10 Best Famous Retaining Poems

Here is a collection of the top 10 all-time best famous Retaining poems. This is a select list of the best famous Retaining poetry. Reading, writing, and enjoying famous Retaining poetry (as well as classical and contemporary poems) is a great past time. These top poems are the best examples of retaining poems.

• All Famous Retaining Poems

 Ahasuerus Jenkins of the "Operatic Own,"
Was dowered with a tenor voice of super-Santley tone.
His views on equitation were, perhaps, a trifle *****.
He had no seat worth mentioning, but oh! he had an ear.

He clubbed his wretched company a dozen times a day;
He used to quit his charger in a parabolic way;
His method of saluting was the joy of all beholders,
But Ahasuerus Jenkins had a head upon his shoulders.

He took two months at Simla when the year was at the spring,
And underneath the deodars eternally did sing.
He warbled like a bul-bul but particularly at
Cornelia Agrippina, who was musical and fat.

She controlled a humble husband, who, in turn, controlled a Dept.
Where Cornelia Agrippina's human singing-birds were kept
From April to October on a plump retaining-fee,
Supplied, of course, per mensem, by the Indian Treasury.

Cornelia used to sing with him, and Jenkins used to play;
He praised unblushingly her notes, for he was false as they;
So when the winds of April turned the budding roses brown,
Cornelia told her husband: -- "Tom, you mustn't send him down."

They haled him from his regiment, which didn't much regret him;
They found for him an office-stool, and on that stool they set him
To play with maps and catalogues three idle hours a day,
And draw his plump retaining-fee -- which means his double pay.

Now, ever after dinnger, when the coffee-cups are brought,
Ahasuerus waileth o'er the grand pianoforte;
And, thanks to fair Cornelia, his fame hath waxen great,
And Ahasuerus Jenkins is a Power in the State!

 To the Soul

That learned Father, who so firmly proves 
The Soul of man immortal and divine, 
And doth the several offices define: 
Anima - Gives her that name, as she the Body moves; 
Amor - Then is she Love, embracing charity; 
Animus - Moving a Will in us, it is the Mind 
Mens - Retaining knowledge, still the same in kind; 
Memoria - As intellectual, it is Memory; 
Ratio - In judging, Reason only is her name; 
Sensus - In speedy apprehension, it is Sense; 
Conscientia - In right or wrong, they call her Conscience; 
Spiritus - The Spirit, when it to Godward doth inflame. 
These of the Soul the several functions be, 
Which my Heart, lighten'd by thy love, doth see.

 for J.A., December 3, 1975


Ashes that survive the aftermath of fire
Bury the past bravely, retaining
Only those messages that are least decipherable
And therefore most desirable
To be sung by the bright-eyed few remaining
Voices of our frankly foolish choir.