Famous Indigence Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A poem on divine revelation

...sen from each labour bere 
To make their entrance on a nobler stage. 
What though with us they walk the humble vale 
Of indigence severe, with want oppress'd? 
Riches belong not to their family, 
Nor sloth luxurious nor the pride of kings; 
But truth meek-ey'd and warm benevolence 
Wisdom's high breeding in her sons rever'd 
Bespeaks them each the children[2] of a king. 
The christian truth of origin divine, 
Grows not beneath the shade of civil pow'r, 
Riches or wealth accom...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry


Bewick Finzer

...man 
Whom we had known before. 

The broken voice, the withered neck, 
The coat worn out with care, 
The cleanliness of indigence, 
The brilliance of despair, 
The fond imponderable dreams 
Of affluence,--all were there. 

Poor Finzer, with his dreams and schemes, 
Fares hard now in the race, 
With heart and eye that have a task 
When he looks in the eye 
Of one who might so easily 
Have been in Finzer's place. 

He comes unfailing for the loan 
We give and then forget; 
He c...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

El Cafetal

...ut they fling themselves upwards, untouchable,
are the trees that invidiously shut out
the light from this overwhelming indigence.
With my machete I go through the paths
of the cafetal.

Intricate paths
where the tamags lies in wait, sunk
in the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics,
the carnal luxury that gleams
in the eyes of the Creole overseer; sinuous
paths between junipers and avocados
where human thought, cowed
since before the white man, has never
found any other light ...Read more of this...
by Guillen, Rafael

Monadnoc

...e haughty pile erect
Of the old building Intellect.
Complement of human kind,
Having us at vantage still,
Our sumptuous indigence,
O barren mound! thy plenties fill.
We fool and prate,—
Thou art silent and sedate.
To million kinds and times one sense
The constant mountain doth dispense,
Shedding on all its snows and leaves,
One joy it joys, one grief it grieves.
Thou seest, O watchman tall!
Our towns and races grow and fall,
And imagest the stable Good
For which we all our li...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

None can experience sting

...Except for Fact of Corn --

Want -- is a meagre Art
Acquired by Reverse --
The Poverty that was not Wealth --
Cannot be Indigence....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


Sonnet LXXXVI

...ing erring head,Oh, be thy succour to my frailty sped,And with thy grace my indigence supply!My life in storms and warfare doom'd to spend,Harbour'd in peace that life may I resign:It's course though idle, pious be its end!Oh, for the few brief days, which yet are mine,And for their close, thy guiding hand extend!Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

The Emigrants: Book I

...ountry driven,
Whose richest luxuries were their's, must feel
More poignant anguish, than the lowest poor,
Who, born to indigence, have learn'd to brave
Rigid Adversity's depressing breath!--
Ah! rather Fortune's worthless favourites!
Who feed on England's vitals--Pensioners
Of base corruption, who, in quick ascent
To opulence unmerited, become
Giddy with pride, and as ye rise, forgetting
The dust ye lately left, with scorn look down
On those beneath ye (tho' your equals once...Read more of this...
by Turner Smith, Charlotte

The Man of Laws Tale

...thou none ask, so sore art thou y-wounded,
That very need unwrappeth all thy wound hid.
Maugre thine head thou must for indigence
Or steal, or beg, or borrow thy dispence*. *expense

Thou blamest Christ, and sayst full bitterly,
He misdeparteth* riches temporal; *allots amiss
Thy neighebour thou witest* sinfully, *blamest
And sayst, thou hast too little, and he hath all:
"Parfay (sayst thou) sometime he reckon shall,
When that his tail shall *brennen in the glede*, *burn in t...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

To the Honourable T. H. Esq; on the Death of his Daughter

...
Divinely bright your daughter's Virtues shone:
How free from scornful pride her gentle mind,
Which ne'er its aid to indigence declin'd!
Expanding free, it sought the means to prove
Unfailing charity, unbounded love!

She unreluctant flies to see no more
Her dear-lov'd parents on earth's dusky shore:
Impatient heav'n's resplendent goal to gain,
She with swift progress cuts the azure plain,
Where grief subsides, where changes are no more,
And life's tumultuous bill...Read more of this...
by Wheatley, Phillis

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