Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Maintain Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...ight, lashing his tail.

That's why poetry is rightly said to be dictated by a daimonion,
though its an exaggeration to maintain that he must be an angel.
It's hard to guess where that pride of poets comes from,
when so often they're put to shame by the disclosure of their frailty.

What reasonable man would like to be a city of demons,
who behave as if they were at home, speak in many tongues,
and who, not satisfied with stealing his lips or hand,
work at changing his destin...Read more of this...
by Milosz, Czeslaw



...happi-
ness are everything and money isn't essential,
Because as soon as they have to borrow some unimportant
money to maintain their health and happiness they starve
to death so they can't go around any more sneering at good
old money, which is nothing short of providential....Read more of this...
by Nash, Ogden
...65)

So it was for Beowulf, when he had sought
a contrived conflict, the guardian of the barrow—
he knew not how to maintain his own life
through what his worldly parting must effect—
as the famous princes had profoundly pronounced
their day of doom, when they died themselves,
although the man may be guilty of many sins,
constrained in heathen worship, fixed in hell’s bonds,
miserably tormented, who had plundered the field.
Nor had he perceived the gold-curse more ...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...d! So, borne aloft,
thy fame must fly, O friend my Beowulf,
far and wide o’er folksteads many. Firmly thou
shalt all maintain,
mighty strength with mood of wisdom. Love of
mine will I assure thee,
as, awhile ago, I promised; thou shalt prove a stay
in future,
in far-off years, to folk of thine,
to the heroes a help. Was not Heremod thus
to offspring of Ecgwela, Honor-Scyldings,
nor grew for their grace, but for grisly slaughter,
for doom of death to the Danishmen....Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...suit,
It would take ev'ry morsel of scrip in the land
But to measure my bulk from the head to the foot.
Hence, they who maintain me, grown sick of my stature,
To cover me nothing but rags will supply;
And the doctors declare that, in due course of nature,
About the year 30 in rags I shall die.
Meanwhile I stalk hungry and bloated around,
An object of int'rest, most painful, to all;
In the warehouse, the cottage, the palace I'm found,
Holding citizen, peasant, and king in my t...Read more of this...
by Moore, Thomas



..., and Queensb'ry weeping o'er thy urn!

Oh let me live my own! and die so too!
("To live and die is all I have to do:")
Maintain a poet's dignity and ease,
And see what friends, and read what books I please.
Above a patron, though I condescend
Sometimes to call a minister my friend:
I was not born for courts or great affairs;
I pay my debts, believe, and say my pray'rs;
Can sleep without a poem in my head,
Nor know, if Dennis be alive or dead.

Why am I ask'd what next shall ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...
 To where the table and the daïs are, 
 Leaving between their fronts a narrow lane. 
 On the left side the Marquises maintain 
 Their place, but the right side the Dukes retain, 
 And till the roof, embattled by Spignus, 
 But worn by time that even that subdues, 
 Shall fall upon their heads, these forms will stand 
 The grades confronting—one on either hand. 
 While in advance beyond, with haughty head— 
 As if commander of this squadron dread— 
 All waiting sign...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor
...ction de son sépulchre 

For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old sense. Wrong from the start --

No, hardly, but, seeing he had been born
In a half savage country, out of date;
Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;
Capaneus; trout for factitious bait:

"Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie
Caught in the unstopped ear;
Giving the rocks small lee-way
The chopped seas held him, the...Read more of this...
by Pound, Ezra
...sed, 
For Otho's frenzy would not be opposed; 
And from his lip those words of insult fell — 
His sword is good who can maintain them well. 

IV. 

Short was the conflict; furious, blindly rash, 
Vain Otho gave his bosom to the gash: 
He bled, and fell; but not with deadly wound, 
Stretch'd by a dextrous sleight along the ground. 
"Demand thy life!" He answer'd not: and then 
From that red floor he ne'er had risen again, 
For Lara's brow upon the moment grew 
Almost to blackn...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...drick silence and strike Paston dumb, 
Should pay land armies, should dissolve the vain 
Commons, and ever such a court maintain; 
Hyde's avarice, Bennet's luxury should suffice, 
And what can these defray but the Excise? 
Excise a monster worse than e'er before 
Frighted the midwife and the mother tore. 
A thousand hands she has and thousand eyes, 
Breaks into shops and into cellars pries, 
And on all trade like cassowar she feeds: 
Chops off the piece wheres'e'er she close ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew
...by his sire a mortal foe to Rome;
So Shadwell swore, nor should his vow be vain,
That he till death true dullness would maintain;
And in his father's right, and realm's defence,
Ne'er to have peace with wit, nor truce with sense.
The king himself the sacred unction made,
As king by office, and as priest by trade:
In his sinister hand, instead of ball,
He plac'd a mighty mug of potent ale;
Love's kingdom to his right he did convey,
At once his sceptre and his rule of sway;
Who...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...sights, 
Which only do the name of Rome retain, 
Old monuments, which of so famous sprites 
The honour yet in ashes do maintain: 
Triumphant arcs, spires neighbors to the sky, 
That you to see doth th' heaven itself appall, 
Alas, by little ye to nothing fly, 
The people's fable, and the spoil of all: 
And though your frames do for a time make war 
'Gainst time, yet time in time shall ruinate 
Your works and names, and your last relics mar. 
My sad desires, rest therefore mo...Read more of this...
by Spenser, Edmund
...test)
``These good things being given, to go on, and give one more, the best?
``Ay, to save and redeem and restore him, maintain at the height
``This perfection,---succeed with life's day-spring, death's minute of night?
``Interpose at the difficult minute, snatch Saul the mistake,
``Saul the failure, the ruin he seems now,---and bid him awake
``From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set
``Clear and safe in new light and new life,---a new harmony yet
``To...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...her, then for children must provide,
4.22 But if none, then for kindred near ally'd;
4.23 If Noble, then mine honour to maintain;
4.24 If not, yet wealth, Nobility can gain.
4.25 For time, for place, likewise for each relation,
4.26 I wanted not my ready allegation.
4.27 Yet all my powers for self-ends are not spent,
4.28 For hundreds bless me for my bounty sent,
4.29 Whose loins I've cloth'd, and bellies I have fed,
4.30 With mine own fleece, and with my household bread.
4.3...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne
...em; French, "ecu;" Italian, "scudo."

25. Poor scholars at the universities used then to go about 
begging for money to maintain them and their studies.

26. Parvis: The portico of St. Paul's, which lawyers frequented
to meet their clients.

27. St Julian: The patron saint of hospitality, celebrated for
supplying his votaries with good lodging and good cheer.

28. Mew: cage. The place behind Whitehall, where the king's
hawks were caged was called the Mews.

29. Many a luce in...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...his good tongue,
That Theseus hath taken him so near,
That of his chamber he hath made him squire,
And gave him gold to maintain his degree;
And eke men brought him out of his country
From year to year full privily his rent.
But honestly and slyly* he it spent, *discreetly, prudently
That no man wonder'd how that he it had.
And three year in this wise his life be lad*, *led
And bare him so in peace and eke in werre*, *war
There was no man that Theseus had so derre*. *dear
And...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...eyed to kingly government, 
That claims successive bear no binding force, 
That coronation oaths are things of course; 
Maintains the multitude can never err, 
And sets the people in the papal chair. 
The reason's obvious, interest never lies; 
The most have still their interest in their eyes, 
The power is always theirs, and power is ever wise. 
Almighty crowd! thou shortenest all dispute. 
Power is thy essence, wit thy attribute! 
Nor faith nor reason make thee at a stay, 
...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...nbsp; Who had a brain so wild!  Last Christmas when we talked of this,  Old Farmer Simpson did maintain,  That in her womb the infant wrought  About its mother's heart, and brought  Her senses back again:  And when at last her time drew near,  Her looks were calm, her senses clear. XV.   No more I know, I wish I did,  And I would tell it all to you;  For wh...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...were solemn toys or empty show,
66 The robes of pleasure and the veils of woe:
67 All aid the farce, and all thy mirth maintain,
68 Whose joys are causeless, or whose griefs are vain.

69 Such was the scorn that fill'd the sage's mind,
70 Renew'd at ev'ry glance on humankind;
71 How just that scorn ere yet thy voice declare,
72 Search every state, and canvas ev'ry pray'r.

73 Unnumber'd suppliants crowd Preferment's gate,
74 Athirst for wealth, and burning to be great;
75 De...Read more of this...
by Johnson, Samuel
...Now that i'm grown
i got my mind on
bein sumthin
don't wanna be
anotha statistic
out there doin nothing trying
to maintain in this dirty game
keep it real and I
will even kill me
my young niggaz
stay away from
these dumb niggaz
put down the guns
and have some fun nigga. ...Read more of this...
by Shakur, Tupac

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Maintain poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things