Famous Obtains Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The butterfly obtains

by Emily Dickinson
 The butterfly obtains
But little sympathy
Though favorably mentioned
In Entomology --

Because he travels freely
And wears a proper coat
The circumspect are certain
That he is dissolute --

Had he the homely scutcheon
Of modest Industry
'Twere fitter certifying
For Immortality --...Read more of this...

The hallowing of Pain

by Emily Dickinson
 The hallowing of Pain
Like hallowing of Heaven,
Obtains at a corporeal cost --
The Summit is not given

To Him who strives severe
At middle of the Hill --
But He who has achieved the Top --
All -- is the price of All --...Read more of this...

This firmament is a porringer overturned upon our

by Omar Khayyam
This firmament is a porringer overturned upon our
heads. Wise men, thereat, humble and unpresumptuous
are. But see the friendship which obtains between the
cup and the flask. Lip against lip are they, and twixt
them ever flows the blood....Read more of this...

I cannot want it more --

by Emily Dickinson
 I cannot want it more --
I cannot want it less --
My Human Nature's fullest force
Expends itself on this.

And yet it nothing is
To him who easy owns --
Is Worth itself or Distance
He fathoms who obtains....Read more of this...

Sonnet XXI: A Witless Galant

by Michael Drayton
 A witless gallant a young wench that woo'd 
(Yet his dull spirit her not one jot could move), 
Entreated me, as e'er I wish'd his good, 
To write him but one sonnet to his love; 
When I, as fast as e'er my pen could trot, 
Pour'd out what first from quick invention came, 
Nor never stood one word thereof...Read more of this...

The Scapegoat

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 We have all of us read how the Israelites fled 
From Egypt with Pharaoh in eager pursuit of 'em, 
And Pharaoh's fierce troop were all put "in the soup" 
When the waters rolled softly o'er every galoot of 'em. 
The Jews were so glad when old Pharaoh was "had" 
That they sounded their timbrels and capered like mad. 
You...Read more of this...

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