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Famous Cousin Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...—R. B. [back]
Note 4. William Wallace.—R. B. [back]
Note 5. Adam Wallace of Richardton, cousin to the immortal preserver of Scottish independence.—R. B. [back]
Note 6. Wallace, laird of Craigie, who was second in command under Douglas, Earl of Ormond, at the famous battle on the banks of Sark, fought anno 1448. That glorious victory was principally owing to the judicious conduct and intrepid valour of the gallant laird of Cr...Read more of this...



by Davidson, John
...and read right on.

'I may not pass the prison door;
Here must I rot from day to day,
Unless I wed whom I abhor,
My cousin, Blanche of Valencay.

'At midnight with my dagger keen,
I'll take my life; it must be so.
Meet me in hell to-night, my queen,
For weal and woe.'

She laughed although her face was wan,
She girded on her golden belt,
She took her jewelled ivory fan,
And at her glowing missal knelt.

Then rose, 'And am I mad?' she said:
She broke her fa...Read more of this...

by Thomas, Dylan
...eft," Jack said. And we did that.

Always on Christmas night there was music. An uncle played the fiddle, a cousin sang "Cherry Ripe," and another
uncle sang "Drake's Drum." It was very warm in the little house. Auntie Hannah, who had got on to the parsnip
wine, sang a song about Bleeding Hearts and Death, and then another in which she said her heart was like a
Bird's Nest; and then everybody laughed again; and then I went to bed. Looking through my be...Read more of this...

by Aiken, Conrad
...he wind
breathed by the pines on Sheepfold Hill.
How still the Quaker Graveyard, the Meeting House
how still, where Cousin Abiel, on a night like this,
now long since dead, but then how young,
how young, scuffing among the dead leaves after frost
looked up and saw the Wine Star, listened and heard
borne from all quarters the Wind Wheel Circle word:
the father within him, the mother within him, the self
coming to self through love of each for each.
In this small mute d...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...pools numberless,
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness.
Blue! gentle cousin of the forest-green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers— 
Forget-me-not,—the blue-bell,—and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...arms, 
Successful dealings in his grain and wool,-- 
While I receive heaven's incense in my nose 
And style myself the cousin of Queen Bess. 
Ask him, if this life's all, who wins the game? 

Believe--and our whole argument breaks up. 
Enthusiasm's the best thing, I repeat; 
Only, we can't command it; fire and life 
Are all, dead matter's nothing, we agree: 
And be it a mad dream or God's very breath, 
The fact's the same,--belief's fire, once in us, 
Makes of all el...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...ttan
First, there's family, brother, nephews, spry aged Edith stepmother 
 96, Aunt Honey from old Newark,
Doctor Joel, cousin Mindy, brother Gene one eyed one ear'd, sister-
 in-law blonde Connie, five nephews, stepbrothers & sisters 
 their grandchildren,
companion Peter Orlovsky, caretakers Rosenthal & Hale, Bill Morgan--
Next, teacher Trungpa Vajracharya's ghost mind, Gelek Rinpoche, 
 there Sakyong Mipham, Dalai Lama alert, chance visiting 
 America, Satchitananda Swami ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...rd, the vassal king, 
Was even upon his way to Camelot; 
For having heard that Arthur of his grace 
Had made his goodly cousin, Tristram, knight, 
And, for himself was of the greater state, 
Being a king, he trusted his liege-lord 
Would yield him this large honour all the more; 
So prayed him well to accept this cloth of gold, 
In token of true heart and felty. 

Then Arthur cried to rend the cloth, to rend 
In pieces, and so cast it on the hearth. 
An oak-tree smoul...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...un,
The day being done.

____
Baltimore, December, 1880.



II. Individuality.


Sail on, sail on, fair cousin Cloud:
Oh loiter hither from the sea.
Still-eyed and shadow-brow'd,
Steal off from yon far-drifting crowd,
And come and brood upon the marsh with me.

Yon laboring low horizon-smoke,
Yon stringent sail, toil not for thee
Nor me; did heaven's stroke
The whole deep with drown'd commerce choke,
No pitiless tease of risk or bottomry

Would to thy ...Read more of this...

by Larkin, Philip
...a burning mist'.
And, in those offices, my doggerel
Was not set up in blunt ten-point, nor read
By a distinguished cousin of the mayor,

Who didn't call and tell my father There
Before us, had we the gift to see ahead -
'You look as though you wished the place in Hell,'
My friend said, 'judging from your face.' 'Oh well,
I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said.

'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.'...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...ing her perfect arms upon the air,
And on her couch low murmuring, "Where? O where?"

XXXI.
But Selfishness, Love's cousin, held not long
Its fiery vigil in her single breast;
She fretted for the golden hour, and hung
Upon the time with feverish unrest--
Not long--for soon into her heart a throng
Of higher occupants, a richer zest,
Came tragic; passion not to be subdued,
And sorrow for her love in travels rude.

XXXII.
In the mid days of autumn, on their eves
The ...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...way you

could open it, and on the wall there was a roll of toilet paper,

so old it looked like a relative, perhaps a cousin, to the Mag-

na Carta.

 We lifted up the lid of the toilet and dropped the garbage

down into the darkness. This went on for weeks and weeks

until it became very funny to lift the lid of the toilet and in-

stead of seeing darkness below or maybe the murky abstract

outline of garbage, we saw bright, definite and lusty garbage

heaped up al...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...broad in Holy Writ,
And well ye wot no villainy is it.
Eke Plato saith, whoso that can him read,
The wordes must be cousin to the deed.
Also I pray you to forgive it me,
*All have I* not set folk in their degree, *although I have*
Here in this tale, as that they shoulden stand:
My wit is short, ye may well understand.

Great cheere made our Host us every one,
And to the supper set he us anon:
And served us with victual of the best.
Strong was the wine, and wel...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
Until I found and saw it, as the nun 
My sister saw it; and Galahad sware the vow, 
And good Sir Bors, our Lancelot's cousin, sware, 
And Lancelot sware, and many among the knights, 
And Gawain sware, and louder than the rest.' 

Then spake the monk Ambrosius, asking him, 
`What said the King? Did Arthur take the vow?' 

`Nay, for my lord,' said Percivale, `the King, 
Was not in hall: for early that same day, 
Scaped through a cavern from a bandit hold, 
An outraged mai...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...their own proper interest; therefore they
Advise their friend's advantage, not their own.'
Now hear the commentary, Cousin Raoul.
This fool, unselfish, counsels thee, his lord,
Go not through yonder square, where, as thou see'st
Yon herd of villeins, crick-necked all with strain
Of gazing upward, stand, and gaze, and take
With open mouth and eye and ear, the quips
And heresies of John de Rochetaillade."
Lord Raoul half turned him in his saddle round,
And looked up...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...d, Ah! *started aside
As though he stungen were unto the heart.
And with that cry Arcite anon up start,
And saide, "Cousin mine, what aileth thee,
That art so pale and deadly for to see?
Why cried'st thou? who hath thee done offence?
For Godde's love, take all in patience
Our prison*, for it may none other be. *imprisonment
Fortune hath giv'n us this adversity'.
Some wick'* aspect or disposition *wicked
Of Saturn, by some constellation,
Hath giv'n us this, alt...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...n and father,—if such name
     Douglas vouchsafe to Roderick's claim;
     Mine honored mother;—Ellen,—why,
     My cousin, turn away thine eye?—
     And Graeme, in whom I hope to know
     Full soon a noble friend or foe,
     When age shall give thee thy command,
     And leading in thy native land,—
     List all!—The King's vindictive pride
     Boasts to have tamed the Border-side,
     Where chiefs, with hound and trawl; who came
     To share their monarch...Read more of this...

by Alcott, Louisa May
...r place. 

But something stronger than herself 
Would cry, "Go on, go on! 
Remember, though an humble fowl, 
You're cousin to a swan." 

So up and down poor goosey went, 
A busy, hopeful bird. 
Searched many wide unfruitful fields, 
And many waters stirred. 

At length she came unto a stream 
Most fertile of all Niles, 
Where tuneful birds might soar and sing 
Among the leafy isles. 

Here did she build a little nest 
Beside the waters still, 
Where the pa...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...e a child.

Some one beside me turned and smiled,
And looking down at me said: "I fancy,
You're Bertie's Australian cousin Nancy.
He toId me to tell you that he'd be late 
At the Foreign Office and not to wait 
Supper for him, but to go with me, 
And try to behave as if I were he." 
I should have told him on the spot 
That I had no cousin—that I was not 
Australian Nancy—that my name 
Was Susan Dunne, and that I came 
From a small white town on a deep-cut bay 
In ...Read more of this...

by Collins, Billy
...is next to sire and brother close
to sibling, separated only by fine shades of meaning.
And every group has its odd cousin, the one
who traveled the farthest to be here:
astereognosis, polydipsia, or some eleven
syllable, unpronounceable substitute for the word tool.
Even their own relatives have to squint at their name tags.

I can see my own copy up on a high shelf.
I rarely open it, because I know there is no
such thing as a synonym and because I get nervou...Read more of this...

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