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Famous Wealth Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Crowley, Aleister
...g!
A year of triumph trampling through defeat,
The first made holy and the last made sweet
By this same love; a year of wealth and woe,
Joy, poverty, health, sickness --- all one glow
In the pure light that filled our firmament
Of supreme silence and unbarred extent,
Wherein one sacrament was ours, one Lord,
One resurrection, one recurrent chord,
One incarnation, one descending dove,
All these being one, and that one being Love!

You sent your spirit into tunes; my soul
Yearn...Read more of this...



by Shakespeare, William
...pressest, what are precepts worth
Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!
Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense,
'gainst shame,
And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,
The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.

''Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine;
And supplicant their sighs to you extend,
To leave the b...Read more of this...

by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...ildren[2] of a king. 
The christian truth of origin divine, 
Grows not beneath the shade of civil pow'r, 
Riches or wealth accompanied with pride; 
Nor shall it bloom transplanted to that soil, 
Where persecution, in malignant streams, 
Flows out to water it; black streams and foul 
Which from the lake of Tartarus break forth, 
The sickly tide of Acheron which flows, 
With putrid waves through the infernal shades. 
This plant of heaven loves the gentle beams, 
Of trut...Read more of this...

by Shakur, Tupac
...rtune
Learn from their pain
Believe in something
Believe in yourself
Turn adversity into ambition
Now blossom into wealth...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...our Mind;
But Dulness with Obscenity must prove
As Shameful sure as Importance in Love.
In the fat Age of Pleasure, Wealth, and Ease,
Sprung the rank Weed, and thriv'd with large Increase;
When Love was all an easie Monarch's Care;
Seldom at Council, never in a War:
Jilts rul'd the State, and Statesmen Farces writ;
Nay Wits had Pensions, and young Lords had Wit:
The Fair sate panting at a Courtier's Play,
And not a Mask went un-improv'd away:
The modest Fan was liked up n...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...st lived in abundance.

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the Basin of Minas,
Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of Grand-Pre,
Dwelt on his goodly acres: and with him, directing his household,
Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of the village.
Stalworth and stately in form was the man of seventy winters;
Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered with snow-flakes;
White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as brown as the ...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...s in glee: 
A poet could not but be gay, 
In such a jocund company: 
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought 
What wealth the show to me had brought: 

For oft, when on my couch I lie 
In vacant or in pensive mood, 
They flash upon that inward eye 
Which is the bliss of solitude; 
And then my heart with pleasure fills, 
And dances with the daffodils. 
...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...at they spent 
 In waste immoderate, indicate their guilt 
 In those loud barkings that ye hear. They spilt 
 Their wealth distemperate; and those they meet 
 Who cry 'Why loose ye?' avarice ruled: they bent 
 Their minds on earth to seize and hoard. Of these 
 Hairless, are priests, and popes, and cardinals, 
 For greed makes empire in such hearts complete." 

 And I, "Among them that these vices eat 
 Are none that I have known on earth before?" 

 He answered, ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...et, 
His spirit seem'd to dare you to forget! 

XX. 

There is a festival, where knights and dames, 
And aught that wealth or lofty lineage claims, 
Appear — a high-born and a welcomed guest 
To Otho's hall came Lara with the rest. 
The long carousal shakes the illumined hall, 
Well speeds alike the banquet and the ball; 
And the gay dance of bounding Beauty's train 
Links grace and harmony in happiest chain: 
Blest are the early hearts and gentle hands 
That mingle t...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...allest vermin make the greatest waste, 
And a poor warren once a city rased. 

But they, whom born to virtue and to wealth, 
Nor guilt to flattery binds, nor want to wealth, 
Whose generous conscience and whose courage high 
Does with clear counsels their large souls supply; 
That serve the King with their estates and care, 
And, as in love, on Parliaments can stare, 
(Where few the number, choice is there less hard): 
Give us this court, and rule without a guard....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind, 
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 
To that bad eminence; and, from despair 
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 
Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 
Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught, 
His proud imaginations thus disp...Read more of this...

by Shakespeare, William
...e lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
   For thy sweet love rememb'red such wealth brings
   That then I scorn to change my state with kings....Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ow 
Be only known to us as now. 
I know the wretch who dares demand 
From Giaffir thy reluctant hand; 
More ill-got wealth, a meaner soul 
Holds not a Musselim's control: [20] 
Was he not bred in Egripo? [21] 
A viler race let Israel show! 
But let that pass — to none be told 
Our oath; the rest let time unfold. 
To me and mine leave Osman Bey; 
I've partisans for peril's day: 
Think not I am what I appear; 
I've arms, and friends, and vengeance near." 

XIII....Read more of this...

by Goldsmith, Oliver
...he spoiler's hand,
Far, far away, thy children leave the land.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.

A time there was, ere England's griefs began,
When every rood of ground maintained its man;
For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...doth hurry me to all that's ill,
3.40 I know no Law, nor reason, but my will;
3.41 Sometimes lay wait to take a wealthy purse
3.42 Or stab the man in's own defence, that's worse.
3.43 Sometimes I cheat (unkind) a female Heir
3.44 Of all at once, who not so wise, as fair,
3.45 Trusteth my loving looks and glozing tongue
3.46 Until her friends, treasure, and honour's gone.
3.47 Sometimes I sit carousing others' health
3.48 Until mine ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
For when was Lancelot wanderingly lewd? 

`But she, the wan sweet maiden, shore away 
Clean from her forehead all that wealth of hair 
Which made a silken mat-work for her feet; 
And out of this she plaited broad and long 
A strong sword-belt, and wove with silver thread 
And crimson in the belt a strange device, 
A crimson grail within a silver beam; 
And saw the bright boy-knight, and bound it on him, 
Saying, "My knight, my love, my knight of heaven, 
O thou, my love, who...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...very blade of steel
     More mercy for a foe would feel:
     I grant him liberal, to fling
     Among his clan the wealth they bring,
     When back by lake and glen they wind,
     And in the Lowland leave behind,
     Where once some pleasant hamlet stood,
     A mass of ashes slaked with blood.
     The hand that for my father fought
     I honor, as his daughter ought;
     But can I clasp it reeking red
     From peasants slaughtered in their shed?
     No!...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...*point

If thou be poor, thy brother hateth thee,
And all thy friendes flee from thee, alas!
O riche merchants, full of wealth be ye,
O noble, prudent folk, as in this case,
Your bagges be not fill'd with *ambes ace,* *two aces*
But with *six-cinque*, that runneth for your chance; *six-five*
At Christenmass well merry may ye dance.

Ye seeke land and sea for your winnings,
As wise folk ye knowen all th' estate
Of regnes*; ye be fathers of tidings, *kingdoms
And tales, ...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your Teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to ...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...of life and of gladness, are swarming!
Strange confusion of tongues sounds in the wondering ear.
On to the pile the wealth of the earth is heaped by the merchant,
All that the sun's scorching rays bring forth on Africa's soil,
All that Arabia prepares, that the uttermost Thule produces,
High with heart-gladdening stores fills Amalthea her horn.
Fortune wedded to talent gives birth there to children immortal,
Suckled in liberty's arms, flourish the arts there of joy.Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things