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Famous Contends Poems by Famous Poets

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

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...voice and face,
These gentle Lawiers, wage,
Like louing brothers case,
For fathers heritage;
That each, while each contends,
It selfe to other lends.

For Beautie beautifies
With heau'nly hew and grace
The heau'nly harmonies;
And in this faultlesse face
The perfect beauties be
A perfect harmony.

Musick more loftly swels
In speeches nobly plac'd;
Beauty as farre excels,
In action aptly grac'd:
A friend each party draws
To countenance his cause....Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip



...rth, 
And scarcely in the chase could cope 
With timid fawn or antelope, 
Far less would venture into strife 
Where man contends for fame and life — 
I would not trust that look or tone: 
No — nor the blood so near my own. 

That blood — he hath not heard — no more — 
I'll watch him closer than before. 
He is an Arab to my sight, [5] 
Or Christian crouching in the fight — 
But hark! — I hear Zuleika's voice; 
Like Houris' hymn it meets mine ear: 
She is the offspring ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...complete;
His quincunx darkens, his espaliers meet;
The wood supports the plain, the parts unite,
And strength of shade contends with strength of light;
A waving glow his bloomy beds display,
Blushing in bright diversities of day,
With silver-quiv'ring rills meander'd o'er--
Enjoy them, you! Villario can no more;
Tir'd of the scene parterres and fountains yield,
He finds at last he better likes a field.

Through his young woods how pleas'd Sabinus stray'd,
Or sat delighte...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...ith such labour from its centre brought; 
None to be sunk in the foundation bends, 
Each in the house the highest place contends, 
And each the hand that lays him will direct, 
And some fall back upon the architect; 
Yet all composed by his attractive song, 
Into the animated city throng. 

The Commonwealth does through their centres all 
Draw the circumference of the public wall; 
The crossest spirits here do take their part, 
Fastening the contignation which they thwart...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...soul to hear it. Where we entered now 
 No light attempted. Only sound arose, 
 As ocean with the tortured air contends, 
 What time intolerable tempest rends 
 The darkness; so the shrieking winds oppose 
 For ever, and bear they, as they swerve and sweep, 
 The doomed disastrous spirits, and whirl aloft, 
 Backward, and down, nor any rest allow, 
 Nor pause of such contending wraths as oft 
 Batter them against the precipitous sides, and there 
 The shrieks and moa...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante



...rden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot--
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not--
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine....Read more of this...
by Brown, Thomas Edward
...s true King, and to the Fiend
Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.
So fares it when with truth falsehood contends....Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...AN class=i0>My steps to you, sweet company of friends!Fortune with their free course the more contends,And elsewhere bids me roam, by snare and spellThe heart, sent forth by me though it rebel,Is still with you where that fair vale extends,In whose green windings most our sea ascends,From which but yesterday I wept farewel...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco
...rth, 
And scarcely in the chase could cope 
With timid fawn or antelope, 
Far less would venture into strife 
Where man contends for fame and life — 
I would not trust that look or tone: 
No — nor the blood so near my own. 

That blood — he hath not heard — no more — 
I'll watch him closer than before. 
He is an Arab to my sight, [5] 
Or Christian crouching in the fight — 
But hark! — I hear Zuleika's voice; 
Like Houris' hymn it meets mine ear: 
She is the offspring ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...with such labour from its Center brought;
None to be sunk in the Foundation bends,
Each in the House the highest Place contends,
And each the Hand that lays him will direct,
And some fall back upon the Architect;
Yet all compos'd by his attractive Song,
Into the Animated City throng.
The Common-wealth does through their Centers all
Draw the Circumf'rence of the publique Wall;
The crossest Spirits here do take their part,
Fast'ning the Contignation which they thwart;
And ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...eal ambition but to see
Rise from the foam of Nature's sunlit ocean
My dream of palpable divinity;

And aught the world contends for to mine eye
Seemed not so real a meaning of success
As only once to clasp before I die
My vision of embodied happiness....Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan
...sepulcher'd alive ; Where good men's virtues them to honors bring, And not to dangers ; when so wise a king Contends to have worth enjoy, from his regard, As her own conscience, still, the same reward. These, noblest CECIL, labor'd in my thought, Wherein what wonder see thy name hath wrought ? That whilst I meant but thine to gratulate, I have sung the greater fortunes of our state....Read more of this...
by Jonson, Ben

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