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Famous Coin Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...gs his tail 
And swerves -- and the Cup is finished. 

* * * * * 

And now in my dream it all comes back: 
I bet my coin on the Sydney crack, 
A million I've won, no question! 
"Give me my money, you hook-nosed hog! 
Give me my money, bookmaking dog!" 
But he disappeared in a kind of fog, 
And I woke with "the indigestion"....Read more of this...



by Dryden, John
...rms as coarse as Samuel us'd to Saul.
What others in his evidence did join,
(The best that could be had for love or coin,)
In Corah's own predicament will fall:
For Witness is a common name to all.

Surrounded thus with friends of every sort,
Deluded Absalom forsakes the court:
Impatient of high hopes, urg'd with renown,
And fir'd with near possession of a crown:
Th' admiring crowd are dazzled with surprise,
And on his goodly person feed their eyes:
His joy conceal'd,...Read more of this...

by Dunmore, Helen
...midwinter
with the whine of tea on an empty stomach,
not yet the heating you can't afford and must wait for,
tamping a coin in on each hour.
Not the gorgeous shush of restaurant doors
and their interiors, always so much smaller.
Not the smell of the newsprint, the blur
on your fingertips — your fame. Not yet

the love you will have for Winter Pearmains
and Chanel No 5 — and then your being unable
to buy both washing-machine and computer
when your baby's due to be...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...re is no such word. 
If I say tolerance, there’s no more to say. 
And he who sickens even in saying that— 
What coin of God has he to pay the toll
To peace on earth? Good will to men—oh, yes! 
That’s easy; and it means no more than sap, 
Until we boil the water out of it 
Over the fire of sacrifice. I’ll do it; 
And in a measurable way I’ve done it—
But not for him. What are you smiling at? 
Well, so it went until a day in June. 
We were together under an ...Read more of this...

by Neruda, Pablo
...have seen from my window
the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.

Sometimes a piece of sun
burned like a coin in my hand.

I remembered you with my soul clenched
in that sadness of mine that you know.

Where were you then?
Who else was there?
Saying what?
Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly
when I am sad and feel you are far away?

The book fell that always closed at twilight
and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet.

Always,...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...ss brows.
List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened
With that same vaunted name, Virginity.
Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded,
But must be current; and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself.
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languished head.
Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the ...Read more of this...

by Donne, John
...rs; for that is
His realm, his castle, and his diocese.
But if, as envious men, which would revile
Their Prince, or coin his gold, themselves exile
Into another country, and do it there,
We play in another house, what should we fear?
There we will scorn his houshold policies,
His seely plots, and pensionary spies,
As the inhabitants of Thames' right side
Do London's Mayor; or Germans, the Pope's pride....Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...n" still for "Pretty Polly";
One whistled like a bird.

But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste:
"Good folk, I have no coin;
To take were to purloin:
I have no copper in my purse,
I have no silver either,
And all my gold is on the furze
That shakes in windy weather
Above the rusty heather."
"You have much gold upon your head,"
They answered altogether:
"Buy from us with a golden curl."
She clipped a precious golden lock,
She dropped a tear more rare than pearl,
Then ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...transit!_
Happier the thrifty blind-folk labour,
With upturned eye while the hand is busy,
Not sidling a glance at the coin of their neighbour!
'Tis looking downward that makes one dizzy.

XI.

``If you knew their work you would deal your dole.''
May I take upon me to instruct you?
When Greek Art ran and reached the goal,
Thus much had the world to boast _in fructu_---
The Truth of Man, as by God first spoken,
Which the actual generations garble,
Was re-uttered, ...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...aws he will be true, 
And, rather than his Wealth, will bid the World adieu. 
The Rafters sink, and bury'd with his Coin 
That Fate does with his living Thoughts combine; 
For still his Heart's inclos'd within a Golden Mine. 


Contention with its angry Brawls 
By Storms o'er-clamour'd, shrinks and falls; 
Nor WHIG, nor TORY now the rash Contender calls. 


Those, who but Vanity allow'd, 
Nor thought, it reach'd the Name of Sin, 
To be of their Perfections proud, ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...d lo! we die.

Ah! but no ferry-man with labouring pole
Nears his black shallop to the flowerless strand,
No little coin of bronze can bring the soul
Over Death's river to the sunless land,
Victim and wine and vow are all in vain,
The tomb is sealed; the soldiers watch; the dead rise not again.

We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring-impassioned...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ounds.

Sam: Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn
Now of my own experience, not by talk,
How counterfeit a coin they are who friends
Bear in their Superscription (of the most 
I would be understood) in prosperous days
They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head
Not to be found, though sought. Wee see, O friends.
How many evils have enclos'd me round;
Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,
Blindness, for had I sight, confus'd with shame,
Ho...Read more of this...

by Butler, Ellis Parker
...

John Henry ran to where it struck
To see which maiden was in luck.

But, oh, the irony of fate!
Upon its edge the coin stood straight!

And there, embedded in the sand,
John Henry let the dollar stand!

And he will tempt his fate no more,
But live and die a bachelor.

Thus, ladies, you have heard me sing
The ballad of John Henry King....Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...ghteous cause allowed, 
But baffled by an arbitrary crowd; 
And medals graved, their conquest to record, 
The stamp and coin of their adopted lord. 

The man who laughed but once, to see an ass 
Mumbling to make the cross-grained thistles pass, 
Might laugh again to see a jury chaw 
The prickles of unpalatable law. 
The witnesses that, leech-like lived on blood, 
Sucking for them were med'cinally good; 
But when they fastened on their festered sore, 
Then justice and ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...a wench. *puppet 
Full brighter was the shining of her hue,
Than in the Tower the noble* forged new. *a gold coin 
But of her song, it was as loud and yern*, *lively 
As any swallow chittering on a bern*. *barn
Thereto* she coulde skip, and *make a game* *also *romp*
As any kid or calf following his dame.
Her mouth was sweet as braket, or as methe* *mead
Or hoard of apples, laid in hay or heath.
Wincing* she was as is a jolly colt, *skittish
...Read more of this...

by Berman, David
...to take
shape.

Out the garage window he sees a group of ugly children
enter the forest. Their mouths look like coin slots.



A neighbor plays keyboards in a local cover band.
Preparing for an engagement at the high school prom,

they pack their equipment in silence.

Last night they played the Police Academy Ball and
all the officers slow-danced with target range silhouettes.



This year the theme for the prom is the Tetragrammaton.

A yellow Co...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...our ideal:' she replied: 
'We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear 
This barren verbiage, current among men, 
Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. 
Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem 
As arguing love of knowledge and of power; 
Your language proves you still the child. Indeed, 
We dream not of him: when we set our hand 
To this great work, we purposed with ourself 
Never to wed. You likewise will do well, 
Ladies, in entering here, to c...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...we keep the sea.
Then fore-sheet home as she lifts to the foam -- we stand on the outward tack,
We are paid in the coin of the white man's trade -- the bezant is hard, ay, and black.
The frigate-bird shall carry my word to the Kling and the Orang-Laut
How a man may sail from a heathen coast to be robbed in a Christian port;
How a man may be robbed in Christian port while Three Great Captains there
Shall dip their flag to a slaver's rag -- to show that his trade is fa...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...poured kerosene on and then had lit with a match and said,

"Here, hold this while I go get a newspaper, " and put the

coin in my hand, but never came back.

 I had walked for miles and miles until I came to the rock

under the tree and sat down. Every time a car would come

by, about once every ten minutes, I would get up and stick

out my thumb as if it were a bunch of bananas and then sit

back down on the rock again.

 The old shack had a tin roof colored red...Read more of this...

by Borges, Jorge Luis
...hadows have surrounded him.
Everything said goodbye to us, everything goes away.

Memory does not stamp his own coin.

However, there is something that stays
however, there is something that bemoans....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs