Famous Debtors Poems by Famous Poets

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

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90. Epistle to James Smith

...;


“There’s ither poets, much your betters,
Far seen in Greek, deep men o’ letters,
Hae thought they had ensur’d their debtors,
 A’ future ages;
Now moths deform, in shapeless tatters,
 Their unknown pages.”


Then farewell hopes of laurel-boughs,
To garland my poetic brows!
Henceforth I’ll rove where busy ploughs
 Are whistlin’ thrang,
An’ teach the lanely heights an’ howes
 My rustic sang.


I’ll wander on, wi’ tentless heed
How never-halting moments speed,
Till fate shall...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A Ballad (thesis For A Doctors Degree)

...r! 

 "What's that? -- he thought, when out of bed. 
 "A sign of Judgement Day -- I said -- 
 And the inspection of the debtors!" 

 He was imprisoned on the 30th. 

 Perpetual motion of the nose! 
 It's long, while life is getting shorter. 
 At night on faces, pale as blotter, 
 like a black hawk, or pumping hose, 
 the nose absorbs us, I suppose. 

 They say, the Northern Eskimos 
 kiss one another with the nose 

 It hasn't caught on here, of course.

© Copyright Alec Vaga...Read more of this...
by Voznesensky, Andrei

General Gordon the Hero of Khartoum

...battle he carried no weapon but a small cane,
Whilst the bullets fell around him like a shower of rain. 

He burnt the debtors' books that were imprisoned in Khartoum,
And freed them from a dismal prison gloom,
Those that were imprisoned for debt they couldn't pay,
And sent them rejoicing on their way. 

While engaged in the Russian war, in the midst of the fight,
He stood upon a rising ground and viewed them left and right,
But for their shot and shell he didn't care a jot,...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

Last Instructions to a Painter

...yers' merecenary band appear: 
Finch in the front, and Thurland in the rear. 
The troop of privilege, a rabble bare 
Of debtors deep, fell to Trelawney's care. 
Their fortune's error they supplied in rage, 
Nor any further would than these engage. 
Then marched the troop, whose valiant acts before 
(Their public acts) obliged them still to more. 
For chimney's sake they all Sir Pool obeyed, 
Or in his absence him that first it laid. 
Then comes the thrifty troop of privateers...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Mesopotamia

...n 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 slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
 Shell we leave it unabated in its place?...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard


On The Death Of The Right Honourable The Lord Viscount Bayning

...lessen into Praise,
And Worthies be not crown'd with gold, but bayes;
Shall we not thank? To praise Thee all agree;
We Debtors must out doe it, heartily.
Deserved Nobility of True Descent,
Though not so old in Thee grew Ancient:
We number not the Tree of Branched Birth,
But genealogie of Vertue, spreading forth
To many Births in value. Piety,
True Valour, Bounty, Meeknesse, Modesty,
These noble off-springs swell Thy Name as much,
As Richards, Edwards, three, foure, twenty su...Read more of this...
by Strode, William

The Ballad Of Reading Gaol

...s from its heart,
And God from out His care:
And the iron gin that waits for Sin
Had caught us in its snare.


III


In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard,
And the dripping wall is high,
So it was there he took the air
Beneath the leaden sky,
And by each side a Warder walked,
For fear the man might die.

Or else he sat with those who watched
His anguish night and day;
Who watched him when he rose to weep,
And when he crouched to pray;
Who watched him lest himself should rob
Th...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

The Princess (part 2)

...or should you 
(Though, Madam, ~you~ should answer, ~we~ would ask) 
Less welcome find among us, if you came 
Among us, debtors for our lives to you, 
Myself for something more.' He said not what, 
But 'Thanks,' she answered 'Go: we have been too long 
Together: keep your hoods about the face; 
They do so that affect abstraction here. 
Speak little; mix not with the rest; and hold 
Your promise: all, I trust, may yet be well.' 

We turned to go, but Cyril took the child, 
And...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Valley of the Shadow

...ntuitions 
Of a child who knows himself and is alone with what he knows;
There were pensioners of dreams and there were debtors of illusions, 
All to fail before the triumph of a weed that only grows. 
There were thirsting heirs of golden sieves that held not wine or water, 
And had no names in traffic or more value there than toys: 
There were blighted sons of wonder in the Valley of the Shadow,
Where they suffered and still wondered why their wonder made no noise. 

There w...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

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