Famous Honouring Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A poem on divine revelation

...ce forgot? 
But yet constrain'd on this occasion sweet 
To this fam'd hall and this assembly fair 
With comely presence honouring the day, 
She fain would pay a tributary strain. 
A purer strain though not of equal praise 
To that which Fingal heard when Ossian sung 
With voice high rais'd in Selma hall of shells; 
Or that which Pindar on th' Elean plain, 
Sang with immortal skill and voice divine, 
When native Thebes and ev'ry Grecian state 
Pour'd forth her sons in rapid ch...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry


Dublinesque

...flowered hats,
Leg-of-mutton sleeves,
And ankle-length dresses.

There is an air of great friendliness,
As if they were honouring
One they were fond of;
Some caper a few steps,
Skirts held skilfully
(Someone claps time),

And of great sadness also.
As they wend away
A voice is heard singing
Of Kitty, or Katy,
As if the name meant once
All love, all beauty....Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip

His Prayer To Ben Jonson

...now I have pray'd thee,
For old religion's sake,
Saint Ben to aid me.

Make the way smooth for me,
When I, thy Herrick,
Honouring thee, on my knee
Offer my lyric.

Candles I'll give to thee,
And a new altar,
And thou, Saint Ben, shalt be
Writ in my psalter....Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

My Mistress Commanding Me to Return Her Letters

...of air, 
No cruelty, disdain, absence, despair, 
No, nor her steadfast constancy, can deter 
My vassal heart from ever honouring her. 
Though these be powerful arguments to prove 
I love in vain, yet I must ever love. 
Say, if she frown, when you that word rehearse, 
Service in prose is oft called love in verse : 
Then pray her, since I send back on my part 
Her papers, she will send me back my heart. 
If she refuse, warn her to come before 
The god of love, whom thus I will...Read more of this...
by Carew, Thomas

On the Nativity of Christ

...vance divyne 
 To him that is of kingis King: 
 Encense his altar, read and sing 
In holy kirk, with mind degest, 
 Him honouring attour all thing 
 Qui nobis Puer natus est. 

Celestial foulis in the air, 
 Sing with your nottis upon hicht, 
In firthis and in forrestis fair 
 Be myrthful now at all your mycht; 
 For passit is your dully nicht, 
Aurora has the cloudis perst, 
 The Sone is risen with glaidsum licht, 
 Et nobis Puer natus est. 

Now spring up flouris fra the ru...Read more of this...
by Dunbar, William


Paradise Lost: Book 08

...t. 
For, what admirest thou, what transports thee so, 
An outside? fair, no doubt, and worthy well 
Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love; 
Not thy subjection: Weigh with her thyself; 
Then value: Oft-times nothing profits more 
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right 
Well managed; of that skill the more thou knowest, 
The more she will acknowledge thee her head, 
And to realities yield all her shows: 
Made so adorn for thy delight the more, 
So awful, that with h...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Song To Celia - II

...divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
 I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
 Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope, that there
 It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
 And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
 Not of itself, but thee....Read more of this...
by Jonson, Ben

Sonnet 125: Weret aught to me I bore the canopy

...Were't aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which proves more short than waste or ruining?
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent
For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,
Pitiful thrivers in their gazing spent?
No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
Which is not mix...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet CXXV

...Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which prove more short than waste or ruining?
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent,
For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,
Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent?
No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
Which is not mi...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

St. Winefreds Well

...not repent, not repent.
The blame bear who aroused me. What I have done violent
I have like a lion done, lionlike done,
Honouring an uncontrolled royal wrathful nature,
Mantling passion in a grandeur, crimson grandeur.
Now be my pride then perfect, all one piece. Henceforth
In a wide world of defiance Caradoc lives alone,
Loyal to his own soul, laying his own law down, no law nor
Lord now curb him for ever. O daring! O deep insight!
What is virtue? Valour; only the heart vali...Read more of this...
by Hopkins, Gerard Manley

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

...flame of fire. who arose before an
Angel that sat on a cloud. and the Devil utterd these words.
The worship of God is. Honouring his gifts in other men
each according to his genius. and loving the [PL 23] greatest men
best, those who envy or calumniate great men hate God, for there
is no other God.
The Angel hearing this became almost blue but mastering
himself he grew yellow, & at last white pink & smiling, and then
replied,
Thou Idolater, is not God One? & is not he visibl...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

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