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Famous Lot Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Silverstein, Shel
...e ever did was
before he left he went and named me Sue.

Well, he must have thought it was quite a joke,
and it got lots of laughs from a lot of folks,
it seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
and some guy would laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell you, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue.

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean.
My fist got hard and my wits got keen.
Roamed from town to town to hide my shame,
b...Read more of this...



by Yeats, William Butler
...man not kindred of his soul.

I am content to follow to its source
Every event in action or in thought;
Measure the lot; forgive myself the lot!
When such as I cast out remorse
So great a sweetness flows into the breast
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything,
Everything we look upon is blest....Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...and something touch'd by time; 
His faults, whate'er they were, if scarce forgot, 
Might be untaught him by his varied lot; 
Nor good nor ill of late were known, his name 
Might yet uphold his patrimonial fame. 
His soul in youth was haughty, but his sins 
No more than pleasure from the stripling wins; 
And such, if not yet harden'd in their course, 
Might be redeem'd, nor ask a long remorse. 

V. 

And they indeed were changed — 'tis quickly seen, 
Whate'er he b...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...mptied some dull opiate to the drains 
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, 5 
But being too happy in thine happiness, 
That thou, light-wing¨¨d Dryad of the trees, 
In some melodious plot 
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, 
Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 10 

O for a draught of vintage! that hath been 
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delv¨¨d earth, 
Tasting of Flora and the country-green, 
Dance, ...Read more of this...

by Soto, Gary
...gloves, face bright
With rouge. I smiled,
Touched her shoulder, and led
Her down the street, across
A used car lot and a line
Of newly planted trees,
Until we were breathing
Before a drugstore. We
Entered, the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Down a narrow aisle of goods.
I turned to the candies
Tiered like bleachers,
And asked what she wanted -
Light in her eyes, a smile
Starting at the corners
Of her mouth. I fingered
A nickle in my pocket,
...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...plex and dash 
Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low-- 
 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the ear, 
And with persuasive accent thus began:-- 
 "I should be much for open war, O Peers, 
As not behind in hate, if what was urged 
Main reason to persuade immediate war 
Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
Ominous conjecture on the whole success; 
When he who most excels in fact of arms, 
In what he counsels and in w...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...be room, 
Not like these narrow limits, to receive 
Your numerous offspring; if no better place, 
Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge 
On you who wrong me not for him who wronged. 
And should I at your harmless innocence 
Melt, as I do, yet publick reason just, 
Honour and empire with revenge enlarged, 
By conquering this new world, compels me now 
To do what else, though damned, I should abhor. 
So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, 
The tyrant's plea, excus...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...hem 
The whole included race, his purposed prey. 
In bower and field he sought, where any tuft 
Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, 
Their tendance, or plantation for delight; 
By fountain or by shady rivulet 
He sought them both, but wished his hap might find 
Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope 
Of what so seldom chanced; when to his wish, 
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies, 
Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, 
Half spied, so thick the r...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...I less conspicuous, or what change 
Absents thee, or what chance detains?--Come forth! 
He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first 
To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed; 
Love was not in their looks, either to God, 
Or to each other; but apparent guilt, 
And shame, and perturbation, and despair, 
Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile. 
Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief. 
I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice 
Afraid, being...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...the whole Drama be found not produc't beyond the
fift Act, of the style and uniformitie, and that commonly call'd the
Plot, whether intricate or explicit, which is nothing indeed but such
oeconomy, or disposition of the fable as may stand best with
verisimilitude and decorum; they only will best judge who are not
unacquainted with Aeschulus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the three
Tragic Poets unequall'd yet by any, and the best rule to all who
endeavour to write Tragedy. Th...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...e begetters of children. 

Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale, nor discarded; 
I see through the broadcloth and gingham, whether or no; 
And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away. 

8
The little one sleeps in its cradle;
I lift the gauze, and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my
 hand. 

The youngster and the red-faced girl turn aside up the bushy hill; 
I peeringly view them from the top.Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...y,
They trim sad lamps, they touch sad strings,
Hearing the heavy purple wings,
Where the forgotten seraph kings
Still plot how God shall die.

"The wise men know all evil things
Under the twisted trees,
Where the perverse in pleasure pine
And men are weary of green wine
And sick of crimson seas.

"But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save.

"I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...fabled hero's ashes, 
And that around the undoubted scene 
Thine own "broad Hellespont" still dashes, [23] 
Be long my lot! and cold were he 
Who there could gaze denying thee! 

IV. 

The night hath closed on Helle's stream, 
Nor yet hath risen on Ida's hill 
That moon, which shoon on his high theme: 
No warrior chides her peaceful beam, 
But conscious shepherds bless it still. 
Their flocks are grazing on the mound 
Of him who felt the Dardan's arrow; 
That mighty ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...g.
---Oh, old thoughts they cling, they cling!
That day, I know, with a dozen oaths
I clad myself in thick hunting-clothes
Fit for the chase of urochs or buffle
In winter-time when you need to muffle.
But the Duke had a mind we should cut a figure,
And so we saw the lady arrive:
My friend, I have seen a white crane bigger!
She was the smallest lady alive,
Made in a piece of nature's madness,
Too small, almost, for the life and gladness
That over-filled her, as some hi...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ld our marvelling boyhood legends store
          Of their strange ventures happed by land or sea,
     How are they blotted from the things that be!
          How few, all weak and withered of their force,
     Wait on the verge of dark eternity,
          Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse,
     To sweep them from out sight! Time rolls his ceaseless course.

     Yet live there still who can remember well,
          How, when a mountain chief his bugle...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...advent: the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is
the Angel sitting at the tomb; his writings are the linen clothes
folded up. Now is the dominion of Edom, & the return of Adam into
Paradise; see Isaiah XXXIV & XXXV Chap:
Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to
Human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call Good &
Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Re...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...Once, more thy master's: but I triumph not 
In this poor planet's conquest; nor, alas! 
Need he thou servest envy me my lot: 
With all the myriads of bright worlds which pass 
In worship round him, he may have forgot 
Yon weak creation of such paltry things; 
I think few worth damnation save their kings, — 

XLI 

'And these but as a kind of quit-rent, to 
Assert my right as lord: and even had 
I such an inclination, 'twere (as you 
Well know) superfluous; they are grown so b...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...recious stone, 
 May shine the brightest in the tiniest flake. 
Lavished on saints, to sinners not unknown; 
 In harlot, nun, philanthropist, and rake, 
It shines for those who love; none else discern 
 Evil from good; Men's fall did not bestow 
That threatened wisdom; blindly still we yearn 
 After a virtue that we do not know, 
Until our thirst and longing rise above 
The barriers of reason—and we love. 

XIII 
And still I did not see my life was changed, 
Utterly d...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...the first place, George Gordon Byron had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn't just one Assyrian, it was a lot of
Assyrians.
However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and
thus hinder longevity.
We'll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were
gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a
wold on the fold?
In heaven and ...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...ater,
That once had reflected the sky.

In underwater realm are fields and meadows
And the free currents sing a lot,
Plums rupture on bloated branches
And grass strands, lying down, rot.

And through the dense and watery net
I see your darling face,
A quiet park, a round porch
And a Chinese arbour-place.



x x x

All promised him to me:
The heaven's edge, dark and kind,
And lovely Christmas sleep
And multi-ringing Easter wind,

And the red...Read more of this...

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