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Famous Harlots Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...make him a king;
And hey! for the sanctified Murray,
 Our land wha wi’ chapels has stor’d;
He founder’d his horse among harlots,
 But gied the auld naig to the Lord....Read more of this...



by Sassoon, Siegfried
...The House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin 
And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks 
Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din; 
‘We’re sure the Kaiser loves our dear old Tanks!’ 

I’d like to see a Tank come down the stalls,
Lurching to rag-time tunes, or ‘Home, sweet Home’, 
And there’d be no more jokes in Music-halls 
To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume....Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...
And lull thy own sins fast asleep. 

‘What transgressions I commit 
Are for thy transgressions fit. 
They thy harlots, thou their slave; 
And my bed becomes their grave. 

‘Never, never, I return: 
Still for victory I burn. 
Living, thee alone I’ll have; 
And when dead I’ll be thy grave. 

‘Thro’ the Heaven and Earth and Hell 
Thou shalt never, quell: 
I will fly and thou pursue: 
Night and morn the flight renew.’ 

‘Poor, pale, pitiable form 
That I...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...br>
Enough of the virgins and lilies, of passionate, suffocating perfume of corruption,
no more narcissus perfume, lily harlots, the blades of sensation
piercing the flesh to blossom of death.
Have done, have done with this shuddering, delicious business
of thrilling ruin in the flesh, of pungent passion, of rare, death-edged ecstasy.
Give us our turn, give us a chance, let our hour strike,
O soon, soon!
Let the darkness turn violet with rich dawn.
Let the darknes...Read more of this...

by Pound, Ezra
..., privately performed --
Tissue preserved -- the pure mind
Arose toward Newman as the whiskey warmed.

Dowson found harlots cheaper than hotels;
Headlam for uplift; Image impartially imbued
With raptures for Bacchus, Terpsichore and the Church.
So spoke the author of "The Dorian Mood",

M. Verog, out of step with the decade,
Detached from his contemporaries,
Neglected by the young,
Because of these reveries.

Brennbaum. 

The sky-like limpid eyes,
The circ...Read more of this...



by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...e North,
And whatsoever his own knights have sworn
My knights have sworn the counter to it--and say
My tower is full of harlots, like his court,
But mine are worthier, seeing they profess
To be none other than themselves--and say
My knights are all adulterers like his own,
But mine are truer, seeing they profess
To be none other; and say his hour is come,
The heathen are upon him, his long lance
Broken, and his Excalibur a straw.' "

Then Arthur turn'd to Kay the senescha...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse...Read more of this...

by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
...lm of a man.

XXV
'Drop his hand, you insult him. Avoid us for fear we should cost you a scar--
You take us for harlots, I tell you, and not for the women we are.

XXVI

'You wronged me: but then I considered . . . there's Walter! And so at the end
I vowed that he should not be mulcted, by me, in the hand of a friend.

XXVII

'Have I hurt you indeed? We are quits then. Nay, friend of my Walter, be mine!
Come, Dora, my darling, my angel, and hel...Read more of this...

by McKay, Claude
...ps, 
And seeks his cab or tram-car homeward bound; 
The waiters pass out weary, listless, glum, 
To spend their tips on harlots, cards and rum....Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ploys, here lights 
His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings, 
Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile 
Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared, 
Casual fruition; nor in court-amours, 
Mixed dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball, 
Or serenate, which the starved lover sings 
To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain. 
These, lulled by nightingales, embracing slept, 
And on their naked limbs the flowery roof 
Showered roses, which the morn repaired. ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...as the harlot's heart--hollow as a skull! 
Let the fierce east scream through your eyelet-holes, 
And whirl the dust of harlots round and round 
In dung and nettles! hiss, snake--I saw him there-- 
Let the fox bark, let the wolf yell. Who yells 
Here in the still sweet summer night, but I-- 
I, the poor Pelleas whom she called her fool? 
Fool, beast--he, she, or I? myself most fool; 
Beast too, as lacking human wit--disgraced, 
Dishonoured all for trial of true love-- 
Lo...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...s faith, let the rest set upon him! 
Let them affright faith! let them destroy the power of breeding faith!
Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent! let them dance on, while seeming lasts!
 (O
 seeming! seeming! seeming!) 
Let the preachers recite creeds! let them still teach only what they have been taught! 
Let insanity still have charge of sanity! 
Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers, clouds! 
Let the daub’d portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
Le...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...ame softly to the King to make his honour white.
The children of the town had mocked beneath his horse's hoofs,
The harlots of the town had hailed him "butcher!" from their roofs.
But as he groped against the wall, two hands upon him fell,
The King behind his shoulder spake: "Dead man, thou dost not well!
'Tis ill to jest with Kings by day and seek a boon by night;
And that thou bearest in thy hand is all too sharp to write.
But three days hence, if God be good, a...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...ring vagrant without home; 
And thus He others’ labour stole, 
That He might live above control. 
The publicans and harlots He 
Selected for His company, 
And from the adulteress turn’d away 
God’s righteous law, that lost its prey.’ 
Was Jesus chaste? or did He 
Give any lessons of chastity? 
The Morning blush?d fiery red: 
Mary was found in adulterous bed; 
Earth groan’d beneath, and Heaven above 
Trembled at discovery of Love. 
Jesus was sitting in Moses’ chair...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...We caught the tread of dancing feet,
We loitered down the moonlit street,
And stopped beneath the harlot's house.

Inside, above the din and fray,
We heard the loud musicians play
The 'Treues Liebes Herz' of Strauss.

Like strange mechanical grotesques,
Making fantastic arabesques,
The shadows raced across the blind.

We watched the ghostly dan...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...orth, 
And whatsoever his own knights have sworn 
My knights have sworn the counter to it--and say 
My tower is full of harlots, like his court, 
But mine are worthier, seeing they profess 
To be none other than themselves--and say 
My knights are all adulterers like his own, 
But mine are truer, seeing they profess 
To be none other; and say his hour is come, 
The heathen are upon him, his long lance 
Broken, and his Excalibur a straw."' 

Then Arthur turned to Kay the s...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...s mighty weasened up and small.
I thank you each for coming here; the happiness is mine--
 And now, you thieves and harlots, take it all."

He twists the thong from off his poke; he swings it o'er his head;
 The nuggets fall around their feet like grain.
They rattle over roof and wall; they scatter, roll and spread;
 The dust is like a shower of golden rain.
The guests a moment stand aghast, then grovel on the floor;
 They fight, and snarl, and claw, like beas...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...s are found,
And Lovers Hearts with Ends of Riband bound;
The Courtiers Promises, and Sick Man's Pray'rs,
The Smiles of Harlots, and the Tears of Heirs, 
Cages for Gnats, and Chains to Yoak a Flea;
Dry'd Butterflies, and Tomes of Casuistry.

But trust the Muse---she saw it upward rise,
Tho' mark'd by none but quick Poetic Eyes:
(So Rome's great Founder to the Heav'ns withdrew,
To Proculus alone confess'd in view.)
A sudden Star, it shot thro' liquid Air,
And drew behi...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...found,
And lovers' hearts with ends of riband bound;
The courtier's promises, and sick man's prayers,
The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs,
Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry.


But trust the Muse--she saw it upward rise,
Though mark'd by none but quick, poetic eyes:
(So Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew,
To Proculus alone confess'd in view)
A sudden star, it shot through liquid air,
And ...Read more of this...

by Kilmer, Joyce
...1814-1914

When, on a novel's newly printed page
We find a maudlin eulogy of sin,
And read of ways that harlots wander in,
And of sick souls that writhe in helpless rage;
Or when Romance, bespectacled and sage,
Taps on her desk and bids the class begin
To con the problems that have always been
Perplexed mankind's unhappy heritage;
Then in what robes of honor habited
The laureled wizard of the North appears!
Who raised Prince Charlie's cohorts from the dead,
Ma...Read more of this...

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