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Famous Needs Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...ood,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though Reason weep, and cry, 'It is thy last.'

'For further I could say 'This man's untrue,'
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
Thought characters and words merely but art,
And bastards of his ...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...h your Darts engage,
Here point your Thunder, and exhaust your Rage!
Yet shun their Fault, who, Scandalously nice,
Will needs mistake an Author into Vice;
All seems Infected that th' Infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the Jaundic'd Eye.

LEARN then what MORALS Criticks ought to show,
For 'tis but half a Judge's Task, to Know.
'Tis not enough, Taste, Judgment, Learning, join;
In all you speak, let Truth and Candor shine:
That not alone what to your Sense is due,
All ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...iterats, of enemies’
 lands? 
Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here? 
Does it answer universal needs? will it improve manners?
Does it sound, with trumpet-voice, the proud victory of the Union, in that secession war? 
Can your performance face the open fields and the seaside? 
Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air—to appear again in my strength, gait,
 face? 
Have real employments contributed to it? original makers—not mere amanuenses? 
Does it...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...strange tongues, and angers that remain 
 Vengeless for ever, the thick and clamorous crowd 
 Of discords pressed, that needs I wept to hear, 
 First hearing. There, with reach of hands anear, 
 And voices passion-hoarse, or shrilled with fright, 
 The tumult of the everlasting night, 
 As sand that dances in continual wind, 
 Turns on itself for ever. 
 And I, my head 
 Begirt with movements, and my ears bedinned 
 With outcries round me, to my leader said, 
 "Master...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...y at cards and treat. 
Draw no commission lest the court should lie, 
That, disavowing treaty, asks supply. 
He needs no seal but to St James's lease, 
Whose breeches wear the instrument of peace; 
Who, if the French dispute his power, from thence 
Can straight produce them a plenipotence.. 
Nor fears he the Most Christian should trepan 
Two saints at once, St Germain, St Alban, 
But thought the Golden Age was now restored, 
When men and women took each other'...Read more of this...



by Shakur, Tupac
...excuse me but lady liberty needs glasses
and so does mrs justice by her side
both the broads r blind as bats
stumbling thru the system
justice bumbed into mutulu and
trippin on geronimo pratt
but stepped right over oliver
and his crooked partner ronnie
justice stubbed her big toe on mandela
and liberty was misquoted by the indians
slavery was a learning phase
forgotten with...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e, 
Become our elements, these piercing fires 
As soft as now severe, our temper changed 
Into their temper; which must needs remove 
The sensible of pain. All things invite 
To peaceful counsels, and the settled state 
Of order, how in safety best we may 
Compose our present evils, with regard 
Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 
All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise." 
 He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
Th' assembly as when hollow roc...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...bower, while now the mounted sun 
Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm 
Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs: 
And Eve within, due at her hour prepared 
For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please 
True appetite, and not disrelish thirst 
Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream, 
Berry or grape: To whom thus Adam called. 
Haste hither, Eve, and worth thy sight behold 
Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape 
Comes this way moving; seems...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...bear what to my mind first thoughts present: 
Let us divide our labours; thou, where choice 
Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind 
The woodbine round this arbour, or direct 
The clasping ivy where to climb; while I, 
In yonder spring of roses intermixed 
With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: 
For, while so near each other thus all day 
Our task we choose, what wonder if so near 
Looks intervene and smiles, or object new 
Casual discourse draw on; which int...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...Love seeks to have Love;
My love how couldst thou hope, who tookst the way
To raise in me inexpiable hate,
Knowing, as needs I must, by thee betray'd ? 
In vain thou striv'st to cover shame with shame,
Or by evasions thy crime uncoverst more.

Dal: Since thou determinst weakness for no plea
In man or woman, though to thy own condemning,
Hear what assaults I had, what snares besides,
What sieges girt me round, e're I consented;
Which might have aw'd the best resolv'd of m...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...ll we answer from within.
The thousandth time may prove the charm.— That leaf!
It can’t turn either way. It needs the wind’s help.
But the wind didn’t move it if it moved.
It moved itself. The wind’s at naught in here.
It couldn’t stir so sensitively poised
A thing as that. It couldn’t reach the lamp
To get a puff of black smoke from the flame,
Or blow a rumple in the collie’s coat.
You make a little foursquare block of air,
Quiet and light...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...e stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no longer. 

Allons! yet take warning! 
He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance; 
None may come to the trial, till he or she bring courage and health.

Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself; 
Only those may come, who come in sweet and determin’d bodies; 
No diseas’d person—no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here. 

I and mine do not convince by arguments, s...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...tain height."

King Guthrum smiled a little,
And said, "It is enough,
Nephew, let Elf retune the string;
A boy must needs like bellowing,
But the old ears of a careful king
Are glad of songs less rough."

Blue-eyed was Elf the minstrel,
With womanish hair and ring,
Yet heavy was his hand on sword,
Though light upon the string.

And as he stirred the strings of the harp
To notes but four or five,
The heart of each man moved in him
Like a babe buried alive.

And...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...his staff, comes up old age.
1.43 Under his arm a Sheaf of wheat he bore,
1.44 A Harvest of the best: what needs he more?
1.45 In's other hand a glass, ev'n almost run,
1.46 This writ about: This out, then I am done.
1.47 His hoary hairs and grave aspect made way,
1.48 And all gave ear to what he had to say.
1.49 These being met, each in his equipage
1.50 Intend to speak, according to their age,
1.51 But wise Old-age did with a...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...small--"
 (So the Bellman would often remark)
"But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,
 Is the thing that one needs with a Snark."

He would joke with hy{ae}nas, returning their stare
 With an impudent wag of the head:
And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear,
 "Just to keep up its spirits," he said.

He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late--
 And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad--
He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state,
 No mate...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...arkened brow and flashing eye;
     As waves before the bark divide,
     The crowd gave way before his stride;
     Needs but a buffet and no more,
     The groom lies senseless in his gore.
     Such blow no other hand could deal,
     Though gauntleted in glove of steel.
     XXVI.

     Then clamored loud the royal train,
     And brandished swords and staves amain,
     But stern the Baron's warning:
     'Back! Back, on your lives, ye menial pack!
     Bewa...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...soft grass & kept for ever wet
The stems of the sweet flowers, and filled the grove
With sound which all who hear must needs forget
"All pleasure & all pain, all hate & love,
Which they had known before that hour of rest:
A sleeping mother then would dream not of
"The only child who died upon her breast
At eventide, a king would mourn no more
The crown of which his brow was dispossest
"When the sun lingered o'er the Ocean floor
To gild his rival's new prosperity.--
Thou ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...
Radiant with glory, like a banner streaming 
Victorious from some world-o'erthrowing fight: 
My poor comparisons must needs be teeming 
With earthly likenesses, for here the night 
Of clay obscures our best conceptions, saving 
Johanna Southcote, or Bob Southey raving. 

XXIX 

'Twas the archangel Michael; all men know 
The make of angels and archangels, since 
There's scarce a scribbler has not one to show, 
From the fiends' leader to the angels' prince; 
There also ar...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...hath the world in hand.
By this proverb thou shalt well understand,
Have thou enough, what thar* thee reck or care *needs, behoves
How merrily that other folkes fare?
For certes, olde dotard, by your leave,
Ye shall have [pleasure] 14 right enough at eve.
He is too great a niggard that will werne* *forbid
A man to light a candle at his lantern;
He shall have never the less light, pardie.
Have thou enough, thee thar* not plaine** thee *need **complain
Thou say'st a...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ight
Could medicine the sick soul to happy sleep,
And change eternal death into a night
Of glorious dreams--or, if eyes needs must weep,
Could make their tears all wonder and delight--
She in her crystal phials did closely keep:
If men could drink of those clear phials, 'tis said
The living were not envied of the dead.

Her cave was stored with scrolls of strange device,
The works of some Saturnian Archimage,
Which taught the expiations at whose price
Men from the Gods mi...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs