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Famous In Private Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...ic’s kind acclaim,
That dearest meed is granted—honest fame;
Waen here your favour is the actor’s lot,
Nor even the man in private life forgot;
What breast so dead to heavenly Virtue’s glow,
But heaves impassion’d with the grateful throe?


Poor is the task to please a barb’rous throng,
It needs no Siddons’ powers in Southern’s song;
But here an ancient nation, fam’d afar,
For genius, learning high, as great in war.
Hail, CALEDONIA, name for ever dear!
Before whose sons I...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...ng prose.
Mark, how their lofty independent spirit
Soars on the spurning wing of injured merit!
Seek not the proofs in private life to find
Pity the best of words should be but wind!
So, to heaven’s gates the lark’s shrill song ascends,
But grovelling on the earth the carol ends.
In all the clam’rous cry of starving want,
They dun Benevolence with shameless front;
Oblige them, patronise their tinsel lays—
They persecute you all your future days!
Ere my poor soul such ...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...nd by his milder beams assures;
And yet how much of them his griefe obscures?
He as his rather long was kept from sight
In private to be view'd by better light:
But open'd once, what splendour dos he throw
A Cromwell in an houre a Prince will grow.
How he becomes that seat, how strongly streins
How gently winds at once the ruling Reins?
Heav'n to this choise prepar'd a Diadem
Richer then any Eastern silk or gemme:
A pearly rainbow; where the Sun inchas'd
His brows like an...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...again produce; 
New Augustean Days revive, 
When Wit shall please, and Poets thrive. 
Till when, let those converse in private, 
Who taste what others don't arrive at; 
Yielding that Mammonists surpass us; 
And let the Bank out-swell Parnassus....Read more of this...

by Belloc, Hilaire
...Years did not belie
The Promise of his Infancy.
In Public Life he always tried
To take a judgement Broad and Wide;

In Private, none was more than he
Renowned for quiet courtesy.
He rose at once in his Career,
And long before hus Fortieth Year

Had wedded Fifi, Only Child
Of Bunyan, First Lord Aberfylde.
He thus became immensely Rich,
And built the Splendid Mansion which

Is called The Cedars, Muswell Hill,
Where he resides in affluence still,
To show what everybo...Read more of this...



by Berryman, John
...—
he couldn't hear or see well—all we sift—
but this is a bad story.

He had fine stories and was another man
in private; difficult, always. Courteous,
on the whole, in private.
He apologize to Henry, off & on,
for two blue slanders; which was good of him.
I don't know how he made it.

Quickly, off stage with all but kindness, now.
I can't say what I have in mind. Bless Frost,
any odd god around.
Gentle his shift, I decussate & command,
s...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...d fail) 
From honest Mah'met, or plain Parson Hale. 

But grant, in Public Men sometimes are shown, 
A Woman's seen in Private life alone: 
Our bolder Talents in full light displayed; 
Your Virtues open fairest in the shade. 
Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide; 
There, none distinguish twixt your Shame or Pride, 
Weakness or Delicacy; all so nice, 
That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice. 

In Men, we various Ruling Passions find; 
In Women, two almost divid...Read more of this...

by Slessor, Kenneth
...e is over you, and mystery, 
And memory, the flood that does not flow. 
You have no suburb, like those easier dead 
In private berths of dissolution laid - 
The tide goes over, the waves ride over you 
And let their shadows down like shining hair, 
But they are Water; and the sea-pinks bend 
Like lilies in your teeth, but they are Weed; 
And you are only part of an Idea. 
I felt the wet push its black thumb-balls in, 
The night you died, I felt your eardrums crack, 
A...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...place, my dear,
although your fear is anyone's fear,
like an invisible veil between us all...
and sometimes in private,
my kitchen, your kitchen,
my face, your face....Read more of this...

by Corso, Gregory
...would have taken the page
breathing in the crime!
For no evidence have I wrung from dreams--
yet what triumph is there in private credence?

Often, in some steep ancestral book,
when I find myself entangled with leopard-apples
and torched-skin mushrooms,
my cypressean skein outreaches the recorded age
and I, as though tipping a pitcher of milk,
pour secrecy upon the dying page....Read more of this...

by Nesbitt, Kenn
...I’m clever whenever
there’s no one around.
Alone, on my own,
I profess I’m profound.
In private, I’m Einstein.
Secluded, I’m smart.
My genius increases
the more I’m apart.
If you think I’m clueless,
it isn’t a trick.
When people are present
I’m dumb as a brick.
But don’t think I’m daft
or not mentally sound.
Whenever I’m clever
there’s no one around.

 --Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © Kenn Nesbitt 2012. All Rights Reserved...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nd from Rome retired
To Capreae, an island small but strong
On the Campanian shore, with purpose there
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;
Committing to a wicked favourite
All public cares, and yet of him suspicious;
Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
Endued with regal virtues as thou art,
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
Might'st thou expel this monster from his throne, 
Now made a sty, and, in his place ascending,
A victor-people free from servile yoke!
An...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...his milder beams assures; 
And yet how much of them his grief obscures? 

He, as his father, long was kept from sight 
In private, to be viewed by better light; 
But opened once, what splendour does he throw? 
A Cromwell in an hour a prince will grow. 
How he becomes that seat, how strongly strains, 
How gently winds at once the ruling reins? 
Heaven to this choice prepared a diadem, 
Richer than any Easter silk or gem; 
A pearly rainbow, where the sun enchased 
His brow...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...*not worth a hen.* *worth nothing
Look who that is most virtuous alway,
*Prive and apert,* and most intendeth aye *in private and public*
To do the gentle deedes that he can;
And take him for the greatest gentleman.
Christ will,* we claim of him our gentleness, *wills, requires
Not of our elders* for their old richess. *ancestors
For though they gave us all their heritage,
For which we claim to be of high parage,* *birth, descent
Yet may they not bequeathe, for n...Read more of this...

by Philips, Katherine
...a public deity;
 And were 't not very odd
She should dispose herself to be
 A petty household god? 

First make the sun in private shine
 And bid the world adieu,
That so he may his beams confine
 In compliment to you:
But if of that you do despair,
 Think how you did amiss
To strive to fix her beams which are
 More bright and large than his....Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...br>
Though mysteries are barred from laic eyes,
And the Divine alone with warrant pries
Into thy bosom, where thy truth in private lies,
Yet this of thee the wise may freely say,
Thou from the virtuous nothing takest away,
And to be part of thee the wicked wisely pray.
Great Negative, how vainly would the wise
Inquire, define, distinguish, teach, devise?
Didst thou not stand to point their dull philosophies.
Is, or is not, the two great ends of Fate,
And true or false...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...hare 
just the same 
if not more. 
The pretty pretty bourgeois pinks his language just as pink 
if not pinker, 
and in private boasts his exploits even louder, if you ask me, 
than the other. 
While as to honesty, Oh look where the money lies! 

So I can't see where the worm that has turned puts anything over 
the worm that is too cunning to turn. 
On the contrary, he merely gives himself away. 
The turned worm shouts. I bravely booze! 
the other says....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things