Famous Dispatch Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Letter from Artemesia in the Town to Chloe in the Country

...shamed to have him seen:
Hard fate of husbands! The gallant had been,
Though a diseased, ill-favored fool, brought in.
"Dispatch," says she, "that business you pretend,
Your beastly visit to your drunken friend!
A bottle ever makes you look so fine;
Methinks I long to smell you stink of wine!
Your country drinking breath's enough to kill:
Sour ale corrected with a lemon peel.
Prithee, farewell! We'll meet again anon."
The necessary thing bows, and is gone.
--She flies upstair...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John


Absalom And Achitophel

...sat an Abbethdin
With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean:
Unbrib'd, unsought, the wretched to redress;
Swift of dispatch, and easy of access.
Oh, had he been content to serve the crown,
With virtues only proper to the gown;
Or, had the rankness of the soil been freed
From cockle, that opprest the noble seed:
David, for him his tuneful harp had strung,
And heav'n had wanted one immortal song.
But wild ambition loves to slide, not stand;
And fortune's ice prefers to vir...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

crematorium-return

...distilled ripeness to the bough

i possess the step i came for
my senses burst into still speech
your potent ashes give dispatch
to life's tensions - i travel far
rooted at this two-worlds' breach

 october 6th 1990
 (seventh anniversary of my mother's cremation)...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

Devotion to Duty

...I was near the King that day. I saw him snatch 
And briskly scan the G.H.Q. dispatch. 
Thick-voiced, he read it out. (His face was grave.) 
‘This officer advanced with the first wave, 

‘And when our first objective had been gained,
‘(Though wounded twice), reorganized the line: 
‘The spirit of the troops was by his fine 
‘Example most effectively sustained.’ 

He gripped his beard; then closed his eyes and said, 
‘Bathsheba must be...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried

Last Instructions to a Painter

...n the Thames' mouth still De Ruyter laid; 
The peace not sure, new army must be paid. 
Hyde saith he hourly waits for a dispatch; 
Harry came post just as he showed his watch, 
All to agree the articles were clear-- 
The Holland fleet and Parliament so near-- 
Yet Harry must job back, and all mature, 
Binding, ere the Houses meet, the treaty sure, 
And 'twixt necessity and spite, till then, 
Let them come up so to go down again. 

Up ambles country justice on his pad, 
And ve...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew


Life

...I leave the office, take the stairs,
in time to mail a letter
before 3 in the afternoon--the last dispatch.
The red, white and blue air mail
falls past the slot for foreign mail
and hits bottom with a sound
that tells me my letter is alone.
They will have to bring in a plane
from a place of coastline and beaches,
from a climate of fresh figs and apricot,
to cradle my one letter. Up in the air
it will leave behind some of its ugly nuance,
its unpleasant h...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...est, as he 
Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth 
God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven. 
So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste 
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent 
What choice to choose for delicacy best, 
What order, so contrived as not to mix 
Tastes, not well joined, inelegant, but bring 
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change; 
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk 
Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields 
In India East or West,...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...s and airs: 
Then commune, how that day they best may ply 
Their growing work: for much their work out-grew 
The hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide, 
And Eve first to her husband thus began. 
Adam, well may we labour still to dress 
This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, 
Our pleasant task enjoined; but, till more hands 
Aid us, the work under our labour grows, 
Luxurious by restraint; what we by day 
Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, 
One night or...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Psalm 82

...l.
Favouring the wicked by your might,
Who thence grow bold and strong?
*Regard the *weak and fatherless *Shiphtu-dal.
*Dispatch the *poor mans cause, 
And **raise the man in deep distress
By **just and equal Lawes. **Hatzdiku.
Defend the poor and desolate,
And rescue from the hands
Of wicked men the low estate
Of him that help demands.
They know not nor will understand,
In darkness they walk on,
The Earths foundations all are *mov'd *Jimmotu.
And *out of order gon. 
I said t...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sonnet 143: Lo as a careful huswife runs to catch

...o, as a careful huswife runs to catch
One of her feathered creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe and makes all swift dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay,
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent:
So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I, thy babe, chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope turn back...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet CXLIII

...! as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feather'd creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe and makes an swift dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay,
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent;
So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back ...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Beasts Confession

...others of the learned robe
Would break the patience of a Job;
No pleader at the bar could match
His diligence and quick dispatch;
Ne'er kept a cause, he well may boast,
Above a term or two at most.

The cringing knave, who seeks a place
Without success, thus tells his case:
Why should he longer mince the matter?
He fail'd because he could not flatter;
He had not learn'd to turn his coat,
Nor for a party give his vote:
His crime he quickly understood;
Too zealous for the natio...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

Upon Nothing

...they like thee look wise.
French truth, Dutch prowess, British policy,
Hibernian learning, Scotch civility,
Spaniard's dispatch, Dane's wit are mainly seen in thee.
The great man's gratitude to his best friend,
King's promises, whore's vows, towards thee they bend,
Flow swiftly to thee, and in thee never end....Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John

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