Famous Epigram Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Epigram poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous epigram poems. These examples illustrate what a famous epigram poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Burns, Robert
...I’M now arrived—thanks to the gods!—
Thro’ pathways rough and muddy,
A certain sign that makin roads
Is no this people’s study:
Altho’ Im not wi’ Scripture cram’d,
I’m sure the Bible says
That heedless sinners shall be damn’d,
Unless they mend their ways....Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...ASK why God made the gem so small?
And why so huge the granite?—
Because God meant mankind should set
That higher value on it....Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...OF Lordly acquaintance you boast,
And the Dukes that you dined wi’ yestreen,
Yet an insect’s an insect at most,
Tho’ it crawl on the curl of a Queen!...Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...YE hypocrites! are these your pranks?
To murder men and give God thanks!
Desist, for shame!—proceed no further;
God won’t accept your thanks for MURTHER...Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...YE men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering
’Gainst poor Excisemen? Give the cause a hearing:
What are your Landlord’s rent-rolls?—Taxing ledgers!
What Premiers?—What ev’n Monarchs?—Mighty Gaugers!
Nay, what are Priests? (those seeming godly wise-men,)
What are they, pray, but Spiritual Excisemen!...Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...IF you rattle along like your Mistress’ tongue,
Your speed will outrival the dart;
But a fly for your load, you’ll break down on the road,
If your stuff be as rotten’s her heart....Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...MAXWELL, if merit here you crave,
That merit I deny;
You save fair Jessie from the grave!—
An Angel could not die!...Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...EARTH’D up, here lies an imp o’ hell,
Planted by Satan’s dibble;
Poor silly wretch, he’s damned himsel’,
To save the Lord the trouble....Read more of this...
by
Burns, Robert
...HERE lies a mock Marquis, whose titles were shamm’d,
If ever he rise, it will be to be damn’d....Read more of this...
by
Browning, Robert
...elf
And prove its worth at a moment's view!
Must a game be played for the sale of pelf?
Where a button goes, 'twere an epigram
To offer the stamp of the very Guelph.
The true has no value beyond the sham:
As well the counter as coin, I submit,
When your table's a hat, and your prize a dram.
Stake your counter as boldly every whit,
Venture as warily, use the same skill,
Do your best, whether winning or losing it,
If you choose to play!---is my principle.
Let a ...Read more of this...
by
Pope, Alexander
...I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?...Read more of this...
by
Killigrew, Anne
...WE deem them moderate, but Enough implore,
What barely will suffice, and ask no more:
Who say, (O Jove) a competency give,
Neither in Luxury, or Want we'd live.
But what is that, which these Enough do call?
If both the Indies unto some should fall,
Such Wealth would yet Enough but onely be,
And what they'd term not Want, or Luxury.
Among t...Read more of this...
by
Raleigh, Sir Walter
...To Griggs, that learned man, in many a bygone session,
His kids were his delight, and physics his profession;
Now Griggs, grown old and glum, and less intent on knowledge,
Physics himself at home, and sends his kids to college....Read more of this...
by
Parker, Dorothy
...If, with the literate, I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it....Read more of this...
by
Service, Robert William
...t.
And where he died or how he died, it didn't matter a damn
So long as he had a grave with frills and a tombstone "epigram".
So I promised him, and he paid the price in good cheechako coin
(Which the same I blowed in that very night down in the Tenderloin).
Then I painted a three-foot slab of pine: "Here lies poor Bill MacKie",
And I hung it up on my cabin wall and I waited for Bill to die.
Years passed away, and at last one day came a squaw with a story str...Read more of this...
by
Schiller, Friedrich von
...ing,
They never say--"how they admire her!"
In all this jubilee of being,
Some subject for a point she's seeing--
Some epigram--(to be impartial,
Well turned)--there may be worse in Martial!
But, hark! the goddess stoops to reason:--
"The country now is quite in season,
I'll go!"--"What! to our country seat?"
"No!--Travelling will be such a treat;
Pyrmont's extremely full, I hear;
But Carlsbad's quite the rage this year!"
Oh yes, she loves the rural Graces;
Nature is gay--i...Read more of this...
by
Browning, Robert
...
And prove its worth at a moment's view!
Must a game be played for the sake of pelf?
Where a button goes, 'twere an epigram
To offer the stamp of the very Guelph.
The true has no value beyond the sham:
As well the counter as coin, I submit,
When your table's a hat, and your prize a dram.
Stake your counter as boldly every whit,
Venture as warily, use the same skill,
Do your best, whether winning or losing it,
If you choose to play! -- is my principle.Read more of this...
by
Killigrew, Anne
...POsthumus boasts he does not Thunder fear,
And for this cause would Innocent appear;
That in his Soul no Terrour he does feel,
At threatn'd Vultures, or Ixion's Wheel,
Which fright the Guilty: But when Fabius told
What Acts 'gainst Murder lately were enrol'd,
'Gainst Incest, Rapine, ---- straight upon the Tale
His Colour chang'd, and Posthumus grew pa...Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...whose scatter'd names honor my book, For strict degrees of rank or title look : 'Tis 'gainst the manners of an epigram ; And I a poet here, no herald am. ...Read more of this...
by
Jonson, Ben
...LXXIII. — TO FINE GRAND. What is't, FINE GRAND, makes thee my friendship fly, Or take an Epigram so fearfully, As 'twere a challenge, or a borrower's letter: The world must know your greatness is my debtor.Imprimis, Grand, you owe me for a jest I lent you, on mere acquaintance, at a feast.Item, a tale or two some fortnight after, That yet maintains you, and your house in laughter.Item, the Babylon...Read more of this...
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