Famous Defences Poems by Famous Poets

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

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95. Address to the Unco Guid

...nt pass douce Wisdom’s door
 For glaikit Folly’s portals:
I, for their thoughtless, careless sakes,
 Would here propone defences—
Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes,
 Their failings and mischances.


Ye see your state wi’ theirs compared,
 And shudder at the niffer;
But cast a moment’s fair regard,
 What maks the mighty differ;
Discount what scant occasion gave,
 That purity ye pride in;
And (what’s aft mair than a’ the lave),
 Your better art o’ hidin.


Think, when y...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


Astrophel and Stella

...reedy licorous sences,
Beauty, musicke, sweetnesse, loue,
While she doth against me proue
Her strong darts but weake defences.

Thinke, thinke of those dalyings,
When with doue-like murmurings,
With glad moning, passed anguish,
We change eyes, and hart for hart,
Each to other do depart,
Ioying till ioy makes vs languish.

O my Thoughts, my Thoughts surcease,
Thy delights my woes increse,
My life melts with too much thinking;
Thinke no more, but die in me,
Till...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip

Attack On The Ad-Man

...whimsy;
Trims language till it fits his clients, pattern
And style's a glossy tart or limping slattern.

He studies our defences, finds the cracks
And where the wall is weak or worn, attacks.
lie finds the fear that's deep, the wound that's tender,
And mastered, outmanouevered, we surrender.
We who have tried to choose accept his choice
And tired succumb to his untiring voice.
The dripping tap makes even granite soften
We trust the brand-name we have heard so often
And join t...Read more of this...
by Tessimond, A S J

Canto XIII

...s I should take up charioterring, or archery?
"Or the practice of public speaking?"
And Tseu-lou said, "I would put the defences in order,"
And Khieu said, "If I were lord of a province
"I would put it in better order than this is."
And Tchi said, "I would prefer a small mountain temple,
"With order in the observances,
 with a suitable performance of the ritual,"
And Tian said, with his hand on the strings of his lute
The low sounds continuing
 after his hand left the strings...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra

MFingal - Canto I

...;
Make them run glib, when oiled by priest,
The heav'nly road, like wheels new greased;
Serve them, like shoe-ball, for defences,
'Gainst wear and tear of consciences:
So king's anointment clears betimes,
Like fuller's earth, all spots of crimes,
For future knaveries gives commissions,
Like Papists sinning under license.
For heaven ordain'd the origin,
Divines declare, of pain and sin,
Prove such great good they both have done us,
Kind mercy 'twas they came upon us;
For witho...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John


Our Son

...qualification.

There was the ‘shaving incident’ at school, which

Made him ready to walk out at fifteen, the alcohol

Defences at Oxford which shut us out then petered out

During the six years in India, studying Bengali at Shantiniketan.

He tottered from the plane, penniless and unshaven,

To hide away in the seediest bedsit Beeston could boast

Where night turned to day and vaguely he applied 

For jobs as clerk and court usher and drank in pubs with yobs.

When the cris...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Randolph Of Roanoke

...e him.

He held his slaves, yet made withal
No false and vain pretences,
Nor paid a lying priest to seek
For Scriptural defences.
His harshest words of proud rebuke,
His bitterest taunt and scorning,
Fell fire-like on the Northern brow
That bent to him in fawning.

He held his slaves; yet kept the while
His reverence for the Human;
In the dark vassals of his will
He saw but Man and Woman!
No hunter of God's outraged poor
His Roanoke valley entered;
No trader in the souls of m...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

Robbed by Death -- but that was easy --

...Death -- but that was easy --
To the failing Eye
I could hold the latest Glowing --
Robbed by Liberty

For Her Jugular Defences --
This, too, I endured --
Hint of Glory -- it afforded --
For the Brave Beloved --

Fraud of Distance -- Fraud of Danger,
Fraud of Death -- to bear --
It is Bounty -- to Suspense's
Vague Calamity --

Stalking our entire Possession
On a Hair's result --
Then -- seesawing -- coolly -- on it --
Trying if it split --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

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