Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Bargain Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...plaister,
Your sair taxation does her fleece,
 Till she has scarce a tester:
For me, thank God, my life’s a lease,
 Nae bargain wearin’ faster,
Or, faith! I fear, that, wi’ the geese,
 I shortly boost to pasture
 I’ the craft some day.


I’m no mistrusting Willie Pitt,
 When taxes he enlarges,
(An’ Will’s a true guid fallow’s get,
 A name not envy spairges),
That he intends to pay your debt,
 An’ lessen a’ your charges;
But, God-sake! let nae saving fit
 Abridge your bonie ba...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...e flagon.

Oh, if we draw a circle premature,
Heedless of far gain,
Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure
Bad is our bargain!
Was it not great? did not he throw on God,
(He loves the burthen)---
God's task to make the heavenly period
Perfect the earthen?
Did not he magnify the mind, show clear
Just what it all meant?
He would not discount life, as fools do here,
Paid by instalment.
He ventured neck or nothing---heaven's success
Found, or earth's failure:
``Wilt thou trust ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...d. That horrid watchman,
bold battle-ready, kept hold of golden treasures,
old under the earth—that would be
no easy bargain to obtain for any man. (ll. 2397-2416)

Then the battle-hardened king sat down
on the headland, wishing good health
for his hearth-comrades in later days,
the gold-friend of the Geats. His heart
was mournful, stirring, death-eager—
the final moment was so very close,
which must come upon the old man at last,
seeking the soul’s hoard, pulling...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...that feud had vengeance,
for woful war (‘tis widely known),
though one of them bought it with blood of his heart,
a bargain hard: for Haethcyn proved
fatal that fray, for the first-of-Geats.
At morn, I heard, was the murderer killed
by kinsman for kinsman, {33a} with clash of sword,
when Ongentheow met Eofor there.
Wide split the war-helm: wan he fell,
hoary Scylfing; the hand that smote him
of feud was mindful, nor flinched from the death-blow.
-- “For all that h...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,
...in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out....Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne



...re,
 If we 'adn't lost some messmates we would 'elp you to deplore;
 But give an' take's the gospel, an' we'll call the bargain fair,
 For if you 'ave lost more than us, you crumpled up the square!

'E rushes at the smoke when we let drive,
 An', before we know, 'e's 'ackin' at our 'ead;
'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive,
 An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.
'E's a daisy, 'e's a ducky, 'e's a lamb!
 'E's a injia-rubber idiot on the spree,
'E's the on'y thing tha...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...eful farmers.”

“Did they make something lonesome go through you?
It would take more than them to sicken you—
Us of our bargain. But they left us so
As to our fate, like fools past reasoning with.
They almost shook me.”

“It’s all so much
What we have always wanted, I confess
It’s seeming bad for a moment makes it seem
Even worse still, and so on down, down, down.
It’s nothing; it’s their leaving us at dusk.
I never bore it well when people went.
The first night after guests ...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...ed the matter she drove at succeeded, 
She took and gave languages just as she needed. 

So for kitchen and market, for bargain and sale, 
She paid English or Dutch or French down on the nail, 
But in telling a story she sometimes did fail; 

Then begging excuse as she happen'd to stammer, 
With respect to her betters but none to her grammar, 
Her blush helped her out and her jargon became her. 

Her habit and mien she endeavor'd to frame 
To the different gout of the place w...Read more of this...
by Prior, Matthew
...hammer.

Today life opened inside me like an egg
and there inside
after considerable digging
I found the answer.
What a bargain!
There was the sun,
her yolk moving feverishly,
tumbling her prize --
and you realize she does this daily!
I'd known she was a purifier
but I hadn't thought
she was solid,
hadn't known she was an answer.
God! It's a dream,
lovers sprouting in the yard
like celery stalks
and better,
a husband straight as a redwood,
two daughters, two sea urchings,
pic...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...What soul would bargain for a cure that brings
Contempt the nobler agony to kill?
Rather let me bear on the bitter ill,
And strike this rusty bosom with new stings!
It seems there is another veering fit
Since on a gold-haired lady's eyeballs pure,
I looked with little prospect of a cure,
The while her mouth's red bow loosed shafts of wit.
Just heaven! can it be true that je...Read more of this...
by Meredith, George
...ed, you thought, in vain.
What since has happened is the train
Your toiling brought. I spoke to you
For my share of the bargain, due."
"My life! And is that all you crave
In pay? What even childhood gave!
I have been dedicate from youth.
Before my God I speak the truth!"
Fatigue, excitement of the past
Few hours broke me down at last.
All day I had forgot to eat,
My nerves betrayed me, lacking meat.
I bowed my head and felt the storm
Plough shattering through my prostrate for...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy
...ch. 
And I was the knock-kneed broom instead. 
At night, alone, I marry the bed. 
She took you the way a women takes 
a bargain dress off the rack 
and I broke the way a stone breaks. 
I give back your books and fishing tack. 
Today's paper says that you are wed. 
At night, alone, I marry the bed. 
The boys and girls are one tonight. 
They unbutton blouses. They unzip flies. 
They take off shoes. They turn off the light. 
The glimmering creatures are full of lies. 
They are e...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...boozer Kane." 
"When he come out to-day he staggered. 
O, Jimmy Jaggard, Jimmy Jaggard." 
"His mother's gone inside to bargain, 
Run in and tell her , Polly Margin, 
And tell her poacher Kane is tipsy 
And selling Jimmy to a gipsy." 
"Run in to Mrs. Jaggard, Ellen, 
Or else, dear knows, there'll be no tellin', 
And don't dare leave yer till you've fount her, 
You'll find her at the linen counter." 
I told a tale, to Jim's delight 
Of where the tom-cats go by night, 
And how ...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John
...s not moulde thus in idleness.
"Sir Man of Law," quoth he, "so have ye bliss,
Tell us a tale anon, as forword* is. *the bargain
Ye be submitted through your free assent
To stand in this case at my judgement.
Acquit you now, and *holde your behest*; *keep your promise*
Then have ye done your devoir* at the least." *duty
"Hoste," quoth he, "de par dieux jeo asente; 
To breake forword is not mine intent.
Behest is debt, and I would hold it fain,
All my behest; I can no better...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...I’ve never ceased to curse the day I signed 
A seven years’ bargain for the Golden Fleece. 
’Twas a bad deal all round; and dear enough 
It cost me, what with my daft management, 
And the mean folk as owed and never paid me, 
And backing losers; and the local bucks 
Egging me on with whiskys while I bragged 
The man I was when huntsman to the Squire. 

I’d have been prosperous if I’d took a farm 
Of fifty acres, drov...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried
...e, all he's rich in,
For having left, in the Calip's kitchen,
Of a nest of scorpions no survivor— 
With him I proved no bargain-driver,
With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver!
And folks who put me in a passion
May find me pipe to another fashion."

"How?" cried the Mayor, "d'ye think I'll brook
Being worse treated than a Cook?
Insulted by a lazy ribald
With idle pipe and vesture piebald?
You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst,
Blow your pipe there till you burst!"

Once mor...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...d and hospitable: 
Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, 
Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame, 
May rue the bargain made.' And Florian said: 
'I have a sister at the foreign court, 
Who moves about the Princess; she, you know, 
Who wedded with a nobleman from thence: 
He, dying lately, left her, as I hear, 
The lady of three castles in that land: 
Through her this matter might be sifted clean.' 
And Cyril whispered: 'Take me with you too.' 
Then laughing 'what, if...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ve he is, but bears 
A restless thought. He has slipt off before, 
And vexes me still to be watching him. 
We'll make a bargain of him. 

Captain I, my Lord? 
I have no need of slaves: I am too poor. 

Stranger 
For twenty silver pieces he is yours. 

Captain 
That's cheap, if he has a skill. Yes, there might be 
Profit in him at that. Has he a trade? 

Stranger 
He is a carpenter. 

Captain A carpenter! 
Why, for a good one I'ld give all my purse. 

Stranger 
No, twenty silv...Read more of this...
by Abercrombie, Lascelles
...t to see you do it. When's he coming?" 
"I half suspect you knew, and came on purpose 
To try to help me drive a better bargain." 
"Well, if it's true! Yours are no common feet. 
The lawyer don't know what it is he's buying: 
So many miles you might have walked you won't walk. 
You haven't run your forty orchids down. 
What does he think?--How are the blessed feet? 
The doctor's sure you're going to walk again?" 
"He thinks I'll hobble. It's both legs and feet." 
"They must b...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert
...walks by; 
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust; 
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture—the yearning and swelling
 heart, 
Affection that will not be gainsay’d—the sense of what is real—the thought
 if,
 after
 all, it should prove unreal, 
The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time—the curious whether and how, 
Whether that which appears so is so, or...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Bargain poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things