Famous Twixt Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Lovers Complaint

...beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, untidy though they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.

'Well could he ride, and often men would say
'That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop
he makes!'
And c...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William


An Essay On Criticism

...se is like a Mistress us'd,
This hour she's idoliz'd, the next abus'd,
While their weak Heads, like Towns unfortify'd,
'Twixt Sense and Nonsense daily change their Side.
Ask them the Cause; They're wiser still, they say;
And still to Morrow's wiser than to Day.
We think our Fathers Fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser Sons, no doubt, will think us so.
Once School-Divines this zealous Isle o'erspread;
Who knew most Sentences was deepest read;
Faith, Gospel, All, seem'd made to be...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Beowulf (Old English)

...up she seized
fast and firm, as she fled to the moor.
He was for Hrothgar of heroes the dearest,
of trusty vassals betwixt the seas,
whom she killed on his couch, a clansman famous,
in battle brave. -- Nor was Beowulf there;
another house had been held apart,
after giving of gold, for the Geat renowned. --
Uproar filled Heorot; the hand all had viewed,
blood-flecked, she bore with her; bale was returned,
dole in the dwellings: ’twas dire exchange
where Dane and Gea...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

By The Fire-Side

...r spear-heads charge
When Alp meets heaven in snow!

X.

On our other side is the straight-up rock;
And a path is kept 'twixt the gorge and it
By boulder-stones where lichens mock
The marks on a moth, and small ferns fit
Their teeth to the polished block.

XI.

Oh the sense of the yellow mountain-flowers,
And thorny balls, each three in one,
The chestnuts throw on our path in showers!
For the drop of the woodland fruit's begun,
These early November hours,

XII.

That crimson ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Custer

...e fitly sing, and only then, 
Of those intrepid and unflinching men
Who knew no homes save ever moving tents, 
And who 'twixt fierce unfriendly elements
And wild barbarians warred. Yet unfraid, 
Since love impels thy strains, sing, sing, my modest maid.

II.

Relate how Custer in midwinter sought
Far Washita's cold shores; tell why he fought
With savage nomads fortressed in deep snows.
Woman, thou source of half the sad world's woes
And all its joys, what sanguinary strife
Ha...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler


Essay on Man

...cends: 
Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial race, 
From the green myriads in the people grass: 
What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: 
Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 
And hound sagacious(20) on the tainted(21) green: 
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,(22) 
To that which warbles thro' the vernal(23) wood: 
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! 
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: 
I...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Eviradnus

...any baskets bear. 
 Then were, in mystery, preparations made, 
 And they departed—for till night none stayed. 
 But 'twixt the branches gazers could descry 
 The blackened hall lit up most brilliantly. 
 None dared approach—and this the reason why. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CUSTOM OF LUSACE. 
 
 When died a noble Marquis of Lusace 
 'Twas custom for the heir who filled his place 
 Before assuming princely pomp and power 
 To sup one night in Corbus' olden tower. 
 From t...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

Haunted

...¡®I will get out! I must get out!¡¯ 30 
Butting and thrusting up the baffling gloom, 
Pausing to listen in a space ¡¯twixt thorns, 
He peers around with peering, frantic eyes. 

An evil creature in the twilight looping, 
Flapped blindly in his face. Beating it off, 35 
He screeched in terror, and straightway something clambered 
Heavily from an oak, and dropped, bent double, 
To shamble at him zigzag, squat and bestial. 

Headlong he charges down the wood, and fal...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried

Last Instructions to a Painter

...o rub him down with those fair hands, 
And washing (lest the scent her crime disclose) 
His sweaty hooves, tickles him 'twixt the toes. 
But envious Fame, too soon, began to note 
More gold in's Fob, more lace upon his coat; 
And he, unwary, and of tongue too fleet, 
No longer could conceal his fortune sweet. 
Justly the rogue was shipped in porter's den, 
And Jermyn straight has leave to come again. 
Ah, Painter, now could Alexander live, 
And this Campaspe thee, Apelles, gi...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...peared 
Under their Hierarchs in orders bright: 
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced, 
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear 
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve 
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees; 
Or in their glittering tissues bear imblazed 
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love 
Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs 
Of circuit inexpressible they stood, 
Orb within orb, the Father Infinite, 
By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son, 
Amidst as from...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...e sun was sunk, and after him the star 
Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring 
Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter 
"twixt day and night, and now from end to end 
Night's hemisphere had veil'd the horizon round: 
When satan, who late fled before the threats 
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd 
In meditated fraud and malice, bent 
On Man's destruction, maugre what might hap 
Of heavier on himself, fearless returned 
From compassing the earth; cautious of day, 
Since Uriel...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Samson Agonistes

...bour sleep, or thoughts to rest.
This only hope relieves me, that the strife 
With me hath end; all the contest is now
'Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presum'd,
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,
His Deity comparing and preferring
Before the God of Abraham. He, he sure,
Will not connive, or linger, thus provok'd,
But will arise and his great name assert:
Dagon must stoop, and shall e're long receive
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted Troph...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Snow

...t?
Thought he’d just call to tell us it was snowing.
If he thinks he is going to make our house
A halfway coffee house ’twixt town and nowhere——”

“I thought you’d feel you’d been too much concerned.”

“You think you haven’t been concerned yourself.”

“If you mean he was inconsiderate
To rout us out to think for him at midnight
And then take our advice no more than nothing,
Why, I agree with you. But let’s forgive him.
We’ve had a share in one night of his life.
What’ll you b...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Snowbound a Winter Idyl

...and old, 
Wherein the scenes of Greece and Rome 
Had all the commonplace of home, 
And little seemed at best the odds 
'Twixt Yankee pedlers and old gods; 
Where Pindus-born Arachthus took 
The guise of any grist-mill brok, 
And dread Olympus at his will 
Became a huckleberry hill. 

A careless boy that night he seemed; 
But at his desk he had the look 
And air of one who wisely schemed, 
And hostage from the future took 
In trainëd thought and lore of book. 
Large-brained, c...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

The Deserted Garden

...
Because the garden was deserted, 
The blither place for me! 

Friends, blame me not! a narrow ken 
Hath childhood 'twixt the sun and sward: 
We draw the moral afterward¡ª 55 
We feel the gladness then. 

And gladdest hours for me did glide 
In silence at the rose-tree wall: 
A thrush made gladness musical 
Upon the other side. 60 

Nor he nor I did e'er incline 
To peck or pluck the blossoms white:¡ª 
How should I know but that they might 
Lead lives as glad ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

The Flight Of The Duchess

...times out of five,
With his huntspear he'd contrive
To get the killing-place transfixed,
And pin him true, both eyes betwixt?
And that's why the old Duke would rather
He lost a salt-pit than my father,
And loved to have him ever in call;
That's why my father stood in the hall
When the old Duke brought his infant out
To show the people, and while they passed
The wondrous bantling round about,
Was first to start at the outside blast
As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn
Just a...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Four Ages of Man

...,
2.36 Nor unto buzzing whisperers gave ear.
2.37 I gave no hand, nor vote, for death, of life.
2.38 I'd nought to do, 'twixt Prince, and peoples' strife.
2.39 No Statist I: nor Marti'list i' th' field.
2.40 Where e're I went, mine innocence was shield.
2.41 My quarrels, not for Diadems, did rise,
2.42 But for an Apple, Plumb, or some such prize.
2.43 My strokes did cause no death, nor wounds, nor scars.
2.44 My little wrath did cease soon as my wars.
2.45 My duel was no chal...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

The Growth of Love

...list the lark descant upon my theme,
Heaven's musical accepted worshipper. 
Thy smile outfaceth ill: and that old feud
'Twixt things and me is quash'd in our new truce;
And nature now dearly with thee endued
No more in shame ponders her old excuse,
But quite forgets her frowns and antics rude,
So kindly hath she grown to her new use. 

4
The very names of things belov'd are dear,
And sounds will gather beauty from their sense,
As many a face thro' love's long residence
Growet...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour

The Lady of the Lake

...that gathered in his eye
     He deft the mountain-breeze to dry;
     Until, where Teith's young waters roll
     Betwixt him and a wooded knoll
     That graced the sable strath with green,
     The chapel of Saint Bride was seen.
     Swoln was the stream, remote the bridge,
     But Angus paused not on the edge;
     Though the clerk waves danced dizzily,
     Though reeled his sympathetic eye,
     He dashed amid the torrent's roar:
     His right hand high th...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Seasons: Winter

...pt, and sounding far:
Then o'er the sanded Valley, floating, spreads,
Calm, sluggish, silent; till again constrain'd,
Betwixt two meeting Hills, it bursts a Way,
Where Rocks, and Woods o'erhang the turbid Stream. 
There gathering triple Force, rapid, and deep,
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders thro'.

NATURE! great Parent! whose directing Hand
Rolls round the Seasons of the changeful Year,
How mighty! how majestick are thy Works! 
With what a pleasing Dread they s...Read more of this...
by Thomson, James

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