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Famous Cider Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Frost, Robert
...lettuce, peas,
Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn,
 And even fruit trees

And yes, she has long mistrusted
 That a cider apple tree
In bearing there to-day is hers,
 Or at least may be.

Her crop was a miscellany
 When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
 A great deal of none.

Now when she sees in the village
 How village things go,
Just when it seems to come in right,
 She says, "I know!

It's as when I was a farmer--"
 Oh, never by way of advice...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...serves you out before a charge.
In back rooms of estaminays I've gurgled pints of cham;
 I've swilled down mugs of cider till I've felt a bloomin' dam;
But 'struth! they all ain't in it with the vintage of Assam:
 God bless the man that first invented Tea!

I think them lazy lumps o' gods wot kips on asphodel
 Swigs nectar that's a flavour of Oolong;
I only wish them sons o' guns a-grillin' down in 'ell
 Could 'ave their daily ration of Suchong.
Hurrah! I'm off to ba...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...nd not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep....Read more of this...

by Hughes, Ted
...
The serpent stared in surprise
At this interloper. 
But God said: "You see this apple?" 
I squeeze it and look-cider." 

The serpent had a good drink
And curled up into a question mark. 
Adam drank and said: "Be my god." 
Eve drank and opened her legs

And called to the cockeyed serpent
And gave him a wild time. 
God ran and told Adam
Who in drunken rage tried to hang himself in the orchard. 

The serpent tried to explain, crying "Stop...Read more of this...

by Jarrell, Randall
...lame-blue glances, 
The wings gauzy as the membrane that the ashes 
Draw over an old ember --as the mother 
In a jug of cider-- were a comfort to her. 
They sat by the fire and told each other stories. 

"What men want..." said the godmother softly-- 
How she went on it is hard for a man to say. 
Their eyes, on their Father, were monumental marble. 
Then they smiled like two old women, bussed each other, 
Said, "Gossip, gossip"; and, lapped in each...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...d the notary seated;
There good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the blacksmith.
Not far withdrawn from these, by the cider-press and the beehives,
Michael the fiddler was placed, with the gayest of hearts and of waistcoats.
Shadow and light from the leaves alternately played on his snow-white
Hair, as it waved in the wind; and the jolly face of the fiddler
Glowed like a living coal when the ashes are blown from the embers.
Gayly the old man sang to the vibrant soun...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...es of his 
Which he kept in reserve, apparently, 
For Archibald alone. “But why,” said he, 
“Should Providence have cider in the world
If not for such an afternoon as this?” 
And Archibald, with a soft light in his eyes, 
Replied that if he chose to go down cellar, 
There he would find eight barrels—one of which 
Was newly tapped, he said, and to his taste
An honor to the fruit. Isaac approved 
Most heartily of that, and guided us 
Forthwith, as if his venerable feet ...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...n warm, 
The army soon raised, he doth as soon disarm. 
True Trojan! While this town can girls afford, 
And long as cider lasts in Herford, 
The girls shall always kiss thee, though grown old, 
And in eternal healths thy name be trolled. 

Meanwhile the certain news of peace arrives 
At court, and so reprieves their guilty lives. 
Hyde orders Turner that he should come late, 
Lest some new Tomkins spring a fresh debate. 
The King that day raised early from his...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
..., in cluster,
The Tory Pandemonium muster.
Their chiefs all sitting round descried are,
On kegs of ale and seats of cider;
When first M'Fingal, dimly seen,
Rose solemn from the turnip-bin.
Nor yet his form had wholly lost
Th' original brightness it could boast,
Nor less appear'd than Justice Quorum,
In feather'd majesty before 'em.
Adown his tar-streak'd visage, clear
Fell glistening fast th' indignant tear,
And thus his voice, in mournful wise,
Pursued the prolog...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...prayed,
With no suspicion in stern end or blossom end 
Of vitriol or arsenate of lead,
And so not good for anything but cider.
Her unpruned grapes are flung like lariats
Far up the birches out of reach of man.

A state producing precious metals, stones,
And—writing; none of these except perhaps
The precious literature in quantity
Or quality to worry the producer
About disposing of it. Do you know,
Considering the market, there are more
Poems produced than any othe...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...h and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or ...Read more of this...

by Pastan, Linda
...elly in the center
vulnerable to anything.
As for my country, it blunders along
as well intentioned as Eve choosing
cider and windfalls, oblivious
to the famine soon to come.
I stir pots, bury my face in books, or hold
a telephone to my ear as if its cord
were the umbilicus of the world
whose voices still whisper to me
even after they have left their bodies....Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...ouchant tiger's seemed to fall; 
And, for the winter fireside meet, 
Between the andirons' straddling feet, 
The mug of cider simmered slow, 
The apples sputtered in a row, 
And, close at hand, the basket stood 
With nuts from brown October's wood. 

What matter how the night behaved? 
What matter how the north-wind raved? 
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow 
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow. 
O Time and Change! -- with hair as gray 
As was my sire's that ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...me of base-ball;
At he-festivals, with blackguard jibes, ironical license, bull-dances, drinking,
 laughter; 
At the cider-mill, tasting the sweets of the brown mash, sucking the juice
 through a straw; 
At apple-peelings, wanting kisses for all the red fruit I find; 
At musters, beach-parties, friendly bees, huskings, house-raisings: 
Where the mocking-bird sounds his delicious gurgles, cackles, screams, weeps;
Where the hay-rick stands in the barn-yard—where the dry...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...d Judgment morning." 
I hurled the bench into the settle, 
I banged the table on the kettle, 
I sent Joe's quart of cider spinning. 
"Lo, here begins my second inning." 
Each bottle, mug, and jug and pot 
I smashed to crocks in half a tot; 
And Joe, and Si, and Nick, and Percy 
I rolled together topsy versy. 
And as I ran I heard 'em call, 
"Now damn to hell, what's gone with Saul?" 
Out into street I ran uproarious 
The devil dancing in me glorious. 
And ...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...jug-- 
Bless you, it isn't Grandsir Stark, it's Granny, 
But the pipe's there and smoking and the jug. 
She's after cider, the old girl, she's thirsty; 
Here's hoping she gets her drink and gets out safely." 
"Tell me about her. Does she look like me?" 
"She should, shouldn't she, you're so many times 
Over descended from her. I believe 
She does look like you. Stay the way you are. 
The nose is just the same, and so's the chin-- 
Making allowance, mak...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
..., I pray,
God's grace and love in Little Things.

So give to me, I only beg,
A little roof to call my own,
A little cider in the keg,
A little meat upon the bone;
A little garden by the sea,
A little boat that dips and swings . . .
Take wealth, take fame, but leave to me,
O Lord of Life, just Little Things....Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
..."At the first shrill notes of the pipe
I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,
And putting apples, wondrous ripe,
Into a cider-press's gripe:
And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,
And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,
And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,
And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks;
And it seemed as if a voice
(Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery
Is breathed) called out 'Oh, rats, rejoice!
The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!
So munch on, c...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...its twin¨¨d flowers; 
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 
Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20 
Or by a cider-press with patient look  
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. 

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay where are they? 
Think not of them thou hast thy music too ¡ª 
While barr¨¨d clouds bloom the soft-dying day 25 
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; 
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 
Among the river sallows born...Read more of this...

by Wylie, Elinor
...honey till we drown.

The winter will be short, the summer long, 
The autumn amber-hued, sunny and hot, 
Tasting of cider and of scuppernong; 
All seasons sweet, but autumn best of all. 
The squirrels in their silver fur will fall 
Like falling leaves, like fruit, before your shot.

2

The autumn frosts will lie upon the grass 
Like bloom on grapes of purple-brown and gold. 
The misted early mornings will be cold; 
The little puddles will be roofed with glass....Read more of this...

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