Famous Hal Poems by Famous Poets

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

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548. The Dean of Faculty: A new Ballad

...gside saw
 For beauteous, hapless Mary:
But Scot to Scot ne’er met so hot,
 Or were more in fury seen, Sir,
Than ’twixt Hal and Bob for the famous job,
 Who should be the Faculty’s Dean, Sir.


This Hal for genius, wit and lore,
 Among the first was number’d;
But pious Bob, ’mid learning’s store,
 Commandment the tenth remember’d:
Yet simple Bob the victory got,
 And wan his heart’s desire,
Which shews that heaven can boil the pot,
 Tho’ the devil piss in the fire.


Squire H...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


56. Epistle to Davie A Brother Poet

...’t;
But, Davie, lad, ne’er fash your head,
 Tho’ we hae little gear;
We’re fit to win our daily bread,
 As lang’s we’re hale and fier:
 “Mair spier na, nor fear na,” 1
 Auld age ne’er mind a feg;
 The last o’t, the warst o’t
 Is only but to beg.


To lie in kilns and barns at e’en,
When banes are craz’d, and bluid is thin,
 Is doubtless, great distress!
Yet then content could make us blest;
Ev’n then, sometimes, we’d snatch a taste
 Of truest happiness.
The honest heart that’...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

84. Address to the Deil

...,
An’ sklented on the man of Uzz
 Your spitefu’ joke?


An’ how ye gat him i’ your thrall,
An’ brak him out o’ house an hal’,
While scabs and botches did him gall,
 Wi’ bitter claw;
An’ lows’d his ill-tongu’d wicked scaul’,
 Was warst ava?


But a’ your doings to rehearse,
Your wily snares an’ fechtin fierce,
Sin’ that day Michael 2 did you pierce,
 Down to this time,
Wad ding a Lallan tounge, or Erse,
 In prose or rhyme.


An’ now, auld Cloots, I ken ye’re thinkin,
A certain...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

Among Children

...one
with a quiver of arrows so that they might
rush like wind there where no battle rages
shouting among the trumpets, Hal Ha!
How dear the gift of laughter in the face
of the 8 hour day, the cold winter mornings
without coffee and oranges, the long lines
of mothers in old coats waiting silently
where the gates have closed. Ten years ago
I went among these same children, just born,
in the bright ward of the Sacred Heart and leaned
down to hear their breaths delivered that da...Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

Falstaffs Lament Over Prince Hal Become Henry V

...

Companions and cronies
Keep fast and lament; - 
Come, drawer, more sack here
To drown discontent;
For now intuitions
Shall wither to codes,
Pragmatized morals
Shall libel the gods.

One I instructed,
Yea, talked to -alone:
Precept -example
Clean away thrown!

Sorrow makes thirsty:
Sack, drawer, more sack! - 
One that I prayed for,
I, Honest Jack!

To bring down these grey hairs - 
To cut his old pal!
But, I'll be magnanimous - 
Here's to thee Hal!...Read more of this...
by Melville, Herman


Gawain and the Green Knight

...men hit holden,
And an outtrage awenture of Arthurez wonderez.
If yghe wyl lysten this laye bot on littel quile,
I schal telle hit as-tit, as I in toun herde,
with tonge,
As hit is stad and stoken
In stori stif and stronge,
With lel letteres loken,
In londe so hatz ben longe.
This kyng lay at Camylot vpon Krystmasse
With mony luflych lorde, ledez of the best,
Rekenly of the Rounde Table alle tho rich brether,
With rych reuel oryyght and rechles merthes.
Ther tour...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

Hallelujah: A Sestina

...A wind's word, the Hebrew Hallelujah.
I wonder they never gave it to a boy
(Hal for short) boy with wind-wild hair.
It means Praise God, as well it should since praise
Is what God's for. Why didn't they call my father
Hallelujah instead of Ebenezer? 

Eben, of course, but christened Ebenezer,
Product of Nova Scotia (hallelujah).
Daniel, a country doctor, was his father
And my father ...Read more of this...
by Francis, Robert

Madrigal

...(To Miss May Forshall.) 


HE shouts amain, he shouts again, 
(Her brother, fierce, as bluff King Hal), 
"I tell you flat, I shall do that!" 
She softly whispers " 'May' for 'shall'!" 
He wistful sighed one eventide 
(Her friend, that made this Madrigal), 
"And shall I kiss you, pretty Miss!" 
Smiling she answered " 'May' for 'shall'!" 

With eager eyes my reader cries, 
"Yo...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Hard Times In Elfland

...ing, song,

"In flower, in fruit, in field, in bird,
Till the great globe, rich fleck'd and pied,
Like some large peach half pinkly furred,
Turned to the sun a glowing side

"And hung in the heavenly orchard, bright,
None-such, complete.
Then, while the Ewe
Slow passed the Bend, a blur of light,
The Shepherd's face in sadness grew:

"`Summer!' he said, as one would say
A sigh in syllables. So, in haste
(For shame of Summer's long delay,
Yet gazing still what way she paced),

...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

William Rufus

...l 
The estate had been split into three.

Thus William became King of England; 
And Normandy... that went to Bob;
Young Hal got no throne, but received a cash bonus
Instead of a regular job.

But Bob weren't content with his Dukedom, 
And Will weren't content with his throne
Both wanted the lot and each started to plot 
How to add t'other share to his own.

Young Hal went from one to the other,
Telling each as be thought he were right,
And mixing the pudding he roused the bad...Read more of this...
by Edgar, Marriott

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