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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343. Address to the shade of Thomson

by Robert Burns
 WHILE virgin Spring by Eden’s flood,
 Unfolds her tender mantle green,
Or pranks the sod in frolic mood,
 Or tunes Eolian strains between.


While Summer, with a matron grace,
 Retreats to Dryburgh’s cooling shade,
Yet oft, delighted, stops to trace
 The progress of the spiky blade.


While Autumn, benefactor kind,
 By Tweed erects his aged head,
And sees, with self-approving mind,
 Each creature on...Read more of this...

The Travelling Post Office

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 The roving breezes come and go, the reed-beds sweep and sway, 
The sleepy river murmers low,and loiters on its way, 
It is the land of lots o'time along the Castlereagh. 
. . .. . . . . 

The old man's son had left the farm, he found it full and slow, 
He drifted to the great North-west, where all...Read more of this...

111. Address to Beelzebub

by Robert Burns
 LONG life, my Lord, an’ health be yours,
Unskaithed by hunger’d Highland boors;
Lord grant me nae duddie, desperate beggar,
Wi’ dirk, claymore, and rusty trigger,
May twin auld Scotland o’ a life
She likes—as butchers like a knife.


Faith you and Applecross were right
To keep the Highland hounds in sight:
I doubt na! they wad bid nae better,
Than let them ance out owre the water,
Then...Read more of this...

An Address to Shakespeare

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Immortal! William Shakespeare, there's none can you excel,
You have drawn out your characters remarkably well,
Which is delightful for to see enacted upon the stage
For instance, the love-sick Romeo, or Othello, in a rage;
His writings are a treasure, which the world cannot repay,
He was the greatest poet of the past or of the present day
Also the greatest dramatist, and is...Read more of this...

Sisters Of Mercy

by Leonard Cohen
 Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone. 
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go
on. 
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me
this song. 
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so
long. 
Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.

It begins...Read more of this...

Psalm 116 part 2

by Isaac Watts
 v.12ff 
C. M.
Vows made in trouble paid in the church.

What shall I render to my God
For all his kindness shown?
My feet shall visit thine abode,
My songs address thy throne.

Among the saints that fill thine house
My off'rings shall be paid;
There shall my zeal perform the vows
My soul in anguish made.

How much is mercy thy delight,
Thou ever-blessed God!
How dear thy servants...Read more of this...

527. Song—Address to the Woodlark

by Robert Burns
 O STAY, sweet warbling woodlark, stay,
Nor quit for me the trembling spray,
A hapless lover courts thy lay,
 Thy soothing, fond complaining.
Again, again that tender part,
That I may catch thy melting art;
For surely that wad touch her heart
 Wha kills me wi’ disdaining.


Say, was thy little mate unkind,
And heard thee as the careless wind?
Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join’d,
...Read more of this...

Tulips

by Sylvia Plath
 The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the...Read more of this...

95. Address to the Unco Guid

by Robert Burns
 O YE wha are sae guid yoursel’,
 Sae pious and sae holy,
Ye’ve nought to do but mark and tell
 Your neibours’ fauts and folly!
Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill,
 Supplied wi’ store o’ water;
The heaped happer’s ebbing still,
 An’ still the clap plays clatter.


Hear me, ye venerable core,
 As counsel for poor mortals
That frequent pass douce Wisdom’s door
...Read more of this...

An Address to the Rev. George Gilfillan

by William Topaz McGonagall
 All hail to the Rev. George Gilfillan of Dundee,
He is the greatest preacher I did ever hear or see.
He is a man of genius bright,
And in him his congregation does delight,
Because they find him to be honest and plain,
Affable in temper, and seldom known to complain.
He preaches in a plain straightforward way,
The people flock to hear him night and...Read more of this...

Poem To Be Placed In A Bottle And Cast Out To Sea

by Barry Tebb
 for Ken Kesey and his merry pranksters in a bus called ‘Further...’





Dear _______ and here’s where the problem begins

For who shall I address this letter to?

Friends are few and very special, muses in the main

I must confess, the first I lost just fifty years ago.

Perhaps the best.



I searched for years and wrote en route

‘Bridge Over the Aire’ after that...Read more of this...

138. Address to the Toothache

by Robert Burns
 MY curse upon your venom’d stang,
That shoots my tortur’d gums alang,
An’ thro’ my lug gies mony a twang,
 Wi’ gnawing vengeance,
Tearing my nerves wi’ bitter pang,
 Like racking engines!


When fevers burn, or argues freezes,
Rheumatics gnaw, or colics squeezes,
Our neibor’s sympathy can ease us,
 Wi’ pitying moan;
But thee—thou hell o’ a’ diseases—
 They mock our groan.


Adown my beard the slavers...Read more of this...

146. Address to Edinburgh

by Robert Burns
 EDINA! Scotia’s darling seat!
 All hail thy palaces and tow’rs,
Where once, beneath a Monarch’s feet,
 Sat Legislation’s sov’reign pow’rs:
 From marking wildly scatt’red flow’rs,
As on the banks of Ayr I stray’d,
 And singing, lone, the lingering hours,
I shelter in they honour’d shade.


Here Wealth still swells the golden tide,
 As busy Trade his labours plies;
There Architecture’s noble pride
 Bids elegance...Read more of this...

Hymn 125

by Isaac Watts
 Christ's compassion to the weak and tempted.

Heb. 4:15,16; 5:7; Matt. 12:20. 

With joy we meditate the grace
Of our High Priest above;
His heart is made of tenderness,
His bowels melt with love.

Touched with a sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For he has felt the same.

But spotless, innocent, and pure,
The great Redeemer stood,
While Satan's fiery darts he...Read more of this...

An Address to the New Tay Bridge

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Beautiful new railway bridge of the Silvery Tay,
With your strong brick piers and buttresses in so grand array,
And your thirteen central girders, which seem to my eye
Strong enough all windy storms to defy.
And as I gaze upon thee my heart feels gay,
Because thou are the greatest railway bridge of the present day,
And can be seen for miles away
From North,...Read more of this...

On the Soft and Gentle Motions of Eudora

by Anne Killigrew
 DIvine Thalia strike th'Harmonious Lute, 
But with a Stroke so Gentle as may sute
 The silent gliding of the Howers,
 Or yet the calmer growth of Flowers;
 Th'ascending or the falling Dew,
 Which none can see, though all find true. 
 For thus alone,
 Can be shewn,
 How downie, how smooth,
 Eudora doth Move,
 How Silken her Actions appear,
...Read more of this...

Mary - A Ballad

by Robert Southey
 Author Note: The story of the following ballad was related to me, when a school boy, as a fact which had really happened in the North of England. I have
adopted the metre of Mr. Lewis's Alonzo and Imogene--a poem deservedly
popular.


I.

Who is she, the poor Maniac, whose wildly-fix'd eyes
Seem a heart overcharged to express?
She weeps not, yet often and deeply...Read more of this...

169. Address to Wm. Tytler Esq. of Woodhouselee

by Robert Burns
 REVERED defender of beauteous Stuart,
 Of Stuart, a name once respected;
A name, which to love was the mark of a true heart,
 But now ’tis despis’d and neglected.


Tho’ something like moisture conglobes in my eye,
 Let no one misdeem me disloyal;
A poor friendless wand’rer may well claim a sigh,
 Still more if that wand’rer were royal.


My fathers that name...Read more of this...

147. Address to a Haggis

by Robert Burns
 FAIR fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
 Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
 As lang’s my arm.


The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin was help to mend a mill
 In time o’need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
 Like amber bead.


His knife...Read more of this...

Farewell Address at the Argyle Hall

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Fellow Citizens of Dundee.
I now must bid farewell to ye.
For I am going to London far away.
But when I will return again I cannot say. 

Farewell! Farewell! to the bonnie banks o' the Silvery Tay.
Also the beautiful Hill o' Balgay.
And the ill fated Bridge o' the Silvery Tay.
Which I will remember when I am far away. 

Farewell! to my...Read more of this...

A Blue Valentine

by Joyce Kilmer
 (For Aline)

Monsignore,
Right Reverend Bishop Valentinus,
Sometime of Interamna, which is called Ferni,
Now of the delightful Court of Heaven,
I respectfully salute you,
I genuflect
And I kiss your episcopal ring.
It is not, Monsignore,
The fragrant memory of your holy life,
Nor that of your shining and joyous martyrdom,
Which causes me now to address you.
But since this is your august festival, Monsignore,
It seems appropriate to me...Read more of this...

Parting Address From Z.Z. To A.E

by Anne Bronte
 O weep not, love! each tear that springs
In those dear eyes of thine,
To me a keener suffering brings
Than if they flowed from mine. 
And do not droop! however drear
The fate awaiting thee.
For my sake, combat pain and care,
And cherish life for me! 

I do not fear thy love will fail,
Thy faith is true I know;
But O! my love! thy...Read more of this...

Sonnet 04

by Alan Seeger
 If I was drawn here from a distant place, 
'Twas not to pray nor hear our friend's address, 
But, gazing once more on your winsome face, 
To worship there Ideal Loveliness. 
On that pure shrine that has too long ignored 
The gifts that once I brought so frequently 
I lay this votive offering, to record 
How sweet your quiet...Read more of this...

84. Address to the Deil

by Robert Burns
 O THOU! whatever title suit thee—
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie,
Wha in yon cavern grim an’ sootie,
 Clos’d under hatches,
Spairges about the brunstane cootie,
 To scaud poor wretches!


Hear me, auld Hangie, for a wee,
An’ let poor damned bodies be;
I’m sure sma’ pleasure it can gie,
 Ev’n to a deil,
To skelp an’ scaud poor dogs like me,
 An’ hear us...Read more of this...

440. Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle

by Robert Burns
 STILL anxious to secure your partial favour,
And not less anxious, sure, this night, than ever,
A Prologue, Epilogue, or some such matter,
’Twould vamp my bill, said I, if nothing better;
So sought a poet, roosted near the skies,
Told him I came to feast my curious eyes;
Said, nothing like his works was ever printed;
And last, my prologue-business slily hinted.
“Ma’am, let me tell...Read more of this...

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