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Famous Waged Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...uit not my distracted mind.


In the cause of Right engaged,
 Wrongs injurious to redress,
Honour’s war we strongly waged,
 But the Heavens denied success.
Ruin’s wheel has driven o’er us,
 Not a hope that dare attend,
The wide world is all before us—
 But a world without a friend.


 Note 1. Burns confesses that his Jacobtism was merely sentimental “except when my passions were heated by some accidental cause,” and a tour through the country where Montrose, C...Read more of this...



by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...end, -they borrow not
Glory from those who made the world their prey;
And he is gathered to the kings of thought
Who waged contention with their time's decay,
And of the past are all that cannot pass away.

Go thou to Rome, -at once the Paradise,
The grave, the city, and the wilderness;
And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise,
And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress
The bones of Desolation's nakedness
Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall le...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...soldiers? 

2
Be it so, then I answer’d, 
I too, haughty Shade, also sing war—and a longer and greater one than
 any, 
Waged in my book with varying fortune—with flight, advance, and
 retreat—Victory deferr’d and wavering, 
(Yet, methinks, certain, or as good as certain, at the last,)—The
 field the world;
For life and death—for the Body, and for the eternal Soul, 
Lo! too am come, chanting the chant of battles, 
I, above all, promote brave soldiers....Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...ll proved its pow'r until his latest day.
In Freedom's lists and for the aid of Right
Still in the foremost rank he waged the fray;
Wrong lived; His occupation was not gone.
He died in action with his armor on!

We weep for him, but we have touched his hand,
And felt the magic of his presence nigh,
The current that he sent thro' out the land,
The kindling spirit of his battle-cry
O'er all that holds us we shall triumph yet
And place our banner where his hopes were set...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...till proved its power until his latest day.
In Freedom's lists and for the aid of Right
Still in the foremost rank he waged the fray;
Wrong lived; his occupation was not gone.
He died in action with his armor on!
We weep for him, but we have touched his hand,
And felt the magic of his presence nigh,
The current that he sent throughout the land,
The kindling spirit of his battle-cry.
O'er all that holds us we shall triumph yet,
And place our banner where his hopes we...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...n the shining of the stars,
I mark'd Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.
O me! for why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world,
But had not force to shape it as he would,
Till the High God behold it from beyond,
And enter it, and make it beautiful?
Or else as if the world were wholly fair,
But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,
And have not power to see it ...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...He;
'But give me a third of their strength, I'd fill
Half Hell with their soldiery!'

"All that day raged the war they waged,
And again dumb night held reign,
Save that ever upspread from the dark death-bed
A miles-wide pant of pain.

"Hard had striven brave Ney, the true Bertrand,
Victor, and Augereau,
Bold Poniatowski, and Lauriston,
To stay their overthrow;

"But, as in the dream of one sick to death
There comes a narrowing room
That pens him, body and limbs and breat...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...aim'st to be a king; and, in thine heart, 
 What fool has said: "There is no king but thou?" 
 For thee the multitude waged war and won— 
 The end thou art of wrestlings and of prayer, 
 Of sleepless watch, long marches, hunger, tears 
 And blood prolifically spilled, homes lordless, 
 And homeless lords! The mass must always suffer 
 That one should reign! the collar's but newly clamp'd, 
 And nothing but the name thereon is changed— 
 Master? still masters! mark yo...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...ere?
Thou master of my wandering youth,
But left this many a year!

Yes, I forget the world's work wrought,
Its warfare waged with pain;
An eremite with thee, in thought
Once more I slip my chain,

And to thy mountain-chalet come,
And lie beside its door,
And hear the wild bee's Alpine hum,
And thy sad, tranquil lore!

Again I feel the words inspire
Their mournful calm; serene,
Yet tinged with infinite desire
For all that might have been--

The harmony from which man swerved
...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ery steeds, or shun the goal 
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form: 
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 
To battle in the clouds; before each van 
Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears, 
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms 
From either end of heaven the welkin burns. 
Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell, 
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 
In whirlwind; Hell scarce ho...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...ion 'twas for good alone,As, with a gentle coldness all her own,She waged with my hot wishes virtuous war.My thanks on her for such wise care I press,That with her lovely face and sweet disdainShe check'd my love and taught me peace to gain.O graceful artifice! deserved success!I with my fond vers...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...through her body heaved
When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?

IX. The Four Ages of Man

He with body waged a fight,
But body won; it walks upright.

Then he struggled with the heart;
Innocence and peace depart.

Then he struggled with the mind;
His proud heart he left behind.

Now his wars on God begin;
At stroke of midnight God shall win.

X. Conjunctions

If Jupiter and Saturn meet,
What a cop of mummy wheat!

The sword's a cross; ther...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...you,
Wise in the ways of the wilderness, and strong with the strength of the Wild?

You have spent your life, you have waged your strife where never we play a part;
You have held the throne of the Great Unknown, you have ruled a kingdom vast:

. . . . .

But to-night there's a strange, new trail for you, and you go, O weary heart!
To the place and rest of the Great Unguessed . . . at last, Tom Thorne, at last....Read more of this...

by Bryant, William Cullen
...y East¡ª 
Gray captains leading bands of veteran men 
And fiery youths to be the vulture's feast. 
Not thus were waged the mighty wars that gave 30 
The victory to her who fills this grave; 
Alone her task was wrought  
Alone the battle fought; 
Through that long strife her constant hope was staid 
On God alone nor looked for other aid. 35 

She met the hosts of Sorrow with a look 
That altered not beneath the frown they wore  
And soon the lowering brood ...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...e who saw him thus distressed
Would bid him bend his stubborn will and pray.
But he, strong in himself and obdurate,
Waged, prayerless, on his losing fight with Fate.[Pg 112]
Friends gave his proffered hand their coldest clasp,
Or took it not at all; and Poverty,
That bruised his body with relentless grasp,
Grinned, taunting, when he struggled to be free.
But though with helpless hands he beat the air,
His need extr...Read more of this...

by Verhaeren, Emile
...
Are numb and drowsy, and all round
The willows too, and walnut trees,
'Gainst which the Easterly fierce breeze
Has waged its feud.
No bayings from the forest sound,
No cry the empty midnight cuts—
The midnight space that grows imbrued
With damp breaths from the ashy ground.


The fishers hail each other not—
Nor help—in their fraternal lot;
Doing but that which must be done.
Each fishes for himself alone.


And this one gathers in his net,
Drawing it tighte...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...he shining of the stars, 
I marked Him in the flowering of His fields, 
But in His ways with men I find Him not. 
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die. 
O me! for why is all around us here 
As if some lesser god had made the world, 
But had not force to shape it as he would, 
Till the High God behold it from beyond, 
And enter it, and make it beautiful? 
Or else as if the world were wholly fair, 
But that these eyes of men are dense and dim, 
And have not power to...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...Good Father!… ’Twas an eve in middle June,
And war was waged anew 
By great Napoleon, who for years had strewn 
Men’s bones all Europe through. 

Three nights ere this, with columned corps he’d crossed
The Sambre at Charleroi, 
To move on Brussels, where the English host 
Dallied in Parc and Bois. 

The yestertide we’d heard the gloomy gun 
Growl through the long-sunned day
From Quatre-Bras and Ligny; ti...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...ed, and him the liberal cause
Acclaimed as nominee to the mayoralty
To vanquish A. D. Blood.
But as the war
Waged bitterly for votes and rumors flew
About the bank, and of the heavy loans
Which Rhodes' son had made to prop his loss
In wheat, and many drew their coin and left
The bank of Rhodes more hollow, with the talk
Among the liberals of another bank
Soon to be chartered, lo, the bubble burst
'Mid cries and curses; but the liberals laughed
And in the hall of N...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things