Famous Repair Poems by Famous Poets

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

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On Sir John Roe

by Ben Jonson
XXXII. ? ON SIR JOHN ROE. (II)     What two brave perils of the private sword      Could not effect, nor all the Furies do, That self-divided Belgia did afford ;      What not the envy of the seas reach'd to, The cold of Mosco, and fat Irish air,      His often change of clime, though not of mind, What could not work ;...Read more of this...

The Dissolution

by John Donne
 She's dead; and all which die
To their first elements resolve;
And we were mutual elements to us,
And made of one another.
My body then doth hers involve,
And those things whereof I consist hereby
In me abundant grow, and burdenous,
And nourish not, but smother.
My fire of passion, sighs of air,
Water of tears, and earthly sad despair,
Which my materials be,
But near worn out by...Read more of this...

Again to tavern haunts do we repair,

by Omar Khayyam
Again to tavern haunts do we repair,
And say «Adieu» to the five hours of prayer;
Where'er we see a long-necked flask of wine,
We elongate our necks that wine to share....Read more of this...

Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4

by Richard Brautigan
  1.
 Get enough food to eat,
 and eat it.


 2.
 Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
 and sleep there.


 3.
 Reduce intellectual and emotional noise
 until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
 and listen to it....Read more of this...

Sign-Post

by Robinson Jeffers
 Civilized, crying: how to be human again; this will tell you how.
Turn outward, love things, not men, turn right away from humanity,
Let that doll lie. Consider if you like how the lilies grow,
Lean on the silent rock until you feel its divinity
Make your veins cold; look at the silent stars, let your eyes
Climb the great ladder out of the...Read more of this...

Wont And Done

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 I HAVE loved; for the first time with passion I rave!
I then was the servant, but now am the slave;

I then was the servant of 
all:
By this creature so charming I now am fast bound,
To love and love's guerdon she turns all around,

And her my sole mistress 
I call.

l've had faith; for the first time my faith is now...Read more of this...

Sonnet III: Look In Thy Glass and Tell the Face Thou Viewest

by William Shakespeare
 Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest 
Now is the time that face should form another; 
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, 
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. 
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb 
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? 
Or who is he so fond will be the...Read more of this...

Birth-Day Ode 02

by Robert Southey
 Small is the new-born plant scarce seen
Amid the soft encircling green,
Where yonder budding acorn rears,
Just o'er the waving grass, its tender head:
Slow pass along the train of years,
And on the growing plant, their dews and showers they shed.
Anon it rears aloft its giant form,
And spreads its broad-brown arms to meet the storm.
Beneath its boughs far shadowing o'er the plain,
From...Read more of this...

At His Grave

by Alfred Austin
 LEAVE me a little while alone, 
Here at his grave that still is strown 
With crumbling flower and wreath; 
The laughing rivulet leaps and falls, 
The thrush exults, the cuckoo calls, 
And he lies hush’d beneath. 

With myrtle cross and crown of rose, 
And every lowlier flower that blows, 
His new-made couch is dress’d; 
Primrose and cowslip, hyacinth wild,...Read more of this...

My Lady

by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
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,
quitar el uso a la lengua
por dárselo al corazón.

 ...Read more of this...

When Your Pants Begin to Go

by Henry Lawson
 When you wear a cloudy collar and a shirt that isn't white, 
And you cannot sleep for thinking how you'll reach to-morrow night, 
You may be a man of sorrows, and on speaking terms with Care, 
And as yet be unacquainted with the Demon of Despair; 
For I rather think that nothing heaps the trouble on your mind 
Like...Read more of this...

Oh! Mr Best Youre Very Bad

by Jane Austen
 Oh! Mr. Best, you're very bad
And all the world shall know it;
Your base behaviour shall be sung
By me, a tunefull Poet.-- 
You used to go to Harrowgate
Each summer as it came,
And why I pray should you refuse
To go this year the same?-- 

The way's as plain, the road's as smooth,
The Posting not increased;
You're scarcely stouter than you were,
Not younger...Read more of this...

Psalm 107 last part

by Isaac Watts
 Colonies planted; or, Nations blessed and punished.
A Psalm for New England.

When God, provoked with daring crimes,
Scourges the madness of the times,
He turns their fields to barren sand,
And dries the rivers from the land.

His word can raise the springs again,
And make the withered mountains green;
Send showery blessings from the skies,
And harvests in the desert rise.

[Where nothing dwelt but beasts of...Read more of this...

Sonnet 16: But wherefore do not you a mightier way

by William Shakespeare
 But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time,
And fortify your self in your decay
With means more blessèd than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens yet unset,
With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life...Read more of this...

On The Death Of J. C. An Infant

by Phillis Wheatley
 NO more the flow'ry scenes of pleasure rife,
Nor charming prospects greet the mental eyes,
No more with joy we view that lovely face
Smiling, disportive, flush'd with ev'ry grace.
The tear of sorrow flows from ev'ry eye,
Groans answer groans, and sighs to sighs reply;
What sudden pangs shot thro' each aching heart,
When, Death, thy messenger dispatch'd his dart?
Thy dread attendants, all-destroying Pow'r,
Hurried the...Read more of this...

On The Wire

by Robert William Service
 O God, take the sun from the sky!
 It's burning me, scorching me up.
God, can't You hear my cry?
 Water! A poor, little cup!
It's laughing, the cursed sun!
 See how it swells and swells
Fierce as a hundred hells!
 God, will it never have done?
It's searing the flesh on my bones;
 It's beating with hammers red
My eyeballs into my head;
...Read more of this...

THE Complaint of a Lover

by Anne Killigrew
 SEest thou younder craggy Rock, 
 Whose Head o'er-looks the swelling Main, 
Where never Shepherd fed his Flock, 
 Or careful Peasant sow'd his Grain. 
No wholesome Herb grows on the same, 
 Or Bird of Day will on it rest;
'Tis Barren as the Hopeless Flame, 
 That scortches my tormented Breast. 

Deep underneath a Cave does lie, 
...Read more of this...

Jehovah-Rophi. I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee

by William Cowper
 (Exodus, xv.26)

Heal us, Emmanuel! here we are,
Waiting to feel Thy touch:
Deep-wounded souls to Thee repair
And, Saviour, we are such.

Our faith is feeble, we confess,
We faintly trust Thy word;
But wilt Thou pity us the less?
Be that far from Thee, Lord!

Remember him who once applied,
With trembling, for relief;
"Lord, I believe," with tears he cried,
"Oh, help my unbelief!"

She too, who touch'd Thee...Read more of this...

O comrades dear, when hither ye repair

by Omar Khayyam
O comrades dear, when hither ye repair
In times to come, communion sweet to share,
While the cupbearer pours your old Magh wine,
Call poor Khayyam to mind, and breathe a prayer....Read more of this...

At Lords

by Francis Thompson
 It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,
Though my own red roses there may blow;
It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,
Though the red roses crest the caps, I know.
For the field is full of shades as I near the shadowy coast,
And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a...Read more of this...

To the wine-house I saw the sage repair,

by Omar Khayyam
To the wine-house I saw the sage repair,
Bearing a wine-cup, and a mat for prayer;
I said, «O Shaikh, what does this conduct mean?»
Said he, «Go drink! the world is naught but air.»...Read more of this...

The Winter Scene

by Bliss Carman
 I
The rutted roads are all like iron; skies
Are keen and brilliant; only the oak-leaves cling
In the bare woods, or the hardy bitter-sweet;
Drivers have put their sheepskin jackets on;
And all the ponds are sealed with sheeted ice
That rings with stroke of skate and hockey-stick,
Or in the twilight cracks with running whoop.
Bring in the logs of oak and hickory,
And make an...Read more of this...

The Change

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 POOR River, now thou'rt almost dry, 
What Nymph, or Swain, will near thee lie? 
Since brought, alas! to sad Decay, 
What Flocks, or Herds, will near thee stay? 
The Swans, that sought thee in thy Pride, 
Now on new Streams forgetful ride: 
And Fish, that in thy Bosom lay, 
Chuse in more prosp'rous Floods to play. 
All leave thee,...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXIII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET XXIII. Quand' io veggio dal ciel scender l' Aurora. MORN RENDERS HIS GRIEF MORE POIGNANT.  When from the heavens I see Aurora beam,With rosy-tinctured cheek and golden hair,Love bids my face the hue of sadness wear:"There Laura dwells!" I with a sigh exclaim.Thou knowest well the hour that shall redeem,Read more of this...

Ye Old Mule

by Sir Thomas Wyatt
 Ye old mule that think yourself so fair,
Leave off with craft your beauty to repair,
For it is true, without any fable,
No man setteth more by riding in your saddle. 
Too much travail so do your train appair. 
Ye old mule

With false savour though you deceive th'air, 
Whoso taste you shall well perceive your lair
Savoureth somewhat of a Kappurs stable.
Ye...Read more of this...

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