Famous Wilfully Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Birches

...ving lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree~
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be g...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert


From Daphnaida

...of my mind, 
My drink the teares which fro mine eyed do raine, 
My bed the ground that hardest I may finde; 
So will I wilfully increase my paine. 

Ne sleepe (the harbenger of wearie wights) 
Shall ever lodge upon mine ey-lids more; 
Ne shall with rest refresh my fainting sprights, 
Nor failing force to former strength restore: 
But I will wake and sorrow all the night 
With Philumene, my fortune to deplore; 
With Philumene, the partner of my plight. 

And ever as I see the...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund

From Daphnaïda

...my mind, 
My drink the teares which fro mine eyed do raine, 
My bed the ground that hardest I may finde; 
So will I wilfully increase my paine. 35 

Ne sleepe (the harbenger of wearie wights) 
Shall ever lodge upon mine ey-lids more; 
Ne shall with rest refresh my fainting sprights, 
Nor failing force to former strength restore: 
But I will wake and sorrow all the night 40 
With Philumene, my fortune to deplore; 
With Philumene, the partner of my plight. 

And e...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...like state of bliss; 
By violence? no, for that shall be withstood; 
But by deceit and lies: This let him know, 
Lest, wilfully transgressing, he pretend 
Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned. 
So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfilled 
All justice: Nor delayed the winged Saint 
After his charge received; but from among 
Thousand celestial Ardours, where he stood 
Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light, 
Flew through the midst of Heaven; the angelick quires, 
O...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Regained: The First Book

...rds to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear;
At least to try, and teach the erring soul,
Not wilfully misdoing, but unware
Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.
These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving,
By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced,
And said to me apart, 'High are thy thoughts,
O Son! but nourish them, and let them soar 
To what highth sacred virtue and true worth
Can raise them, though above example high;
By matchless deeds ex...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Sonnet 80: O how I faint when I of you do write

...as the ocean is,
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy bark, inferior far to his,
On your broad main doth wilfully appear.
Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;
Or, being wrecked, I am a worthless boat,
He of tall building, and of goodly pride.
Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this: my love was my decay....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet LXXX

...e as the ocean is,
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy bark inferior far to his
On your broad main doth wilfully appear.
Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;
Or being wreck'd, I am a worthless boat,
He of tall building and of goodly pride:
Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this; my love was my decay....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

that precise moment

...winter’s been enough and its light side
should now be burgeoned to the world – then in the quick
of each denying being (wilfully or reluctantly or what)
a blossoming takes place also – is noted and then
put aside – its hope is not forsaken – spring survives...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

The Impercipient

...quillity,
But for the charge that blessed things
I'd liefer have unbe.

O, doth a bird deprived of wings
Go earth-bound wilfully!
. . . .
Enough. As yet disquiet clings
About us. Rest shall we....Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

Through a Glass Darkly

...--wishes vain appear,
We cannot go, why are we here?

O may we for assurance's sake,
Some arbitrary judgement take,
And wilfully pronounce it clear,
For this or that 'tis we are here?

Or is it right, and will it do,
To pace the sad confusion through,
And say:--It doth not yet appear,
What we shall be, what we are here?

Ah yet, when all is thought and said,
The heart still overrules the head;
Still what we hope we must believe,
And what is given us receive;

Must still belie...Read more of this...
by Clough, Arthur Hugh

Troilus And Criseyde: Book 02

...dly aventure
Som tyme is shape, if he it can receyven;
And if that he wol take of it no cure,
Whan that it commeth, but wilfully it weyven,
Lo, neither cas nor fortune him deceyven, 
But right his verray slouthe and wrecchednesse;
And swich a wight is for to blame, I gesse.

'Good aventure, O bele nece, have ye
Ful lightly founden, and ye conne it take;
And, for the love of god, and eek of me, 
Cacche it anoon, lest aventure slake.
What sholde I lenger proces of it make?
Yif ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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