Famous Jacks Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Week Later

...day
to be written; now it is folded, and folded,
and folded, like a note in school. And in my dream
someone was playing jacks, and in the air there was a
huge, thrown, tilted jack
on fire. And when I woke up, I found myself
counting the days since I had last seen
my husband-only two years, and some weeks,
and hours. We had signed the papers and come down to the
ground floor of the Chrysler Building,
the intact beauty of its lobby around us
like a king's tomb, on the ceiling t...Read more of this...
by Olds, Sharon


At the Top of My voice

...prinkled it.
some pour their verse from water cans;
others spit water
 from their mouth - 
the curly Macks,
 the clever jacks - 
but what the hell’s it all about!
There’s no damming al this up - 
beneath the walls they mandoline:
“Tara-tina, tara-tine,
tw-a-n-g...” 
It’s no great honor, then,
 for my monuments
to rise from such roses
above the public squares,
 where consumption coughs,
where whores, hooligans and syphilis
 walk.

Agitprop
 sticks
 in my teeth too,
and I’d rat...Read more of this...
by Mayakovsky, Vladimir

August 8th

...ritics say.
Ask my imaginary brother, that waif,
that childhood best friend who comes to play
dress-up and stick-up and jacks and Pick-Up-Sticks,
bike downtown, stick out tongues at the Catholics.

Or form a Piss Club where we all go
in the bushes and peek at each other's sex.
Pop-gunning the street lights like crows.
Not knowing what to do with funny Kotex
so wearing it in our school shoes. Friend, friend,
spooking my lonely hours you were there, but pretend....Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne

from the Ansty Experience

...ordsworth
losers swallow a dose of shame
organisers rub their golden hands
pride themselves on their discernment

these jacks have found the beanstalk
castle harp and the golden egg
the stupid giant and his frightened wife
who let them steal their best possessions
whose ear for poetry's so poor
they think fum rhymes with englishman
and so of course they get no prizes
thief and trickster now come rich

poetry's purpose is to hit the jackpot
so great the lust for poetic fame
th...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

I See The Boys Of Summer

...drown the cargoed apples in their tides.

These boys of light are curdlers in their folly,
Sour the boiling honey;
The jacks of frost they finger in the hives;
There in the sun the frigid threads
Of doubt and dark they feed their nerves;
The signal moon is zero in their voids.

I see the summer children in their mothers
Split up the brawned womb's weathers,
Divide the night and day with fairy thumbs;
There in the deep with quartered shades
Of sun and moon they paint their da...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan


Sonnet 128: How oft when thou my music music playst

...motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!
To be so tickled, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Sonnet CXXVIII

...otion sounds
With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!
To be so tickled, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks s...Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

This Section is a Christmas Tree

...pine-cone forest-fruit, 
But silver horns and candy sacks 
And many little tinsel hearts 
And cherubs pink, and jumping-jacks. 
For every child a gift, I hope. 
The doll upon the topmost bough 
Is mine. But all the rest are yours. 
And I will light the candles now....Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel

To G. M. W. And G. F. W

...as it?) Tibur Road.

IV

You know the end! Upon their backs
 Daddy and son with much ado
Boosted that most surprised of jacks,—
 He kicked, and off the bridge he flew;
“He! haw!” A splash! A gurgling sound—
 A long, last watery abode—
In Anio’s stream the donk was drowned—
 (If this occurred on Tibur Road.)

V

Let Donkey represent the Odes;
 The Miller represent G. M.;
The Son stand for G. F.; the loads
 Of Critics—I will do for them.
Now, then, this proposition made,
 (And ...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

When Gassy Thompson Struck It Rich

...mountain slid.

They went to Denver in good clothes,
And kept Burt's grill-room wide awake,
And cut about like jumping-jacks,
And ordered seven-dollar steak.

They had the waiters whirling round
Just sweeping up the smear and smash.
They tried to buy the State-house flag.
They showed the Janitor the cash.

And old Dan Tucker on a toot,
Or John Paul Jones before the breeze,
Or Indians eating fat fried dog,
Were not as happy babes as these.

One morn, in hills near Cripple-cre...Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel

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