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Famous Given Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...ng the song of the great Idea! take all the rest; 
I have loved the earth, sun, animals—I have despised riches, 
I have given alms to every one that ask’d, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted
 my
 income and labor to others,
I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the
 people,
 taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown, 
I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the
 mothers
 of fami...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt



...praiseful deeds
one ought to flourish in every tribe everywhere. (ll. 20-25)

Then Scyld turned himself away at his given hour—
faring full of greatness—into the covenant of the Lord.
Then they brought him to the briny beach,
his beloved retainers, just as he himself had bidden
while he still wielded words, the benefactor of the Scyldings—
the first of the land, dear and old, had ruled them a long time. (ll. 26-31)

There in the harbor stood a ringed prow,
icy and...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...teps of the madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding instantaneous lobotomy,
and who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol electricity hydrotherapy psychotherapy occupational therapy pingpong & amnesia,
who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia,
returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible madman doom of the wards of ...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen
...t, 
 Blown with fierce speech before, were drawn and flat, 
 And his flame-circled eyes subdued, to hear 
 That mandate given. But those of whom he spake 
 In bitter glee, with naked limbs ashake, 
 And chattering teeth received it. Seemed that then 
 They first were conscious where they came, and fear 
 Abject and frightful shook them; curses burst 
 In clamorous discords forth; the race of men, 
 Their parents, and their God, the place, the time, 
 Of their conceptions and ...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...rt must answer, though thine ear would shun? 
And deem'st thou me unknown too? Gaze again! 
At least thy memory was not given in vain. 
Oh! never canst thou cancel half her debt, 
Eternity forbids thee to forget." 
With slow and searching glance upon his face 
Grew Lara's eyes, but nothing there could trace 
They knew, or chose to know — with dubious look 
He deign'd no answer, but his head he shook, 
And half contemptuous turn'd to pass away; 
But the stern stranger motion'd...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)



...s.

 "We would not see the secret if we could now:
We are not looking for it any more."

 Thus had a name with meaning, given in death,
Made a girl's marriage, and ruled in her life.
No matter that the meaning was not clear.
A name with meaning could bring up a child,
Taking the child out of the parents' hands.
Better a meaningless name, I should say,
As leaving more to nature and happy chance.
Name children some names and see what you do....Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...nd whom always I lack,
Even to this day,
Being by no means from that frigid bosom weaned away,
If only she therewith be given me back?"
I sought her down that dolorous labyrinth,
Wherein no shaft of sunlight ever fell,
And in among the bloodless everywhere
I sought her, but the air,
Breathed many times and spent,
Was fretful with a whispering discontent,
And questioning me, importuning me to tell
Some slightest tidings of the light of day they know no more,
Plucking my sleeve...Read more of this...
by St. Vincent Millay, Edna
...ot thou the Bride
Of the wild Lord of Adria's stormy sea!
The Queen of double Empires! and to thee
Were not the nations given as thy prey!
And now - thy gates lie open night and day,
The grass grows green on every tower and hall,
The ghastly fig hath cleft thy bastioned wall;
And where thy mailed warriors stood at rest
The midnight owl hath made her secret nest.
O fallen! fallen! from thy high estate,
O city trammelled in the toils of Fate,
Doth nought remain of all thy glori...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar
...sake! 
Far-swooping elbow’d earth! rich, apple-blossom’d earth! 
Smile, for your lover comes! 

Prodigal, you have given me love! Therefore I to you give love!
O unspeakable, passionate love! 

22
You sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean; 
I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers; 
I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me; 
We must have a turn together—I undress—hurry me out of sight of the
 land;
Cushion me soft, rock...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...land in the river
He was broken to his knee:
And he read, writ with an iron pen,
That God had wearied of Wessex men
And given their country, field and fen,
To the devils of the sea.

And he saw in a little picture,
Tiny and far away,
His mother sitting in Egbert's hall,
And a book she showed him, very small,
Where a sapphire Mary sat in stall
With a golden Christ at play.

It was wrought in the monk's slow manner,
From silver and sanguine shell,
Where the scenes are little an...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K
...opes, or evil wish,
Or ill-repressed affliction, her pure thoughts.
What could her grief be?—she had loved him not,
Nor given him cause to deem himself beloved,
Nor could he be a part of that which preyed
Upon her mind—a spectre of the past.

VI

A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Wanderer was returned.—I saw him stand
Before an altar—with a gentle bride;
Her face was fair, but was not that which made
The Starlight of his Boyhood;—as he stood
Even at the altar, o'...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...th it held aloof,
A thousand times kept silence with such art
That words could do no more: yet on thy part
Hath silence given a thousand times reproof. 
I should be bolder, seeing I commend
Love, that my dilatory purpose primes,
But fear lest with my fears my hope should end:
Nay, I would truth deny and burn my rhymes,
Renew my sorrows rather than offend,
A thousand times, and yet a thousand times. 

29
I travel to thee with the sun's first rays,
That lift the dark west and u...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...: 
Not easily, seeing that the King must guard 
That which he rules, and is but as the hind 
To whom a space of land is given to plow. 
Who may not wander from the allotted field 
Before his work be done; but, being done, 
Let visions of the night or of the day 
Come, as they will; and many a time they come, 
Until this earth he walks on seems not earth, 
This light that strikes his eyeball is not light, 
This air that smites his forehead is not air 
But vision--yea, his very...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...with a deadly cheer*, *countenance
That it was ruthe* for to see or hear. *pity
She saide; "Lord, to whom fortune hath given
Vict'ry, and as a conqueror to liven,
Nought grieveth us your glory and your honour;
But we beseechen mercy and succour.
Have mercy on our woe and our distress;
Some drop of pity, through thy gentleness,
Upon us wretched women let now fall.
For certes, lord, there is none of us all
That hath not been a duchess or a queen;
Now be we caitives*, as it is ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...slet beach,
     Reclined against a blighted tree,
     As wasted, gray, and worn as he.
     To minstrel meditation given,
     His reverend brow was raised to heaven,
     As from the rising sun to claim
     A sparkle of inspiring flame.
     His hand, reclined upon the wire,
     Seemed watching the awakening fire;
     So still he sat as those who wait
     Till judgment speak the doom of fate;
     So still, as if no breeze might dare
     To lift one lock o...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...smiling, and then
replied,
Thou Idolater, is not God One? & is not he visible in Jesus
Christ? and has not Jesus Christ given his sanction to the law of
ten commandments and are not all other men fools, sinners, &
nothings?
The Devil answer'd; bray a fool in a morter with wheat. yet
shall not his folly be beaten out of him: if Jesus Christ is the
greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now
hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten
commandments: ...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...anging under Heaven,
Was worshipped by the world o'er which they strode
For the true Sun it quenched.--"Their power was given
But to destroy," replied the leader--"I
Am one of those who have created, even
"If it be but a world of agony."--
"Whence camest thou & whither goest thou?
How did thy course begin," I said, "& why?
"Mine eyes are sick of this perpetual flow
Of people, & my heart of one sad thought.--
Speak."--"Whence I came, partly I seem to know,
"And how & by what p...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...



I 

Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate: 
His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull, 
So little trouble had been given of late; 
Not that the place by any means was full, 
But since the Gallic era 'eight-eight' 
The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 
And 'a pull altogether,' as they say 
At sea — which drew most souls another way. 

II 

The angels all were singing out of tune, 
And hoarse with having little else to do, 
Excepting to wind up the sun and moon, 
...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...ered far distant, over Himavant.
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
Then spoke the thunder 
DA
Datta: what have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms 
DA
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn i...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...and in control.
The calm before the storm is fearful to my soul.
You ask me what it is that I have done of late
With given unto me forever love and fate.
I have betrayed you. And this to repeat --
Oh, if you could one moment tire of it!
The killer's sleep is haunted, dead man said,
Death's angel thus awaits me at deathbed.
Forgive me now. Lord teaches to forgive.
In burning agony my flesh does live,
And already the spirit gently sleeps,
A garden I recall, tender wi...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry