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Famous Required Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Neruda, Pablo
...ee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on ...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...a king's son?'--lifted his voice, and called 
A hoary man, his chamberlain, to whom 
He trusted all things, and of him required 
His counsel: `Knowest thou aught of Arthur's birth?' 

Then spake the hoary chamberlain and said, 
`Sir King, there be but two old men that know: 
And each is twice as old as I; and one 
Is Merlin, the wise man that ever served 
King Uther through his magic art; and one 
Is Merlin's master (so they call him) Bleys, 
Who taught him magic, but the sc...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...r and then to think of him, 
And thereupon to contemplate the fall 
Of a dim curtain over the dark end 
Of a dark play, required of me no more
Clairvoyance than a man who cannot swim 
Will exercise in seeing that his friend 
Off shore will drown except he save himself. 
To her I could say nothing, and to him 
No more than tallied with a long belief
That I should only have it back again 
For my chagrin to ruminate upon, 
Ingloriously, for the still time it starved; 
And th...Read more of this...

by Piercy, Marge
...can speed over you 
like those sidewalks of my childhood 
that each gave a different roar under 
my wheels. You're required to show 
muscle striations like the ocean 
sand at ebb tide, but brick hard. 
Clothing is not designed for women 
of whose warm and flagrant bodies 
you are a swelling part. Yet I confess 
I meditate with my hands folded on you, 
a maternal cushion radiating comfort. 
Even when I have been at my thinnest, 
you have never abandoned me but...Read more of this...

by Gluck, Louise
...et you are my children.
You are not suffering because you touched each other
but because you were born,
because you required life
separate from me....Read more of this...



by Schiller, Friedrich von
...till are silent,
If they will surely remain silent forever as now;
If by the conflict of feelings a judge will ne'er be required;
If in its malice thy heart dims not the reason so clear,
Oh, then, go thy way in all thy innocence precious!
Knowledge can teach thee in naught; thou canst instruct her in much!
Yonder law, that with brazen staff is directing the struggling,
Naught is to thee. What thou dost, what thou mayest will is thy law,
And to every race a godlike authori...Read more of this...

by Campbell, Thomas
...loquence of truth:)
Then forth uprose that lone wayfaring man;
But dauntless he, nor chart, nor journey's plan
In woods required, whose trained eye was keen,
As eagle of the wilderness, to scan
His path by mountain, swamp, or deep ravine,
Or ken far friendly huts on good savannas green.

Old Albert saw him from the valley's side--
His pirogue launch'd--his pilgrimage begun--
Far, like the red-bird's wing he seem'd to glide;
Then dived, and vanish'd in the woodlands dun.Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...t! — 
With none to check, and few to point in time 
The thousand paths that slope the way to crime; 
Then, when he most required commandment, then 
Had Lara's daring boyhood govern'd men. 
It skills not, boots not, step by step to trace 
His youth through all the mazes of its race; 
Short was the course his restlessness had run, 
But long enough to leave him half undone. 

III. 

And Lara left in youth his fatherland; 
But from the hour he waved his parting hand 
...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...br>

When we came to Hustler Hill,
he said that the mare was tired, 
so we all got down and walked,
as our good manners required....Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...ear he had seen the nest she laid in,
And knew how long she had been sitting;
Could tell exact what strength of heat is
Required to hatch her out Committees;
What shapes they take, and how much longer's
The time before they grow t' a Congress?
He white-wash'd Hutchinson, and varnish'd
Our Gage, who'd got a little tarnish'd;
Made them new masks, in time no doubt,
For Hutchinson's was quite worn out:
Yet while he muddled all his head,
You did not heed a word he said.


"Did...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...tresses wore 
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved 
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied 
Subjection, but required with gentle sway, 
And by her yielded, by him best received, 
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, 
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. 
Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed; 
Then was not guilty shame, dishonest shame 
Of nature's works, honour dishonourable, 
Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind 
With shows instead, mere...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...set just so to heat the oven through;
The kitchen-table was relieved of everything, to make
That ample space which Jane required when she compounded cake.

And, oh! the bustling here and there, the flying to and fro;
The click of forks that whipped the eggs to lather white as snow--
And what a wealth of sugar melted swiftly out of sight--
And butter? Mother said such waste would ruin father, quite!
But Sister Jane preserved a mien no pleading could confound
As she utilize...Read more of this...

by Edson, Russell
...>
 Like this? Cried his son as his son became dust.
 Ah, that is more pleasant, and speaks well of him, who 
having required much in his neglect of proper choice, turns 
now, on good advice, to a more advantageous social stance, 
said the father. 

 But then his son became his father.
 Behold, the son is become as one of us, said the father.
 His son said, behold, the son is become as one of us.
 Will you stop repeating me, screamed the father.
 Will y...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...backward lapses, if they would, 
241 Grind their seductions on him, Crispin knew 
242 It was a flourishing tropic he required 
243 For his refreshment, an abundant zone, 
244 Prickly and obdurate, dense, harmonious 
245 Yet with a harmony not rarefied 
246 Nor fined for the inhibited instruments 
247 Of over-civil stops. And thus he tossed 
248 Between a Carolina of old time, 
249 A little juvenile, an ancient whim, 
250 And the visible, circumspect presentment...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...er
Impertinence. I thought no one was here,
And really gardens cry to be admired.
To-night especially it seemed required.
And may I beg to introduce myself?
Heinrich Marohl of Munich. And your name?"
Charlotta told him. And the artful elf
Promptly exclaimed about her husband's fame.
So Lotta, half-unwilling, slowly came
To conversation with him. When she went
Into the house, she found the evening spent.
Theodore arrived quite wearied out and te...Read more of this...

by Goldsmith, Oliver
...gan,
When every rood of ground maintained its man;
For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
Just gave what life required, but gave no more:
His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train
Usurp the land and dispossess the swain;
Along the lawn, where scattered hamlet's rose,
Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose,
And every want to opulence allied,
And every pang that folly pays...Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...in securing 48 of the 50 copies, burned them 
And learned then how the last copies were extant, 
As the law of the land required, stashed away in the national capital,
at the Library of Congress.
Therefore he went to Washington, therefore he took out the last two
copies
Placed them in his pocket, planned to depart 
Only to be halted and apprehended. Since he was the author,
Since they were his books and his property he was reproached
But forgiven. But the two copi...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...le my honest heat 
Were all miscounted as malignant haste 
To push my rival out of place and power. 
But public use required she should be known; 
And since my oath was ta'en for public use, 
I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. 
I spoke not then at first, but watched them well, 
Saw that they kept apart, no mischief done; 
And yet this day (though you should hate me for it) 
I came to tell you; found that you had gone, 
Ridden to the hills, she likewise: now, ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...I answered, 'each be hero in his turn! 
Seven and yet one, like shadows in a dream.-- 
Heroic seems our Princess as required-- 
But something made to suit with Time and place, 
A Gothic ruin and a Grecian house, 
A talk of college and of ladies' rights, 
A feudal knight in silken masquerade, 
And, yonder, shrieks and strange experiments 
For which the good Sir Ralph had burnt them all-- 
This ~were~ a medley! we should have him back 
Who told the "Winter's tale" to do it ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...: I gave assent: 
Yet how to bind the scattered scheme of seven 
Together in one sheaf? What style could suit? 
The men required that I should give throughout 
The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque, 
With which we bantered little Lilia first: 
The women--and perhaps they felt their power, 
For something in the ballads which they sang, 
Or in their silent influence as they sat, 
Had ever seemed to wrestle with burlesque, 
And drove us, last, to quite a solemn close-- 
They hated...Read more of this...

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