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Famous Pompous Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...lay to congregations wide
 Devotion’s ev’ry grace, except the heart!
 The Power, incens’d, the pageant will desert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;
 But haply, in some cottage far apart,
May hear, well-pleas’d, the language of the soul;
And in His Book of Life the inmates poor enroll.


Then homeward all take off their sev’ral way;
 The youngling cottagers retire to rest:
The parent-pair their secret homage pay,
 And proffer up to Heaven the warm request,
 That ...Read more of this...



by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...bold eloquence 
Moves in a higher sphere than senates grave, 
Or mix'd assembly, or the hall of kings, 
Which erst with pompous panegyric rung. 
Vain words and soothing flattery she hates, 
And feigned tears, and tongue which silver-tipt 
Moves in the cause of wickedness and pride. 
She mourns not that fair liberty depress'd 
Which kings tyrannic can extort, but that 
Pure freedom of the soul to truth divine 
Which first indulg'd her and with envious hand 
Pluck'd the...Read more of this...

by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...
From Chili to the Caribbean sea, 
O'er Terra-Firma and La Plata wide. 
Peru then sunk in ruins, great before 
With pompous cities, monuments superb 
Whose tops reach'd heav'n. But we more happy boast 
No golden metals in our peaceful land, 
No flaming diamond, precious emerald, 
Or blushing saphire, ruby, chrysolite 
Or jasper red; more noble riches flow 
From agriculture and th' industrious swain, 
Who tills the fertile vale or mountain's brow, 
Content to lead a sa...Read more of this...

by Martí, José
...nor and tears will abound,
And that of all fruits, the best
Is left to rot in holy ground.

Without a word, the pompous muse
I've set aside, and understood:
From a withered branch, I choose
To hang my doctoral hood....Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...ON myrtles stay 
To keep the garden from dismay, 
 And bless the sight from dearth. 

 LXII 
The pheasant shows his pompous neck; 
The ermine, jealous of a speck, 
 With fear eldues offence: 
The sable, with his glossy pride, 
For ADORATION is describ'd, 
 Where frosts the waves condense. 

 LXIII 
The cheerful holly, pensive yew, 
And holy thorn, their trim renew; 
 The squirrel hoards his nuts; 
All creatures batten o'er their stores, 
And careful nature all her doo...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...e shuffled to your insolent appeal.
I've rocked with glee the chimpanzee, and mocked the crocodile,
And shocked the pompous penquin and the seal.

I've set the yokels singing in a little Surrey pub,
Apaches swinging in a Belville bar.
I've played an obligato to the tom-tom's rub-a-dub,
And the throb of Andalusian guitar.
From the Horn to Honolulu, from the Cape to Kalamazoo,
From Wick to Wicklow, Samarkand to Spain,
You've roughed it with my kilt-bag like a co...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...art,
That feels no envy rankling in the heart,
No mean deceit that wings its shaft at Fame,
Or gives to pamper'd Vice a pompous Name;
Then, calm reflection shuns the sordid crowd,
The senseless chaos of the little proud,
Then, indignation stealing through the breast,
Spurns the pert tribe in flimsy greatness drest;
Who, to their native nothingness consign'd,
Sink in contempt­nor leave a trace behind.
Then Fancy paints, in visionary gloom,
The sainted shadows of the laurel...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...alters none.
Expression is the Dress of Thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile Conceit in pompous Words exprest,
Is like a Clown in regal Purple drest;
For diff'rent Styles with diff'rent Subjects sort,
As several Garbs with Country, Town, and Court.
Some by Old Words to Fame have made Pretence;
Ancients in Phrase, meer Moderns in their Sense!
Such labour'd Nothings, in so strange a Style,
Amaze th'unlearn'd, and make the Learned Smile.
U...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...vague tradition; and the gloomy vaults 
That hid their dust, their foibles, and their faults; 
And half a column of the pompous page, 
That speeds the specious tale from age to age: 
When history's pen its praise or blame supplies, 
And lies like truth, and still most truly lies. 
He wandering mused, and as the moonbeam shone 
Through the dim lattice o'er the floor of stone, 
And the high fretted roof, and saints, that there 
O'er Gothic windows knelt in pictured prayer, ...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...e decreed
For great Caligula's valiant deed,
Who had subdued the British seas,
By gath'ring cockles from their base;
In pompous car the conq'ror bore
His captive scallops from the shore,
Ovations gain'd his crabs for fetching,
And mighty feats of oyster-catching:
'Gainst Yankies thus the war begun,
They tarr'd, and triumph'd over, one;
And fought and boasted through the season,
With force as great and equal reason.


"Yet thus though skill'd in vict'ry's toils,
They boast...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...t, be Millennium nigh or far,
'Twould long before him end the war.
From York to Philadelphian ground,
He sweeps the pompous flourish round,
Wheel'd circ'lar by eccentric stars,
Like racing boys at prison-bars,
Who take th' opposing crew in whole,
By running round the adverse goal;
Works wide the traverse of his course,
Like ship t' evade the tempest's force;
Like mill-horse circling in his race,
Advances not a single pace,
And leaves no trophies of reduction,
Save that of...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...often seem them play
When Heaven looked upon us all
With such severity
I felt apology were due
To an insulted sky
Whose pompous frown was Nutriment
To their Temerity --
The Pillow of this daring Head
Is pungent Evergreens --
His Larder -- terse and Militant --
Unknown -- refreshing things --
His Character -- a Tonic --
His future -- a Dispute --
Unfair an Immortality
That leaves this Neighbor out --...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...kle rent; 
The Sailors too must fall a Prey, 
Those that Command, with those that did Obey; 
The best Supporters of thy pompous Stile, 
Thou far Renown'd, thou pow'rful BRITISH Isle! 
Foremost in Naval Strength, and Sov'reign of the Sea! 
These from thy Aid that wrathful Night divides, 
Plung'd in those Waves, o'er which this Title rides. 


What art Thou, envy'd Greatness, at the best, 
In thy deluding Splendors drest? 
What are thy glorious Titles, and thy Forms? 
Which...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ou, then, obtrude this diligence
In vain, where no acceptance it can find?
And with my hunger what hast thou to do?
Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, 
And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles."
 To whom thus answered Satan, male-content:—
"That I have also power to give thou seest;
If of that power I bring thee voluntary
What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,
And rather opportunely in this place
Chose to impart to thy apparent need,
Why shouldst thou not a...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...hey feed the spring which they exhaust:
For greater need
Draws better deed:
But, critic, spare thy vanity,
Nor show thy pompous parts,
To vex with odious subtlety
The cheerer of men's hearts.

Sad-eyed Fakirs swiftly say
Endless dirges to decay;
Never in the blaze of light
Lose the shudder of midnight;
And at overflowing noon,
Hear wolves barking at the moon;
In the bower of dalliance sweet
Hear the far Avenger's feet;
And shake before those awful Powers
Who in their prid...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...d:
In living Princes court none ever knew
Such endlesse richesse, and so sumptuous shew;
Ne Persia selfe, the nourse of pompous pride
Like ever saw. And there a noble crew
Of Lordes and Ladies stood on every side
Which with their presence faire, the place much beautifide.

viii

High above all a cloth of State was spred,
And a rich throne, as bright as sunny day,
On which there sate most brave embellished
With royall robes and gorgeous array,
A mayden Queene, that sho...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...st doubtless refers.

3. De par dieux jeo asente: "by God, I agree". It is
characteristic that the somewhat pompous Sergeant of Law
should couch his assent in the semi-barbarous French, then
familiar in law procedure.

4. Ceyx and Alcyon: Chaucer treats of these in the introduction
to the poem called "The Book of the Duchess." It relates to the
death of Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the
poet's patron, and afterwards his connexion b...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...ide: 
What boots the Regal Circle on his Head,
His Giant Limbs in State unwieldy spread?
That long behind he trails his pompous Robe,
And of all Monarchs only grasps the Globe?

The Baron now his Diamonds pours apace;
Th' embroider'd King who shows but half his Face,
And his refulgent Queen, with Pow'rs combin'd,
Of broken Troops an easie Conquest find.
Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, in wild Disorder seen,
With Throngs promiscuous strow the level Green. 
Thus when dispers'd...Read more of this...

by Walker, Alice
...and stroked it,
And she felt beautiful.


Such wonderful people, Africans
Childish, arrogant, self-indulgent, pompous,
Cowardly and treacherous-a great disappointment
To Israel, of course, and really rather
Ridiculous in international affairs
But, withal, opined Golda, a people of charm
And good taste. ...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...ersation
With girl before the evening, and the bees
Hear only the tenderest of conversation.

And we are living pompously and hard
And follow bitter rituals like sun
When, flight past us, the unreasoned wind
Interrupts speech that's barely begun.

But not for anything will we change the pompous
Granite city of glory, pain and lies,
The glistening wide rivers' ice
Sunless and murky gardens, and the voice,
Though barely audible, of the Muse.



x x...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things