Famous Ostentation Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Bees are Black with Gilt Surcingles --

...Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles --
Buccaneers of Buzz.
Ride abroad in ostentation
And subsist on Fuzz.

Fuzz ordained -- not Fuzz contingent --
Marrows of the Hill.
Jugs -- a Universe's fracture
Could not jar or spill....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


In Mind

...grass. She wears

a utopian smock or shift, her hair
is light brown and smooth, and she

is kind and very clean without
ostentation-

but she has
no imagination

And there's a
turbulent moon-ridden girl

or old woman, or both,
dressed in opals and rags, feathers

and torn taffeta,
who knows strange songs

but she is not kind....Read more of this...
by Levertov, Denise

Paradise Regained: The Third Book

...phrates and beyond,
Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear."
 To whom our Saviour answered thus, unmoved:—
"Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm
And fragile arms, much instrument of war,
Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,
Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear 
Vented much policy, and projects deep
Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,
Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.
Means I must use, thou say'st; prediction else
Will unpredict, and fai...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

The Fugitive

...cuted Exile ! one, whose soul
Unbow'd by guilt, demands no patronage
From blunted feeling, or the frozen hand
Of gilded Ostentation. Thou, poor PRIEST!
Art here, a Stranger, from thy kindred torn--
Thy kindred massacred ! thy quiet home,
The rural palace of some village scant,
Shelter'd by vineyards, skirted by fair meads,
And by the music of a shallow rill
Made ever chearful, now thou hast exchang'd
For stranger woods and vallies.

What of that!
Here, or on torrid desarts; o...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

The Quality Of Sprawl

...home.
It is the rococo of being your own still centre.
It is never lighting cigars with ten dollar notes:
that's idiot ostentation and murder of starving people.
Nor can it be bought with the ash of million dollar deeds. 

Sprawl lengthens the legs; it trains greyhounds on liver and beer.
Sprawl almost never says, Why not?, with palms comically raised
nor can it be dressed for, not even in running shoes worn
with mink and a nose ring. That is Society. That's Style.
Sprawl is...Read more of this...
by Murray, Les


To my dear Sister Mrs. C. P. on her Nuptial

...y 
Who crown the cup, then think they crown the day. 
We make no garlands, nor an altar build, 
Which help not Joy, but Ostentation yield. 
Where mirth is justly grounded these wild toyes 
Are but a troublesome, and empty noise. 

2. 
But these shall be my great Solemnities, 
Orinda's wishes for Cassandra's bliss. 
May her Content be as unmix'd and pure 
As my Affection, and like that endure; 
And that strong Happiness may she still find 
Not owing to her Fortune, but her Min...Read more of this...
by Philips, Katherine

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