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Famous Vocation Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...YE sons of old Killie, assembled by Willie,
 To follow the noble vocation;
Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another
 To sit in that honoured station.
I’ve little to say, but only to pray,
 As praying’s the ton of your fashion;
A prayer from thee Muse you well may excuse
 ’Tis seldom her favourite passion.


Ye powers who preside o’er the wind, and the tide,
 Who markèd each element’s border;
Who formed this...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...itude
 Strung about Creation
Seeth one or more of us
(Of one muster each of us),
Diligent in that he does,
 Keen in his vocation.

This we learned from famous men,
 Knowing not its uses,
When they showed, in daily work--
Man must finish off his work--
Right or wrong, his daily work--
 And without excuses.


Servant of the Staff and chain,
 Mine and fuse and grapnel--
Some, before the face of Kings,
Stand before the face of Kings;
Bearing gifts to divers Kings--
 Gifts...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
... 

There is a good look that I wear 
like a blood clot. I have 
sewn it over my left breast. 
I have made a vocation of it. 
Lust has taken plant in it 
and I have placed you and your 
child at its milk tip. 

Oh the blackness is murderous 
and the milk tip is brimming 
and each machine is working 
and I will kiss you when 
I cut up one dozen new men 
and you will die somewhat, 
again and again....Read more of this...

by Gluck, Louise
...I regret bitterly
The years of loving you in both
Your presence and absence, regret
The law, the vocation
That forbid me to keep you, the sea
A sheet of glass, the sun-bleached
Beauty of the Greek ships: how
Could I have power if
I had no wish
To transform you: as
You loved my body,
As you found there
Passion we held above
All other gifts, in that single moment
Over honor and hope, over
Loyalty, in the name of that bond
I refuse you
Such feeling for you...Read more of this...

by Pound, Ezra
...ion;

Doubtful, somewhat, of the value
Of well-gowned approbation
Of literary effort,
But never of The Lady Valentine's vocation:

Poetry, her border of ideas,
The edge, uncertain, but a means of blending
With other strata
Where the lower and higher have ending;

A hook to catch the Lady Jane's attention,
A modulation toward the theatre,
Also, in the case of revolution,
A possible friend and comforter.

* * * 

Conduct, on the other hand, the soul
"Which the highest cultu...Read more of this...



by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...IN His blest name, who was His own creation,
Who from all time makes making his vocation;
The name of Him who makes our faith so bright,
Love, confidence, activity, and might;
In that One's name, who, named though oft He be,
Unknown is ever in Reality:
As far as ear can reach, or eyesight dim,
Thou findest but the known resembling Him;
How high so'er thy fiery spirit hovers,
Its simile and type it straight discovers
Onward thou'rt drawn...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...THE stork who worms and frogs devours

That in our ponds reside,
Why should he dwell on high church-towers,

With which he's not allied?

Incessantly he chatters there,

And gives our ears no rest;
But neither old nor young can dare

To drive him from his nest.

I humbly ask it,--how can he

Give of his title proof,
Save by his happy tendency

To soil ...Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...gainst this rocky wall,
Neath the elm-tree's shadow,
Lay aside my burden,
Near thee take my rest.

WOMAN.

What vocation leads thee,
While the day is burning,
Up this dusty path?
Bring'st thou goods from out the town
Round the country?
Smil'st thou, stranger,
At my question?

WANDERER.

From the town no goods I bring.
Cool is now the evening;
Show to me the fountain
'Whence thou drinkest,
Woman young and kind!

WOMAN.

Up the rocky pathway mount;
Go thou f...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...n
Theirs was the better right--agreed.

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes....Read more of this...

by Tagore, Rabindranath
...When the gong sounds ten in the morning and I walk to school by our
lane.
Every day I meet the hawker crying, "Bangles, crystal
bangles!"
There is nothing to hurry him on, there is no road he must
take, no place he must go to, no time when he must come home.
I wish I were a hawker, spending my day in the road, crying,
"Bangles, crystal bangles!"
Wh...Read more of this...

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