Famous Preserving Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Beowulf (Modern English)

...ll. 809-24)

Then he had cleansed the hall of Hrothgar,
he who had recently come from afar,
wise and mighty souled, preserving it against malice.
He rejoiced in the night’s work, in his courageous glory.
The Geatish champion had matched his boast
to the East-Danes, likewise he had amended
every malady, the wicked sorrows that they suffered before
and out of terrible constraint they had had to endure
no few miseries. It was a patent token
after the battle-bold put u...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,


Jubilate Agno: Fragment B Part 1

...the Lord from the Lote-tree to the Palm. 

Let Dishon rejoice with the Landrail, God give his grace to the society for preserving the game. 

Let Hushim rejoice with the King's Fisher, who is of royal beauty, tho' plebeian size. 

Let Machir rejoice with Convolvulus, from him to the ring of Saturn, which is the girth of Job; to the signet of God -- from Job and his daughters BLESSED BE JESUS. 

Let Atad bless with Eleos, the nightly Memorialist e?e?s?? ????e . 

Let Jamim re...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Saved by Music

...idity,
So that Dick didn't know whether to stand or flee. 

And his only chance, he thought, was to keep them at bay
By preserving the greatest steadiness without dismay,
Until he was out of the forest and on open ground,
Where he thought a place of safety might be found. 

He remembered an old hut stood in the clearing,
And towards it he was slowly nearing,
And the hope of reaching it urged him on,
But he felt a trifle dispirited and woe-begone. 

And the poor fellow's heart...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

Snake

...tion. 

I can't shake the old wife's tale 
that snakes never die,
they hang in a seamless dream 
of frogskin and water,
preserving a ribbon of heat 
in a bone or a vein,
a cold-blooded creature's 
promise of resurrection, 

and I'm amazed to see you shuffle off
the woman I've know for years,
tracing the lithe, hard body, the hinge of the jaw, 
the tension where sex might be, that I always assume 
is neuter, when I walk our muffled house
at nightfall, throwing switches, lockin...Read more of this...
by Burnside, John

The Ballad Of The Hanged Men

...d sense.
Plead our behalf since we are dead naked
with the Son of Mary the Virgin
that His grace be not for us dried up
preserving us from hell's fulminations.

We're dead after all. Let no soul revile us,
but pray God
 would us all absolve.

Rain has washed us, laundered us,
and the sun has dried us black.
Worse—ravens plucked our eyes hollow
and picked our beards and brows.
Never ever have we sat down, but
this way, and that way, at the wind's
good pleasure ceaselessly we s...Read more of this...
by Villon, Francois


The Return of Frankenstein

...suffers.

Now no longer the hunted but the hunter
he was in charge of his destiny
and knew how to be cold and clever,

preserving barely a spark of memory
for the old blind musician
who once took him in and offered brotherhood.

His idea -- if his career now had an idea --
was to kill them all,
keep them in terror anyway,
let them feel hunted.
Then perhaps they would look at others
with a little pity and love.

Only a suffering people have any virtue....Read more of this...
by Field, Edward

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