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Famous Wast Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Bradstreet, Anne
...15 Then on a stately Oak I cast mine Eye,
16 Whose ruffling top the Clouds seem'd to aspire.
17 How long since thou wast in thine Infancy?
18 Thy strength and stature, more thy years admire,
19 Hath hundred winters past since thou wast born?
20 Or thousand since thou brakest thy shell of horn?
21 If so, all these as nought, Eternity doth scorn. 

4 

22 Then higher on the glistering Sun I gaz'd,
23 Whose beams was shaded by the leafy Tree.
24 The more I look'd, th...Read more of this...



by Keats, John
...te places, where dank moisture breeds
The pipy hemlock to strange overgrowth;
Bethinking thee, how melancholy loth
Thou wast to lose fair Syrinx--do thou now,
By thy love's milky brow!
By all the trembling mazes that she ran,
Hear us, great Pan!

 "O thou, for whose soul-soothing quiet, turtles
Passion their voices cooingly 'mong myrtles,
What time thou wanderest at eventide
Through sunny meadows, that outskirt the side
Of thine enmossed realms: O thou, to whom
Broad leaved f...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...that thou must wander far
In other regions, past the scanty bar
To mortal steps, before thou cans't be ta'en
From every wasting sigh, from every pain,
Into the gentle bosom of thy love.
Why it is thus, one knows in heaven above:
But, a poor Naiad, I guess not. Farewel!
I have a ditty for my hollow cell."

 Hereat, she vanished from Endymion's gaze,
Who brooded o'er the water in amaze:
The dashing fount pour'd on, and where its pool
Lay, half asleep, in grass and r...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...thou sit amid our regions wild
Rapt in a deep prophetic solitude.
There came an eastern voice of solemn mood:--
Yet wast thou patient. Then sang forth the Nine,
Apollo's garland:--yet didst thou divine
Such home-bred glory, that they cry'd in vain,
"Come hither, Sister of the Island!" Plain
Spake fair Ausonia; and once more she spake
A higher summons:--still didst thou betake
Thee to thy native hopes. O thou hast won
A full accomplishment! The thing is done,
Which...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...loor of the sea with foam.

Through fell and moorland,
And salt-sea foreland,
Our noisy norland
Resounds and rings;
Waste waves thereunder
Are blown in sunder,
And winds make thunder
With cloudwide wings;
Sea-drift makes dimmer
The beacon's glimmer;
Nor sail nor swimmer
Can try the tides;
And snowdrifts thicken
Where, when leaves quicken,
Under the heather the sundew hides.

Green land and red land,
Moorside and headland,
Are white as dead land,
Are all as one;
Nor ho...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
Love-loyal to the least wish of the Queen, 
Back to his land; but she to Almesbury 
Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald, 
And heard the Spirits of the waste and weald 
Moan as she fled, or thought she heard them moan: 
And in herself she moaned `Too late, too late!' 
Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn, 
A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, 
Croaked, and she thought, `He spies a field of death; 
For now the Heathen of the Northern Sea, 
Lured by ...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...eer supremacy,
One avenue was shaded from thine eyes,
Through which I wandered to eternal truth.
And first, as thou wast not the first of powers,
So art thou not the last; it cannot be:
Thou art not the beginning nor the end.
From Chaos and parental Darkness came
Light, the first fruits of that intestine broil,
That sullen ferment, which for wondrous ends
Was ripening in itself. The ripe hour came,
And with it Light, and Light, engendering
Upon its own producer, f...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...my tale to that which next befell, 
 When the dawn opened, and the night was not. 
 The hollowed blackness of that waste, God wot, 
 Shrank, thinned, and ceased. A blinding splendour hot 
 Flushed the great height toward which my footsteps fell, 
 And though it kindled from the nether hell, 
 Or from the Star that all men leads, alike 
 It showed me where the great dawn-glories strike 
 The wide east, and the utmost peaks of snow. 

 How first I entered on that p...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...tripp'd the truth, 
And troubled manhood follow'd baffled youth; 
With thought of years in phantom chase misspent, 
And wasted powers for better purpose lent; 
And fiery passions that had pour'd their wrath 
In hurried desolation o'er his path, 
And left the better feelings all at strife 
In wild reflection o'er his stormy life; 
But haughty still, and loth himself to blame, 
He call'd on Nature's self to share the shame, 
And charged all faults upon the fleshly form 
She gav...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...ht,
She knew her Love and saw her Lord depart,
Then breathed her wonder and her woe forlorn
Into a single cry, and thou wast born?
Thou flower of rapture and thou fruit of grief;
Invisible enchantress of the heart;
Mistress of charms that bring relief
To sorrow, and to joy impart
A heavenly tone that keeps it undefiled,--
Thou art the child
Of Amor, and by right divine
A throne of love is thine,
Thou flower-folded, golden-girdled, star-crowned Queen,
Whose bridal beauty morta...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ch an ecstasy! 
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain¡ª 
To thy high requiem become a sod. 60 

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! 
No hungry generations tread thee down; 
The voice I hear this passing night was heard 
In ancient days by emperor and clown: 
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 65 
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, 
She stood in tears amid the alien corn; 
The same that ofttimes hath 
Charm'd magic...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
..., that dost prefer 
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure, 
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first 
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark 
Illumine, what is low raise and support; 
That, to the height of this great argument, 
I may assert Eternal Providence, 
And justify the ways of God to men. 
 Say first--for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, 
Nor th...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...succeed! 
So saying, his proud step he scornful turned, 
But with sly circumspection, and began 
Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale, his roam 
Mean while in utmost longitude, where Heaven 
With earth and ocean meets, the setting sun 
Slowly descended, and with right aspect 
Against the eastern gate of Paradise 
Levelled his evening rays: It was a rock 
Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds, 
Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent 
Accessible from earth, one e...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...rememberest what decree 
Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips 
Of Heaven's Almighty. Thou to me thy thoughts 
Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart; 
Both waking we were one; how then can now 
Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou seest imposed; 
New laws from him who reigns, new minds may raise 
In us who serve, new counsels to debate 
What doubtful may ensue: More in this place 
To utter is not safe. Assemble thou 
Of all those myriads which we lead the chie...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e field; 
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
Till thou return unto the ground; for thou 
Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth, 
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return. 
So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent; 
And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, 
Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood 
Before him naked to the air, that now 
Must suffer change, disdained not to begin 
Thenceforth the form of servant to assume; 
As wh...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e to dwell 
Permits not: to remove thee I am come, 
And send thee from the garden forth to till 
The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil. 
He added not; for Adam at the news 
Heart-struck with chilling gripe of sorrow stood, 
That all his senses bound; Eve, who unseen 
Yet all had heard, with audible lament 
Discovered soon the place of her retire. 
O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death! 
Must I thus leave thee$ Paradise? thus leave 
Thee, native soil! these...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...y.
Mighty thy name when Rome's lean eagles flew
From Britain's isles to far Euphrates blue;
And of the peoples thou wast noble queen,
Till in thy streets the Goth and Hun were seen.
Discrowned by man, deserted by the sea,
Thou sleepest, rocked in lonely misery!
No longer now upon thy swelling tide,
Pine-forest-like, thy myriad galleys ride!
For where the brass-beaked ships were wont to float,
The weary shepherd pipes his mournful note;
And the white sheep are free to ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...t of silence to a Woman.

Chor: In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy Countries Enemy,
Thou never wast remiss, I hear thee witness:
Yet Israel still serves with all his Sons. 

Sam: That fault I take not on me, but transfer
On Israel's Governours, and Heads of Tribes,
Who seeing those great acts which God had done
Singly by me against their Conquerours
Acknowledg'd not, or not at all consider'd
Deliverance offerd : I on th' other side
Us'd no ambitio...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...ese laws 
And created Hell’s dark jaws? 
My Presence I will take from thee: 
A cold leper thou shalt be. 
Tho’ thou wast so pure and bright 
That Heaven was impure in thy sight, 
Tho’ thy oath turn’d Heaven pale, 
Tho’ thy covenant built Hell’s jail, 
Tho’ thou didst all to chaos roll 
With the Serpent for its soul, 
Still the breath Divine does move, 
And the breath Divine is Love. 
Mary, fear not! Let me see 
The seven devils that torment thee. 
Hide not from My...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...thou not,' said Michael, 'of some past 
Exaggeration? something which may doom 
Thyself if false, as him if true? Thou wast 
Too bitter — is it not so? — in thy gloom 
Of passion?' — 'Passion!' cried the phantom dim, 
'I loved my country, and I hated him. 

LXXXIV 

'What I have written, I have written: let 
The rest be on his head or mine!' So spoke 
Old 'Nominis Umbra'; and while speaking yet, 
Away he melted in celestial smoke. 
Then Satan said to Michael, 'Don't ...Read more of this...

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