Famous Applaud Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Come, dance! while we applaud thee, and adore

by Omar Khayyam
Come, dance! while we applaud thee, and adore
Thy sweet Narcissus eyes, and grape-juice pour;
A score of cups is no such great affair,
But 'tis enchanting when we reach three score!...Read more of this...

Female Fashions for 1799

by Mary Darby Robinson
 A form, as any taper, fine ;
A head like half-pint bason ;
Where golden cords, and bands entwine,
As rich as fleece of JASON.

A pair of shoulders strong and wide,
Like country clown enlisting ;
Bare arms long dangling by the side,
And shoes of ragged listing !

Cravats like towels, thick and broad,
Long tippets made of bear-skin,
Muffs that a RUSSIAN might applaud,
And rouge to...Read more of this...

Sonnet XLIX: Thou Leaden Brain

by Michael Drayton
 Thou leaden brain, which censur'st what I write, 
And say'st my lines be dull and do not move, 
I marvel not thou feel'st not my delight, 
Which never felt'st my fiery touch of love. 
But thou, whose pen hath like a pack-horse serv'd, 
Whose stomach unto gall hath turn'd thy food, 
Whose senses, like poor prisoners, hunger-starv'd, 
Whose grief...Read more of this...

The Glove

by Robert Browning
 (PETER RONSARD _loquitur_.)

``Heigho!'' yawned one day King Francis,
``Distance all value enhances!
``When a man's busy, why, leisure
``Strikes him as wonderful pleasure:
`` 'Faith, and at leisure once is he?
``Straightway he wants to be busy.
``Here we've got peace; and aghast I'm
``Caught thinking war the true pastime.
``Is there a reason in metre?
``Give us your speech, master Peter!''
I who, if mortal dare say so,
Ne'er...Read more of this...

This

by Osip Mandelstam
 self-congratulatory nonsense as the
famous gather to applaud their seeming
greatness
you
wonder where 
the real ones are
what 
giant cave
hides them
as
the deathly talentless
bow to
accolades
as
the fools are
fooled
again
you 
wonder where 
the real ones are
if there are
real ones.
this self-congratulatory nonsense
has lasted 
decades
and
with some exceptions
centuries.
this
is so dreary
is so absolutely pitiless
it
churns the gut to 
powder
shackles hope
it 
makes little things
like
pulling up a shade
or
putting on your shoes
or 
walking out on...Read more of this...

When Your Pants Begin to Go

by Henry Lawson
 When you wear a cloudy collar and a shirt that isn't white, 
And you cannot sleep for thinking how you'll reach to-morrow night, 
You may be a man of sorrows, and on speaking terms with Care, 
And as yet be unacquainted with the Demon of Despair; 
For I rather think that nothing heaps the trouble on your mind 
Like...Read more of this...

The Speakers

by Weldon Kees
 "A equals X," says Mister One.
"A equals B," says Mister Two.
"A equals nothing under the sun
But A," says Mister Three. A few
Applaud; some wipe their eyes;
Some linger in the shade to see
One and Two in neat disguise
Decapitating Mister Three.

"This age is not entirely bad."
It's bad enough, God knows, but you
Should know Elizabethans had
Sweeneys and Mrs. Porters too.
The past goes...Read more of this...

Gypsy Jill

by Robert William Service
 They're hanging Bill at eight o' clock,
 And millions will applaud.
He killed, and so they have to kill,
 Such is the will of God.
His brother Tom is on my bed
 To keep me comforted.

I see his bleary, blotchy face,
 I hear his sodden snore.
He plans that he can take Bill's place;
 I felt worse than a whore
As in his...Read more of this...

ON THE Dutchess of Grafton Under the Name of Alinda

by Anne Killigrew
 A SONG.

I. 
TH'ambitious Eye that seeks alone, 
Where Beauties Wonders most are shown; 
Of all that bounteous Heaven displays, 
Let him on bright Alinda gaze; 
And in her high Example see, 
All can admir'd, or wisht-for, be ! 
II. 
An unmatch't Form, Mind like endow'd, 
Estate, and Title great and proud; 
A Charge Heaven dares to few commit, 
So...Read more of this...

His Mansion in the Pool

by Emily Dickinson
 His Mansion in the Pool
The Frog forsakes --
He rises on a Log
And statements makes --
His Auditors two Worlds
Deducting me --
The Orator of April
Is hoarse Today --
His Mittens at his Feet
No Hand hath he --
His eloquence a Bubble
As Fame should be --
Applaud him to discover
To your chagrin
Demosthenes has vanished
In Waters Green --...Read more of this...

To The Painter Of An Ill-drawn Picture of Cleone

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 Sooner I'd praise a Cloud which Light beguiles, 
Than thy rash Hand which robs this Face of Smiles; 
And does that sweet and pleasing Air control, 
Which to us paints the fair CLEONE's Soul. 
'Tis vain to boast of Rules or labour'd Art; 
I miss the Look that captivates my Heart, 
Attracts my Love, and tender Thoughts inspires; 
Nor...Read more of this...

Cruelty and Love

by D. H. Lawrence
What large, dark hands are those at the window
Lifted, grasping the golden light
Which weaves its way through the creeper leaves
          To my heart's delight?

Ah, only the leaves! But in the west,
In the west I see a redness come
Over the evening's burning breast--
         ...Read more of this...

Failure

by Robert William Service
 He wrote a play; by day and night
He strove with passion and delight;
Yet knew, long ere the curtain drop,
His drama was a sorry flop.

In Parliament he sought a seat;
Election Day brought dire defeat;
Yet he had wooed with word and pen
Prodigiously his fellow men.

And then he wrote a lighter play
That made him famous in a day.
He won a seat in...Read more of this...

The Pig

by Christopher Smart
 In ev'ry age, and each profession, 
Men err the most by prepossession; 
But when the thing is clearly shown, 
And fairly stated, fully known, 
We soon applaud what we deride, 
And penitence succeeds to pride.-- 
A certain Baron on a day 
Having a mind to show away, 
Invited all the wits and wags, 
Foot, Massey, Shuter, Yates, and Skeggs,...Read more of this...

Love Is A Parallax

by Sylvia Plath
 'Perspective betrays with its dichotomy:
train tracks always meet, not here, but only
 in the impossible mind's eye;
horizons beat a retreat as we embark
on sophist seas to overtake that mark
 where wave pretends to drench real sky.' 

'Well then, if we agree, it is not odd
that one man's devil is another's god
 or that the solar spectrum is
a multitude of...Read more of this...

Youve seen Balloons set -- Havent You?

by Emily Dickinson
 You've seen Balloons set -- Haven't You?
So stately they ascend --
It is as Swans -- discarded You,
For Duties Diamond --

Their Liquid Feet go softly out
Upon a Sea of Blonde --
They spurn the Air, as t'were too mean
For Creatures so renowned --

Their Ribbons just beyond the eye --
They struggle -- some -- for Breath --
And yet the Crowd applaud, below...Read more of this...

His Phoenix

by William Butler Yeats
 There is a queen in China, or maybe it's in Spain,
And birthdays and holidays such praises can be heard
Of her unblemished lineaments, a whiteness with no stain,
That she might be that sprightly girl trodden by a bird;
And there's a score of duchesses, surpassing womankind,
Or who have found a painter to make them so for pay
And smooth out stain and...Read more of this...

The Wanderer

by Alan Seeger
 To see the clouds his spirit yearned toward so 
Over new mountains piled and unploughed waves, 
Back of old-storied spires and architraves 
To watch Arcturus rise or Fomalhaut,

And roused by street-cries in strange tongues when day 
Flooded with gold some domed metropolis, 
Between new towers to waken and new bliss 
Spread on his pillow in a wondrous way:

These were...Read more of this...

Celestial Love

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Higher far,
Upward, into the pure realm,
Over sun or star,
Over the flickering Dæmon film,
Thou must mount for love,—
Into vision which all form
In one only form dissolves;
In a region where the wheel,
On which all beings ride,
Visibly revolves;
Where the starred eternal worm
Girds the world with bound and term;
Where unlike things are like,
When good and ill,
And joy and moan,
Melt into one.
There Past, Present,...Read more of this...

Cruelty and Love

by D. H. Lawrence
 What large, dark hands are those at the window 
Lifted, grasping in the yellow light 
Which makes its way through the curtain web 
At my heart to-night? 

Ah, only the leaves! So leave me at rest, 
In the west I see a redness come 
Over the evening's burning breast -- 
For now the pain is numb. 

The woodbine creeps...Read more of this...

An Evangelists Wife

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 “Why am I not myself these many days,
You ask? And have you nothing more to ask? 
I do you wrong? I do not hear your praise 
To God for giving you me to share your task? 

“Jealous—of Her? Because her cheeks are pink,
And she has eyes? No, not if she had seven. 
If you should only steal an hour...Read more of this...

Richard Pigott the Forger

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Richard Pigott, the forger, was a very bad man,
And to gainsay it there's nobody can,
Because for fifty years he pursued a career of deceit,
And as a forger few men with him could compete. 

For by forged letters he tried to accuse Parnell
For the Phoenix Park murders, but mark what befell.
When his conscience smote him he confessed to the fraud,
And...Read more of this...

Alexanders Feast; Or The Power Of Music

by John Dryden
 'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won
By Philip's warlike son— 
Aloft in awful state
The godlike hero sate
On his imperial throne;
His valiant peers were placed around,
Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound
(So should desert in arms be crowned);
The lovely Thais by his side
Sate like a blooming eastern bride
In flower of youth and beauty's pride:— 
Happy, happy, happy pair!
None...Read more of this...

157. Prologue spoken by Mr. Woods at Edinburgh

by Robert Burns
 WHEN, by a generous Public’s kind acclaim,
That dearest meed is granted—honest fame;
Waen here your favour is the actor’s lot,
Nor even the man in private life forgot;
What breast so dead to heavenly Virtue’s glow,
But heaves impassion’d with the grateful throe?


Poor is the task to please a barb’rous throng,
It needs no Siddons’ powers in Southern’s song;
But here an ancient nation, fam’d...Read more of this...

Growing Old

by Matthew Arnold
 What is it to grow old?
Is it to lose the glory of the form,
The lustre of the eye?
Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
Yes, but not for this alone.

Is it to feel our strength— 
Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay?
Is it to feel each limb
Grow stiffer, every function less exact,
Each nerve more weakly strung?

Yes, this, and more!...Read more of this...

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