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Famous Contrivance Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Browning, Robert
...ress and strain, 
Whereby the wily vapour fain would slip 
Back and rejoin its source before the term,-- 
And aptest in contrivance (under God) 
To baffle it by deftly stopping such:-- 
The vagrant Scholar to his Sage at home 
Sends greeting (health and knowledge, fame with peace) 
Three samples of true snakestone--rarer still, 
One of the other sort, the melon-shaped, 
(But fitter, pounded fine, for charms than drugs) 
And writeth now the twenty-second time. 

My journey...Read more of this...



by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...tian revenue 
In me to pay. A man who has no gold, 
Or an equivalent, shall pay no gold
Until by chance or labor or contrivance 
He makes it his to pay; and he that has 
No kindlier commodity than hate, 
Glossed with a pity that belies itself 
In its negation and lacks alchemy
To fuse itself to—love, would you have me say? 
I don’t believe it. No, there is no such word. 
If I say tolerance, there’s no more to say. 
And he who sickens even in saying that— 
What...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...r> B.

SHE sought the Studios, beckoning to her side
An arch-designer, for she planned to build.
He was of wise contrivance, deeply skilled
In every intervolve of high and wide--
Well fit to be her guide.

"Whatever it be,"
Responded he,
With cold, clear voice, and cold, clear view,
"In true accord with prudent fashionings
For such vicissitudes as living brings,
And thwarting not the law of stable things,
That will I do."

"Shape me," she said, "high walls wit...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...ur:
 When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
 By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
 Even while they make a show of fear, 
Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their
 friends,
 To conform and re-establish each career?

Their lives cannot repay us--their death could not undo--
 The shame that they have laid upon our race. 
But the sl...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...uit so small, 
So disproportion'd, grows; 
That, who with Sence surveys this All, 
This universal Casual Ball, 
Its ill Contrivance knows. 

My better Judgment wou'd have hung 
That Weight upon a Tree, 
And left this Mast, thus slightly strung, 
'Mongst things which on the Surface sprung, 
And small and feeble be. 

No more the Caviller cou'd say, 
Nor farther Faults descry; 
For, as he upwards gazing lay, 
An Acorn, loosen'd from the Stay, 
Fell down upon his Eye.Read more of this...



by Wilmot, John
...rds at home,
Bawds' quarters beaten up, and fortress won,
Windows demolished, watches overcome,
And handsome ills by my contrivance done.

Nor shall our love-fits, Cloris, be forgot,
When each the well-looked link-boy strove t'enjoy,
And the best kiss was the deciding lot:
Whether the boy fucked you, or I the boy.

With tales like these I will such heat inspire,
As to important mischief shall incline.
I'll make them long some ancient church to fire,
And fear no le...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...pleasant Is your dwelling,
O my friends! and safe from danger;
Can you not, with all your cunning,
All your wisdom and contrivance,
Change me, too, into a beaver?"
"Yes!" replied Ahmeek, the beaver,
He the King of all the beavers,
"Let yourself slide down among us,
Down into the tranquil water."
Down into the pond among them
Silently sank Pau-Puk-Keewis;
Black became his shirt of deer-skin,
Black his moccasins and leggings,
In a broad black tail behind him
Spread his fox...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...e told his privity,
And she was ware, and better knew than he
What all this *quainte cast was for to say*. *strange contrivance
But natheless she fear'd as she would dey, meant*
And said: "Alas! go forth thy way anon.
Help us to scape, or we be dead each one.
I am thy true and very wedded wife;
Go, deare spouse, and help to save our life."
Lo, what a great thing is affection!
Men may die of imagination,
So deeply may impression be take.
This silly carpente...Read more of this...

by Levertov, Denise
...Intricate and untraceable 
weaving and interweaving,
dark strand with light:

designed, beyond
all spiderly contrivance,
to link, not to entrap:

elation, grief, joy, contrition, entwined;

shaking, changing,

forever

forming, 

transforming:

all praise,

all praise to the

great web....Read more of this...

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