Famous Hypocrites Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Hymn 158

by Isaac Watts
 Few saved; or, The almost Christian, the hypocrite, and apostate.

Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows a narrower path,
With here and there a traveller.

"Deny thyself, and take thy cross,"
Is the Redeemer's great command;
Nature must count her gold but dross,
If she would gain this heav'nly land.

The fearful soul that tires and faints,
And walks...Read more of this...

Modern Love XVII: At Dinner She Is Hostess

by George Meredith
 At dinner, she is hostess, I am host. 
Went the feast ever cheerfuller? She keeps 
The Topic over intellectual deeps 
In buoyancy afloat. They see no ghost. 
With sparkling surface-eyes we ply the ball: 
It is in truth a most contagious game: 
HIDING THE SKELETON, shall be its name. 
Such play as this the devils might appal! 
But here's...Read more of this...

True and False Comforts

by William Cowper
 O God, whose favorable eye,
The sin-sick soul revives,
Holy and heavenly is the joy
Thy shining presence gives.

Not such as hypocrites suppose,
Who with a graceless heart
Taste not of Thee, but drink a dose,
Prepared by Satan's art.

Intoxicating joys are theirs,
Who while they boast their light,
And seem to soar above the stars,
Are plunging into night.

Lull'd in a soft and fatal sleep,
They sin and...Read more of this...

Hymn 136

by Isaac Watts
 Sincerity and hypocrisy; or, formality in worship.

John 4:24; Ps. 139:23,24. 

God is a Spirit, just and wise,
He sees our inmost mind;
In vain to heav'n we raise our cries,
And leave our souls behind.

Nothing but truth before his throne
With honor can appear;
The painted hypocrites are known
Through the disguise they wear.

Their lifted eyes salute the skies,
Their bending knees the ground;
But God abhors...Read more of this...

Those who adore the seddjadeh (prayer-rug) are asses,

by Omar Khayyam
Those who adore the seddjadeh [prayer-rug] are asses,
since they throw themselves, with full consent, into the
charge of devotees and hypocrites. What is most singular
about them is that they, under a mantle of piety,
preach Islamism and are, in reality, worse than idolaters....Read more of this...

407. Epigram—Thanks for a National Victory

by Robert Burns
 YE hypocrites! are these your pranks?
To murder men and give God thanks!
Desist, for shame!—proceed no further;
God won’t accept your thanks for MURTHER...Read more of this...

Sonnet 11

by Alan Seeger
 Apart sweet women (for whom Heaven be blessed), 
Comrades, you cannot think how thin and blue 
Look the leftovers of mankind that rest, 
Now that the cream has been skimmed off in you. 
War has its horrors, but has this of good -- 
That its sure processes sort out and bind 
Brave hearts in one intrepid brotherhood 
And leave...Read more of this...

Those hypocrites, all know so well, who lurk

by Omar Khayyam
Those hypocrites, all know so well, who lurk
In streets to beg their bread, and will not work,
Claim to be saints, like Shibli and Junaid,
No Shiblis are they, though well known in Karkh!...Read more of this...

A cup of wine is better than the kingdom of Kawous,

by Omar Khayyam
A cup of wine is better than the kingdom of Kawous,
and preferable to Kobad's throne or to the realm of
Thous. The sighs to which, at dawn, a lover is the prey
are sweeter than the groans of praying hypocrites....Read more of this...

To A Fallen Elm

by John Clare
 Old Elm that murmured in our chimney top
The sweetest anthem autumn ever made
And into mellow whispering calms would drop
When showers fell on thy many coloured shade
And when dark tempests mimic thunder made
While darkness came as it would strangle light
With the black tempest of a winter night
That rocked thee like a cradle to thy root
How did I love to hear...Read more of this...

Monolog From A Mattress

by Louis Untermeyer
Can that be you, la mouche? Wait till I lift
This palsied eye-lid and make sure... Ah, true.
Come in, dear fly, and pardon my delay
In thus existing; I can promise you
Next time you come you'll find no dying poet—
Without sufficient spleen to see me through,
The joke becomes too tedious a jest.
I am afraid my mind is dull to-day;
I have that—something—heavier on...Read more of this...

Hymn 35 part 2

by Isaac Watts
 Truth, sincerity, etc.

Phil. 4:8. 

Let those who bear the Christian name
Their holy vows fulfil;
The saints, the followers of the Lamb,
Are men of honor still.

True to the solemn oaths they take,
Though to their hurt they swear;
Constant and just to all they speak,
For God and angels hear.

Still with their lips their hearts agree,
Nor flatt'ring words devise;
They know the God of truth...Read more of this...

Broken Tabernacles

by Carl Sandburg
 HAVE I broken the smaller tabernacles, O Lord?
And in the destruction of these set up the greater and massive, the everlasting tabernacles?
I know nothing today, what I have done and why, O Lord, only I have broken and broken tabernacles.
They were beautiful in a way, these tabernacles torn down by strong hands swearing—
They were beautiful—why did the hypocrites carve...Read more of this...

The Tear

by George (Lord) Byron
 When Friendship or Love
Our sympathies move;
When Truth, in a glance, should appear,
The lips may beguile,
With a dimple or smile,
But the test of affection's a Tear:

Too oft is a smile
But the hypocrite's wile,
To mask detestation, or fear;
Give me the soft sigh,
Whilst the soultelling eye
Is dimm'd, for a time, with a Tear:

Mild Charity's glow,
To us mortals below,
Shows the soul from barbarity...Read more of this...

Psalm 50 part 3

by Isaac Watts
 v.1,5,8,16,21,22 
C. M.
The judgment of hypocrites.

When Christ to judgment shall descend,
And saints surround their Lord,
He calls the nations to attend,
And hear his awful word.

"Not for the want of bullocks slain
Will I the world reprove;
Altars, and rites, and forms are vain,
Without the fire of love.

"And what have hypocrites to do
To bring their sacrifice?
They call my statutes just and true,
But deal...Read more of this...

Untitled 2

by Tupac Shakur
With all this extra stressing the question I wonder is after death
After my last breath
When will I finally get to rest from this oppression?
They punish the people that's asking questions
And those that possess steal from the ones without possessions
The message I stress
To make you stop study your lessons
Don't settle for less
Even the genius asks his questions
Be grateful for blessings
Don't ever...Read more of this...

These hypocrites who build on saintly show,

by Omar Khayyam
These hypocrites who build on saintly show,
Treating the body as the spirit's foe,
If they will shut their mouths with lime, like jars,
My jar of grape-juice I will then forego....Read more of this...

Mac Flecknoe

by John Dryden
 All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey:
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was call'd to empire, and had govern'd long:
In prose and verse, was own'd, without dispute
Through all the realms of Non-sense, absolute.
This aged prince now flourishing in peace,
And blest with issue of a large increase,
Worn out with business, did at length debate
To...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...

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