Famous Improved Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Eros

...ort,—
To love and be beloved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it,
And how oft soe'er they've turned it,
'Tis not to be improved....Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Hymn 47

...Death of kindred improved.

Zech. 1:5. 

Must friends and kindred droop and die,
And helpers be withdrawn?
While sorrow with a weeping eye
Counts up our comforts gone?

Be thou our comfort, mighty God!
Our helper and our friend;
Nor leave us in this dangerous road,
Till all our trials end.

O may our feet pursue the way
Our pious fathers led!
With love and holy zeal obey
The...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

My Fancy

...They tingled very much;
I own that I could wish her
A somewhat lighter touch;
And if you ask me how
Her charms might be improved,
I would not have them added to,
But just a few removed!

She has the bear's ethereal grace,
The bland hyaena's laugh,
The footstep of the elephant,
The neck of a giraffe;
I love her still, believe me,
Though my heart its passion hides;
"She's all my fancy painted her,"
But oh! how much besides!...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Paradise Lost: Book 05

...ent diet, nor too light fare; 
And from these corporal nutriments perhaps 
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit, 
Improved by tract of time, and, winged, ascend 
Ethereal, as we; or may, at choice, 
Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell; 
If ye be found obedient, and retain 
Unalterably firm his love entire, 
Whose progeny you are. Mean while enjoy 
Your fill what happiness this happy state 
Can comprehend, incapable of more. 
To whom the patriarch of mankind replied. 
O ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Phantasmagoria CANTO III ( Scarmoges )

...st remember, if you please,
The NEXT time you have toasted cheese,
Don't let them send it cold. 

"You'd find the bread improved, I think,
By getting better flour:
And have you anything to drink
That looks a LITTLE less like ink,
And isn't QUITE so sour?" 

Then, peering round with curious eyes,
He muttered "Goodness gracious!"
And so went on to criticise -
"Your room's an inconvenient size:
It's neither snug nor spacious. 

"That narrow window, I expect,
Serves but to let th...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis


Testament

...enrich the undertaker and inspire
His surly art of imitating life; conspire
Against him. Say that my body cannot now
Be improved upon; it has no fault to show
To the sly cosmetician. Say that my flesh
Has a perfect compliance with the grass
Truer than any it could have striven for.
You will recognize the earth in me, as before
I wished to know it in myself: my earth
That has been my care and faithful charge from birth,
And toward which all my sorrows were surely bound,
And al...Read more of this...
by Berry, Wendell

The Dead-Beat

...nt, that AREN'T dead:
Bold uncles, smiling ministerially;
Maybe his brave young wife, getting her fun
In some new home, improved materially.
It's not these stiffs have crazed him; nor the Hun."

We sent him down at last, out of the way.
Unwounded; -- stout lad, too, before that strafe.
Malingering? Stretcher-bearers winked, "Not half!"

Next day I heard the Doc.'s well-whiskied laugh:
"That scum you sent last night soon died. Hooray!"...Read more of this...
by Owen, Wilfred

Village Don Juan

...d Horse" they say of me,
But back of my beard I laugh with glee.
Far and wide have I sown my seed,
Yet by the gods I've improved the breed:
From byre and stable to joiner's bench,
From landlord's daughter to serving wench.

Ice-blue eyes and blade-straight nose,
Stamp of my virile youth are those;
Now you'll see them on every side,
Proof of my powers, far and wide:
Even the parson' handsome scamp,
And the Doctor's daughter have my stamp.

Many a matron cocks an eye
Of secret ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

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