Famous Masterly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Our Mat

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 It came from the prison this morning, 
Close-twisted, neat-lettered, and flat; 
It lies the hall doorway adorning, 
A very good style of a mat. 

Prison-made! how the spirit is moven 
As we think of its story of dread -- 
What wiles of the wicked are woven 
And spun in its intricate thread! 

The letters are new, neat and nobby,...Read more of this...

Original Preface

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 I feel no small reluctance in venturing to give to the public a 
work of the character of that indicated by the title-page to the 
present volume; for, difficult as it must always be to render satisfactorily 
into one's own tongue the writings of the bards of other lands, 
the responsibility assumed by the translator is immeasurably increased 
when...Read more of this...

The Relief of Mafeking

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Success to Colonel Baden-Powell and his praises loudly sing,
For being so brave in relieving Mafeking,
With his gallant little band of eight hundred men,
They made the Boers fly from Mafeking like sheep escaping from a pen. 

'Twas in the year of 1900 and on the 18th of May,
That Colonel Baden-Powell beat the Boers without dismay,
And made them fly from Mafeking...Read more of this...

Regarding Art

by Nazim Hikmet
 Sometimes, I, too, tell the ah's
of my heart one by one
like the blood-red beads
of a ruby rosary strung
 on strands of golden hair!

But my
poetry's muse
takes to the air
on wings made of steel
like the I-beams
 of my suspension bridges!

I don't pretend
 the nightingale's lament
to the rose isn't easy on the ears...
But the language
 that really speaks to me
are Beethoven sonatas...Read more of this...

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