Famous Employed Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Bringing in the Wine

...venture where he pleases
And never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!
Since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!
Spin a thousand of pieces of silver, all of them come back!
Cook a sheep, kill a cow, whet the appetite,
And make me, of three hundred bowls, one long drink!
... To the old master, Tsen,
And the young scholar, Tan-chiu,
Bring in the wine!
Let your cups never rest!
Let me sing you a song!
Let your ears attend!
What are bell and drum, rare ...Read more of this...
by Bai, Li


Elizabeth

...g, written less - in short's a fool
Endued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art,
Being ignorant of one important rule,
Employed in even the theses of the school-
Called - I forget the heathenish Greek name
[Called anything, its meaning is the same]
"Always write first things uppermost in the heart."...Read more of this...
by Poe, Edgar Allan

Fit the Fifth ( Hunting of the Snark )

...ine Hundred and Ninety Two: 
Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be 
Exactly and perfectly true. 

"The method employed I would gladly explain, 
While I have it so clear in my head, 
If I had but the time and you had but the brain-- 
But much yet remains to be said. 

"In one moment I've seen what has hitherto been 
Enveloped in absolute mystery, 
And without extra charge I will give you at large 
A Lesson in Natural History." 

In his genial way he proceeded to say ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Meditations Divine and Moral

...and not by blustering threats. 
The gifts that God bestows on the sons of men, are not only 
abused, but most commonly employed for a clean contrary end than 
that which they were given for; as health, wealth, and honor, which 
might be so many steps to draw men to God in consideration of his 
bounty towards them, but have driven them the further from him, 
that they are ready to say, We are lords, we will come no more at 
thee. If outward blessings be not as wings to help u...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

Paradise Lost: Book 03

...head, nor less his locks behind 
Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings 
Lay waving round; on some great charge employed 
He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep. 
Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope 
To find who might direct his wandering flight 
To Paradise, the happy seat of Man, 
His journey's end and our beginning woe. 
But first he casts to change his proper shape, 
Which else might work him danger or delay: 
And now a stripling Cherub he appears, 
Not of ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Paradise Lost: Book 04

...w of sleep, 
Now falling with soft slumbrous weight, inclines 
Our eye-lids: Other creatures all day long 
Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest; 
Man hath his daily work of body or mind 
Appointed, which declares his dignity, 
And the regard of Heaven on all his ways; 
While other animals unactive range, 
And of their doings God takes no account. 
To-morrow, ere fresh morning streak the east 
With first approach of light, we must be risen, 
And at our pleasant labour, to...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...es 
Her marriageable arms, and with him brings 
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
His barren leaves. Them thus employed beheld 
With pity Heaven's high King, and to him called 
Raphael, the sociable Spirit, that deigned 
To travel with Tobias, and secured 
His marriage with the seventimes-wedded maid. 
Raphael, said he, thou hearest what stir on Earth 
Satan, from Hell 'scaped through the darksome gulf, 
Hath raised in Paradise; and how disturbed 
This night the huma...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Paradise Lost: Book 09

...Eve, associate sole, to me beyond 
Compare above all living creatures dear! 
Well hast thou motioned, well thy thoughts employed, 
How we might best fulfil the work which here 
God hath assigned us; nor of me shalt pass 
Unpraised: for nothing lovelier can be found 
In woman, than to study houshold good, 
And good works in her husband to promote. 
Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed 
Labour, as to debar us when we need 
Refreshment, whether food, or talk between, 
Food ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Refrigerator 1957

...rs
at a church social. Maraschino cherries, maraschino,
the only foreign word I knew. Not once
did I see these cherries employed: not
in a drink, nor on top
of a glob of ice cream,
or just pop one in your mouth. Not once.
The same jar there through an entire
childhood of dull dinners -- bald meat,
pocked peas and, see above,
boiled potatoes. Maybe
they came over from the old country,
family heirlooms, or were status symbols
bought with a piece of the first paycheck
from a swe...Read more of this...
by Lux, Thomas

The Cremona Violin

...y."
And he was heartily glad she had enjoyed
Herself so much, and said so. "But it's good
To be got home again." He was employed
In looking at his violin, the wood
Was old, and evening air did it no good.
But when he drew up to the table for tea
Something about his wife's vivacity
Struck him as hectic, worried him in short.
He talked of this and that but watched her close.
Tea over, he endeavoured to extort
The cause of her excitement. She arose
And stood beside him, trying t...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The General Prologue

...g and Orewell
Well could he in exchange shieldes* sell *crown coins 
This worthy man full well his wit beset*; *employed
There wiste* no wight** that he was in debt, *knew **man
So *estately was he of governance* *so well he managed*
With his bargains, and with his chevisance*. *business contract
For sooth he was a worthy man withal,
But sooth to say, I n'ot* how men him call. *know not

A CLERK there was of Oxenford* also, *Oxford
That unto logic hadde long y-go*. *d...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Hunting Of The Snark

...e Hundred and Ninety and Two:
Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be
 Exactly and perfectly true.

"The method employed I would gladly explain,
 While I have it so clear in my head,
If I had but the time and you had but the brain--
 But much yet remains to be said.

"In one moment I've seen what has hitherto been
 Enveloped in absolute mystery,
And without extra charge I will give you at large
 A Lesson in Natural History."

In his genial way he proceeded to say
 (Fo...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Ladys Dressing Room

...m her chamber issues,
Arrayed in lace, brocades, and tissues.
Strephon, who found the room was void
And Betty otherwise employed,
Stole in and took a strict survey
Of all the litter as it lay;
Whereof, to make the matter clear,
An inventory follows here.
And first a dirty smock appeared,
Beneath the arm-pits well besmeared.
Strephon, the rogue, displayed it wide
And turned it round on every side.
On such a point few words are best,
And Strephon bids us guess the rest;
And swe...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

The Lay Of The Bell

...circle she rules,
And the daughters she schools
And she cautions the boys,
With a bustling command,
And a diligent hand
Employed she employs;
Gives order to store,
And the much makes the more;
Locks the chest and the wardrobe, with lavender smelling,
And the hum of the spindle goes quick through the dwelling;
And she hoards in the presses, well polished and full,
The snow of the linen, the shine of the wool;
Blends the sweet with the good, and from care and endeavor
Rests nev...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Legend of Mirth

...all the Host being gone their ways
Each to his Charge, the shining Courts were void
Save for one Seraph whom no charge employed,
With folden wings and slumber-threatened brow,
To whom The Word: "Beloved, what dost thou?"
"By the Permission," came the answer soft,
Little I do nor do that little oft.
As is The Will in Heaven so on Earth
Where by The Will I strive to make men mirth"
He ceased and sped, hearing The Word once more:
" Beloved, go thy way and greet the Four."

Syst...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Princess (part 7)

...hat soon 
He rose up whole, and those fair charities 
Joined at her side; nor stranger seemed that hears 
So gentle, so employed, should close in love, 
Than when two dewdrops on the petals shake 
To the same sweet air, and tremble deeper down, 
And slip at once all-fragrant into one. 

Less prosperously the second suit obtained 
At first with Psyche. Not though Blanche had sworn 
That after that dark night among the fields 
She needs must wed him for her own good name; 
Not ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Real Work

...
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings....Read more of this...
by Berry, Wendell

The Sale of Saint Thomas

...omen, the strange trees, 
Herbs, and those things so like to souls, the beasts. 
My wilful senses will keep perilously 
Employed with these my brain, and weary it 
Still to be asking. But on the high seas 
Such throng'd reality is left behind, -- 
Only vast air and water, and the hue 
That always seems like special news of God. 
Surely 'tis half way to eternity 
To go where only size and colour live; 
And I could purify my mind from all 
Worldly amazement by imagining 
Beyond...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles

The Waste Land

...ion of this part of the poem, is not an accident.
V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID
In the first part of Part V three themes are employed:
the journey to Emmaus, the approach to the Chapel Perilous
(see Miss Weston's book) and the present decay of eastern Europe.
357. This is Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii, the hermit-thrush
which I have heard in Quebec County. Chapman says (Handbook of
Birds of Eastern North America) "it is most at home in secluded
woodland and thickety retreats. . . ....Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift

...nd, no poor relation?
So ready to do strangers good,
Forgetting his own flesh and blood!"

Now Grub Street wits are all employed;
With elegies the town is cloyed:
Some paragraph in ev'ry paper,
To curse the Dean, or bless the Drapier.

The doctors, tender of their fame,
Wisely on me lay all the blame:
"We must confess his case was nice;
But he would never take advice.
Had he been ruled, for aught appears,
He might have lived these twenty years;
For when we opened him we found...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

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