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Famous Cancel Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Dryden, John
...ffecting fame,
Usurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name.
So easy still it proves in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes:
How safe is treason, and how sacred ill,
Where none can sin against the people's will:
Where crowds can wink; and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own.
Yet, fame deserv'd, no enemy can grudge;
The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge.
In Jewish courts ne'er sat an Abbethdin
With more discerning ...Read more of this...



by Naidu, Sarojini
..., 
of stranger, comrade or kin,
Alike in his ear sound the temple bells 
and the cry of the muezzin.
For Love shall cancel the ancient wrong 
and conquer the ancient rage,
Redeem with his tears the memoried sorrow 
that sullied a bygone age....Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...ongs endured 
 By Earth's poor patient kind, 
Which my too oft unconscious hand 
 Let enter undesigned. 
No god can cancel deeds foredone, 
 Or thy old coils unwind! 

IV 

 "As when, in Noe's days, 
 I whelmed the plains with sea, 
 So at this last, when flesh 
 And herb but fossils be, 
And, all extinct, their piteous dust 
 Revolves obliviously, 
That I made Earth, and life, and man, 
 It still repenteth me!"...Read more of this...

by Jeffers, Robinson
...ing rock, the wind and the iron-cored earth,
With what a heart I could praise your beauty.
You will not repent, nor cancel life, nor free man from anguish
For many ages to come. You are the one that tortures himself to 
 discover himself: I am
One that watches you and discovers you, and praises you in little 
 parables, idyl or tragedy, beautiful
Intolerable God.
The sword: that is:
I have two sons whom I love. They are twins, they were born 
 in nineteen sixt...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...in deep despair, 
Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 
Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt 
She e'er should cancel--but she may forget. 
Safe is your Secret still in Chloe's ear; 
But none of Chloe's shall you ever hear. 
Of all her Dears she never slander'd one, 
But cares not if a thousand are undone. 
Would Chloe know if you're alive or dead? 
She bids her Footman put it in her head. 
Chloe is prudent--Would you too be wise? 
Then never break yo...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...sage with my life-blood ebbing away;
"Now, Billy, you fat old duffer, you've got to get back like hell;
And get them to cancel that order before it's the dawn of day.

"Billy, old boy, I love you, I kiss your shiny black nose;
Now, home there. . . . Hurry, you devil, or I'll cut you to ribands. . . . See . . ."
Poor brute! he's off! and I'm dying. . . . I go as a soldier goes.
I'm happy. My Boys, God bles...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...un? 
And deem'st thou me unknown too? Gaze again! 
At least thy memory was not given in vain. 
Oh! never canst thou cancel half her debt, 
Eternity forbids thee to forget." 
With slow and searching glance upon his face 
Grew Lara's eyes, but nothing there could trace 
They knew, or chose to know — with dubious look 
He deign'd no answer, but his head he shook, 
And half contemptuous turn'd to pass away; 
But the stern stranger motion'd him to stay. 
"A word! — I c...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...at hand
the right denominations of stamps,
or did I make a childish quilt of ones and sevens?
Ah yes, they will have to cancel me twice.
Once to make my words worthless.
Once more to stop me from writing....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...o it very well. 
There!—I’m glad you’ve put it back; for I don’t like it. Shut the drawer now. 
No—no—don’t cancel anything. I’ll dance until I drop.
I can’t walk yet, but I’m going to…. Go away somewhere, and leave me…. 
Oh, you children! Oh, you children!…God, will they never stop!”...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...Yes, it was like you to forget, 
And cancel in the welcome of your smile 
My deep arrears of debt,
And with the putting forth of both your hands 
To sweep away the bars my folly set
Between us -- bitter thoughts, and harsh demands, 
And reckless deeds that seemed untrue 
To love, when all the while
My heart was aching through and through 
For you, sweet heart, and only you. 

Yet, as I turn...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...a rich lord, 
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold, 
And make a suit unto him, to afford 
A new small-rented lease, and cancel the old. 
In heaven at his manor I him sought; 
They told me there that he was lately gone 
About some land, which he had dearly bought 
Long since on earth, to take possession.
I straight returned, and knowing his great birth, 
Sought him accordingly in great resorts; 
In cities, theaters, gardens, parks, and courts; 
At length I heard a ragg...Read more of this...

by Kunitz, Stanley
...Before I am completely shriven
I shall reject my inch of heaven.

Cancel my eyes, and, standing, sink
Into my deepest self; there drink

Memory down. The banner of
My blood, unfurled, will not be love,

Only the pity and the pride
Of it, pinned to my open side.

When I have utterly refined
The composition of my mind,

Shaped language of my marrow till
Its forms are instant to my will,

Suffered the leaf of my heart...Read more of this...

by Drayton, Michael
...of me, 
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart, 
That thus so cleanly I myself can free. 
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows, 
And when we meet at any time again 
Be it not seen in either of our brows 
That we one jot of former love retain. 
Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath, 
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies, 
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death, 
And Innocence is closing up his eyes, 
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have g...Read more of this...

by Drayton, Michael
...of me; 
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart, 
That thus so cleanly I myself can free. 
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows, 
And when we meet at any time again, 
Be it not seen in either of our brows 
That we one jot of former love retain. 
Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath, 
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies, 
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death, 
And Innocence is closing up his eyes, 
 --Now if thou wouldst, when all hav...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...knows! 

LX.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. 

LXI.
For let Philosopher and Doctor preach
Of what they will, and what they will not -- each
Is but one Link in an eternal Chain
That none can slip, nor break, nor over-reach. 

LXII.
And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy ...Read more of this...

by Fitzgerald, Edward
...ws—HE knows!

51

The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

52

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coopt we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help—for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

53

With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead,
And then of the Last Harvest sowed the Seed:
Yea, the first Morning ...Read more of this...

by Crane, Hart
...such
environs?
And what about the staunch neighbor tabulations,
with all their zest for doom?

I'm wearing badges
that cancel all your kindness. Forthright
I watch the silver Zeppelin
destroy the sky. To
stir your confidence?
To rouse what sanctions—?

The silver strophe... the canto
bright with myth ... Such
distances leap landward without
evil smile. And, as for me....

The window weight throbs in its blind
partition....Read more of this...

by Butler, Ellis Parker
...Q. E. D. can be displayed
 Anent this “On the Tibur Road”?

VI

First, Horry’s dead and he don’t care,
 So cancel him, and let him snore;
His Donkey has been raised in air
 So oft he’s tough and calloused o’er;
Our Miller—dusty-headed man—
 Follows the best donk-boosting code:
Our Son—dispute it no one can—
 Sings gaily down the Tibur Road.

VII

This, then, must be this Critic’s scream:—
 The donk was boosted well and high,
And, ergo! falling in the stream,
...Read more of this...

by Davidson, John
...cunning folk say sooth 
Who flay the naked fact 
And carve the heart of truth. 

The rulers cry aloud, 
"We cannot cancel war, 
The end and bloody shroud 
Of wrongs the worst abhor, 
And order's swaddling band: 
Know that relentless strife 
Remains by sea and land 
The holiest law of life. 
From fear in every guise, 
From sloth, from lust of pelf, 
By war's great sacrifice 
The world redeems itself. 
War is the source, the theme 
Of art; the goal, the bent 
And b...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...
the toilet paper collected in the basement. 

Take back the bottles. 
The back stairs are raining glass. 
Cancel the milk. 

12 

You may go now, says Cupboard. 
I won't talk, 
says Clock. 

Your bag is black and waiting. 
How can you leave your house? 
The stove hunches its shoulders, 

the kitchen table stares at the sky. 
You're heaving yourself out in the snow 
groping toward the front door....Read more of this...

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