Famous Hey Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Devils

by Alexander Pushkin
 Storm-clouds hurtle, storm-clouds hover;
Flying snow is set alight
By the moon whose form they cover;
Blurred the heavens, blurred the night.
On and on our coach advances,
Little bell goes din-din-din...
Round are vast, unknown expanses;
Terror, terror is within.

-- Faster, coachman! "Can't, sir, sorry:
Horses, sir, are nearly dead.
I am blinded, all is blurry,
All snowed up; can't see ahead.
Sir, I tell you on the level:
We...Read more of this...

Hey sparrow!

by Kobayashi Issa
 Hey, sparrow!
out of the way,
 Horse is coming....Read more of this...

Bath-Song

by J R R Tolkien
 Sing hey! For the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away
A loon is he that will not sing
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better then rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.

O! Water cold we may pour...Read more of this...

335. Song—Fragment—Johnie lad Cock up your Beaver

by Robert Burns
 WHEN first my brave Johnie lad came to this town,
He had a blue bonnet that wanted the crown;
But now he has gotten a hat and a feather,
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!


Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu’ sprush,
We’ll over the border, and gie them a brush;
There’s somebody there we’ll teach better behaviour,
Hey, brave Johnie lad,...Read more of this...

Bird On The Wire

by Leonard Cohen
 Like a bird on the wire, 
like a drunk in a midnight choir 
I have tried in my way to be free. 
Like a worm on a hook, 
like a knight from some old fashioned book 
I have saved all my ribbons for thee. 
If I, if I have been unkind, 
I hope that you can just let it...Read more of this...

How Did You Meet Your Wife?

by Richard Jones
 Swimming the English Channel,
struggling to make it to Calais,
I swam into Laura halfway across.
My body oiled for warmth,
black rubber cap on my head,
eyes hidden behind goggles,
I was exhausted, ready to drown,
when I saw her coming toward me,
bobbing up and down between waves,
effortlessly doing a breaststroke,
heading for Dover. Treading water
I asked in French if she spoke English,
and she said, "Yes,...Read more of this...

550. Song—A Lass wi' a Tocher

by Robert Burns
 AWA’ wi’ your witchcraft o’ Beauty’s alarms,
The slender bit Beauty you grasp in your arms,
O, gie me the lass that has acres o’ charms,
O, gie me the lass wi’ the weel-stockit farms.


Chorus.—Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher,
Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher;
Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher;
 The nice yellow guineas for me.


Your...Read more of this...

Reality Jew

by D A Levy
When i was a little kid
my parents never told me
i didn't find out until
i got out of high school
then when people asked me,
I ASKED THEM,
"Nationality or Religion?"

When i was a little kid
my parents brought me up as a christian
that when i discovered,
i was different
i wasnt THAT sick!
so at sixteen
still being a virgin forest
i decided
i must be a buddhist monk,
Then when...Read more of this...

Nagasaki Days

by Allen Ginsberg
 I -- A Pleasant Afternoon

 for Michael Brownstein and Dick Gallup


One day 3 poets and 60 ears sat under a green-striped Chau-
 tauqua tent in Aurora
listening to Black spirituals, tapping their feet, appreciating
 words singing by in mountain winds
on a pleasant sunny day of rest -- the wild wind blew thru
 blue Heavens
filled with fluffy clouds stretched from Central...Read more of this...

Sigh No More

by William Shakespeare
 Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, 
Men were deceivers ever; 
One foot in sea, and one on shore, 
To one thing constant never. 
Then sigh not so, 
But let them go, 
And be you blith and bonny, 
Converting all your sounds of woe 
Into Hey nonny, nonny. 

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo 
Of dumps so dull...Read more of this...

The Drowned Man

by Alexander Pushkin
 Children running into izba,
Calling father, dripping sweat:
"Daddy, daddy! come -- there is a
Deadman caught inside our net."
"Fancy, fancy fabrication..."
Grumbled off their weary Pa,
"Have these imps imagination!
Deadman, really! ya-ha-ha...

"Well... the court may come to bother -
What'll I say before the judge?
Hey you brats, go have your mother
Bring my coat; I better trudge...
Show me, where?" -- "Right there, Dad, farther!"
On the...Read more of this...

The Odyssey Of Erbert Iggins

by Robert William Service
 Me and Ed and a stretcher
 Out on the nootral ground.
(If there's one dead corpse, I'll betcher
 There's a 'undred smellin' around.)
Me and Eddie O'Brian,
 Both of the R. A. M. C.
"It'as a 'ell of a night
For a soul to take flight,"
 As Eddie remarks to me.
Me and Ed crawlin' 'omeward,
 Thinkin' our job is done,
When sudden and clear,
Wot...Read more of this...

The Merchants Of London

by Mother Goose
Hey diddle dinkety poppety pet,
The merchants of London they wear scarlet,
Silk in the collar and gold in the hem,
So merrily march the merchant men....Read more of this...

215. Song—Hey the Dusty Miller

by Robert Burns
 HEY, the dusty Miller,
 And his dusty coat,
He will win a shilling,
 Or he spend a groat:
Dusty was the coat,
 Dusty was the colour,
Dusty was the kiss
 That I gat frae the Miller.


Hey, the dusty Miller,
 And his dusty sack;
Leeze me on the calling
 Fills the dusty peck:
Fills the dusty peck,
 Brings the dusty siller;
I wad gie my coatie
...Read more of this...

Dream Song 68: I heard could be a Hey there from the wing

by John Berryman
 I heard, could be, a Hey there from the wing,
and I went on: Miss Bessie soundin good
that one, that night of all,
I feelin fari myself, taxes & things
seem to be back in line, like everybody should
and nobody in the snow on call

so, as I say, the house is given hell
to Yellow Dog, I blowin like it too
and Bessie always...Read more of this...

Sex Goddess

by Maggie Estep
 I am THE SEX GODDESS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 
so don't mess with me 
I've got a big bag full of SEX TOYS 
and you can't have any
'cause they're all mine
'cause I'm
the SEX GODDESS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.


"Hey," you may say to yourself, 
"who the hell's she tryin' to kid, 
she's no sex goddess," 
But trust me, 
I am...Read more of this...

My Kitten

by Mother Goose
Hey, my kitten, my kitten,
  And hey, my kitten, my deary!
Such a sweet pet as this
  Was neither far nor neary....Read more of this...

New Mexico

by Charles Bukowski
 I was fairly drunk when it
began and I took out my bottle and used it
along the way. I was reading a week or two after
Kandel and I did not look quite as
pretty but
I brought it off and we
ended up at the Webbs, 6, 8, 10 of
us, and I drank scotch, wine, beer, tequila
and noticed a nice one sitting next...Read more of this...

168. Boat Song—Hey Ca' Thro'

by Robert Burns
 UP wi’ the carls o’ Dysart,
 And the lads o’ Buckhaven,
And the kimmers o’ Largo,
 And the lasses o’ Leven.


Chorus.—Hey, ca’ thro’, ca’ thro’,
 For we hae muckle ado.
Hey, ca’ thro’, ca’ thro’,
 For we hae muckle ado;


We hae tales to tell,
 An’ we hae sangs to sing;
We hae pennies tae spend,
 An’ we hae pints to bring.
 Hey,...Read more of this...

December 25

by David Lehman
 Christmas defeated Chanukah
once again last night
by a margin of three billion dollars
or so, but every time I hear
a Yiddish word like bupkes
in a movie (L.A. Confidential)
or when Oleg Cassini in that new play Jackie
calls a garment a shmatta, it's "good
for the Jews," as our parents used to say.
Meanwhile some things have
stayed the same; the drunken lout
in the street is...Read more of this...

498. Song—For the sake o' Somebody

by Robert Burns
 MY heart is sair—I dare na tell,
 My heart is sair for Somebody;
I could wake a winter night
 For the sake o’ Somebody.
 O-hon! for Somebody!
 O-hey! for Somebody!
I could range the world around,
 For the sake o’ Somebody.


Ye Powers that smile on virtuous love,
 O, sweetly smile on Somebody!
Frae ilka danger keep him free,
 And send me safe...Read more of this...

Ego Dominus Tuus

by William Butler Yeats
 Hic. On the grey sand beside the shallow stream
Under your old wind-beaten tower, where still
A lamp burns on beside the open book
That Michael Robartes left, you walk in the moon,
And, though you have passed the best of life, still trace,
Enthralled by the unconquerable delusion,
Magical shapes.

Ille. By the help of an image
I call to my own opposite, summon all
That I...Read more of this...

Hey Baby

by Maggie Estep
 Liner Notes - (from No More Mister Nice Girl)

I was having a foul day. Some
geezer harrassed me on the street and I got completely bent out of shape,
but the guy was huge so I just stuffed my retort. Went home to drink
coffee. No milk. I ripped through the cupboards and found Non Dairy Creamer.
It tasted like ****. I got...Read more of this...

The Shower

by Charles Bukowski
 we like to shower afterwards
(I like the water hotter than she)
and her face is always soft and peaceful
and she'll watch me first
spread the soap over my balls
lift the balls
squeeze them,
then wash the cock:
"hey, this thing is still hard!"
then get all the hair down there,-
the belly, the back, the neck, the legs,
I grin grin grin,
and then I wash her. ....Read more of this...

Hey Thats No Way To Say Goodbye

by Leonard Cohen
 I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, 
your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm, 
yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new, 
in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, 
but now it's come to distances and both of us must try, 
your eyes are...Read more of this...

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