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Famous Dutch Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Lawson, Henry
...ght to save, 
Christian or Jew or Wowser – and I knew one who was brave; 
British or French or German, Dane or Latin or Dutch: 
"Scandies" that ignorant British reckon with "Dagoes and such" – 
(Where'er, on a wreck titanic, in a scene of wild despair, 
The officers call for assistance, a Swede or a Norse is there.) 

Tale of a wreck titanic, with the last boat over the side, 
And a brave young husband fighting his clinging, hysterical bride; 
He strikes her fair on the t...Read more of this...



by Nash, Ogden
...foam-flecked lip
Of the mad dog, Vincent Coll,
And over there that ill-met pair,
Becker and Rosenthal,
Here's Legs and Dutch and a dozen such
Of braggart bullies and brutes,
And each one bends 'neath the weight of friends
Who are wearing concrete suits.

Now the damned make way for the double-damned
Who emerge with shuffling pace
From the nightmare zone of persons unknown,
With neither name nor face.
And poor Dot King to one doth cling,
Joined in a ghastly jig,
While...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...take another plateful
Of that apple-pie and cheese!"

And cheese! No alien it, sir,
That's brought across the sea,--
No Dutch antique, nor Switzer,
Nor glutinous de Brie;
There's nothing I abhor so
As mawmets of this ilk--
Give me the harmless morceau
That's made of true-blue milk!
No matter what conditions
Dyspeptic come to feaze,
The best of all physicians
Is apple-pie and cheese!

Though ribalds may decry 'em,
For these twin boons we stand,
Partaking thrice per diem
Of the...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...hout leaue of host
To warm with ill-made fire cold Muscouy;
If French can yet three parts in one agree:
What now the Dutch in their full diets boast;
How Holland hearts, now so good townes be lost,
Trust in the shade of pleasant Orange-tree;
How Vlster likes of that same golden bit
Wherewith my father once made it half tame;
If in the Scotch Court be no weltring yet;
These questions busy wits to me do frame:
I, cumbred with good manners, answer doe,
But know not ho...Read more of this...

by Prior, Matthew
...took and gave languages just as she needed. 

So for kitchen and market, for bargain and sale, 
She paid English or Dutch or French down on the nail, 
But in telling a story she sometimes did fail; 

Then begging excuse as she happen'd to stammer, 
With respect to her betters but none to her grammar, 
Her blush helped her out and her jargon became her. 

Her habit and mien she endeavor'd to frame 
To the different gout of the place where she came; 
Her outside still c...Read more of this...



by Smart, Christopher
...ixture of something lower -- the Lord raise them! 

For the FRENCH are Moabites even the children of Lot. 

For the DUTCH are the children of Gog. 

For the Poles are the children of Magog. 

For the Italians are the children of Samuel and are the same as the Grecians. 

For the Spaniards are the children of Abishai Joab's brother, hence is the goodwill between the two nations. 

For the Portuguese are the children of Amman -- God be gracious to Lisbon and...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...ed with their numbers, yet in valour wise, 
They feign a parley, better to surprise; 
They that ere long shall the rude Dutch upbraid, 
Who in the time of treaty durst invade. 

Thick was the morning, and the House was thin, 
The Speaker early, when they all fell in. 
Propitious heavens, had not you them crossed, 
Excise had got the day, and all been lost. 
For the other side all in loose quarters lay, 
Without intelligence, command, or pay: 
A scattered body, whi...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...one.
There came the Spaniards,
There came the Greeks,
There came the Pilgrims in leather breeks.
There came the Dutch,
And the Poles and Swedes,
The Persians, too,
And perhaps the Medes,
The Letts, the Lapps, and the Lithuanians,
Regal Russians, and ripe Roumanians.
There came the French
And there came the Finns,
And the Japanese
With their formal grins.
The Tartars came,
And the Terrible Turks -
In a word, humanity shot the works.
And the country that sho...Read more of this...

by Bryant, William Cullen
...om their jetty braids,
Crop half, to buy a riband for the rest;
But the fresh Norman girls their tresses spare,
And the Dutch damsel keeps her flaxen hair.

Then, henceforth, let no maid nor matron grieve,
To see her locks of an unlovely hue,
Frouzy or thin, for liberal art shall give
Such piles of curls as nature never knew.
Eve, with her veil of tresses, at the sight
Had blushed, outdone, and owned herself a fright.

Soft voices and light laughter wake the stree...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...bright,
Artificial and fragile, which told aright
The vows of an eighteenth-century knight.
The cruder tones of old Dutch jugs
Glared from one shelf, where Toby mugs
Endlessly drank the foaming ale,
Its froth grown dusty, awaiting sale.
The glancing light of the burning wood
Played over a group of jars which stood
On a distant shelf, it seemed the sky
Had lent the half-tones of his blazonry
To paint these porcelains with unknown hues
Of reds dyed purple and greens tur...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...zz were gathered in that place.
Yea, there were those who grunt: "Ya! Ya!" and those who squeak: "We! We!"
Likewise Dutch, Dago, Swede and Finn, Polack and Portugee.
Yet like ripe grain before the gale that national hotch-potch
Went down before the fury of the Irish and the Scotch.
Aye, though they closed their gaping ranks and rallied to the fray,
To the Shamrock and the Thistle went the glory of the day.

You should have seen the carnage in the drooling ligh...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...th' Oceans slow alluvion fell,
Of shipwrackt Cockle and the Muscle-shell;
This indigested vomit of the Sea
Fell to the Dutch by just Propriety.
Glad then, as Miners that have found the Oar,
They with mad labour fish'd the Land to Shoar;
And div'd as desperately for each piece
Of Earth, as if't had been of Ambergreece;
Collecting anxiously small Loads of Clay,
Less then what building Swallows bear away;
Transfursing into them their Dunghil Soul.
How did they rivet, wi...Read more of this...

by Lorde, Audre
...ng
around the corner of the parlor
past the sweet clink
of dining room glasses
and the edged aroma of slightly overdone
dutch-apple pie
all laced together
with the rich dark laughter
of Gloria
and her higher-octave sisters

How hard it is to sleep 
in the middle of life....Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...times):
But the slightest approach to a false pretence
 Was never among my crimes!

"I said it in Hebrew--I said it in Dutch--
 I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
 That English is what you speak!"

"'Tis a pitiful tale," said the Bellman, whose face
 Had grown longer at every word:
"But, now that you've stated the whole of your case,
 More debate would be simply absurd.

"The rest of my speech" (he explained to his men)
 "You shall ...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...s bored or crazy:
Did I want company? she asked; she knew every road
from here to Chicago. She had a slight accent,
Dutch or German, long black hair, and one frozen eye.
I considered but decided to go alone,
determined to find what he had never found.
Slowly the autumn morning warmed, flocks of starlings
rose above the vacant fields and blotted out the sun.
I drove on until I found the grove of apple trees
heavy with fruit, and left the car, the motor running,...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...hese slums of empire was paradise.
I'm just a red ****** who love the sea,
I had a sound colonial education,
I have Dutch, ******, and English in me,
and either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation,

But Maria Concepcion was all my thought
watching the sea heaving up and down
as the port side of dories, schooners, and yachts
was painted afresh by the strokes of the sun
signing her name with every reflection;
I knew when dark-haired evening put on
her bright silk at sunset, and, fo...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...f Jonathan was heard to express, 
'Our president is going to war, I guess.' 

LX 

Besides there were the Spaniard, Dutch, and Dane; 
In short, an universal shoal of shades, 
From Otaheite's isle to Salisbury Plain, 
Of all climes and professions, years and trades, 
Ready to swear against the good king's reign, 
Bitter as clubs in cards are against spades: 
All summon'd by this grand 'subpoena,' to 
Try if kings mayn't be damn'd like me or you. 

LXI 

When Michael sa...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...best I’ve ever seen, inspiring this rant

Against the cant of stuck-up cunts currying favour

I name no name but if the Dutch cap fits

Then wear it and share it.

Who thought at sixty one 

I’d have owned a watch 

Like this one, chased silver cased

Quartz reflex Japanese movement

And all for a fiver at the back of Leeds Market

Where I wander in search of oil pastels

Irish folk and cheap socks.

The TLS mocks our magazine

With its sixties Cadillac pink

Psychede...Read more of this...

by Murray, Les
...away I was anointed 
first by a mild metaphoric church 
then by the Church of no metaphors. 

Now I said, signing a Dutch contract 
in a hand I couldn't recognise, 
let's go and eat Chinese soup 
and drive to Lake Macquarie. Was I 

not renewed as we are in Heaven? 
In fact I could hardly endure 
Earth gravity, and stayed weak and cranky 
till the soup came, squid and vegetables, 

pure Yang. And was sane thereafter. 
It seemed I'd also travelled 
in a Spring-...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...y reverend shapes and forms devise,
Lawn sleeves, and furs, and gowns, when they like thee look wise.
French truth, Dutch prowess, British policy,
Hibernian learning, Scotch civility,
Spaniard's dispatch, Dane's wit are mainly seen in thee.
The great man's gratitude to his best friend,
King's promises, whore's vows, towards thee they bend,
Flow swiftly to thee, and in thee never end....Read more of this...

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