Famous Scores Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

70. Epistle to the Rev. John M'Math

...races
 Waur nor their nonsense.


There’s Gaw’n, misca’d waur than a beast,
Wha has mair honour in his breast
Than mony scores as guid’s the priest
 Wha sae abus’d him:
And may a bard no crack his jest
 What way they’ve us’d him?


See him, the poor man’s friend in need,
The gentleman in word an’ deed—
An’ shall his fame an’ honour bleed
 By worthless, skellums,
An’ not a muse erect her head
 To cowe the blellums?


O Pope, had I thy satire’s darts
To gie the rascals their de...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices

...r is a market
Where wisdom sells its freedom
And melons are crowned by the crowd.
A newspaper is a game
Where his error scores the player victory
While another's skill wins death.
A newspaper is a symbol;
It is feckless life's chronicle,
A collection of loud tales
Concentrating eternal stupidities,
That in remote ages lived unhaltered,
Roaming through a fenceless world....Read more of this...
by Crane, Stephen

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

...he time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.) 

5
What is it, then, between us? 
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? 

Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not. 

6
I too lived—Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine;
I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan Island, and bathed in the waters around it; 
I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me, 
In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Faces In A Crowd

...fect!



Flashing smiles from shiny domes and polished eye-lenses,

The men are glossy all over, snapping mortgages and scores

They slap fellow-souls at a distance, gun down the abusive

Clacking conductress, apologise over-loudly for their too

Quiet cars. Plump fingers stroke smooth cheeks - bounce

Bounce, bouncing baby- faces, so manly to wet-shave!



Head heavy from dreams of bronze-fleshed centaurs

Tense with ‘The New Poets’ - no rhythm, failure of connection,

Who s...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Gregory Corso

...Yet no other death I know has so laughable a preview I scope
 a city New York City streaming starkeyed subway shelter 
 Scores and scores A fumble of humanity High heels bend
 Hats whelming away Youth forgetting their combs
 Ladies not knowing what to do with their shopping bags
 Unperturbed gum machines Yet dangerous 3rd rail
 Ritz Brothers from the Bronx caught in the A train
 The smiling Schenley poster will always smile
 Impish death Satyr Bomb Bombdeath
 Turtles explodin...Read more of this...
by Corso, Gregory


In Harm's Way

...Geraldine Monk or either Riley

Poetry has to have a meaning, not just patterns on a page,

Vertical words and snips of scores just make me rage.

Is Thom Gunn really the age-old sleaze-weasel Andrew Duncan says?

Is Tim Allen right to give Geraldine Monk an eleven page review?

At least they care for poetry to give their lives to it

As we do, too.

My syntax far from perfect, my writing illegible

But somehow I’ll get through, Bloodaxe and Carcourt 

May jeer but an Indian ...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

In the Storm that is to come

...from cape to cape, and who shall defend our shores - 
The crowd that stand on the kerb agape and glares at the cricket scores?
And who will hold the invader back when the shells tear up the ground - 
The weeds that yelp by the cycling track while a ****** scorches round?

There may be many to man the forts in the big towns beside the sea - 
But the East will call to the West for scouts in the storm that is to be:
The West cries out to the East in drought, but the coastal tow...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Lancelot

...in your incertitude, 
That this inordinate man Lancelot,
This engine of renown, this hewer down daily 
Of potent men by scores in our late warfare, 
Has now inside his head a foreign fever 
That urges him away to the last edge 
Of everything, there to efface himself
In ecstasy, and so be done with us. 
Hereafter, peradventure certain birds 
Will perch in meditation on his bones, 
Quite as if they were some poor sailor’s bones, 
Or felon’s jettisoned, or fisherman’s,
Or fowler...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Losses

...w planes, with our new crews, we bombed 
The ranges by the desert or the shore, 
Fired at towed targets, waited for our scores-- 
And turned into replacements and worke up 
One morning, over England, operational. 

It wasn't different: but if we died 
It was not an accident but a mistake 
(But an easy one for anyone to make.) 
We read our mail and counted up our missions-- 
In bombers named for girls, we burned 
The cities we had learned about in school-- 
Till our lives wore...Read more of this...
by Jarrell, Randall

MFingal - Canto III

...ispute and pray and fight and groan
For public good, and mean your own;
Prevent the law by fierce attacks
From quitting scores upon your backs;
Lay your old dread, the gallows, low,
And seize the stocks, your ancient foe,
And turn them to convenient engines
To wreak your patriotic vengeance;
While all, your rights who understand,
Confess them in their owner's hand;
And when by clamours and confusions,
Your freedom's grown a public nuisance,
Cry "Liberty," with powerful yearni...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

My Aviary

...arrow,
Canst Thou the sinless sufferer's pang forget?
Or is thy dread account-book's page so narrow
Its one long column scores thy creatures' debt?

Poor gentle guest, by nature kindly cherished,
A world grows dark with thee in blinding death;
One little gasp-- thy universe has perished,
Wrecked by the idle thief who stole thy breath!

Is this the whole sad story of creation,
Lived by its breathing myriads o'er and o'er,--
One glimpse of day, then black annhilation,
A sunlit ...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell

Phantasmagoria CANTO V ( Byckerment )

...y that word?" 

"It means the loosening all the doors,"
The Ghost replied, and laughed:
"It means the drilling holes by scores
In all the skirting-boards and floors,
To make a thorough draught. 

"You'll sometimes find that one or two
Are all you really need
To let the wind come whistling through -
But HERE there'll be a lot to do!"
I faintly gasped "Indeed! 

"If I 'd been rather later, I'll
Be bound," I added, trying
(Most unsuccessfully) to smile,
"You'd have been busy all...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Bushfire - an Allegory

...or years they never had 
Been known a sheep to lose; 
Old Billy Gladstone managed it, 
And you can bet your shoes 
He'd scores of supers under him, 
And droves of jackaroos. 

Old Billy had an eagle eye, 
And kept his wits about -- 
If any chaps got trespassing 
He quickly cleared 'em out; 
And coves that used to "work a cross", 
They hated him, no doubt. 

But still he managed it in style, 
Until the times got dry, 
And Billy gave the supers word 
To see and mind their eye -...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

The Country Life:

...the West.
No, thy ambition's master-piece
Flies no thought higher than a fleece:
Or how to pay thy hinds, and clear
All scores: and so to end the year:
But walk'st about thine own dear bounds,
Not envying others' larger grounds:
For well thou know'st, 'tis not th' extent
Of land makes life, but sweet content.
When now the cock (the ploughman's horn)
Calls forth the lily-wristed morn;
Then to thy corn-fields thou dost go,
Which though well soil'd, yet thou dost know
That the b...Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

The Explorer

...there!"

Then I knew, the while I doubted -- knew His Hand was certain o'er me.
 Still -- it might be self-delusion -- scores of better men had died --
I could reach the township living, but. . . He knows what terror tore me . . .
 But I didn't . . . but I didn't. I went down the other side,

Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes,
 And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by;
But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Pied Piper Of Hamelin

...d
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
But how or why, they don't understand.

So, Willy, let you and me be wipers
Of scores out with all men—especially pipers:
And, whether they pipe us free, from rats or from mice,
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise....Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

The Tombstone-Maker

...rd on some poor folk;
‘Unless the fighting stops I’ll soon be broke.’ 

He eyed the Cemetery across the road. 
‘There’s scores of bodies out abroad, this while, 
‘That should be here by rights. They little know’d 
‘How they’d get buried in such wretched style.’

I told him with a sympathetic grin, 
That Germans boil dead soldiers down for fat; 
And he was horrified. ‘What shameful sin! 
‘O sir, that Christian souls should come to that!’...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried

The Vision of Judgment

...the sun repeat, then, what thou hast 
To urge against him,' said the Archangel. 'Why,' 
Replied the spirit, 'since old scores are past, 
Must I turn evidence? In faith, not I. 
Besides, I beat him hollow at the last, 
With all his Lords and Commons: in the sky 
I don't like ripping up old stories, since 
His conduct was but natural in a prince. 

LXXI 

'Foolish, no doubt, and wicked, to oppress 
A poor unlucky devil without a shilling; 
But then I blame the man himself much...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

True Story

...rotest
against
everything.

a one man
Freedom March
that never squeezed in
between
the concert reviews and the
baseball
scores.

God, or somebody,
bless
him....Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

When A Woman Loves A Man

...e Long Island Expressway.

When a woman loves a man it is one-ten in the morning,
she is asleep he is watching the ball scores and eating pretzels
drinking lemonade
and two hours later he wakes up and staggers into bed
where she remains asleep and very warm.

When she says tomorrow she means in three or four weeks.
When she says, "We're talking about me now,"
he stops talking. Her best friend comes over and says,
"Did somebody die?"

When a woman loves a man, they have gone
t...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Scores poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter