Government poems

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Toplesstown

© Sheldon Allan Silverstein

Talk about a hit! They're packed in and linin' up
A cover and a minimum--coffee $2 a cup
Lucy's pullin' down a thousand a week with tips and all
Workin' double shifts while startin' to bitch how
Her arches are beginning to fall.

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Don Juan: Canto The Ninth

© George Gordon Byron

Oh, Wellington! (or 'Villainton'--for Fame

Sounds the heroic syllables both ways;

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The Aeneid of Virgil: Book 1

© Publius Vergilius Maro

ARMS, and the man I sing, who, forc’d by fate,  

And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate,  

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A Word to Texas Jack

© Henry Lawson

You may talk about your ridin’ in the city, bold an’ free,
Talk o’ ridin’ in the city, Texas Jack, but where’d yer be
When the stock horse snorts an’ bunches all ’is quarters in a hump,
And the saddle climbs a sapling, an’ the horse-shoes split a stump?

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Written in 1834

© Samuel Rogers

Well, when her day is over, be it said
That, though a speck on the terrestrial globe,
Found with long search and in a moment lost,
She made herself a name--a name to live

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Amours De Voyage, Canto II

© Arthur Hugh Clough

P.S.
Mary has seen thus far.-I am really so angry, Louisa,-
Quite out of patience, my dearest! What can the man be intending?
I am quite tired; and Mary, who might bring him to in a moment,
Lets him go on as he likes, and neither will help nor dismiss him.

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Hudibras: Part 1 - Canto I

© Samuel Butler

His doublet was of sturdy buff,
And tho' not sword, yet cudgel-proof;
Whereby 'twas fitter for his use,
Who fear'd no blows, but such as bruise.

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The Prophecy Of Famine

© Charles Churchill

  Still have I known thee for a silly swain;
Of things past help, what boots it to complain? 
Nothing but mirth can conquer fortune's spite;
No sky is heavy, if the heart be light:
Patience is sorrow's salve: what can't be cured,
So Donald right areads, must be endured.

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A Dream Of Venice

© Ada Cambridge

Numb, half asleep, and dazed with whirl of wheels,

And gasp of steam, and measured clank of chains,

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The Traveller; or, A Prospect of Society

© Oliver Goldsmith

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow

Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po,

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Aurora Leigh: Book Two

© Elizabeth Barrett Browning


  I pulled the branches down
To choose from.

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Parody On The Recorder’s Speech To His Grace The Duke Of Ormond, 4th July, 1711

© Jonathan Swift

An ancient metropolis, famous of late
For opposing the Church, and for nosing the State,
For protecting sedition and rejecting order,
Made the following speech by their mouth, the Recorder:
First, to tell you the name of this place of renown,
Some still call it Dublin, but most Forster's town.

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The Little Left Hand - Act II

© Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

Lady Marian. Send
For others then. I see a girl at the street's end
Selling some mignonette. What do you say?
(Putting on a bow.) This bow,
Is it too bright for the rest?

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The Ancient Banner

© Anonymous

In boundless mercy, the Redeemer left,

The bosom of his Father, and assumed

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Sleep And Death.

© Robert Crawford

Sleep puts sin by, as the grave life's despair;
And though bad dreams in sleep may come, the soul
Is tainted not with error, being then
Beyond the body's shade, as in a sphere

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Ormuzd And Ahriman. Part I

© Christopher Pearse Cranch

YE interstellar spaces, serene and still and clear.
Above, below, around!
Ye gray unmeasured breadths of ether, — sphere on sphere!
We listen, but no sound
Rings from your depths profound.

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Orlando Furioso Canto 10

© Ludovico Ariosto

ARGUMENT

Another love assails Bireno's breast,

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The Hermit

© Thomas Parnell

  Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
  From youth to age a rev'rend hermit grew;
  The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
  His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well:
  Remote from man, with God he pass'd the days,
  Pray'r all his bus'ness, all his pleasure praise.

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The Famous Speech-Maker Of England Or Baron (Alias Barren) Lovel’s Charge At The Assizes At Exon, Ap

© Jonathan Swift

From London to Exon,
By special direction,
Came down the world's wonder,
Sir Salathiel Blunder,

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The Idumean Cantos 1-12

© Basilio Ponce de Leon

Along the bridge corpulence
In the form of great pigs
Hopping on pogo-sticks
Is headed for their own
Pilgrimage down Southward.