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Famous Censure Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...he wavering balance shake,
 It’s rarely right adjusted!


Yet they wha fa’ in fortune’s strife,
 Their fate we shouldna censure;
For still, th’ important end of life
 They equally may answer;
A man may hae an honest heart,
 Tho’ poortith hourly stare him;
A man may tak a neibor’s part,
 Yet hae nae cash to spare him.


Aye free, aff-han’, your story tell,
 When wi’ a bosom crony;
But still keep something to yoursel’,
 Ye scarcely tell to ony:
Conceal yoursel’ as weel’s ye can...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...e justnesse that his Pride, 
Soe Arrogantly, had to these denyd? 
And may not I, have leave Impartially 
To search, and Censure, Drydens workes, and try, 
If those grosse faults, his Choyce Pen does Commit 
Proceed from want of Judgment, or of Witt. 
Of if his lumpish fancy does refuse, 
Spirit, and grace to his loose slatterne Muse? 
Five Hundred Verses, ev'ry Morning writ, 
Proves you noe more a Poet, than a Witt. 
Such scribling Authors, have beene seene before, 
Mustapha,...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John
...t perfectly they made agree: 
Each virtue kept its proper bound, 
Nor tresspass'd on the other's ground. 
Nor fame, nor censure they regarded: 
They neither punish'd nor rewarded. 
He cared not what the footmen did: 
Her maids she neither prais'd nor chid: 
So ev'ry servant took his course; 
And bad at first, they all grew worse. 
Slothful disorder fill'd his stable; 
And sluttish plenty deck'd her table. 
Their beer was strong; their wine was port; 
Their meal was large; the...Read more of this...
by de la Mare, Walter
...dang'rous is th' Offence,
To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense:
Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,
Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss;
A Fool might once himself alone expose,
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.

'Tis with our Judgments as our Watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In Poets as true Genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critick's Share;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their Light,
These born to Judge...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...w light of joy which brightest shines through tears.



XLVII.
About the leader thick the warriors crowd; 
Late loud in censure, now in praises loud, 
They laud the tactics, and the skill extol
Which gained a bloodless yet a glorious goal.
Alone and lonely in the path of right
Full many a brave soul walks. When gods requite
And crown his actions as their worth demands, 
Among admiring throngs the hero always stands.


A row of six asterisks is on the page at this point

XLVII...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler



...onduct nice; 
And good Simplicius asks of her advice. 
Sudden, she storms! she raves! You tip the wink, 
But spare your censure; Silia does not drink. 
All eyes may see from what the change arose, 
All eyes may see--a Pimple on her nose. 

Papillia, wedded to her amorous spark, 
Sighs for the shades--"How charming is a Park!" 
A Park is purchas'd, but the Fair he sees 
All bath'd in tears--"Oh odious, odious Trees!" 

Ladies, like variegated Tulips, show; 
'Tis to their Chang...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...follow this, and come to dust. 

Fear no more the lightning-flash, 
Nor the all-dread thunder-stone; 
Fear not slander, censure rash; 
Thou hast finished joy and moan; 
All lovers young, all lovers must 
Consign to thee, and come to dust. 

No exorciser harm thee! 
Nor no witchcraft charm thee! 
Ghost unlaid forbear thee! 
Nothing ill come near thee! 
Quiet consummation have; 
And renowned be thy grave!...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...low this, and come to dust. 

Fear no more the lightning-flash, 
 Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone; 
Fear not slander, censure rash; 
 Thou hast finish'd joy and moan: 
All lovers young, all lovers must 
Consign to thee, and come to dust. 

No exorciser harm thee! 
Nor no witchcraft charm thee! 
Ghost unlaid forbear thee! 
Nothing ill come near thee! 
Quiet consummation have; 
And renowned be thy grave!...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...lieving, pro domo, in any case ..

Some quick to arm,
some for adventure,
some from fear of weakness,
some from fear of censure,
some for love of slaughter, in imagination,
learning later ...

some in fear, learning love of slaughter;
Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor" ..

walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving
came home, home to a lie,
home to many deceits,
home to old lies and new infamy;

usury age-old and age-thick
and liars in pu...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra
...gling, task'd morality--
Nature, whose free, light, cheerful air,
Oft made thee, in thy gloom, despair.

And she, whose censure thou dost dread,
Whose eye thou wast afraid to seek,
See, on her face a glow is spread,
A strong emotion on her cheek!
'Ah, child!' she cries, 'that strife divine,
Whence was it, for it is not mine?

'There is no effort on my brow--
I do not strive, I do not weep;
I rush with the swift spheres and glow
In joy, and when I will, I sleep.
Yet that sever...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew
...r houses

of prayer, the teachers teach in schoolhouses
between blackouts and blasts, when each word was
flensed by new censure, books exchanged for bread, 
both hostage to the happenstance of war?
Sometimes the only schoolroom is a kitchen.
Outside the window, black strokes on a graph
of broken glass, birds line up on bare branches.

"This letter curves, this one spreads its branches
like friends holding hands outside their houses."
Was the lesson stopped by gunfire? Was
the...Read more of this...
by Hacker, Marilyn
...gadier throughout the Year
So civic as the Jay --
A Neighbor and a Warrior too
With shrill felicity
Pursuing Winds that censure us
A February Day,
The Brother of the Universe
Was never blown away --
The Snow and he are intimate --
I've often seem them play
When Heaven looked upon us all
With such severity
I felt apology were due
To an insulted sky
Whose pompous frown was Nutriment
To their Temerity --
The Pillow of this daring Head
Is pungent Evergreens --
His Larder -- terse...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...o learn:
But common quiet is mankind's concern.

Thus have I made my own opinions clear:
Yet neither praise expect, nor censure fear:
And this unpolish'd, rugged verse, I chose;
As fittest for discourse, and nearest prose:
For, while from sacred truth I do not swerve,
Tom Sternhold's, or Tom Shadwell's rhymes will serve....Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...el.
Let weakness then with weakness come to parl
So near related, or the same of kind,
Thine forgive mine; that men may censure thine
The gentler, if severely thou exact not
More strength from me, then in thy self was found.
And what if Love, which thou interpret'st hate, 
The jealousie of Love, powerful of sway
In human hearts, nor less in mine towards thee,
Caus'd what I did? I saw thee mutable
Of fancy, feard lest one day thou wouldst leave me
As her at Timna, sought by al...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...e, received in my brain
``And pronounced on the rest of his hand-work---returned him again
``His creation's approval or censure: I spoke as I saw:
``I report, as a man may of God's work---all's love, yet all's law.
``Now I lay down the judgeship he lent me. Each faculty tasked
``To perceive him, has gained an abyss, where a dewdrop was asked.
``Have I knowledge? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid bare.
``Have I forethought? how purblind, how blank, to the Infinite Care!
``...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...
Like you, how unsincere the strains 
Of those who but admire! 

Accept, for once, advice from me, 
And let the eye of censure see 
Maria can be true; 
No more for fools or empty beaux, 
Heav'n's representatives disclose, 
Or butterflies pursue. 

Fly to your worthiest lover's arms, 
To him resign your swelling charms, 
And meet his gen'rous breast; 
Or if Pitholeon suits your taste, 
His muse with tattr'd fragments graced, 
Shall read your cares to rest....Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas
...ious of your fair renown, 
Heedless of the pain you suffer, do their worst to shake you down. 
At the praise of men, or censure, let your lip in scorn be curled, 
`Self and Pelf', my friend, remember, is the motto of the world. 

`Flowing founts of inspiration leave their sources parched and dry, 
Scalding tears of indignation sear the hearts that beat too high; 
Chilly waters thrown upon it drown the fire that's in the bard; 
And the banter of the critic hurts his heart till...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp!
          Yet, once again, forgive my feeble sway,
     And little reck I of the censure sharp
          May idly cavil at an idle lay.
     Much have I owed thy strains on life's long way,
          Through secret woes the world has never known,
     When on the weary night dawned wearier day,
          And bitterer was the grief devoured alone.—
     That I o'erlive such woes, Enchantress! is thine own.

     Hark! as my linger...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...-away the while!)
Mak'st thou of women when thou wilt beguile.

This Soudaness, whom I thus blame and warray*, *oppose, censure
Let privily her council go their way:
Why should I in this tale longer tarry?
She rode unto the Soudan on a day,
And said him, that she would *reny her lay,* *renounce her creed*
And Christendom of priestes' handes fong*, *take
Repenting her she heathen was so long;

Beseeching him to do her that honour,
That she might have the Christian folk to f...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...nt deep? 
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf 
There is no shape more terrible than this-- 
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed-- 
More filled with signs and portents for the soul-- 
More fraught with menace to the universe. 

What gulfs between him and the seraphim! 
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him 
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song, 
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose? 
Through this d...Read more of this...
by Markham, Edwin

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry