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Famous Fairs Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Burns, Robert
...I think on John Highlandman.
 Sing hey, &c.


RecitativoA pigmy scraper wi’ his fiddle,
Wha us’d at trystes an’ fairs to driddle.
Her strappin limb and gausy middle
 (He reach’d nae higher)
Had hol’d his heartie like a riddle,
 An’ blawn’t on fire.


Wi’ hand on hainch, and upward e’e,
He croon’d his gamut, one, two, three,
Then in an arioso key,
 The wee Apoll
Set off wi’ allegretto glee
 His giga solo.


AirTune—“Whistle owre the lave o’t.”Let me ryk...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...!
An’ ran them till they a’ did wauble,
 Far, far, behin’!


When thou an’ I were young an’ skeigh,
An’ stable-meals at fairs were dreigh,
How thou wad prance, and snore, an’ skreigh
 An’ tak the road!
Town’s-bodies ran, an’ stood abeigh,
 An’ ca’t thee mad.


When thou was corn’t, an’ I was mellow,
We took the road aye like a swallow:
At brooses thou had ne’er a fellow,
 For pith an’ speed;
But ev’ry tail thou pay’t them hollow,
 Whare’er thou gaed.


The sma’, droop...Read more of this...

by Sassoon, Siegfried
...and sunshine; or with maids half-coy 
Pays court to shadows; fools himself with joy 
Shaking a leg at junketings and fairs.

Sometimes returning down his breezy miles 
A snatch of wayward April he will bring 10
Piping the daffodilly that beguiles
Foolhardy lovers in the surge of spring.
And then once more by lanes and field-path stiles
Up the green world he wanders like a king....Read more of this...

by Watts, Isaac
...et and shine.

White is his soul, from blemish free;
Red with the blood he shed for me;
The fairest of ten thousand fairs;
A sun amongst ten thousand stars.

[His head the finest gold excels;
There wisdom in perfection dwells,
And glory like a crown adorns
Those temples once beset with thorns.

Compassion's in his heart are found,
Hard by the signals of his wound:
His sacred side no more shall bear
The cruel scourge, the piercing spear.]

[His hands are fairer...Read more of this...

by Meredith, George
...ung our pots in the gorse.
We've had a stirring life, old woman!
You, and I, and the old grey horse.
Races, and fairs, and royal occasions,
Found us coming to their call:
Now they'll miss us at our stations:
There's a Juggler outjuggles all!

Up goes the lark, as if all were jolly!
Over the duck-pond the willow shakes.
Easy to think that grieving's folly,
When the hand's firm as driven stakes!
Ay, when we're strong, and braced, and manful,
Life's a sweet fiddle: b...Read more of this...



by Yeats, William Butler
...like chamber, shadowing forth
How the daemonic rage
Imagined everything.
Benighted travellers
From markets and from fairs
Have seen his midnight candle glimmering.

Two men have founded here. A man-at-arms
Gathered a score of horse and spent his days
In this tumultuous spot,
Where through long wars and sudden night alarms
His dwinding score and he seemed castaways
Forgetting and forgot;
And I, that after me
My bodily heirs may find,
To exalt a lonely mind,
Befitti...Read more of this...

by Wylie, Elinor
...ops. 
Something hides its face and cries; 
Something shivers; something dies. 
I love blue ribbons brought from fairs; 
You love sitting splitting hairs. 
I love truth, and so do you . . . 
Tell me, is it truly true?...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...e her awhile, she shortly will smile,
And then you may kiss your coquette.

For such are the airs of these fanciful fairs,
They think all our homage a debt:
Yet a partial neglect soon takes an effect,
And humbles the proudest coquette.

Dissemble your pain, and lengthen your chain,
And seem her hauteur to regret;
If again you shall sigh, she no more will deny,
That yours is the rosy coquette.

If still, from false pride, your pangs she deride,
This whimsical virgi...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...he Dahoman and Ashanteeman in their huts; 
I see the Turk smoking opium in Aleppo; 
I see the picturesque crowds at the fairs of Khiva, and those of Herat; 
I see Teheran—I see Muscat and Medina, and the intervening sands—I see the caravans
 toiling
 onward; 
I see Egypt and the Egyptians—I see the pyramids and obelisks;
I look on chisel’d histories, songs, philosophies, cut in slabs of sand-stone, or on
 granite-blocks; 
I see at Memphis mummy-pits, containing mummies, embal...Read more of this...

by Dryden, John
...run in crowds to see, 
The Polish Medal bears the prize alone; 
A monster, more the favourite of the town 
Than either fairs or theatres have shown. 
Never did art so well with nature strive, 
Nor ever idol seemed so much alive; 
So like the man, so golden to the sight, 
So base within, so counterfeit and light. 
One side is filled with title and with face; 
And, lest the king should want a regal place, 
On the reverse a tower the town surveys, 
O'er which our mounti...Read more of this...

by McKay, Claude
...oot,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,

Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
In benediction over nun-like hills.

My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept....Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...ts for awhile.
Now old King Fan
Was a good-natured man
(As good-natured monarchs go),
And howbeit he swore that all Fairs were a bore,
He hadn't the heart to say "No."

So the two little skeezucks sailed off to the Fair
In a great big gum canoe,
And I fancy they had a good time there,
For they tarried a year or two.
And old King Fan at last began
To reckon they'd come to grief,
When glory! one day
They sailed into the bay
To the tune of "Hail to the Chief!"

The t...Read more of this...

by Pushkin, Alexander
...but also wish to hear
Bees humming over red azaleas.
Such is the honest bard. With passion he laments
At solemn fairs of Melpomena -
To smile upon the crowd's plebeian merriments,
The liberties of coarse arena.
Now Rome is calling him, now majesties of Troy,
Now elder Ossian's craggy gravels -
And in the meantime he will hear with childish joy
Of Czar Sultan's heroic travels....Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...OF all the beauteous wares
Exposed for sale at fairs,
None will give more delight
Than those that to your sight
From distant lands we bring.
Oh, hark to what we sing!
These beauteous birds behold,
They're brought here to be sold.

And first the big one see,
So full of roguish glee!
With light and merry bound
He leaps upon the ground;
Then springs up on the bougd,
We will not praise him now.
T...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Fairs poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs