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Famous Breeches Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Gregory, Rg
...make a difference – the vatican
still had its glory years ahead (its gory inquisitions)
da vinci stayed honoured in the breeches the word advanced
though its priests wore skirts – the brutality of man
multiplied its converts (scientifically enhanced)
not one power in the world changed its dirty dispositions

yesterday was aeons ago – tomorrow’s loath to come
no one really cares if magdalene was wife or whore
da vinci is someone to gawp at – all’s mutable (unreal)
what’s truth...Read more of this...



by Justice, Donald
...ut such things better than we,
Only stands smiling, passive and ornamental, in a fantastic livery
Of ruffles and puffed breeches,
Watching the artist, apparently, as he sketches.
Meanwhile the petty lord who must have paid
For the artist's trip up from Perugia, for the horse, for the boy, for
everything here, in fact, has been delayed,
Kept too long by his steward, perhaps, discussing
Some business concerning the estate, or fussing
Over the details of his impeccable toile...Read more of this...

by Barnes, William
...
A tutty he'd a-begg'd or stole.
A span-new wes-co't, too, he wore,
Wi' yellow stripes all down avore;
An' tied his breeches' lags below
The knee, wi' ribbon in a bow;
An' drow'd his kitty-boots azide,
An' put his laggens on, an' tied
His shoes wi' strings two vingers wide,
Because 'twer Easter Zunday.

An' after mornen church wer out
He come back hwome, an' stroll'd about
All down the vields, an' drough the leane,
Wi' sister Kit an' cousin Jeane,
A-turnen proudly to ...Read more of this...

by Bachmann, Ingeborg
...
A tutty he'd a-begg'd or stole.
A span-new wes-co't, too, he wore,
Wi' yellow stripes all down avore;
An' tied his breeches' lags below
The knee, wi' ribbon in a bow;
An' drow'd his kitty-boots azide,
An' put his laggens on, an' tied
His shoes wi' strings two vingers wide,
Because 'twer Easter Zunday.

An' after mornen church wer out
He come back hwome, an' stroll'd about
All down the vields, an' drough the leane,
Wi' sister Kit an' cousin Jeane,
A-turnen proudly to ...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...ck, and full of ashes;
then it was spilling over
in rivulets of fire.
Osa and Martin Johnson 
dressed in riding breeches,
laced boots, and pith helmets.
A dead man slung on a pole
"Long Pig," the caption said.
Babies with pointed heads
wound round and round with string;
black, naked women with necks
wound round and round with wire
like the necks of light bulbs.
Their breasts were horrifying.
I read it right straight through.
I was too sh...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...e glory of God, and sees the horizon compleat at once. 

Let Bohan rejoice with the Scythian Stag -- he is beef and breeches against want and nakedness. 

Let Achsah rejoice with the Pigeon who is an antidote to malignity and will carry a letter. 

Let Tohu rejoice with the Grouse -- the Lord further the cultivating of heaths and the peopling of deserts. 

Let Hillel rejoice with Ammodytes, whose colour is deceitful and he plots against the pilgrim's feet....Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...lest the court should lie, 
That, disavowing treaty, asks supply. 
He needs no seal but to St James's lease, 
Whose breeches wear the instrument of peace; 
Who, if the French dispute his power, from thence 
Can straight produce them a plenipotence.. 
Nor fears he the Most Christian should trepan 
Two saints at once, St Germain, St Alban, 
But thought the Golden Age was now restored, 
When men and women took each other's word. 

Paint then again Her Highness to...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...as lion,
Stood Aid-de-camp to Gen'ral Tryon,
Made rebels vanish once, like witches,
And saved his life, but dropp'd his breeches.
I scarce had made a fearful bow,
And trembling ask'd him, "How d'ye do;"
When lifting up his eyes so wide,
His eyes alone, his hands were tied;
With feeble voice, as spirits use,
Now almost choak'd by gripe of noose;


"Ah, fly my friend, he cried, escape,
And keep yourself from this sad scrape;
Enough you've talk'd and writ and plann'd;
The Wh...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...h rippled to her feet. Then straight away She 
peered down stream among the budding sallows.
A youth in leather breeches and a shirt Of finest broidered 
lawn lay out upon
An overhanging bole and deftly swayed A 
well-hooked fish which shone
In the pale lemon sunshine like a spurt
Of silver, bowed and damascened, and girt
With crimson spots and moons which waned and 
played.

VIII
The fish hung circled for a moment, ringed And 
bright; then flung itself out, a thi...Read more of this...

by Hayden, Robert
...r fare you well

No more auction block for me
no more driver's lash for me

 If you see my Pompey, 30 yrs of age, 
 new breeches, plain stockings, ***** shoes; 
 if you see my Anna, likely young mulatto 
 branded E on the right cheek, R on the left, 
 catch them if you can and notify subscriber. 
 Catch them if you can, but it won't be easy.
 They'll dart underground when you try to catch them, 
 plunge into quicksand, whirlpools, mazes, 
 torn into scorpions when you...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...knee-high,
"you've need of clothes to cover you,
and not a rag have I.

"There's nothing in the house
To make a boy breeches,
Nor shears to cut a cloth with,
Nor thread to take stitches.

"There's nothing in the house
But a loaf-end of rye,
And a harp with a woman's head
Nobody will buy,"
And she began to cry.

That was in the early fall.
When came the late fall,
"Son," she said, "the sight of you
Makes your mother's blood crawl,—

"Little skinny shoulder-blad...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...yond unblotching. Crispin, 
22 The lutanist of fleas, the knave, the thane, 
23 The ribboned stick, the bellowing breeches, cloak 
24 Of China, cap of Spain, imperative haw 
25 Of hum, inquisitorial botanist, 
26 And general lexicographer of mute 
27 And maidenly greenhorns, now beheld himself, 
28 A skinny sailor peering in the sea-glass. 
29 What word split up in clickering syllables 
30 And storming under multitudinous tones 
31 Was name for this short-sh...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...ad;
They have decked her over,
And again, and again.
The shoring-up beams shudder at the strain.
Black and blue breeches,
Pigtails bound and shining:
Like ants crawling about,
The hull swarms with carpenters, running in and out.
Joiners, calkers,
And they are all terrible talkers.
Jem Wilson has been to sea and he tells some wonderful tales
Of whales, and spice islands,
And pirates off the Barbary coast.
He boasts magnificently, with his mouth full of nail...Read more of this...

by Noyes, Alfred
...e old inndoor.

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doeskin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
 And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
 His pistol butts a-twinkle
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dard inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred; 
He w...Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...In his laugh.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so *****!

And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling....Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...a flying; 
I saw the shirts and petticoats 
Go riding off like witches;
I lost, ah! bitterly I wept,--
I lost my Sunday breeches!

I saw them straddling through the air, 
Alas! too late to win them; 
I saw them chase the clouds, as if 
The devil had been in them; 
They were my darlings and my pride, 
My boyhood's only riches,--
"Farewell, farewell," I faintly cried,--
"My breeches! O my breeches!" 

That night I saw them in my dreams, 
How changed from what I knew them! 
The ...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...br> 

The precincts of Wargeilah town 
An English new-chum did infest: 
He used to wander up and down 
In baggy English breeches drest; 
His mental aspect seemed to be 
Just stolid self-sufficiency. 

The local sportsmen vainly sought 
His tranquil calm to counteract 
By urging that he should be brought 
Within the Noxious Creatures Act. 
"Nay, harm him not," said one more wise, 
"He is a blessing in disguise! 

"You see, he wants to buy a horse, 
To ride, and hunt, a...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...l young men with English faces 
Standing rigidly in their places, 
Rows and rows of them stiff and staid 
In powder and breeches and bright gold braid; 
And high above them on the wall 
Hung other English faces-all 
Part of the pattern of English life—
General Sir Charles, and his pretty wife, 
Admirals, Lords-Lieutenant of Shires, 
Men who were served by these footmen's sires 
At their great parties-none of them knowing 
How soon or late they would all be going 
In plainer d...Read more of this...

by Betjeman, John
...winners,
Paid the Final Entrance Fee.

Leathery limbs of Upper Lambourne,
Leathery skin from sun and wind,
Leathery breeches, spreading stables,
Shining saddles left behind -
To the down the string of horses
Moving out of sight and mind.

Feathery ash in leathery Lambourne
Waves above the sarsen stone,
And Edwardian plantations
So coniferously moan
As to make the swelling downland,
Far surrounding, seem their own....Read more of this...

by Harrison, Tony
...our's wife, thy neighbour's riches.
Vicar and cop who say, to save our souls,
Get thee beHind me, Satan, drop their breeches
and get the Devil's dick right up their 'oles! 

It was more a working marriage that I'd meant,
a blend of masculine and feminine.
Ignoring me, he started looking, bent
on some more aerosolling, for his tin.

'It was more a working marriage that I mean!'
****, and save mi soul, eh? That suits me. 
Then as if I'd egged him on to be obscen...Read more of this...

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