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Famous Preferring Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...es.
The old men studied magic in the flowers,
And human fortunes in astronomy,
And an omnipotence in chemistry,
Preferring things to names, for these were men,
Were unitarians of the united world,
And, wheresoever their clear eye-beams fell,
They caught the footsteps of the SAME. Our eyes
And strangers to the mystic beast and bird,
And strangers to the plant and to the mine.
The injured elements say, 'Not in us;'
And haughtily return us stare for stare....Read more of this...



by Strand, Mark
...We have done what we wanted.
We have discarded dreams, preferring the heavy industry
of each other, and we have welcomed grief
and called ruin the impossible habit to break.

And now we are here.
The dinner is ready and we cannot eat.
The meat sits in the white lake of its dish.
The wine waits.

Coming to this
has its rewards: nothing is promised, nothing is taken away.
We have no heart o...Read more of this...

by John, Sharmagne Leland-St
...eminiscent of the womb 
where I learned to swallow 
gulps 
of tantalising air

in the amniotic sac
where I shed scales 
preferring skin and 
hanks of auburn hair
upon my head
where I dispensed 
with fins and gills
grew hands and feet
with which to tread
and push away 
from muddy banks

I've no desire to wallow 
in the rushes

no human need

the thin sharp reeds 
knot and tangle
cut and pierce 
my derma layer

I can dance 
below the surface
upon the rocky sand
I shall dangle n...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...
I say he had before he shook him!

Haec docet (as you must agree):
'T is meet that Phyllis should discover
A wisdom in preferring me
And mittening every other lover.

So come, O Phyllis, last and best
Of loves with which this heart's been smitten,--
Come, sing my jealous fears to rest,
And let your songs be those I've written....Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...No troop was better clad, nor so well paid. 
Then marched the troop of Clarendon, all full 
Haters of fowl, to teal preferring bull: 
Gross bodies, grosser minds, and grossest cheats, 
And bloated Wren conducts them to their seats. 
Charlton advances next, whose coif does awe 
The Mitre troop, and with his looks gives law. 
He marched with beaver cocked of bishop's brim, 
And hid much fraud under an aspect grim. 
Next the lawyers' merecenary band appear: 
Finc...Read more of this...



by Nash, Ogden
...ood look at a strut?
Then that one about how you're in Boston before you can say antidis-
establishmentarianism
So that preferring to take five hours by rail is a pernicious example of
antiquarianism.
At least when I get on the Boston train I have a good chance of landing
in the South Station
And not in that part of the daily press which is reserved for victims of
aviation.
Then, despite the assurance that aeroplanes are terribly comfortable I
notice that when you are...Read more of this...

by Killigrew, Anne
...ry publick Show, 
Proud from their Parents Bondage they have broke,
Though justly freed, she still does wear the Yoke; 
Preferring more her Mothers Friend to be, 
Than Idol of the Towns Loose-Gallantry. 
On her she to the Temple does attend, 
Where they their Blessed Hours both save and spend. 
They Smile, they Joy, together they do Pray, 
You'd think two Bodies did One Soul obey: 
Like Angels thus they do reflect their Bliss, 
And their bright Vertues each the other ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...And to the fierce contentions brought along 
Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 
His utmost power with adverse power opposed 
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? 
All is not lost--the unconquerable will, 
And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
And courage never to submit or yield: 
And what is else not to be overcome? 
That glory never shall his wrath or might 
...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...wn good from ourselves, and from our own 
Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 
Free and to none accountable, preferring 
Hard liberty before the easy yoke 
Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 
Then most conspicuous when great things of small, 
Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, 
We can create, and in what place soe'er 
Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 
Through labour and endurance. This deep world 
Of darkness do we dread? How oft ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ntest is now
'Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presum'd,
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,
His Deity comparing and preferring
Before the God of Abraham. He, he sure,
Will not connive, or linger, thus provok'd,
But will arise and his great name assert:
Dagon must stoop, and shall e're long receive
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted Trophies won on me, 
And with confusion blank his Worshippers.

Man: With cause this hope relieves thee...Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...thy manners," doth she cry.She leads me to her Lord: and then I bow,Preferring humble prayer, He would allowThat I his glorious face, and hers might see.Thus He replies: "Thy destiny's secure;To stay some twenty, or some ten years more,Is but a little space, though long it seems to thee." 
Read more of this...

by Petrarch, Francesco
...rty, of life so fond,That would not change for her its natural ways,Preferring thus to suffer and despond,Than, fed by hope, to sing in others' praise,Content to die, or live in such a bond. Macgregor....Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...rash 
366 Might help the blind, not him, serenely sly. 
367 It irked beyond his patience. Hence it was, 
368 Preferring text to gloss, he humbly served 
369 Grotesque apprenticeship to chance event, 
370 A clown, perhaps, but an aspiring clown. 
371 There is a monotonous babbling in our dreams 
372 That makes them our dependent heirs, the heirs 
373 Of dreamers buried in our sleep, and not 
374 The oncoming fantasies of better birth. 
375 The apprent...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...ed.

One the pigeons praised,--the other,

As they went, extoll'd the fishes,
Each one scoffing at his brother

For preferring vulgar dishes.


 * * *

If thou wouldst preserve thy credit,

When thou askest folks to guzzle
At thy hoard, take care to spread it

Suited both for bill and muzzle.

 1819....Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...,
They learned to rattle the lock and key
To give whatever might chance to be
Warning and time to be off in flight:
And preferring the out- to the in-door night,
They. learned to leave the house-door wide
Until they had lit the lamp inside.

III. THE SMILE

 Her Word

I didn't like the way he went away.
That smile! It never came of being gay.
Still he smiled- did you see him?- I was sure!
Perhaps because we gave him only bread
And the wretch knew from that...Read more of this...

by Kizer, Carolyn
...My mother-- preferring the strange to the tame:
Dove-note, bone marrow, deer dung,
Frog's belly distended with finny young,
Leaf-mould wilderness, hare-bell, toadstool,
Odd, small snakes loving through the leaves,
Metallic beetles rambling over stones: all
Wild and natural -flashed out her instinctive love,
and quick, she
Picked up the fluttering. bleeding bat the c...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ing relatively poor
In purse yet rich in conversation.
Old Rome put up a jolly show,
But I am not a classic purist,
Preferring to Mike Angelo
The slim stems of a lady tourist.

Venice, they say, was built on piles;
I used to muse, how did they do it?
I tramped the narrow streets for miles,
Religiously I gondoled through it.
But though to shrines I bowed my head,
My stomach's an aesthetic sinner,
For in St. Mark's I yawned and said:
"I hope we'll have lasagne f...Read more of this...

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