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Famous Bessie Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...mawn,
 And corn wav’d green in ilka field,
While claver blooms white o’er the lea
 And roses blaw in ilka beild!
Blythe Bessie in the milking shiel,
 Says—“I’ll be wed, come o’t what will”:
Out spake a dame in wrinkled eild;
 “O’ gude advisement comes nae ill.


“It’s ye hae wooers mony ane,
 And lassie, ye’re but young ye ken;
Then wait a wee, and cannie wale
 A routhie butt, a routhie ben;
There’s Johnie o’ the Buskie-glen,
 Fu’ is his barn, fu’ is his byre;
Take this f...Read more of this...



by Thomas, Dylan
...tch
chains, groaned a little and slept. Mothers, aunts and sisters scuttled to and fro, bearing tureens. Auntie
Bessie, who had already been frightened, twice, by a clock-work mouse, whimpered at the sideboard and had some
elderberry wine. The dog was sick. Auntie Dosie had to have three aspirins, but Auntie Hannah, who liked port,
stood in the middle of the snowbound back yard, singing like a big-bosomed thrush. I would blow up balloons to
see how big the...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...l wi' 'im."
She's made o' good stuff is the Missis, so she knocks and a voice says: "Oos there?"
"It's me," says ma Bessie, an' enters a room which is spacious and bare.
And a wise-lookin' old feller greets 'er, and 'e too is togged up in white.
"It's the room where they coot ye," thinks Bessie; and shakes like a jelly wi' fright.
"Ah got a big boil," begins Missis, "and if ye are sure you don't mind,
I'd like ye to see it a moment. It 'urts me, because it...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...I heard, could be, a Hey there from the wing,
and I went on: Miss Bessie soundin good
that one, that night of all,
I feelin fari myself, taxes & things
seem to be back in line, like everybody should
and nobody in the snow on call

so, as I say, the house is given hell
to Yellow Dog, I blowin like it too
and Bessie always do
when she make a very big sound—after, well,
no sound—I see she totterin—I cross which stage
ev...Read more of this...

by John, David St
...of water in a cave that sometimes
 She steps into...
Later, as I drove him back into the city,
He hummed a Bessie Smith tune he'd sing
For her, but he didn't say a word until
We stopped at last back at the club. He stepped
slowly out of the back
Of the Cadillac, and reaching to shake my hand
Through the open driver's window, said,
My man, Jordan... Goodbye....Read more of this...



by Rexford, Eben E.
...murdered yesterday at Rocky Run.
"Not a soul will dream," he said, "of the danger that's ahead.
By my love for little Bessie, I must see that something's done."

4. Not a moment he delayed when his brave resolve was made.
"Why, my man," his comrades told him, when they knew his daring plan,
"You are going straight to death." But he answered, "Save your breath.
I may fail to get to Crawford's, but I'll do the best I can."

5. O'er the forest trail he sped, and his tho...Read more of this...

by Alcott, Louisa May
...at my window 
Why blossom you so fair, 
With your green and purple cup 
Upturned to sun and air? 
'I bloom, blithesome Bessie, 
To cheer your childish heart; 
The world is full of labor, 
And this shall be my part.' 
Whirl, busy wheel, faster, 
Spin, little thread, spin; 
The sun shines fair without, 
And we are gay within. 

O robin in the tree-top, 
With sunshine on your breast, 
Why brood you so patiently 
Above your hidden nest? 
'I brood, blithesome Bessie, 
And...Read more of this...

by Hughes, Langston
...e in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white. 
But it will be
a part of you, instructor. 
You are white-- 
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. 
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps y...Read more of this...

by Doty, Mark
...where she and her sisters lived. . .she attended an adult education class in Montpelier. In one evening Bessie Drennan learned everything she would need to accomplish her goals. . .
The Vermont Folklife Center Newsletter


Bessie, you've made space dizzy
with your perfected technique for snow:
white spatters and a dry brush
feathering everything in the world

seem to make the firmament fly.
Four roads converge on the heart of town,
this knot of...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...Dear Bessie, would my tired rhyme
Had force to rise from apathy,
And shaking off its lethargy
Ring word-tones like a Christmas chime.
But in my soul's high belfry, chill
The bitter wind of doubt has blown,
The summer swallows all have flown,
The bells are frost-bound, mute and still.
Upon the crumbling boards the snow
Has drifted deep, the clappers hang
P...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things