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Famous Do Without Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Do Without poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous do without poems. These examples illustrate what a famous do without poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Sassoon, Siegfried
...ve been sad because we missed 
One whose yellow head was kissed 
By the gods, who thought about him 
Till they couldn't do without him. 
Now he's here again; I've been 
Soldier David dressed in green, 
Standing in a wood that swings 
To the madrigal he sings. 
He's come back, all mirth and glory, 
Like the prince in a fairy tory. 
Winter called him far away; 
Blossoms bring him home with May. 

IV 

Well, I know you'll swear it's true 
That you found him decke...Read more of this...



by Hardy, Thomas
...wage, or labour stained with the disgrace 
Of wrecking what our age cannot replace 
 To save its tasteless soul - 
I'll do without your dole. Life is not much! 

V 

Dismissed with sneers he backed his tools and went, 
And wandered workless; for it seemed unwise 
To close with one who dared to criticize 
 And carp on points of taste: 
To work where they were placed rude men were meant. 

VI 

Years whiled. He aged, sank, sickened, and was not: 
And it was said, "A...Read more of this...

by Owen, Wilfred
...hroat on sobs; easily chased
On other sighs and wiped by fresher winds.

Carry my crying spirit till it's weaned
To do without what blood remained these wounds....Read more of this...

by Hunt, James Henry Leigh
...d black eyes, the skittles and the king! 
Fishing I hate, because I think about it, 
Which makes it right that I should do without it. 
A dinner, or a death, might not be much, 
But cruelty's a rod I dare not touch. 
I own I cannot see my right to feel 
For my own jaws, and tear a trout's with steel; 
To troll him here and there, and spike, and strain, 
And let him loose to jerk him back again. 
Fancy a preacher at this sort of work, 
Not with his trout or gudgeon...Read more of this...

by Wright, James
...ore them whole, for all of me.
Alive and dead, those giggling muckers who
Saddled my nighmares thirty years ago
Can do without my widely printed sighing.
Over their pains with paid sincerity.
I do not pity the dead, I pity the dying.

4.
I pity myself, because a man is dead.
If Belmont County killed him, what of me?
His victims never loved him. Why should we?
And yet, nobody had to kill him either.
It does no good to woo the grass, to veil
The ...Read more of this...



by Frost, Robert
...s to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods—the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where...Read more of this...

by Milosz, Czeslaw
...s grown,
Beyond the valley, mountains and Ponderosa pines,
Beyond the mountains, desert and sheep.

When I couldn't do without alcohol, I drove myself on alcohol,
When I couldn't do without cigarettes and coffee, I drove myself
On cigarettes and coffee.
I was courageous. Industrious. Nearly a model of virtue.
But that is good for nothing.

I feel a pain.
not here. Even I don't know.
many islands and continents,
words, bazaars, wooden flutes...Read more of this...

by Brooke, Rupert
...Because they were your kin.

They will praise all the bad about you,
And hush the good away,
And wonder how they'll do without you,
And then they'll go away.

But quieter than one sleeping,
And stranger than of old,
You will not stir for weeping,
You will not mind the cold;

But through the night the lips will laugh not,
The hands will be in place,
And at length the hair be lying still
About the quiet face.

With snuffle and sniff and handkerchief,
And dim and dec...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...our own way so.
She likes to halt us in our runner tracks,
And make us get down in a foot of snow
Debating what to do without an ax.

And yet she knows obstruction is in vain:
We will not be put off the final goal
We have it hidden in us to attain,
Not though we have to seize earth by the pole

And, tired of aimless circling in one place,
Steer straight off after something into space....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...shattered beyond repair;
I've fought like a man the fight,
And now I demand the right
(God! how his fingers cling!)
To do without shame this thing.
Good! there's a bullet still;
 Now I'm ready to fire;
Blame me, God, if You will,
 Here on the wire . . . the wire. . ....Read more of this...

by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...thing but to pray,
But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks
Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks;
To do without, take tosses, and obey.
 Rare patience roots in these, and, these away,
Nowhere. Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks
Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks
Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day. 

 We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills
To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills
Of us we do bi...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...' 

"I have the book; so if you doubt it - " 
I turned to search the shelf. 
"Don't stir!" he cried. "We'll do without it: 
I now remember all about it; 
I wrote the thing myself. 

"It came out in a 'Monthly,' or 
At least my agent said it did: 
Some literary swell, who saw 
It, thought it seemed adapted for 
The Magazine he edited. 

"My father was a Brownie, Sir; 
My mother was a Fairy. 
The notion had occurred to her, 
The children would be happier...Read more of this...

by Reeser, Jennifer
...What would I do without your voice to wake me?
Cor ad cor loquitur, I’m loath to know.
Kitsch operas sound, unhesitant to shake me,
The sheers undrawn, the heavens hardly showing,
My camisole askew, of lace-trimmed black –
Not red, not white; not passionate or pure.
I raise the volume, and the voices crack—
Vanilla scores: accessible, obscure.
But what would ...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
.... 

Though the bush has been romantic and it's nice to sing about, 
There's a lot of patriotism that the land could do without -- 
Sort of BRITISH WORKMAN nonsense that shall perish in the scorn 
Of the drover who is driven and the shearer who is shorn, 
Of the struggling western farmers who have little time for rest, 
And are ruined on selections in the sheep-infested West; 
Droving songs are very pretty, but they merit little thanks 
From the people of a country in poss...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...
The hard old fare we've often shared together, him and me, 
Some damper and a bite of beef, a pannikin of tea: 
We'll do without the bands and flags, the speeches and the fuss, 
We know who ought to get the cheers -- and that's enough for us. 

"What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! 
Present me to the Governor and that young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing polite, 
I'm sorry, but I can't come down -- I'm d...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...
The hard old fare we've often shared together, him and me, 
Some damper and a bite of beef, a pannikin of tea: 
We'll do without the bands and flags, the speeches and the fuss, 
We know who ought to get the cheers -- and that's enough for us. 

"What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! 
Present me to the Governor and that young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing polite, 
I'm sorry, but I can't come down -- I'm d...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...I lash and writhe against my prison bars,
And watch with sullen eyes the gaping crowd . . 
Give me my freedom and the burning stars,
The hollow sky, and crags of moonlit cloud! 

Once I might range across the trackless plain,
And roar with joy, until the desert air 
And wide horizons echoed it amain:
I feared no foe, for I was monarch there! 

I sa...Read more of this...

by Parker, Dorothy
...earied of wearying love, my friend,
Of worry and strain and doubt;
Before we begin, let us view the end,
And maybe I'll do without.
There's never the pang that was worth the tear,
And toss in the night I won't-
So either you do or you don't, my dear,
Either you do or you don't!

The table is ready, so lay your cards
And if they should augur pain,
I'll tender you ever my kind regards
And run for the fastest train.
I haven't the will to be spent and sad;
My heart's to b...Read more of this...

by Parker, Dorothy
...Love has gone a-rocketing. 
That is not the worst; 
I could do without the thing, 
And not be the first. 

Joy has gone the way it came. 
That is nothing new; 
I could get along the same, -- 
Many people do. 

Dig for me the narrow bed, 
Now I am bereft. 
All my pretty hates are dead, 
And what have I left?...Read more of this...

by Owen, Wilfred
...chased
On sighs, and wiped from off your lips by wind.

I think on your rich breathing, brother, I'll be weaned
To do without what blood remained me from my wound.


5th December 1917....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs