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Famous Punish Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...down wi’ caution,
That stipend is a carnal weed
 He taks by for the fashion;
And gie him o’er the flock, to feed,
 And punish each transgression;
Especial, rams that cross the breed,
 Gie them sufficient threshin;
 Spare them nae day.


Now, auld Kilmarnock, cock thy tail,
 An’ toss thy horns fu’ canty;
Nae mair thou’lt rowt out-owre the dale,
 Because thy pasture’s scanty;
For lapfu’s large o’ gospel kail
 Shall fill thy crib in plenty,
An’ runts o’ grace the pick an’ wale,...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...v'd, the noble youth remain'd,
While David, undisturb'd, in Sion reign'd.
But life can never be sincerely blest:
Heav'n punishes the bad, and proves the best.
The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murm'ring race,
As ever tri'd th'extent and stretch of grace;
God's pamper'd people whom, debauch'd with ease,
No king could govern, nor no God could please;
(Gods they had tri'd of every shape and size,
That god-smiths could produce, or priests devise:)
These Adam-wits, too fortunately fr...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John
...further the flight in me.

  My tender age in sorrow did begin:
  And still with sicknesses and shame
   Thou didst so punish sin,
     That I became
      Most thin.
      With thee
     Let me combine
   And feel this day thy victory:
   For, if I imp my wing on thine,
 Affliction shall advance the flight in me....Read more of this...
by Herbert, George
...a taste."
Heav'n visits with a taste the wealthy fool,
And needs no rod but Ripley with a rule.
See! sportive fate, to punish awkward pride,
Bids Bubo build, and sends him such a guide:
A standing sermon, at each year's expense,
That never coxcomb reach'd magnificence!
You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse,
And pompous buildings once were things of use.
Yet shall (my Lord) your just, your noble rules
Fill half the land with imitating fools;
Who random drawings from you...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...knights the most renowned was he, 
 Model of bravery and purity. 
 His blood he spared not; ready day or night 
 To punish crime, his dauntless sword shone bright 
 In his unblemished hand; holy and white 
 And loyal all his noble life had been, 
 A Christian Samson coming on the scene. 
 With fist alone the gate he battered down 
 Of Sickingen in flames, and saved the town. 
 'Twas he, indignant at the honor paid 
 To crime, who with his heel an onslaught made 
 ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor



...nsted, St.Croix, Anglican Church
behind the paratrooper's voice: "Turned cop
after Vietnam. I made thirty jumps."
Bells punish the dead street and pigeons lurch
from the stone belfry, opening their chutes,
circling until the rings of ringing stop.
"Salud!" The paratrooper's glass is raised.
The congregation rises to its feet
like a patrol, with scuffling shoes and boots,
repeating orders as the organ thumps:
"Praise Ye the Lord. The Lord's name be praised."

You cannot hear, ...Read more of this...
by Walcott, Derek
...rdent thus replies
The God, whose glory decks th' expanded skies.

"Cease thy complaints, mine be the task assign'd
"To punish pride, and scourge the rebel mind."
This Phoebe join'd.--They wing their instant flight;
Thebes trembled as th' immortal pow'rs alight.

With clouds incompass'd glorious Phoebus stands;
The feather'd vengeance quiv'ring in his hands.

Near Cadmus' walls a plain extended lay,
Where Thebes' young princes pass'd in sport the day:
There the bold coursers ...Read more of this...
by Wheatley, Phillis
...like through impotence or unaware, 
To give his enemies their wish, and end 
Them in his anger whom his anger saves 
To punish endless? 'Wherefore cease we, then?' 
Say they who counsel war; 'we are decreed, 
Reserved, and destined to eternal woe; 
Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, 
What can we suffer worse?' Is this, then, worst-- 
Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms? 
What when we fled amain, pursued and struck 
With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...erica Shorty dis-

appeared a little while after that.

 They probably swept him up one morning and put him in

jail to punish him, the evilfart, or they put him in a nut-

house to dry him out a little.

 Maybe Trout Fishing in America Shorty just pedaled down

to San Jose in his wheelchair, rattling along the freeway at

a quarter of a mile an hour.

 I don't know what happened to him. But if he comes back

to San Francisco someday and dies, I have an idea.

 Trout Fishing ...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard
...s
seems no farther than the highest peak.

   In sum, I must admit
to the crime of adoring you;
should you wish to punish me,
the very punishment will be reward.

Top of page
My Lady (Español)

    Perdite, señora, quiero
de mi silencio perdón,
si lo que ha sido atención
le hace parecer grosero.

    Y no me podrás culpar
si hasta aquí mi proceder,
por ocuparse en querer,
se ha olvidado de explicar.

    Que en mi amorosa pasión
no fue desuido, ni mengua...Read more of this...
by Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor
...r:
The mighty Rustum shall avenge my death!
My father, whom I seek through all the world,
He shall avenge my death, and punish thee!" 

As when some hunter in the spring hath found
A breeding eagle sitting on her nest,
Upon the craggy isle of a hill-lake,
And pierced her with an arrow as she rose,
And follow'd her to find her where she fell
Far off;--anon her mate comes winging back
From hunting, and a great way off descries
His huddling young left sole; at that, he checks
Hi...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew
...knew that 
That's why you stalk me
You're not fooled by my clever ruse
***** goddess? I think not
I'm just a sucker for punishment
So punish me
Spank me
Dominate my sock drawer 
And stalk me


Don't stalk Jodie Foster, David Letterman or John S. Hall
Don't go through their trash 
Their trash is boring
play with my trash
Hurry, I'm waiting
I'm pleading
Just come on and do it
Chew me choke me and stalk me
That'll teach me to write all that goddamned poetry...Read more of this...
by Estep, Maggie
...meaning of her grief, the folly of it, 
The faithlessness and the proud anguish of it,
There might be now no threads to punish her, 
No vampire thoughts to suck the coward blood, 
The life, the very soul of her. 

Yes, Yes, 
They might come back.… But why should they come back?
Why was it she had suffered? Why had she 
Struggled and grown these years to demonstrate 
That close without those hovering clouds of gloom 
And through them here and there forever gleamed 
The Light i...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...nd felt a drunkenness like wine 
And shut out Christ in husks and swine. 
I felt the dart strike through my liver. 
God punish me for't and forgive her. 

Each one could be a Jesus mild, 
Each one has been a little child, 
A little child with laughing look, 
A lovely white unwritten book; 
A book that God will take, my friend, 
As each goes out a journey's end. 
The Lord Who gave us Earth and Heaven 
Takes that as thanks for all He's given. 
The book He lent is given back 
Al...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John
...****
I need someone,

Or call on the phone;

But nothing breaks the silence,

Of these walls made of stone.
*****




I punish myself,

By refusing to eat:

Depression is silent,

I hear my heart beat.
*****
Where can I go,

Or should I stay:

Shy to choose,

In bed I lay.
*****
Time will pass,

And the dark sets in;

Laying there wishing,

I could still touch your skin.
*****
Lying there hurting,

I wish I could die;

Missing you so much,

Again I start to cry.
*****





So...Read more of this...
by Belloc, Hilaire
...? 

They buffet me, and box me as they list, 
Who grasp the earth and heaven with my fist, 
And never yet, whom I would punish, miss'd: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

Behold, they spit on me in scornful wise, 
Who by my spittle gave the blind man eyes, 
Leaving his blindness to mine enemies: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

My face they cover, though it be divine.
As Moses' face was veiled, so is mine, 
Lest on their double-dark souls either shine: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

Serv...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George
...iven away 
in tears
To toil and suffer their life-time through,
because of the sin they sinned,
The Lord made Winter to punish them for half their exiled years,
To chill their blood with the snow, and pierce
their flesh with the icy wind.
But we who inherit the primal curse, and labour 
for our bread,
Have yet, thank God, the gift of Home, though Eden's gate is barred:
And through the Winter's crystal veil, Love's roses blossom red,
For him who lives in a house that has a sno...Read more of this...
by Kilmer, Joyce
...the question I wonder is after death
After my last breath
When will I finally get to rest from this oppression?
They punish the people that's asking questions
And those that possess steal from the ones without possessions
The message I stress
To make you stop study your lessons
Don't settle for less
Even the genius asks his questions
Be grateful for blessings
Don't ever change, keep your essense
The power is in the people and politics we address
Always do your bes...Read more of this...
by Shakur, Tupac
...ive inside ads? 
Why should we want to scourge our softness 
to straight lines like a Mondrian painting? 
Why should we punish each other with scorn 
as if to have a large ass
were worse than being greedy or mean?

When will women not be compelled
to view their bodies as science projects,
gardens to be weeded,
dogs to be trained?
When will a woman cease
to be made of pain?...Read more of this...
by Piercy, Marge
...And, looking into my dry eyes,
St. Petersburg spring has arrived.

With harsh cough and with evening fever
She will punish and she will kill.
Under the smoke on the river
Nieva's ice is no longer still.



x x x

God is unkind to gardeners and reapers.
Slanted rain coils and falls from up high
And the wide raincoats catch water,
That once had reflected the sky.

In underwater realm are fields and meadows
And the free currents sing a lot,
Plums rupture on ...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry