Famous Compromise Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Mien to move a Queen

...shift supreme --
As tone of Realm
On Subjects Diadem --

Too small -- to fear --
Too distant -- to endear --
And so Men Compromise
And just -- revere --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


Aurora Leigh (excerpts)

...the day 's out and the labour done,
Then bring your gauges. If the day's work 's scant,
Why, call it scant ; affect no compromise ;
And, in that we have nobly striven at least,
Deal with us nobly, women though we be.
And honour us with truth if not with praise....Read more of this...
by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

Captain Craig

...
And ashes, and the fabric will not stand: 
The shifted walls that you have coaxed and shored 
So long with unavailing compromise
Will crumble down to dust and blow away, 
And younger dust will follow after them; 
Though not the faintest or the farthest whirled 
First atom of the least that ever flew 
Shall be by man defrauded of the touch
God thrilled it with to make a dream for man 
When Science was unborn. And after time, 
When we have earned our spiritual ears, 
And art’...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Democracy

...Democracy will not come
Today, this year
 Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right 
As the other fellow has
 To stand
On my two feet 
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say, 
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

 Freedom
 Is a strong seed
 Planted
 In a great need.

 I live here, too.
 I want ...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

Karma

...prise,
He magnified a fancy that he wished
The friend whom he had wrecked were here again.
Not sure of that, he found a compromise;
And from the fulness of his heart he fished
A dime for Jesus who had died for men....Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Mad Day In March

..., 
The barren bride and nun 
Begrudge the season's dues. 
May children curse the sun, 
Sweet briar and grass refuse 
To compromise the spring, 
And both sower and seed 
Choke on the summer's weed. 

Those promises we heard 
We heard in ignorance; 
The numbered days we named, 
And, in our innocence, 
Assumed the beast was tamed. 
On a bare limb, a bird, 
Alone, arrived, with wings 
Frozen, holds on and sings....Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

My Philosophy of Life

...gh to see over.Or maybe I'm frankly scared.
What was the matter with how I acted before?
But maybe I can come up with a compromise--I'll let
things be what they are, sort of.In the autumn I'll put up jellies
and preserves, against the winter cold and futility,
and that will be a human thing, and intelligent as well.
I won't be embarrassed by my friends' dumb remarks,
or even my own, though admittedly that's the hardest part,
as when you are in a crowded theater and something ...Read more of this...
by Ashbery, John

Right's Security

...than e'er the tempest roared,
It cleaves the silence like a sword.
Right arms and armors, too, that man
Who will not compromise with wrong;
Though single, he must front the throng,
And wage the battle hard and long.
Minorities, since time began,
Have shown the better side of man;
And often in the lists of Time
One man has made a cause sublime!
...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

Saadi

...his bitter fount,
Wormwood; saying, Go thy ways,
Drink not the Malaga of praise,
But do the deed thy fellows hate,
And compromise thy peaceful state.
Smite the white breasts which thee fed,
Stuff sharp thorns beneath the head
Of them thou shouldst have comforted.
For out of woe and out of crime
Draws the heart a lore sublime."
And yet it seemeth not to me
That the high gods love tragedy;
For Saadi sat in the sun,
And thanks was his contrition;
For haircloth and for bloody wh...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The Conversazzhony

...ter, conny mory, on the floot,
'Till we, ez sot up-stairs indulgin' in a quiet game,
Conveyed to Barber Jim our wish to compromise the same.

The maynoo that wuz spread that night wuz mighty hard to beat,--
Though somewhat awkward to pernounce, it was not so to eat:
There wuz puddin's, pies, an' sandwidges, an' forty kinds uv sass,
An' floatin' Irelands, custards, tarts, an' patty dee foy grass;
An' millions uv cove oysters wuz a-settin' round in pans,
'Nd other native fruits...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene

The Female of the Species

...than the male.

Man, a bear in most relations-worm and savage otherwise, --
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger --- Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue -- to the scandal of The Sex!

But th...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Harbour

...
and witnessed in granite and ugly bronze and gun-metal.

And by me. I am your citizen: composed of
your fictions, your compromise, I am
a part of your story and its outcome.
And ready to record its contradictions....Read more of this...
by Boland, Eavan

The Jacquerie A Fragment

...? No! --
And so the holy father Pope made stir
And had sent forth a legate to Cervolles,
And treated with him, and made compromise,
And, last, had bidden all the Arch-priest's troop
To come and banquet with him in his house,
Where they did wassail high by night and day
And Father Pope sat at the board and carved
Midst jokes that flowed full greasily,
And priest and soldier trolled good songs for mass,
And all the prayers the Priests made were, `pray, drink,'
And all the oaths...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Lottery

...a chance,
And may your number be a winner.

Far be it from me to advise,
But in the marital relation
The safest bet is Compromise
And Mutual Consideration....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The World State

...national Idea, 
 The largest and the clearest, 
Is welding all the nations now, 
 Except the one that's nearest. 

This compromise has long been known, 
 This scheme of partial pardons, 
In ethical societies 
 And small suburban gardens— 

The villas and the chapels where 
 I learned with little labour 
The way to love my fellow-man 
 And hate my next-door neighbour....Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

There are two Mays

...There are two Mays
And then a Must
And after that a Shall.
How infinite the compromise
That indicates I will!...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Time Of Disturbance

...shared
By the panting belligerents; the moral indignation that
 hoarsens orators is mostly a fool.

Hold your nose and compromise; keep a cold mind. Fight,
 if needs must; hate no one. Do as God does,
Or the tragic poets: they crush their man without hating
 him, their Lear or Hitler, and often save without
 love.

As for these quarrels, they are like the moon, recurrent
 and fantastic. They have their beauty but night's
 is better.
It is better to be silent than make a nois...Read more of this...
by Jeffers, Robinson

Why I Went To The Foot

...to answer the other,
For teacher had said, sharply, “Next!”

It was then that the brilliant thought struck me,
That by compromise I could contrive
To hurt neither teacher nor Jimmie,
And that’s how I came to say “five.”...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

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