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Famous Insults Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...e him to his very beard,
And tell him he no more is feared—
 No more the despot of Columbia’s race!
A tyrant’s proudest insults brav’d,
They shout—a People freed! They hail an Empire saved.


Where is man’s god-like form?
 Where is that brow erect and bold—
 That eye that can unmov’d behold
The wildest rage, the loudest storm
That e’er created fury dared to raise?
Avaunt! thou caitiff, servile, base,
That tremblest at a despot’s nod,
Yet, crouching under the iron rod,
 Canst ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



.... The coast guard observed
the return of the earls, just as before he had seen them.
He did not greet the guests with insults
from the crest of the cliffs, but he rode toward them,
saying that the Wederish people would welcome
the bright-mailed men returning by ship. (ll. 1888-95)

Then the sea-broad ship, with the ringed prow,
was loaded on the beach with war-weeds,
with treasures and with horses. The mast loomed
over Hrothgar’s hoarded-treasures.
Then he gave to ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...t were fair twelve moons ago.
Bronzed by exposure to the heat and cold, 
Still young in years, yet prematurely old, 
By insults humbled and by labor worn, 
They stand in youth's bright hour, of all youth's graces shorn.



XLV.
A scanty garment rudely made of sacks
Hangs from their loins; bright blankets drape their backs; 
About their necks are twisted tangled strings
Of gaudy beads, while tinkling wire and rings
Of yellow brass on wrists and fingers glow.
Thus, to assuage t...Read more of this...
by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...s of ample fate,
Who the Future's gates unbar,
Minions of the Morning Star.
In his prowess he exults,
And the multitude insults.
His impatient looks devour
Oft the humble and the poor,
And, seeing his eye glare,
They drop their few pale flowers
Gathered with hope to please
Along the mountain towers,
Lose courage, and despair.
He will never be gainsaid,
Pitiless, will not be stayed.
His hot tyranny
Burns up every other tie;
Therefore comes an hour from Jove
Which his ruthless ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...e scandal, innocence a fear,
Or from the soft-ey'd virgin steal a tear!
But he, who hurts a harmless neighbour's peace,
Insults fall'n worth, or beauty in distress,
Who loves a lie, lame slander helps about,
Who writes a libel, or who copies out:
That fop, whose pride affects a patron's name,
Yet absent, wounds an author's honest fame;
Who can your merit selfishly approve,
And show the sense of it without the love;
Who has the vanity to call you friend,
Yet wants the honour, ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander



...care,
And runs to greet his brethren of the war.
While yet they spake the giant-chief arose,
Repeats the challenge, and insults his foes:
Struck with the sound, and trembling at the view,
Affrighted Israel from its post withdrew.
"Observe ye this tremendous foe, they cry'd,
"Who in proud vaunts our armies hath defy'd:
"Whoever lays him prostrate on the plain,
"Freedom in Israel for his house shall gain;
"And on him wealth unknown the king will pour,
"And give his royal daught...Read more of this...
by Wheatley, Phillis
...
Called him coward, Shaugodaya, 
Idler, gambler, Yenadizze,
Little heeded he their jesting, 
Little cared he for their insults, 
For the women and the maidens 
Loved the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis.
He was dressed in shirt of doeskin, 
White and soft, and fringed with ermine, 
All inwrought with beads of wampum; 
He was dressed in deer-skin leggings,
Fringed with hedgehog quills and ermine, 
And in moccasins of buck-skin, 
Thick with quills and beads embroidered. 
On his head we...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...b torn off, the indignity of everyday life more tender than fourteen men who
look like your father, between your legs, insults easier to swallow
than rubble, than your child's body in pieces - for now, forget about pride
your survival is more important.

i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home tells you to leave what you could not behind,
even if it w...Read more of this...
by Shire, Warsan
...ee? 
 They longed to see the ancient eagle try 
 His lordly pinions in a modern sky. 
 They bore—each on himself—the insults laid 
 On the dear foster-land: of naught afraid, 
 Save of not finding foes enough to dare 
 For Italy. Ah; gallant, free, and rare 
 Young martyrs of a sacred cause,—Adieu! 
 No more of life—no more of love—for you! 
 No sweet long-straying in the star-lit glades 
 At Ave-Mary, with the Italian maids; 
 No welcome home! 
 
 II. 
 
 This...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor
...ving;
Not Arnold plunders more tobacco,
Or steals more ******* for Jamaica;
Scarce Rodney's self, among th' Eustatians,
Insults so well the laws of nations;
Ev'n Tryon's fame grows dim, and mourning
He yields the civic crown of burning.
I see, with pleasure and surprize,
New triumph sparkling in your eyes;
But view, where now renew'd in might,
Again the Rebels dare the fight."
"I look'd, and far in southern skies
Saw Greene, their second hope, arise,
And with his small, but g...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John
...; 
Still, still, her heart disdains to bow, 
She cherishes her woes. 

NOW FAMINE spreads her sable wings; 
INGRATITUDE insults her pangs; 
While from a thousand eager fangs, 
Madd'ning she flies;­The recreant crew 
With taunting smiles her steps pursue; 
While on her burning, bleeding heart, 
Fresh wounded by Affliction's dart, 
NEGLECT, her icy poison flings; 
From HOPE's celestial bosom hurl'd, 
She seeks oblivion's gloom, 
Now, now, she mocks the barb'rous world, 
AND TRI...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby
...wl.
What if he hath decreed that I shall first
Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,
By tribulations, injuries, insults, 
Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,
Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting
Without distrust or doubt, that He may know
What I can suffer, how obey? Who best
Can suffer best can do, best reign who first
Well hath obeyed—just trial ere I merit
My exaltation without change or end.
But what concerns it thee when I begin
My everlasting Ki...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...g an absence from thy face
My heart endures with pain.

Temptations vex my weary soul,
And tears are my repast;
The foe insults without control,
"And where's your God at last?"

'Tis with a mournful pleasure now
I think on ancient days;
Then to thy house did numbers go,
And all our work was praise.

But why, my soul, sunk down so far
Beneath this heavy load?
Why do my thoughts indulge despair,
And sin against my God?

Hope in the Lord, whose mighty hand
Can all thy woes remov...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac
...t balmy time
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,
Since spite of him I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes;
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...balmy time
My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes,
Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes:
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William
...we knew that she was dead. 
Then I, who could not understand or share 
His antique nobleness, 
Being unapt to bear 
The insults which time flings us for our proof, 
Fled from the horrible roof 
Into the alien sunshine merciless, 
The shrill satiric fields ghastly with day, 
Raging to front God in his pride of sway 
And hurl across the lifted swords of fate 
That ringed Him where He sat 
My puny gage of scorn and desolate hate 
Which somehow should undo Him, after all! 
That t...Read more of this...
by Moody, William Vaughn
...es in the wrong;
And here, the tears, the prayers, the silent cries,
He would not list to in his brothers' eyes.
The insults to the gentle, and the jeer
What time the humble bent their knees, are here;
Gloomy denials, and a bitter store
Of arid sarcasms, oft poured out before
Devotedness that in the shadow stands
With outstretched hands.


The grave-digger, weary, yet eager as well.
Hiding his pain to the sound of the knell,
With strokes of the spade turns round ...Read more of this...
by Verhaeren, Emile
...who falling down 
Looked up for heaven, and only saw the mist; 
And shouts of heathen and the traitor knights, 
Oaths, insults, filth, and monstrous blasphemies, 
Sweat, writhings, anguish, labouring of the lungs 
In that close mist, and cryings for the light, 
Moans of the dying, and voices of the dead. 

Last, as by some one deathbed after wail 
Of suffering, silence follows, or through death 
Or deathlike swoon, thus over all that shore, 
Save for some whisper of the seet...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
The galleys' chant enchains the foam of sound;
And the gods, exalted at the heroic prow,
E'en though the spit of spray insults each smiling brow,
Beckon to me, with arms indulgent, frozen, sculptured,
 and dead long long ago....Read more of this...
by Schwartz, Delmore
...h, doesn't make
allowance for my mother's weariness.
It's how they were raised: you show respect by fighting.
To let up insults the opponent.

Each player has one pile to the left, five cards in the hand.
It's good to stay inside on days like this,
to stay where it's cool.
And this is better than other games, better than solitaire.

My grandmother thought ahead; she prepared her daughters.
They have cards; they have each other.
They don't need any more companionship.

All aft...Read more of this...
by Gluck, Louise

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry