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Famous Presumption Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...in a gallopin’ consumption:
Not a’ her quacks, wi’ a’ their gumption,
 Can ever mend her;
Her feeble pulse gies strong presumption,
 She’ll soon surrender.


Auld Orthodoxy lang did grapple,
For every hole to get a stapple;
But now she fetches at the thrapple,
 An’ fights for breath;
Haste, gie her name up in the chapel, 2
 Near unto death.


It’s you an’ Taylor 3 are the chief
To blame for a’ this black mischief;
But, could the L—d’s ain folk get leave,
 A toom tar ...Read more of this...



by Killigrew, Anne
...r fading Name 

Long as the world shall fresh and deathless last, 
No less to future Ages, then the past. 
Great my presumption is, I must confess, 
But if I thrive, my Glory's ne're the less; 
Nor will it from his Conquests derogate
A Female Pen his Acts did celebrate. 
If thou O Muse wilt thy assistance give, 
Such as made Naso and great Maro live, 
With him whom Melas fertile Banks did bear, 
Live, though their Bodies dust and ashes are; 
Whose Laurels were not fre...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...cles of claim
I found it quietly assumed
As a Gymnasium
Where Tax asleep and Title off
The inmates of the Air
Perpetual presumption took
As each were special Heir --
If any strike me on the street
I can return the Blow --

If any take my property
According to the Law
The Statute is my Learned friend
But what redress can be
For an offense nor here nor there
So not in Equity --
That Larceny of time and mind
The marrow of the Day
By spider, or forbid it Lord
That I should specif...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...den keep the Gash --
If as the Days resume
The wilted countenance

Cannot correct the crease
Or counteract the stain --
Presumption is Vitality
Was somewhere put in twain....Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...As if the Sea should part
And show a further Sea --
And that -- a further -- and the Three
But a presumption be --

Of Periods of Seas --
Unvisited of Shores --
Themselves the Verge of Seas to be --
Eternity -- is Those --...Read more of this...



by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...has moved,
And now, applauded, unreproved,
I hold, with pardonable pride,
The place that Johnson occupied.
Conceit! Presumption! What is this?
You surely read my words amiss;
Like Johnson I,—a man of mind!
How could you ever be so blind?
No. At the ancient "Cheshire Cheese,"
Blown hither by some vagrant breeze,
To dignify my shallow wit,
In Doctor Johnson's seat I sit!
...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...lity --

Significance that each has lived
The other to detect
Discovery not God himself
Could now annihilate

Eternity, Presumption
The instant I perceive
That you, who were Existence
Yourself forgot to live --

The "Life that is" will then have been
A thing I never knew --
As Paradise fictitious
Until the Realm of you --

The "Life that is to be," to me,
A Residence too plain
Unless in my Redeemer's Face
I recognize your own --

Of Immortality who doubts
He may exchange with...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...y grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,
She may pass on with unblenched majesty,
Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,
No goblin or swart faery of the mine,
Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call
Antiquity from the old schools of Greece
To testify...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...or still—
Exists in every Human Nature
A Goal—

Embodied scarcely to itself—it may be—
Too fair
For Credibility's presumption
To mar—

Adored with caution—as a Brittle Heaven—
To reach
Were hopeless, as the Rainbow's Raiment
To touch—

Yet persevered toward—sure—for the Distance—
How high—
Unto the Saints' slow diligence—
The Sky—

Ungained—it may be—by a Life's low Venture—
But then—
Eternity enable the endeavoring
Again.

732

She rose to His R...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...still --
Exists in every Human Nature
A Goal --

Embodied scarcely to itself -- it may be --
Too fair
For Credibility's presumption
To mar --

Adored with caution -- as a Brittle Heaven --
To reach
Were hopeless, as the Rainbow's Raiment
To touch --

Yet persevered toward -- sure -- for the Distance --
How high --
Unto the Saint's slow diligence --
The Sky --

Ungained -- it may be -- by a Life's low Venture --
But then --
Eternity enable the endeavoring
Again....Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...eternal,
Equally hidden the source whence it to gladden us sprang;
But that happy period has vanished! And self-willed presumption
Nature's godlike repose now has forever destroyed.
Feelings polluted the voice of the deities echo no longer,
In the dishonored breast now is the oracle dumb.
Save in the silenter self, the listening soul cannot find it,
There does the mystical word watch o'er the meaning divine;
There does the searcher conjure it, descending with bosom u...Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...Presumption and despair; or, Satan's various temptations.

I hate the tempter and his charms,
I hate his flatt'ring breath;
The serpent takes a thousand forms
To cheat our souls to death.

He feeds our hopes with airy dreams,
Or kills with slavish fear;
And holds us still in wide extremes,
Presumption or despair.

Now he persuades, "How easy 'tis...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...Whenever I am prone to doubt or wonder -
I check myself, and say, 'That mighty One
Who made the solar system cannot blunder -
And for the best all things are being done.'
Who set the stars on their eternal courses
Has fashioned this strange earth by come sure plan.
Bow low, bow low to those majestic forces, 
Nor dare to doubt their wisdom - puny ma...Read more of this...

by Cowper, William
...tent would fain prescribe
How Thou shalt deal with me.

While Unbelief withstands Thy grace,
And puts the mercy by,
Presumption, with a brow of brass,
Says, "Give me, or I die!"

How eager are my thoughts to roam,
In quest of what they love!
But ah! when duty calls them home,
How heavily they move!

Oh, cleanse me in a Saviour's blood,
Transform me by Thy power,
And make me Thy beloved abode,
And let me roam no more....Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...That aids thee now to guard thy land.'
     XIV.

     Dark lightning flashed from Roderick's eye:
     'Soars thy presumption, then, so high,
     Because a wretched kern ye slew,
     Homage to name to Roderick Dhu?
     He yields not, he, to man nor Fate!
     Thou add'st but fuel to my hate;—
     My clansman's blood demands revenge.
     Not yet prepared?—By heaven, I change
     My thought, and hold thy valor light
     As that of some vain carpet knight,
...Read more of this...

by Murray, Les
...of many kinds of people
(every kind that comes in kinds) whose futures don't include it.
Some decry it as criminal presumption, silken-robed Pope Alexander
dividing the new world between Spain and Portugal.
If he smiled in petto afterwards, perhaps the thing did have sprawl. 

Sprawl is really classless, though. It is John Christopher Frederick Murray
asleep in his neighbours' best bed in spurs and oilskins,
but not having thrown up:
sprawl is never Calum, wh...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...There are people who through outrageous presumption
are sunk in pride; and others who abandon themselves
to the houris of celestial palaces. When the curtain is
raised, we shall see that they have fallen far, far, far,
from Thee [O God]!...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...arns for Winter -- blameless --
Extemporaneous stalls
They found to our objection --
On eligible walls --
Reserving the presumption
To suddenly descend
And gallop on the Furniture --
Or odiouser offend --
Of their peculiar calling
Unqualified to judge
To Nature we remand them
To justify or scourge --...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...ur head -- ostensibly --
And subsequent, to find
That such was not the posture
Of our immortal mind --

Affords the sly presumption
That in so dense a fuzz --
You -- too -- take Cobweb attitudes
Upon a plane of Gauze!...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Presumption poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs