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Famous Poor Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...r>

Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,
As they did battery to the spheres intend;
Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied
To the orbed earth; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and, nowhere fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
..., nor bars to their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of their owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the Basin of Minas,
Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of Grand-Pre,
Dwelt on his goodly acres: and with him, directing his household,
Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of the village.
Stalworth and stately in form was the man of seventy ...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...nsciousness together jumping 
 with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna 
 Deus 
to recreate the syntax and measure of poor human 
 prose and stand before you speechless and intel- 
 ligent and shaking with shame, rejected yet con- 
 fessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm 
 of thought in his naked and endless head, 
the madman bum and angel beat in Time, unknown, 
 yet putting down here what might be left to say 
 in time come after death, 
and rose reincarnate in the...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...among the reeds
And flaps his wings, and stretches back his neck,
And hoots to see the moon; across the meads
Limps the poor frightened hare, a little speck;
And a stray seamew with its fretful cry
Flits like a sudden drift of snow against the dull grey sky.

Full winter: and the lusty goodman brings
His load of faggots from the chilly byre,
And stamps his feet upon the hearth, and flings
The sappy billets on the waning fire,
And laughs to see the sudden lightening scare
...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ome in these like accents; O how frail
To that large utterance of the early Gods!
"Saturn, look up!---though wherefore, poor old King?
I have no comfort for thee, no not one:
I cannot say, 'O wherefore sleepest thou?'
For heaven is parted from thee, and the earth
Knows thee not, thus afflicted, for a God;
And ocean too, with all its solemn noise,
Has from thy sceptre pass'd; and all the air
Is emptied of thine hoary majesty.
Thy thunder, conscious of the new command,
Rumb...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...he serf could murmur o'er his lot; 
With him old avarice found its hoard secure, 
With him contempt forbore to mock the poor; 
Youth present cheer and promised recompense 
Detain'd, till all too late to part from thence: 
To hate he offer'd, with the coming change, 
The deep reversion of delay'd revenge; 
To love, long baffled by the unequal match, 
The well-won charms success was sure to snatch. 
All now was ripe, he waits but to proclaim 
That slavery nothing which was ...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...bsp;My beauty, little child, is flown;  But thou will live with me in love,  And what if my poor cheek be brown?  'Tis well for me, thou canst not see  How pale and wan it else would be.   Dread not their taunts, my little life!  I am thy father's wedded wife;  And underneath the spreading tree  We two will live in honesty.  If his sweet boy he ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...must fall

Mighty indeed THEIR glory! yet to me
Barbaric king, or knight of chivalry,
Or the great queen herself, were poor and vain,
Beside the grave where Dante rests from pain.
His gilded shrine lies open to the air;
And cunning sculptor's hands have carven there
The calm white brow, as calm as earliest morn,
The eyes that flashed with passionate love and scorn,
The lips that sang of Heaven and of Hell,
The almond-face which Giotto drew so well,
The weary face of Dant...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...
I want to speak to her.”

“All she said was,
He hadn’t come and had he really started.”

“She knew he had, poor thing, two hours ago.”

“He had the shovel. He’ll have made a fight.”

“Why did I ever let him leave this house!”

“Don’t begin that. You did the best you could
To keep him—though perhaps you didn’t quite
Conceal a wish to see him show the *****
To disobey you. Much his wife’ll thank you.”

“Fred, after all I said! You shan’t mak...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...whirled and driven;
But it seems to sing of a wilder worth,
A time discrowned of doom and birth,
And the kingdom of the poor on earth
Come, as it is in heaven.

"But even though such days endure,
How shall it profit her?
Who shall go groaning to the grave,
With many a meek and mighty slave,
Field-breaker and fisher on the wave,
And woodman and waggoner.

"Bake ye the big world all again
A cake with kinder leaven;
Yet these are sorry evermore--
Unless there be a little...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...is place our forefathers made for man!  This is the process of our love and wisdom  To each poor brother who offends against us—  Most innocent, perhaps—and what if guilty?  Is this the only cure? Merciful God!  Each pore and natural outlet shrivell'd up  By ignorance and parching poverty,  His energies roll back upon his heart,  And stagnate and corrupt; till chang...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...ut not for gains.
4.19 If rich, I'm urged then to gather more
4.20 To bear me out i' th' world and feed the poor;
4.21 If a father, then for children must provide,
4.22 But if none, then for kindred near ally'd;
4.23 If Noble, then mine honour to maintain;
4.24 If not, yet wealth, Nobility can gain.
4.25 For time, for place, likewise for each relation,
4.26 I wanted not my ready allegation.
4.27 Yet all my powers for self-ends a...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...d of all opinion, fond of fame:
But he that can do well taketh no pride,
And see'th his error, undisturb'd by shame:
So poor's the best that longest life can do,
The most so little, diligently done;
So mighty is the beauty that doth woo,
So vast the joy that love from love hath won. 
God's love to win is easy, for He loveth
Desire's fair attitude, nor strictly weighs
The broken thing, but all alike approveth
Which love hath aim'd at Him: that is heaven's praise:
And if we...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...corners, named us each by name, 
Calling, "God speed!" but in the ways below 
The knights and ladies wept, and rich and poor 
Wept, and the King himself could hardly speak 
For grief, and all in middle street the Queen, 
Who rode by Lancelot, wailed and shrieked aloud, 
"This madness has come on us for our sins." 
So to the Gate of the three Queens we came, 
Where Arthur's wars are rendered mystically, 
And thence departed every one his way. 

`And I was lifted up in ...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...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 materials were to be had.

The last of the crew needs especial remark,
 Though he looked an incredible dunce:
He had just one idea--but, that one being "Snark,"
 The good Bellman engaged him at once.

He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,
 When the ship had been s...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...nbsp;Where by the week he doth abide,  A woodman in the distant vale;  There's none to help poor Susan Gale,  What must be done? what will betide?   And Betty from the lane has fetched  Her pony, that is mild and good,  Whether he be in joy or pain,  Feeding at will along the lane,  Or bringing faggots from the wood.   And he is all in tr...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...his hand he laid
     On Malcolm's shoulder, kindly said:
     'Canst thou, young friend, no meaning spy
     In my poor follower's glistening eye?
     I 'll tell thee:—he recalls the day
     When in my praise he led the lay
     O'er the arched gate of Bothwell proud,
     While many a minstrel answered loud,
     When Percy's Norman pennon, won
     In bloody field, before me shone,
     And twice ten knights, the least a name
     As mighty as yon Chief may c...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...tter right to talk of them than Robert Southey. I have also treated them more tolerantly. The way in which that poor insane creature, the Laureate, deals about his judgments in the next world, is like his own judgment in this. If it was not completely ludicrous, it would be something worse. I don't think that there is much more to say at present. 

QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS 

P.S. — It is possible that some readers may object, in these objectionable times,...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
..., Lil, and get a nice set,
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said. 
Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.
Others can pick...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...ear.' 
So the Vicar christened him Percy; and Lady Jean 
Gave to the child and me the empty place 
In hr heart. Poor Lady, it was as if she had seen
The world destroyed— the extinction of her race,
Her country, her class, her name— and now she saw
Them live again. And I would hear her say:
'No. I admire Americans; my daughter-in-law
Was an American.' Thus she would well repay
The debt, and I was grateful— the English made
Life hard for those who did not co...Read more of this...

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