Famous Epigrams Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Epigrams poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous epigrams poems. These examples illustrate what a famous epigrams poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Burns, Robert
...O THOU whom Poetry abhors,
Whom Prose has turnèd out of doors,
Heard’st thou yon groan?—proceed no further,
’Twas laurel’d Martial calling murther....Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...WHAT dost thou in that mansion fair?
Flit, Galloway, and find
Some narrow, dirty, dungeon cave,
The picture of thy mind.
———No Stewart art thou, Galloway,
The Stewarts ’ll were brave;
Besides, the Stewarts were but fools,
Not one of them a knave.
Bright ran thy line, O Galloway,
Thro’ many a far-fam’d sire!
So ran the far-famed Roman way,
A...Read more of this...
by
Cavafy, Constantine P
...Partly to verify an era,
partly also to pass the time,
last night I picked up a collection
of Ptolemaic epigrams to read.
The plentiful praises and flatteries
for everyone are similar. They are all brilliant,
glorious, mighty, beneficent;
each of their enterprises the wisest.
If you talk of the women of that breed, they too,
all the Berenices and Cleopatras are admirable.
When I had managed to verify the era
I would have put the book away, had...Read more of this...
by
Sandburg, Carl
...n hand--see?
They found him a red pool on the carpet
Cool as an April forenoon,
Talking and talking gay maxims and grim epigrams.
Well, he wore bandages over his nose and right eye,
Drank coffee and chatted many years
With men and women who loved him
Because he laughed and daily dared Death:
"Come and take me."...Read more of this...
by
Crashaw, Richard
...To wash an Ethiope;
He's wash'd, his gloomy skin a peaceful shade,
For his white soul is made;
And now, I doubt not, the Eternal Dove
A black-fac'd house will love.Credits and CopyrightTogether with the editors, the Department ofEnglish (University of Toronto), and the University of Toronto Press,the following individuals share copyright for the work t...Read more of this...
by
Crashaw, Richard
...See here an easy feast that knows no wound,
That under hunger's teeth will needs be sound;
A subtle harvest of unbounded bread,
What would ye more? Here food itself is fed....Read more of this...
by
Crashaw, Richard
...Could not once blinding me, cruel, suffice?
When first I look'd on thee, I lost mine eyes....Read more of this...
by
Crashaw, Richard
...Thou water turn'st to wine, fair friend of life,
Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of thy reign,
Distills from thence the tears of wrath and strife,
And so turns wine to water back again....Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...That breathes in his dog's way : and this is great. Nay more, for greatness sake, he will be one May hear my epigrams, but like of none. SURLY, use other arts, these only can Style thee a most great fool, but no great man. [AJ Notes:cry his own up neat, facilely praise his own clothes.still board, quiet table. ]...Read more of this...
by
von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...s poetical works which
are given in this complete form, specimens of the different other
classes of them, such as the Epigrams, Elegies, &c., are added,
as well as a collection of the various Songs found in his Plays,
making a total number of about 400 Poems, embraced in the present
volume.
A sketch of the life of Goethe is prefixed, in order that the
reader may have before him both the Poet himself and the Poet's
offspring, and that he may see that the two ar...Read more of this...
by
von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...THE Epigrams bearing the title of XENIA were written
by Goethe and Schiller together, having been first occasioned by
some violent attacks made on them by some insignificant writers.
They are extremely numerous, but scarcely any of them could be translated
into English. Those here given are merely presented as a specimen.
GOD gave to mortals bir...Read more of this...
by
Pope, Alexander
...Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sedjuvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.
(Martial, Epigrams 12.84)
What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing--This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.
Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred lor...Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...II. ? TO MY BOOK. It will be look'd for, BOOK, when some but see Thy title, EPIGRAMS, and named of me, Thou shouldst be bold, licentious, full of gall, Wormwood, and sulphur, sharp, and tooth'd withal ; Become a petulent thing, hurl ink, and wit, As madmen stones ; not caring whom they hit. Deceive their malice, who could wish it so ; And by thy wiser temper, let men know Thou art not so covetous of leas...Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...by Ben Jonson TO thee my way in epigrams seems new, When both it is the old way and the true. Thou sayst that cannot be, for thou hast seen Davies and Weever, and the best have been, And mine come nothing like. I hope so; yet As theirs did with thee, mine might credit get, If thou'dst but use thy faith, as thou didst then When thou wert wont ...Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...>XLIX. — TO PLAYWRIGHT. PLAYWRIGHT me reads, and still my verses damns, He says I want the tongue of epigrams ; I have no salt, no bawdry he doth mean ; For witty, in his language, is obscene. Playwright, I loath to have thy manners known In my chaste book ; I profess them in thine own....Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...XXXVI. ? TO THE GHOST OF MARTIAL. Martial, thou gav'st far nobler epigrams To thy DOMITIAN, than I can my JAMES : But in my royal subject I pass thee, Thou flatter'dst thine, mine cannot flatter'd be....Read more of this...
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