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Famous Vexes Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...Your bar or weighed defence prefer --
A brother hedged with alien speech
 And lacking all interpreter?

Which knowledge vexes him a space;
 But, while Reproof around him rings,
He turns a keen untroubled face
 Home, to the instant need of things.

Enslaved, illogical, elate,
 He greets the embarrassed Gods, nor fears
To shake the iron hand of Fate
 Or match with Destiny for beers.

Lo, imperturbable he rules,
 Unkempt, desreputable, vast --
And, in the teeth of all the school...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard



...nd talks to his own self, howe'er he please, 
Touching that other, whom his dam called God. 
Because to talk about Him, vexes--ha, 
Could He but know! and time to vex is now, 
When talk is safer than in winter-time. 
Moreover Prosper and Miranda sleep 
In confidence he drudges at their task, 
And it is good to cheat the pair, and gibe, 
Letting the rank tongue blossom into speech.] 

Setebos, Setebos, and Setebos! 
'Thinketh, He dwelleth i' the cold o' the moon. 

'Thinketh H...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...mong my crimes! 

"I said it in Hebrew--I said it in Dutch--
I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!" 

"'Tis a pitiful tale," said the Bellman, whose face
Had grown longer at every word:
"But, now that you've stated the whole of your case,
More debate would be simply absurd. 

"The rest of my speech" (he exclaimed to his men)
"You shall hear when I've leisure to speak it.
But the Snark is at hand, let me tell ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
`Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methi...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
...crouches to suit
``His back to my foot,
``Would admire that I stand in debate!
``But the small turns the great
``If it vexes you,---that is the thing!
``Toad or rat vex the king?
``Though I waste half my realm to unearth
``Toad or rat, 'tis well worth!''

VI.

So, I soberly laid my last plan
To extinguish the man. 
Round his creep-hole, with never a break
Ran my fires for his sake;
Over-head, did my thunder combine
With my underground mine:
Till I looked from my labour conte...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert



...Howled back my curse; but 'midst the tread,
The thunder of my courser's speed,
Perchance they did not hear nor heed:
It vexes me - for I would fain
Have paid their insult back again.
I paid it well in after days:
There is not of that castle gate.
Its drawbridge and portcullis' weight,
Stone, bar, moat, bridge, or barrier left;
Nor of its fields a blade of grass,
Save what grows on a ridge of wall,
Where stood the hearth-stone of the hall; 
And many a time ye there might pass,...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...w it moves, 
While the driver on the shaft sits crouched in dreams. 

Surely about his sunburnt face is something 
That vexes me with wonder. He sits so still 
Here among all this silence, crouching forward, 
Dreaming and letting the bullock take its will. 

I stand aside on the grass to let them go; 
-- And Christ, I have met his accusing eyes again, 
The brown eyes black with misery and hate, that look 
Full in my own, and the torment starts again. 

One moment the hate lea...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.
...deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so ryly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell he so,
And they are better for her praise....Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...n,
Till that becomes unseen, and receives proof in its turn. 

Showing the best, and dividing it from the worst, age vexes age; 
Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am
 silent, and go bathe and admire myself. 

Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean; 
Not an inch, nor a particle of an inch, is vile, and none shall be less familiar
 than the rest.

I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing: 
...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...e half-distingusihed faces,
The clouded forms of long-past history.

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the grey flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.

What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief than I can tell:
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling
Can centre both the worlds of heaven and hell....Read more of this...
by Brontë, Emily
...ome, and goes abroad;
If proud or humble the line they take,
They all must eat, drink, sleep, and wake.
So nothing ever vexes me;
Act like the fool, and wise ye'll be!

 1804....Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...pe 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 alone, and as I please
I taste thy love's full smile, and can enstate
The pleasure of my kingly heart at ease,
My thought swims like a ship, that with the weight
Of her rich burden sleeps on the infinite seas
Becalm'd, and cannot stir her golden freight. ...Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...mong my crimes!

"I said it in Hebrew--I said it in Dutch--
 I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
 That English is what you speak!"

"'Tis a pitiful tale," said the Bellman, whose face
 Had grown longer at every word:
"But, now that you've stated the whole of your case,
 More debate would be simply absurd.

"The rest of my speech" (he explained to his men)
 "You shall hear when I've leisure to speak it.
But the Snark is at hand, let me tel...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...ve his mind and go with you 
To India: a good slave he is, but bears 
A restless thought. He has slipt off before, 
And vexes me still to be watching him. 
We'll make a bargain of him. 

Captain I, my Lord? 
I have no need of slaves: I am too poor. 

Stranger 
For twenty silver pieces he is yours. 

Captain 
That's cheap, if he has a skill. Yes, there might be 
Profit in him at that. Has he a trade? 

Stranger 
He is a carpenter. 

Captain A carpenter! 
Why, for a good one I'...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry