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Famous Bourbon Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...ye usher the dawn;
And far be thou distant, thou reptile that seizes
 The verdure and pride of the garden or lawn!
Let Bourbon exult in his gay gilded lilies,
 And England triumphant display her proud rose:
A fairer than either adorns the green valleys,
 Where Devon, sweet Devon, meandering flows....Read more of this...



by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...' my mustard greens ergin;
I 's a-wishin' fu' some buttermilk, an' co'n braid, good an' brown,
An' a drap o' good ol' bourbon fu' to wash my feelin's down!
An' I 's comin' back to see you jes' as ehly as I kin,
So you better not go spa'kin' wif dat wuffless scoun'el Quin!
Well, I reckon, I mus' close now; write ez soon's dis reaches you;
Gi' my love to Sister Mandy an' to Uncle Isham, too.
Tell de folks I sen' 'em howdy; gin a kiss to pap an' mam;
Closin' I is, deah M...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...s mighty bright,
 Looks so cheery.
Wonder what I'll drink tonight?
 Gee! I'm weary.
Will I have Scotch or Rye?
 Bourbon maybe . . .
Then I see with mental eye
 Wife and baby.

So I say 'tis malted milk
 I'll be skoffin';
Sooth my throttle sleek as silk,
 Ease my coughin' . . .
Say, I love them two to death,
 Sure they miss me:
With no whisky on my breath
 How they'll kiss me!...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...

s, New York. There. We are settled. 
The customs officials will speak English, we hope, 
and leave us our bourbon and cigarettes.
Ports are necessities, like postage stamps, or soap,

but they seldom seem to care what impression they make, 
or, like this, only attempt, since it does not matter, 
the unassertive colors of soap, or postage stamps-- 
wasting away like the former, slipping the way the latter

do when we mail the letters we wrote on the boat, 
ei...Read more of this...

by Subraman, Belinda
...me
and stare.
Made me feel *****.

I was in a restaurant though,
a fitting place to eat
and drink
so I ordered bourbon
and I kept on chewing.

I realized
their eyes
would never make them full....Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...ment, green-flesh melons,
And says there's news to-day---the king
Was shot at, touched in the liver-wing,
Goes with his Bourbon arm in a sling:
---She hopes they have not caught the felons.
Italy, my Italy!
Queen Mary's saying serves for me---
(When fortune's malice
Lost her---Calais)---
Open my heart and you will see
Graved inside of it, ``Italy.''
Such lovers old are I and she:
So it always was, so shall ever be!...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...in her hope superhuman,
no, no, not used at all.
I declare a mystery, he mumbled to himself,
of love, and took the bourbon from the shelf
and drank her a tall one, tall....Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...me it's late,
not for you who went straight

but for the lorn. Our roof is lefted off
lately: the shooter, and the bourbon man,
and then you got tired.
I'm afraid that's it. I figure you with love,
lifey, deathy, but I have a little sense
the rest of us are fired

or fired: be with us: we will blow our best,
our sad wil riffs come easy in that case,
thinking you over,
knowing you resting, who was reborn to rest,
your gorgeous sentence is done. Nothing's the s...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...Man, I been thirsty.

The brake is incomplete but white costumes
threaten his rum, his cointreau, gin-&-sherry,
his bourbon, bugs um all.
His go-out privilege led to odd red times,
since even or especially in hospital things get hairy.
He makes it back without falling.

He sleep up a short storm.
He wolf his meals, lamb-warm.

Their packs bump on their' -blades, tan canteens swing,
for them this day my dawn's old, Saturday's IT,
through town toward a S...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...in a dreamy way, 
 "Behold, 'tis Charlemagne!" Tawny to see 
 And hairy, and seven feet high was he, 
 Like John of Bourbon. Roaming hill or wood 
 He looked a wolf was striving to do good. 
 Bound up in duty, he of naught complained, 
 The cry for help his aid at once obtained. 
 Only he mourned the baseness of mankind, 
 And—that the beds too short he still doth find. 
 When people suffer under cruel kings, 
 With pity moved, he to them succor brings. 
 'Twas he...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...saying every day
"If I should be a Queen, tomorrow" --
I'd do this way --
And so I deck, a little,

If it be, I wake a Bourbon,
None on me, bend supercilious --
With "This was she --
Begged in the Market place --
Yesterday."

Court is a stately place --
I've heard men say --
So I loop my apron, against the Majesty
With bright Pins of Buttercup --
That not too plain --
Rank -- overtake me --

And perch my Tongue
On Twigs of singing -- rather high --
But this, might be my ...Read more of this...

by John, David St
...always waited.
She'd say, Jordan... 
And I'd order her usual,
A champagne cocktail with a tall shot of bourbon
On the side. She'd let her eyes
Trail the length of the sleek neck
Of the old stand-up bass, as
The bass player knocked out the bottom line,
His forehead glowing, glossy
With sweat in the blue lights;
Her own face, smooth and shining, as
The liquor slowly blanketed the pills
She'd slipped beneath her tongue.
Maestro'd kick the **** out of any...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...g on our flannel,
Your lipstick grinning on our coat,
So gaily in love's unbreakable heaven
Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float.

Be with me, darling, early and late. Smash glasses—
I will study wry music for your sake.
For should your hands drop white and empty
All the toys of the world would break....Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...itor,
Inverts the ancient course of nature;
And changes manners, tempers, climes,
To suit the genius of the times!
See, Bourbon forms a gen'rous plan,
New guardian of the rights of man,
And prompt in firm alliance joins
To aid the Rebels' proud designs!
Behold from realms of eastern day
His sails innum'rous shape their way,
In warlike line the billows sweep,
And roll the thunders of the deep!
See, low in equinoctial skies,
The western islands fall their prize;
See British fla...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...'s wife. I'll move when I'm able.
The T. V. hangs from the wall like a moose head.
I hide a pint of bourbon in my bedside table.

A bird full of bones, now I'm held by a sand bag.
The fracture was twice. The fracture was double.
The days are horizontal. The days are a drag.
All of the skeleton in me is in trouble.

Across the hall is the bedpan station.
The urine and stools pass hourly by my head
in silver bowls. They fl...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...ibyl grinds, -- 
The dame sans merci's broken strain, 
Whom I erewhile, perchance, have known, 
When Orleans filled the Bourbon throne, 
A siren singing by the Seine. 

But most I love the tube that spies 
The orbs celestial in their march; 
That shows the comet as it whisks 
Its tail across the planets' disks, 
As if to blind their blood-shot eyes; 
Or wheels so close against the sun 
We tremble at the thought of risks 
Our little spinning ball may run, 
To pop like corn...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...pale."
"Monsieur Antoine, don't rail
At misfortune. He treated me well and fairly."
"And you prefer him to Bourbons, admit it squarely."
"Heaven forbid!" Bang! Whack!
Squeak! Squeak! Crack!
CRASH!
"Oh, Lord, Martin! That shield is hash.
The whole street is covered with golden bees.
They look like so many yellow peas,
Lying there in the mud. I'd like to paint it.
`Plum pudding of Empire'. That's rather quaint, it
Might take with the Kings.<...Read more of this...

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