Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Provident Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Strode, William
...deem'd
His Limbes and future Selfe; Servants trayn'd friends;
Lov'd his Familiars for Themselves not ends:
Soe wise and Provident that dayes orepast
He ne're wish'd backe again; by whose forecast
Time's Locke, Time's Baldness, Future Time were one,
Since nought could mende nor marre one Action,
That man was He.


Suppose an Advocate
In whose all-conquering tong true right was Fate;
That could not pleade among the grounded throng
Wrong Causes right nor rightfull causes wro...Read more of this...



by Bierce, Ambrose
...A conqueror as provident as brave,
He robbed the cradle to supply the grave.
His reign laid quantities of human dust:
He fell upon the just and the unjust....Read more of this...

by Sassoon, Siegfried
...BEHOLD these jewelled merchant Ancestors 
Foregathered in some chancellery of death;
Calm provident discreet they stroke their beards
And move their faces slowly in the gloom 
And barter monstrous wealth with speech subdued 5
Lustreless eyes and acquiescent lids.
And oft in pauses of their conference 
They listen to the measured breath of night¡¯s
Hushed sweep of wind aloft the swaying trees
In dimly gesturing gardens; then a voice 10
...Read more of this...

by Housman, A E
...diaphragm.

Antistrophe

Why should I mention
The Inachean daughter, loved of Zeus?
Her whom of old the gods,
More provident than kind,
Provided with four hoofs, two horns, one tail,
A gift not asked for,
And sent her forth to learn
The unfamiliar science
Of how to chew the cud.
She therefore, all about the Argive fields,
Went cropping pale green grass and nettle-tops,
Nor did they disagree with her.
But yet, howe'er nutritious, such repasts
I do not hanker after...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...wanton boys on every rope do cling. 
Old Neptune springs the tides and water lent 
(The gods themselves do help the provident), 
And where the deep keel on the shallow cleaves, 
With trident's lever, and great shoulder heaves. 
&Aelig;olus their sails inspires with eastern wind, 
Puffs them along, and breathes upon them kind. 
With pearly shell the Tritons all the while 
Sound the sea-march and guide to Sheppey Isle. 

So I have seen in April's bud arise 
A fl...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
..., and circumscribed their being? 
Yet, by experience taught, we know how good, 
And of our good and of our dignity 
How provident he is; how far from thought 
To make us less, bent rather to exalt 
Our happy state, under one head more near 
United. But to grant it thee unjust, 
That equal over equals monarch reign: 
Thyself, though great and glorious, dost thou count, 
Or all angelick nature joined in one, 
Equal to him begotten Son? by whom, 
As by his Word, the Mighty F...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...derous in length and corpulence, involved 
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept 
The parsimonious emmet, provident 
Of future; in small room large heart enclosed; 
Pattern of just equality perhaps 
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes 
Of commonalty: Swarming next appeared 
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells 
With honey stored: The rest are numberless, 
And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names, ...Read more of this...

by Carew, Thomas
...me warmer sun.
Then wisely choose one to your friend
Whose love may, when your beauties end,
Remain still firm : be provident,
And think, before the summer's spent,
Of following winter ; like the ant, 
In plenty hoard for time of scant.
Cull out, amongst the multitude
Of lovers, that seek to intrude
Into your favour, one that may
Love for an age, not for a day ;
One that will quench your youthful fires,
And feed in age your hot desires.
For when the storms of time...Read more of this...

by Bogan, Louise
...Women have no wilderness in them, 
They are provident instead, 
Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts 
To eat dusty bread. 

They do not see cattle cropping red winter grass,
They do not hear 
Snow water going down under culverts 
Shallow and clear. 

They wait, when they should turn to journeys, 
They stiffen, when they should bend. 
They use against themselves that benevolence 
T...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...on the whole,
Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel
Is full, and artfully her fingers feel
With quick adjustment, provident control,
The lines--too subtly twisted to unroll--
Out to a perfect thread. I hence appeal
To the dear Christian Church--that we may do
Our Father's business in these temples mirk,
Thus swift and steadfast, thus intent and strong;
While thus, apart from toil, our souls pursue
Some high calm spheric tune, and prove our work
The better for the sw...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Provident poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things