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Famous Address Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Frost, Robert
...let yourself go and get some sleep. 
But first--let's see--what was I going to ask you? 
Those collars--who shall I address them to, 
Suppose you aren't awake when I come back?" 
"Really, friend, I can't let you. You--may need them." 
"Not till I shrink, when they'll be out of style." 
"But really I--I have so many collars." 
"I don't know who I rather would have have them. 
They're only turning yellow where they are. 
But you're the doctor as the ...Read more of this...



by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...itator
 the rabble-rouser.

Stifling
 the torrents of poetry,
I’ll skip
 the volumes of lyrics;
as one alive,
 I’ll address the living.
I’ll join you
 in the far communist future,
I who am
 no Esenin super-hero.

My verse will reach you
 across the peaks of ages,
over the heads
 of governments and poets.

My verse 
 will reach you
not as an arrow
 in a cupid-lyred chase,
not as worn penny
Reaches a numismatist,
not as the light of dead stars reaches you.

...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...can find 
In this particular life I choose to lead 
No fit provision for them. Can you not? 
Say you, my fault is I address myself 
To grosser estimators than should judge? 
And that's no way of holding up the soul, 
Which, nobler, needs men's praise perhaps, yet knows 
One wise man's verdict outweighs all the fools'-- 
Would like the two, but, forced to choose, takes that. 
I pine among my million imbeciles 
(You think) aware some dozen men of sense 
Eye me and know ...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...of both.
No prayer persuades, no flattery fawns,
Their noble meanings are their pawns.
Plain and cold is their address,
Power have they for tenderness,
And so thoroughly is known
Each others' purpose by his own,
They can parley without meeting,
Need is none of forms of greeting,
They can well communicate
In their innermost estate;
When each the other shall avoid,
Shall each by each be most enjoyed.
Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves
Do these celebrate their loves...Read more of this...

by Rilke, Rainer Maria
...from those who died young.
Didn't their fate whenever you stepped into a church
In Naples or Rome quietly come to address you?
Or high up some eulogy entrusted you with a mission
as last year on the plaque in Santa Maria Formosa.
What they want of me is that I gently remove the appearance
of injustice about their death-which at times
slightly hinders their souls from proceeding onward.
Of course it is strange to inhabit the earth no longer
to give up cust...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...Pudding deign'd at home to eat; 
So Philomede, lecturing all mankind 
On the soft Passion, and the Taste refin'd, 
Th' Address, the Delicacy--stoops at once, 
And makes her hearty meal upon a Dunce. 

Flavia's a Wit, has too much sense to Pray; 
To Toast our wants and wishes, is her way; 
Nor asks of God, but of her Stars, to give 
The mighty blessing, "while we live, to live." 
Then all for Death, that Opiate of the soul! 
Lucretia's dagger, Rosamonda's bowl. 
S...Read more of this...

by Collins, Billy
...g,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...trict monumental pure design,
And the melodic line:
Be thou tonight with all beneath these rafters—be with me.
If I address thee in archaic style—
Words obsolete, words obsolescent,
It is that for a little while
The heart must, oh indeed must from this angry and out-rageous present
Itself withdraw
Into some past in which most crooked Evil,
Although quite certainly conceived and born, was not as yet the Law.

Archaic, or obsolescent at the least,
Be thy grave speaking ...Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...s who journeyed this way
No damsel so lovely, no damsel so gay
As Mary the Maid of the Inn.


IV.

Her chearful address fill'd the guests with delight
As she welcomed them in with a smile:
Her heart was a stranger to childish affright,
And Mary would walk by the Abbey at night
When the wind whistled down the dark aisle.


V.

She loved, and young Richard had settled the day,
And she hoped to be happy for life;
But Richard was idle and worthless, and they
Who k...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...in Boston commons placed,
Laid nought, but quires of paper, waste;
While strokes alternate stunn'd the nation,
Protest, Address and Proclamation,
And speech met speech, fib clash'd with fib,
And Gage still answer'd, squib for squib.


"Though this not all his time was lost on;
He fortified the town of Boston,
Built breastworks, that might lend assistance
To keep the patriots at a distance;
For howsoe'er the rogues might scoff,
He liked them best the farthest off;
Works of...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...commission,
And Neptune erst, in treaty free,
Give up dominion o'er the sea?
Else where's the faith of famed orations,
Address, debate and proclamations,
Or courtly sermon, laureat ode,
And ballads on the wat'ry God;
With whose high strains great George enriches
His eloquence of gracious speeches?
Not faithful to our Highland eyes,
These deadly forms of vision rise.
Some whig-inspiring rebel sprite
Now palms delusion on our sight.
I'd scarcely trust a tale so vain,
S...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...l teach us highest deeds, by proof to try 
Who is our equal: Then thou shalt behold 
Whether by supplication we intend 
Address, and to begirt the almighty throne 
Beseeching or besieging. This report, 
These tidings carry to the anointed King; 
And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight. 
He said; and, as the sound of waters deep, 
Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause 
Through the infinite host; nor less for that 
The flaming Seraph fearless, though alone 
Encompas...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...in a packing crate with a big label

on it.

 Contents:

 Trout Fishing in America Shorty



 Occupation:

 Wine



Address:

C/O Nelson Algren

Chicago

 And there would be stickers all over the crate, saying:

"GLASS/HANDLE WITH CARE/SPECIAL HANDLING/GLASS

/DON'T SPILL/THIS SIDE UP/HANDLE THIS WINO LIKE HE

WAS AN ANGEL"

 And Trout Fishing in America Shorty, grumbling, puking

and cursing in his crate would travel across America, from

San Francisco to Chicago.

 ...Read more of this...

by Kunitz, Stanley
...Department of Vital Statistics.
If it weren't for a census report
of a five-year-old White Male
sharing my mother's address
at the Green Street tenement in Worcester
I'd have no documentary proof
that I exist. You are the first, 
my dear, to bully me
into these festive occasions.

Sometimes, you say, I wear
an abstracted look that drives you
up the wall, as though it signified
distress or disaffection.
Don't take it so to heart.
Maybe I enjoy not-being as ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...meet him, trying To give her tone 
some healthy sprightliness,
But his uneager dignity soon chilled Her 
well-prepared address.
Thus Summer waned, and in the mornings, crying
Of wild geese startled Eunice, and their flying
Whirred overhead for days and never stilled.

XLIV
One afternoon of grey clouds and white wind, Eunice 
awaited Gervase by the river.
The Dartle splashed among the reeds and whined Over the willow-roots, 
and a long sliver
Of caked and slobbere...Read more of this...

by Atwood, Margaret
...a mirage, a glossy image
fixed in the posture
of the last time I saw you.
Turn you over, there's the place
for the address. Wish you were
here. Love comes
in waves like the ocean, a sickness which goes on
& on, a hollow cave
in the head, filling & pounding, a kicked ear....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...she weeps
And words addrest seem into tears dissolv'd,
Wetting the borders of her silk'n veil: 
But now again she makes address to speak.

Dal: With doubtful feet and wavering resolution
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson,
Which to have merited, without excuse,
I cannot but acknowledge; yet if tears
May expiate (though the fact more evil drew
In the perverse event then I foresaw)
My penance hath not slack'n'd, though my pardon
No way assur'd. But conjugal ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...word pigsnie, the first for
"darling," the second literally for "eye;" and Bishop Gardner,
"On True Obedience," in his address to the reader, says: "How
softly she was wont to chirpe him under the chin, and kiss him;
how prettily she could talk to him (how doth my sweet heart,
what saith now pig's-eye)."

13. Oseney: A once well-known abbey near Oxford.

14. Trave: travis; a frame in which unruly horses were shod.

15. Harow and Alas: Haro! was an old...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...of the world.' 

She ended here, and beckoned us: the rest 
Parted; and, glowing full-faced welcome, she 
Began to address us, and was moving on 
In gratulation, till as when a boat 
Tacks, and the slackened sail flaps, all her voice 
Faltering and fluttering in her throat, she cried 
'My brother!' 'Well, my sister.' 'O,' she said, 
'What do you here? and in this dress? and these? 
Why who are these? a wolf within the fold! 
A pack of wolves! the Lord be gracious to ...Read more of this...

by Shakur, Tupac
...questions
Be grateful for blessings
Don't ever change, keep your essense
The power is in the people and politics we address
Always do your best
Don't let the pressure make you panic
And when you get stranded and things don't go the way you planned it
Dreaming of riches in the position of making a difference
Politicians is hypocrites
They don't want to listen
If I'm insane it's the fame
I ain't about to change
It ain't nothing like the game
It's just me against t...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs