold.' 

But Dagonet with one foot poised in his hand, 
`Friend, did ye mark that fountain yesterday 
Made to run wine?--but this had run itself 
All out like a long life to a sour end-- 
And them that round it sat with golden cups 
To hand the wine to whosoever came-- 
The twelve small damosels white as Innocence, 
In honour of poor Innocence the bab...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Song of the Cities

...

From East to West the circling word has passed,
 Till West is East beside our land-locked blue;
From East to West the tested chain holds fast,
 The well-forged link rings true!


 CAPE TOWN

Hail! Snatched and bartered oft from hand to hand,
 I dream my dream, by rock and heath and pine,
Of Empire to the northward. Ay, one land
 From Lion's Head to Line!


 MELBOURNE

Greeting! Nor fear nor favour won us place,
 Got between greed of gold and dread of drouth,
Loud-voiced and...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Story Of Our Lives

...hoping
something would happen.
They would patch up their lives in secret:
each defeat forgiven because it could not be tested,
each pain rewarded because it was unreal.
They did nothing."

7
The book will not survive.
We are the living proof of that.
It is dark outside, in the room it is darker.
I hear your breathing.
You are asking me if I am tired,
if I want to keep reading.
Yes, I am tired.
Yes, I want to keep reading.
I say yes to everything.
You cannot hear me.
"They sa...Read more of this...
by Strand, Mark

The Touchstone

...A man there came, whence none could tell, 
Bearing a Touchstone in his hand; 
And tested all things in the land 
By its unerring spell. 

Quick birth of transmutation smote 
The fair to foul, the foul to fair; 
Purple nor ermine did he spare, 
Nor scorn the dusty coat. 

Of heirloom jewels, prized so much, 
Were many changed to chips and clods, 
And even statues of the Gods 
Crumbled beneath its touch. 

Then angrily the people cried, 
"T...Read more of this...
by Allingham, William

The Wife of Baths Tale

...of a shrew.* *ill-tempered wretch
Thou say'st, that oxen, asses, horses, hounds,
They be *assayed at diverse stounds,* *tested at various
Basons and lavers, ere that men them buy, seasons
Spoones, stooles, and all such husbandry,
And so be pots, and clothes, and array,* *raiment
But folk of wives make none assay,
Till they be wedded, -- olde dotard shrew! --
And then, say'st thou, we will our vices shew.
Thou say'st also, that it displeaseth me,
But if * that thou wilt praise...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

These tested Our Horizon --

...These tested Our Horizon --
Then disappeared
As Birds before achieving
A Latitude.

Our Retrospection of Them
A fixed Delight,
But our Anticipation
A Dice -- a Doubt --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

To A Friend

...al son
Cleared Rome of what most shamed him. But be his

My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul,
 From first youth tested up to extreme old age,
Business could not make dull, nor passion wild;

Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole;
The mellow glory of the Attic stage,
Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child....Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew

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