Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Improvement Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Browning, Robert
...of my friend
 With her wanton eyes, or me?

 II.

My friend was already too good to lose,
 And seemed in the way of improvement yet,
When she crossed his path with her hunting-noose
 And over him drew her net.

 III.

When I saw him tangled in her toils,
 A shame, said I, if she adds just him
To her nine-and-ninety other spoils,
 The hundredth for a whim!

 IV.

And before my friend be wholly hers,
 How easy to prove to him, I said,
An eagle's the game her pri...Read more of this...



by McGonagall, William Topaz
...I must confess,
That they have proved a complete success,
Which I am right glad to see ...
And a very great improvement to Bonnie Dundee.
And there's the Royal Arch, most handsome to be seen,
Erected to the memory of our Most Gracious Queen -
Most magnificent to see,
And a very great honour to the people of Dundee.
Then there's the Baxter Park, most beautiful to see,
And a great boon it is to the people of Dundee,
For there they can enjoy themselves when t...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...The true improvement of life.

Ps. 90:12. 

Ane is this life prolonged to me?
Are days and seasons giv'n?
O let me, then, prepare to be
A fitter heir of heav'n.

In vain these moments shall not pass,
These golden hours be gone:
Lord, I accept thine offered grace,
I bow before thy throne.

Now cleanse my soul from every sin
By my Redeemer's blood;
...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...in the stars the sun and in the Moon. 

For ? is upon the Sapphire Vault. 

For the doubling of flowers is the improvement of the gardners talent. 

For the flowers are great blessings. 

For the Lord made a Nosegay in the meadow with his disciples and preached upon the lily. 

For the angels of God took it out of his hand and carried it to the Height. 

For a man cannot have publick spirit, who is void of private benevolence. 

For there is no He...Read more of this...

by Austen, Jane
...hen like his Father too, he must,
To his own former struggles just,
Feel his Deserts with honest Glow,
And all his self-improvement know.
A native fault may thus give birth
To the best blessing, conscious Worth. 
As for ourselves we're very well;
As unaffected prose will tell.--
Cassandra's pen will paint our state,
The many comforts that await
Our Chawton home, how much we find
Already in it, to our mind;
And how convinced, that when complete
It will all other Ho...Read more of this...



by Collins, Billy
...enity of last month when we picked
berries and glided through afternoons in a canoe.

Even this morning would be an improvement over the present.
I was in the garden then, surrounded by the hum of bees
and the Latin names of flowers, watching the early light
flash off the slanted windows of the greenhouse
and silver the limbs on the rows of dark hemlocks.

As usual, I was thinking about the moments of the past,
letting my memory rush over them like water
rushing o...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...that every thing was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not, nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or too much....Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...d station.
I changed from hand to hand in desperation.
I wondered what machine of ages gone
This represented an improvement on.
For all I knew it may have sharpened spears
And arrowheads itself. Much use.for years
Had gradually worn it an oblate
Spheroid that kicked and struggled in its gait,
Appearing to return me hate for hate;
(But I forgive it now as easily
As any other boyhood enemy
Whose pride has failed to get him anywhere).
I wondered who it wa...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...ery thing
was white.

Exuberance is Beauty.

If the lion was advised by the fox. he would be cunning. 

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without
Improvement, are roads of Genius. 

Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires 

Where man is not nature is barren.

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be
believ'd.

Enough! or Too much



PLATE 11 

The ancient Poets animated all sensible obj...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...that every thing was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not, nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or too much....Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Improvement poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs