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Famous Dictator Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Herrick, Robert
...The forest sees
The growth and down-fall of her aged trees;
That timber tall, which three-score lustres stood
The proud dictator of the state-like wood,
I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak,
Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke....Read more of this...



by Berryman, John
...A Thurn

Among them marble where the man may lie
lie chieftains grand in final phase, or pause,
'O rare Ben Jonson',
dictator too, & the thinky other Johnson,
dictator too, backhanders down of laws,
men of fears, weird & sly.

Not of these least is borne to rest.
If grandeur & mettle prompted his lone journey
neither oh crowded shelved 
nor this slab I celebrates attest
his complex slow fame forever (more or less).
I imagine the Abbey 

among their wonders will...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...Wit. 
What has not fir'd her bosom or her brain? 
Caesar and Tallboy, Charles and Charlemagne. 
As Helluo, late Dictator of the Feast, 
The Nose of Hautgout, and the Tip of Taste, 
Critick'd your wine, and analyz'd your meat, 
Yet on plain Pudding deign'd at home to eat; 
So Philomede, lecturing all mankind 
On the soft Passion, and the Taste refin'd, 
Th' Address, the Delicacy--stoops at once, 
And makes her hearty meal upon a Dunce. 

Flavia's a Wit, has too muc...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...l?

"Comrades, grave counsel we must take,
And as he struts with jest and jibe,
Let us act swiftly lest he make
Himself Dictator of our Tribe:
The Gods have built him on their plan:
Let us reduce him to a man."

And so they seized him in the night,
And on the sacrificial stone
The axe-men of the Tribe did smite,
Until one limb he ceased to own.
There! They had equalized the odds,
Foiling unfairness of the Gods.

So Chow has lost his throwing arm,
And goes around l...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...g,
inching, cheating for
some insignificant
advantage,
the lie was the
weapon and the
plot was
emptey,
darkness was the
dictator.

cautiously, I allowed
myself to feel good
at times.
I found moments of 
peace in cheap
rooms
just staring at the 
knobs of some
dresser
or listening to the
rain in the 
dark.
the less i needed
the better i 
felt.

maybe the other life had worn me 
down.
I no longer found
glamour
in topping somebody
in conversation.
or in mo...Read more of this...



by Trumbull, John
...the plains,
Though bankrupt in estate and brains,
By this new light transform'd to traitor,
Forsakes his plough to turn dictator,
Starts an haranguing chief of Whigs,
And drags you by the ears, like pigs.
All bluster, arm'd with factious licence,
New-born at once to politicians.
Each leather-apron'd dunce, grown wise,
Presents his forward face t' advise,
And tatter'd legislators meet,
From every workshop through the street.
His goose the tailor finds new use in,
T...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...to their fears or grief: 
Unanimous they all commit the care
And management of this man enterprise
To him, their great Dictator, whose attempt
At first against mankind so well had thrived
In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,
Regents, and potentates, and kings, yea gods,
Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
So to the coast of Jordan he directs
His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles, 
Where he might likeliest find...Read more of this...

by Neruda, Pablo
...ausea.
Between the coconut palms the graves are full
of ruined bones, of speechless death-rattles.
The delicate dictator is talking
with top hats, gold braid, and collars.
The tiny palace gleams like a watch
and the rapid laughs with gloves on
cross the corridors at times
and join the dead voices
and the blue mouths freshly buried.
The weeping cannot be seen, like a plant
whose seeds fall endlessly on the earth,
whose large blind leaves grow even without light...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...board)Than either Lydian with her golden hoard.Then came the great dictator from the plough;And old Serranus show'd his laurell'd brow.Marching with equal step. Camillus near,Who, fresh and vigorous in the bright careerOf honour, sped, and never slack'd his pace,Till Death o'ertook him in the...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...me Romane cast similitude,
Tell them of Liberty, the Stories fine,
Until you all grow Consuls in your wine.
Or thou Dictator of the glass bestow
On him the Cato, this the Cicero.
Transferring old Rome hither in your talk,
As Bethlem's House did to Loretto walk.
Foul Architect that hadst not Eye to see
How ill the measures of these States agree.
And who by Romes example England lay,
Those but to Lucan do continue May.
But the nor Ignorance nor seeming good
...Read more of this...

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