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Famous Wot Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...maids i' th' town: 
Though lusty Roger there had been, 
Or little George upon the Green, 
Or Vincent of the Crown.

But wot you what? the youth was going 
To make an end of all his wooing; 
The Parson for him stayed. 
Yet, by his leave, for all his haste, 
He did not so much wish all past, 
Perchance, as did the maid.

The maid (and thereby hangs a tale), 
For such a maid no Whitsun-ale 
Could ever yet produce; 
No grape that's kindly ripe could be 
So round, so plump, so sof...Read more of this...
by Suckling, Sir John



...;
Death's soothing finger, sorrow's smart;
--All the vast various moils that mean a world alive.

But that I fain would wot of shuns my sense--
Those sights of which old prophets tell,
Those signs the general word so well,
Vouchsafed to their unheed, denied my watchings tense.

In graveyard green, behind his monument
To glimpse a phantom parent, friend,
Wearing his smile, and "Not the end!"
Outbreathing softly: that were blest enlightenment;

Or, if a dead Love's lips, whom d...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas
...B.

Bounty* so fix'd hath in thy heart his tent,          *goodness, charity
That well I wot thou wilt my succour be;
Thou canst not *warne that* with good intent             *refuse he who*
Asketh thy help, thy heart is ay so free!
Thou art largess* of plein** felicity,          *liberal bestower **full
Haven and refuge of quiet and rest!
Lo! how that thieves seven  chase me!
Help, Lady bright, ere that my ship to-brest!*      *be brok...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...ue that I must Stella loue. 
VI 

Some louers speake, when they their Muses entertaine,
Of hopes begot by feare, of wot not what desires,
Of force of heau'nly beames infusing hellish paine,
Of liuing deaths, dere wounds, faire storms, and freesing fires:
Some one his song in Ioue and Ioues strange tales attires,
Bordred with buls and swans, powdred with golden raine:
Another, humbler wit, to shepherds pipe retires,
Yet hiding royall bloud full oft in rurall vaine.
...Read more of this...
by Sidney, Sir Philip
...ro famed
should be every earl as Aeschere was!
But here in Heorot a hand hath slain him
of wandering death-sprite. I wot not whither, {20a}
proud of the prey, her path she took,
fain of her fill. The feud she avenged
that yesternight, unyieldingly,
Grendel in grimmest grasp thou killedst, --
seeing how long these liegemen mine
he ruined and ravaged. Reft of life,
in arms he fell. Now another comes,
keen and cruel, her kin to avenge,
faring far in feud of blood:
s...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,



...g serves its purpose!" Hang the fools! 
--That is--you'll not mistake an idle word 
Spoke in a huff by a poor monk, God wot, 
Tasting the air this spicy night which turns 
The unaccustomed head like Chianti wine! 
Oh, the church knows! don't misreport me, now! 
It's natural a poor monk out of bounds 
Should have his apt word to excuse himself: 
And hearken how I plot to make amends. 
I have bethought me: I shall paint a piece 
... There's for you! Give me six months, then go,...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...ant that feels itself 
Root-bitten by white lichen, 

'Lo ye now! 
This fellow hath broken from some Abbey, where, 
God wot, he had not beef and brewis enow, 
However that might chance! but an he work, 
Like any pigeon will I cram his crop, 
And sleeker shall he shine than any hog.' 

Then Lancelot standing near, 'Sir Seneschal, 
Sleuth-hound thou knowest, and gray, and all the hounds; 
A horse thou knowest, a man thou dost not know: 
Broad brows and fair, a fluent hair and f...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...fden,
In mony turned tyme tene that wroyghten.
Mo ferlyes on this folde han fallen here oft
Then in any other that I wot, syn that ilk tyme.
Bot of alle that here bult, of Bretaygne kynges,
Ay watz Arthur the hendest, as I haf herde telle.

Forthi an aunter in erde I attle to schawe,
That a selly in siyght summe men hit holden,
And an outtrage awenture of Arthurez wonderez.
If yghe wyl lysten this laye bot on littel quile,
I schal telle hit as-tit, as I in toun her...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...e to that which next befell, 
 When the dawn opened, and the night was not. 
 The hollowed blackness of that waste, God wot, 
 Shrank, thinned, and ceased. A blinding splendour hot 
 Flushed the great height toward which my footsteps fell, 
 And though it kindled from the nether hell, 
 Or from the Star that all men leads, alike 
 It showed me where the great dawn-glories strike 
 The wide east, and the utmost peaks of snow. 

 How first I entered on that path astray, 
 Beset...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...d to hoodwink,
``I am fain to keep still in abeyance, (I laugh as I think)
``Lest, insisting to claim and parade in it, wot ye, I worst
``E'en the Giver in one gift.---Behold, I could love if I durst!
``But I sink the pretension as fearing a man may o'ertake
``God's own speed in the one way of love: I abstain for love's sake.
``---What, my soul? see thus far and no farther? when doors great and small,
``Nine-and-ninety flew ope at our touch, should the hundredth appal?
``In t...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...;
I can no better tell thee faithfully."
Now certes," quoth this Sompnour, "so fare* I; *do
I spare not to take, God it wot,
*But if* it be too heavy or too hot. *unless*
What I may get in counsel privily,
No manner conscience of that have I.
N'ere* mine extortion, I might not live, *were it not for
For of such japes* will I not be shrive.** *tricks **confessed
Stomach nor conscience know I none;
I shrew* these shrifte-fathers** every one. *curse **confessors
Well be we met, ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...or blanc manger, that made he with the best 

A SHIPMAN was there, *wonned far by West*: *who dwelt far
For ought I wot, be was of Dartemouth. to the West*
He rode upon a rouncy*, as he couth, *hack
All in a gown of falding* to the knee. *coarse cloth
A dagger hanging by a lace had he
About his neck under his arm adown;
The hot summer had made his hue all brown;
And certainly he was a good fellaw.
Full many a draught of wine he had y-draw
From Bourdeaux-ward, while that t...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Grillon.
"So, there, old man,
Thou hast more brows than legs!"
"I would," quoth Gris,
"That thou, upon a certain time I wot,
Hadst had less legs and bigger brows, my Lord!"
Then all the flatterers and their squires cried out
Solicitous, with various voice, "Go to,
Old Rogue," or "Shall I brain him, my good Lord?"
Or, "So, let me but chuck him from his perch,"
Or, "Slice his tongue to piece his leg withal,"
Or, "Send his eyes to look for his missing arms."
But my Lord Raoul wa...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney
...t that was at her wedding
And of the tempest at her homecoming.
But all these things I must as now forbear.
I have, God wot, a large field to ear* *plough;
And weake be the oxen in my plough;
The remnant of my tale is long enow.
I will not *letten eke none of this rout*. *hinder any of
Let every fellow tell his tale about, this company*
And let see now who shall the supper win.
There *as I left*, I will again begin. *where I left off*

This Duke, of whom I make mentioun,
W...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...age to age,
     By their good swords had held with toil;
     His sire had fallen in such turmoil,
     And he, God wot, was forced to stand
     Oft for his right with blade in hand.
     This morning with Lord Moray's train
     He chased a stalwart stag in vain,
     Outstripped his comrades, missed the deer,
     Lost his good steed, and wandered here.'
     ***.

     Fain would the Knight in turn require
     The name and state of Ellen's sire.
     Well s...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...how shall I do this day?
Me were loth to be liken'd doubteless
To Muses, that men call Pierides
(Metamorphoseos  wot what I mean),
But natheless I recke not a bean,
Though I come after him with hawebake*; *lout 
I speak in prose, and let him rhymes make."
And with that word, he with a sober cheer
Began his tale, and said as ye shall hear.


Notes to the Prologue to The Man of Law's Tale


1. Plight: pulled; the word is an obsolete past tense from
"pluck."

2. No mor...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...hat she may her leisure well espy.
"My husband is so full of jealousy,
That but* ye waite well, and be privy, *unless
I wot right well I am but dead," quoth she.
"Ye muste be full derne* as in this case." *secret
"Nay, thereof care thee nought," quoth Nicholas:
"A clerk had *litherly beset his while*, *ill spent his time*
*But if* he could a carpenter beguile." *unless
And thus they were accorded and y-sworn
To wait a time, as I have said beforn.
When Nicholas had done thus e...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...I have misgone:
My head is *totty of my swink* to-night, *giddy from my labour*
That maketh me that I go not aright.
I wot well by the cradle I have misgo';
Here lie the miller and his wife also."
And forth he went a twenty devil way
Unto the bed, there as the miller lay.
He ween'd* t' have creeped by his fellow John, *thought
And by the miller in he crept anon,
And caught him by the neck, and gan him shake,
And said; "Thou John, thou swines-head, awake
For Christes soul, an...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...have heard this false Friar lie,
As suffer me I may my tale tell
This Friar boasteth that he knoweth hell,
And, God it wot, that is but little wonder,
Friars and fiends be but little asunder.
For, pardie, ye have often time heard tell,
How that a friar ravish'd was to hell
In spirit ones by a visioun,
And, as an angel led him up and down,
To shew him all the paines that there were,
In all the place saw he not a frere;
Of other folk he saw enough in woe.
Unto the angel spake ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...n *in mine age* *in my life*
Upon this number definitioun.
Men may divine, and glosen* up and down; *comment
But well I wot, express without a lie,
God bade us for to wax and multiply;
That gentle text can I well understand.
Eke well I wot, he said, that mine husband
Should leave father and mother, and take to me;
But of no number mention made he,
Of bigamy or of octogamy;
Why then should men speak of it villainy?* *as if it were a disgrace

Lo here, the wise king Dan* Solomo...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things