Famous Documents Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Song To David

...eal. 

 XLIX 
O DAVID, highest in the list 
Of worthies, on God's ways insist, 
 The genuine word repeat: 
Vain are the documents of men, 
And vain the flourish of the pen 
 That keeps the fool's conceit. 

 L 
PRAISE above all—for praise prevails; 
Heap up the measure, load the scales, 
 And good to goodness add: 
The gen'rous soul her Saviour aids, 
But peevish obloquy degrades; 
 The Lord is great and glad. 

 LI 
For ADORATION all the ranks 
Of angels yield eternal thanks...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher


Embrace Noir

...eeks

almost touching. One is shirtless, the other
wears a suit, the one in the suit came in through a window

to steal documents or diamonds, it doesn't matter anymore 
which, what's important is he was found

& someone pulled a gun, and now they are holding on,
awkwardly dancing through the room, upending

a table of small framed photographs. A chair
topples, Sinatra's band punches the air with horns, I

lean forward, into the screen, they are eye-to-eye,
as stiff as my bro...Read more of this...
by Flynn, Nick

Light Is More Important Than The Lantern

...e kiss more important than the lips.
My letters to you
Are greater and more important than both of us.
The are the only documents
Where people will discover
Your beauty 
And my madness....Read more of this...
by Qabbani, Nizar

Poetry

...horse that
 feels a
 flea, the base-
 ball fan, the statistician--
 nor is it valid
 to discriminate against 'business documents and

school-books'; all these phenomena are important. One must
 make a distinction
 however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the
 result is not poetry,
 nor till the poets among us can be
 'literalists of 
 the imagination'--above
 insolence and triviality and can present

for inspection, 'imaginary gardens with real toads in them', sh...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne

Squatters Children

...led, you stand among
the mansions you may choose
out of a bigger house than yours,
whose lawfulness endures.
It's soggy documents retain
your rights in rooms of falling rain....Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth


The Fire Sermon

...s, the Smyrna merchant
  Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants                                210
  C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
  Asked me in demotic French
  To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
  Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.

  At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
  Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
  Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
  I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
  Old man with wrinkled fe...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

The Self-Seeker

...
The pitcher's too full for her. There's no cup? 
Just hook them on the inside of the pitcher. 
Now run.--Get out your documents! You see 
I have to keep on the good side of Anne. 
I'm a great boy to think of number one. 
And you can't blame me in the place I'm in. 
Who will take care of my necessities 
Unless I do?" 
"A pretty interlude," 
The lawyer said. "I'm sorry, but my train-- 
Luckily terms are all agreed upon. 
You only have to sign your name. Right--there." 
"You, ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Vision of Judgment

...ures 
The pious purchaser; and there's no ground 
For fear, for I can choose my own reviews: 
So let me have the proper documents, 
That I may add you to my other saints.' 

C 

Satan bow'd, and was silent. 'Well, if you, 
With amiable modesty, decline 
My offer, what says Michael? There are few 
Whose memoirs could be render'd more divine. 
Mine is a pen of all work; not so new 
As it once was, but I would make you shine 
Like your own trumpet. By the way, my own 
Has more o...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Waste Land

...brown fog of a winter noon
Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants 
C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
Asked me in demotic French
To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.
 At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At ...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

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