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Famous Score Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wilmot, John
...but abhor good lives,
Whose lust exalted, to that height arrives,
They act adultery with their own wives.
And ere a score of years completed be,
Can from the loftiest pulpit proudly see,
Half a large parish their own progeny.
Nor doting bishop, who would be adored
For domineering at the Council board;

A greater fop, in business at fourscore,
Fonder of serious toys, affected more,
Than the gay, glittering fool at twenty proves,
With all his noise, his tawdry clothes a...Read more of this...



by Dryden, John
...ould not help believing right.
Such were the tools; but a whole Hydra more
Remains, of sprouting heads too long, to score.
Some of their chiefs were princes of the land:
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand:
A man so various, that he seem'd to be
Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome.
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was everything by starts, and nothing long:
But in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon:
Then all...Read more of this...

by Thayer, Ernest Lawrence
...The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day, 
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play. 

And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, 
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game. 

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. 
The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast. 
They thought, "if only Casey could b...Read more of this...

by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...to dream of glory and delight, 
While the pale fingers of the pitying night
Wove ghostly winding sheets for that doomed score
Who, ere another eve, should sleep to wake no more.

X.

But those who slept not, saw with startled eyes
Far off, athwart dim unprotecting skies, 
Ascending slowly with majestic grace, 
A lustrous rocket, rising out of space.
'Behold the signal of the foe, ' cried one, 
The field is lost before the strife's begun.
Yet no! for see! yon r...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...y shame? Thou art not knight but knave.' 

Said Gareth, 'Damsel, whether knave or knight, 
Far liefer had I fight a score of times 
Than hear thee so missay me and revile. 
Fair words were best for him who fights for thee; 
But truly foul are better, for they send 
That strength of anger through mine arms, I know 
That I shall overthrow him.' 

And he that bore 
The star, when mounted, cried from o'er the bridge, 
'A kitchen-knave, and sent in scorn of me! 
Such f...Read more of this...



by Brodsky, Joseph
...I said fate plays a game without a score,
and who needs fish if you've got caviar?
The triumph of the Gothic style would come to pass
and turn you on--no need for coke, or grass.
I sit by the window. Outside, an aspen.
When I loved, I loved deeply. It wasn't often.

I said the forest's only part of a tree.
Who needs the whole girl if you've got her knee?
Sick of the du...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...nd fools. 
But if to match our crimes thy skill presumes, 
As th' Indians, draw our luxury in plumes. 
Or if to score out our compendious fame, 
With Hooke, then, through the microscope take aim, 
Where, like the new Comptroller, all men laugh 
To see a tall louse brandish the white staff. 
Else shalt thou oft thy guiltless pencil curse, 
Stamp on thy palette, not perhaps the worse. 
The painter so, long having vexed his cloth-- 
Of his hound's mouth to feign ...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...re:
     Reason and speech we only bring.
Parrots may thank us, if they are not mute,
          They go upon the score.

          Man is all symmetry,
Full of proportions, one limb to another,
     And all to all the world besides:
     Each part may call the furthest, brother;
For head with foot hath private amity,
          And both with moons and tides.

          Nothing hath got so far,
But man hath caught and kept it, as his prey.
     His...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...e had one President. (Pronounce him Purse,
And make the most of it for better or worse.
He's your one chance to score against the state.)
She had one Daniel Webster. He was all
The Daniel Webster ever was or shall be.
She had the Dartmouth' needed to produce him.

I call her old. She has one family
Whose claim is good to being settled here
Before the era of colonization,
And before that of exploration even.
John Smith remarked them as be coaste...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...one end in France and one end here. 
I’m not so fortified with observation
That I could swear that more than half a score 
Among us who see lightning see that ruin 
Is not the work of thunder. Since the world 
Was ordered, there was never a long pause 
For caution between doing and undoing.

BURR

Go on, sir; my attention is a trap 
Set for the catching of all compliments 
To Monticello, and all else abroad 
That has a name or an identity. 

HAMILTON

I leave ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...; and thou hear'st 
Enough, and more the burden of that fault;
Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying
That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains,
This day the Philistines a popular Feast
Here celebrate in Gaza, and proclaim
Great Pomp, and Sacrifice, and Praises loud
To Dagon, as their God who hath deliver'd
Thee Samson bound and blind into thir hands,
Them out of thine, who slew'st them many a slain.
So Dagon shall be magnifi'd, and God, 
Besides whom is no G...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...e Indian hordes came down 
At midnight on Concheco town, 
And how her own great-uncle bore 
His cruel scalp-mark to fourscore. 
Recalling, in her fitting phrase, 
So rich and picturesque and free 
(The common unrhymed poetry 
Of simple life and country ways), 
The story of her early days, -- 
She made us welcome to her home; 
Old hearths grew wide to give us room; 
We stole with her a frightened look 
At the gray wizard's conjuring-book, 
The fame whereof went far and wid...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...xe of Alfred plied--
The Danes poured in like a brainless plague,
And knew not when they died.

Prince Colan slew a score of them,
And was stricken to his knee;
King Alfred slew a score and seven
And was borne back on a tree.

Back to the black gate of the woods,
Back up the single way,
Back by the place of the parting ways
Christ...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...le lump. The fatalist 
547 Stepped in and dropped the chuckling down his craw, 
548 Without grace or grumble. Score this anecdote 
549 Invented for its pith, not doctrinal 
550 In form though in design, as Crispin willed, 
551 Disguised pronunciamento, summary, 
552 Autumn's compendium, strident in itself 
553 But muted, mused, and perfectly revolved 
554 In those portentous accents, syllables, 
555 And sounds of music coming to accord 
556 Upon his law, lik...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...determined certainly to buy
A thing so beautiful that it would win
Her wavering fancy. Altgelt's violin
He would outscore by such a handsome jewel
That Lotta could no longer be so cruel!
Pity Charlotta, torn in diverse ways.
If she went in with him, the shopman might
Recognize her, give her her name; in days
To come he could denounce her. In her fright
She almost fled. But Heinrich would be quite
Capable of pursuing. By and by
She pushed the door and enter...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...bsp; Of years he has upon his back,  No doubt, a burthen weighty;  He says he is three score and ten,  But others say he's eighty.   A long blue livery-coat has he,  That's fair behind, and fair before;  Yet, meet him where you will, you see  At once that he is poor.  Full five and twenty years he lived  A running huntsman merry; &...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...alk in town, 
'The lady fair and Abel Brown.' 
'O, who's that knocking at the door,' 
Miss Bourne'll play the music score." 
The men stood dumb as cattle are, 
They grinned, but thought I'd gone too far, 
There come a hush and no one break it, 
They wondered how Miss Bourne would take it. 
She up to me with black eyes wide, 
She looked as though her spirit cried; 
She took my tumbler from the bar 
Beside where all the matches are 
And poured it out upon the floor ...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...now she's high upon the down,  And she can see a mile of road,  "Oh cruel! I'm almost three-score;  Such night as this was ne'er before,  There's not a single soul abroad."   She listens, but she cannot hear  The foot of horse, the voice of man;  The streams with softest sound are flowing,  The grass you almost hear it growing,  You hear it ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...laughed; 
A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, 
And sweet as English air could make her, she: 
But Walter hailed a score of names upon her, 
And 'petty Ogress', and 'ungrateful Puss', 
And swore he longed at college, only longed, 
All else was well, for she-society. 
They boated and they cricketed; they talked 
At wine, in clubs, of art, of politics; 
They lost their weeks; they vext the souls of deans; 
They rode; they betted; made a hundred friends, 
And caught the...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...Madras.

A little thing happened, just before
We left— the evening papers came;
John, flicking them over to find a score,
Spoke for the first time a certain name—
The name of a town in a distant land
Etched on our hearts by a murderer's hand.

Mother and son exchanged a glance, 
A curious glance of strength and dread. 
I thought: what matter to them if Franz 
Ferdinand dies? One of them said: 
This might be serious.' 'Yes, you're right.' 
The other answer...Read more of this...

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