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Famous Banter Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...y barks, awa we canter,
Up hill, down brae, till some mischanter,
 Some black bog-hole,
Arrests us; then the scathe an’ banter
 We’re forced to thole.


Hale be your heart! hale be your fiddle!
Lang may your elbuck jink and diddle,
To cheer you through the weary widdle
 O’ this wild warl’.
Until you on a crummock driddle,
 A grey hair’d carl.


Come wealth, come poortith, late or soon,
Heaven send your heart-strings aye in tune,
And screw your temper-pins aboon
 A...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...take caps off)
hot steaming food and noses in the trough

i loved it deeply squashed in there with you
rough offensive banter bantered back
the smells of sweat and cargoes mixed with stew
and dumplings lamb chops roast beef - what the ****
these toughened men could outdo friar tuck
so ravenous their faith blown off the sea
that god lived in the stomach raucously

perhaps cramped into scotts i felt it most
that you belonged in a living sea of men
who shared the one blood-visi...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg
...it's like inside

a truth (the glow a glow-worm makes)
this is not (not much) what happens
there's serious concern and banter
there's opacity there's chit-chat
diversions and derailings from
a line some avalanche has blocked
(what a fine pass through the mountains)
poetry and fidgets are blood-brothers

it's within all these the cosmos calls
that makes these afternoons a rich
adventure through a common field
when three men moving towards death
(without alacrity but conscious...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg
...ch and Judy shows
 I was when I was small;
My kiddy laughter, I suppose,
 Rang louder than them all.
The Judge with banter I would bait,
 The Copper was a wretch;
But oh how I would hiss my hate
 For grim Jack Ketch.

Although a grandsire grey I still
 Love Punch and Judy shows,
And with my toddlers help to fill
 Enthusiastic rows.
How jolly is their mirth to see,
 And what a sigh they fetch,
When Punch begs to be shown and he
 Jerks up Jack Ketch.

Heigh ho! ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...produce mine)

and then the topmost square with church or water towers
a dance of bustling shops and sparkling language banter
and every crevice cranny bosoming out with flowers
a busy-ness of purpose and a heart’s enchanter
(the sun distributes gold – allows the blood to saunter)
the bricks of buildings glow with centuries of nous
as though the wisest grape best pours from this decanter
both tempered peace and passion welter in its throes
and fountain sprays refract what suc...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg



...have wasted not the sweet reprieve of being young. 


"Comment ca va!" "Mon vieux!" "Mon cher!" 
Friends greet and banter as they pass. 
'Tis sweet to see among the mass comrades and lovers everywhere, 


A law that's sane, a Love that's free, and men of every birth and blood 
Allied in one great brotherhood of Art and Joy and Poverty. . . . 


The open cafe-windows frame loungers at their liqueurs and beer, 
And walking past them one can hear fragmen...Read more of this...
by Seeger, Alan
...dignation sear the hearts that beat too high; 
Chilly waters thrown upon it drown the fire that's in the bard; 
And the banter of the critic hurts his heart till it grows hard. 
At the fame your muse may offer let your lip in scorn be curled, 
`Self and Pelf', my friend, remember, that's the motto of the world. 

`Shun the fields of love, where lightly, to a low and mocking tune, 
Strong and useful lives are ruined, and the broken hearts are strewn. 
Not a farthin...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles
...ombrero or with cane: 
The rube, the cowboy or the masher vain. 
They over-act each part. But at the height 
Of banter and of canter and delight 
The masks fall off for one ***** instant there 
And show real faces: faces full of care 
And desperate longing: love that's hot or cold; 
And subtle thoughts, and countenances bold. 
The masks go back. 'Tis one more joke. Laugh on! 
The goodly grown-up company is gone. 

No doubt had he occasion to address 
T...Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel
...the flying terms, 
But missed the mignonette of Vivian-place, 
The little hearth-flower Lilia. Thus he spoke, 
Part banter, part affection. 
'True,' she said, 
'We doubt not that. O yes, you missed us much. 
I'll stake my ruby ring upon it you did.' 

She held it out; and as a parrot turns 
Up through gilt wires a crafty loving eye, 
And takes a lady's finger with all care, 
And bites it for true heart and not for harm, 
So he with Lilia's. Daintily sh...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...style could suit? 
The men required that I should give throughout 
The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque, 
With which we bantered little Lilia first: 
The women--and perhaps they felt their power, 
For something in the ballads which they sang, 
Or in their silent influence as they sat, 
Had ever seemed to wrestle with burlesque, 
And drove us, last, to quite a solemn close-- 
They hated banter, wished for something real, 
A gallant fight, a noble princess--why 
Not make her tr...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things