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Famous Wrong Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Alighieri, Dante
...d, 
 "One that is faithful to thy name is sped, 
 Except that now ye aid him." She thereat, 
 - Lucia, to all men's wrongs inimical - 
 Left her High Place, and crossed to where I sat 
 In speech with Rachel (of the first of all 
 God saved). "O Beatrice, Praise of God," 
 - So said she to me - "sitt'st thou here so slow 
 To aid him, once on earth that loved thee so 
 That all he left to serve thee? Hear'st thou not 
 The anguish of his plaint? and dost not see, 
 By...Read more of this...



by Byron, George (Lord)
...ot when others were at rest? 
Why heard no music, and received no guest? 
All was not well, they deem'd — but where the wrong? 
Some knew perchance — but 'twere a tale too long; 
And such besides were too discreetly wise, 
To more than hint their knowledge in surmise; 
But if they would — they could" — around the board, 
Thus Lara's vassals prattled of their lord. 

X. 

It was the night — and Lara's glassy stream 
The stars are studding, each with imaged beam: 
So ca...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...>)
This difference from other names it was
Made people notice it—and notice her.
(They either noticed it, or got it wrong.)
Her problem was to find out what it asked
In dress or manner of the girl who bore it.
If she could form some notion of her mother—
What she bad thought was lovely, and what good.
This was her mother's childhood home;
The house one story high in front, three stories
On the end it presented to the road.
(The arrangement made a pleasant ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ot incorruptible of faith, not proof 
Against temptation: Thou thyself with scorn 
And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong, 
Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then, 
If such affront I labour to avert 
From thee alone, which on us both at once 
The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare; 
Or daring, first on me the assault shall light. 
Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn; 
Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce 
Angels; nor think superfluous other's aid.Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...w steep the stairs within kings' houses are,
And all the petty miseries which mar
Man's nobler nature with the sense of wrong.
Yet this dull world is grateful for thy song;
Our nations do thee homage, - even she,
That cruel queen of vine-clad Tuscany,
Who bound with crown of thorns thy living brow,
Hath decked thine empty tomb with laurels now,
And begs in vain the ashes of her son.

O mightiest exile! all thy grief is done:
Thy soul walks now beside thy Beatrice;
Rav...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...we all: but do not call him, love,
Before you prove him, rogue, and proved, forgive.
His gain is loss; for he that wrongs his friend
Wrongs himself more, and ever bears about
A silent court of justice in his breast,
Himself the judge and jury, and himself
The prisoner at the bar, ever condemn'd:
And that drags down his life: then comes what comes
Hereafter: and he meant, he said he meant,
Perhaps he meant, or partly meant, you well.' 

` "With all his conscience and ...Read more of this...

by Ashbery, John
...or greeting,
The shield of a greeting, Francesco:
There is room for one bullet in the chamber:
Our looking through the wrong end
Of the telescope as you fall back at a speed
Faster than that of light to flatten ultimately
Among the features of the room, an invitation
Never mailed, the "it was all a dream"
Syndrome, though the "all" tells tersely
Enough how it wasn't. Its existence
Was real, though troubled, and the ache
Of this waking dream can never drown out
The diagra...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...oe,
And soundless as an arrow of snow
The arrow of anguish fell.

"The thing on the blind side of the heart,
On the wrong side of the door,
The green plant groweth, menacing
Almighty lovers in the spring;
There is always a forgotten thing,
And love is not secure."

And all that sat by the fire were sad,
Save Ogier, who was stern,
And his eyes hardened, even to stones,
As he took the harp in turn;

Earl Ogier of the Stone and Sling
Was odd to ear and sight,
Old he was,...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...saved more heads than one: 
But blench not thou — thy simplest tress 
Claims more from me than tenderness; 
I would not wrong the slenderest hair 
That clusters round thy forehead fair, 
For all the treasures buried far 
Within the caves of Istakar. [19] 
This morning clouds upon me lower'd, 
Reproaches on my head were shower'd, 
And Giaffir almost call'd me coward! 
Now I have motive to be brave; 
The son of his neglected slave — 
Nay, start not, 'twas the term he gave —...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...br>  —But some night wandering Man, whose heart was pierc'd  With the remembrance of a grievous wrong,  Or slow distemper or neglected love,  (And so, poor Wretch! fill'd all things with himself  And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale  Of his own sorrows) he and such as he  First named these notes a melancholy strain:  And many a poet echoes the conceit; ...Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...ss, I will spare,
2.6 Her nine months' weary burden not declare.
2.7 To shew her bearing pangs, I should do wrong,
2.8 To tell that pain, which can't be told by tongue.
2.9 With tears into this world I did arrive;
2.10 My mother still did waste, as I did thrive,
2.11 Who yet with love and all alacity,
2.12 Spending was willing to be spent for me.
2.13 With wayward cries, I did disturb her rest,
2.14 Who sought still to appease m...Read more of this...

by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...d Giotto first, who stole the morning hours,
I saw, and god-like Buonarroti's powers,
And Dante, gravest poet, her much-wrong'd son. 

Is all this glory, I said, another's praise?
Are these heroic triumphs things of old,
And do I dead upon the living gaze?
Or rather doth the mind, that can behold
The wondrous beauty of the works and days,
Create the image that her thoughts enfold? 

19
Rejoice, ye dead, where'er your spirits dwell,
Rejoice that yet on earth your fame is b...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...g fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman* used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm," had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one." So remon{-} strance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backward...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...th Theseus; "Have ye so great envy
Of mine honour, that thus complain and cry?
Or who hath you misboden*, or offended? *wronged
Do telle me, if it may be amended;
And why that ye be clad thus all in black?"

The oldest lady of them all then spake,
When she had swooned, with a deadly cheer*, *countenance
That it was ruthe* for to see or hear. *pity
She saide; "Lord, to whom fortune hath given
Vict'ry, and as a conqueror to liven,
Nought grieveth us your glory and your hono...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...n his breast
     As played the feather on his crest.
     Yet friends, who nearest knew the youth
     His scorn of wrong, his zeal for truth
     And bards, who saw his features bold
     When kindled by the tales of old
     Said, were that youth to manhood grown,
     Not long should Roderick Dhu's renown
     Be foremost voiced by mountain fame,
     But quail to that of Malcolm Graeme.
     XXVI.

     Now back they wend their watery way,
     And, 'O my si...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...sudden-thrilling mirth 
An echo like a ghostly woodpecker, 
Hid in the ruins; till the maiden Aunt 
(A little sense of wrong had touched her face 
With colour) turned to me with 'As you will; 
Heroic if you will, or what you will, 
Or be yourself you hero if you will.' 

'Take Lilia, then, for heroine' clamoured he, 
'And make her some great Princess, six feet high, 
Grand, epic, homicidal; and be you 
The Prince to win her!' 
'Then follow me, the Prince,' 
I answered, '...Read more of this...

by Shakur, Tupac
...Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared. ...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...> 

XXXVII 

He merely bent his diabolic brow 
An instant; and then raising it, he stood 
In act to assert his right or wrong, and show 
Cause why King George by no means could or should 
Make out a case to be exempt from woe 
Eternal, more than other kings, endued 
With better sense and hearts, whom history mentions, 
Who long have 'paved hell with their good intentions.' 

XXXVIII 

Michael began: 'What wouldst thou with this man, 
Now dead, and brought before the Lord?...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...rough, 
And I don't like them, or the things they do. 
Whenever it's come to a knock-down fight 
With us, they were wrong, and we right; 
If you don't believe me, cast your mind 
Back over history, what do you find? 
They certainly had no justification 
For that maddening plan to impose taxation 
Without any form of representation. 
Your man may be all that a man should be,
Only don't you bring him back to me
Saying he can't get decent tea—
He could have got his tea a...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...eep she saw,
Not to be mirrored in a holy song,--
Distortions foul of supernatural awe,
And pale imaginings of visioned wrong,
And all the code of Custom's lawless law
Written upon the brows of old and young.
"This," said the Wizard Maiden, "is the strife
Which stirs the liquid surface of man's life."

And little did the sight disturb her soul.
We, the weak mariners of that wide lake,
Where'er its shores extend or billows roll,
Our course unpiloted and starless ma...Read more of this...

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