Famous Dupe Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Blight

...rm;
And life, shorn of its venerable length,
Even at its greatest space is a defeat,
And dies in anger that it was a dupe;
And, in its highest noon and wantonness,
Is early frugal, like a beggar's child;
Even in the hot pursuit of the best aims
And prizes of ambition, checks its hand,
Like Alpine cataracts frozen as they leaped,
Chilled with a miserly comparison
Of the toy's purchase with the length of life. ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Dam?tas

...es an adept, in deceit a fiend;
Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child;
Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild;
Women his dupe, his heedless friend a tool;
Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school;
Dam?tas ran through all the maze of sin,
And found the goal when others just begin:
Even still conflicting passions shake his soul,
And bid him drain the dregs of pleasure's bowl;
But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain,
And what was once his bliss appears his ba...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot

...of the shire;
If on a pillory, or near a throne,
He gain his prince's ear, or lose his own.

Yet soft by nature, more a dupe than wit,
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit:
This dreaded sat'rist Dennis will confess
Foe to his pride, but friend to his distress:
So humble, he has knock'd at Tibbald's door,
Has drunk with Cibber, nay, has rhym'd for Moore.
Full ten years slander'd, did he once reply?
Three thousand suns went down on Welsted's lie.
To please a mistress one as...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander

Henry Phipps

...s
Build over again.
I was stripped to the bone, but I lay in the Rock of Ages,
Seeing now through the game, no longer a dupe,
And knowing "the upright shall dwell in the land
But the years of the wicked shall be shortened."
Then suddenly, Dr. Meyers discovered
A cancer in my liver.
I was not, after all, the particular care of God!
Why, even thus standing on a peak
Above the mists through which I had climbed,
And ready for larger life in the world,
Eternal forces
Moved me on w...Read more of this...
by Masters, Edgar Lee

How long wilt thou be a dupe to colors and perfumes?

...How long wilt thou be a dupe to colors and perfumes?
When wilt thou cease to seek out good and bad?
Thou mightest be the source of Zemzem, thou mightest
even be the water of life since thou wouldst not know how
to escape entering the bosom of the earth.
312...Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar


Imperial Revels

...he crust 
 Of Exile in the dust— 
 But Honor makes it sweet! 
 
 Ye cheaters in the tricksters' fane, 
 Who dupe yourself and trickster-chief, 
 In blazing cafés spend the gain, 
 But draw the blind, lest at his thief 
 Some fresh-made beggar gives a glance 
 And interrupts with steel the dance! 
 But let him toilsomely tramp by, 
 As I myself afar 
 Follow no gilded car 
 In ways of Honesty. 
 
 Ye troopers who shot mothers down, 
...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor

On Receipt Of My Mothers Picture

...ardently I wish'd, I long believ'd,
And, disappointed still, was still deceiv'd;
By disappointment every day beguil'd,
Dupe of to-morrow even from a child.
Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went,
Till, all my stock of infant sorrow spent,
I learn'd at last submission to my lot;
But, though I less deplor'd thee, ne'er forgot.

Where once we dwelt our name is heard no more,
Children not thine have trod my nurs'ry floor;
And where the gard'ner Robin, day by day,
Drew me to sch...Read more of this...
by Cowper, William

Sea Dreams

...n,
So never took that useful name in vain;
Made Him his catspaw and the Cross his tool,
And Christ the bait to trap his dupe and fool;
Nor deeds of gift, but gifts of grace he forged,
And snakelike slimed his victim ere he gorged;
And oft at Bible meetings, o'er the rest
Arising, did his holy oily best,
Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven,
To spread the Word by which himself had thriven."
How like you this old satire?' 

`Nay,' she said
`I loathe it: he had never kind...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

...aveyard, full
Of coffins waiting burial.
I seized these vile abortions, tore
Them into jagged bits, and swore
To be the dupe of hope no more.
Into the evening straight I went,
Starved of a day's accomplishment.
Unnoticing, I wandered where
The city gave a space for air,
And on the bridge's parapet
I leant, while pallidly there set
A dim, discouraged, worn-out sun.
Behind me, where the tramways run,
Blossomed bright lights, I turned to leave,
When someone plucked me by the sle...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

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