Famous Benefactor Poems by Famous Poets

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

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306. Election Ballad at close of Contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs 1790

...d furious Whigs pursuing!


What Whig but melts for good Sir James,
Dear to his country, by the names,
 Friend, Patron, Benefactor!
Not Pulteney’s wealth can Pulteney save;
And Hopetoun falls, the generous, brave;
 And Stewart, bold as Hector.


Thou, Pitt, shalt rue this overthrow,
And Thurlow growl a curse of woe,
 And Melville melt in wailing:
Now Fox and Sheridan rejoice,
And Burke shall sing, “O Prince, arise!
 Thy power is all-prevailing!”


For your poor friend, the Ba...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


319. Lament for James Earl of Glencairn

...d’s hardy prim
Why did I live to see that day—
 A day to me so full of woe?
O! had I met the mortal shaft
 That laid my benefactor low!


“The bridegroom may forget the bride
 Was made his wedded wife yestreen;
The monarch may forget the crown
 That on his head an hour has been;
The mother may forget the child
 That smiles sae sweetly on her knee;
But I’ll remember thee, Glencairn,
 And a’ that thou hast done for me!”...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

343. Address to the shade of Thomson

...reats to Dryburgh’s cooling shade,
Yet oft, delighted, stops to trace
 The progress of the spiky blade.


While Autumn, benefactor kind,
 By Tweed erects his aged head,
And sees, with self-approving mind,
 Each creature on his bounty fed.


While maniac Winter rages o’er
 The hills whence classic Yarrow flows,
Rousing the turbid torrent’s roar,
 Or sweeping, wild, a waste of snows.


So long, sweet Poet of the year!
 Shall bloom that wreath thou well hast won;
While Scotia, w...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

An Epitaph On Mr. Fishborne The Great London Benefactor And His Executor

...What are thy gaines, O death, if one man ly
Stretch'd in a bed of clay, whose charity
Doth hereby get occasion to redeeme
Thousands out of the grave: though cold hee seeme
He keepes those warme that else would sue to thee,
Even thee, to ease them of theyr penury.
Sorrow I would, but cannot thinke him dead,
Whose parts are rather all distributed
To those th...Read more of this...
by Strode, William

An Evening With John Heath-stubbs

...tead of a Christmas card, this elegy

I wrote last week. Fond wishes. Jeremy..’



“So often, David, I still meet

Your benefactor from the time:

her speedwell-blue eyes, blue like yours,





with recollection, while we talk

through leaf-fall, with its mosaic

mottling the toad-spotted wet street.”



I looked at Heath-Stubbs’ face, his sightless eyes,

And in a second understood what Gascoyne meant

“Now the light of a prism has flashed like a bird down the dark-blue,

At...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry


Beowulf (Modern English)

...rought him to the briny beach,
his beloved retainers, just as he himself had bidden
while he still wielded words, the benefactor of the Scyldings—
the first of the land, dear and old, had ruled them a long time. (ll. 26-31)

There in the harbor stood a ringed prow,
icy and outward-bound, a nobleman’s vessel.
Then they laid down their beloved prince,
the dispenser of rings, in the bosom of the ship,
the notorious by the mast. There were many treasures,
brought from f...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Most she touched me by her muteness --

...Praise began
'Twas as Space sat singing
To herself -- and men --

'Twas the Winged Beggar --
Afterward I learned
To her Benefactor
Making Gratitude...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Everlasting Gospel

...hell gates. 
Socrates taught what Meletus 
Loath’d as a nation’s bitterest curse, 
And Caiaphas was in his own mind 
A benefactor to mankind. 
Both read the Bible day and night, 
But thou read’st black where I read white. 

Was Jesus gentle, or did He 
Give any marks of gentility? 
When twelve years old He ran away, 
And left His parents in dismay. 
When after three days’ sorrow found, 
Loud as Sinai’s trumpet-sound: 
‘No earthly parents I confess— 
My Heavenly Father’s busi...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

The Late Sir John Ogilvy

...Dundee,
And, while he was an M.P., he didn't neglect
To advocate the rights of Dundee in every respect.
He was a public benefactor in many ways,
Especially in erecting an asylum for imbecile children to spend their days;
Then he handed the institution over as free,--
As a free gift and a boon to the people of Dundee.
He was chairman of several of the public boards in Dundee,
And among these were the Asylum Board and the Royal Infirmary;
In every respect he was a God-fearing t...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

To a Lady and Her Children

...in
Th' increasing woe, and swell the crystal brine;
The poor, who once his gen'rous bounty fed,
Droop, and bewail their benefactor dead.
In death the friend, the kind companion lies,
And in one death what various comfort dies!
Th' unhappy mother sees the sanguine rill
Forget to flow, and nature's wheels stand still,
But see from earth his spirit far remov'd,
And know no grief recalls your best-belov'd:
He, upon pinions swifter than the wind,
Has left mortality's sad scenes be...Read more of this...
by Wheatley, Phillis

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