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Famous Dee Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...And Broughton’s wi’ the slain,
And I my ancient craft may try,
 Sin’ honesty is gane.


’Twas by the banks o’ bonie Dee,
 Beside Kirkcudbright’s towers,
The Stewart and the Murray there,
 Did muster a’ their powers.


Then Murray on the auld grey yaud,
 Wi’ winged spurs did ride,
That auld grey yaud a’ Nidsdale rade,
 He staw upon Nidside.


And there had na been the Yerl himsel,
 O there had been nae play;
But Garlies was to London gane,
 And sae the kye might st...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...et him like a pliver,
Unless he would from that time forth
 Relinquish her for ever.


Wi’ ghastly e’e poor tweedle-dee
 Upon his hunkers bended,
An’ pray’d for grace wi’ ruefu’ face,
 An’ so the quarrel ended.
But tho’ his little heart did grieve
 When round the tinkler prest her,
He feign’d to snirtle in his sleeve,
 When thus the caird address’d her:


AirTune—“Clout the Cauldron.”My bonie lass, I work in brass,
 A tinkler is my station:
I’ve travell’d round al...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...nd triming slight
Which takes our late fantasticks with delight, 
But cull those richest Robes, and gay'st attire
Which deepest Spirits, and choicest Wits desire:
I have some naked thoughts that rove about
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
And wearie of their place do only stay
Till thou hast deck't them in thy best aray;
That so they may without suspect or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair Assembly's ears;
Yet I had rather if I were to chuse,
Thy service in some grave...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...n a moment when Cameron shouted to me: 
`Climb up for your life by the footholes. 
I'LL STICK TAE TH' HAUN'LE -- OR DEE!' 

And those were the last words he uttered. 
He groaned, for I heard him quite plain -- 
There's nothing so awful as that when it's wrung from a workman in pain. 
The strength of despair was upon me; I started, and scarcely drew breath, 
But climbed to the top for my life in the fear of a terrible death. 
And there, with his waist on the ha...Read more of this...

by Hayden, Robert
...ished his mother into madness
trapped him in violence of a punished self
struggling to break free.

As Home Boy, as Dee-troit Red,
he fled his name, became the quarry of
his own obsessed pursuit.

He conked his hair and Lindy-hopped,
zoot-suited jiver, swinging those chicks
in the hot rose and reefer glow.

His injured childhood bullied him.
He skirmished in the Upas trees
and cannibal flowers of the American Dream--

but could not hurt the enemy
powered again...Read more of this...



by Field, Eugene
...There once was a bird that lived up in a tree,
And all he could whistle was "Fiddle-dee-dee" -
A very provoking, unmusical song
For one to be whistling the summer day long!
Yet always contented and busy was he
With that vocal recurrence of "Fiddle-dee-dee."

Hard by lived a brave little soldier of four,
That weird iteration repented him sore;
"I prithee, Dear-Mother-Mine! fetch me my gun,
For, by our St. Didy! the deed must be done
...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...d Usk, 
Before he turn to fall seaward again, 
Pauses, did Enid, keeping watch, behold 
In the first shallow shade of a deep wood, 
Before a gloom of stubborn-shafted oaks, 
Three other horsemen waiting, wholly armed, 
Whereof one seemed far larger than her lord, 
And shook her pulses, crying, 'Look, a prize! 
Three horses and three goodly suits of arms, 
And all in charge of whom? a girl: set on.' 
'Nay,' said the second, 'yonder comes a knight.' 
The third, 'A crave...Read more of this...

by Rothenberg, Jerome
...f the sun
behind me
I exceed my limits.
My garments are
from the beginning
& my dwelling place
is in my self(J. Dee)
It makes me want
to fly the stars
below the paradise of poets
lost in space.
I am the father of a lie
unspoken.
I can make my mind
go blank
then paw at you
my fingers in
your mouth.
I think of God
when fucking.
Is it wrong to pray
without a hat
to reject the call
to grace? I long to flatter
presidents & kings.
I long for manna.
I...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...vuo' saver cotanto a dentro,

dirotti brievemente", mi rispuose,

"perch'io non temo di venir qua entro.

 Temer si dee di sole quelle cose

c'hanno potenza di fare altrui male;

de l'altre no, ch? non son paurose.

 I' son fatta da Dio, sua merc?, tale,

che la vostra miseria non mi tange,

n? fiamma d'esto incendio non m'assale.

 Donna ? gentil nel ciel che si compiange

di questo 'mpedimento ov'io ti mando,

s? che duro giudicio l? s? frange.

 Questa chie...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...dirotti brievemente", mi rispuose, 
"perch'io non temo di venir qua entro . 

'Because you want to fathom things so deeply, 
I now shall tell you promptly,' she replied, 
'why I am not afraid to enter here. 


Temer si dee di sole quelle cose 
c'hanno potenza di fare altrui male; 
de l'altre no, ch? non son paurose . 

One ought to be afraid of nothing other 
than things possessed of power to do us harm, 
but things innocuous need not be feared. 


I' son fatt...Read more of this...

by Ashbery, John
...sewage,
Like the Seine, but unlike
The brownish-yellow Dordogne.
Mountains hem in the Colorado
And the Oder is very deep, almost
As deep as the Congo is wide.
The plain banks of the Neva are
Gray. The dark Saône flows silently.
And the Volga is long and wide
As it flows across the brownish land. The Ebro
Is blue, and slow. The Shannon flows
Swiftly between its banks. The Mississippi
Is one of the world's longest rivers, like the Amazon.
It has ...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...st
She either had to plan or burst,
But now the government reports
She’s giving pints instead of quarts.

Fiddle de dee, my next-door neighbors,
They are giggling at their labors.
First they plant the tiny seed,
Then they water, then they weed,
Then they hoe and prune and lop,
They they raise a record crop,
Then they laugh their sides asunder,
And plow the whole caboodle under.

Abracadabra, thus we learn
The more you create, the less you earn.
The less you ea...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...atto uscir cose diverse:
ch'a Dio e a' Giudei piacque una morte;
per lei trem? la terra e 'l ciel s'aperse.
 Non ti dee oramai parer pi? forte,
quando si dice che giusta vendetta
poscia vengiata fu da giusta corte.
 Ma io veggi' or la tua mente ristretta
di pensiero in pensier dentro ad un nodo,
del qual con gran disio solver s'aspetta.
 Tu dici: "Ben discerno ci? ch'i' odo;
ma perch? Dio volesse, m'? occulto,
a nostra redenzion pur questo modo".
 Questo decre...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...lo,
là onde il Carro già era sparito,
 vidi presso di me un veglio solo,
degno di tanta reverenza in vista,
che più non dee a padre alcun figliuolo.
 Lunga la barba e di pel bianco mista
portava, a' suoi capelli simigliante,
de' quai cadeva al petto doppia lista.
 Li raggi de le quattro luci sante
fregiavan sì la sua faccia di lume,
ch'i' 'l vedea come 'l sol fosse davante.
 «Chi siete voi che contro al cieco fiume
fuggita avete la pregione etterna?»,
diss'el, mov...Read more of this...

by Muir, Edwin
...den Calf,
Montrose, Mackail, Argyle, perverse and brave,
Twisted the stream, unhooped the ancestral hill.
Never had Dee or Don or Yarrow or Till
Huddled such thriftless honour in a grave.
Such wasted bravery idle as a song,
Such hard-won ill might prove Time's verdict wrong,
And melt to pity the annalist's iron tongue....Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...atrimonial joys,
She thought she'd give a conversazzhyony to the boys,--
A peert an' likely lady, 'nd ez full uv 'cute idees
'Nd uv etiquettish notions ez a fyste is full uv fleas.

Three-fingered Hoover kind uv kicked, an' said they might be durned
So far ez any conversazzhyony was concerned;
He'd come to Red Hoss Mountain to tunnel for the ore,
An' not to go to parties,--quite another kind uv bore!
But, bein' he wuz candidate for marshal uv the camp,
I rayther had the u...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...ry clean.
Then my arm was missing.
I was coming apart.
They loved me until
I was gone.



2. THE DY-DEE DOLL

My Dy-dee doll
died twice.
Once when I snapped
her head off
and let if float in the toilet
and once under the sun lamp
trying to get warm
she melted.
She was a gloom,
her face embracing
her little bent arms.
She died in all her rubber wisdom.



3. SEVEN TIMES

I died seven times
in seven ways
letting death give me a sign,
letti...Read more of this...

by Lear, Edward
...le who has no toes
Had once as many as we;
When they said "Some day you may lose them all;"
He replied "Fish, fiddle-de-dee!"
And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink
Lavender water tinged with pink,
For she said "The World in general knows
There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"

The Pobble who has no toes
Swam across the Bristol Channel;
But before he set out he wrapped his nose
In a piece of scarlet flannel.
For his Aunt Jobiska said "No harm
Can come to his toes if h...Read more of this...

by Kingsley, Charles
...1 "O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
2 And call the cattle home,
3 And call the cattle home
4 Across the sands of Dee";
5 The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
6 And all alone went she.

7 The western tide crept up along the sand,
8 And o'er and o'er the sand,
9 And round and round the sand,
10 As far as eye could see.
11 The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
12 And never home came she.

13 "Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--
14 A tre...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...I 
I have loved England, dearly and deeply, 
Since that first morning, shining and pure, 
The white cliffs of Dover I saw rising steeply 
Out of the sea that once made her secure. 
I had no thought then of husband or lover, 
I was a traveller, the guest of a week; 
Yet when they pointed 'the white cliffs of Dover', 
Startled I found there were tears on my cheek. 
I have loved England, ...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things