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Famous Prefer Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
That shall prefer and undertake my troth.'

'This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face;
Each cheek a river running from a fount
With brinish current downward flow'd apace:
O, how the channel to the stream gave grace!
Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses
That flame through water which their hue encloses.Read more of this...



by Wilmot, John
...>

His senses are too gross; and he'll contrive
A sixth, to contradict the other five;
And before certain instinct will prefer
Reason, which fifty times for one does err.
Reason, an ignis fatuus of the mind,
Which leaving light of nature, sense, behind,
Pathless and dangerous wand'ring ways it takes,
Through Error's fenny bogs and thorny brakes;
Whilst the misguided follower climbs with pain
Mountains of whimsey's, heaped in his own brain;
Stumbling from thought to though...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...e kill.
Angels of flight, you soarer, you flapper, you floater,
you gull that grows out of my back in the drreams I prefer,

stay near. But give me the totem. Give me the shut eye
where I stand in stone shoes as the world's bicycle goes by.



4. ANGEL OF HOPE AND CALENDARS

Angel of hope and calendars, do you know despair?
That hole I crawl into with a box of Kleenex,
that hole where the fire woman is tied to her chair,
that hole where leather men are wri...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ou would like better to be Goethe, now, 
Or Buonaparte, or, bless me, lower still, 
Count D'Orsay,--so you did what you preferred, 
Spoke as you thought, and, as you cannot help, 
Believed or disbelieved, no matter what, 
So long as on that point, whate'er it was, 
You loosed your mind, were whole and sole yourself. 
--That, my ideal never can include, 
Upon that element of truth and worth 
Never be based! for say they make me Pope-- 
(They can't--suppose it for our argum...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...my head and as it hissed

I drew in silver a lucky seven.





4



Spender, Stephen, Sir,

Whichever name you

Now prefer, it is

Irrelevant, you’re

Dead and but a one

Or two poem man I

Fear. High and clear

I hear your voice

Caressing Rilke’s

Elegies, relating

Them to liberty,

Of which you had so

Little, shackled as you were

To your poetic chair.

In Leeds I listened

To your praise

Of famous men,

A famous man yourself

Your own voice drowned

By Lond...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
..., 
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest, 
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast; 
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer, 
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err; 
Alike in ignorance, his reason such, 
Whether he thinks too little, or too much: 
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd; 
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd; 
Created half to rise, and half to fall; 
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; 
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd: 
The gl...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...apine, as the promptings stir 
 Of her base heart; but wisdoms, and devoirs 
 Of manhood, and love's rule, his thoughts prefer. 
 The Italian lowlands he shall reach and save, 
 For which Camilla of old, the virgin brave, 
 Turnus and Nisus died in strife. His chase 
 He shall not cease, nor any cowering-place 
 Her fear shall find her, till he drive her back, 
 From city to city exiled, from wrack to wrack 
 Slain out of life, to find the native hell 
 Whence envy lo...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ably
 achiev’d nothing for himself worth mentioning;
Knows that only that person has really learn’d, who has learn’d to prefer
 results, 
Who favors Body and Soul the same, 
Who perceives the indirect assuredly following the direct, 
Who in his spirit in any emergency whatever neither hurries or, avoids death....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...make him a sailor," said Father,
"And he will adventure the sea."
"A soldier," said Mother, "is rather
What I would prefer him to be."
"A lawyer," said Father, "would please me,
For then he could draw up my will."
"A doctor," said Mother, "would ease me;
Maybe he could give me a pill."

Said Father: "Lt's make him a curate,
A Bishop in gaiters to be."
Said Mother: "I couldn't endure it
To have Willie preaching to me."
Said Father: ""Let him be a poet;
...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...grasped!
The works on the wall must take their chance;
``Works never conceded to England's thick clime!''
(I hope they prefer their inheritance
Of a bucketful of Italian quick-lime.)

XXV.

When they go at length, with such a shaking
Of heads o'er the old delusion, sadly
Each master his way through the black streets taking,
Where many a lost work breathes though badly---
Why don't they bethink them of who has merited?
Why not reveal, while their pictures dree
Such do...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...h' Aonian mount, while it pursues 
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer 
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure, 
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first 
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark 
Illumine, what is low raise and support; 
That, to the height of this great argument, 
I may assert Eternal Provi...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...finished thee, and whelmed 
Thy legions under darkness: But thou seest 
All are not of thy train; there be, who faith 
Prefer, and piety to God, though then 
To thee not visible, when I alone 
Seemed in thy world erroneous to dissent 
From all: My sect thou seest;now learn too late 
How few sometimes may know, when thousands err. 
Whom the grand foe, with scornful eye askance, 
Thus answered. Ill for thee, but in wished hour 
Of my revenge, first sought for, thou ret...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...e domain,
In ample territory, wealth and power,
Civility of manners, arts and arms,
And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer
Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
Shared among petty kings too far removed;
These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all
The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
This Emperor hath no son, and now is old, 
Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
To Capreae, an island sm...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...amer of Amazonia! you Patagonian! you Fejee-man! 
You peon of Mexico! you slave of Carolina, Texas, Tennessee!
I do not prefer others so very much before you either; 
I do not say one word against you, away back there, where you stand; 
(You will come forward in due time to my side.) 

My spirit has pass’d in compassion and determination around the whole earth; 
I have look’d for equals and lovers, and found them ready for me in all lands;
I think some divine rapport has ...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...The senses are too gross, and he'll contrive 
A Sixth, to contradict the other Five; 
And before certain instinct, will preferr 
Reason, which Fifty times for one does err. 
Reason, an Ignis fatuus, in the Mind, 
Which leaving light of Nature, sense behind; 
Pathless and dang'rous wandring ways it takes, 
Through errors Fenny -- Boggs, and Thorny Brakes; 
Whilst the misguided follower, climbs with pain, 
Mountains of Whimseys, heap'd in his own Brain: 
Stumbling from thou...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...at Heaven's gate, 
That Heaven's gate was opened wide 
Yet still the gipsies camped outside. 
The waste souls will prefer the wild, 
Long after life is meek and mild. 
Perhaps when man has entered in' 
His perfect city free from sin, 
The campers will come past the walls 
With old lame horses full of galls, 
And waggons hung about with withies, 
And burning coke in tinker's stithies, 
And see the golden town, and choose, 
And think the wild to good to lose. 
And ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...all.
My father was born here, and I inherit
His fame, a chain he bound his son with;
Could I pay in a lump I should prefer it,
But there's no mine to blow up and get done with:
So, I must stay till the end of the chapter.
For, as to our middle-age-manners-adapter,
Be it a thing to be glad on or sorry on,
Some day or other, his head in a morion
And breast in a hauberk, his heels he'll kick up,
Slain by an onslaught fierce of hiccup.
And then, when red doth the swor...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...thing like that in this slow world.
Indeed, Max, 'twas a dream. Forgive me then.
I'll burn the drug if you prefer." But Breuck
Muttered and stared, -- "A lie." And then he hurled,
Distraught, this word at Franz: "Prove it. And 
when
It's proven, I'll believe. That thing shall be your work.

56
I'll give you just one week to make your case.
On August thirty-first, eighteen-fourteen,
I shall require your proof." With wondering face
Franz...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...> I fear he is pale."
"Monsieur Antoine, don't rail
At misfortune. He treated me well and fairly."
"And you prefer him to Bourbons, admit it squarely."
"Heaven forbid!" Bang! Whack!
Squeak! Squeak! Crack!
CRASH!
"Oh, Lord, Martin! That shield is hash.
The whole street is covered with golden bees.
They look like so many yellow peas,
Lying there in the mud. I'd like to paint it.
`Plum pudding of Empire'. That's rather quaint, it
Might take wi...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...frailty I call it,
Would lead their lives all in chastity), unless*
I grant it well, I have of none envy
Who maidenhead prefer to bigamy;
It liketh them t' be clean in body and ghost;* *soul
Of mine estate* I will not make a boast. *condition

For, well ye know, a lord in his household
Hath not every vessel all of gold; 7
Some are of tree, and do their lord service.
God calleth folk to him in sundry wise,
And each one hath of God a proper gift,
Some this, some that, a...Read more of this...

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