Famous Sufficiently Poems by Famous Poets

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

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At Corfu

...much like the island itself.

We blame the wild cats who have eaten
all the jeweled yellow snakes of the island.

When sufficiently distant, the outhouses have a sweetness
like frankincense.

A darker congregation, we think the last days
began when they stripped the postage stamps
of their lies and romance.

The chaff of the hillsides
rises like a cramp, defeating a paring of moon . . . its
hot, modest conjunction of planets . . . 

And with this sudden hard rain
the bells o...Read more of this...
by Dubie, Norman


At The Smithville Methodist Church

...had been so long since we believed, so long 
since we needed Jesus 
as our nemesis and friend, that we thought he was 
sufficiently dead, 

that our children would think of him like Lincoln 
or Thomas Jefferson. 
Soon it became clear to us: you can't teach disbelief 
to a child, 

only wonderful stories, and we hadn't a story 
nearly as good. 
On parents' night there were the Arts & Crafts 
all spread out 

like appetizers. Then we took our seats 
in the church 
and the chil...Read more of this...
by Dunn, Stephen

Bishop Blougrams Apology

...
Or needs most, whatsoe'er the love or need-- 
For he can't wed twice. Then, he must avouch, 
Or follow, at the least, sufficiently, 
The form of faith his conscience holds the best, 
Whate'er the process of conviction was: 
For nothing can compensate his mistake 
On such a point, the man himself being judge: 
He cannot wed twice, nor twice lose his soul. 

Well now, there's one great form of Christian faith 
I happened to be born in--which to teach 
Was given me as I grew u...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Captain Craig

...eave to fashion of himself, 
By some resplendent metamorphosis, 
Whatever he was not. And after time, 
When it had come sufficiently to pass 
That he was going patch-clad through the streets,
Weak, dizzy, chilled, and half starved, he had laid 
Some nerveless fingers on a prudent sleeve, 
And told the sleeve, in furtive confidence, 
Just how it was: “My name is Captain Craig,” 
He said, “and I must eat.” The sleeve moved on,
And after it moved others—one or two; 
For Captain ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

Duino Elegies: The First Elegy

...
back into itself, as if such creative forces could never be
achieved a second time.
Have you thought of Gaspara Stampa sufficiently:

that any girl abandoned by her lover may feel
from that far intenser example of loving:
"Ah, might I become like her!" Should not their oldest
sufferings finally become more fruitful for us?
Is it not time that lovingly we freed ourselves
from the beloved and, quivering, endured:
as the arrow endures the bow-string's tension,
and in this tense...Read more of this...
by Rilke, Rainer Maria


If it should ever happen that

...ust fall in our hearts and break;
If, in spite of all, I should feel myself vanquished because I had not bowed my will sufficiently to the divine immensity of goodness;
Then, oh! then let us embrace like two sublime madmen who beneath the broken skies cling to the summits even so—and with one flight and soul ablaze grow greater in death....Read more of this...
by Verhaeren, Emile

Learning the Trees

...lar, cordate, cleft and reniform –
And their venation – palmate and parallel –
And tips – acute, truncate, auriculate.

Sufficiently provided, you may now
Go forth to the forests and the shady streets
To see how the chaos of experience
Answers to catalogue and category.

Confusedly. The leaves of a single tree
May differ among themselves more than they do
From other species, so you have to find,
All blandly says the book, "an average leaf."

Example, the catalpa in the book
S...Read more of this...
by Nemerov, Howard

Myself was formed -- a Carpenter

...me
My Plane -- and I, together wrought
Before a Builder came --

To measure our attainments --
Had we the Art of Boards
Sufficiently developed -- He'd hire us
At Halves --

My Tools took Human -- Faces --
The Bench, where we had toiled --
Against the Man -- persuaded --
We -- Temples build -- I said --...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

Paradise Lost: Book 08

...lt taste 
No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary. 
What thinkest thou then of me, and this my state? 
Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed 
Of happiness, or not? who am alone 
From all eternity; for none I know 
Second to me or like, equal much less. 
How have I then with whom to hold converse, 
Save with the creatures which I made, and those 
To me inferiour, infinite descents 
Beneath what other creatures are to thee? 
He ceased; I lowly answered. To attain 
The highth ...Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Rabbi Ben Ezra

...ent, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:
Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed.

What though the earlier grooves,
Which ran the laughing loves
Around thy base, no longer pause and press?
What though, about thy rim,
Skull-things in order grim
Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?

Look not thou down but up!
To uses of a cup,
The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal,
The new wine's foaming flo...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Shakespeares Ghost - A Parody

...o black."--
"Ay, there is nothing that beats a jest that is stolid and barren,
But then e'en sorrow can please, if 'tis sufficiently moist."
"But do ye also exhibit the graceful dance of Thalia,
Joined to the solemn step with which Melpomene moves?"--
"Neither! For naught we love but what is Christian and moral;
And what is popular, too, homely, domestic, and plain."
"What? Does no Caesar, does no Achilles, appear on your stage now,
Not an Andromache e'en, not an Orestes, my ...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Bride of Abydos

...cording to the extent of territory, and bring a certain number into the field, generally cavalry. 

(8) When a Pacha is sufficiently strong to resist, the single messenger, who is always the first bearer of the order for his death, is strangled instead, and sometimes five or six, one after the other, on the same errand, by command of the refractory patient; if, on the contrary, he is weak or loyal, he bows, kisses the Sultan's respectable signature, and is bowstrung with grea...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Vision of Judgment

...ls, the ambition of those of an informer. If there exists anywhere, except in his imagination, such a School, is he not sufficiently armed against it by his own intense vanity? The truth is, that there are certain writers whom Mr. S. imagines, like Scrub, to have 'talked of him; for they have laughed consumedly.' 

I think I know enough of most of the writers to whom he is supposed to allude, to assert, that they, in their individual capacities, have done more good, in the ch...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

To A World-Reformer

...ell thee, my friend, how I to humor him manage?
Trust the proverb! I ne'er have been deceived by it yet.
Thou canst not sufficiently prize humanity's value;
Let it be coined in deed as it exists in thy breast.
E'en to the man whom thou chancest to meet in life's narrow pathway,
If he should ask it of thee, hold forth a succoring hand.
But for rain and for dew, for the general welfare of mortals,
Leave thou Heaven to care, friend, as before, so e'en now....Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

To Think of Time

...eft crosses the warp, the pattern is
 systematic. 

The preparations have every one been justified, 
The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments—the baton has given the
 signal.

The guest that was coming—he waited long, for reasons—he is now housed, 
He is one of those who are beautiful and happy—he is one of those that to look upon
 and be
 with is enough. 

The law of the past cannot be eluded, 
The law of the present and future cannot be eluded, 
The law of th...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Toads

...ough 
 To shout Stuff your pension!
But I know, all too well, that's the stuff
 That dreams are made on:

For something sufficiently toad-like
 Squats in me, too;
Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck,
 And cold as snow,

And will never allow me to blarney
 My way of getting
The fame and the girl and the money
 All at one sitting.

I don't say, one bodies the other
 One's spiritual truth;
But I do say it's hard to lose either,
 When you have both....Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip

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