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Famous Bunk Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Service, Robert William
...r I quail;
If he should check my cash I'm sunk . . .
Before they throw me into gaol
I guess I'd better do a bunk."

So sat they in the Winter eve
In sweet serenity becalmed,
So peaceful you could scarce believe
They shared the torments of the damned . . .
Yet there the Mother smiles and knits;
The Daughter sews white underwear;
The Father reads and smokes and spits,
While Sonny Boy plays solitaire....Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...baby could respond!
Siena! That's the old burg where
We soused on Asti in the square.

"Antiquity! Why, that's the bunk -
Statues and all that mouldy junk
Will never get you anywhere . . .
My line is ladies' underware,
And better than a dozen Dantes
Is something cute in female scanties. . . .

"One day in Florence is too small
You think, maybe, to see it all.
Well, it don't matter what you've seen -
The thing is: you can say you've been.Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...nd somewhere in the melee children pressed
shoulders to crotches noses to the rest

and in light-headed periods trams debunked
the classier lissome ways of shifting freight
emptied of pomp their anarchy instinct
they'd rattle down their tracks at such a rate
they'd writhe their upper structures like an eight
being drawn by revelling legless topers
strict rails (they claimed) gave sanction for such capers

trams had this kind of catholic conviction
the end ordained their waywa...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...d the gills;
When your legs seem made of jelly,
And you're squeamish in the belly,
 And you want to turn about and do a bunk:
For Gawd's sake, kid, don't show it!
Don't let your mateys know it --
 You're just sufferin' from funk, funk, funk.

Of course there's no denyin'
That it ain't so easy tryin'
 To grin and grip your rifle by the butt,
When the 'ole world rips asunder,
And you sees yer pal go under,
 As a bunch of shrapnel sprays 'im on the nut;
I admit it's 'ard con...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...put up with Kathleen."

Well, she was so dead set to go the Captain said: "By heck!
I like your *****; you take my bunk and I'll camp on the deck."
So days went by then with a sigh she sought him so anew:
"Oh, Captain Geer, Kathleen's a dear, but does she have to moo?
In early morn like motor horn she bellows overhead,
While all the night without respite she snores above my bed.
I know it's true she dotes on you, your smile she seems to miss;
She leans so near I ...Read more of this...



by Edgar, Marriott
...e road
He made each one hold fast with his trunk
To the tail of the elephant walking in front
To stop them from doing a bunk. 

There were fifteen in all, so 'twere rather a job
To get them linked up in a row,
But once he had fixed 'em Joe knew they'd hold on,
For an elephant never lets go. 

The pace it was set by the big 'uns in front,
'Twas surprising how fast they could stride,
And poor little Aggie, the one at the back...
Had to run till she very near...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...The man above was a murderer, the man below was a thief;
And I lay there in the bunk between, ailing beyond belief;
A weary armful of skin and bone, wasted with pain and grief.

My feet were froze, and the lifeless toes were purple and green and gray;
The little flesh that clung to my bones, you could punch it in holes like clay;
The skin on my gums was a sullen black, and slowly peeling away.

I was sure enough in a direful fix...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...shoes shoveling gravel.
Now they hold their toes and ankles
 to the drift of running water.
Then they go to the bunk cars
 and eat mulligan and prune sauce,
Smoke one or two pipefuls, look at the stars,
 tell smutty stories
About men and women they have known,
 countries they have seen,
Railroads they have built—
 and then the deep sleep of children....Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...e ranges and far 
To the plains where the cattle and sheep stations are, 
With the sky for my roof and the grass for my bunk, 
And a calico bag for my damper and junk; 
And scarcely a comrade my memory reveals, 
Save the spiritless dingo in tow of my heels. 

But I think of the honest old light of my home 
When the stars hang in clusters like lamps from the dome, 
And I think of the hearth where the dark shadows fall, 
When my camp fire is built on the widest of all; 
But...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...e
too late
swallowed stone
all alone
too proud
to cry aloud
scoffed cake
great ache
at work
went beserk
in a funk
did a bunk
hitch hike
stole a bike
empty car
not too far
flat tyre
on fire
skid swerve
lost his nerve
bang crash
frantic dash
turned bend
pond at end
police whistle
fall on thistle
jump in air
pond there
shocked scream
can't swim
hold breath
certain death
police leap
foot deep
soaking wet
vow they'll get
sam swill
off up hill
put in prison
doesn't listen
wooded pa...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...And 'twas raining, for a wonder, up at Come-and-have-a-drink. 

'Neath the public-house verandah I was resting on a bunk 
When a stranger rose before me, and he said that he was drunk; 
He apologised for speaking; there was no offence, he swore; 
But he somehow seemed to fancy that he'd seen my face before. 

`No erfence,' he said. I told him that he needn't mention it, 
For I might have met him somewhere; I had travelled round a bit, 
And I knew a lot of fellows ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...sun; to his cabin so softly I slunk.
My neighbor was there in the frost-freighted air, all wrapped in a robe in his bunk.
It muffled his moans; it outlined his bones, as feebly he twisted about;
His gums were so black, and his lips seemed to crack, and his teeth all were loosening out.
'Twas a death's head that peered through the tangle of beard; 'twas a face I will never forget;
Sunk eyes full of woe, and they troubled me so with their pleadings and anguish, and ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...l in the glory of his gaze,
And I flung my foolish firearm at his feet,
Then wearily I turned away, and dropped upon my bunk,
And there I lay and blubbered like a kid.
"Forgive me, pard," says I at last, "for acting like a skunk,
But hide the blasted rifle..." Which he did.

And he also hid his Bible, which was maybe just as well,
For the sight of all that paper gave me pain;
And there were crimson moments when I felt I'd o to hell
To have a single cigaret...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...enever I think o' Eureka my talking is apt to run wild.

"Even now in my tent when I'm dreaming I'll spring from my bunk, strike a light,
And feel for my boots an' revolver, for the diggers' march past in the night.
An' the faces an' forms of old mates an' old comrades go driftin' along,
With a band in the front of 'em playing the tune of an old battle song."...Read more of this...

by Knight, Etheridge
...isters, uncles, aunts,
cousins (1st and 2nd), nieces, and nephews.They stare
across the space at me sprawling on my bunk.I know
their dark eyes, they know mine.I know their style,
they know mine.I am all of them, they are all of me;
they are farmers, I am a thief, I am me, they are thee.

I have at one time or another been in love with my mother,
1 grandmother, 2 sisters, 2 aunts (1 went to the asylum),
and 5 cousins.I am now in love with a 7-yr-old ni...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
..., which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name . . ."

This was the song of the parson's son, as he lay in his bunk alone,
Ere the fire went out and the cold crept in, and his blue lips ceased to moan,
And the hunger-maddened malamutes had torn him flesh from bone....Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...m a heathen port to be robbed on a Christian coast?
Ye have smoked the hives of the Laccadives as we burn the lice in a bunk,
We tack not now to a Gallang prow or a plunging Pei-ho junk;
I had no fear but the seas were clear as far as a sail might fare
Till I met with a lime-washed Yankee brig that rode off Finisterre.
There were canvas blinds to his bow-gun ports to screen the weight he bore,
And the signals ran for a merchantman from Sandy Hook to the Nore.
He would...Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...usly awaited. 

With a screech and a howl and an eldritch cry 
That nearly deafened his hearers 
He sprang from his bunk, and his fishy eye 
Looked over the laughing shearers. 

He looked them over and he looked them through 
As a cook might look through a larder; 
"Now, Big Barcoo, I must pick on you, 
You're big, but you'll fall the harder." 

Now, the silent man was but slight and thin 
And of middleweight conformation, 
But he hung one punch on the Barcoo's ch...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...or two, and I'm so small
 You can pack me in the pocket of your vest;
And when at night so wearily you crawl
 Into your bunk and stretch your limbs to rest,
You take me out and play me soft and low,
 The simple songs that trouble your heartstrings;
The tunes you used to fancy long ago,
 Before you made a rotten mess of things.

Then a dreamy look will come into your eyes,
 And you break off in the middle of a note;
And then, with just the dreariest of sighs,
 You drop me ...Read more of this...

by Edgar, Marriott
...for the bulwarks, 
And all t'other shipbuilding junk, 
And wanted some nice Bird's Eye Maple 
To panel the side of 'is bunk.

Now Maple were Sam's Monopoly; 
That means it were all 'is to cut, 
And nobody else 'adn't got none; 
So 'e asked Noah three ha'pence a foot.

'A ha'penny too much,' replied Noah 
'A Penny a foot's more the mark; 
A penny a foot, and when t'rain comes, 
I'll give you a ride in me Ark.' 
But neither would budge in the bargain; 
The whole da...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs