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Famous Poorest Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Van Doren, Mark
...d. Ridiculous our woe 
If single pity does not love it. So 
Our separate fathers love us. No man shuns 
His poorest child's embrace. We are the sons 
Of such, or ground and sky are soon to go. 

Nor do born brothers judge, as good or ill, 
Their being. Each consents and is the same, 
Or suddenly sweet winds turn into flame 
And floods are on us--fire, earth, water, air 
All hideously parted, as his will 
Withdraws, no longer fatherly and there....Read more of this...



by Tebb, Barry
...r>





4



For fish and chips

We went past ‘The Mansions’

Half a dozen enormous

Victorian houses abandoned

To the poorest of the poor

With front steps missing

Holes in the halls so big

You had to jump and

Rats the size of cats.



The children who lived there

Pushed coal in broken prams

Their jerseys had more

Holes than wool

They had impetigo

We passed them quickly

On the other side.





5



In the chemist’s shop

Stood the huge retorts

Of red and g...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...gain in friends’ cars,

Now alone, on foot, again and again.



25



Come Whitsuntide the tally-men grew fat:

The poorest kids turned out in new blue

Worsted suits and matching caps, socks in

Scarlet plaid and mirror-shiny shoes so

When that special Sunday came they never

Missed a door to knock and say,

“Something for mi Whitsies, Mister, please”

And mostly people gave a tanner or a 

Threepenny bit and felt all good inside.



26



The Fowlers had six boys a...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...hin her holy hands 
 The little children's naked feet. 
 
 To every den of want and toil 
 She goes, and leaves the poorest fed; 
 Leaves wine and bread, and genial oil, 
 And hopes that blossom in her tread, 
 
 And fire, too, beautiful bright fire, 
 That mocks the glowing dawn begun, 
 Where, having set the blind old sire, 
 He dreams he's sitting in the sun. 
 
 Then, over all the earth she runs, 
 And seeks, in the cold mists of life, 
 Those poor forsaken...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...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 winters;
Heart...Read more of this...



by Bishop, Elizabeth
...the moonlight is coarse-meshed,
and the careless, corrupt state is all black specks
too far apart, and ugly whites; the poorest
post-card of itself.
After dark, the pools seem to have slipped away.
The alligator, who has five distinct calls:
friendliness, love, mating, war, and a warning--
whimpers and speaks in the throat
of the Indian Princess....Read more of this...

by Alcott, Louisa May
...r spring 
With the joy we bring 
For Christmas-tide is here. 

Now the eastern star 
Shines from afar 
To light the poorest home; 
Hearts warmer grow, 
Gifts freely flow, 
For Christmas-tide has come. 

Now gay trees rise 
Before young eyes, 
Abloom with tempting cheer; 
Blithe voices sing, 
And blithe bells ring, 
For Christmas-tide is here. 

Oh, happy chime, 
Oh, blessed time, 
That draws us all so near! 
"Welcome, dear day," 
All creatures say, 
For Christmas-...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...y, now, can I
Make, aye, create this fervid throbbing June
Out of the chill, chill matter of my soul,
Yet cannot make a poorest penny-loaf
Out of this same chill matter, no, not one
For Mary though she starved upon my breast?"
And then he fell upon his couch, and sobbed,
And, late, just when his heart leaned o'er
The very edge of breaking, fain to fall,
God sent him sleep.
There came his room-fellow,
Stout Dick, the painter, saw the written dream,
Read, scratched his curl...Read more of this...

by Hughes, Langston
...ry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early s...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...eldest science done and shown!
Happy, I said, whose home is here,
Fair fortunes to the mountaineer!
Boon nature to his poorest shed
Has royal pleasure-grounds outspread.
Intent I searched the region round,
And in low hut my monarch found.
He was no eagle and no earl,
Alas! my foundling was a churl,
With heart of cat, and eyes of bug,
Dull victim of his pipe and mug;
Woe is me for my hopes' downfall!
Lord! is yon squalid peasant all
That this proud nursery could breed...Read more of this...

by Brecht, Bertolt
...y, pale mother!
How soiled you are
As you sit among the peoples.
You flaunt yourself
Among the besmirched.

The poorest of your sons
Lies struck down.
When his hunger was great.
Your other sons
Raised their hands against him.
This is notorious.

With their hands thus raised,
Raised against their brother,
They march insolently around you
And laugh in your face.
This is well known.

In your house
Lies are roared aloud.
But the truth
Must be s...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...the Tune drip too much
Have a tint too Red

Pardon the Cochineal --
Suffer the Vermillion --
Death is the Wealth
Of the Poorest Bird.

Bear with the Ballad --
Awkward -- faltering --
Death twists the strings --
'Twasn't my blame --

Pause in your Liturgies --
Wait your Chorals --
While I repeat your
Hallowed name --...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...And round my rushy pillow fly." 

O, MINSTREL SWEET, whose jocund lay 
Can make e'en POVERTY look gay, 
Who can the poorest swain inspire 
And while he fans his scanty fire, 
When o'er the plain rough Winter pours 
Nocturnal blasts, and whelming show'rs, 
Canst thro' his little mansion fling 
The rapt'rous melodies of spring. 
To THEE with eager gaze I turn, 
Blest solace of the aching breast; 
Each gaudy, glitt'ring scene I spurn, 
And sigh for solitude and rest, 
Fo...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...face,
I ne'er shall find a resting-place;
My own dark thoughts I cannot shun,
But ever love, and love but one.

The poorest, veriest wretch on earth
Still finds some hospitable hearth,
Where Friendship's or Love's softer glow
May smile in joy or soothe in woe;
But friend or leman I have none,'
Because I cannot love but one.

I go---but wheresoe'er I flee
There's not an eye will weep for me;
There's not a kind congenial heart,
Where I can claim the meanest part;
Nor th...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...y,  Not twenty paces from the door,  A scrap of land they have, but they  Are poorest of the poor.  This scrap of land he from the heath  Enclosed when he was stronger;  But what avails the land to them,  Which they can till no longer?   Few months of life has he in store,  As he to you will-tell,  For still, the more he works, the...Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...t bids a Man,
Himself a worm, desire unbounded rule
O'er beings like himself: Teach the hard hearts
Of rulers, that the poorest hind, who dies
For their unrighteous quarrels, in thy sight
Is equal to the imperious Lord, that leads
His disciplin'd destroyers to the field.----
May lovely Freedom, in her genuine charms,
Aided by stern but equal Justice, drive
From the ensanguin'd earth the hell-born fiends
Of Pride, Oppression, Avarice, and Revenge,
That ruin what thy mercy ...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...manifold shapes and kinds of leaves: 
He looked at his needles so stiff and small, 
And thought that his dress was the poorest of all. 
Then jealousy clouded the little tree's mind, 
And he said to himself, "It was not very kind 
"To give such an ugly old dress to a tree! 
"If the fays of the forest would only ask me, 
"I'd tell them how I should like to be dressed,— 
"In a garment of gold, to bedazzle the rest!" 
So he fell asleep, but his dreams were bad. 
When he ...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...e fever, throbbing in the Tyrant's veins
In quick, strong language, tells the daring wretch
That He is mortal, like the poorest slave
Who wears his chain, yet healthfully suspires.

The sweetest Rose will wither, while the storm
Passes the mountain thistle. The bold Bird,
Whose strong eye braves the ever burning Orb,
Falls like the Summer Fly, and has at most,
But his allotted sojourn. EXILED MAN! 
Be chearful ! Thou art not a fugitive!
All are thy kindred--all th...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...with laziness or the idle hope

they can be easily misunderstood - their sourness
their association in sayings with the poorest of the lot
their way of squirting you in the eye when being cut
they don’t have much emollience in their nature

you can’t get that close to lemons - they stand firm
in their separate place asking to be respected - then
they will give what they’ve got like waxed nurses
offer you their own prim recipes for a healthy life...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...with laziness or the idle hope

they can be easily misunderstood - their sourness
their association in sayings with the poorest of the lot
their way of squirting you in the eye when being cut
they don’t have much emollience in their nature

you can’t get that close to lemons - they stand firm
in their separate place asking to be respected - then
they will give what they’ve got like waxed nurses
offer you their own prim recipes for a healthy life...Read more of this...

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