Famous Altering Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Absalom And Achitophel

...en resum'd, can be no longer just.
Succession, for the general good design'd,
In its own wrong a nation cannot bind:
If altering that, the people can relieve,
Better one suffer, than a nation grieve.
The Jews well know their pow'r: ere Saul they chose,
God was their king, and God they durst depose.
Urge now your piety, your filial name,
A father's right, and fear of future fame;
The public good, the universal call,
To which even Heav'n submitted, answers all.
Nor let his love...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John


Last Instructions to a Painter

...gels' heads their glories shine, 
His burning locks adorn his face divine. 
But when in this immortal mind he felt 
His altering form and soldered limbs to melt, 
Down on the deck he laid himself and died, 
With his dear sword reposing by his side, 
And on the flaming plank, so rests his head 
As one that's warmed himself and gone to bed. 
His ship burns down, and with his relics sinks, 
And the sad stream beneath his ashes drinks. 
Fortunate boy, if either pencil's fame, 
Or...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Refrain

...tervals 
A low refrain repeat; 
Some tender word, some syllable, 
Over and over, ever and ever, 
While the song lasts, 
Altering never, 
Music if sung, music if said, 
Subtle like some golden thread 
A shuttle casts, 
In and out on a fabric red, 
Till it glows all through 
With the golden hue. 
Oh! of all the songs sung, 
No songs are so sweet 
As the songs with refrains, 
Which repeat and repeat. 

Of all the lives lived, 
No life is so sweet, 
As the life where one thought,...Read more of this...
by Jackson, Helen Hunt

Sonnet CXV

...t vows and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
Alas, why, fearing of time's tyranny,
Might I not then say 'Now I love you best,'
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
Love is a babe; then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow?...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Eye-Mote

...r flew in and stuck my eye,
Needling it dark. Then I was seeing
A melding of shapes in a hot rain:
Horses warped on the altering green,

Outlandish as double-humped camels or unicorns,
Grazing at the margins of a bad monochrome,
Beasts of oasis, a better time.
Abrading my lid, the small grain burns:
Red cinder around which I myself,
Horses, planets and spires revolve.

Neither tears nor the easing flush
Of eyebaths can unseat the speck:
It sticks, and it has stuck a week.
I w...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia


The Poet To Death

..., all my songs unsung, 
And all my tears unshed. 


Tarry a while, till I am satisfied 
Of love and grief, of earth and altering sky; 
Till all my human hungers are fulfilled, 
O Death, I cannot die!...Read more of this...
by Naidu, Sarojini

When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd

...e?

Then I chant it for thee—I glorify thee above all; 
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly. 

Approach, strong Deliveress! 
When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead, 
Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death. 

From me to thee glad serenades, 
Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee—adornments and feastings for thee; 
And the sights of the open landscape, and...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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