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Famous Addition Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Browning, Robert
...ks the cheek to dimples sweet?

XII

Is the creature too imperfect, say?
Would you mend it
And so end it?
Since not all addition perfects aye!

XIII

Or is it of its kind, perhaps,
Just perfection— 
Whence, rejection
Of a grace not to its mind, perhaps?

XIV

Shall we burn up, tread that face at once
Into tinder
And so hinder
Sparks from kindling all the place at once?

XV

Or else kiss away one's soul on her?
Your love-fancies!— 
A sick man sees
Truer, when his hot eyes roll...Read more of this...



by Cavafy, Constantine P
...not question whether I am happy or unhappy.
Yet there is one thing that I keep gladly in mind --
that in the great addition (their addition that I abhor)
that has so many numbers, I am not one
of the many units there. In the final sum
I have not been calculated. And this joy suffices me....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...hall know where you are until you die.’ 
I can still hear him saying those words to me 
Again, without a loss or an addition; 
I know, for I have heard them ever since. 
And there was in me not an answer for them
Save a new roiling silence. Once again 
I met his look, and on his face I saw 
There was a twisting in the swarthiness 
That I had often sworn to be the cast 
Of his ophidian mind. He had no soul.
There was to be no more of him—not then. 
The ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...e by the well?' 
Balin the stillness of a minute broke 
Saying 'An unmelodious name to thee, 
Balin, "the Savage"--that addition thine-- 
My brother and my better, this man here, 
Balan. I smote upon the naked skull 
A thrall of thine in open hall, my hand 
Was gauntleted, half slew him; for I heard 
He had spoken evil of me; thy just wrath 
Sent me a three-years' exile from thine eyes. 
I have not lived my life delightsomely: 
For I that did that violence to thy thra...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...ckage,
The prayer of the bone on the beach, the unprayable
Prayer at the calamitous annunciation?

There is no end, but addition: the trailing
Consequence of further days and hours,
While emotion takes to itself the emotionless
Years of living among the breakage
Of what was believed in as the most reliable—
And therefore the fittest for renunciation.

There is the final addition, the failing
Pride or resentment at failing powers,
The unattached devotion which might pass f...Read more of this...



by Philips, Katherine
...els, who with greedy choice
Are yet determin'd to their joys. 

Our hearts are doubled by the loss,
Here Mixture is Addition grown;
We both diffuse, and both ingross:
And we whose minds are so much one,
Never, yet ever are alone. 

We court our own Captivity
Than Thrones more great and innocent:
`Twere banishment to be set free,
Since we wear fetters whose intent
Not Bondage is but Ornament 

Divided joys are tedious found,
And griefs united easier grow:
We are our se...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...uch rais'd within, 
Now find, that even the lightest Things, 
As the minuter parts of Air, 
When Number to their Weight addition brings, 
Can, like the small, but numerous Insects Stings, 
Can, like th' assembl'd Winds, urge Ruin and Despair. 


Thus You've obey'd, you Winds, that must fulfill 
The Great disposer's Righteous Will: 
Thus did your Breath a strict Enquiry make, 
Thus did you our most secret Sins awake, 
And thus chastis'd their Ill. 


Whilst vainly Thos...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...bject of the present volume to lay before the reader, 
whose indulgence is requested for its many imperfections. In addition 
to the beauty of the language in which the Poet has given utterance 
to his thoughts, there is a depth of meaning in those thoughts which 
is not easily discoverable at first sight, and the translator incurs 
great risk of overlooking it, and of giving a prosaic effect to 
that which in the original contains the very essence of poetry. 
It is p...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...g past or late. 
Some such resemblances, methinks, I find 
Of our last evening's talk, in this thy dream, 
But with addition strange; yet be not sad. 
Evil into the mind of God or Man 
May come and go, so unreproved, and leave 
No spot or blame behind: Which gives me hope 
That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream, 
Waking thou never will consent to do. 
Be not disheartened then, nor cloud those looks, 
That wont to be more cheerful and serene, 
Than when fair ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...gh unwearied, up returned, 
Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode; 
Thence to behold this new created world, 
The addition of his empire, how it showed 
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair, 
Answering his great idea. Up he rode 
Followed with acclamation, and the sound 
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned 
Angelick harmonies: The earth, the air 
Resounded, (thou rememberest, for thou heardst,) 
The heavens and all the constellations rung, 
The ...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...t thy will,
And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou being rich in will add to thy will
One will of mine to make thy large will mo...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...n's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure....Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...'Will,'
And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in overplus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
The sea all water, yet receives rain still
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou, being rich in 'Will,' add to thy 'Will'
One will of mine, to make thy large 'W...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...n's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure....Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...ery, and Lady Bennett,
Which no doubt were sent by them with heartfelt regret. 

Besides those that sent wreaths in addition were the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen,
Especially the Prince of Wales' was most lovely to be seen,
And the Earl of Dalkeith's wreath was very pretty too,
With a mixture of green and white flowers, beautiful to view. 

Amongst those present at the interment were Mr Marjoribanks, M.P.,
Also ex-Provost Ballingall from Bonnie Dundee;
Beside...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...r their unstudied admonition 
Occasional contrition
For their old-fashioned ways 
May have reduced their doubts, and in addition 
Softened their final days. 

Farther away than feet shall ever travel. 
Are the vague towers of our unbuilded State;
But there are mightier things than we to lead us, 
That will not let us wait. 
And we go on with none to tell us whether 
Or not we’ve each a tether 
Determining how fast or how far we go;
And it is well, since we must go...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...gabond would not have come to steal. 
Long and often had they figured for a larger valuation,
But the size of their addition was the balance of a doubt: 
There were gentlemen of leisure in the Valley of the Shadow, 
Not allured by retrospection, disenchanted, and played out. 

And among the dark endurances of unavowed reprisals 
There were silent eyes of envy that saw little but saw well;
And over beauty’s aftermath of hazardous ambitions 
There were tears for what ha...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...nay,
It will not be amended, never mo';
Thou art so loathly, and so old also,
And thereto* comest of so low a kind, *in addition
That little wonder though I wallow and wind;* *writhe, turn about
So woulde God, mine hearte woulde brest!"* *burst
"Is this," quoth she, "the cause of your unrest?"
"Yea, certainly," quoth he; "no wonder is."
"Now, Sir," quoth she, "I could amend all this,
If that me list, ere it were dayes three,
*So well ye mighte bear you unto me.* *if y...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things