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Famous Equal Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...fair 
With comely presence honouring the day, 
She fain would pay a tributary strain. 
A purer strain though not of equal praise 
To that which Fingal heard when Ossian sung 
With voice high rais'd in Selma hall of shells; 
Or that which Pindar on th' Elean plain, 
Sang with immortal skill and voice divine, 
When native Thebes and ev'ry Grecian state 
Pour'd forth her sons in rapid chariot race, 
To shun the goal and reach the glorious palm. 
He sang the pride of some...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...Where's the lamp that Hero lit
 Once to call Leander home?
Equal Time hath shovelled it
 'Neath the wrack of Greece and Rome.
Neither wait we any more
That worn sail which Argo bore.

Dust and dust of ashes close
 All the Vestal Virgin's care;
And the oldest altar shows
 But an older darkness there.
Age-encamped Oblivion
Tenteth every light that shone.

Yet shall we, for Suns that die,
 Wall our wand...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...show'd,
And pointed out those arduous Paths they trod,
Held from afar, aloft, th' Immortal Prize,
And urg'd the rest by equal Steps to rise;
Just Precepts thus from great Examples giv'n,
She drew from them what they deriv'd from Heav'n
The gen'rous Critick fann'd the Poet's Fire,
And taught the World, with Reason to Admire.
Then Criticism the Muse's Handmaid prov'd,
To dress her Charms, and make her more belov'd;
But following Wits from that Intention stray'd;
Who cou'd n...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ty

Beautiful city, the centre and crater of European confusion,
O you with your passionate shriek for the rights of an equal
humanity,
How often your Re-volution has proven but E-volution
Roll’d again back on itself in the tides of a civic insanity!...Read more of this...

by Giovanni, Nikki
...
isn't lateral


When i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal


I know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry ...Read more of this...



by Hughes, Langston
...n and El Paso-
Now it's the U.S.A.

A long time ago, but not too long ago, a man said:
 ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL--
 ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR
 WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS--
 AMONG THESE LIFE, LIBERTY
 AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
His name was Jefferson. There were slaves then,
But in their hearts the slaves believed him, too,
And silently too for granted
That what he said was also meant for them.
It was a long time ago,
But not so long ago at that...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...uide 
 Conversed, until they turned with grace to greet 
 Me also, and my Master smiled to see 
 They made me sixth and equal. Side by side 
 We paced toward the widening light, and spake 
 Such things as well were spoken there, and here 
 Were something less than silence. 
 Strong and wide 
 Before us rose a castled height, beset 
 With sevenfold-circling walls, unscalable, 
 And girdled with a rivulet round, but yet 
 We passed thereover, and the water clear 
 As dr...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...
A President, a-riding of his horse,
May dust a General and be forgiven; 
But why be dusted—when we’re all alike, 
All equal, and all happy? Here he comes— 
And there he goes. And we, by your new patent, 
Would seem to be two kings here by the wayside,
With our two hats off to his Excellency. 
Why not his Majesty, and done with it? 
Forgive me if I shook your meditation, 
But you that weld our credit should have eyes 
To see what’s coming. Bury me first if I do.<...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...d the fiercest Spirit 
That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair. 
His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed 
Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost 
Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse, 
He recked not, and these words thereafter spake:-- 
 "My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, 
More unexpert, I boast not: them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need; not now. 
For, while they sit contriving...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...answered sad. 
Best image of myself, and dearer half, 
The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep 
Affects me equally; nor can I like 
This uncouth dream, of evil sprung, I fear; 
Yet evil whence? in thee can harbour none, 
Created pure. But know that in the soul 
Are many lesser faculties, that serve 
Reason as chief; among these Fancy next 
Her office holds; of all external things 
Which the five watchful senses represent, 
She forms imaginations, aery shapes,...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...pable of death or pain, 
Can either not receive, or can repel. 
His fraud is then thy fear; which plain infers 
Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love 
Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced; 
Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy breast, 
Adam, mis-thought of her to thee so dear? 
To whom with healing words Adam replied. 
Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve! 
For such thou art; from sin and blame entire: 
Not diffident of thee do I dissuade 
Thy absence...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...in Russia! 
You dim-descended, black, divine-soul’d African, large, fine-headed, nobly-form’d,
 superbly
 destin’d, on equal terms with me! 
You Norwegian! Swede! Dane! Icelander! you Prussian!
You Spaniard of Spain! you Portuguese! 
You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France! 
You Belge! you liberty-lover of the Netherlands! 
You sturdy Austrian! you Lombard! Hun! Bohemian! farmer of Styria! 
You neighbor of the Danube!
You working-man of the Rhine, the Elbe, or the Weser! you...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...is now.

Urge, and urge, and urge; 
Always the procreant urge of the world. 

Out of the dimness opposite equals advance—always substance and increase,
 always sex; 
Always a knit of identity—always distinction—always a breed of life. 

To elaborate is no avail—learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is
 so.

Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in
 the beams, 
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrica...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...grate, 
Pale, mute, and mournfully sedate. 
To him Zuleika's eye was turn'd, 
But little from his aspect learn'd; 
Equal her grief, yet not the same: 
Her heart confess'd a gentler flame: 
But yet that heart, alarm'd, or weak, 
She knew not why, forbade to speak. 
Yet speak she must — but when essay? 
"How strange he thus should turn away! 
Not thus we e'er before have met; 
Not thus shall be our parting yet." 
Thrice paced she slowly through the room, 
And watch...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...ust confess my own
conviction. After dinner I ask'd Isaiah to favour the world with
his lost works, he said none of equal value was lost. Ezekiel
said the same of his.
I also asked Isaiah what made him go naked and barefoot three
years? he answerd, the same that made our friend Diogenes the
Grecian.
I then asked Ezekiel. why he eat dung, & lay so long on his
right & left side? he answerd. the desire of raising other men
into a perception of the infinit...Read more of this...

by Thomson, James
...ently brave,
Fair Learning's Friend; who early sought the Shade,
To dwell, with Innocence, and Truth, retir'd.
And, equal to the best, the Theban, He
Who, single, rais'd his Country into Fame.
Thousands behind, the Boast of Greece and Rome,
Whom Vertue owns, the Tribute of a Verse
Demand, but who can count the Stars of Heaven?
Who sing their Influence on this lower World?
But see who yonder comes! nor comes alone,
With sober State, and of majestic Mien,
The Sister-Mus...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...iental bend, 
Pressing one radiant arm just where below 
The heart in good men is supposed to tend; 
He turn'd as to an equal, not too low, 
But kindly; Satan met his ancient friend 
With more hauteur, as might an old Castilian 
Poor noble meet a mushroom rich civilian. 

XXXVII 

He merely bent his diabolic brow 
An instant; and then raising it, he stood 
In act to assert his right or wrong, and show 
Cause why King George by no means could or should 
Make out a case to ...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...e rim of the bay, 
To feel the west wind steadily blowing 
And the sunshine golden and hot, 
To speak to each man as an equal, 
Whether he is or not. 

XLV 
Was this America—this my home? 
Prohibition and Teapot Dome—
Speakeasies, night-clubs, illicit stills, 
Dark faces peering behind dark grills, 
Hold-ups, kidnappings, hootch or booze— 
Every one gambling—you just can't lose,
Was this my country? Even the bay 
At home was altered, strange ships lay 
At anchor, deserted...Read more of this...

by Bronte, Charlotte
...
I am resolved that thou shalt learn 
To trust my strength as I trust thine; 
I am resolved our souls shall burn, 
With equal, steady, mingling shine;
Part of the field is conquered now, 
Our lives in the same channel flow, 
Along the self-same line; 

And while no groaning storm is heard, 
Thou seem'st content it should be so, 
But soon as comes a warning word 
Of danger­straight thine anxious brow 
Bends over me a mournful shade, 
As doubting if my powers are made 
To ford ...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...le-bearing
Stars' bright diamond sparks.
Sacrificial and glorious
Way, I am ending here,
With me is but you, my equal,
And my love so dear.



x x x

It seems as though the voice of man
Will never sound in this place,
But only wind from age of stone
Is knocking on black gates.
It seems to me that I alone
Have kept good health under this sky,
Because of this, that first I sought
To drink the deadly wine.



Parting
Evening and slantin...Read more of this...

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