Famous Vicar Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Vicar poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous vicar poems. These examples illustrate what a famous vicar poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Chaucer, Geoffrey
...e; for God of his goodness
Forgiveth none, *but it like unto thee;* *unless it please
He hath thee made vicar and mistress thee*
Of all this world, and eke governess
Of heaven; and represseth his justice
After* thy will; and therefore in witness *according to
He hath thee crowned in so royal wise.
T.
Temple devout! where God chose his wonning,* ...Read more of this...
by
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...lled a virtuous life,
A quiet life, which was not life at all,
(But that, she had not lived enough to know)
Between the vicar and the country squires,
The lord-lieutenant looking down sometimes
From the empyrean to assure their souls
Against chance-vulgarisms, and, in the abyss
The apothecary, looked on once a year
To prove their soundness of humility.
The poor-club exercised her Christian gifts
Of knitting stockings, stitching petticoats,
Because we are of one flesh afte...Read more of this...
by
Betjeman, John
...Here among long-discarded cassocks,
Damp stools, and half-split open hassocks,
Here where the vicar never looks
I nibble through old service books.
Lean and alone I spend my days
Behind this Church of England baize.
I share my dark forgotten room
With two oil-lamps and half a broom.
The cleaner never bothers me,
So here I eat my frugal tea.
My bread is sawdust mixed with straw;
My jam is polish for the floor.
Christmas and Easter ...Read more of this...
by
Milligan, Spike
...nd her knees, into each ear
(And up nose as well, I fear)
All through the night the wind grew worse
It nearly made the vicar curse
The top had fallen off the steeple
Just missing him (and other people)
It blew on man, it blew on beast
It blew on nun, it blew on priest
It blew the wig off Auntie Fanny-
But most of all, it blew on Granny!...Read more of this...
by
Swift, Jonathan
...ame,
And found Admittance to the Dame.
Suppose all Partys now agreed,
The Writings drawn, the Lawyer fee'd,
The Vicar and the Ring bespoke:
Guess how could such a Match be broke.
See then what Mortals place their Bliss in!
Next morn betimes the Bride was missing,
The Mother scream'd, the Father chid,
Where can this idle Wench be hid?
No news of Phil. The Bridegroom came,
And thought his Bride had sculk't for shame,
Because her Father us'd to say
The G...Read more of this...
by
Petrarch, Francesco
...bruise the hornsOf Babylon, and all her name who bear;Christ's holy vicar with the honour'd loadOf keys and cloak, returning to his home,Shall see Bologna and our noble Rome,If no ill fortune bar his further road.Best to your meek and high-born lamb belongsTo beat the fierce wolf down: so may it b...Read more of this...
by
Hardy, Thomas
...m.
As soon as I knew
That his spirit was gone
I thought this his due,
And spoke thereupon.
"I think", said the vicar,
"A read service quicker
Than viols out-of-doors
In these frosts and hoars.
That old-fashioned way
Requires a fine day,
And it seems to me
It had better not be."
Hence, that afternoon,
Though never knew he
That his wish could not be,
To get through it faster
They buried the master
Without any tune.
But 'twas said that, when
At the dead of ...Read more of this...
by
Scott, Sir Walter
...t each the buxom chorus bear,
Like brethren of the brand and spear.'
V.
Soldier's Song.
Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Poule
Laid a swinging long curse on the bonny brown bowl,
That there 's wrath and despair in the jolly black-jack,
And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack;
Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with thy liquor,
Drink upsees out, and a fig for the vicar!
Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip
...Read more of this...
by
Gregory, Rg
...s
from rain into sunshine
till almost the hilltop
the hole with its mound
a circle of people
shared its raw hollow
no vicar no service
a speaking of poems
cotoneaster sprigs
dropped into the grave
the red plane returned
cut its own circle
honoured the sunlight
and passed by the moon
from a treetop nearby
a sharp-singing blackbird
trilled its objective
gold-beaked lullay
the grave was filled in
the high hill deserted
and down in the valley
a rare christmas came...Read more of this...
by
Chaucer, Geoffrey
...sin, one of the greate seven,
Abominable to the God of heaven,
And to himself it is destruction.
This every lewed* vicar and parson *ignorant
Can say, how ire engenders homicide;
Ire is in sooth th' executor* of pride. *executioner
I could of ire you say so muche sorrow,
My tale shoulde last until to-morrow.
And therefore pray I God both day and ight,
An irous* man God send him little might. *passionate
It is great harm, and certes great pity
To set an irous ...Read more of this...
by
Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...d in
mind
the "longshore" or "dory" fisherman, who returns at
nightfall.
253. V. Goldsmith, the song in The Vicar of Wakefield.
257. V. The Tempest, as above.
264. The interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of
the finest among Wren's interiors. See The Proposed Demolition
of Nineteen City Churches (P. S. King & Son, Ltd.).
266. The Song of the (three) Thames-daughters begins here.
From line 292 to 306 in...Read more of this...
by
Miller, Alice Duer
...men and dying,
Writing and crying
Over their words, so silly and simple and loving,
Suddenly, looking up, I saw the old Vicar moving
Like fate down the hospital ward, until
He stood still
Beside her, where she sat at a bed.
'Dear friend, come home. I have tragic news,' he said
She looked straight at him without a spasm of fear,
Her face not stern or masked—
'Is it Percy or John?' she asked.
'Percy.' She dropped her eyes. 'I am needed here.
Surely you k...Read more of this...
by
Harrison, Tony
...time.
Fuckers like that get folk like me arrested.
Covet not thy neighbour's wife, thy neighbour's riches.
Vicar and cop who say, to save our souls,
Get thee beHind me, Satan, drop their breeches
and get the Devil's dick right up their 'oles!
It was more a working marriage that I'd meant,
a blend of masculine and feminine.
Ignoring me, he started looking, bent
on some more aerosolling, for his tin.
'It was more a working marriage that I mean!'
****, an...Read more of this...
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