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Famous Theories Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Service, Robert William
...hy I rarely use
 Vague words like Soul.

In terms of matter I am sure
This world of our can be defined;
And so with theories obscure
I will not mystify my mind;
And though I use it more or less,
Describing alcoholic scenes,
I do not know, I must confess,
 What Spirit means.

When I survey this cosmic scene,
The term "Creator" seems absurd;
The Universe has always been,
Creation never has occurred.
But in my Lexicon of Doubt
It strikes me definitely odd,
One word I...Read more of this...



by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...tertain and please –
Well, you have done your best.

Then, why, you ask, am I going?
A friend of mine abroad,
Whose theories I have been acting upon,
Has proven himself a fraud.
You have heard me quote from Plato
A thousand times no doubt;
Well, I have discovered he did not know
What he was talking about.

You think I am speaking strangely?
You cannot understand?
Well, let me look down into your eyes,
And let me take your hand.
I am running away from danger –
...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...who am great, or to be great—it is you up there, or any one; 
It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, governments, theories, 
Through poems, pageants, shows, to form great individuals. 

Underneath all, individuals!
I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals, 
The American compact is altogether with individuals, 
The only government is that which makes minute of individuals, 
The whole theory of the universe is directed to one single individual—namely...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...nd losing life. 
He may care little or he may care much 
For riches, honour, pleasure, work, repose, 
Since various theories of life and life's 
Success are extant which might easily 
Comport with either estimate of these; 
And whoso chooses wealth or poverty, 
Labour or quiet, is not judged a fool 
Because his fellow would choose otherwise: 
We let him choose upon his own account 
So long as he's consistent with his choice. 
But certain points, left wholly to himself...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...id much, 
And half of what he did say was not heard
By many of us: we were out of touch 
With all his whims and all his theories 
Till he was dead, so those blank eyes of his 
Might speak them. Then we heard them, every word....Read more of this...



by Guest, Edgar Albert
...ser plan
Than presidents or kings.
He knows the ins and outs of each
And every deep transaction;
We look to him for theories,
But look to ma for action....Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...d me--
Poor fellow! but if you would like to go
We'll visit him, and his wild talk will show
How vain are such aspiring theories."
"I hope to prove the induction otherwise,
And that a want of that true theory, still,
Which seeks a 'soul of goodness' in things ill
Or in himself or others, has thus bow'd
His being. There are some by nature proud,
Who patient in all else demand but this--
To love and be belov'd with gentleness;
And being scorn'd, what wonder if they die
...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...d parts good; 
Who, out of the theory of the earth, and of his or her body, understands by subtle
 analogies
 all other theories, 
The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of These States; 
Who believes not only in our globe, with its sun and moon, but in other globes, with their
 suns
 and moons; 
Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day, but for all time, sees
 races,
 eras, dates, generations,
The past, the future, dwelling there, lik...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...ne? Where shall it be?
No answer on the land, none from the sea.
Only we know that as he did, we must:
You with your theories, you with your trust,—
Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust!
...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...rderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions! 
Let the old propositions be postponed! 
Let faces and theories be turn’d inside out! let meanings be freely criminal, as well
 as
 results! 
Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of drudgery!
Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say! do you know your destination?) 
Let men and women be mock’d with bodies and mock’d with Souls! 
Let the love that waits in them, wait! let it die, or pass stillbo...Read more of this...

by Jong, Erica
...riended
crossed a continent while this century
began. He seldom speaks of painting now.
Young men have time and theories; old men work.
He has painted countless portraits. Sallow
nameless faces, made glistening in oil, smirk
above anonymous mantelpieces.
The turpentine has a familiar smell,
but his hand trembles with odd, new palsies.
Perched on the maulstick, it nears the easel.

He has come to like his resignation.
In his sketch books, ink-da...Read more of this...

by Jong, Erica
...letter!
Send us a parcel of food!
Comfort us with proverbs or candied fruit,
with talk of one God.
Distract us with theories of art
no one can prove.

Here at the end of the world
our heads are empty,
& the wind walks through them
like ghosts
through a haunted house....Read more of this...

by Stevenson, Robert Louis
...ontract forgeries
By Chatterton - Rousseau -

A hundred such as these I tried,
And hundreds after that,
I fitted Social Theories
As one would fit a hat!

Full many a marsh-fire lured me on,
I reached at many a star,
I reached and grasped them and behold -
The stump of a cigar!

All through the sultry sweltering day
The sweat ran down my brow,
The still plains heard my distant strokes
That have been silenced now.

This way and that, now up, now down,
I hailed full many a b...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...th all my heart, 
With my full heart: but there were widows here, 
Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche; 
They fed her theories, in and out of place 
Maintaining that with equal husbandry 
The woman were an equal to the man. 
They harped on this; with this our banquets rang; 
Our dances broke and buzzed in knots of talk; 
Nothing but this; my very ears were hot 
To hear them: knowledge, so my daughter held, 
Was all in all: they had but been, she thought, 
As children; t...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...r this your Academe, 
Whichever side be Victor, in the halloo 
Will topple to the trumpet down, and pass 
With all fair theories only made to gild 
A stormless summer.' 'Let the Princess judge 
Of that' she said: 'farewell, Sir--and to you. 
I shudder at the sequel, but I go.' 

'Are you that Lady Psyche,' I rejoined, 
'The fifth in line from that old Florian, 
Yet hangs his portrait in my father's hall 
(The gaunt old Baron with his beetle brow 
Sun-shaded in the...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...Consonant chords that shiver to one note; 
One mind in all things: yet my mother still 
Affirms your Psyche thieved her theories, 
And angled with them for her pupil's love: 
She calls her plagiarist; I know not what: 
But I must go: I dare not tarry,' and light, 
As flies the shadow of a bird, she fled. 

Then murmured Florian gazing after her, 
'An open-hearted maiden, true and pure. 
If I could love, why this were she: how pretty 
Her blushing was, and how she blus...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...t 
A showery glance upon her aunt, and said, 
'You--tell us what we are' who might have told, 
For she was crammed with theories out of books, 
But that there rose a shout: the gates were closed 
At sunset, and the crowd were swarming now, 
To take their leave, about the garden rails. 

So I and some went out to these: we climbed 
The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw 
The happy valleys, half in light, and half 
Far-shadowing from the west, a land of peace; 
Gray hal...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...Briton will dismiss 
Such rumours (Daily Mail). 
But in the streets of Roundabout 
Are no such factions found, 
Or theories to expound about, 
Or roll upon the ground about, 
In the happy town of Roundabout, 
That makes the world go round....Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...

"We grant them - there is no escape -
A sort of semi-human shape
Suggestive of the man-like Ape." 

"In all such theories," said he,
"One fixed exception there must be.
That is, the Present Company." 

Baffled, she gave a wolfish bark:
He, aiming blindly in the dark,
With random shaft had pierced the mark. 

She felt that her defeat was plain,
Yet madly strove with might and main
To get the upper hand again. 

Fixing her eyes upon the beach,
As though u...Read more of this...

by Lehman, David
...y factory.
On the other hand, women's lot was no worse then
Than it is now. The division of labor made sense
In theories developed by college boys in jeans
Who grasped the logic their fathers had used
To seduce women and deceive themselves.
The pattern repeats itself, the same events
In a different order obeying the conventions of
A popular genre. Winter on a desolate beach. Spring
While there's snow still on the balcony and,
In the window, a plane flies o...Read more of this...

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