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Famous Mend Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...e great was charming, O;
My talents they were not the worst, nor yet my education, O:
Resolv’d was I at least to try to mend my situation, O.


In many a way, and vain essay, I courted Fortune’s favour, O;
Some cause unseen still stept between, to frustrate each endeavour, O;
Sometimes by foes I was o’erpower’d, sometimes by friends forsaken, O;
And when my hope was at the top, I still was worst mistaken, O.


Then sore harass’d and tir’d at last, with Fortune’s vain ...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...ods of reeking gore,
They, ardent, kindling spirits pour;
Or, ’mid the venal senate’s roar,
 They, sightless, stand,
To mend the honest patriot-lore,
 And grace the hand.


“And when the bard, or hoary sage,
Charm or instruct the future age,
They bind the wild poetric rage
 In energy,
Or point the inconclusive page
 Full on the eye.


“Hence, Fullarton, the brave and young;
Hence, Dempster’s zeal-inspired tongue;
Hence, sweet, harmonious Beattie sung
 His ’Minstrel la...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...al folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.
Th' Egyptian rites the Jebusites embrac'd;
Where gods were recommended by their taste.
Such sav'ry deities must needs be good,
As serv'd at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce these gods;
For ten to one, in former days was odds.
So fraud was us'd, (the sacrificers' trade,)
Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade.
Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews;
And rak'd, for c...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...eviate from the common Track.
Great Wits sometimes may gloriously offend,
And rise to Faults true Criticks dare not mend;
From vulgar Bounds with brave Disorder part,
And snatch a Grace beyond the Reach of Art,
Which, without passing thro' the Judgment, gains
The Heart, and all its End at once attains.
In Prospects, thus, some Objects please our Eyes,
Which out of Nature's common Order rise,
The shapeless Rock, or hanging Precipice.
But tho' the Ancients thus thei...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...ebell runaway, to lord and lady vntrue,
You witch, you Diuell (alas) you still of me beloued,
You see what I can say; mend yet your froward mind,
And such skill in my Muse, you, reconcil'd, shall find,
That all these cruell words your praises shalbe proued.


Sixt Song.


O you that heare this voice,
O you that see this face,
Say whether of the choice
Deserues the former place:
Feare not to iudge this bate,
For it is void of hate.

This side doth ...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...ttle much,
To gain a lover and lose a friend,
Venture the tree and a myriad such,
When nothing you mar but the year can mend:
But a last leaf---fear to touch!

XLIII.

Yet should it unfasten itself and fall
Eddying down till it find your face
At some slight wind---best chance of all!
Be your heart henceforth its dwelling-place
You trembled to forestall!

XLIV.

Worth how well, those dark grey eyes,
That hair so dark and dear, how worth
That a man should strive and ago...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...her calmness and her patience:
She humored my weakness like the best of nurses,
Holding my bones in place so they would mend properly.
In time our relationship grew more intense.

She stopped fitting me so closely and seemed offish.
I felt her criticizing me in spite of herself,
As if my habits offended her in some way.
She let in the drafts and became more and more absent-minded.
And my skin itched and flaked away in soft pieces
Simply because she looked ...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...eeds upon the thing strangled, and perisheth. 

Let Malchiah bless with the Gnat -- it is good for man and beast to mend their pace. 

Let Pedaiah bless with the Humble-Bee, who loves himself in solitude and makes his honey alone. 

Let Maaseiah bless with the Drone, who with the appearance of a Bee is neither a soldier nor an artist, neither a swordsman nor smith. 

Let Urijah bless with the Scorpion, which is a scourge against the murmurers -- the Lord keep ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ke a heavenly vision, that Christmas Tree.

Her mother despaired and feared the end,
But from that day she began to mend,
To play, to sing, to laugh with glee...
Bless you, O little Christmas Tree!
You died, but your life was not in vain:
You helped a child to forget her pain,
And let hope live in our hearts again....Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...lum the reeking hag 
Mumbles a crust with toothy jag, 
Or gets the river's help to end 
The life too wrecked for man to mend. 
We spat and smoked and took our swipe 
Till Silas up and tap his pipe, 
And begged us all to pay attention 
Because he'd several things to mention. 
We'd seen the fight (Hear, hear. That's you); 
But still one task remained to do. 
That task was his, he didn't shun it, 
To give the purse to him as won it. 
With this remark, from st...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...rition for my fault
Can blot that day, nor work me recompence,
Tho' I might worthily thy worth exalt,
Making thee long amends for short offence. 
For surely nowhere, love, if not in thee
Are grace and truth and beauty to be found;
And all my praise of these can only be
A praise of thee, howe'er by thee disown'd:
While still thou must be mine tho' far removed,
And I for one offence no more beloved. 

13
Now since to me altho' by thee refused
The world is left, I shall ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...by the halse*, *neck
For thy Jason, that was of love so false.
Hypermnestra, Penelop', Alcest',
Your wifehood he commendeth with the best.
But certainly no worde writeth he
Of *thilke wick'* example of Canace, *that wicked*
That loved her own brother sinfully;
(Of all such cursed stories I say, Fy),
Or else of Tyrius Apollonius,
How that the cursed king Antiochus
Bereft his daughter of her maidenhead;
That is so horrible a tale to read,
When he her threw upon the pave...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...broken strings,
Nor perfect beauty, where's a main defect;
My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings;
And this to mend, alas, no art is able,
'Cause nature made it so irreparable.


4

Nor can I, like that fluent sweet-tongued Greek
Who lisped at first, speak afterwards more plain.
By art, he gladly found what he did seek,
A full requital of his striving pain:
Art can do much, but this maxim's most sure.
A weak or wounded brain admits no cure....Read more of this...

by Benet, Stephen Vincent
...ere could be no surrender now; 
Though Sleep and Death were whispering low. 
My way was wrong. So. Would it mend 
If I shrank back before the end? 
And sank to death and cowardice? 
No, the last lees must be drained up, 
Base wine from an ignoble cup; 
(Yet not so base as sleek content 
When I had shrunk from punishment) 
The wretched body strain anew! 
Life was a storm to wander through. 
I took the wrong way. Good and well, 
At least my feet sought out n...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...I won beyond the seas,
He has taken my grinning heathen gods -- and what should he want o' these?
My foremast would not mend his boom, my deckhouse patch his boats;
He has whittled the two, this Yank Yahoo, to peddle for shoe-peg oats.
I could not fight for the failing light and a rough beam-sea beside,
But I hulled him once for a clumsy crimp and twice because he lied.
Had I had guns (as I had goods) to work my Christian harm,
I had run him up from his quarter-deck t...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...lieve me, you'll be a slave.
There's something in you— dutiful— meek—
You'll be saving your pin-money every week
To mend the roof. Well, let it leak.
Why should you care? SUSAN: But I do care,
John loved this place and my boy's the heir.

ROSAMUND: The heir to what? To a tiresome life
Drinking tea with the vicar's wife,
Opening bazaars, and taking the chair
At meetings for causes that you don't care
Sixpence about and never will;
Breaking your heart over every...Read more of this...

by Murray, Les
...he three Johns Hunter seem 
to have killed with their scalpels: 
it hasn't found its way home, 

where I now dodder and mend 
in thanks for devotion, for the ambulance 
this time, for the hospital fork lift, 
for pethidine, and this face of deity: 

not the foreknowledge of death 
but the project of seeing conscious life 
rescued from death defines and will 
atone for the human....Read more of this...

by Swift, Jonathan
...our feel a pain
Just in the parts where I complain,
How many a message would he send?
What hearty prayers that I should mend?
Inquire what regimen I kept,
What gave me ease, and how I slept?
And more lament when I was dead,
Than all the sniv'llers round my bed.

My good companions, never fear,
For though you may mistake a year,
Though your prognostics run too fast,
They must be verified at last.

Behold the fatal day arrive!
"How is the Dean?" -"He's just alive."
...Read more of this...

by Angelou, Maya
...I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.

Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.

Storm, blo...Read more of this...

by Ayres, Pam
...igate.

Yes I’ll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It’s you that has to mend it.
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It’s you that has to whack him.

Yes, I’ll marry you,
You’re virile and you’re lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night...Read more of this...

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