Famous Be Amiss Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Be 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 be amiss poems. These examples illustrate what a famous be amiss poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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To One Persuading A Lady To Marriage

by Katherine Philips
 Forbear, bold youth; all 's heaven here,
 And what you do aver
To others courtship may appear,
 'Tis sacrilege to her.
She is a public deity;
 And were 't not very odd
She should dispose herself to be
 A petty household god? 

First make the sun in private shine
 And bid the world adieu,
That so he may his beams confine
 In compliment...Read more of this...

At Cheshire Cheese

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
When first of wise old Johnson taught,
My youthful mind its homage brought,
And made the pond'rous crusty sage
The object of a noble rage.
Nor did I think (How dense we are!)
That any day, however far,
Would find me holding, unrepelled,
The place that Doctor Johnson held!
But change has come and time has moved,
And now, applauded, unreproved,
I hold, with pardonable pride,
The place that Johnson occupied.
Conceit!...Read more of this...

The Wise Brothers

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 FIRST VOICE

So long adrift, so fast aground, 
What foam and ruin have we found— 
We, the Wise Brothers? 
Could heaven and earth be framed amiss, 
That we should land in fine like this—
We, and no others? 


SECOND VOICE

Convoyed by what accursèd thing 
Made we this evil reckoning— 
We, the Wise Brothers? 
And if the failure be complete, 
Why look...Read more of this...

Pittypat and Tippytoe

by Eugene Field
 All day long they come and go--
Pittypat and Tippytoe;
Footprints up and down the hall,
Playthings scattered on the floor,
Finger-marks along the wall,
Tell-tale smudges on the door--
By these presents you shall know
Pittypat and Tippytoe.
How they riot at their play!
And a dozen times a day
In they troop, demanding bread--
Only buttered bread will do,
And the butter must be spread
Inches thick with sugar too!
And...Read more of this...

from imperfect Eden

by Rg Gregory
 (1)
and off to scott's (the dockers' restaurant)
burly men packed in round solid tables
but what the helle (drowned in hellespont)
this place for me was rich in its own fables
i'll be the lover sunk if that enables
an awesome sense of just how deep the spells
that put scotts for me beyond the dardanelles

lace-curtained windows (or memory plays me false)
no capped odysseus could...Read more of this...

513. Song—Steer her up and haud her gaun

by Robert Burns
 O STEER her up, an’ haud her gaun,
 Her mither’s at the mill, jo;
An’ gin she winna tak a man,
 E’en let her tak her will, jo.
First shore her wi’ a gentle kiss,
 And ca’ anither gill, jo;
An’ gin she tak the thing amiss,
 E’en let her flyte her fill, jo.


O steer her up, an’ be na blate,
 An’...Read more of this...

Is Bliss then such Abyss

by Emily Dickinson
 Is Bliss then, such Abyss,
I must not put my foot amiss
For fear I spoil my shoe?

I'd rather suit my foot
Than save my Boot --
For yet to buy another Pair
Is possible,
At any store --

But Bliss, is sold just once.
The Patent lost
None buy it any more --
Say, Foot, decide the point --
The Lady cross, or not?
Verdict for Boot!...Read more of this...

Terence This is Stupid Stuff

by A E Housman
 ‘TERENCE, this is stupid stuff: 
You eat your victuals fast enough; 
There can’t be much amiss, ’tis clear, 
To see the rate you drink your beer. 
But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,  5
It gives a chap the belly-ache. 
The cow, the old cow, she is dead; 
It sleeps well, the horned head: 
We poor lads, ’tis...Read more of this...

The Bliss Of Ignorance

by Robert William Service
 When Jack took Nell into his arms
He knew he acted ill,
And thought as he enjoyed her charms
Of his fiancée Jill.
"Poor dear," he sighed, "she dreams of me,
I shouldn't act like this;
But after all, she cannot see,
And ignorance is bliss."

Yet Jill at that same moment was
In Fred's embrace close caught,
And just a little sad because
Of sweetheart Jack she thought.
"Poor dear,"...Read more of this...

The Grandmother

by Victor Hugo
 ("Dors-tu? mère de notre mère.") 
 
 {III., 1823.} 
 
 "To die—to sleep."—SHAKESPEARE. 


 Still asleep! We have been since the noon thus alone. 
 Oh, the hours we have ceased to number! 
 Wake, grandmother!—speechless say why thou art grown. 
 Then, thy lips are so cold!—the Madonna of stone 
 Is like thee in thy holy...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXXV

by William Shakespeare
 No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in...Read more of this...

Never Try To Trick Me With A Kiss

by Sylvia Plath
 Never try to trick me with a kiss
Pretending that the birds are here to stay;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

A stone can masquerade where no heart is
And virgins rise where lustful Venus lay:
Never try to trick me with a kiss.

Our noble doctor claims the pain is his,
While stricken patients let him have his say;
The dying man...Read more of this...

Life

by Sir Walter Raleigh
 What is our life? A play of passion, 
Our mirth the music of division, 
Our mother's wombs the tiring-houses be, 
Where we are 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...Read more of this...

Slugging Saint

by Robert William Service
 'Twas in a pub in Battersea
 They call the "Rose and Crown,"
Quite suddenly, it seemed to me,
 The Lord was looking down;
The Lord was looking from above,
 And shiny was His face,
And I was filled with gush of love
 For all the human race.

Anon I saw three ancient men
 Who reckoned not of bliss,
And they looked quite astonished when
...Read more of this...

The Flower

by George Herbert
 How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are thy returns! ev'n as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Grief melts away
Like snows in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.

Who would have thought my shrivelled heart
Could have recovered greenness? It was gone
Quite under ground; as flowers depart
To see their mother-root,...Read more of this...

Sorrows Uses

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 The uses of sorrow I comprehend
Better and better at each year’s end.

Deeper and deeper I seem to see
Why and wherefore it has to be

Only after the dark, wet days
Do we fully rejoice in the sun’s bright rays.

Sweeter the crust tastes after the fast
Than the sated gourmand’s finest repast.

The faintest cheer sounds never amiss
To the actor who once has heard...Read more of this...

Meddlesome Matty

by Ann Taylor
 One ugly trick has often spoil'd
The sweetest and the best; 
Matilda, though a pleasant child, 
One ugly trick possess'd, 
Which, like a cloud before the skies, 
Hid all her better qualities. 

Sometimes she'd lift the tea-pot lid, 
To peep at what was in it, 
Or tilt the kettle, if you did 
But turn your back a minute. 
In vain...Read more of this...

Sonnet LIX

by William Shakespeare
 If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child!
O, that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done!
That I might see what...Read more of this...

Charms

by William Henry Davies
 She walks as lightly as the fly 
Skates on the water in July.

To hear her moving petticoat 
For me is music's highest note.

Stones are not heard, when her feet pass, 
No more than tumps of moss or grass.

When she sits still, she's like the flower 
To be a butterfly next hour.

The brook laughs not more sweet, when he 
Trips...Read more of this...

Forget Not Yet

by Sir Thomas Wyatt
 Forget not yet the tried intent 
Of such a truth as I have meant 
My great travail so gladly spent 
Forget not yet.

Forget not yet when first began 
The weary life ye knew, since whan 
The suit, the service, none tell can, 
Forget not yet.

Forget not yet the great assays, 
The cruel wrongs, the scornful ways, 
The painful patience...Read more of this...

Lo Now My Guest

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 LO, now, my guest, if aught amiss were said,
Forgive it and dismiss it from your head.
For me, for you, for all, to close the date,
Pass now the ev'ning sponge across the slate;
And to that spirit of forgiveness keep
Which is the parent and the child of sleep....Read more of this...

Late Summer

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 (ALCAICS)


Confused, he found her lavishing feminine 
Gold upon clay, and found her inscrutable; 
And yet she smiled. Why, then, should horrors 
Be as they were, without end, her playthings? 

And why were dead years hungrily telling her 
Lies of the dead, who told them again to her? 
If now she knew, there might be kindness 
Clamoring yet where a...Read more of this...

Forard

by Henry Lawson
 It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep, 
For there's near a hundred for'ard, and they're stowed away like sheep, -- 
They are trav'lers for the most part in a straight 'n' honest path; 
But their linen's rather scanty, an' there isn't any bath -- 
Stowed away like ewes and wethers that is shore 'n' marked 'n'...Read more of this...

Sonnet CLI

by William Shakespeare
 Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no father reason;
But,...Read more of this...

The Poet's Simple Faith

by Victor Hugo
 You say, "Where goest thou?" I cannot tell, 
 And still go on. If but the way be straight, 
 It cannot go amiss! before me lies 
 Dawn and the Day; the Night behind me; that 
 Suffices me; I break the bounds; I see, 
 And nothing more; believe, and nothing less. 
 My future is not...Read more of this...

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