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Famous Governor Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wright, James
...And how can I, born in evil days
And fresh from failure, ask a kindness of Fate?

 -- Written A.D. 819


Po Chu-i, balding old politician,
What's the use?
I think of you,
Uneasily entering the gorges of the Yang-Tze,
When you were being towed up the rapids
Toward some political job or other
In the city of Chungshou.
You made it, I guess,
By dar...Read more of this...



by Southey, Robert
...fish therein
very distateful to the palate. In this are spectres often seen, which
foreshew either the death of the Governor, or some prime officer
belonging to the place; and most commonly it appeareth in the shape of
an harper, sweetly singing and dallying and playing under the water.

It is reported of one Donica, that after she was dead, the Devil walked
in her body for the space of two years, so that none suspected but that
she was still alive; for she did both s...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...ir pictures:
Each in turn, as he was taken,
Volunteered his own suggestions,
His ingenious suggestions. 

First the Governor, the Father:
He suggested velvet curtains
Looped about a massy pillar;
And the corner of a table,
Of a rosewood dining-table.
He would hold a scroll of something,
Hold it firmly in his left-hand;
He would keep his right-hand buried
(Like Napoleon) in his waistcoat;
He would contemplate the distance
With a look of pensive meaning,
As of ducks tha...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...tu maestro». 
Cos? li dissi; e poi che mosso fue , 

Now go; a single will fills both of us: 
you are my guide, my governor, my master." 
These were my words to him; when he advanced 


intrai per lo cammino alto e silvestro . 

I entered on the steep and savage path....Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...d you own'd, in terms less haughty,
And thankfully o'erpaid your quota?
Say, at what period did they grudge
To send you Governor or Judge,
With all their Missionary crew,
To teach you law and gospel too?
They brought all felons in the nation
To help you on in population;
Proposed their Bishops to surrender,
And made their Priests a legal tender,
Who only ask'd, in surplice clad,
The simple tithe of all you had:
And now, to keep all knaves in awe,
Have sent their troops t' est...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...always after the precedence of inside authority; 
Where the citizen is always the head and ideal—and President, Mayor, Governor, and what
 not,
 are
 agents for pay; 
Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves;
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs; 
Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged; 
Where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men, 
Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...dawn to see
Dread figures throng his room,
The shivering Chaplain robed in white,
The Sheriff stern with gloom,
And the Governor all in shiny black,
With the yellow face of Doom.

He does not rise in piteous haste
To put on convict-clothes,
While some coarse-mouthed Doctor gloats,
and notes
Each new and nerve-twitched pose,
Fingering a watch whose little ticks
Are like horrible hammer-blows.

He does not know that sickening thirst
That sands one's throat, before
The h...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...tell the tale of his charity from Balkh to Kandahar.

Before the old Peshawur Gate, where Kurd and Kaffir meet,
The Governor of Kabul dealt the Justice of the Street,
And that was strait as running noose and swift as plunging knife,
Tho' he who held the longer purse might hold the longer life.

There was a hound of Hindustan had struck a Euzufzai,
Wherefore they spat upon his face and led him out to die.
It chanced the King went forth that hour when throat was bar...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ath. 

(19) The treasures of the Pre-Adamite Sultans. See D'Herbelot, article Istakar. 

(20) "Musselim," a governor, the next in rank after a Pacha; a Waywode is the third; and then come the Agas. 

(21) "Egripo" — the Negropont. According to the proverb, the Turks of Egrip, the Jews of Salonica, and the Greeks of Athens are the worst of their respective races. 

(22) "Tchocadar," one of the attendants who precedes a man of authority. 

(23) The w...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...ild.

The dying man said, "Finish
 The job we came here for."
he committed his soul to God
 And his sons to the Governor.

They ran and got a priest,
 And he died in hope of Heaven
--A man from Pernambuco,
 The youngest of eleven.

They wanted to stop the search,
 but the Army said, "No, go on,"
So the soldiers swarmed again
 Up the hill of Babylon.

Rich people in apartments
 Watched through binoculars
As long as the daylight lasted.
 And all night, u...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...Composed, by Special Request, 18th June 1890


Then Pilate, the Roman Governor, took Jesus and scourged Him,
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and thought it no sin
To put it on His head, while meekly Jesus stands;
They put on Him a purple robe, and smote Him with their hands. 

Then Pilate went forth again, and said unto them,
Behold, I bring Him forth to you, but I cannot Him condemn,
And I would have you to re...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...en tree
And muse in that gaunt place, -- 'twas then my heart,
Deep in the meditative dark, cried out:

"Ye companies of governor-spirits grave,
Bards, and old bringers-down of flaming news
From steep-wall'd heavens, holy malcontents,
Sweet seers, and stellar visionaries, all
That brood about the skies of poesy,
Full bright ye shine, insuperable stars;
Yet, if a man look hard upon you, none
With total lustre blazeth, no, not one
But hath some heinous freckle of the flesh
Upon ...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...d that's enough for us. 

"What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! 
Present me to the Governor and that young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing polite, 
I'm sorry, but I can't come down -- I'm dining out tonight!"...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...d that's enough for us. 

"What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! 
Present me to the Governor and that young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing polite, 
I'm sorry, but I can't come down -- I'm dining out tonight!"...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...A governor it was proclaimed this time, 
When all who would come seeking in New Hampshire 
Ancestral memories might come together. 
And those of the name Stark gathered in Bow, 
A rock-strewn town where farming has fallen off, 
And sprout-lands flourish where the axe has gone. 
Someone had literally run to earth 
In an old cellar hole in a by-road 
The...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...olde stories tellen us, *formerly
There was a duke that highte* Theseus. *was called 
Of Athens he was lord and governor,
And in his time such a conqueror
That greater was there none under the sun.
Full many a riche country had he won.
What with his wisdom and his chivalry,
He conquer'd all the regne of Feminie,
That whilom was y-cleped Scythia;
And weddede the Queen Hippolyta
And brought her home with him to his country
With muchel* glory and great solemni...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...es becomes passive till it is
only the shadow of desire.
The history of this is written in Paradise Lost. & the Governor
or Reason is call'd Messiah.
And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the
heavenly host, is calld the Devil or Satan and his children are
call'd Sin & Death
But in the Book of Job Miltons Messiah is call'd Satan.
For this history has been adopted by both parties
It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out. but...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...est in the first place to attack Corinth, upon which they made several storms. The garrison being weakened, and the governor seeing it was impossible to hold out against so mighty a force, thought it fit to beat a parley; but while they were treating about the articles, one of the magazines in the Turkish army, wherein they had six hundred barrels of powder, blew up by accident, whereby six or seven hundred men were killed; which so enraged the infidels, that they would n...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ce, asking secretly to himself, What will the people say
 at
 last? 
Of the frivolous Judge—Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor—Of such as
 these,
 standing helpless and exposed; 
Of the mumbling and screaming priest—(soon, soon deserted;)
Of the lessening, year by year, of venerableness, and of the dicta of officers, statutes,
 pulpits, schools; 
Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader, of the intuitions of men and women,
 and
 of self-esteem, and of pe...Read more of this...

by Wheatley, Phillis
...All-Conquering Death! by thy resistless pow'r,
Hope's tow'ring plumage falls to rise no more!
Of scenes terrestrial how the glories fly,
Forget their splendors, and submit to die!
Who ere escap'd thee, but the saint of old
Beyond the flood in sacred annals told,
And the great sage, whom fiery coursers drew
To heav'n's bright portals from Elisha's view;
Won...Read more of this...

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