Famous Honorable Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Hymn 96

by Isaac Watts
 Election excludes boasting.

1 Cor. 1:26-31. 

But few among the carnal wise,
But few of noble race,
Obtain the favor of thine eyes,
Almighty King of Grace.

He takes the men of meanest name
For sons and heirs of God;
And thus he pours abundant shame
On honorable blood.

He calls the fool, and makes him know
The myst'ries of his grace,
To bring aspiring wisdom low,
And all its pride...Read more of this...

Gin

by Philip Levine
 The first time I drank gin
I thought it must be hair tonic.
My brother swiped the bottle
from a guy whose father owned
a drug store that sold booze
in those ancient, honorable days
when we acknowledged the stuff
was a drug. Three of us passed
the bottle around, each tasting
with disbelief. People paid
for this? People had to have
it, the way we had to have
the women...Read more of this...

Albert Schirding

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Jonas Keene thought his lot a hard one
Because his children were all failures.
But I know of a fate more trying than that:
It is to be a failure while your children are successes.
For I raised a brood of eagles
Who flew away at last, leaving me
A crow on the abandoned bough.
Then, with the ambition to prefix Honorable to my name,
And thus...Read more of this...

Inner Space

by Dejan Stojanovic
Entering a cell, penetrating deep 
As a flying saucer 
To find a new galaxy 
Would be an honorable task 
For a new scientist interested 
More in the inner state of the soul 
Than in outer space.
...Read more of this...

If the Wheel of Heaven refuses me peace, am I not

by Omar Khayyam
If the Wheel of Heaven refuses me peace, am I not
ready for war? If I have not an honorable reputation,
have I not shame for myself? Here is the cup full of
wine the color of rubies; he who will not drink of it, has
he not his head and a stone?...Read more of this...

Musings On A Landscape Of Gaspar Poussin

by Robert Southey
 Poussin! most pleasantly thy pictur'd scenes
Beguile the lonely hour; I sit and gaze
With lingering eye, till charmed FANCY makes
The lovely landscape live, and the rapt soul
From the foul haunts of herded humankind
Flies far away with spirit speed, and tastes
The untainted air, that with the lively hue
Of health and happiness illumes the cheek
Of mountain LIBERTY. My willing soul
All eager follows...Read more of this...

Hamilton Greene

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Edgar Lee Masters - Hamilton Greene 

I was the only child of Frances Harris of Virginia
And Thomas Greene of Kentucky,
Of valiant and honorable blood both.
To them I owe all that I became,
Judge, member of Congress, leader in the State.
From my mother I inherited
Vivacity, fancy, language;
From my father will, judgment, logic.
All honor to them
For what service I was to the...Read more of this...

Killers

by Carl Sandburg
 I AM put high over all others in the city today.

I am the killer who kills for those who wish a killing today.

Here is a strong young man who killed.
There was a driving wind of city dust and horse dung blowing and he stood at an intersection of five sewers and there pumped the bullets of an automatic pistol...Read more of this...

Les Lauriers Sont Coupée

by Elinor Wylie
 Ah, love, within the shadow of the wood 
The laurels are cut down; some other brows 
May bear the classic wreath which Fame allows 
And find the burden honorable and good. 
Have we not passed the laurels as they stood-- 
Soft in the veil with which Spring endows 
The wintry glitter of their woven boughs-- 
Nor stopped to break...Read more of this...

A Poets Voice XV

by Kahlil Gibran
 Part One


The power of charity sows deep in my heart, and I reap and gather the wheat in bundles and give them to the hungry. 

My soul gives life to the grapevine and I press its bunches and give the juice to the thirsty. 

Heaven fills my lamp with oil and I place it at my window to direct...Read more of this...

She rose to His Requirement -- dropt

by Emily Dickinson
 She rose to His Requirement -- dropt
The Playthings of Her Life
To take the honorable Work
Of Woman, and of Wife --

If ought She missed in Her new Day,
Of Amplitude, or Awe --
Or first Prospective -- Or the Gold
In using, wear away,

It lay unmentioned -- as the Sea
Develop Pearl, and Weed,
But only to Himself -- be known
The Fathoms they abide --...Read more of this...

The Honorable

by Friedrich von Schiller
 Ever honor the whole; individuals only I honor;
In individuals I always discover the whole....Read more of this...

It is an honorable thought

by Emily Dickinson
It is an honorable thought,
   And makes one lift one's hat,
As one encountered gentlefolk
   Upon a daily street,

That we've immortal place,
   Though pyramids decay,
And kingdoms, like the orchard,
   Flit russetly away....Read more of this...

The Lung Fish

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 The Honorable Ardleigh Wyse 
Was every fisherman's despair; 
He caught his fish on floating flies, 
In fact he caught them in the air, 
And wet-fly men -- good sports, perhaps -- 
He called "those chuck-and-chance-it chaps". 
And then the Fates that sometimes play 
A joke on such as me and you 
Deported him up Queensland way 
To act as...Read more of this...

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