Famous Khan Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Always the Mob

...e mob? A jag of lightning, a geyser, a gravel mass loosening…

The mob … kills or builds … the mob is Attila or Ghengis Khan, the mob is Napoleon, Lincoln.

I am born in the mob—I die in the mob—the same goes for you—I don’t care who you are.

I cross the sheets of fire in No Man’s land for you, my brother—I slip a steel tooth into your throat, you my brother—I die for you and I kill you—It is a twisted and gnarled thing, a crimson wool:
 One more arch of stars,
 In the night...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl


Ave Imperatrix

...e through the narrow straight Bazaar
A little maid Circassian
Is led, a present from the Czar
Unto some old and bearded khan, -

Here have our wild war-eagles flown,
And flapped wide wings in fiery fight;
But the sad dove, that sits alone
In England - she hath no delight.

In vain the laughing girl will lean
To greet her love with love-lit eyes:
Down in some treacherous black ravine,
Clutching his flag, the dead boy lies.

And many a moon and sun will see
The lingering wistfu...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Burning Drift-Wood

...ed hard upon 
The unmapped regions lost to man, 
The cloud-pitched tents of Prester John, 
The palace domes of Kubla Khan? 

Did land winds blow from jasmine flowers, 
Where Youth the ageless Fountain fills? 
Did Love make sign from rose blown bowers, 
And gold from Eldorado's hills? 

Alas! the gallant ships, that sailed 
On blind Adventure's errand sent, 
Howe'er they laid their courses, failed 
To reach the haven of Content. 

And of my ventures, those alone...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf

General Roberts in Afghanistan

...e carried and the victory won. 

Then on the 8th of August again Lord Roberts' march began
For to fight the rebel Ayoob Khan;
And with an army about seven thousand strong
On his way to Candahar he fearlessly marched along. 

And the battle that followed at Candahar was a complete victory,
And Lord Roberts' march to Candahar stands unrivalled in history;
And let's thank God that sent Lord Roberts to conquer Ayoob Khan,
For from that time there's been no more war in Afghanistan...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum

...There's the Thumbless Man, 
Still weaving glass and silk into a dream, 
Although the wall shows through him -- and the Khan 
Journeys Cathay beside a paper stream. 

A Rabbit Woman chitters by the door -- 
-- Chilly the grave-smell comes from the turned sod -- 
Come -- lift the curtain -- and be cold before 
The silence of the eight men who were God!...Read more of this...
by Benet, Stephen Vincent


Kubla Khan

...In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
A stately pleasure-dome decree : 
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
Through caverns measureless to man 
Down to a sunless sea. 
So twice five miles of fertile ground 
With walls and towers were girdled round : 
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; 
And here were forests ancient as t...Read more of this...
by ,

Kubla Khan

...In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enf...Read more of this...
by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Manhole Covers

...The beauty of manhole covers--what of that?
Like medals struck by a great savage khan,
Like Mayan calendar stones, unliftable, indecipherable,
Not like the old electrum, chased and scored,
Mottoed and sculptured to a turn,
But notched and whelked and pocked and smashed
With the great company names
(Gentle Bethlehem, smiling United States).
This rustproof artifact of my street,
Long after roads are melted away will lie
Sidewise in the gra...Read more of this...
by Shapiro, Karl

Marriage Thoughts: by Morsellin Khan

...Bridegroom
   I give you my house and my lands, all golden with harvest;
   My sword, my shield, and my jewels, the spoils of my strife,
   My strength and my dreams, and aught I have gathered of glory,
   And to-night—to-night, I shall give you my very life.

   Bride
   I may not raise my eyes, O my Lord, towards you,
   And I may not speak: wh...Read more of this...
by Nicolson, Adela Florence Cory

Mowglis Song

...The Song of Mowgli -- I, Mowgli, am singing. Let
 the jungle listen to the things I have done.
Shere Khan said he would kill -- would kill! At the
 gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, the
 Frog!
He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for
 when wilt thou drink again? Sleep and dream
 of the kill.
I am alone on the grazing-grounds. Gray Brother,
 come to me! Come to me, Lone Wolf, for there
 is big game afoot.
Bring up the great bull-buffaloes, ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

One of the Shepherds

...ace 
For a sound of ill. 

The light died out as the sunset dies 
In the western skies; 
Swift went we to the Bethlehem khan, 
Many our questions laughed to scorn, 
But one, a gray and wrinkled man, 
With strange, deep eyes that searched the heart, 
Led us down to the child new-born 
In a dim-lighted cave apart. 

There on the straw the mother lay 
Wan and white, 
But her look was so holy and rapt and mild 
That it seemed to shed a marvellous light, 
Faint as the first rare g...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Outsong in the Jungle

...moves,
When thy Pack would make thee pain,
Say: " Tabaqui sings again."
When thy Pack would work thee ill,
Say: "Shere Khan is yet to kill."
When the knife is drawn to slay,
Keep the Law and go thy way.
(Root and honey, palm and spathe,
Guard a cub from harm and scathe!)
Wood and Water, Wind and Tree,
Jungle-Favour go with thee!

 Kaa

Anger is the egg of Fear--
Only lidless eyes see clear.
Cobra-poison none may leech--
Even so with Cobra-speech.
Open talk shall call to thee...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

owl power

...lsewhere night-hag evil omen

the baker's daughter's silly cry
ungrateful chinese children
the precious life of genghis khan
sweet fodder to the owl's blink

in the end it's the paradox
i'll be what you want romantic fool
that scares elates about the owl
sitting in the dark and seeing all

not true not true the cynics say
the bloody fraudster's almost blind
dead lazy till its stomach rattles
its skill is seeing with its ears

ruthlessness stupidity
(transmogrified to wisdom)
...Read more of this...
by Gregory, Rg

Salts And Oils

...greasy truck shop, polishing
replacement parts. Short, unshaven, puffed,
he strutted the filthy aisles,
a tiny Ghengis Khan. He sent out for soup
and sandwiches. The world turned on barley,
pickled meats, yellow mustard, kasha,
rye breads. It rained in October, rained
so hard I couldn't walk and smoke, so I
chewed pepsin chewing gum. The rain
spoiled Armistice Day in Lancaster, Pa.
The open cars overflowed, girls cried,
the tubas and trombones went dumb,
the floral displays ...Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

The Ballad of East and West

...t led a troop of the Guides:
"Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?"
Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar:
"If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.
At dusk he harries the Abazai -- at dawn he is into Bonair,
But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,
So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,
By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai.
But i...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Ballad of the Kings Mercy

...ave hope, O friend! Yea, Death disgraced is hard;
Much honour shall be thine"; and called the Captain of the Guard,
Yar Khan, a bastard of the Blood, so city-babble saith,
And he was honoured of the King -- the which is salt to Death;
And he was son of Daoud Shah, the Reiver of the Plains,
And blood of old Durani Lords ran fire in his veins;
And 'twas to tame an Afghan pride nor Hell nor Heaven could bind,
The King would make him butcher to a yelping cur of Hind.

"Strike!" s...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Five Adorations

...e Thee, God, whose purple heart is hidden in the abyss
afar:
Nowit asali fardh salat al asha allahu akabr.

DOST ACHIHA KHAN....Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister

The Last Berkshire Eleven

...he morning of July the 27th, in the year eighteen eighty,
Which I'm sorry to relate was a pitiful sight to see. 

Ayoub Khan's army amounted to twelve thousand in all,
And honestly speaking it wasn't very small,
And by such a great force the Berkshires were killed to the last man,
By a murderous rebel horde under the command of Ayoub Khan. 

The British force amounted to about 2000 strong in all,
But although their numbers were but few it didn't them appal;
They were commande...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

The Siege of Corinth

...: 
Forms in his phalanx each Janizar; 
Alp at their head; his right arm is bare, 
So is the blade of his scimitar; 
The khan and the pachas are all at their post: 
The vizier himself at the head of the host. 
When the culverin's signal is fired, then on; 
Leave not in Corinth a living one — 
A priest at her altars, a chief in her halls, 
A hearth in her mansions, a stone in her walls. 
God and the prophet — Allah Hu! 
Up to the skies with that wild halloo! 

"There the breach...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

What Happened

...id men like these --
Yar Mahommed Yusufzai, down to kill or steal,
Chimbu Singh from Bikaneer, Tantia the Bhil;

Killar Khan the Marri chief, Jowar Singh the Sikh,
Nubbee Baksh Punjabi Jat, Abdul Huq Rafiq --
He was a Wahabi; last, little Boh Hla-oo
Took advantage of the Act -- took a Snider too.

They were unenlightened men, Ballard knew them not.
They procured their swords and guns chiefly on the spot;
And the lore of centuries, plus a hundred fights,
Made them slow to disr...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

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