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Famous Hatches Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...THOU! whatever title suit thee—
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie,
Wha in yon cavern grim an’ sootie,
 Clos’d under hatches,
Spairges about the brunstane cootie,
 To scaud poor wretches!


Hear me, auld Hangie, for a wee,
An’ let poor damned bodies be;
I’m sure sma’ pleasure it can gie,
 Ev’n to a deil,
To skelp an’ scaud poor dogs like me,
 An’ hear us squeel!


Great is thy pow’r an’ great thy fame;
Far ken’d an’ noted is thy name;
An’ tho’ yon lowin’ heuch’s thy hame,
...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...sell me water, my brother dear,
Or there will be no beef this year."
 And Cain he answered--"No! "

"Then draw your hatches, my brother true,
An' let a little water through."
 But Cain he answered: -"No!

"My dams are tight an' my ditches are sound,
An' not a drop goes through or round
 Till she's done her duty by the Corn.

"I will not sell, an' I will not draw,
An' if you breach, I'll have the Law,
 As sure as you are borne! "

Then Abel took his best bull-goad,...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...rks the Chinks they swarmed aboard.
Abandoning their sampans, and their pullaways and junks,
They battened down the hatches on the crew within their bunks.

Then Griddlebone she gave a screech, for she was badly skeered;
I am sorry to admit it, but she quickly disappeared.
She probably escaped with ease, I'm sure she was not drowned--
But a serried ring of flashing steel Growltiger did surround.

The ruthless foe pressed forward, in stubborn rank on rank;
Grow...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...rpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop, 
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds, 
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds, 
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea 
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty. 

Vivat Hispania! 
Domino Gloria! 
Don John of Austria 
Has set his people free! 

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath 
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.) 
And he...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...(floating in it myself, and
 looking composedly down;) 
Where the life-car is drawn on the slip-noose—where the heat hatches
 pale-green eggs in the dented sand;
Where the she-whale swims with her calf, and never forsakes it; 
Where the steam-ship trails hind-ways its long pennant of smoke; 
Where the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of the water; 
Where the half-burn’d brig is riding on unknown currents, 
Where shells grow to her slimy deck—where the dead...Read more of this...



by Kipling, Rudyard
...eams' complaining.

 For life that crammed me full,
 Gangs of the prying gull
That shriek and scrabble on the riven hatches!
 For roar that dumbed the gale,
 My hawse-pipes guttering wail,
Sobbing my heart out through the uncounted watches!

 Blind in the hot blue ring
 Through all my points I swing --
Swing and return to shift the sun anew.
 Blind in my well-known sky
 I hear the stars go by,
Mocking the prow that cannot hold one true!

 White on my wasted path
 Wave...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...the years bring forth,
Of our galley swamped and shattered in the rollers of the North.
When the niggers break the hatches and the decks are gay with gore,
And a craven-hearted pilot crams her crashing on the shore,

She will need no half-mast signal, minute-gun, or rocket-flare,
When the cry for help goes seaward, she will find her servants there.
Battered chain-gangs of the orlop, grizzled drafts of years gone by,
To the bench that broke their manhood, they shall l...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
..., an' 'twas most onaisy sailin',
 An' the ladies in the cabin couldn't stand the stable air;
An' the bastes betwuxt the hatches, they tuk an' died in batches,
 Till Noah said: -- "There's wan av us that hasn't paid his fare!"

For he heard a flusteration 'mid the bastes av all creation --
 The trumpetin' av elephints an' bellowin' av whales;
An' he saw forninst the windy whin he wint to stop the shindy
 The Divil wid a stable-fork bedivillin' their tails.

The Divil curse...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...low on the skin of the empty hold --
Churning an' choking and chuckling, quiet and scummy and dark --
Full to her lower hatches and risin' steady. Hark!
That was the after-bulkhead. . . . She's flooded from stem to stern. . . .
'Never seen death yet, Dickie? . . . Well, now is your time to learn!...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...d the Northern Light sent up her boats to steal the stolen skins.
They had not brought a load to side or slid their hatches clear,
When they were aware of a sloop-of-war, ghost-white and very near.
Her flag she showed, and her guns she showed -- three of them, black, abeam,
And a funnel white with the crusted salt, but never a show of steam.

There was no time to man the brakes, they knocked the shackle free,
And the Northern Light stood out again, goose-winged to...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...a face since then. 

. . . . . 

The sailors say 'twill be rough to-night, 
As they fasten the hatches down, 
The south is black, and the bar is white, 
And the drifting smoke is brown. 
The gold has gone from the western haze, 
The sea-birds circle and swarm -- 
But we shall have plenty of sunny days, 
And little enough of storm. 

The hill is hiding the short black pier, 
As the last white signal's seen; 
The points run in, and the houses ve...Read more of this...

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