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Famous Hob Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Service, Robert William
...ith my lifelong savings I
 Have bought annuity;
And so unto the day I die
 I'll have my toast and tea.

When on the hob the kettle sings
 I'll make an amber brew,
And crunch my toast and think of things
 I do not have to do.
In dressing-gown and deep arm-chair
 I'll give the fire a poke;
Then worlds away from cark and care
 I'll smoke and smoke and smoke.

For I believe the very best
 Of Being is the last;
And I will crown with silver zest
 My patience in the past...Read more of this...



by Lindsay, Vachel
...RESS

(After seeing the reel called "Oil and Water.")


Beauty has a throne-room
In our humorous town,
Spoiling its hob-goblins,
Laughing shadows down.
Rank musicians torture
Ragtime ballads vile,
But we walk serenely
Down the odorous aisle.
We forgive the squalor
And the boom and squeal
For the Great Queen flashes
From the moving reel.

Just a prim blonde stranger
In her early day,
Hiding brilliant weapons,
Too averse to play,
Then she burst upon us
Dancing t...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...from Dolly twitch'd the stool,
She, falling, kiss'd the ground, poor fool!
She blush'd so red, with sidelong glance
At hob-nail Dick, who griev'd the chance.
But now for Blind man's Buff they call;
Of each encumbrance clear the hall--
Jenny her silken 'kerchief folds,
And blear-eyed Will the black lot holds.
Now laughing stops, with `Silence! hush!'
And Peggy Pout gives Sam a push.
The Blind man's arms, extended wide,
Sam slips between:--`O woe betide
Thee, clums...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...black

And blacker grows with

Black lead and a rose

In the flames is white

Hot in the heat to my

Heart beat as the hob

Swung in and out for

Father Triggear’s pot

Of tea, his enormous red

Calves towered above me

Like a crane, his High

Anglican voice boomed,

“You are a ha’penny short

Of your trip money, what

Am I supposed to do?”



With Father Mulcock

Your alter ego you

Cost me half a lifetime’s faith,

“Not to know who accompanied Christ

Is ignorance worthy o...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...esse harmes, 340 
Ne let the Pouke, nor other evill sprights, 
Ne let mischivous witches with theyr charmes, 
Ne let hob Goblins, names whose sence we see not, 
Fray us with things that be not: 
Let not the shriech Oule nor the Storke be heard, 345 
Nor the night Raven, that still deadly yels; 
Nor damn¨¨d ghosts, cald up with mighty spels, 
Nor griesly vultures, make us once affeard: 
Ne let th' unpleasant Quyre of Frogs still croking 
Make us to wish theyr choking...Read more of this...



by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...heard, and, suddenly lifted,
Sounded the wooden latch, and the door swung back on its hinges.
Benedict knew by the hob-nailed shoes it was Basil the blacksmith,
And by her beating heart Evangeline knew who was with him.
"Welcome!" the farmer exclaimed, as their footsteps paused of the threshold.
"Welcome, Basil, my friend! Come, take thy place on the settle
Close by the chimney-side, which is always empty without thee;
Take from the shelf overhead thy pipe and th...Read more of this...

by Heaney, Seamus
...back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly. 

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod. 

I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow round the farm. 

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today 
It is my father who keeps stum...Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...ngs helpelesse harmes,
Ne led the Ponke, nor other euill sprights,
Ne let mischiuous witches with theyr charmes,
Ne let hob Goblins, names whose sence we see not,
Fray vs with things that be not.
Let not the shriech Oule, nor the Storke be heard:
Nor the night Rauen that still deadly yels,
Nor damned ghosts cald vp with mighty spels,
Nor griefly vultures make vs once affeard:
Ne let th'unpleasant Quyre of Frogs still croking
Make vs to wish theyr choking.
Let none of ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...enjoyed it.
Urged to draw a sober breath
 He'd avoid it.
'Save your sympathy,' said Dad;
 'Never sought it.
Hob-nail liver, gay and glad,
 Sure,--I bought it.'

Uncle made a heap of dough,
 Ponies playing.
'Easy come and easy go,'
 Was his saying.
Though he died in poverty
 Fit he thought it,
Grinning with philosophy:
 'Guess I bought it.'

Auntie took the way of sin,
 Seeking pleasure;
Lovers came, her heart to win,
 Bringing treasure.
Sicknes...Read more of this...

by Wordsworth, William
...through the long blue night  Are shouting to each other still:  Fond lovers, yet not quite hob nob,  They lengthen out the tremulous sob,  That echoes far from hill to hill.   Poor Betty now has lost all hope,  Her thoughts are bent on deadly sin;  A green-grown pond she just has pass'd,  And from the brink she hurries fast,  Lest she should dr...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...
Where sights of awe the soul inspire;
But oh, it's best, the coming home,
The crackle of one's own hearth-fire!
You've hob-nobbed with the solemn Past;
You've seen the pageantry of kings;
Yet oh, how sweet to gain at last
The peace and rest of Little Things!

Perhaps you're counted with the Great;
You strain and strive with mighty men;
Your hand is on the helm of State;
Colossus-like you stride . . . and then
There comes a pause, a shining hour,
A dog that leaps,...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...hen Julius Fabricius, Sub-Prefect of the Weald,
In the days of Diocletian owned our Lower River-field,
He called to him Hobdenius-a Briton of the Clay,
Saying: "What about that River-piece for layin'' in to hay?"

And the aged Hobden answered: "I remember as a lad
My father told your father that she wanted dreenin' bad.
An' the more that you neeglect her the less you'll get her clean.
Have it jest as you've a mind to, but, if I was you, I'd dreen."

So they draine...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...h us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal-chest.
For be comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
from a world more full of weeping than you....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...in a tunnel, most o' us,
A-fearin' to lose our job;
But who has the right to gripe an' cuss
So the goblet's hot on the hob.
An' I mustn't be havin' the wife complain,
An' I can't let the childer fast:
So I'll toil in my tunnel an' drag my chain,
Clank! Clank! Clank! to the last....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things