Famous Calais Poems by Famous Poets

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

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87. The Twa Dogs

...they bid him:
At operas an’ plays parading,
Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading:
Or maybe, in a frolic daft,
To Hague or Calais takes a waft,
To mak a tour an’ tak a whirl,
To learn bon ton, an’ see the worl’.
 There, at Vienna, or Versailles,
He rives his father’s auld entails;
Or by Madrid he takes the rout,
To thrum guitars an’ fecht wi’ nowt;
Or down Italian vista startles,
 Wh-re-hunting amang groves o’ myrtles:
Then bowses drumlie German-water,
To mak himsel look fair an...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A Channel Crossing

...Forth from Calais, at dawn of night, when sunset summer on autumn shone,
Fared the steamer alert and loud through seas whence only the sun was gone:
Soft and sweet as the sky they smiled, and bade man welcome: a dim sweet hour
Gleamed and whispered in wind and sea, and heaven was fair as a field in flower,
Stars fulfilled the desire of the darkling world as with music:...Read more of this...
by Swinburne, Algernon Charles

Dandelions

...an

to the colour of annas.
The wind changes their identity:

slender Giacomettis, Doré's convicts,
Rodin's burghers of Calais

with five bowed heads
and the weight of serrated keys . . . 

They wither into mystery, waiting
to find out why they are,

patiently, before nirvana
when the rain comes down like vitriol....Read more of this...
by Raine, Craig

De Gustibus---

...hey 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 Browning, Robert

How Did You Meet Your Wife?

...Swimming the English Channel,
struggling to make it to Calais,
I swam into Laura halfway across.
My body oiled for warmth,
black rubber cap on my head,
eyes hidden behind goggles,
I was exhausted, ready to drown,
when I saw her coming toward me,
bobbing up and down between waves,
effortlessly doing a breaststroke,
heading for Dover. Treading water
I asked in French if she spoke English,
and she said, "Yes, I'm a...Read more of this...
by Jones, Richard


Jubilate Agno: Fragment D

...nts. 

Let Ash, house of Ash rejoice with Callaica a green gem. God be gracious to Miss Leroche my fellow traveler from Calais. 

Let Baily, house of Baily rejoice with Catopyrites of Cappadocia. God be gracious to the immortal soul of Lewes Baily author of the Practice of Piety. 

Let Glover, house of Glover rejoice with Capnites a kind of Jasper -- blessed be the memory of Glover the martyr. 

Let Egerton, house of Egerton rejoice with Sphragis green but not pellucid. 

Let...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Last Instructions to a Painter

...; 
More timorous now we are than first secure. 
False terrors our believing fears devise, 
And the French army one from Calais spies. 
Bennet and May and those of shorter reach 
Change all for guineas, and a crown for each, 
But wiser men and well foreseen in chance 
In Holland theirs had lodged before, and France. 
Whitehall's unsafe; the court all meditates 
To fly to Windsor and mure up the gates. 
Each does the other blame, and all distrust; 
(That Mordaunt, new obliged, ...Read more of this...
by Marvell, Andrew

Statistics

...poleon turned to his sleep:
"It is not my world answering;
It is some dreamer who knows not
The world I marched in
From Calais to Moscow."
And he slept on
In the old sarcophagus
While the aeroplanes
Droned their motors
Between Napoleon's mausoleum
And the cool night stars....Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

The Burghers of Calais

...e ground- 
And King Edward went out with his soldiers
To clean up the places around.

The first place they came to were Calais, 
Where t' burghers all stood in a row,
And when Edward told them to surrender 
They told Edward where he could go.

Said he, " I'll beleaguer this city,
I'll teach them to flout their new King - 
Then he told all his lads to get camp-stools
And sit round the place in a ring.

Now the burghers knew nowt about Crecy- 
They laughed when they saw Edward'...Read more of this...
by Edgar, Marriott

The Four Ages of Man

...dar others so surmount
5.32 That but for shrubs they did themselves account.
5.33 Then saw I France, and Holland sav'd, Calais won,
5.34 And Philip and Albertus half undone.
5.35 I saw all peace at home, terror to foes,
5.36 But ah, I saw at last those eyes to close,
5.37 And then, me thought, the world at noon grew dark
5.38 When it had lost that radiant Sun-like spark.
5.39 In midst of griefs, I saw some hopes revive
5.40 (For 'twas our hopes then kept our hearts alive);
5....Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne

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