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Famous Equivalent Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...it be, the nameless obligation 
That I have not the Christian revenue 
In me to pay. A man who has no gold, 
Or an equivalent, shall pay no gold
Until by chance or labor or contrivance 
He makes it his to pay; and he that has 
No kindlier commodity than hate, 
Glossed with a pity that belies itself 
In its negation and lacks alchemy
To fuse itself to—love, would you have me say? 
I don’t believe it. No, there is no such word. 
If I say tolerance, there’s no more ...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...idin' through the day,
Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl,
We shouted "Harry By!" [Mr. Atkins's equivalent for "O brother."]
Till our throats were bricky-dry,
Then we wopped 'im 'cause 'e couldn't serve us all.
 It was "Din! Din! Din!
 You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been?
 You put some juldee in it [Be quick.]
 Or I'll marrow you this minute [Hit you.]
 If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!"

'E would dot an' carry one
Ti...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...thro idleness and effeminacy and paid foreign actors for speaking them out. 

For when the weight and the pow'r are equivalent the prop is of none effect. 

For shaving of the beard was an invention of the people of Sodom to make men look like women. 

For the ends of the world are the accomplishment of great events, and the consummation of periods. 

For ignorance is a sin because illumination is to be obtained by prayer. 

For Preferment is not from the ...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...Love can do all but raise the Dead
I doubt if even that
From such a giant were withheld
Were flesh equivalent

But love is tired and must sleep,
And hungry and must graze
And so abets the shining Fleet
Till it is out of gaze....Read more of this...

by Doty, Mark
...he hallmark of our ruin,
 and quick as anything
 seen in transit:

where Manhattan ends
 in the narrowing
 geographical equivalent

of a sigh (asphalt,
 arc of trestle, dull-witted
 industrial tanks

and scaffoldings, ancient now,
 visited by no one)
 on the concrete

embankment just
 above the river,
 a sudden density

and concentration
 of trash, so much
 I couldn't pick out

any one thing
 from our rising track
 as it arced onto the bridge

over the fantastic
 accumulation...Read more of this...



by Ondaatje, Michael
...Since my wife was born
she must have eaten
the equivalent of two-thirds
of the original garden of Eden.
Not the dripping lush fruit
or the meat in the ribs of animals
but the green salad gardens of that place.
The whole arena of green
would have been eradicated
as if the right filter had been removed
leaving only the skeleton of coarse brightness.

All green ends up eventually
churning in her...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...all that fair and good in thy divine 
Semblance, and in thy beauty's heavenly ray, 
United I beheld; no fair to thine 
Equivalent or second! which compelled 
Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come 
And gaze, and worship thee of right declared 
Sovran of creatures, universal Dame! 
So talked the spirited sly Snake; and Eve, 
Yet more amazed, unwary thus replied. 
Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt 
The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved: 
But say, where...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...serable change! is this the man, 
That invincible Samson, far renown'd,
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength
Equivalent to Angels walk'd thir streets,
None offering fight; who single combatant
Duell'd thir Armies rank't in proud array,
Himself an Army, now unequal match
To save himself against a coward arm'd
At one spears length. O ever failing trust
In mortal strength! and oh what not in man
Deceivable and vain! Nay what thing good 
Pray'd for, but often prove...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...Thou hast put in us an irresistible passion [which is
equivalent to an order from Thee], and, on the other
hand, forbiddest us to give way to it. Poor human
beings are in extreme embarrassment between this order
and this prohibition, for it is as if Thou commandest me
to upset the cup but refrain from spilling the contents....Read more of this...

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