Famous Favourites Poems by Famous Poets

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

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125. Lines to Mr. John Kennedy

...FAREWELL, dear friend! may guid luck hit you,
And ’mang her favourites admit you:
If e’er Detraction shore to smit you,
 May nane believe him,
And ony deil that thinks to get you,
 Good Lord, deceive him...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


54. Man was made to Mourn: A Dirge

...life,
 With cares and sorrows worn;
Then Age and Want—oh! ill-match’d pair—
 Shew man was made to mourn.


“A few seem favourites of fate,
 In pleasure’s lap carest;
Yet, think not all the rich and great
 Are likewise truly blest:
But oh! what crowds in ev’ry land,
 All wretched and forlorn,
Thro’ weary life this lesson learn,
 That man was made to mourn.


“Many and sharp the num’rous ills
 Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
 Regret, remorse, and ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

Canzone VII

...ass=i0>The laurell'd chief, the monarch on his throne,The poet and the sage,Favourites of fortune, or for virtue known,Were cursed by evil stars, in loves debased,Soulless and vile, their hearts, their fame, to waste:While I, for him alone,From all the lovely ladies of the earth,Chose one, so graced with beauty and with wort...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Do They Know?

...Do they know? At the turn to the straight 
Where the favourites fail, 
And every last atom of weight 
Is telling its tale; 
As some grim old stayer hard-pressed 
Runs true to his breed, 
And with head in front of the rest 
Fights on in the lead; 
When the jockeys are out with the whips, 
With a furlong to go, 
And the backers grow white in the lips -- 
Do you think they don't know? 
Do they know? As they come ...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

Sonnet 25: Let those who are in favour with their stars

...proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlooked for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread,
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies burièd,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famousèd for fight,
After a thousand victories once foiled,
Is from the book of honour razèd quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled.
Then happy I that love and am beloved...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William


Sonnet XXV

...proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd:
Then happy I, that love and am beloved...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnets XXV: Let those who are in favour with their stars

...proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd:
Then happy I, that love and am beloved...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

The Emigrants: Book I

...or,
Who, born to indigence, have learn'd to brave
Rigid Adversity's depressing breath!--
Ah! rather Fortune's worthless favourites!
Who feed on England's vitals--Pensioners
Of base corruption, who, in quick ascent
To opulence unmerited, become
Giddy with pride, and as ye rise, forgetting
The dust ye lately left, with scorn look down
On those beneath ye (tho' your equals once
In fortune , and in worth superior still ,
They view the eminence, on which ye stand,
With wonder, not...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte

V

...which meant much longer tiring treks for tins
that had a label on them that he knew.

And as the shops that stocked his favourites receded 
whereas he'd fancied beans and popped next door,
he found that four long treks a week were needed
till he wondered what he bothered eating for.

The supermarket made him feel embarrassed.
Where people bought whole lambs for family freezers
he bought baked beans from check-out girls too harassed
to smile or swap a joke with sad old geezers...Read more of this...
by Harrison, Tony

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