Famous Damper Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Dream of the Melbourne Cup

...Bring me a quart of colonial beer 
And some doughy damper to make good cheer, 
I must make a heavy dinner; 
Heavily dine and heavily sup, 
Of indigestible things fill up, 
Next month they run the Melbourne Cup, 
And I have to dream the winner. 
Stoke it in, boys! the half-cooked ham, 
The rich ragout and the charming cham., 
I've got to mix my liquor; 
Give me a gander's gaunt hind leg, 
Hard and tough as a ...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton


Berck-Plage

...air in scorched hands.

Why is it so quiet, what are they hiding?
I have two legs, and I move smilingly..

A sandy damper kills the vibrations;
It stretches for miles, the shrunk voices

Waving and crutchless, half their old size.
The lines of the eye, scalded by these bald surfaces,

Boomerang like anchored elastics, hurting the owner.
Is it any wonder he puts on dark glasses?

Is it any wonder he affects a black cassock?
Here he comes now, among the mackerel ...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Old Pardon the Son of Reprieve

...out. 
Your six-furlong vermin that scamper 
Half-a-mile with their feather-weight up, 
They wouldn't earn much of their damper 
In a race like the President's Cup. 

The first heat was soon set a-going; 
The Dancer went off to the front; 
The Don on his quarters was showing, 
With Pardon right out of the hunt. 
He rolled and he weltered and wallowed -- 
You'd kick your hat faster, I'll bet; 
They finished all bunched, and he followed 
All lathered and dripping with sweat. 

B...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

On the Wallaby

...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 I'm following Fate, for I know she...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Sisters cake

...machinery of the house came to a sudden stand;
The pots were hustled off the stove, the fire built up anew,
With every damper set just so to heat the oven through;
The kitchen-table was relieved of everything, to make
That ample space which Jane required when she compounded cake.

And, oh! the bustling here and there, the flying to and fro;
The click of forks that whipped the eggs to lather white as snow--
And what a wealth of sugar melted swiftly out of sight--
And butter? ...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene


Smoke and Steel

...ng in the secrets of our numbers;
Sing their dawns and sing their evenings,
Sing an old log-fire song:

You may put the damper up,
You may put the damper down,
The smoke goes up the chimney just the same.

Smoke of a city sunset skyline,
Smoke of a country dusk horizon—
 They cross on the sky and count our years.

Smoke of a brick-red dust
 Winds on a spiral
 Out of the stacks
For a hidden and glimpsing moon.
This, said the bar-iron shed to the blooming mill,
This is the slan...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

The Dinkey Bird

...ging 
In the amfalula tree!
So when children shout and scamper
And make merry all the day,
When there's naught to put a damper
To the ardor of their play;
When I hear their laughter ringing,
Then I'm sure as sure can be
That the Dinkey-Bird is singing 
In the amfalula tree!
For the Dinkey-Bird's bravuras
And staccatos are so sweet--
His roulades, appoggiaturas,
And robustos so complete,
That the youth of every nation--
Be they near or far away--
Have especial delectation
In t...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene

The Federal Bus Conductor and the Old Lady

...me things this very night and hold a banquet there -- 
The hard old fare we've often shared together, him and me, 
Some damper and a bite of beef, a pannikin of tea: 
We'll do without the bands and flags, the speeches and the fuss, 
We know who ought to get the cheers -- and that's enough for us. 

"What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! 
Present me to the Governor and that young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing p...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

The First Surveyor

...me things this very night and hold a banquet there -- 
The hard old fare we've often shared together, him and me, 
Some damper and a bite of beef, a pannikin of tea: 
We'll do without the bands and flags, the speeches and the fuss, 
We know who ought to get the cheers -- and that's enough for us. 

"What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! 
Present me to the Governor and that young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing p...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

The Jubilee Sovreign

...lbert (the Good) 
But she got quite upset when young Albert 
Asked `er `ow she'd got on in the Flood.

She cast quite a damper on't party, 
But she warmed up a bit after tea, 
And gave Albert a real golden sovereign 
She'd been saving since last Jubilee. 

It `ad picture of Queen on't one side 
And a dragon fight on the reverse, 
And it smelled of camphor and cobwebs 
Through being so long in `er purse. 

Albert `andled the coin, and `e kissed it 
And `e felt the rough edge w...Read more of this...
by Edgar, Marriott

The Paroo

...be on ahead - 
I think we've crossed the river." 
But soon we saw a strip of ground 
Beside the track we followed, 
No damper than the surface round, 
But just a little hollowed. 
His brow assumed a thoughtful frown - 
This speech did he deliver: 
"I wonder if we'd best go down 
Or up the blessed river?" 

"But where," said I, " 's the blooming stream?' 
And he replied, 'we're at it!" 
I stood awhile, as in a dream, 
"Great Scott!" I cried, "is that it? 
Why, that is some ol...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

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