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Famous Magna Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...f Death’s deep night,
Departed Whigs enjoy the fight,
 And think on former daring:
The muffled murtherer of Charles
The Magna Charter flag unfurls,
 All deadly gules its bearing.


Nor wanting ghosts of Tory fame;
Bold Scrimgeour follows gallant Graham;
 Auld Covenanters shiver—
Forgive! forgive! much-wrong’d Montrose!
Now Death and Hell engulph thy foes,
 Thou liv’st on high for ever.


Still o’er the field the combat burns,
The Tories, Whigs, give way by turns;
 But...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...abandoned Tory,
Thought cutting throats was reaping glory,
Until the stubborn Whigs of Sparta
Taught him great Nature’s Magna Charta;
How mighty Rome her fiat hurl’d
Resistless o’er a bowing world,
And, kinder than they did desire,
Polish’d mankind with sword and fire;
With much, too tedious to relate,
Of ancient and of modern date,
But ending still, how Billy Pitt
(Unlucky boy!) with wicked wit,
Has gagg’d old Britain, drain’d her coffer,
As butchers bind and bleed a heifer,...Read more of this...

by Aldington, Richard
...othing to play with, 
Except that in an empty room upstairs 
There was a large tin box 
Containing reproductions of the Magna Charta, 
Of the Declaration of Independence 
And of a letter from Raleigh after the Armada. 
There were also several packets of stamps, 
Yellow and blue Guatemala parrots, 
Blue stags and red baboons and birds from Sarawak, 
Indians and Men-of-war 
From the United States, 
And the green and red portraits 
Of King Francobello 
Of Italy. 

V 

I ...Read more of this...

by Edgar, Marriott
...I'll tell of the Magna Charter
As were signed at the Barons' command 
On Runningmead Island in t' middle of t' Thames 
By King John, as were known as "Lack Land." 

Some say it were wrong of the Barons 
Their will on the King so to thrust, 
But you'll see if you look at both sides of the case 
That they had to do something, or bust. 

For John, from the moment they c...Read more of this...

by Patmore, Coventry
...Here, in this little Bay, 
Full of tumultuous life and great repose, 
Where, twice a day, 
The purposeless, gay ocean comes and goes, 
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town, 
I sit me down. 
For want of me the world's course will not fail: 
When all its work is done, the lie shall rot; 
The truth is great, and shall prevail, 
When none cares wh...Read more of this...



by Trumbull, John
...king,"
Ye need not be in such a taking:
For lying is, we know and teach,
The highest privilege of speech;
The universal Magna Charta,
To which all human race is party,
Whence children first, as David says,
Lay claim to't in their earliest days;
The only stratagem in war,
Our generals have occasion for;
The only freedom of the press,
Our politicians need in peace.
Thank heaven, your shot have miss'd their aim,
For lying is no sin nor shame.


"As men last wills may cha...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...tent license,
To break of law th' Egyptian yoke,
And throw the world in common stock;
Reduce all grievances and ills
To Magna Charta of your wills;
Establish cheats and frauds and nonsense,
Framed to the model of your conscience;
Cry justice down, as out of fashion,
And fix its scale of depreciation;
Defy all creditors to trouble ye,
And keep new years of Jewish jubilee;
Drive judges out, like Aaron's calves,
By jurisdiction of white staves,
And make the bar and bench and ste...Read more of this...

by Cavafy, Constantine P
...ys had a melancholy ending
because they remebered that they too were Greeks,
they too once upon a time were citizens of Magna Graecia;
and how low they'd fallen now, what they'd become,
living and speaking like barbarians,
cut off so disastrously from the Greek way of life....Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...ied: nature's intent
That each girl be a mother -- whether or not she is
Or has become a lawful wife or bride
-- 0 Alma Magna Mater, deathless the living death of pride....Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...in the higher forms of nature,
The male runs a terrifying risk when he goes seeking for 
 the bounty of beautiful Alma Magna Mater:
Yet clearly and truly he must seek and find his mate and 
 match like every other living creature!...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...aring chord,
And the priests hitch their chant up half a tone.
`Dies illa, dies irae,
Calamitatis et miseriae,
Dies magna et amara valde.'
A wind rattles the leaded windows.
The little pear-shaped candle flames leap and flutter,
`Dies illa, dies irae;'
The swaying smoke drifts over the altar,
`Calamitatis et miseriae;'
The shuffling priests sprinkle holy water,
`Dies magna et amara valde;'
And there is a stark stillness in the midst of them
Stretched upon a bier.<...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...will make the wide earth safe for the soap-box,
The everlasting foe of beastliness and tyranny,
Platform of liberty: — Magna Charta liberty,
Andrew Jackson liberty, bleeding Kansas liberty,
New-born Russian liberty: —
Battleship of thought,
The round world over,
Loved by the red-hearted,
Loved by the broken-hearted,
Fair young Amazon or proud tough rover,
Loved by the lion,
Loved by the lion,
Loved by the lion,
Feared by the fox.

The Russian Revolution is the world revo...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...d I wouldn’t dream of osculating
Anybody’s daughter, 
And to anybody’s son 
I wouldn’t say howdy, 
For I am a sufferer 
Magna cum laude. 
I don’t like germs, 
But I’ll keep the germs I’ve got. 
Will I take a chance of spreading them?
Definitely not. 
I sneeze out the window 
And I cough up the flue,
And I live like a hermit 
Till the germs get through. 
And because I’m considerate, 
Because I’m wary, 
I am treated by my friends 
Like Typhoid Mary. 

Now wh...Read more of this...

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