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Famous Tides Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Crowley, Aleister
...our world,
True source of light, our great love passion-pearled
Gave all its life and splendour to the sea
Above whose tides stood our stability.

Then sudden and fierce, no monitory moan,
Smote the mad mischief of the great cyclone.
How far below us all its fury rolled!
How vainly sulphur tries to tarnish gold!
We lived together: all its malice meant
Nothing but freedom of a continent!

It was the forest and the river that knew
The fact that one and one do not make ...Read more of this...



by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...er orient ray, and wakes the muse's song; 
Where freedom holds her sacred standard high, 
And commerce rolls her golden tides profuse 
Of elegance and ev'ry joy of life. 



ACASTO. 
Since then Leander you attempt a strain 
So new, so noble and so full of fame; 
And since a friendly concourse centers here 
America's own sons, begin O muse! 
Now thro' the veil of ancient days review 
The period fam'd when first Columbus touch'd 
The shore so long unknown, thro' various...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...
Where through an opening of the rocky bank
The waters overflow, and a smooth spot
Of glassy quiet 'mid those battling tides
Is left, the boat paused shuddering.--Shall it sink
Down the abyss? Shall the reverting stress
Of that resistless gulf embosom it?
Now shall it fall?--A wandering stream of wind
Breathed from the west, has caught the expanded sail,
And, lo! with gentle motion between banks
Of mossy slope, and on a placid stream, 
Beneath a woven grove, it sails, an...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...he rights of an equal
humanity,
How often your Re-volution has proven but E-volution
Roll’d again back on itself in the tides of a civic insanity!...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...XLIX.
The mighty plains, devoid of whispering trees, 
Guard well the secrets of departed seas.
Where once great tides swept by with ebb and flow
The scorching sun looks down in tearless woe.
And fierce tornadoes in ungoverned pain
Mourn still the loss of that mysterious main.
Across this ocean bed the soldiers fly-
Home is the gleaming goal that lures each eager eye.



L.
Like some elixir which the gods prepare, 
They drink the viewless tonic of the a...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...flocks without number.
Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant,
Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows.
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists fro...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...od;
And canst oppose to each malignant hour
Ethereal presence:---I am but a voice;
My life is but the life of winds and tides,
No more than winds and tides can I avail:---
But thou canst.---Be thou therefore in the van
Of circumstance; yea, seize the arrow's barb
Before the tense string murmur.---To the earth!
For there thou wilt find Saturn, and his woes.
Meantime I will keep watch on thy bright sun,
And of thy seasons be a careful nurse."---
Ere half this re...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...know. 
 When gained my feet the upward, lighted way, 
 I backward gazed, as one the drowning sea, 
 The deep strong tides, has baffled, and panting lies, 
 On the shelved shore, and turns his eyes to see 
 The league-wide wastes that held him. So mine eyes 
 Surveyed that fear, the while my wearied frame 
 Rested, and ever my heart's tossed lake became 
 More quiet. 
 Then from that pass released, which yet 
 With living feet had no man left, I set 
 My forward st...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...llower once, and now his only guide, 
Kneels Kaled watchful o'er his welling side, 
And with his scarf would stanch the tides that rush 
With each convulsion in a blacker gush; 
And then, as his faint breathing waxes low, 
In feebler, not less fatal tricklings flow: 
He scarce can speak, but motions him 'tis vain, 
And merely adds another throb to pain. 
He clasps the hand that pang which would assuage, 
And sadly smiles his thanks to that dark page, 
Who nothing fears, n...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
.... 
Among the shrouds the seamen sit and sing, 
And wanton boys on every rope do cling. 
Old Neptune springs the tides and water lent 
(The gods themselves do help the provident), 
And where the deep keel on the shallow cleaves, 
With trident's lever, and great shoulder heaves. 
&Aelig;olus their sails inspires with eastern wind, 
Puffs them along, and breathes upon them kind. 
With pearly shell the Tritons all the while 
Sound the sea-march and guide to Sheppe...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...Each part may call the furthest, brother;
For head with foot hath private amity,
          And both with moons and tides.

          Nothing hath got so far,
But man hath caught and kept it, as his prey.
     His eyes dismount the highest star:
     He is in little all the sphere.
Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they
          Find their acquaintance there.

          For us the winds do blow,
The earth doth rest, heaven move, and foun...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...Bathe me in pure delight and make me strong;
From strife and struggle bring release,
And draw the waves of passion into tides of peace.

Remember'd songs, most dear,
In living songs I hear,
While blending voices gently swing and sway
In melodies of love,
Whose mighty currents move,
With singing near and singing far away;
Sweet in the glow of morning light,
And sweeter still across the starlit gulf of night.

Music, in thee we float,
And lose the lonely note
Of self in...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...t the village and mounted the steep, 
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, 
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; 
And under the alders, that skirt its edge, 
Now soft on the sand, now load on the ledge, 
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. 

It was twelve by the village clock 
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. 
He heard the crowing of the cock, 
And the barking of the farmer's dog, 
And felt the damp of the river-fog, 
That...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...Was rich in lore of fields and brooks, 
The ancient teachers never dumb 
Of Nature's unhoused lyceum. 
In moons and tides and weather wise, 
He read the clouds as prophecies, 
And foul or fair could well divine, 
By many an occult hint and sign, 
Holding the cunning-warded keys 
To all the woodcraft mysteries; 
Himself to Nature's heart so near 
That all her voices in his ear 
Of beast or bird had meanings clear, 
Like Apollonius of old, 
Who knew the tales the sparrows t...Read more of this...

by Angelou, Maya
...I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoo...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...s blazing high, 
Though rising gale, and breaking foam, 
And shrieking sea-birds warn'd him home; 
And clouds aloft and tides below, 
With signs and sounds, forbade to go, 
He could not see, he would not hear, 
Or sound or sign foreboding fear; 
His eye but saw the light of love, 
The only star it hail'd above; 
His ear but rang with Hero's song, 
"Ye waves, divide not lovers long!" — 
That tale is old, but love anew 
May nerve young hearts to prove as true. 

II. 

T...Read more of this...

by Goldsmith, Oliver
...village all declared how much he knew;
'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too;
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
And even the story ran that he could gauge.
In arguing too, the parson owned his skill,
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around,
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.

But past is a...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...
          I cannot pray in Highland tongue.
     But were I now where Allan glides,
     Or heard my native Devan's tides,
     So sweetly would I rest, and pray
     That Heaven would close my wintry day!

     'Twas thus my hair they bade me braid,
          They made me to the church repair;
     It was my bridal morn they said,
          And my true love would meet me there.
     But woe betide the cruel guile
     That drowned in blood the morning smile!
  ...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...curse to thy desert, 
Or separate thy sound from thy corrupted part? 
I called thee Nile; the parallel will stand: 
Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fattened land; 
Yet monsters from thy large increase we find 
Engendered on the slime thou leavest behind. 
Sedition has not wholly seized on thee, 
Thy nobler parts are from infection free. 
Of Israel's tribes thou hast a numerous band, 
But still the Canaanite is in the land. 
Thy military chiefs are brave and true,...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...Oh hush, hush!' and she began. 

'This world was once a fluid haze of light, 
Till toward the centre set the starry tides, 
And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 
The planets: then the monster, then the man; 
Tattooed or woaded, winter-clad in skins, 
Raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate; 
As yet we find in barbarous isles, and here 
Among the lowest.' 
Thereupon she took 
A bird's-eye-view of all the ungracious past; 
Glanced at the legendary Amazon 
As ...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things