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Famous Demand Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...a clue of blue yarn; wind it in a new clue off the old one; and, toward the latter end, something will hold the thread: demand, “Wha hauds?” i. e., who holds? and answer will be returned from the kiln-pot, by naming the Christian and surname of your future spouse.—R. B. [back]
Note 10. Take a candle and go alone to a looking-glass; eat an apple before it, and some traditions say you should comb your hair all the time; the face of your conjungal compani...Read more of this...



by Shakespeare, William
...ctions in his charmed power,
Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.

'Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I mine honour shielded:
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil
Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.

'But, ah, who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destined ill she must herself assay?
Or forced examples,...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...he baying of a dog, an infant's cry
Pierced through the air; sleep fled from every eye.
To horse! to arms! the dead demand the dead! 
Let the grand charge upon the lodge be led! 
Let the Mosaic law, life for a life
Pay the long standing debt of blood. War to the knife! 

XIII.

So spake each heart in that unholy rage
Which fires the brain, when war the thoughts engage.
War, hideous war, appealing to the worst
In complex man, and waking that wild thirst
For hum...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...only one proof, 
Before thou ask the King to make thee knight, 
Of thine obedience and thy love to me, 
Thy mother,--I demand. 

And Gareth cried, 
'A hard one, or a hundred, so I go. 
Nay--quick! the proof to prove me to the quick!' 

But slowly spake the mother looking at him, 
'Prince, thou shalt go disguised to Arthur's hall, 
And hire thyself to serve for meats and drinks 
Among the scullions and the kitchen-knaves, 
And those that hand the dish across the bar.<...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...again, 
Or will myself redeem his knighthood's stain." 

He ceased — and Lara answer'd, "I am here 
To lend at thy demand a listening ear, 
To tales of evil from a stranger's tongue, 
Whose words already might my heart have wrung, 
But that I deem'd him scarcely less than mad, 
Or, at the worst, a foe ignobly bad. 
I know him not — but me it seems he knew 
In lands where — but I must not trifle too: 
Produce this babbler — or redeem the pledge; 
Here in thy hold, and...Read more of this...



by Marvell, Andrew
...ip. 
When Dutch invade, when Parliament prepare, 
How can he engines so convenient spare? 
Let no man touch them or demand his own, 
Pain of displeasure of great Clarendon. 

The state affairs thus marshalled, for the rest 
Monck in his shirt against the Dutch is pressed. 
Often, dear Painter, have I sat and mused 
Why he should still be 'n all adventures used, 
If they for nothing ill, like ashen wood, 
Or think him, like Herb John for nothing good; 
Whether his ...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...or and tame. 
And into nothing dwindles at the test. 
So with the passions of maturer years 
Let those who will demand the first fond flame, 
Give me the heart's last love, for that is best....Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...bering Nature, and with deep reflection discovered the reality of a vast and infinite thing -- something no power could demand, influence acquire, nor riches purchase. Nor could it be effaced by the tears of time or deadened by sorrow; a thing which cannot be discovered by the blue lakes of Switzerland or the beautiful edifices of Italy. 

It is something that gathers strength with patience, grows despite obstacles, warms in winter, flourishes in spring, casts a breez...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...
They see so many strange faces, they do not know whom to trust.

Our frigate takes fire; 
The other asks if we demand quarter? 
If our colors are struck, and the fighting is done? 

Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain, 
We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our part
 of the fighting.

Only three guns are in use; 
One is directed by the captain himself against the enemy’s mainmast; 
Two, well served with gr...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...not
for they stand for a love
undergoihng open heart surgery
that might take
if one prayed tough enough.
And yet I demand,
even in prayer,
that I am not a thief,
a mugger of need,
and that your heart survive
on its own,
belonging only to itself,
whole, entirely whole,
and workable
in its dark cavern under your ribs.

I pray it will know truth,
if truth catches in its cup
and yet I pray, as a child would,
that the surgery take.

I dream it is taking.
Next I dr...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...I am, at least shall be! 
But let our plighted secret vow 
Be only known to us as now. 
I know the wretch who dares demand 
From Giaffir thy reluctant hand; 
More ill-got wealth, a meaner soul 
Holds not a Musselim's control: [20] 
Was he not bred in Egripo? [21] 
A viler race let Israel show! 
But let that pass — to none be told 
Our oath; the rest let time unfold. 
To me and mine leave Osman Bey; 
I've partisans for peril's day: 
Think not I am what I appear; 
I've ...Read more of this...

by Arnold, Matthew
...at we say and do
Is eloquent, is well--but 't#is not true!
And then we will no more be rack'd
With inward striving, and demand
Of all the thousand nothings of the hour
Their stupefying power;
Ah yes, and they benumb us at our call!
Yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn,
From the soul's subterranean depth upborne
As from an infinitely distant land,
Come airs, and floating echoes, and convey
A melancholy into all our day.
Only--but this is rare--
When a belov{'e}d...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...gainst the high vault broken,
The sound of mingled voices rang,
Re-echoing back with hollow clang.
The Order's sons demand, in haste,
That with a crown his brow be graced,
And gratefully in triumph now
The mob the youth would bear along
When, lo! the master knit his brow,
And called for silence 'mongst the throng.

And said, "The dragon that this land
Laid waste, thou slew'st with daring hand;
Although the people's idol thou,
The Order's foe I deem thee now.
Thy b...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...word,
     Whose castle is his helm and shield,
     His lordship the embattled field.
     What from a prince can I demand,
     Who neither reck of state nor land?
     Ellen, thy hand—the ring is thine;
     Each guard and usher knows the sign.
     Seek thou the King without delay;
     This signet shall secure thy way:
     And claim thy suit, whate'er it be,
     As ransom of his pledge to me.'
     He placed the golden circlet on,
     Paused—kissed her han...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...ed by every Hobden since a Hobden swapped a
 hedge.

Shall I dog his morning progress o'er the track-betraying dew?
Demand his dinner-basket into which my pheasant flew?
Confiscate his evening ****** under which my conies ran,
And summons him to judgment? I would sooner summons Pan.

His dead are in the churchyard--thirty generations laid.
Their names were old in history when Domesday Book was made;
 And the passion and the piety and prowess of his line
 Have seed...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ve. *where

Men mighten aske, why she was not slain?
Eke at the feast who might her body save?
And I answer to that demand again,
Who saved Daniel in the horrible cave,
Where every wight, save he, master or knave*, *servant
Was with the lion frett*, ere he astart?** *devoured ** escaped
No wight but God, that he bare in his heart.

God list* to shew his wonderful miracle *it pleased
In her, that we should see his mighty workes:
Christ, which that is to every harm tria...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...haos fall,
Men, Monkies, Lap-dogs, Parrots, perish all! 

She said; then raging to Sir Plume repairs,
And bids her Beau demand the precious Hairs:
(Sir Plume, of Amber Snuff-box justly vain,
And the nice Conduct of a clouded Cane)
With earnest Eyes, and round unthinking Face,
He first the Snuff-box open'd, then the Case,
And thus broke out--- "My Lord, why, what the Devil?
"Z---ds! damn the Lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil!
"Plague on't! 'tis past a Jest---nay prithee, Pox!...Read more of this...

by Thomson, James
...sal Face, deep-hid, and chill,
Is all one, dazzling, Waste. The Labourer-Ox
Stands cover'd o'er with Snow, and then demands
The Fruit of all his Toil. The Fowls of Heaven, 
Tam'd by the cruel Season, croud around
The winnowing Store, and claim the little Boon,
That Providence allows. The foodless Wilds
Pour forth their brown Inhabitants; the Hare,
Tho' timorous of Heart, and hard beset 
By Death, in various Forms, dark Snares, and Dogs,
And more unpitying Men, the...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...imself about, 
And claim the help of his celestial peers, 
To aid him ere he should be quite worn out 
By the increased demand for his remarks: 
Six angels and twelve saints were named his clerks. 

V

This was a handsome board — at least for heaven; 
And yet they had even then enough to do, 
So many conqueror's cars were daily driven, 
So many kingdoms fitted up anew; 
Each day too slew its thousands six or seven, 
Till at the crowning carnage, Waterloo, 
They threw thei...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...he boys
began to snicker and some 
of the girls began to give
them dirty looks and
Mrs.Sorenson said,
"all right! I demand a
modicum of silence
here!
I am interested in what
you did
during the rainstorm
even if you
aren't!"
so we had to tell our 
stories and they were
stories.
one girl said that
when the rainbow first
came 
she saw God's face
at the end of it.
only she didn't say which end.
one boy said he stuck
his fishing pole
out the window
and caught a lit...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things