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Famous Winning Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...r's roses, 
And we cry with delight, "Oh, how sweet they do smell!"

Perhaps you will answer all needful conditions
For winning the laurels to which you aspire,
By docking the tails of the two prepositions
I' the style o' the bards you so greatly admire.

As for subjects of verse, they are only too plenty
For ringing the changes on metrical chimes;
A maiden, a moonbeam, a lover of twenty 
Have filled that great basket with bushels of rhymes.

Let me show you a picture...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...

 LXXXII 
Precious the penitential tear; 
And precious is the sigh sincere; 
 Acceptable to God: 
And precious are the winning flow'rs, 
In gladsome Israel's feast of bow'rs, 
 Bound on the hallow'd sod. 

 LXXXIII 
More precious that diviner part 
Of David, ev'n the Lord's own heart, 
 Great, beautiful, and new: 
In all things where it was intent, 
In all extremes, in each event, 
 Proof—answ'ring true to true. 

 LXXXIV 
Glorious the sun in mid career; 
Glorious th...Read more of this...

by Morris, William
...Sped o'er the course, and little doubt had she
To win the day, though now but scanty space
Was left betwixt him and the winning place.

Short was the way unto such wingèd feet, 
Quickly she gained upon him till at last 
He turned about her eager eyes to meet 
And from his hand the third fair apple cast. 
She wavered not, but turned and ran so fast 
After the prize that should her bliss fulfil, 
That in her hand it lay ere it was still.

Nor did she rest, but turne...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...er now come rich

poetry's purpose is to hit the jackpot
so great the lust for poetic fame
thousands without a ghost of winning
find poems like mothballs in their drawers
sprinkle them with twinkling stardust
post them off with copperplate cheques
the judges wipe their arses on them
the money's gone to a super cause

everyone knows it's just a joke
who gets taken - the foolish and vain
if they're daft enough and such bad poets
more money than sense the best advice 
is - keep ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...g in the deeps
Upon the hidden bases of the hills.'
So might some old man speak in the aftertime
To all the people, winning reverence.
But now much honour and much fame were lost."


So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Excalibur the second time,
And so strode back slow to the wounded King.


Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:
"What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?'


And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
"I heard the water lapp...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...ose or gain; but still
Played on for hours, as if her win
Yet bound her to the place, though not
That hers might be the winning lot.
Then through my brain the thought did pass 
Even as a flash of lightning there,
That there was something in her air
Which would not doom me to despair; 
And on the thought my words broke forth,
All incoherent as they were -
Their eloquence was little worth,
But yet she listened - 'tis enough -
Who listens once will listen twice;
Her heart, b...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...thou canst not leave 15 
Thy song nor ever can those trees be bare; 
Bold Lover never never canst thou kiss  
Though winning near the goal¡ªyet do not grieve; 
She cannot fade though thou hast not thy bliss  
For ever wilt thou love and she be fair! 20 

Ah happy happy boughs! that cannot shed 
Your leaves nor ever bid the Spring adieu; 
And happy melodist unweari¨¨d  
For ever piping songs for ever new; 
More happy love! more happy happy love! 25 
For ever warm a...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...y's timid smile serene,
The dimples of Love's sportive mien; 
The sweet descriptive tale to trace; 
To picture Nature's winning grace;
To steal the tear from Pity's eye; 
To catch the sympathetic sigh; 
O teach me, with swift light'nings force
To watch wild passion's varying course; 
To mark th' enthusiast's vivid fire,
Or calmly touch thy golden lyre,
While gentle Reason mildly sings
Responsive to the trembling strings. 

SWEET Nymph, enchanting Poetry! 
I dedicate my mi...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...f might offer now, 
Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 
And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 
Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice 
Forbidding; and at once with him they rose. 
Their rising all at once was as the sound 
Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
With awful reverence prone, and as a God 
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.<...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...raight, invisibly thus led? 
Till I espied thee, fair indeed and tall, 
Under a platane; yet methought less fair, 
Less winning soft, less amiably mild, 
Than that smooth watery image: Back I turned; 
Thou following cryedst aloud, 'Return, fair Eve; 
'Whom flyest thou? whom thou flyest, of him thou art, 
'His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent 
'Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart, 
'Substantial life, to have thee by my side 
'Henceforth an individual solace dear...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nd mutual honour joined? 
With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went, 
Not unattended; for on her, as Queen, 
A pomp of winning Graces waited still, 
And from about her shot darts of desire 
Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight. 
And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt proposed, 
Benevolent and facile thus replied. 
To ask or search, I blame thee not; for Heaven 
Is as the book of God before thee set, 
Wherein to read his wonderous works, and learn 
His seasons, hours, ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...f female seed, far abler to resist
All his solicitations, and at length
All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell—
Winning by conquest what the first man lost
By fallacy surprised. But first I mean
To exercise him in the Wilderness;
There he shall first lay down the rudiments
Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth
To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes.
By humiliation and strong sufferance 
His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,
And all the world...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ows?---or endure!
``The man taught enough, by life's dream, of the rest to make sure;
``By the pain-throb, triumphantly winning intensified bliss,
``And the next world's reward and repose, by the struggles in this.

XVIII.

``I believe it! 'Tis thou, God, that givest, 'tis I who receive:
``In the first is the last, in thy will is my power to believe.
``All's one gift: thou canst grant it moreover, as prompt to my prayer
``As I breathe out this breath, as I open th...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...l thing hath a time;
The day is short and it is passed prime,
And yet have I won nothing in this day;
I will intend* to winning, if I may, *apply myself
And not intend our thinges to declare:
For, brother mine, thy wit is all too bare
To understand, although I told them thee.
*But for* thou askest why laboure we: *because*
For sometimes we be Godde's instruments
And meanes to do his commandements,
When that him list, upon his creatures,
In divers acts and in divers figure...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ootes clasped fair and fetisly*. *neatly
His reasons aye spake he full solemnly,
Sounding alway th' increase of his winning.
He would the sea were kept  for any thing
Betwixte Middleburg and Orewell
Well could he in exchange shieldes* sell *crown coins 
This worthy man full well his wit beset*; *employed
There wiste* no wight** that he was in debt, *knew **man
So *estately was he of governance* *so well he managed*
With his bargains, and with his chevisanc...Read more of this...

by Bonnefoy, Yves
...d house to satisfy
The needs of dream, but he leaves,
And when he does, the child clumsily takes the cards,
He puts the winning ones in the other’s hand,
Then waits feverishly for the game to begin again,
And for the one who was losing to win, and so triumphantly
That he might see in this victory a sign, something
To nourish some hope the child cannot know.
After this, two paths part, and one of them
Vanishes, and almost immediately, forgetfulness
Sets in, avid, relentles...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ayfully the chaplet wild
     She wreathed in her dark locks, and smiled.
     X.

     Her smile, her speech, with winning sway
     Wiled the old Harper's mood away.
     With such a look as hermits throw,
     When angels stoop to soothe their woe
     He gazed, till fond regret and pride
     Thrilled to a tear, then thus replied:
     'Loveliest and best! thou little know'st
     The rank, the honors, thou hast lost!
     O. might I live to see thee grace,
 ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
..., wins, though dashed with death 
He reddens what he kisses: thus I won 
You mother, a good mother, a good wife, 
Worth winning; but this firebrand--gentleness 
To such as her! if Cyril spake her true, 
To catch a dragon in a cherry net, 
To trip a tigress with a gossamer 
Were wisdom to it.' 
'Yea but Sire,' I cried, 
'Wild natures need wise curbs. The soldier? No: 
What dares not Ida do that she should prize 
The soldier? I beheld her, when she rose 
The yesternight...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...
A Youth more glitt'ring than a Birth-night Beau,
(That ev'n in Slumber caus'd her Cheek to glow)
Seem'd to her Ear his winning Lips to lay,
And thus in Whispers said, or seem'd to say.

Fairest of Mortals, thou distinguish'd Care
Of thousand bright Inhabitants of Air!
If e'er one Vision touch'd thy infant Thought,
Of all the Nurse and all the Priest have taught, 
Of airy Elves by Moonlight Shadows seen,
The silver Token, and the circled Green,
Or Virgins visited by Angel...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...herefore every man this tale I tell,
Win whoso may, for all is for to sell;
With empty hand men may no hawkes lure;
For winning would I all his will endure,
And make me a feigned appetite,
And yet in bacon* had I never delight: *i.e. of Dunmow 9
That made me that I ever would them chide.
For, though the Pope had sitten them beside,
I would not spare them at their owen board,
For, by my troth, I quit* them word for word *repaid
As help me very God omnipotent,
Thoug...Read more of this...

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