Famous Threatened Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Dialogue between Old England and New

...justly once she poll'd from thee.
272 Of all the woes thou canst let her be sped,
273 Execute to th' full the vengeance threatened.
274 Bring forth the beast that rul'd the world with's beck,
275 And tear his flesh, and set your feet on's neck,
276 And make his filthy den so desolate
277 To th' 'stonishment of all that knew his state.
278 This done, with brandish'd swords to Turkey go,--
279 (For then what is it but English blades dare do?)
280 And lay her waste, for so's the...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne


A Servant to Servants

...he water dazzle 
A sunny morning, or take the rising wind 
About my face and body and through my wrapper, 
When a storm threatened from the Dragon's Den, 
And a cold chill shivered across the lake. 
I see it's a fair, pretty sheet of water, 
Our Willoughby! How did you hear of it? 
I expect, though, everyone's heard of it. 
In a book about ferns? Listen to that! 
You let things more like feathers regulate 
Your going and coming. And you like it here? 
I can see how you might....Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

A wild Blue sky abreast of Winds

...A wild Blue sky abreast of Winds
That threatened it -- did run
And crouched behind his Yellow Door
Was the defiant sun --
Some conflict with those upper friends
So genial in the main
That we deplore peculiarly
Their arrogant campaign --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Adam

...Eden. But where was
the hidden path that led to the New Earth?

God would not listen to his endless pleas.
Instead, He threatened him that he shall die.
Yet Adam stood his ground: Eve shall give birth....Read more of this...
by Rilke, Rainer Maria

Affliction

...
And wrap me in a gown.
I was entangled in the world of strife, 
Before I had the power to change my life.

Yet, for I threatened oft the siege to raise, 
Not simpring all mine age, 
Thou often didst with Academic praise
Melt and dissolve my rage.
I took thy sweetened pill, till I came where
I could not go away, nor persevere.

Yet lest perchance I should too happy be
In my unhappiness, 
Turning my purge to food, thou throwest me
Into more sicknesses.
Thus doth thy power cro...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George


Beowulf (Old English)

...east of the sea
was whelmed by the hurly through hand of mine.



IX

ME thus often the evil monsters
thronging threatened. With thrust of my sword,
the darling, I dealt them due return!
Nowise had they bliss from their booty then
to devour their victim, vengeful creatures,
seated to banquet at bottom of sea;
but at break of day, by my brand sore hurt,
on the edge of ocean up they lay,
put to sleep by the sword. And since, by them
on the fathomless sea-ways sa...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Fit the Fifth ( Hunting of the Snark )

...e Beaver's Lesson 

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; 
They pursued it with forks and hope; 
They threatened its life with a railway-share; 
They charmed it with smiles and soap. 

Then the Butcher contrived an ingenious plan 
For making a separate sally; 
And fixed on a spot unfrequented by man, 
A dismal and desolate valley. 


But the very same plan to the Beaver occurred: 
It had chosen the very same place: 
Yet neither betrayed, by a sign or a word,...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Fit the Seventh ( Hunting of the Snark )

...The Banker's Fate 

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope; 
They threatened its life with a railway-share; 
They charmed it with smiles and soap. 
And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
It was matter for general remark, 
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
In his zeal to discover the Snark. 

But while he was seeking with thimbles and care, 
A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh
And grabbed at the Banker, who...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Oh For The Time When I Shall Sleep

...ver care how rain may steep,
Or snow may cover me!
No promised heaven these wild desires
Could all, or half, fulful;
No threatened hell, with quenchless fires,
Subdue this quenchless will!

So said I, and still say the same;
Still, to my death, will say— 
Three gods within this little frame
Are warring night and day:
Heaven could not hold them all, and yet
They all are held in me;
And must be mine till I forget
My present entity!

Oh, for the time when in my breast
Their stru...Read more of this...
by Brontë, Emily

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...t I drag thee chained, 
And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn 
The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred. 
So threatened he; but Satan to no threats 
Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied. 
Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, 
Proud limitary Cherub! but ere then 
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel 
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King 
Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, 
Us'd to the yoke, drawest his triumphant wheels 
In progres...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 06

...ensigns pierced the deep array 
Of Moloch, furious king; who him defied, 
And at his chariot-wheels to drag him bound 
Threatened, nor from the Holy One of Heaven 
Refrained his tongue blasphemous; but anon 
Down cloven to the waist, with shattered arms 
And uncouth pain fled bellowing. On each wing 
Uriel, and Raphael, his vaunting foe, 
Though huge, and in a rock of diamond armed, 
Vanquished Adramelech, and Asmadai, 
Two potent Thrones, that to be less than Gods 
Disdaine...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...human; ye, of human, Gods. 
So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off 
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished, 
Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring. 
And what are Gods, that Man may not become 
As they, participating God-like food? 
The Gods are first, and that advantage use 
On our belief, that all from them proceeds: 
I question it; for this fair earth I see, 
Warmed by the sun, producing every kind; 
Them, nothing: if they all things, who enclosed 
Knowl...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The First Book

...now, too soon for us, the circling hours
This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound
(At least, if so we can, and by the head 
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infringed, our freedom and our being
In this fair empire won of Earth and Air)—
For this ill news I bring: The Woman's Seed,
Destined to this, is late of woman born.
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause;
But his growth now to youth's full flower, d...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Rumpelstiltskin

...e gave him her necklace
as a small reward.
When the king saw what she had done
he put her in a bigger room of straw
and threatened death once more.
Again she cried.
Again the dwarf came.
Again he spun the straw into gold.
She gave him her ring
as a small reward.
The king put her in an even bigger room
but this time he promised
to marry her if she succeeded.
Again she cried.
Again the dwarf came.
But she had nothing to give him.
Without a reward the dwarf would not spin.
He wa...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne

Tell as a Marksman -- were forgotten

...hose who did not to Human Nature
Will subscribe a Tear --

Tell would not bare his Head
In Presence
Of the Ducal Hat --
Threatened for that with Death -- by Gessler --
Tyranny bethought

Make of his only Boy a Target
That surpasses Death --
Stolid to Love's supreme entreaty
Not forsook of Faith --

Mercy of the Almighty begging --
Tell his Arrow sent --
God it is said replies in Person
When the cry is meant --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Ballad Of Pious Pete

...I was mild as I'd be with a child, but he called me the son of a ****;
And, grabbing his gun with a leap and a run, he threatened my face with the butt.
So what could I do (I leave it to you)? With curses he harried me forth;
Then he was alone, and I was alone, and over us menaced the North.

Our cabins were near; I could see, I could hear; but between us there rippled the creek;
And all summer through, with a rancor that grew, he would pass me and never would speak.
Then a ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Hunting Of The Snark

...E BEAVER'S LESSON.


They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
 They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
 They charmed it with smiles and soap.

Then the Butcher contrived an ingenious plan
 For making a separate sally;
And had fixed on a spot unfrequented by man,
 A dismal and desolate valley.

But the very same plan to the Beaver occurred:
 It had chosen the very same place:
Yet neither betrayed, by a sign or a word,
...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Legend of Mirth

...to his Charge, the shining Courts were void
Save for one Seraph whom no charge employed,
With folden wings and slumber-threatened brow,
To whom The Word: "Beloved, what dost thou?"
"By the Permission," came the answer soft,
Little I do nor do that little oft.
As is The Will in Heaven so on Earth
Where by The Will I strive to make men mirth"
He ceased and sped, hearing The Word once more:
" Beloved, go thy way and greet the Four."

Systems and Universes overpast,
The Seraph c...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The White Cliffs

...nthropist, and rake, 
It shines for those who love; none else discern 
 Evil from good; Men's fall did not bestow 
That threatened wisdom; blindly still we yearn 
 After a virtue that we do not know, 
Until our thirst and longing rise above 
The barriers of reason—and we love. 

XIII 
And still I did not see my life was changed, 
Utterly different—by this love estranged 
For ever and ever from my native land; 
That I was now of that unhappy band 
Who lose the old, and cannot ...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

When A Woman Loves A Man

...says,
"and you can quote me on that,"
which sounds great in an English accent.

One year they broke up seven times and threatened to do it
 another nine times.

When a woman loves a man, she wants him to meet her at the
 airport in a foreign country with a jeep.
When a man loves a woman he's there. He doesn't complain that
 she's two hours late
and there's nothing in the refrigerator.

When a woman loves a man, she wants to stay awake.
She's like a child crying
at nightfall ...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David

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