Famous Medal Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Medal poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous medal poems. These examples illustrate what a famous medal poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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...of snow
Roll mingled in peace through the valleys below.
Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky:
Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die!
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!
Oh, Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,
There are battles with Fate that can never be won!
The star-flowering banner must never be furled,
For its blossoms of light are the hope of the world!
Go, then, our rash sister! ...Read more of this...
by
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...d send you home to Fifeshire once a week!
Good fortune speed your ball upon its way
When Heaven decrees its mightiest Medal Day; 10
Till saints and angels hymn for evermore
The miracle of your astounding score;
And He who keeps all players in His sight
Walking the royal and ancient hills of light
Standing benignant at the eighteenth hole 15
To everlasting Golf consigns your soul....Read more of this...
by
Sassoon, Siegfried
...Image of her whom I love, more than she,
Whose fair impression in my faithful heart
Makes me her medal, and makes her love me,
As Kings do coins, to which their stamps impart
The value: go, and take my heart from hence,
Which now is grown too great and good for me:
Honours oppress weak spirits, and our sense
Strong objects dull; the more, the less we see.
When you are gone, and Reason gone with you,
Then Fantasy is queen and soul, and all;
She can pres...Read more of this...
by
Donne, John
...
and rows of stone.
hooray say the roses, cannons and spires,
birds, bees, bombers, today is Friday
the hand holding a medal out the window,
a moth going by, half a mile an hour,
hooray hooray
hooray say the roses
we have empires on our stems,
the sun moves the mouth:
hooray hooray hooray
and that is why you like us....Read more of this...
by
Bukowski, Charles
...ian Soldiers," into pews
half-empty still, or like a glass, half-full.
Pinning itself to a cornice, a gull
hangs like a medal from the serge-blue sky.
Are these boats all? Is the blue water all?
The rocks surpliced with lace where they are moored,
dinghy, catamaran, and racing yawl,
nodding to the ground swell of "Praise the Lord"?
Wesley and Watts, their evangelical light
lanced down the mine shafts to our chapel pew,
its beam gritted with motes of anthracite
that drifted o...Read more of this...
by
Walcott, Derek
...lobber, the bottled Country Kitchen
and the sheet-iron Dreamtime Experience
that is turned off at night.
A high bank of medal-ribbony
lolly jars preside over
island counters like opened crates,
one labelled White Mugs, and covered with them.
A two-dimensional policeman
discourages shoplifting of gifts
and near the entrance, where you pay
for fuel, there stands a tribal man
in rib-paint and pubic tassel.
It is all gentle and kind.
In beyond the children's playworld
there are f...Read more of this...
by
Murray, Les
...ord eighteen hundred and ninety-three.
At the International Exhibition, and the Isle of Man Exhibition,
He got a gold medal from each, in recognition
Of his Scotch Tweeds, so good and grand,
Which cannot be surpassed in fair Scotland.
Therefore, good people, his goods are really grand,
And manufactured at Weensforth Mill, Hawick, Scotland;
Where there's always plenty of Tweeds on hand,
For the ready cash at the people's command.
Mr Tocher measured me for the suit,
And i...Read more of this...
by
McGonagall, William Topaz
...revealed
parasites begin the digestion
in the harsh shack of winter
corn is conspired
the marsh bares its breast
to a medal
a gold
leaf is born - there is
hatred and hunger
a cry
from the rushes
proclaims a long journey
whose sundown will
see us in safety - whose home
be our grave
where we scratch
there is blood on the rockface
that we murder ourselves
is no setback - we arise
from the tomb unprovided
what-is-known is our crutches
let the light kick them from us
the ...Read more of this...
by
Gregory, Rg
...better than that!
It really made my day
Pity it was too late for you
To review in ERATICA TWO
Note: QMP- Queen’s Medal for Poetry...Read more of this...
by
Tebb, Barry
...Only a Leather Medal, hanging there on the wall,
Dingy and frayed and faded, dusty and worn and old;
Yet of my humble treasures I value it most of all,
And I wouldn't part with that medal if you gave me its weight in gold.
Read the inscription: For Valour - presented to Millie MacGee.
Ah! how in mem'ry it takes me back to the "auld lang syne,"
When Millie and I were sweet...Read more of this...
by
Service, Robert William
...th,--
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal, "My country," "of thee!"
You hear that boy laughing?-- You think he's all fun;
But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;
The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,
And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!
Yes, we're boys, --always playing with tongue or with pen,--
And I sometimes have asked,-- Shall we ever be men?
S...Read more of this...
by
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...on.
Oh! it was a most magnificent display,
To see about 20 or 30 thousand men all in grand array;
And each man with a medal on his breast;
And every man in the procession dressed in his best.
The banners of the processionists were really grand to see-
The like hasn't been seen for a long time in Dundee;
While sweet music from the bands did rend the skies,
And every processionist was resolved to vote for the Franchise.
And as the procession passed along each street,
The ...Read more of this...
by
McGonagall, William Topaz
...Of all our antic sights and pageantry
Which English idiots run in crowds to see,
The Polish Medal bears the prize alone;
A monster, more the favourite of the town
Than either fairs or theatres have shown.
Never did art so well with nature strive,
Nor ever idol seemed so much alive;
So like the man, so golden to the sight,
So base within, so counterfeit and light.
One side is filled with title and with face;
And, lest the king should want a ...Read more of this...
by
Dryden, John
...ded on making known his great discovery,
Until he obtained the notice of the Royal Academy,
Besides, he obtained a gold Medal, and what was more dear to his heart,
He lived to see the wide extension of his art.
And when life's prospects may at times appear dreary to ye,
Remember Alois Senefelder, the discoverer of Lithography,
How God saved him from drowning himself in adversity,
And I hope ye all will learn what the Sprig of Moss teaches ye.
And God that made a way throu...Read more of this...
by
McGonagall, William Topaz
...r woundit Jocks wi' a lassie jist like ma wee Jeannie at hame.
We're prood o' ye baith, ma brave heroes. We'll gie ye a medal, I think."
Says Bauldy MacGreegor frae Gleska: "I'd raither ye gied me a drink.
I'll no speak for Private MacCrimmon, but oh, mon, I'm perishin' dry. . . ."
"She'll wush that Loch Lefen wass whuskey," says Hecky MacCrimmon frae Skye.~...Read more of this...
by
Service, Robert William
...To make America the greatest is my goal,
So I beat the Russians, and I beat the Pole,
and for the USA won the medal of gold.
Italians said: "You're Greater than the Cassius of old´´.
We like your name, we like your game,
So make Rome your home if you will.
I said I appreciate your kind hospitality,
But the USA is my country still,
'Cause they're waiting to welcome me in Louisville....Read more of this...
by
Ali, Muhammad
...ile all those Bloodaxe deadheads
Blossom and bloom round poetry’s tomb
Where still there’s room for Ursula’s
Queen’s Medal for Poetry, lacklustre poetaster
From Harry Chamber’s Press at Peterloo –
That Augean stable has too much ****
For even me to clear with my scabrous wit.
I burn to turn myself into the translator of French poetry
For our time and not to waste what little life I’ve left
Attacking Survivors ‘Coming Through’ –
A second-hand title for a third rat...Read more of this...
by
Tebb, Barry
Dont forget to view our wonderful member Medal poems.