Famous Cowardly Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Carry On

...an who can fight when he's losing.

Carry on! Carry on!
Things never were looming so black.
But show that you haven't a cowardly streak,
And though you're unlucky you never are weak.
Carry on! Carry on!
Brace up for another attack.
It's looking like hell, but -- you never can tell:
Carry on, old man! Carry on!

There are some who drift out in the deserts of doubt,
 And some who in brutishness wallow;
There are others, I know, who in piety go
 Because of a Heaven to follow.
Bu...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William


Church And State

...nd the State,
Their mobs put under their feet.
O but heart's wine shall run pure,
Mind's bread grow sweet.

That were a cowardly song,
Wander in dreams no more;
What if the Church and the State
Are the mob that howls at the door!
Wine shall run thick to the end,
Bread taste sour....Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

..., lied, stole, grudg’d,
Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak, 
Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant; 
The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me, 
The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting, 
Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting.

8
But I was Manhattanese, friendly and proud! 
I was call’d by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me
 approachi...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Eugene Carman

...saw myself in the glass:
My hair all gray, my face like a sodden pie.
So I cursed and cursed: You damned old thing
You cowardly dog! You rotten pauper!
You Rhodes' slave! Till Roger Baughman
Thought I was having a fight with some one,
And looked through the transom just in time
To see me fall on the floor in a heap
From a broken vein in my head....Read more of this...
by Masters, Edgar Lee

Gareth And Lynette

...lion, in my fellowship? 
Deem'st thou that I accept thee aught the more 
Or love thee better, that by some device 
Full cowardly, or by mere unhappiness, 
Thou hast overthrown and slain thy master--thou!-- 
Dish-washer and broach-turner, loon!--to me 
Thou smellest all of kitchen as before.' 

'Damsel,' Sir Gareth answered gently, 'say 
Whate'er ye will, but whatsoe'er ye say, 
I leave not till I finish this fair quest, 
Or die therefore.' 

'Ay, wilt thou finish it? 
Sweet l...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord


Homeward Bound

...der but not to fight. 

Flower of the German Culture,
Boast of the Kaiser's Marine,
Choose for your emblem the vulture,
Cowardly, cruel, obscene! 

Forth from her sheltered haven
Our peaceful ship glides slow, 
Noiseless in flight as a raven,
Gray as a hoodie crow. 

She doubles and turns in her bearing,
Like a twisting plover she goes;
The way of her westward faring
Only the captain knows. 

In a lonely bay concealing
She lingers for days, and slips
At dusk from her covert, ...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

If We Must Die

...their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!...Read more of this...
by McKay, Claude

In The Baggage Room At Greyhound

...Sam in the basement limping from leaden 
 trunk to trunk, 
nor Joe at the counter with his nervous breakdown 
 smiling cowardly at the customers, 
nor the grayish-green whale's stomach interior loft 
 where we keep the baggage in hideous racks, 
hundreds of suitcases full of tragedy rocking back and 
 forth waiting to be opened, 
nor the baggage that's lost, nor damaged handles, 
 nameplates vanished, busted wires & broken 
 ropes, whole trunks exploding on the concrete 
 fl...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

In The Days When The World Was Wide

...we guard; 
Where scarcely the scorn of a god could touch, 
the sneer of a sneak hits hard; 
The treacherous tongue and cowardly pen, the weapons of curs, decide -- 
They faced each other and fought like men 
in the days when the world was wide. 

Think of it all -- of the life that is! Study your friends and foes! 
Study the past! And answer this: `Are these times better than those?' 
The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! 
No matter who f...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Inferno Canto03

...etta d'i cattivi, 
a Dio spiacenti e a' nemici sui . 

At once I understood with certainty: 
this company contained the cowardly, 
hateful to God and to His enemies. 


Questi sciaurati, che mai non fur vivi, 
erano ignudi e stimolati molto 
da mosconi e da vespe ch'eran ivi . 

These wretched ones, who never were alive, 
went naked and were stung again, again 
by horseflies and by wasps that circled them. 


Elle rigavan lor di sangue il volto, 
che, mischiato di lagrime, a'...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante

Portrait of a Lady

...Of one about to reach her journey’s end.

I shall sit here, serving tea to friends...”

I take my hat: how can I make a cowardly amends
For what she has said to me?
You will see me any morning in the park
Reading the comics and the sporting page.
Particularly I remark
An English countess goes upon the stage.
A Greek was murdered at a Polish dance,
Another bank defaulter has confessed.
I keep my countenance,
I remain self-possessed
Except when a street piano, mechanical and ti...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Rubber Souls

...erased many a passion, many a thought, 
 but you were happy and excited, were you not?... 

 Above the waist you are a cowardly man, 
 an ace of spade, and an unlucky one... 

© Copyright Alec Vagapov's translation...Read more of this...
by Voznesensky, Andrei

Song For Heroes

...laid him out stony cold—
And his widow is now Mrs. Gray,
 Haw! Haw!
His widow is now Mrs. Gray!

But Peter McGuck was a cowardly sneak,
Like a hound he remained home in fear;
When fishing one day he fell into the creek—
And his widow is now Mrs. Greer,
 Haw! Haw! Haw!
Mrs. William O’Houlihan Greer!...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

The Deer Lay Down Their Bones

...ws upward from the deep gorge.--I 
 wish my bones were with theirs.
But that's a foolish thing to confess, and a little cowardly. We know that life
Is on the whole quite equally good and bad, mostly gray neutral, and can 
 be endured
To the dim end, no matter what magic of grass, water and precipice, and 
 pain of wounds,
Makes death look dear. We have been given life and have used it--not a 
 great gift perhaps--but in honesty
Should use it all. Mine's empty since my love di...Read more of this...
by Jeffers, Robinson

The Four Winds

...uttered; 
But you, Bear! sit here and whimper, 
And disgrace your tribe by crying, 
Like a wretched Shaugodaya, 
Like a cowardly old woman!"
Then again he raised his war-club, 
Smote again the Mishe-Mokwa 
In the middle of his forehead, 
Broke his skull, as ice is broken 
When one goes to fish in Winter. 
Thus was slain the Mishe-Mokwa, 
He the Great Bear of the mountains, 
He the terror of the nations.
"Honor be to Mudjekeewis!" 
With a shout exclaimed the people, 
"Honor be...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The Reeves Tale

...itchen; a cook, in base Latin, being termed "coquinarius."
compare French "coquin," rascal.

25. Unhardy is unsely: the cowardly is unlucky; "nothing
venture, nothing have;" German, "unselig," unhappy.

26. Holy cross of Bromeholm: A common adjuration at that
time; the cross or rood of the priory of Bromholm, in Norfolk,
was said to contain part of the real cross and therefore held in
high esteem.

27. In manus tuas: Latin, "in your hands".      ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Strangest Creature On Earth

...You're like a scorpion, my brother,
you live in cowardly darkness
 like a scorpion.
You're like a sparrow, my brother,
always in a sparrow's flutter.
You're like a clam, my brother,
closed like a clam, content,
And you're frightening, my brother,
 like the mouth of an extinct volcano.

Not one,
 not five--
unfortunately, you number millions.
You're like a sheep, my brother:
 when the cloaked drover raises...Read more of this...
by Hikmet, Nazim

Troilus And Criseyde: Book 04

...d som, that falsly have ye slayn
Criseyde, and sin ye may do me no werse,
Fy on your might and werkes so diverse! 
Thus cowardly ye shul me never winne;
Ther shal no deeth me fro my lady twinne.

'For I this world, sin ye han slayn hir thus,
Wol lete, and folowe hir spirit lowe or hye;
Shal never lover seyn that Troilus 
Dar not, for fere, with his lady dye;
For certeyn, I wol bere hir companye.
But sin ye wol not suffre us liven here,
Yet suffreth that our soules ben y-fere....Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

Tryst

...n, 
The silver cords untwine; 
Almond flowers in token 
Have bloomed,---that I am thine!

Others who would fly thee 
In cowardly alarms, 
Who hate thee and deny thee, 
Thou foldest in thine arms!

How shall I entreat thee 
No longer to withhold? 
I dare not go to meet thee, 
O lover, far and cold!

O lover, whose lips chilling 
So many lips have kissed, 
Come, even if unwilling, 
And keep thy solemn tryst!...Read more of this...
by Jackson, Helen Hunt

When Golda Meir was in Africa

...troked it,
And she felt beautiful.


Such wonderful people, Africans
Childish, arrogant, self-indulgent, pompous,
Cowardly and treacherous-a great disappointment
To Israel, of course, and really rather
Ridiculous in international affairs
But, withal, opined Golda, a people of charm
And good taste. ...Read more of this...
by Walker, Alice

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