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Famous Spence Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...behave hersel’ wi’ mense:
I’ll say’t, she never brak a fence,
 Thro’ thievish greed.
Our bardie, lanely, keeps the spence
 Sin’ Mailie’s dead.


 Or, if he wanders up the howe,
Her living image in her yowe
Comes bleating till him, owre the knowe,
 For bits o’ bread;
An’ down the briny pearls rowe
 For Mailie dead.


 She was nae get o’ moorland tips,
Wi’ tauted ket, an’ hairy hips;
For her forbears were brought in ships,
 Frae ’yont the Tweed.
A bonier fleesh...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...’s weary flingin-tree,
The lee-lang day had tired me;
And when the day had clos’d his e’e,
 Far i’ the west,
Ben i’ the spence, right pensivelie,
 I gaed to rest.


There, lanely by the ingle-cheek,
I sat and ey’d the spewing reek,
That fill’d, wi’ hoast-provoking smeek,
 The auld clay biggin;
An’ heard the restless rattons squeak
 About the riggin.


All in this mottie, misty clime,
I backward mus’d on wasted time,
How I had spent my youthfu’ prime,
 An’ done nae thi...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...k,* although that they be kings. *laymen*
We live in povert', and in abstinence,
And borel folk in riches and dispence
Of meat and drink, and in their foul delight.
We have this worlde's lust* all in despight** * pleasure **contempt
Lazar and Dives lived diversely,
And diverse guerdon* hadde they thereby. *reward
Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean,
And fat his soul, and keep his body lean
We fare as saith th' apostle; cloth* and food *clothing
Suffice ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...irls upon the cheek, 

"Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's-pence, 
And number'd bead, and shrift, 
Bluff Harry broke into the spence 
And turn'd the cowls adrift: 

"And I have seen some score of those 
Fresh faces that would thrive 
When his man-minded offset rose 
To chase the deer at five; 

"And all that from the town would stroll, 
Till that wild wind made work 
In which the gloomy brewer's soul 
Went by me, like a stork: 

"The slight she-slips of royal blood, 
And others, pa...Read more of this...

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