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Famous Contriving Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...NO churchman am I for to rail and to write,
No statesman nor soldier to plot or to fight,
No sly man of business contriving a snare,
For a big-belly’d bottle’s the whole of my care.


The peer I don’t envy, I give him his bow;
I scorn not the peasant, though ever so low;
But a club of good fellows, like those that are here,
And a bottle like this, are my glory and care.


Here passes the squire on his brother-his horse;
There centum per centum, the cit with his...Read more of this...



by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...If all the end of this continuous striving
Were simply to attain,
How poor would seem the planning and contriving
The endless urging and the hurried driving
Of body, heart and brain!

But ever in the wake of true achieving,
There shine this glowing trail –
Some other soul will be spurred on, conceiving,
New strength and hope, in its own power believing,
Because thou didst not fail.

Not thine alone the glory, nor the sorrow,
If thou doth miss the goal,
Un...Read more of this...

by Stevenson, Robert Louis
...sunshine; soon the ears
Weary of utterance, seeing all is said;
Soon, racked by hopes and fears,
The all-pondering, all-contriving head,
Weary with all things, wearies of the years;
And our sad spirits turn toward the dead;
And the tired child, the body, longs for bed....Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ill-will between them, 
For they kept each other's counsel, 
Spake with naked hearts together, 
Pondering much and much contriving 
How the tribes of men might prosper.
Most beloved by Hiawatha 
Was the gentle Chibiabos, 
He the best of all musicians, 
He the sweetest of all singers. 
Beautiful and childlike was he, 
Brave as man is, soft as woman, 
Pliant as a wand of willow, 
Stately as a deer with antlers.
When he sang, the village listened; 
All the warriors g...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...hom count me not among,
That owe their daily credit to her smile;
Such have been succoured out of great distress
By her contriving, if accounts be true:
Their deference now above the board, I guess,
Dishcharges what beneath the board is due.
As for myself, I'd liefer lack her aid
Than eat her presence; let this building fall:
But let me never lift my latch, afraid
To hear her simpering accents in the hall,
Nor force an entrance past mephitic airs
Of stale patchoulie hangi...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...s, 
More unexpert, I boast not: them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need; not now. 
For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest-- 
Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait 
The signal to ascend--sit lingering here, 
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, 
The prison of his ryranny who reigns 
By our delay? No! let us rather choose, 
Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once 
O'er Heaven's high to...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...o have marred 
What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days 
Continued making; and who knows how long 
Before had been contriving? though perhaps 
Not longer than since I, in one night, freed 
From servitude inglorious well nigh half 
The angelick name, and thinner left the throng 
Of his adorers: He, to be avenged, 
And to repair his numbers thus impaired, 
Whether such virtue spent of old now failed 
More Angels to create, if they at least 
Are his created, or, to spite us...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...er hands to hold thee; 
From resignful Eve's adorning 
Stol'n a robe of peace to enfold thee; 
With all charms of man's contriving 
Arm'd thee for thy lonely striving. 

Me too once unthinking Nature, 
—Whence Love's timeless mockery took me,— 
Fashion'd so divine a creature, 
Yea, and like a beast forsook me. 
I forgave, but tell the measure 
Of her crime in thee, my treasure....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...ent, 
The balm of my defeat: 
What she, with all her striving,
Could not have brought about, 
You’ve done. Your own contriving 
Has put the last light out. 

“If she were the whole story, 
If worse were not behind,
I’d creep with you to glory, 
Believing I was blind; 
I’d creep, and go on seeming 
To be what I despise. 
You laugh, and say I’m dreaming,
And all your laughs are lies. 

“Are women mad? A few are, 
And if it’s true you say— 
If most men are as you...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...
Whilst the rich Heir now finds the giving Dead 
Less weighty in his Gold, than in his Lead; 
Which falling just on his contriving Breast, 
Expell'd the Soul, leaving the corpse to rest 
In the same Grave, intended for his Friend. 
Then why shou'd We our Days in Wishes spend, 
Which, e'er we see fulfill'd, are often at an End?...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...wise,
And, child-like, parcel out praise or blame:
They bore it all in complacent guise,
As though an artificer, after contriving
A wheel-work image as if it were living,
Should find with delight it could motion to strike him!
So found the Duke, and his mother like him:
The lady hardly got a rebuff---
That had not been contemptuous enough,
With his cursed smirk, as he nodded applause,
And kept off the old mother-cat's claws.

IX.

So, the little lady grew silent and ...Read more of this...

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