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Famous Controlled Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Kipling, Rudyard
...nally did sing.
He warbled like a bul-bul but particularly at
Cornelia Agrippina, who was musical and fat.

She controlled a humble husband, who, in turn, controlled a Dept.
Where Cornelia Agrippina's human singing-birds were kept
From April to October on a plump retaining-fee,
Supplied, of course, per mensem, by the Indian Treasury.

Cornelia used to sing with him, and Jenkins used to play;
He praised unblushingly her notes, for he was false as they;
So when ...Read more of this...



by Kees, Weldon
...les

Burst on the table as the commissar
Untwists the vise, removes his gloves, puts down
Izvestia. (Old saboteurs, controlled by Trotsky's

Scheming and unconquered ghost, still threaten Novgorod.)
--And not far from the pits, these bones of ours, 
Burned, bleached, and splintering, are shoveled, ready for the fields....Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...at last the darling sleeps.

Hamlet himself could not give cheer or help,
Though firm and brave, with his boy-face controlled.
For every game they started out to play
Yorick invented, in the days of old.

The times are out of joint! O cursed spite!
The noble jester Yorick comes no more.
And Hamlet hides his tears in boyish pride
By some lone turret-stair of Elsinore....Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...nds,
Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven's thunder;
The iron bit he crushes 'tween his teeth
Controlling what he was controlled with.

His ears up-prick'd; his braided hanging mane
Upon his compass'd crest now stand on end;
His nostrils drink the air, and forth again,
As from a furnace, vapours doth he send:
His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire,
Shows his hot courage and his high desire.

Sometime her trots, as if he told the steps,
With gentle majesty and ...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...d's foam. 
The lawyer, and the laws, 
And the kingdom, 
Clean swept herefrom. 

'They called me theirs, 
Who so controlled me; 
Yet every one 
Wished to stay, and is gone, 
How am I theirs, 
If they cannot hold me, 
But I hold them?'

When I heard the Earth-song, 
I was no longer brave; 
My avarice cooled 
Like lust in the chill of the grave....Read more of this...



by Lawson, Henry
...and wrong, and shame 
in the days when the world was wide. 

They sailed away in the ships that sailed ere science controlled the main, 
When the strong, brave heart of a man prevailed 
as 'twill never prevail again; 
They knew not whither, nor much they cared -- 
let Fate or the winds decide -- 
The worst of the Great Unknown they dared 
in the days when the world was wide. 

They raised new stars on the silent sea that filled their hearts with awe; 
They came to ma...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...and curl I pried
After the warmth and scent inside,
Thro' lights and darks how manifold---
The dark inspired, the light controlled
As early Art embrowns the gold.

IV.

What great fear, should one say, ``Three days
``That change the world might change as well
``Your fortune; and if joy delays,
``Be happy that no worse befell!''
What small fear, if another says,
``Three days and one short night beside
``May throw no shadow on your ways;
``But years must teem with chang...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...ell's despair 
 Could sunder, parting from the faithless band 
 That Dido led, and with one voice, as though 
 One soul controlled them, spake, 

 "O Animate! 
 Who comest through the black malignant air, 
 Benign among us who this exile bear 
 For earth ensanguined, if the King of All 
 Heard those who from the outer darkness call 
 Entreat him would we for thy peace, that thou 
 Hast pitied us condemned, misfortunate. - 
 Of that which please thee, if the winds allow, 
...Read more of this...

by Belloc, Hilaire
...s She dried her eyes,
Said, ``Well--it gives me no surprise,
He would not do as he was told!''
His Father, who was self-controlled,
Bade all the children round attend
To James's miserable end,
And always keep a-hold of Nurse
For fear of finding something worse....Read more of this...

by Larkin, Philip
...corner seat,
The swinging and narrowing sun
Lights her eyelashes, shapes
Her sharp vivacity of bone.
Hair, wild and controlled, runs back:
And gestures like these English oaks
Flash past the windows of her foreign talk.

The train runs on through wilderness
Of cities. Still the hammered miles
Diversify behind her face.
And all humanity of interest
Before her angled beauty falls,
As whorling notes are pressed
In a bird's throat, issuing meaningless
Through writ...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...e at her side; 
And then the talk flowed on with brimming tide 
Through the still night,
While she with influence light
Controlled it, as the moon the flood.
She knew where I had been, what I had done, 
What work was planned, and what begun;
My troubles, failures, fears she understood, 
And touched them with a heart so kind,
That every care was melted from my mind,
And every hope grew bright,
And life seemed moving on to happy ends. 
(Ah, what self-beggared fool was h...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...was no nicer, worthier man 
Than Admiral O'Sullivan. 

Of course, we mean E. W. 
O'Sullivan, the hero who 
Controlled the dock at Cockatoo. 

To workmen he explained his views -- 
"You need not toil unless you choose, 
Your only work is drawing screws." 

And sometimes to their great surprise 
When votes of censure filled the skies 
He used to give them all a rise. 

"What odds about a pound or two?" 
Exclaimed the great E. W. 
O'Sullivan at C...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...truth;
That, in our time, Thy Grace may give
The Truth whereby the Nations live.

Teach us to rule ourselves alway,
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.

Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for judge, and not our friends;
That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed
By fear or favour of the crowd.

Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under Thee, we may...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...the stage they hear ascend
The chorus's dread melody.

Who, sad and solemn, as of old,
With footsteps measured and controlled,
Advancing from the far background,
Circle the theatre's wide round.
Thus, mortal women never move!
No mortal home to them gave birth!
Their giant-bodies tower above,
High o'er the puny sons of earth.

With loins in mantle black concealed,
Within their fleshless bands they wield
The torch, that with a dull red glows,--
While in their cheek...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ld
     The heavy halberd, brand, and shield;
     In camps licentious, wild, and bold;
     In pillage fierce and uncontrolled;
     And now, by holytide and feast,
     From rules of discipline released.
     IV.

     'They held debate of bloody fray,
     Fought 'twixt Loch Katrine and Achray.
     Fierce was their speech, and mid their words
     'Their hands oft grappled to their swords;
     Nor sunk their tone to spare the ear
     Of wounded comrades gro...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...accumulate. 
"If these were only cleared away," 
They said, "it would be great." 
"If three financial amateurs 
Controlled them for a year, 
Do you suppose," the Premier said, 
"That they would get them clear?" 
"I think so," said the Socialist; 
"They would -- or very near!" 

"If we should try to raise some cash 
On assets of our own, 
Do you suppose," the Premier said, 
"That we could float a loan?" 
"I doubt it," said the Socialist, 
And groaned a doleful groan.Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...ainly the sea-bird would outstrip these tides! 
 Naught but an endless ebb and flow! 
 Wave upon wave advancing, then controlled 
 Beneath the depths a stream the eyes behold 
 Rolling in the involved abyss below! 
 
 Whilst here and there great fishes in the spray 
 Their silvery fins beneath the sun display, 
 Or their blue tails lash up from out the surge, 
 Like to a flock the sea its fleece doth fling; 
 The horizon's edge bound by a brazen ring; 
 Waters and ...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...t they break -- 
The heart of the family fool. 

Domestic quarrels, and family spite, 
And your Native Land may be 
Controlled by custom, but, come what might, 
The rest of the world for me. 
I'd sail with money, or sail without! -- 
If your love be forced from home, 
And you dare enough, and your heart be stout, 
The world is your own to roam. 

I've never a love that can sting my pride, 
Nor a friend to prove untrue; 
For I leave my love ere the turning tide, 
A...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...We fashioned Heaven and Hell!

Pure Wisdom hath no certain path
 That lacks thy morning-eyne,
And captains bold by Thee controlled
 Most like to Gods design;
Thou art the Voice to kingly boys
 To lift them through the fight,
And Comfortress of Unsuccess,
 To give the dead good-night --

A veil to draw 'twixt God His Law
 And Man's infirmity,
A shadow kind to dumb and blind
 The shambles where we die;
A rule to trick th' arithmetic
 Too base of leaguing odds --
The spur of tru...Read more of this...

by Amichai, Yehuda
...m say to me.
I'm a person with a complex plumbing of the soul,
Sophisticated instruments of feeling and a system
Of controlled memory at the end of the twentieth century,
But with an old body from ancient times
And with a God even older than my body.
I'm a person for the surface of the earth.
Low places, caves and wells
Frighten me. Mountain peaks
And tall buildings scare me.
I'm not like an inserted fork,
Not a cutting knife, not a stuck spoon.

I'm n...Read more of this...

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