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Famous Amiss Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wyatt, Sir Thomas
...Alas, madam, for stealing of a kiss
Have I so much your mind there offended?
Have I then done so grievously amiss
That by no means it may be amended? 

Then revenge you, and the next way is this:
Another kiss shall have my life ended, 
For to my mouth the first my heart did suck; 
The next shall clean out of my breast it pluck....Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense:
Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,
Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss;
A Fool might once himself alone expose,
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.

'Tis with our Judgments as our Watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In Poets as true Genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critick's Share;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their Light,
These born to Judge, as well as those to Wri...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nds,
When, for their teeming flocks and granges full,
In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,
And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth
To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence
Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else
Shall I inform my unacquainted feet
In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?
My brothers, when they saw me wearied out
With this long way, resolving here to lodge
Under the spreading favour of these pines,
Stepped, as they said, to the next thi...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...nd said, "Art thou so pale, who wast so bland
And merry in our meadows? How is this?
Tell me thine ailment: tell me all amiss!--
Ah! thou hast been unhappy at the change
Wrought suddenly in me. What indeed more strange?
Or more complete to overwhelm surmise?
Ambition is no sluggard: 'tis no prize,
That toiling years would put within my grasp,
That I have sigh'd for: with so deadly gasp
No man e'er panted for a mortal love.
So all have set my heavier grief above
These ...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...careless, rovin', gay young spark as always travelled aft. 

There's a notice by the gangway, an' it seems to come amiss, 
For it says that second-classers `ain't allowed abaft o' this'; 
An' there ought to be a notice for the fellows from abaft -- 
But the smell an' dirt's a warnin' to the first-salooners, aft; 
With their tooth and nail-brush, aft, 
With their cuffs 'n' collars, aft -- 
Their cigars an' books an' papers, an' their cap-peaks fore-'n'-aft. 

I want t...Read more of this...



by Wyatt, Sir Thomas
...nays 
Forget not yet.

Forget not yet, forget not this, 
How long ago hath been, and is, 
The mind that never means amiss; 
Forget not yet.

Forget not yet thine own approved, 
The which so long hath thee so loved, 
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved, 
Forget not this....Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...s

forget the scented lips the creeping bliss
of such a nurse's presence on my flesh
locked in i'd been an hour or more amiss
they thought i'd done a bunk or slipped the leash
when found i'd gone all blue like frozen fish
those scented lips discharged their angry bile
and cupid's dart fell short a scornful mile

come christmas day the christmas tree was bright
its mothering arms held glittering gifts for all
and i was seven longing to be eight
and i was given a large pink flu...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ack, 
And left me; but of others who remain, 
And of the two first-famed for courtesy-- 
And pray you check me if I ask amiss- 
But pray you, which had noblest, while you moved 
Among them, Lancelot or our lord the King?' 

Then the pale Queen looked up and answered her, 
`Sir Lancelot, as became a noble knight, 
Was gracious to all ladies, and the same 
In open battle or the tilting-field 
Forbore his own advantage, and the King 
In open battle or the tilting-field 
Forbore ...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...as conscience always. 

Meanwhile, a few misgivings of innocence, 
Imploring to be sheltered and credited,
Were not amiss when she revealed them. 
Whether she struggled or not, he saw them. 

Also, he saw that while she was hearing him 
Her eyes had more and more of the past in them; 
And while he told what cautious honor
Told him was all he had best be sure of, 

He wondered once or twice, inadvertently, 
Where shifting winds were driving his argosies, 
Long anch...Read more of this...

by Raleigh, Sir Walter
...re dressed for this short comedy. 
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, 
That sits and marks still who doth act amiss. 
Our graves that hide us from the setting sun 
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done. 
Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest, 
Only we die in earnest, that's no jest....Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...uilds, yet makes no chips, no din,
With hammer soft as snow-flake's flight;
Knowest thou this?
O pilgrim, wandering not amiss!
Already my rocks lie light,
And soon my cone will spin.
For the world was built in order,
And the atoms march in tune,
Rhyme the pipe, and time the warder,
Cannot forget the sun, the moon.
Orb and atom forth they prance,
When they hear from far the rune,
None so backward in the troop,
When the music and the dance
Reach his place and circumstan...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...Methinks this World is oddly made, 
And ev'ry thing's amiss, 
A dull presuming Atheist said, 
As stretch'd he lay beneath a Shade; 
And instanced in this: 

Behold, quoth he, that mighty thing, 
A Pumpkin, large and round, 
Is held but by a little String, 
Which upwards cannot make it spring, 
Or bear it from the Ground. 

Whilst on this Oak, a Fruit so small, 
So disproportion'd, grows; 
That, who with Sen...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...attled by an enemy,
Of inference loose, what lack of grace
Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's, --
Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee,
Jesus, good Paragon, thou Crystal Christ?"...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...t has a charmingly Bourbon air.
And, oh! Magnificent! Listen to this! --
`Vinaigre des Quatre Voleurs'. Nothing amiss
With that -- England, Austria, Russia and Prussia!
Martin, you're a wonder,
Upheavals of continents can't keep you under."
"Monsieur Antoine, I am grieved indeed
At such levity. What France has gone through --"
"Very true, Martin, very true,
But never forget that a man must feed."
Pound! Pound! Thump!
Pound!
"Look here, in another minute Bl...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...r such danger he provide,
     With scanty train you will not ride.'
     XXXII.

     'Thou warn'st me I have done amiss,—
     I should have earlier looked to this;
     I lost it in this bustling day.—
     Retrace with speed thy former way;
     Spare not for spoiling of thy steed,
     The best of mine shall be thy meed.
     Say to our faithful Lord of Mar,
     We do forbid the intended war;
     Roderick this morn in single fight
     Was made our prisone...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ow thy dispence*. *expense

Thou blamest Christ, and sayst full bitterly,
He misdeparteth* riches temporal; *allots amiss
Thy neighebour thou witest* sinfully, *blamest
And sayst, thou hast too little, and he hath all:
"Parfay (sayst thou) sometime he reckon shall,
When that his tail shall *brennen in the glede*, *burn in the fire*
For he not help'd the needful in their need."

Hearken what is the sentence of the wise:
Better to die than to have indigence.
*Thy se...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...al* thing that toucheth gentiless, *historical, true
And eke morality and holiness.
Blame not me, if that ye choose amiss.
The Miller is a churl, ye know well this,
So was the Reeve, with many other mo',
And harlotry* they tolde bothe two. *ribald tales
*Avise you* now, and put me out of blame; *be warned*
And eke men should not make earnest of game*. *jest, fun


Notes to the Prologue to the Miller's Tale

1. Pilate, an unpopular personage in the mystery-...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...s lord gan look, and said, "Ben'dicite!
What? Friar John, what manner world is this?
I see well that there something is amiss;
Ye look as though the wood were full of thieves.
Sit down anon, and tell me what your grieve* is, *grievance, grief
And it shall be amended, if I may."
"I have," quoth he, "had a despite to-day,
God *yielde you,* adown in your village, *reward you
That in this world is none so poor a page,
That would not have abominatioun
Of that I have receiv...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...
Half to myself I said, "And what is this?
Whose shape is that within the car? & why"-
I would have added--"is all here amiss?"
But a voice answered . . "Life" . . . I turned & knew
(O Heaven have mercy on such wretchedness!)
That what I thought was an old root which grew
To strange distortion out of the hill side
Was indeed one of that deluded crew,
And that the grass which methought hung so wide
And white, was but his thin discoloured hair,
And that the ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...I 
Trust that, whatever may occur below, 
You know my great respect for you; and this 
Makes me regret whate'er you do amiss — 

LXIII 

'Why, my dear Lucifer, would you abuse 
My call for witnesses? I did not mean 
That you should half of earth and hell produce; 
'Tis even superfluous, since two honest, clean 
True testimonies are enough: we lose 
Our time, nay, our eternity, between 
The accusation and defence: if we 
Hear both, 'twill stretch our immortality.' 

LXIV ...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things