Famous Borough Poems by Famous Poets

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

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257. Ode on the Departed Regency Bill

...powers to awe
 Rhetoric, blasphemy and law;
 By the turbulent ocean—
 A Nation’s commotion,
 By the harlot-caresses
 Of borough addresses,
 By days few and evil,
 (Thy portion, poor devil!)
By Power, Wealth, and Show,
 (The Gods by men adored,)
By nameless Poverty,
 (Their hell abhorred,)
 By all they hope, by all they fear,
 Hear! and appear!


 Stare not on me, thou ghastly Power!
 Nor, grim with chained defiance, lour:
 No Babel-structure would I build
 Where, order exil’d...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


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

...sing the zeal Drumlanrig bears,
Who left the all-important cares
 Of princes, and their darlings:
And, bent on winning borough touns,
Came shaking hands wi’ wabster-loons,
 And kissing barefit carlins.


Combustion thro’ our boroughs rode,
Whistling his roaring pack abroad
 Of mad unmuzzled lions;
As Queensberry blue and buff unfurl’d,
And Westerha’ and Hopetoun hurled
 To every Whig defiance.


But cautious Queensberry left the war,
Th’ unmanner’d dust might soil his star,
...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

91. The Vision

...ods,
 On to the shore;
And many a lesser torrent scuds,
 With seeming roar.


Low, in a sandy valley spread,
An ancient borough rear’d her head;
Still, as in Scottish story read,
 She boasts a race
To ev’ry nobler virtue bred,
 And polish’d grace. 2


By stately tow’r, or palace fair,
Or ruins pendent in the air,
Bold stems of heroes, here and there,
 I could discern;
Some seem’d to muse, some seem’d to dare,
 With feature stern.


My heart did glowing transport feel,
To see ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

96. The Inventory

...n’ wilfu’ a’ his days been:
My hand-ahin ’s a weel gaun fillie,
That aft has borne me hame frae Killie. 2
An’ your auld borough mony a time
In days when riding was nae crime.
But ance, when in my wooing pride
I, like a blockhead, boost to ride,
The wilfu’ creature sae I pat to,
(L—d pardon a’ my sins, an’ that too!)
I play’d my fillie sic a shavie,
She’s a’ bedevil’d wi’ the spavie.
My furr-ahin ’s a wordy beast,
As e’er in tug or tow was traced.
The fourth’s a Highland Donal...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

Executive

...he Town Clerk and the Mayor.

And if some Preservationist attempts to interfere
A 'dangerous structure' notice from the Borough Engineer
Will settle any buildings that are standing in our way -
The modern style, sir, with respect, has really come to stay....Read more of this...
by Betjeman, John


Fifth Amendment

...him
Back then, with his scarf flying in the wind like
The National League pennant flying over Ebbets Field
In Brooklyn, borough of churches, with the pigeons on the sill
And the soprano's trill echoing in the alley....Read more of this...
by Lehman, David

Octaves

...nt, the clean seer
Of ages, too securely scans what is,
Ever to be appalled at what is not;
He sees beyond the groaning borough lines
Of Hell, God's highways gleaming, and he knows
That Love's complete communion is the end
Of anguish to the liberated man. 

XXIII 

Here by the windy docks I stand alone,
But yet companioned. There the vessel goes,
And there my friend goes with it; but the wake
That melts and ebbs between that friend and me
Love's earnest is of Life's all-purpo...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

The Princess (prologue)

...set of sun 
Up to the people: thither flocked at noon 
His tenants, wife and child, and thither half 
The neighbouring borough with their Institute 
Of which he was the patron. I was there 
From college, visiting the son,--the son 
A Walter too,--with others of our set, 
Five others: we were seven at Vivian-place. 

And me that morning Walter showed the house, 
Greek, set with busts: from vases in the hall 
Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names, 
Grew side by...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Westgate-On-Sea

...tone tower!
Recalling laurel, shrubs and privet,
Red geraniums in flower.

Feet that scamper on the asphalt
Through the Borough Council grass,
Till they hide inside the shelter
Bright with ironwork and glass,

Striving chains of ordered children
Purple by the sea-breeze made,
Striving on to prunes and suet
Past the shops on the Parade.

Some with wire around their glasses,
Some with wire across their teeth,
Writhing frames for running noses
And the drooping lip beneath.

Chur...Read more of this...
by Betjeman, John

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