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Famous Teach Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Pope, Alexander
...k's Share;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their Light,
These born to Judge, as well as those to Write.
Let such teach others who themselves excell,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their Wit, 'tis true,
But are not Criticks to their Judgment too?

Yet if we look more closely, we shall find
Most have the Seeds of Judgment in their Mind;
Nature affords at least a glimm'ring Light;
The Lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right.<...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...in death, for precious life of you, 
Angry cloth I saw there leaping.) 

12
Are you he who would assume a place to teach, or be a poet here in The States? 
The place is august—the terms obdurate.

Who would assume to teach here, may well prepare himself, body and mind, 
He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself, 
He shall surely be question’d beforehand by me with many and stern questions. 

Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing ...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women ...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...n natural honour, not to bend the knee
In profitless prostrations whose effect
Is by itself condemned, what alchemy
Can teach me this? what herb Medea brewed
Will bring the unexultant peace of essence not subdued?

The minor chord which ends the harmony,
And for its answering brother waits in vain
Sobbing for incompleted melody,
Dies a swan's death; but I the heir of pain,
A silent Memnon with blank lidless eyes,
Wait for the light and music of those suns which never rise.Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
..., - and the boon 
 Ye hold in secret." 
 "Kind my
 guide," I said, 
 "I was not silent to conceal, but thou 
 Didst teach, when in thy written words I read, 
 That in brief speech is wisdom." 

 Here a voice 
 Behind me, "Tuscan, who canst walk at choice 
 Untouched amidst the torments, wilt thou stay? 
 For surely native of the noble land 
 Where once I held my too-audacious way, 
 Discreet of speech, thou comest." 
 The
 sudden cry 
 So close behind me from the ...Read more of this...



by Wordsworth, William
...  And every day we two will pray  For him that's gone and far away.   I'll teach my boy the sweetest things;  I'll teach him how the owlet sings.  My little babe! thy lips are still,  And thou hast almost suck'd thy fill.  —Where art thou gone my own dear child?  What wicked looks are those I see?  Alas! alas! that look so wild,  It ne...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...double how endured, 
To one, and to his image now proclaimed? 
But what if better counsels might erect 
Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke? 
Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend 
The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust 
To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves 
Natives and sons of Heaven possessed before 
By none; and if not equal all, yet free, 
Equally free; for orders and degrees 
Jar not with liberty, but well consist. 
Who can in reason then, ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...oble dower: 
And his and my united power 
Will laugh to scorn the death-firman, 
Which others tremble but to scan, 
And teach the messenger what fate 
The bearer of such boon may wait, [8] 
And now thy know'st thy father's will; 
All that thy sex hath need to know: 
'Twas mine to teach obedience still — 
The way to love, thy lord may show." 

VIII. 

In silence bow'd the virgin's head; 
And if her eye was fill'd with tears 
That stifled feeling dare not shed, 
And cha...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...made him friends of mountains; with the stars
And the quick Spirit of the Universe
He held his dialogues: and they did teach
To him the magic of their mysteries;
To him the book of Night was opened wide,
And voices from the deep abyss revealed
A marvel and a secret.—Be it so.

IX

My dream is past; it had no further change.
It was of a strange order, that the doom
Of these two creatures should be thus traced out
Almost like a reality—the one
To end in madness—bot...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...nd the ring 
Until their brains and bloods were foul 
Enough to make their throttles howl, 
While we whom Jesus died to teach 
Fought round on round, three minutes each. 

And think that, you'll understand 
I thought, "I'll go and take Bill's hand. 
I'll up and say the fault was mine, 
He shan't make play for these here swine." 
And then I thought that that was silly, 
They'd think I was afraid of Billy; 
They'd think (I thought it, God forgive me) 
I funked the h...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...then for third
The classic Milton, and to us arose
Shelley with liquid music in the world. 

5
The poets were good teachers, for they taught
Earth had this joy; but that 'twould ever be
That fortune should be perfected in me,
My heart of hope dared not engage the thought.
So I stood low, and now but to be caught
By any self-styled lords of the age with thee
Vexes my modesty, lest they should see
I hold them owls and peacocks, things of nought. 
And when we sit al...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...and fountains murmuring,
        Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep,
     Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep?

     Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon, 10
        Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd,
     When lay of hopeless love, or glory won,
        Aroused the fearful or subdued the proud.
     At each according pause was heard aloud
        Thine ardent symphony sublime and high!
     Fair dames and crested chiefs attention...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...ay,
Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?


Proverbs of Hell.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. 

The cut worm forgives the plow.

Dip him in the river who loves water.

A fool sees not the ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ildren! O I wish 
That I were some great princess, I would build 
Far off from men a college like a man's, 
And I would teach them all that men are taught; 
We are twice as quick!' And here she shook aside 
The hand that played the patron with her curls. 

And one said smiling 'Pretty were the sight 
If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt 
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, 
And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. 
I think they should no...Read more of this...

by Thomson, James
...still resolv'd,
With new-flush'd Hopes, to run your giddy Round.

FATHER of Light, and Life! Thou Good Supreme! 
O! teach me what is Good! teach me thy self!
Save me from Folly, Vanity and Vice,
From every low Pursuit! and feed my Soul,
With Knowledge, conscious Peace, and Vertue pure,
Sacred, substantial, never-fading Bliss! 

LO! from the livid East, or piercing North,
Thick Clouds ascend, in whose capacious Womb,
A vapoury Deluge lies, to Snow congeal'd:
Heavy, they ro...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your Teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the b...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...adow growing on his face. 


The Second Voice 


THEY walked beside the wave-worn beach;
Her tongue was very apt to teach,
And now and then he did beseech 

She would abate her dulcet tone,
Because the talk was all her own,
And he was dull as any drone. 

She urged "No cheese is made of chalk":
And ceaseless flowed her dreary talk,
Tuned to the footfall of a walk. 

Her voice was very full and rich,
And, when at length she asked him "Which?"
It mounted to its high...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...masculine!—I melted at the sound. 
Oh, English voices, are there any words 
Those tones to tell, those cadences to teach! 
As song of thrushes is to other birds, 
So English voices are to other speech; 
Those pure round 'o's '—those lovely liquid 'l's' 
Ring in the ears like sound of Sabbath bells.

Yet I have loathed those voices when the sense
Of what they said seemed to me insolence,
As if the dominance of the whole nation
Lay in that clear correct enunciation.Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...heart grew bold,
Such gentleness and power even to behold.

The brinded lioness led forth her young,
That she might teach them how they should forego
Their inborn thirst of death; the pard unstrung
His sinews at her feet, and sought to know,
With looks whose motions spoke without a tongue,
How he might be as gentle as the doe.
The magic circle of her voice and eyes
All savage natures did imparadise.

And old Silenus, shaking a green stick
Of lilies, and the Wood-g...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...
The killer's sleep is haunted, dead man said,
Death's angel thus awaits me at deathbed.
Forgive me now. Lord teaches to forgive.
In burning agony my flesh does live,
And already the spirit gently sleeps,
A garden I recall, tender with autumn leaves
And cries of cranes, and the black fields around..
How sweet it would be with you underground!



x x x
The muse has left along narrow
And winding street,
And with large drops of dew
Were sprin...Read more of this...

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