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Famous Expenses Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...fame thy Song immortal lives,
 A nobler monument than Art can shew.


 Note 1. The stone was erected at Burns’ expenses in February-March, 1789. [back]...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...d Drinking:
O would they stay to calculate
 Th’ eternal consequences;
Or your more dreaded hell to state,
 Damnation of expenses!


Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames,
 Tied up in godly laces,
Before ye gie poor Frailty names,
 Suppose a change o’ cases;
A dear-lov’d lad, convenience snug,
 A treach’rous inclination—
But let me whisper i’ your lug,
 Ye’re aiblins nae temptation.


Then gently scan your brother man,
 Still gentler sister woman;
Tho’ they may gang a kennin wr...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...stock so soon decreases -- 
They sometimes tumble off the run 
And break themselves to pieces. 

I've tried to make expenses meet, 
But wasted all my labours, 
The sheep the dingoes didn't eat 
Were stolen by the neighbours. 
They stole my pears -- my native pears -- 
Those thrice-convicted felons, 
And ravished from me unawares 
My crop of paddy-melons. 

And sometimes under sunny skies, 
Without an explanation, 
The Murrumbidgee used to rise 
And overflow the st...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...aight who can --
The odds are on the cheaper man.

One sword-knot stolen from the camp
 Will pay for all the school expenses
Of any Kurrum Valley scamp
 Who knows no word of moods and tenses,
But, being blessed with perfect sight,
Picks off our messmates left and right.

With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,
 The troop-ships bring us one by one,
At vast expense of time and steam,
 To slay Afridis where they run.
The "captives of our bow and spear"
Are cheap --...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...ve to let you go"

"it's all right" i tell
him.

He must do what he
must do, he has a 
wife, a house, children.
expenses, most probably
a girlfreind.

I am sorry for him
he is caught.

I walk onto the blazing
sunshine.
the whole day is
mine
temporailiy,
anyhow.

(the whole world is at the
throat of the world,
everybody feels angry,
short-changed, cheated,
everybody is despondent,
dissillusioned)

I welcomed shots of
peace, tattered shards of
happiness....Read more of this...



by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...ley's Run. 
He knows a racehorse from a cow; 
But that is all he knows of stock: 
His chiefest care is how to dock 
Expenses, and he sends from town 
To cut the shearers' wages down 
On Kiley's Run. 

There are no neighbours anywhere 
Near Kiley's Run. 
The hospitable homes are bare, 
The gardens gone; for no pretence 
Must hinder cutting down expense: 
The homestead that we held so dear 
Contains a half-paid overseer 
On Kiley's Run. 

All life and sport and ...Read more of this...

by Cowper, William
...race.

Inferior honors He disdains,
Nor stoops to take applause from earth;
The King of kings Himself maintains
The expenses of His heavenly birth.

The noblest creature seen below,
Ordain'd to fill a throne above;
God gives him all He can bestow,
His kingdom of eternal love!

My soul is ravished at the thought!
Methinks from earth I see Him rise!
Angels congratulate His lot,
And shout Him welcome to the skies....Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...s above the sordid crowd—
At least through friendly lenses;
While his mamma looks pleased and proud,
And kindly pays expenses.
...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...lway Bridge o' the Silvery Tay,
Which was opened on the 12th of May,
In the year of our Lord 1879,
Which will clear all expenses in a very short time
Because the thrifty housewives of Newport
To Dundee will often resort,
Which will be to them profit and sport,
By bringing cheap tea, bread, and jam,
And also some of Lipton's ham,
Which will make their hearts feel light and gay,
And cause them to bless the opening day
Of the Newport Railway. 

The train is most beautiful to...Read more of this...

by Larkin, Philip
...he horses panicking; nor as a clause
Clearly set out to warn what can be lost,
What out-of-pocket charges must be borne
Expenses met; nor as a draughty ghost
That's seen, some mornings, running down a lawn.

It is these sunless afternoons, I find
Install you at my elbow like a bore
The chestnut trees are caked with silence. I'm
Aware the days pass quicker than before,
Smell staler too. And once they fall behind
They look like ruin. You have been here some time...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things