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Famous Poorly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...ss in a crack;
 Sol paid him with a sonnet.


Ye Vulcan’s sons of Wanlockhead,
 Pity my sad disaster;
My Pegasus is poorly shod,
 I’ll pay you like my master....Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...me greet.


“All hail! my own inspired bard!
In me thy native Muse regard;
Nor longer mourn thy fate is hard,
 Thus poorly low;
I come to give thee such reward,
 As we bestow!


“Know, the great genius of this land
Has many a light aerial band,
Who, all beneath his high command,
 Harmoniously,
As arts or arms they understand,
 Their labours ply.


“They Scotia’s race among them share:
Some fire the soldier on to dare;
Some rouse the patriot up to bare
 Corruption’s he...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...drove them erst to social feats,
Now to a savage selfness grown,
Think nature barely serves for one;
With. science poorly mask their hurt,
And vex the gods with question pert,
Immensely curious whether you
Still are rulers, or Mildew.
Masters, I'm in pain with you;
Masters, I'll be plain with you.
In my palace of Castile,
I, a king, for kings can feel;
There my thoughts the matter roll,
And solve and oft resolve the whole,
And, for I'm styled Alphonse the Wise,
Y...Read more of this...

by Moore, Thomas
...- like asking one, "How is your wife?" --
At once so confounded domestic and foreign.

As to weavers, no matter how poorly they feast;
But Peers, and such animals, fed up for show,
(Like the well-physick'd elephant, lately deceas'd,)
Take wonderful quantum of cramming, you know.

You might see, my dear Baron, how bor'd and distrest
Were their high noble hearts by your merciless tale,
When the force of the agony wrung even a jest
From the frugal Scotch wit of my Lord L...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...new beauties see?
Will not they stir new affection?"
'I will think they pictures be,
Image-like of saint's perfection,
Poorly counterfeiting thee.'

"But your reason's purest light
Bids you leave such minds to nourish."
'Dear, do reason no such spite,— 
Never doth thy beauty flourish
More than in my reason's sight.'

"But the wrongs love bears will make
Love at length leave undertaking."
'No, the more fools do it shake
In a ground of so firm making,
Deeper st...Read more of this...



by Lanier, Sidney
..., old voluble friend?
And the middle of the day is cold,
And the heart of eve beats lax i' the end
As a legend's climax poorly told.

Oh vain the up-straining of the hands
In the chamber late at night,
Oh vain the complainings, the hot demands,
The prayers for a sound, the tears for a sight.

No word from over the starry line,
No motion felt in the dark,
And never a day gives ever a sign
Or a dream sets seal with palpable mark.

And O my God, how slight it were,
H...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...is it with you? 
(I was chill’d with the cold types, cylinder, wet paper between us.)

Male and Female! 
I pass so poorly with paper and types, I must pass with the contact of bodies and souls. 

American masses! 
I do not thank you for liking me as I am, and liking the touch of me—I know that it
 is
 good for
 you to do so. 

2
This is the carol of occupations;
In the labor of engines and trades, and the labor of fields, I find the developments, 
And find the et...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...pt from off the earth's fair face, 



XX.
Were every red man slaughtered in a day, 
Still would that sacrifice but poorly pay
For one insulted woman captive's woes.
Again great Custer in his strength arose, 
More daring, more intrepid than of old.
The passing years had touched and turned to gold
The ever widening aureole of fame
That shone upon his brow, and glorified his name.



XXI.
Wise men make laws, then turn their eyes away, 
While fools and knaves...Read more of this...

by Matthews, William
...back.
I like to think of it in Tumor Hell
strapped to a dray, flat as a deflated
football, bleak and nubbled like a poorly
ironed truffle. There's one tense in Tumor Hell:
forever, or what we call the present.
For that long the flaccid tumor marinates
in lurid toxins. Tumor Hell Clinic
is, it turns out, a teaching hospital.
Every century or so, the way
we'd measure it, a chief doc brings a pack
of students round. They run some simple tests:
surge curre...Read more of this...

by Donne, John
...Oh, let me not serve so, as those men serve
Whom honour's smokes at once fatten and starve;
Poorly enrich't with great men's words or looks;
Nor so write my name in thy loving books
As those idolatrous flatterers, which still
Their Prince's styles, with many realms fulfil
Whence they no tribute have, and where no sway.
Such services I offer as shall pay
Themselves, I hate dead names: Oh then let me
Favourite in Ordinary, or no favourite be....Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...SHINES the last age the next with hope is seen  
To-day slinks poorly off unmarked between: 
Future or Past no richer secret folds  
O friendless Present! than thy bosom holds. ...Read more of this...

by Morris, William
...f folk, and from the trees
They came: the first-seen forester,
A grizzled carle in such-like gear,
And then two maidens poorly clad
Though each a silver chaplet had
And round her neck a golden chain:
And last two varlets led a wain
Drawn by white oxen well bedight
With oaken boughs and lilies white;
Therein there lay a cask of wine
And baskets piled with bread full fine,
And flesh of hart and roe and hare;
And in the midst upon a chair
Done over with a cloth of gold
There sat...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...eryone hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new.
Speak of the spring, and foison of the year;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear,
And you in every blessèd shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for cons...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...ry one hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new:
Speak of the spring and foison of the year;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear;
And you in every blessed shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant ...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...one hath, every one, one shade, 
And you, but one, can every shadow lend. 
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit 
Is poorly imitated after you; 
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set, 
And you in Grecian tires are painted new: 
Speak of the spring and foison of the year, 
The one doth shadow of your beauty show, 
The other as your bounty doth appear; 
And you in every blessed shape we know. 
 In all external grace you have some part, 
 But you like none, none you, for...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...th colored plates.

Of every quality and grade
And size they may be found,--
Quite often beautifully made,
As often poorly bound.

Now, as for me, had I my choice,
I'd choose no folio tall,
But some octavo to rejoice
My sight and heart withal,--

As plump and pudgy as a snipe;
Well worth her weight in gold;
Of honest, clean, conspicuous type,
And just the size to hold!

With such a volume for my wife
How should I keep and con!
How like a dream should run my life
Unto ...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...his horse as is a rake,
And he was not right fat, I undertake;
But looked hollow*, and thereto soberly**. *thin; **poorly
Full threadbare was his *overest courtepy*, *uppermost short cloak*
For he had gotten him yet no benefice,
Ne was not worldly, to have an office.
For him was lever* have at his bed's head *rather
Twenty bookes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophy,
Than robes rich, or fiddle, or psalt'ry.
But all be that he was a philosoph...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...br>
And all alone, save only a squier,
That knew his privity* and all his cas**, *secrets **fortune
Which was disguised poorly as he was,
To Athens is he gone the nexte* way. *nearest 
And to the court he went upon a day,
And at the gate he proffer'd his service,
To drudge and draw, what so men would devise*. *order
And, shortly of this matter for to sayn,
He fell in office with a chamberlain,
The which that dwelling was with Emily.
For he was wise, and coulde...Read more of this...

by Philips, Katherine
...s Love.
Those whose own sword their death did give,
Afraid were or asham'd to Live;
And by an act so desperate,
Did poorly run away from fate;
'Tis braver much t'out-ride the storm,
Endure its rages and shun his harm;
Affliction nobly undergone,
More Greatness shews than having none.
But yet the Wheel in turning round,
At last may lift us from the ground,
And when our Fortune's most severe,
The less we have, the less we fear.
And why should we that grief permit,
W...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...u new beauties see?
Will not they stir new affection?
I will think they pictures be
(Image-like, of saints' perfection)
Poorly counterfeiting thee.

But your reason's purest light
Bids you leave such minds to nourish.
Dear, do reason no such spite!
Never doth thy beauty flourish
More than in my reason's sight....Read more of this...

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