Famous Widest Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Modern English)

...y among men, that it was completely finished,
the greatest of halls—he created for it the name Heorot,
he who had the widest authority of his words.
He left no promises unfulfilled and dealt out rings,
riches at his feastings. The hall towered there,
high and horn-wide, awaiting the whelming flames,
the hateful tongues. It was not so long yet
until the blade-hatred must awaken sworn in-laws
after their slaughtering malice. (ll. 74-85)

Then wretchedly a mighty monst...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Endymion: Book I

...eye, there glimmered light
Fair faces and a rush of garments white,
Plainer and plainer shewing, till at last
Into the widest alley they all past,
Making directly for the woodland altar.
O kindly muse! let not my weak tongue faulter
In telling of this goodly company,
Of their old piety, and of their glee:
But let a portion of ethereal dew
Fall on my head, and presently unmew
My soul; that I may dare, in wayfaring,
To stammer where old Chaucer used to sing.

 Leading the way,...Read more of this...
by Keats, John

How the Land was Won

..., 
A wild wide land to be won for us 
By hearts and hands so few. 

The darkest land 'neath a blue sky's dome, 
And the widest waste on earth; 
The strangest scenes and the least like home 
In the lands of our fathers' birth; 
The loneliest land in the wide world then, 
And away on the furthest seas, 
A land most barren of life for men – 
And they won it by twos and threes! 

With God, or a dog, to watch, they slept 
By the camp-fires' ghastly glow, 
Where the scrubs were dar...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Malaria

...As upon the deck he lay.

   It said, "Oh, idle upon the sea,
       Awake and with sleep have done,
   Haul up the widest sail of the prow,
   And come with me to the rice fields now,
   She longs, oh, how can I tell you how,
       To show you your first-born son!"...Read more of this...
by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory

On the Wallaby

...rs like lamps from the dome, 
And I think of the hearth where the dark shadows fall, 
When my camp fire is built on the widest of all; 
But I'm following Fate, for I know she knows best, 
I follow, she leads, and it's nor'-west by west. 

When my tent is all torn and my blankets are damp, 
And the rising flood waters flow fast by the camp, 
When the cold water rises in jets from the floor, 
I lie in my bunk and I list to the roar, 
And I think how to-morrow my footsteps will ...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry


Orlie Wilde

...ess form of womanhood,
That brought a thought that if for me
Such eyes had sought across the sea,
I could have swum the widest tide
That ever mariner defied,
And, at the shore, could on have gone
To that high crag she stood upon,
To there entreat and say, 'My Sweet,
Behold thy servant at thy feet.'
And to my soul I said: 'Above,
There stands the idol of thy love!'

"In this rapt, awed, ecstatic state
I gazed--till lo! I was aware
A fisherman had joined her there--
A weary man...Read more of this...
by Riley, James Whitcomb

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...t such 
Accept your Maker's work; he gave it me, 
Which I as freely give: Hell shall unfold, 
To entertain you two, her widest gates, 
And send forth all her kings; there will be room, 
Not like these narrow limits, to receive 
Your numerous offspring; if no better place, 
Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge 
On you who wrong me not for him who wronged. 
And should I at your harmless innocence 
Melt, as I do, yet publick reason just, 
Honour and empire with revenge enl...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet 06 - Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand

...ift my hand
Serenely in the sunshine as before,
Without the sense of that which I forbore—
Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double. What I do
And what I dream include thee, as the wine
Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue
God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
And sees within my eyes the tears of two....Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

Sonnets from the Portuguese iii

...nd 5 
Serenely in the sunshine as before  
Without the sense of that which I forbore¡ª 
Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land 
Doom takes to part us leaves thy heart in mine 
With pulses that beat double. What I do 10 
And what I dream include thee as the wine 
Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue 
God for myself He hears that name of thine  
And sees within my eyes the tears of two. ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

The Press

...the midnight stress--
He hath sold his heart to the old Black Art
 We call the daily Press.

Who once hath dealt in the widest game
 That all of a man can play,
No later love, no larger fame
 Will lure him long away.
As the war-horse snuffeth the battle afar,
 The entered Soul, no less,
He saith: "Ha! Ha!" where the trumpets are
 And the thunders of the Press!

Canst thou number the days that we fulfill,
 Or the Times that we bring forth?
Canst thou send the lightnings to do ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Seafarer

...sorrow,
The bitter heart's blood. Burgher knows not --
He the prosperous man -- what some perform
Where wandering them widest draweth.
So that but now my heart burst from my breast-lock,
My mood 'mid the mere-flood,
Over the whale's acre, would wander wide.
On earth's shelter cometh oft to me,
Eager and ready, the crying lone-flyer,
Whets for the whale-path the heart irresistibly,
O'er tracks of ocean; seeing that anyhow
My lord deems to me this dead life
On loan and on land...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra

Wires

...The widest prairies have electric fences, 
For though old cattle know they must not stray 
Young steers are always scenting purer water 
Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires 

Leads them to blunder up against the wires
Whose muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter.
Young steers become old cattle from that day, 
Electric limits to their widest senses....Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip

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