Famous Boy Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Little Black Boy

by William Blake
MY mother bore me in the southern wild, 
And I am black, but O, my soul is white! 
White as an angel is the English child, 
But I am black, as if bereaved of light. 

My mother taught me underneath a tree, 5 
And, sitting down before the heat of day, 
She took me on her lap and kiss¨¨d me,...Read more of this...

The Lyttel Boy

by Eugene Field
 Sometime there ben a lyttel boy
That wolde not renne and play,
And helpless like that little tyke
Ben allwais in the way.
"Goe, make you merrie with the rest,"
His weary moder cried;
But with a frown he catcht her gown
And hong untill her side.

That boy did love his moder well,
Which spake him faire, I ween;
He loved to stand and hold her hand
And ken...Read more of this...

A faded Boy -- in sallow Clothes

by Emily Dickinson
 A faded Boy -- in sallow Clothes
Who drove a lonesome Cow
To pastures of Oblivion --
A statesman's Embryo --

The Boys that whistled are extinct --
The Cows that fed and thanked
Remanded to a Ballad's Barn
Or Clover's Retrospect --...Read more of this...

Beak-Bashing Boy

by Robert William Service
 But yesterday I banked on fistic fame,
Figgerin' I'd be a champion of the Ring.
Today I've half a mind to quit the Game,
For all them rosy dreams have taken wing,
Since last night a secondary bout
I let a goddam ****** knock me out.

It must have been that T-bone steak I ate;
They might have doped it, them smart gambling guys,
For round my...Read more of this...

Portrait of a Boy

by Stephen Vincent Benet
 After the whipping he crawled into bed, 
Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. 
How funny uncle's hat had looked striped red! 
He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping 
A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before 
In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed, 
Flooding his bed with radiance. On the floor 
Fat motes danced. He sobbed,...Read more of this...

Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy

by Lewis Carroll
 And with that she
began nursing her child again, singing a sort of
lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a vio­ 
lent shake at the end of every line: -- --
"Speak roughly to your little boy, 
And beat him when he sneezes; 
He only does it to annoy, 
Because he knows it teases."CHORUS
(in which the cook and...Read more of this...

The Negro Boy

by James Henry Leigh Hunt
 Paupertas onus visa est grave.


Cold blows the wind, and while the tear
Bursts trembling from my swollen eyes,
The rain's big drop, quick meets it there,
And on my naked bosom flies!
O pity, all ye sons of Joy,
The little wand'ring *****-boy.

These tatter'd clothes, this ice-cold breast
By Winter harden'd into steel,
These eyes, that know not soothing rest,
But speak the half of what I...Read more of this...

Boy And Girl

by Mother Goose
There was a little boy and a little girl
    Lived in an alley;
Says the little boy to the little girl,
    "Shall I, oh, shall I?"
Says the little girl to the little boy,
    "What shall we do?"
Says the little boy to the little girl,
    "I will kiss you."...Read more of this...

Why Was Cupid a Boy

by William Blake
 Why was Cupid a boy,
And why a boy was he?
He should have been a girl,
For aught that I can see.

For he shoots with his bow,
And the girl shoots with her eye,
And they both are merry and glad,
And laugh when we do cry.

And to make Cupid a boy
Was the Cupid girl's mocking plan;
For a boy can't interpret the thing
Till he...Read more of this...

To a Boy Whistling

by James Whitcomb Riley
 The smiling face of a happy boy
With its enchanted key
Is now unlocking in memory
My store of heartiest joy.

And my lost life again to-day,
In pleasant colors all aglow,
From rainbow tints, to pure white snow,
Is a panorama sliding away.

The whistled air of a simple tune
Eddies and whirls my thoughts around,
As fairy balloons of thistle-down
Sail through the air of June.

O happy boy...Read more of this...

My Boy Jack

by Rudyard Kipling
  1914-18
Have you news of my boy Jack?"
 Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
 Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.


"Has any one else had word of him?: "
 Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
 Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.


"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
 None this tide,
...Read more of this...

Arms And The Boy

by Wilfred Owen
 Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads
Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads.
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

For his...Read more of this...

To a Western Boy

by Walt Whitman
 O BOY of the West! 
To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become eleve of mine: 
Yet if blood like mine circle not in your veins; 
If you be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently select lovers, 
Of what use is it that you seek to become eleve of mine? 5...Read more of this...

The Boy In The Barn

by Mother Goose
A little boy went into a barn,
  And lay down on some hay.
An owl came out, and flew about,
  And the little boy ran away....Read more of this...

Willy Boy

by Mother Goose
"Willy boy, Willy boy, where are you going?
I will go with you, if that I may."
"I'm going to the meadow to see them a-mowing,
I'm going to help them to make the hay."...Read more of this...

Who will cry for the little boy?

by Antwone Fisher
who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned without his own?

Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy?
He walked the burning sand
Who will cry for the little boy?
The boy inside the man.

Who will...Read more of this...

I prithee spare me gentle boy

by Sir John Suckling
 I prithee spare me gentle boy,
Press me no more for that slight toy,
That foolish trifle of an heart;
I swear it will not do its part,
Though thou dost thine, employ'st thy pow'r and art.

For through long custom it has known
The little secrets, and is grown
Sullen and wise, will have its will,
And like old hawks pursues that still
That makes least sport,...Read more of this...

The Barefoot Boy

by John Greenleaf Whittier
 Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face,
Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy, -
I was once a barefoot boy!
Prince thou art, - the grown-up man
Only is republican.
Let the million-dollared...Read more of this...

O Tan-faced Prairie Boy

by Walt Whitman
 O TAN-FACED prairie-boy! 
Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift; 
Praises and presents came, and nourishing food—till at last, among the recruits, 
You came, taciturn, with nothing to give—we but look’d on each other, 
When lo! more than all the gifts of the world, you gave me. 5...Read more of this...

Farm Boy After Summer

by Robert Francis
 A seated statue of himself he seems.
A bronze slowness becomes him. Patently
The page he contemplates he doesn't see. 

The lesson, the long lesson, has been summer.
His mind holds summer, as his skin holds sun.
For once the homework, all of it, was done. 

What were the crops, where were the fiery fields
Where for so many days so many hours
The sun...Read more of this...

The Boy And the Angel

by Robert Browning
 Morning, evening, noon and night,
``Praise God!; sang Theocrite.

Then to his poor trade he turned,
Whereby the daily meal was earned.

Hard he laboured, long and well;
O'er his work the boy's curls fell.

But ever, at each period,
He stopped and sang, ``Praise God!''

Then back again his curls he threw,
And cheerful turned to work anew.

Said Blaise, the listening monk, ``Well done;
``I doubt not thou...Read more of this...

The Boy

by William Allingham
 The Boy from his bedroom-window 
Look'd over the little town, 
And away to the bleak black upland 
Under a clouded moon. 

The moon came forth from her cavern, 
He saw the sudden gleam 
Of a tarn in the swarthy moorland; 
Or perhaps the whole was a dream. 

For I never could find that water 
In all my walks and...Read more of this...

Soldier Boy

by Robert William Service
 My soldier boy has crossed the sea
 To fight the foeman;
But he'll come back to make of me
 And honest woman.
So I am singing all day long,
 Despite blood-shedding;
For though I know he's done me wrong,
 We'll end by wedding.

My soldier boy is home again,
 So bold and scathless;
But oh, my heart is numb with pain
 Because he's faithless.
He's...Read more of this...

The Faithless Boy

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 THERE was a wooer blithe and gay,

A son of France was he,--
Who in his arms for many a day,

As though his bride were she,
A poor young maiden had caress'd,
And fondly kiss'd, and fondly press'd,

And then at length deserted.

When this was told the nut-brown maid,

Her senses straightway fled;
She laugh'd and wept, and vow'd and pray'd,

And presently was dead.
The hour her...Read more of this...

The Little Boy Found

by William Blake
 The little boy lost in the lonely fen,
Led by the wand'ring light,
Began to cry, but God ever nigh,
Appeared like his father in white.

He kissed the child & by the hand led
And to his mother brought,
Who in sorrow pale. thro' the lonely dale
Her little boy weeping sought....Read more of this...

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