Famous Avoid Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Little History

...ined the counter-
 terrorism unit of army intelligence.
Contrary to what the spook novels say, he found it possible to
 avoid betraying either his country or his lover.
This was the life: strange bedrooms, the perfume of other men's
 wives.
As a spy he has a unique mission: to get his name on the front 
 page of the nation's newspaper of record. Only by doing that 
 would he get the message through to his immediate superior.
If he goes to jail, he will do so proudly; if they'...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David


An Essay On Criticism

...s be just, the Conduct true,
Applause, in spite of trivial Faults, is due.
As Men of Breeding, sometimes Men of Wit,
T' avoid great Errors, must the less commit,
Neglect the Rules each Verbal Critick lays,
For not to know some Trifles, is a Praise.
Most Criticks, fond of some subservient Art,
Still make the Whole depend upon a Part,
They talk of Principles, but Notions prize,
And All to one lov'd Folly Sacrifice.

Once on a time, La Mancha's Knight, they say,
A certain Bard e...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Ash Wednesday

...h in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny
the voice

Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season,
time and time, between
Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Avons Harvest

...er, 
Leaving the town and its iniquities 
To die of their own dust. But having his wits, 
Henceforth he may conceivably avoid 
The adventure unattended. Last October
He took me with him into the Maine woods, 
Where, by the shore of a primeval lake, 
With woods all round it, and a voyage away 
From anything wearing clothes, he had reared somehow 
A lodge, or camp, with a stone chimney in it,
And a wide fireplace to make men forget 
Their sins who sat before it in the evening, ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Celestial Love

...ting,
Need is none of forms of greeting,
They can well communicate
In their innermost estate;
When each the other shall avoid,
Shall each by each be most enjoyed.
Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves
Do these celebrate their loves,
Not by jewels, feasts, and savors,
Not by ribbons or by favors,
But by the sun-spark on the sea,
And the cloud-shadow on the lea,
The soothing lapse of morn to mirk,
And the cheerful round of work.
Their cords of love so public are,
They intertwine t...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Church Going

...cally on show 
Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases 
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or after dark will dubious women come
To make their children touvh a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort or other will go on
In games in riddles seemingly at random;
But superstition like belief must die 
And what remains when disbelief has go...Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip

Comus

...nt they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
Or, if they be but false alarms of fear,
How bitter is such self-delusion!
I do not think my sister so to seek,
Or so unprincipled in virtue's book,
And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,
As that the single want of light and noise
(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)
Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
And put them into ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Desiderata

...your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of ti...Read more of this...
by Ehrmann, Max

Gareth And Lynette

...f some woodland thing, 
Or shrew, or weasel, nipt her slender nose 
With petulant thumb and finger, shrilling, 'Hence! 
Avoid, thou smellest all of kitchen-grease. 
And look who comes behind,' for there was Kay. 
'Knowest thou not me? thy master? I am Kay. 
We lack thee by the hearth.' 

And Gareth to him, 
'Master no more! too well I know thee, ay-- 
The most ungentle knight in Arthur's hall.' 
'Have at thee then,' said Kay: they shocked, and Kay 
Fell shoulder-slipt, and Ga...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Maple

...y,
And give the teacher a scare as from her father.
Anything further had been wasted on her,
Or so he tried to think to avoid blame.
She would forget it. She all but forgot it.
What he sowed with her slept so long a sleep,
And came so near death in the dark of years,
That when it woke and came to life again
The flower was different from the parent seed.
It carne back vaguely at the glass one day,
As she stood saying her name over aloud,
Striking it gently across her lowered e...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

Marriage

...it shows --
"of circular traditions and impostures,
committing many spoils,"
requiring all one's criminal ingenuity
to avoid!
Psychology which explains everything
explains nothing
and we are still in doubt.
Eve: beautiful woman --
I have seen her
when she was so handsome
she gave me a start,
able to write simultaneously
in three languages --
English, German and French
and talk in the meantime;
equally positive in demanding a commotion
and in stipulating quiet:
"I should like...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

Paradise Lost: Book 01

...ence and wine. 
Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 
Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 
 These were the prime in order and in might: 
The rest were long to tell; though far renowned 
Th' Ionian gods--of Javan's issue held 
Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
Their boasted parents;--Titan, Heaven's first-born, 
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove, 
His own and ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...
For such thou art; from sin and blame entire: 
Not diffident of thee do I dissuade 
Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid 
The attempt itself, intended by our foe. 
For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses 
The tempted with dishonour foul; supposed 
Not incorruptible of faith, not proof 
Against temptation: Thou thyself with scorn 
And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong, 
Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then, 
If such affront I labour to avert 
From ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Rules and Regulations

...A short direction 
To avoid dejection, 
By variations 
In occupations, 
And prolongation 
Of relaxation, 
And combinations 
Of recreations, 
And disputation 
On the state of the nation 
In adaptation
To your station, 
By invitations 
To friends and relations, 
By evitation 
Of amputation, 
By permutation 
In conversation, 
And deep reflection 
You'll avoid dejection. 

Learn well...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Samson Agonistes

...f a friend,
How hainous had the fact been, how deserving
Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded
All friendship, and avoided as a blab,
The mark of fool set on his front?
But I Gods counsel have not kept, his holy secret
Presumptuously have publish'd, impiously,
Weakly at least, and shamefully: A sin
That Gentiles in thir Parables condemn 
To thir abyss and horrid pains confin'd.

Man: Be penitent and for thy fault contrite,
But act not in thy own affliction, Son,
Repent t...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Lady of the Lake

...thy weapon strong,
     And wreak poor Blanche of Devan's wrong!—
     They watch for thee by pass and fell...
     Avoid the path... O God!... farewell.'
     XXVIII.

     A kindly heart had brave Fitz-James;
     Fast poured his eyes at pity's claims;
     And now, with mingled grief and ire,
     He saw the murdered maid expire.
     'God, in my need, be my relief,
     As I wreak this on yonder Chief!'
     A lock from Blanche's tresses fair
     He blended...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Lovers of the Poor

...skirts to graze no wall,
Are off at what they manage of a canter,
And, resuming all the clues of what they were,
Try to avoid inhaling the laden air....Read more of this...
by Brooks, Gwendolyn

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...contains: the fountain overflows 
One thought. fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid
you.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.

The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn
of the crow.


PLATE 9

The fox provides for himself. but God provides for the lion. 
Think in the morning, Act in the noon, Eat in the evening, Sleep
in the night. 
He who has sufferd you to impose on him knows you.
As the ...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

What Can We Do?

...vated it's best at brutality,
selfishness, unjust judgments, murder. 
what can we do with it, this Humanity? 
nothing. 
avoid the thing as much as possible.
treat it as you would anything poisonous, vicious
and mindless.
but be careful. it has enacted laws to protect
itself from you.
it can kill you without cause.
and to escape it you must be subtle.
few escape. 
it's up to you to figure a plan. 
I have met nobody who has escaped. 
I have met some of the great and
famous but ...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

White Flock

...te I do not view
But the mark won't be stripped from my soul
Of the meaningless meeting with you.

Your red house I avoid on purpose,
Your red house murky river beside,
But I know, that I am disturbing
Gravely your heart-pierced respite.

Would it weren't you that, on to my lips pressing,
Prayed of love, and for love did wish,
Would it weren't you that with golden verses
Immortalized my anguish

Over future I do secret magic
If the evening is truly blue,
And I...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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