Famous Isaac Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Against Evil Company

...Why should I join with those in Play, 
In whom I've no delight,
Who curse and swear, but never pray,
Who call ill Names, and fight.

I hate to hear a wanton Song,
Their Words offend my Ears:
I should not dare defile my Tongue
With Language such as theirs.

Away from Fools I'll turn my Eyes,
Nor with the Scoffers go;
I would be walking with the Wise,
That w...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac


Against Idleness and Mischief

...How doth the little busy Bee 
Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
From every opening Flower!

How skilfully she builds her Cell!
How neat she spreads the Wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet Food she makes.

In Works of Labour or of Skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some Mischief still
For idle Hands to do.

In...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Against Lying

...O 'tis a lovely thing for youth
To early walk in wisdom's way;
To fear a lie, to speak the truth,
That we may trust to all they say!

But liars we can never trust,
Even when they say what is true.
And he who does one fault at first
And lies to hide it, makes it two.

Have we not known, nor heard, nor read
How God does hate deceit and wrong?
How Ananias was...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Curiosity

...
Gittin' to de winder, stickin' dah lak flies,
Evah one ermong us des all nose an' eyes.
"Whut's she cookin', Isaac?"
"Whut's she cookin', Jake?"
"Is it sweet pertaters? Is hit pie er cake?"
But we couldn't mek out even whah we stood
Whut was mammy cookin' dat could smell so good.
Mammy spread de winder, an' she frown an' frown,
How de pickaninnies come a-tum-blin' down!
Den she say: "Ef you-all keeps a-peepin' in,
How I'se gwine to whup you, my! 't 'ill be ...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

Dead Mans Dump

...The plunging limbers over the shattered track
Racketed with their rusty freight,
Stuck out like many crowns of thorns,
And the rusty stakes like sceptres old
To stay the flood of brutish men
Upon our brothers dear.

The wheels lurched over sprawled dead
But pained them not, though their bones crunched;
Their shut mouths made no moan,
They lie there huddled...Read more of this...
by Rosenberg, Isaac


God

...In his malodorous brain what slugs and mire,
Lanthorned in his oblique eyes, guttering burned!
His body lodged a rat where men nursed souls.
The world flashed grape-green eyes of a foiled cat
To him. On fragments of an old shrunk power,
On shy and maimed, on women wrung awry,
He lay, a bullying hulk, to crush them more.
But when one, fearless, turned and c...Read more of this...
by Rosenberg, Isaac

Hymn 33

...Absurdity of infidelity.

1 Cor. 1:26-31. 

Shall atheists dare insult the cross
Of our Redeemer, God?
Shall infidels reproach his laws,
Or trample on his blood?

What if he choose mysterious ways
To cleanse us from our faults?
May not the works of sovereign grace
Transcend our feeble thoughts?

What if his gospel bids us fight
With flesh, and self, and si...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Hymn 76

...Christ dwells in heaven, but visits on earth.

SS 6:1-3,12. 

When strangers stand and hear me tell
What beauties in my Savior dwell,
Where he is gone they fain would know,
That they may seek and love him too.

My best Beloved keeps his throne
On hills of light, in worlds unknown;
But he descends and shows his face
In the young gardens of his grace.

[In v...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Inferno (English)

...first parent. Here He found, 
 Abraham, obedient to the Voice he heard; 
 And Moses, first who wrote the Sacred Word; 
 Isaac, and Israel and his sons, and she, 
 Rachel, for whom he travailed; and David, king; 
 And many beside unnumbered, whom he led 
 Triumphant from the dark abodes, to be 
 Among the blest for ever. Until this thing 
 I witnessed, none, of all the countless dead, 
 But hopeless through the somber gate he came." 

 Now while he spake he paused not, but pur...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Isaac and Archibald

...(To Mrs. Henry Richards)


Isaac and Archibald were two old men. 
I knew them, and I may have laughed at them 
A little; but I must have honored them 
For they were old, and they were good to me. 

I do not think of either of them now,
Without remembering, infallibly, 
A journey that I made one afternoon 
With Isaac to find out what Archibald 
Was doing with his oats. It was high time...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Jubilate Agno: Fragment A

...and do homage to the Ark of their Salvation. 

Let Abraham present a Ram, and worship the God of his Redemption. 

Let Isaac, the Bridegroom, kneel with his Camels, and bless the hope of his pilgrimage. 

Let Jacob, and his speckled Drove adore the good Shepherd of Israel. 

Let Esau offer a scape Goat for his seed, and rejoice in the blessing of God his father. 

Let Nimrod, the mighty hunter, bind a Leopard to the altar, and consecrate his spear to the Lord. 

Let Ishmael ...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Jubilate Agno: Fragment D

...marl. 

Let Conduit, house of Conduit rejoice with Greecula a kind of Rose. God be gracious to the immortal soul of Sr Isaac Newton. 

Let Hands, house of Hands rejoice with Hadrosphserum kind of Spikenard with broad leaves. 

Let Snipe, house of Snipe rejoice with Hæmotimon a kind of red glass. Blessed be the name of Jesus for the 29th of Novr. 

Let Aylesworth, house of Aylesworth rejoice with Glinon which is a kind of Maple. 

Let Aisley, house of Aisley rejoice with Hali...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Louse Hunting

...Nudes -- stark and glistening,
Yelling in lurid glee. Grinning faces
And raging limbs
Whirl over the floor one fire.
For a shirt verminously busy
Yon soldier tore from his throat, with oaths
Godhead might shrink at, but not the lice.
And soon the shirt was aflare
Over the candle he'd lit while we lay.

Then we all sprang up and stript
To hunt the verminous...Read more of this...
by Rosenberg, Isaac

Paradise Lost: Book 12

...in Gibeon stand, 
'And thou moon in the vale of Aialon, 
'Till Israel overcome! so call the third 
From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him 
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win. 
Here Adam interposed. O sent from Heaven, 
Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things 
Thou hast revealed; those chiefly, which concern 
Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find 
Mine eyes true-opening, and my heart much eased; 
Erewhile perplexed with thoughts, what would become 
Of me ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Part 10 of Trout Fishing in America

...em Communist trout fishing in Ameri-

ca peace propaganda posters:

"DON'T DROP AN H-BOMB ON THE OLD FISHING HOLE I"

 "ISAAC WALTON WOULD'VE HATED THE BOMB!"

 "ROYAL COACHMAN, SI! ICBM, NO!"

 They carried with them many other trout fishing in Amer-

ica peace inducements, all following the Communist world

conquest line: the Gandhian nonviolence Trojan horse.

 When these young, hard-core brainwashed members of

the Communist conspiracy reached the "Panhandle, " the

emigr...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Psalm 129

...Persecutors punished.

Up from my youth, may Isr'el say,
Have I been nursed in tears;
My griefs were constant as the day,
And tedious as the years.

Up from my youth I bore the rage
Of all the sons of strife;
Oft they assailed my riper age,
But not destroyed my life.

Their cruel plow had torn my flesh
With furrows long and deep;
Hourly they vexed my wound...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Psalm 32

...Forgiveness of sins upon confession.

O Blessed souls are they
Whose sins are covered o'er!
Divinely blest, to whom the Lord
Imputes their guilt no more.

They mourn their follies past,
And keep their hearts with care;
Their lips and lives, without deceit,
Shall prove their faith sincere.

While I concealed my guilt,
I felt the fest'ring wound;
Till I conf...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Psalm 56

...Deliverance from oppression and falsehood.

O Thou whose justice reigns on high,
And makes th' oppressor cease,
Behold how envious sinners try
To vex and break my peace.

The sons of violence and lies
Join to devour me, Lord;
But as my hourly dangers rise,
My refuge is thy word.

In God most holy, just, and true,
I have reposed my trust;
Nor will I fear wh...Read more of this...
by Watts, Isaac

Still

...
and will they ever get out,
don't ask, I won't say, I don't know.

The name Nathan strikes fist against wall,
the name Isaac, demented, sings,
the name Sarah calls out for water for
the name Aaron that's dying of thirst.

Don't jump while it's moving, name David.
You're a name that dooms to defeat,
given to no one, and homeless,
too heavy to bear in this land.

Let your son have a Slavic name,
for here they count hairs on the head,
for here they tell good from evil
by names ...Read more of this...
by Szymborska, Wislawa

The Everlasting Gospel

...self, 
Like Dr. Priestly and Bacon and Newton— 
Poor spiritual knowledge is not worth a button 
For thus the Gospel Sir Isaac confutes: 
‘God can only be known by His attributes; 
And as for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, 
Or of Christ and His Father, it’s all a boast 
And pride, and vanity of the imagination, 
That disdains to follow this world’s fashion.’ 
To teach doubt and experiment 
Certainly was not what Christ meant. 
What was He doing all that time, 
From twelve y...Read more of this...
by Blake, William

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