Famous Devising Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Hermit Thrush

...hold
but roams untethered save by such snells, 
such sailor's knots, such stays
and guy wires as are

mainly of our own devising. From such an 
empyrean, aloof seraphic mentors urge us
to look down on all attachment,
on any bonding, as

in the end untenable. Base as it is, from 
year to year the earth's sore surface
mends and rebinds itself, however
and as best it can, with

thread of cinquefoil, tendril of the magenta
beach pea, trammel of bramble; with easings,
mulchings, f...Read more of this...
by Clampitt, Amy


Adventures of King Robert the Bruce

...lingly will fight on behalf of our noble sire. 

Who has been hunted like a felon by night and by day,
By foul plotters devising to take his life away;
But God will protect him in the midst of the strife,
And, mother dear, we'll fight for him during life. 

Then the King said, Noble lads, it's you shall follow me,
And ye shall be near me by land or sea,
And for your loyalty towards me your mother I'll reward;
When all on a sudden the tramping of horses was heard. 

Then the K...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

At Corfu

...eir dogs and children.

The ferry boat with a red cross
freshly painted on it
lifts in uneven drafts of smoke and steam
devising the mustard horizon
that is grotesque with purple thunderheads.

In the rising winds the angry sea birds
circle the trafficking winter ghosts
who are electric like the locusts at Patmos.

They are gathering sage in improvised slings
along the hillsides,
they are the lightning strikes scattering wild cats
from the bone yard:
here, since the war, fert...Read more of this...
by Dubie, Norman

Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament (excerpt)

...ay,
And snatch'd her thence; yet dreading worse than shame
Her warrior Tristram, spake not any word,
But bode his hour, devising wretchedness.


And now that desert lodge to Tristram lookt
So sweet, that halting, in he past, and sank
Down on a drift of foliage random-blown;
But could not rest for musing how to smoothe
And sleek his marriage over to the Queen.
Perchance in lone Tintagil far from all
The tonguesters of the court she had not heard.
But then what folly had sent h...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Paradise Lost: Book 04

...life, 
The middle tree and highest there that grew, 
Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life 
Thereby regained, but sat devising death 
To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought 
Of that life-giving plant, but only used 
For prospect, what well used had been the pledge 
Of immortality. So little knows 
Any, but God alone, to value right 
The good before him, but perverts best things 
To worst abuse, or to their meanest use. 
Beneath him with new wonder now he views, 
To al...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


She lay as if at play

...dancing Eyes -- ajar --
As if their Owner were
Still sparkling through
For fun -- at you --

Her Morning at the door --
Devising, I am sure --
To force her sleep --
So light -- so deep --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

The Equilibrists

...them back and kept them clear 
. 
Ah, the strict lovers, they are ruined now! 
I cried in anger. But with puddled brow 
Devising for those gibbeted and brave 
Came I descanting: Man, what would you have? 

For spin your period out, and draw your breath, 
A kinder saeculum begins with Death. 
Would you ascend to Heaven and bodiless dwell? 
Or take your bodies honorless to Hell ? 

In Heaven you have heard no marriage is, 
No white flesh tinder to your lecheries, 
Your male and...Read more of this...
by Ransom, John Crowe

The Flight Of The Duchess

...turned and bade the crone follow.
And what makes me confident what's to be told you
Had all along been of this crone's devising,
Is, that, on looking round sharply, behold you,
There was a novelty quick as surprising:
For first, she had shot up a full head in stature,
And her step kept pace with mine nor faltered,
As if age had foregone its usurpature,
And the ignoble mien was wholly altered,
And the face looked quite of another nature,
And the change reached too, whatever t...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Last Tournament

...
And snatched her thence; yet dreading worse than shame 
Her warrior Tristram, spake not any word, 
But bode his hour, devising wretchedness. 

And now that desert lodge to Tristram lookt 
So sweet, that halting, in he past, and sank 
Down on a drift of foliage random-blown; 
But could not rest for musing how to smoothe 
And sleek his marriage over to the Queen. 
Perchance in lone Tintagil far from all 
The tonguesters of the court she had not heard. 
But then what folly had...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

To the Name above every Name the Name of Jesus

...that hides Thee hardly covers.
What did their Weapons but sett wide the Doores
For Thee: Fair, purple Doores, of love’s devising;
The Ruby windowes which inrich’t the East
Of Thy so oft repeated Rising.
Each wound of Theirs was Thy new Morning;
And reinthron’d thee in thy Rosy Nest,
With blush of thine own Blood thy day adorning,
It was the witt of love ?reflowd the Bounds
Of Wrath, and made thee way through All Those wounds.
Wellcome dear, All-Adored Name!
For sure there is ...Read more of this...
by Crashaw, Richard

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