Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Weakest Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...Oh, I have n't got long to live, for we all
Die soon, e'en those who live longest;
And the poorest and weakest are taking their chance
Along with the richest and strongest.
So it's heigho for a glass and a song,
And a bright eye over the table,
And a dog for the hunt when the game is flush,
And the pick of a gentleman's stable.
There is Dimmock o' Dune, he was here yester-night,
But he 's rotting to-day on Glen Arragh;
'Twas the hand o' MacPherson tha...Read more of this...



by Cowper, William
...
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian's armour bright;
And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel's side;
But when through weariness they fail'd,
That moment Amalek prevail'd.

Have you no words? Ah, think again,
Words flow apace when you complain,
And fill your fellow-creature's ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thu...Read more of this...

by Williams, William Carlos (WCW)
...meet you
 after the event
and have still to meet you.
 Love
 to which you too shall bow
along with me-
 a flower
 a weakest flower
shall be our trust
 and not because
 we are too feeble
to do otherwise
 but because
 at the height of my power
I risked what I had to do,
 therefore to prove
 that we love each other
while my very bones sweated
 that I could not cry to you
 in the act.
Of asphodel, that greeny flower,
 I come, my sweet,
 to sing to you!
My heart rouses
 th...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...ir tempters, shelter their steps with thy power.
Leave not life's fairest to perish —strangers to thee,
Let not the weakest be shipwrecked, oh, star of the sea!...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...for a soul, 
A simple mind geared to a simple goal? 
You fashioned me, great headed and obscene 
On two weak legs, the weakest thing between. 

My blood was bubbling like a ten-day stew; 
it kept on telling me the thing to do. 
I asked, she acquiesced, and then we fell 
To private Edens in the midst of hell. 
For forty days temptation was our meal, 
The night our guide, and what we could not feel 
We could not trust. Later, beneath the bed, 
We found you taki...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...remain, where faith and realty 
Remain not: Wherefore should not strength and might 
There fail where virtue fails, or weakest prove 
Where boldest, though to fight unconquerable? 
His puissance, trusting in the Almighty's aid, 
I mean to try, whose reason I have tried 
Unsound and false; nor is it aught but just, 
That he, who in debate of truth hath won, 
Should win in arms, in both disputes alike 
Victor; though brutish that contest and foul, 
When reason hath to deal wit...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...ped me?
Would it not be well to carve a hand
With an inverted thumb, like Elagabalus?
And yonder is a broken chain,
The weakest-link idea perhaps --
But what was it?
And lambs, some lying down,
Others standing, as if listening to the shepherd --
Others bearing a cross, one foot lifted up --
Why not chisel a few shambles?
And fallen columns! Carve the pedestal, please,
Or the foundations; let us see the cause of the fall.
And compasses and mathematical instruments,
In iron...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...But what is strength without a double share
Of wisdom, vast, unwieldy, burdensom,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall
By weakest suttleties, not made to rule,
But to subserve where wisdom bears command.
God, when he gave me strength, to shew withal
How slight the gift was, hung it in my Hair.
But peace, I must not quarrel with the will 
Of highest dispensation, which herein
Happ'ly had ends above my reach to know:
Suffices that to me strength is my bane,
And proves the...Read more of this...

by Jonson, Ben
...adows of us men ?  At morn and even shades are longest ;     At noon they are or short, or none : So men at weakest, they are strongest,     But grant us perfect, they're not known.  10 Say, are not women truly, then, Styl'd but the shadows of us men ?
     Seem to fly it, it will pursue : So court a mistress, she denies you ;     Let her alone, she will court you. Say are not women truly, then,                     5 Styl'd...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...y, kid; you'll stay the longer."

When I was on the Yukon trail
The boys would warn, when things were bleakest,
The weakest link's the one to fail -
Said I: "by Gosh! I won't be weakest."
So I would strain with might and main,
Striving to prove I was the stronger,
Till Sourdough Sam would snap: "Goddam!
Go easy, son; you'' last the longer."
So all you lads of eighty odd
Take my advice - you'll never rue it:
Be quite prepared to meet your God,
But don't stampede yo...Read more of this...

by Jonson, Ben
...en
Styled but the shadows of us men?

At morn and even shades are longest,
At noon they are or short or none;
So men at weakest, they are strongest,
But grant us perfect, they're not known.
Say, are not women truly then
Styled but the shadows of us men?...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...at the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.

Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,
There is always somewhere a weakest spot, --
In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,
In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,
In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace, -- lurking still,
Find it somewhere you must and will, --
Above or below, or within or without, --
And that's the reason, beyond a doubt,
A chaise breaks down, but does n't wear out.

But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do,
Wit...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...at the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.

Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,
There is always somewhere a weakest spot, --
In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,
In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,
In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace, -- lurking still,
Find it somewhere you must and will, --
Above or below, or within or without, --
And that's the reason, beyond a doubt,
A chaise breaks down, but does n't wear out.

But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do,
Wit...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...w  'Of husbandry or tillage;  And now he's forced to work, though weak,  —The weakest in the village.   He all the country could outrun,  Could leave both man and horse behind;  And often, ere the race was done,  He reeled and was stone-blind.  And still there's something in the world  At which his heart rejoices;  For when the chi...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...ace, and in his durability you are deathless. 

You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link. 

This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link. 

To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam. 

To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconsistency. 

Ay, you are like an ocean, 

And though heavy-grounded sh...Read more of this...

by Thompson, Francis
...ts by me that Footfall.
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
Ah, Fondest, Blindest, Weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest.
Thou dravest Love from thee who dravest Me....Read more of this...

by Jonson, Ben
...ed but the shadows of us men? 

At morn and even shades are longest; 
At noon they are or short or none: 
So men at weakest they are strongest  
But grant us perfect they're not known. 10 
Say are not women truly then  
Styled but the shadows of us men? ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...Which is the weakest thing of all
Mine heart can ponder?
The sun, a little cloud can pall
With darkness yonder?
The cloud, a little wind can move
Where'er it listeth?
The wind, a little leaf above,
Though sere, resisteth?

What time that yellow leaf was green,
My days were gladder;
But now, whatever Spring may mean,
I must grow sadder.
Ah me! a leaf with sighs can wr...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ltation" when in the sign of the Zodiac in which it exerted
its strongest influence; the opposite sign, in which it was
weakest, was called its "dejection." Venus being strongest in
Pisces, was weakest in Virgo; but in Virgo Mercury was in
"exaltation."

33. Intermete: interpose; French, "entremettre."


THE TALE. 1


In olde dayes of the king Arthour,
Of which that Britons speake great honour,
All was this land full fill'd of faerie;* *fairies
The Elf-que...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
..., his tayle, his pawes,
And from his bloodie eyes doth sparkle fire;
That dead himselfe he wisheth for despight.
So weakest may anoy the most of might.

11

What time the Romaine Empire bore the raine
Of all the world, and florisht most in might,
The nations gan their soueraigntie disdaine,
And cast to quitt them from their bondage quight:
So when all shrouded were in silent night,
The Galles were, by corrupting of a mayde,
Possest nigh of the Capitol through slight,
...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Weakest poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs