Famous Give Up Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Oh give it Motion -- deck it sweet

by Emily Dickinson
 Oh give it Motion -- deck it sweet
With Artery and Vein --
Upon its fastened Lips lay words --
Affiance it again
To that Pink stranger we call Dust --
Acquainted more with that
Than with this horizontal one
That will not lift its Hat --...Read more of this...

What would I give to see his face?

by Emily Dickinson
 What would I give to see his face?
I'd give -- I'd give my life -- of course --
But that is not enough!
Stop just a minute -- let me think!
I'd give my biggest Bobolink!
That makes two -- Him -- and Life!
You know who "June" is --
I'd give her --
Roses a day from Zanzibar --
And Lily tubes -- like Wells --
Bees...Read more of this...

Give me a skin of wine, a crust of bread

by Omar Khayyam
Give me a skin of wine, a crust of bread
A pittance bare, a book of verse to read;
With thee, O love, to share my lowly roof,
I would not take the Sultan's realm instead!...Read more of this...

Give Me Leave to Rail at You

by John Wilmot
 Give me leave to rail at you, -
I ask nothing but my due:
To call you false, and then to say
You shall not keep my heart a day.
But alas! against my will
I must be your captive still.
Ah! be kinder, then, for I
Cannot change, and would not die.

Kindness has resistless charms;
All besides but weakly move;
Fiercest anger it disarms,
And clips the wings...Read more of this...

So give me back to Death --

by Emily Dickinson
 So give me back to Death --
The Death I never feared
Except that it deprived of thee --
And now, by Life deprived,
In my own Grave I breathe
And estimate its size --
Its size is all that Hell can guess --
And all that Heaven was --...Read more of this...

Give Me Back My Rags #12

by Vasko Popa
 Enough chattering violets enough sweet trash
I won't hear anything know anything
Enough enough of all

I'll say the last enough
Fill my mouth with earth
Grit my teeth

To break off you skull guzzler
To break off once for all

I'll just be what I am
Without root without branch without crown
I'll lean on myself
On my own bumps and bruises

I'll be the hawthorn stake through you
That's all...Read more of this...

Modern Love XXXVIII: Give to Imagination

by George Meredith
 Give to imagination some pure light 
In human form to fix it, or you shame 
The devils with that hideous human game: 
Imagination urging appetite! 
Thus fallen have earth's greatest Gogmagogs, 
Who dazzle us, whom we can not revere: 
Imagination is the charioteer 
That, in default of better, drives the hogs. 
So, therefore, my dear Lady, let me love!...Read more of this...

If you will listen to me, I will give you some advice:

by Omar Khayyam
If you will listen to me, I will give you some advice:
[Here it is] For the love of God put not on the mantle
of hypocrisy. Eternity is for all time, and this world
is but an instant. Then sell not for an instant the empire
of eternity.
339...Read more of this...

What Would I Give

by Christina Rossetti
 What would I give for a heart of flesh to warm me through,
Instead of this heart of stone ice-cold whatever I do!
Hard and cold and small, of all hearts the worst of all.

What would I give for words, if only words would come!
But now in its misery my spirit has fallen dumb.
O merry friends, go your own way, I...Read more of this...

Thy cup, O my cupbearer! contains liquid rubies; give

by Omar Khayyam
Thy cup, O my cupbearer! contains liquid rubies; give
some to my soul, O cupbearer! Let it reflect that precious
stone; put in my hand, O cupbearer, this incomparable
cup, for through this I will give new life unto my soul....Read more of this...

Give Me Back My Rags #1

by Vasko Popa
 Give me back my rags

My rags of pure dreaming
Of silk smiling of striped foreboding
Of my cloth of lace

My rags of spotted hope
Of burnished desire of chequered glances
Of skin from my face

Give me back my rags
Give me when I ask you nicely...Read more of this...

Give Me Women Wine and Snuff

by John Keats
 GIVE me women, wine, and snuff 
Untill I cry out "hold, enough!" 
You may do so sans objection 
Till the day of resurrection: 
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be 
My beloved Trinity....Read more of this...

Never Give All The Heart

by William Butler Yeats
 Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy. Kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play...Read more of this...

Every day, at dawn, I go to the tavern. There I give

by Omar Khayyam
Every day, at dawn, I go to the tavern. There I give
myself to the company of kalendar hypocrites. O Thou,
who art the master of secrets most concealed, give me
faith, if Thou wishest me to apply myself to prayer.
357...Read more of this...

'Twixt wine and Jemshid's throne, give me the wine;

by Omar Khayyam
'Twixt wine and Jemshid's throne, give me the wine;
the bouquet of the cup is sweeter than the Virgin's
heaven-sent fruits. The morning sigh of one inebriate
the bygone night is more melodious than the longdrawn
lamentations of Adhem or Bou-Saïd....Read more of this...

Give me some of this ruby wine, tinted like the tulip

by Omar Khayyam
Give me some of this ruby wine, tinted like the tulip.
Pour from the neck of the flask the pure blood it contains,
for, to-day I can see, outside this cup of wine, no
friend whose inner man is pure....Read more of this...

Cavalier Tunes: Give a Rouse

by Robert Browning
 King Charles, and who'll do him right now? 
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now? 
Give a rouse: here's, in Hell's despite now, 
King Charles! 

Who gave me the goods that went since? 
Who raised me the house that sank once? 
Who helped me to gold I spent since? 
Who found me in wine you drank once? 
(Chorus)...Read more of this...

Give me my cup in hand, and sing a glee

by Omar Khayyam
Give me my cup in hand, and sing a glee
In concert with the bulbul's symphony;
Wine would not gurgle as it leaves the flask,
If drinking mute were right for thee and me!...Read more of this...

This is the season of roses. Oh! I would now give

by Omar Khayyam
This is the season of roses. Oh! I would now give
rein to one of my desires. I would commit an act which
infringes on the law of the Koran. Yea, for some days,
in company of the fair with velvet and bright tinted cheeks
spreading rose-colored wine over the green turf, I would
transform the plain into a field of tulips.
356...Read more of this...

Art not ashamed to give thyself to corruption?—to

by Omar Khayyam
Art not ashamed to give thyself to corruption?—to
neglect thus both what is commanded and what is forbidden?
Even if you succeed in appropriating all the
goods of the earth to yourself, what can you do with
them except to abandon them in your turn?...Read more of this...

God Give to Men

by Arna Bontemps
 God give the yellow man
an easy breeze at blossom time.
Grant his eager, slanting eyes to cover
every land and dream
of afterwhile. 

Give blue-eyed men their swivel chairs
to whirl in tall buildings.
Allow them many ships at sea,
and on land, soldiers
and policemen.

For black man, God,
no need to bother more
but only fill afresh his meed
of laughter,
his cup of tears.

God suffer little men
the taste...Read more of this...

Sonnet 09 - Can it be right to give what I can give?

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 Can it be right to give what I can give?
To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears
As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
Re-sighing on my lips renunciative
Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live
For all thy adjurations? O my fears,
That this can scarce be right! We are not peers,
So to be lovers; and I own, and...Read more of this...

Give not vain thoughts free access to thy mind. Drink

by Omar Khayyam
Give not vain thoughts free access to thy mind. Drink
wine throughout the year, and always cups filled to the
brim. Pursue the daughter of the vine and aye rejoice,
for it is better to enjoy the daughter without leave of
law than know the mother with her full consent....Read more of this...

Give Me Strength

by Rabindranath Tagore
 This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike, 
strike at the root of penury in my heart. 

Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. 

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. 

Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. 

Give me the strength...Read more of this...

Give little Anguish

by Emily Dickinson
 Give little Anguish --
Lives will fret --
Give Avalanches --
And they'll slant --
Straighten -- look cautious for their Breath --
But make no syllable -- like Death --
Who only shows the Marble Disc --
Sublimer sort -- than Speech --...Read more of this...

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