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Famous Aids Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...:
His real habitude gave life and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case:
All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
Came for additions; yet their purposed trim
Pieced not his grace, but were all graced by him.

'So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kinds of arguments and question deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep:
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He ha...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...—for praise prevails; 
Heap up the measure, load the scales, 
 And good to goodness add: 
The gen'rous soul her Saviour aids, 
But peevish obloquy degrades; 
 The Lord is great and glad. 

 LI 
For ADORATION all the ranks 
Of angels yield eternal thanks, 
 And DAVID in the midst; 
With God's good poor, which last and least 
In man's esteem, thou to thy feast, 
 O blessed bridegroom, bidst. 
 LII 
For ADORATION seasons change, 
And order, truth, and beauty range, 
 Adj...Read more of this...

by Ammons, A R
...turned into
concrete visionary forms: Lucre could lust

for Luster: bad angels could roar out of perdition
and kill the AIDS vaccine not quite

perfected yet: the gods could get down on
each other; the big gods could fly in from

nebulae unknown: but I'm only me: I have 4
interests--money, poetry, sex, death: I guess

I can jostle those. . . ....Read more of this...

by Duhamel, Denise
...rapist crooned. 
Barbie and Ken, on cue, groped in the dark, 
their interchangeable skin glowing, the color of Band-Aids. 
Then, they let themselves go-- Soon Barbie was begging Ken 
to try on her spandex miniskirt. She showed him how 
to pivot as though he was on a runway. Ken begged 
to tie Barbie onto his yellow surfboard and spin her 
on the kitcen table until she grew dizzy. Anything,
anything, they both said to the other's requests,
their mirrored de...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...lundering brutes in Eden shunning,
Chose out the serpent for his cunning;
Of late he is not half so nice,
Nor picks out aids because they're wise:
For had he stood upon perfection,
His present friends had lost th' election,
And fared as hard, in this proceeding,
As owls and asses did in Eden.


"Yet fools are often dangerous enemies;
As meanest reptiles are most venomous:
Nor e'er could Gage, by craft or prowess,
Have done a whit more mischief to us;
Since he began th' un...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...mble tone;
My Thesaurus is handy by,
A rhyming lexicon I own;
Without them I am ill at ease -
What bards would use such aids as these?

Bad poets make good verse, they say;
The Great have not distained to woo
The modest muse of every day;
Read Longfellow and Byron through,
The fabric test - much verse you'll see
Compared with what is poetry.

Small blame; one cannot always soar
To heights of hyaline sublime;
Melodious prose one must deplore,
And fetters of rebellious rhym...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...y as much I tast,
As will not reason, or Religion wast.
If they're deny'd, I on my selfe can Liue,
And slight those aids, unequal chance does give.
When in the Sun, my wings can be display'd,
And in retirement, I can bless the shade....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...to nothing brought,
Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear 
Vented much policy, and projects deep
Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,
Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.
Means I must use, thou say'st; prediction else
Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne!
My time, I told thee (and that time for thee
Were better farthest off), is not yet come.
When that comes, think not thou to find me slack
On my part aught endeavouring, or to need
Thy politi...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...he flowers will go on with grief awhile,
And no one seem neglecting or neglected?
A prudent grief will not despise such aids.
He thought of evergreen and everlasting.
And then he had a thought worth many of these.
Somewhere must be the grave of the young boy
Who married her for playmate more than helpmate,
And sometimes laughed at what it was between them.
How would she like to sleep her last with him?
Where was his grave? Did Laban know his name?

He found th...Read more of this...

by Hacker, Marilyn
...et desperate enough to take
comfort in being predeceased: the anguish
when the Harlem doctor, the Jewish dancer,
die of AIDS, the Boston seminary's
dean succumbs "after brief illness" to cancer.
I like mossed slabs in country cemeteries
with wide-paced dates, candles in jars, whose tallow
glows on summer evenings, desk-lamp yellow.

Aglow in summer evening, a desk-lamp's yellow
moonlight peruses notebooks, houseplants, texts,
while an aging woman thinks of sex
in the ...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...ccasionally
a small hemorrhoid
active, eager, receptive to phallus
 coke bottle, candle, carrot
 banana & fingers -
Now AIDS makes it shy, but still
 eager to serve -
out with the dumps, in with the condom'd
 orgasmic friend -
still rubbery muscular,
unashamed wide open for joy
But another 20 years who knows,
 old folks got troubles everywhere - 
necks, prostates, stomachs, joints--
 Hope the old hole stays young
 till death, relax

 March 15, 1986, 1:00 PM...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...HARD 'tis on a fox's traces

To arrive, midst forest-glades;
Hopeless utterly the chase is,

If his flight the huntsman aids.

And so 'tis with many a wonder,

(Why A B make Ab in fact,)
Over which we gape and blunder,

And our head and brains distract.

 1821.*...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ot with the reddening flush
Of transient anger's hasty blush,
But pale as marble o'er the tomb,
Whose ghastly whiteness aids its gloom.
His brow was bent, his eye was glazed;
He raised his arm, and fiercely raised,
And sternly shook his hand on high,
As doubting to return or fly;
Impatient of his flight delayed,
Here loud his raven charger neighed -
Down glanced that hand and, and grasped his blade;
That sound had burst his waking dream,
As slumber starts at owlet's screa...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...nearer as they bear,
     Spears, pikes, and axes flash in air.
     Now might you see the tartars brave,
     And plaids and plumage dance and wave:
     Now see the bonnets sink and rise,
     As his tough oar the rower plies;
     See, flashing at each sturdy stroke,
     The wave ascending into smoke;
     See the proud pipers on the bow,
     And mark the gaudy streamers flow
     From their loud chanters down, and sweep
     The furrowed bosom of the deep,
 ...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ut the runs 
 Where warring insects cope; 
 And all the headsman's racks and blades 
 And pincers, tools of tyrants' aids, 
 Are buried with the rope. 
 
 Upon the sky-line glows i' the dark 
 The Sun that now is but a spark; 
 But soon will be unfurled— 
 The glorious banner of us all, 
 The flag that rises ne'er to fall, 
 Republic of the World! 


 




...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...ose, in blinding glory, 
Shall waken Asia yet. 
Hail to their loves, ye peoples! 
Behold, a world-wind blows, 
That aids the ivory lotos 
To wed the red red rose!...Read more of this...

by Jonson, Ben
...gn, Hast purg'd thy realms, as we have now no cause  Left us of fear, but first our crimes, then laws. Like aids 'gainst treasons who hath found before,  And than in them, how could we know God more ? First thou preserved wert our king to be,  And since, the whole land was preserv'd for thee....Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...hool'd spirit is aflame

Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,
I'll stop, and say: 'There were no succour here!
The aids to noble life are all within.'...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things