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Famous Ministry Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Smart, Christopher
...ght arm, beneath Whose eyes, 
All period, pow'r, and enterprise 
 Commences, reigns, and ends. 

 XIX 
Angels—their ministry and meed, 
Which to and fro with blessings speed, 
 Or with their citherns wait; 
Where Michael with his millions bows, 
Where dwells the seraph and his spouse 
 The cherub and her mate. 

 XX 
O David, scholar of the Lord! 
Of God and Love—the Saint elect 
 For infinite applause— 
To rule the land, and briny broad, 
To be laborious in His laud,...Read more of this...



by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...he forbore. Not the strong impulse hid
In those flushed cheeks, bent eyes, and shadowy frame,
Had yet performed its ministry; it hung
Upon his life, as lightning in a cloud
Gleams, hovering ere it vanish, ere the floods
Of night close over it.

The noonday sun 
Now shone upon the forest, one vast mass
Of mingling shade, whose brown magnificence
A narrow vale embosoms. There, huge caves,
Scooped in the dark base of their aëry rocks,
Mocking its moans, respond and r...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...gant, as a wanton.
I knew of her adulteries, every one.
But even so, if I divorced the woman
I must forsake the ministry.
Therefore to do God's work and have it crop,
I bore with her!
So lied I to myself!
So lied I to Spoon River!
Yet I tried lecturing, ran for the legislature,
Canvassed for books, with just the thought in mind:
If I make money thus, I will divorce her....Read more of this...

by Blackburn, Thomas
...Holding with shaking hands a letter from some
Official – high up he says in the Ministry,
I note that I am invited to Birmingham,
There pedagogues to address for a decent fee.
'We like to meet,' he goes on, 'men eminent
In the field of letters each year,' and that's well put,
Though I find his words not wholly relevant
To this red-eyed fellow whose mouth tastes rank as soot.
No doubt what he's thinking of is poetry
When 'Thomas ...Read more of this...

by Fu, Du
...gaze capital city Hear ape real fall three sound tear Sent on mission vain follow eight month raft Picture ministry incense stove apart hidden pillow Mountain tower white battlements hide sad reed whistle Ask look stone on creeper moon Already reflect islet before rushes reeds flowers  Over Kuizhou's lonely wall, the setting sun slants, Every day I follow the Plough to look to the capital city. I hear an ape...Read more of this...



by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud---and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
`Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
An...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...the Ministerial Bench he slowly crept. 
When his colleagues said, "Who won it? Is our banner waving high? 
Has the Ministry retained Glen Innes Town?" 
Then the great man hesitated, and responded with a sigh -- 
"There's another blessed seat gone down!"...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...foolisher effect --
A Ruffle -- or a Tune --

The Afternoons -- Together spent --
And Twilight -- in the Lanes --
Some ministry to poorer lives --
Seen poorest -- thro' our gains --

And then Return -- and Night -- and Home --

And then away to You to pass --
A new -- diviner -- care --
Till Sunrise take us back to Scene --
Transmuted -- Vivider --

This seems a Home --
And Home is not --
But what that Place could be --
Afflicts me -- as a Setting Sun --
Where Dawn -- knows ...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
..., we will crown thee with the stars above, 
 Will give thee cherub-wings of blue and gold, 
 And thou shalt learn our ministry of love, 
 Shalt rock the cradle where some mother's tears 
 Are dropping o'er her restless little one, 
 Or, with thy luminous breath, in distant spheres, 
 Shalt kindle some cold sun." 
 
 Ceased the full choir, all heaven was hushed to hear, 
 Bowed the fair face, still wet with many a tear, 
 In depths of space, the rolling worlds were s...Read more of this...

by Montgomery, Lucy Maud
...ut leaving a sweet legacy. 

My heart shall hold it long in fee­
A grand ideal, calm and bright,
A song of hope for ministry, 

A faith of unstained purity, 
A thought of beauty for delight­
These did my friend bequeath to me; 

And, more than even these can be, 
The worthy pattern of a white, 
Unmarred life lived most graciously. 

Dear comrade, loyal thanks to thee 
Who now hath fared beyond my sight, 
My friend has gone away from me, 
But leaving a sweet legacy.Read more of this...

by Austen, Jane
...Of a Ministry pitiful, angry, mean,
A gallant commander the victim is seen.
For promptitude, vigour, success, does he stand
Condemn'd to receive a severe reprimand!
To his foes I could wish a resemblance in fate:
That they, too, may suffer themselves, soon or late,
The injustice they warrent. But vain is my spite
They cannot so suffer who never do right.<...Read more of this...

by Montgomery, Lucy Maud
...found on the waste afar; 
Lost and sick with hunger and cold, 
I had brought it back in my arms to the fold 
For tender ministry. 

Dawn had flooded the east as a wave 
When we left the cave; 
All the world suddenly seemed to be 
Young and pure and joyous again; 
The others lingered to talk with the men, 
Full of wonder and rapture still; 
But I hastened back to the fold on the hill 
To tend the lamb that had need of me....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
... Thus they win 
Great numbers of each nation to receive 
With joy the tidings brought from Heaven: At length 
Their ministry performed, and race well run, 
Their doctrine and their story written left, 
They die; but in their room, as they forewarn, 
Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves, 
Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven 
To their own vile advantages shall turn 
Of lucre and ambition; and the truth 
With superstitions and traditions taint, 
Left only in...Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...r 
 seeming angel or demon from above or from below
Or made more than it is knows itself to be by the authority
 of any ministry of love.

O no -- it is the choice of chances and the chancing of 
 all choice -- the wine
which was the water may be sickening, unsatisfying or
 sour
A new barbiturate drawn from the fattest flower
That prospers green on Lethe's shore. For every hour
Denies or once again affirms the vow and the ultimate 
 tower
Of aspiration which made Ulys...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...gh the roaring of the gale 
That clarion voice took up the tale, 
"Ahot there! Answer, straight and slick! 
Did not the Ministry pay Crick 
Did they?" 

In railway trains he sought retreat, 
But soon, from underneath the seat, 
With blazing eye and bristling beard, 
His ancient enemy appeared, 
And like a boiling torrent ran 
The accents of the angry Dan -- 
"Tell me, John See, and tell me quick 
Did not ye pay your shares to Crick 
Did ye?"...Read more of this...

by Lewis, C S
...we with animal wisdom have understood that smell. 
To all our kind its message is Guns, Ferrets, and Traps, 
And a Ministry gassing the little holes in which we dwell....Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...hild, when thou hast done with him, for me!
Let me sit all the day here, that when eve
Shall find performed thy special ministry,
And time come for departure, thou, suspending
Thy flight, mayst see another child for tending,
Another still, to quiet and retrieve.

II.

Then I shall feel thee step one step, no more,
From where thou standest now, to where I gaze,
---And suddenly my head is covered o'er
With those wings, white above the child who prays
Now on that tomb---...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...h devoted mind
The tedious generations of mankind
Who lent at most unwilling ear and eye
When they could not escape the ministry. . . .
Yet, patient, faithful, firm, persistent, just
Toward all that gross, indifferent, facile dust,
The Archangels laboured to discharge their trust
By precept and example, prayer and law,
Advice, reproof, and rule, but, labouring, saw
Each in his fellows' countenance confessed,
The Doubt that sickens: "Have I done my best?"

Even...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...st and red
From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head
Ye were not glad your errand to fulfill?
Yes; for the gift and ministry of Song
Have something in them so divinely sweet,
It can assuage the bitterness of wrong;
Not in the clamour of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat....Read more of this...

by Abercrombie, Lascelles
...Making for harbours as some sleuth was laid 
For them to follow on their shifting road. 
Again I front my appointed ministry. -- 
But why the Indian lot to me? Why mine 
Such fearful gospelling? For the Lord knew 
What a frail soul He gave me, and a heart 
Lame and unlikely for the large events. -- 
And this is worse than Baghdad! though that was 
A fearful brink of travel. But if the lots, 
That gave to me the Indian duty, were 
Shuffled by the unseen skill o...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things