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Famous Harem Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Hugo, Victor
...nk, 
 To leech vile murrained beasts; 
 And lazy André, blown off shore, 
 Was picked up by the Turk, 
 And in some harem, you be sure, 
 Is forced at last to work. 
 
 Next, three of us whom nothing daunts, 
 Marched off with Prince Eugene, 
 To take Genoa! oh, it vaunts 
 Girls fit—each one—for queen! 
 Had they but promised us the pick, 
 Perchance we had joined, all; 
 But battering bastions built of brick— 
 Bah, give me wooden wall! 
 
 By Leghorn, twent...Read more of this...



by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...hrust his long head out, 
And grave with wonder gazed about; 
The cock his lusty greeting said, 
And forth his speckled harem led; 
The oxen lashed their tails, and hooked, 
And mild reproach of hunger looked; 
The hornëd patriarch of the sheep, 
Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep, 
Shook his sage head with gesture mute, 
And emphasized with stamp of foot. 

All day the gusty north-wind bore 
The loosening drift its breath before; 
Low circling round its southern zone, 
...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...
Here is a mild Manila -- there is a wifely smile.

Which is the better portion -- bondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent -- comforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?

Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,

This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,
With only a Suttee's ...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...pas pour toi, belle juive.") 
 
 {XII., Oct. 27, 1828.} 


 To please you, Jewess, jewel! 
 I have thinned my harem out! 
 Must every flirting of your fan 
 Presage a dying shout? 
 
 Grace for the damsels tender 
 Who have fear to hear your laugh, 
 For seldom gladness gilds your lips 
 But blood you mean to quaff. 
 
 In jealousy so zealous, 
 Never was there woman worse; 
 You'd have no roses but those grown 
 Above some buried corse. 
 
 Am I not p...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...is seen in Hassan’s hall;
The lonely spider’s thin grey pall
Waves slowly widening o’er the wall;
The bat builds in his harem bower,
And in the fortress of his power
The owl usurps the beacon-tower;
The wild-dog howls o’er the fountain’s brim,
With baffled thirst and famine, grim;
For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed,
Where the weeds and the desolate dust are spread.
‘Twas sweet of yore to see it play
And chase the sultriness of day,
As springing high the silver ...Read more of this...



by Chesterton, G K
...East he grows in, 
A great yellow Mandarin 
With urbanity of manner 
And unconsciousness of sin; 
All the women, like a harem, 
At his pig-tail troop along; 
And, like all the East he grows in, 
He is Poison when he's strong. 

Tea, although an Oriental, 
Is a gentleman at least; 
Cocoa is a cad and coward, 
Cocoa is a vulgar beast, 
Cocoa is a dull, disloyal, 
Lying, crawling cad and clown, 
And may very well be grateful 
To the fool that takes him down. 

As for all...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...Who was it brought thee here at nightfall, who?
Forth from the harem in this manner, who?
To him who in thy absence burns as fire,
And trembles like hot air, who was it, who?...Read more of this...

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