Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Liquor Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...e winner. 
Stoke it in, boys! the half-cooked ham, 
The rich ragout and the charming cham., 
I've got to mix my liquor; 
Give me a gander's gaunt hind leg, 
Hard and tough as a wooden peg, 
And I'll keep it down with a hard-boiled egg, 
'Twill make me dream the quicker. 

Now that I'm full of fearful feed, 
Oh, but I'll dream of a winner indeed 
In my restless, troubled slumber; 
While the night-mares race through my heated brain 
And their devil-riders spur amain...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...ck shelter of black shades imbowered,
Excels his mother at her mighty art;
Offering to every weary traveller
His orient liquor in a crystal glass,
To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),
Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
The express resemblance of the gods, is changed
Into some brutish form of wolf or bear,
Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were.
And...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...e "Paradise"—persuaded—
Yield her moat of pearl—
Would the Eden be an Eden,
Or the Earl—an Earl?

214

A taste a liquor never brewed—
From Tankards scooped in Pearl—
Not all the Vats on the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of Air—am I—
And Debauchee of Dew—
Reeling—thro endless summer days—
From inns of Molten Blue—

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out the Foxglove's door—
When Butterflies—renounce their "drams"—
I shall but drink the more!

...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and 
 grumbling
And running away, and wanting their
 liquor and women, 
And the night-fires going out, and the 
 lack of shelters, 
And the cities hostile and the towns 
 unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high
 prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all 
 night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, 
 saying
That this was all folly.

Then a...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...drank, from the clear milkie juice allaying 
Thirst, and refresht; nor envy'd them the grape
Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.

Chor. O madness, to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,
When God with these forbid'n made choice to rear
His mighty Champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

 Sam. But what avail'd this temperance, not compleat
Against another object more e...Read more of this...



by Wyatt, Sir Thomas
...he feedeth on boiled, baken meat, and roast, 
And hath thereof neither charge nor travail. 
And, when she list, the liquor of the grape 
Doth goad her heart till that her belly swell." 
And at this journey she maketh but a jape: [joke] 
So forth she goeth, trusting of all this wealth 
With her sister her part so for to shape 
That, if she might keep herself in health, 
To live a lady while her life doth last. 
And to the door now is she come by stealth, 
And with ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...lks—laps ear of rose-corn, milky and just ripen’d; 
The white teeth stay, and the boss-tooth advances in darkness, 
And liquor is spill’d on lips and bosoms by touching glasses, and the best liquor
 afterward.

9
I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid, 
Perfume and youth course through me, and I am their wake. 

It is my face yellow and wrinkled, instead of the old woman’s, 
I sit low in a straw-bottom chair, and carefully darn my grandson’s stockings....Read more of this...

by Bible, The
...rk of the
           hands of a cunning workman.

22:007:002 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor:
           thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.

22:007:003 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

22:007:004 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools
           in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the
           tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascu...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...arise! 
The shape of the prisoner’s place in the court-room, and of him or her seated in the
 place; 
The shape of the liquor-bar lean’d against by the young rum-drinker and the old
 rum-drinker; 
The shape of the shamed and angry stairs, trod by sneaking footsteps; 
The shape of the sly settee, and the adulterous unwholesome couple;
The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish winnings and losings; 
The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and sentenced murderer,...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...minute's grace; 
They gave my calves a thorough kneading, 
They salved my cuts and stopped the bleeding. 
A gulp of liquor dulled the pain, 
And then the flasks clinked again. 
Time! 

There was Bill as grim as death, 
He rushed, I clinched, to get more breath, 
And breath I got, though Billy bats 
Some stinging short-arms in my slats. 
And when we broke, as I foresaw, 
He swung his right in for the jaw. 
I stopped it on my shoulder bone, 
And at the shock I h...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ir in the jolly black-jack,
     And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack;
     Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with thy liquor,
     Drink upsees out, and a fig for the vicar!

     Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip
     The ripe ruddy dew of a woman's dear lip,
     Says that Beelzebub lurks in her kerchief so sly,
     And Apollyon shoots darts from her merry black eye;
     Yet whoop, Jack! kiss Gillian the quicker,
     Till she bloom like a rose, and a fig f...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...fain,* *glad
And pleased him in all that e'er she might.
He drank, and *well his girdle underpight*; *stowed away (liquor)
He slept, and eke he snored in his guise under his girdle*
All night, until the sun began to rise.

Eft* were his letters stolen every one, *again
And counterfeited letters in this wise:
The king commanded his Constable anon,
On pain of hanging and of high jewise,* *judgement
That he should suffer in no manner wise
Constance within his regne* for...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...we were!
So I went on a spree round Java and well-nigh ran her ashore,
But your mother came and warned me and I would't liquor no more:
Strict I stuck to my business, afraid to stop or I'd think,
Saving the money (she warned me), and letting the other men drink.
And I met M'Cullough in London (I'd saved five 'undred then ),
And 'tween us we started the Foundry -- three forges and twenty men.
Cheap repairs for the cheap 'uns. It paid, and the business grew;
For I b...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...br>
On shining Altars of Japan they raise
The silver Lamp; the fiery Spirits blaze.
From silver Spouts the grateful Liquors glide,
And China's Earth receives the smoking Tyde. 
At once they gratify their Scent and Taste,
While frequent Cups prolong the rich Repast.
Strait hover round the Fair her Airy Band;
Some, as she sip'd, the fuming Liquor fann'd,
Some o'er her Lap their careful Plumes display'd,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich Brocade.
Coffee, (whic...Read more of this...

by Du Bois, W. E. B.
...of gold,
Baiting their blood-stained hooks
With cant for the souls of the simple;
Bearing the white man's burden
Of liquor and lust and lies!
Unthankful we wince in the East,
Unthankful we wail from the westward,
Unthankfully thankful, we curse,
In the unworn wastes of the wild:
I hate them, Oh!
I hate them well,
I hate them, Christ!
As I hate hell!
If I were God,
I'd sound their knell
This day!
Who raised the fools to their glory,
But black men of Egypt and ...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry." 

III.
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted -- "Open then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more." 

IV.
Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
Puts out...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...rate, 
And sweated through his apostolic skin: 
Of course his perspiration was but ichor, 
Or some such other spiritual liquor. 

XXIV 

The very cherubs huddled all together, 
Like birds when soars the falcon; and they felt 
A tingling to the top of every feather, 
And form'd a circle like Orion's belt 
Around their poor old charge; who scarce knew whither 
His guards had led him, though they gently dealt 
With royal manes (for by many stories, 
And true, we learn the an...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...an adept--
When loosed and missioned, making wings of winds--
To stir sweet thoughts or sad in destined minds.

And liquors clear and sweet, whose healthful might
Could medicine the sick soul to happy sleep,
And change eternal death into a night
Of glorious dreams--or, if eyes needs must weep,
Could make their tears all wonder and delight--
She in her crystal phials did closely keep:
If men could drink of those clear phials, 'tis said
The living were not envied of the dea...Read more of this...

by Swift, Jonathan
...ith a different turn,
Makes wit inflame, or anger burn:
So the sun's heat, with different powers,
Ripens the grape, the liquor sours:
Thus Ajax, when with rage possest,
By Pallas breathed into his breast,
His valour would no more employ,
Which might alone have conquered Troy;
But, blinded be resentment, seeks
For vengeance on his friends the Greeks.
You think this turbulence of blood
From stagnating preserves the flood,
Which, thus fermenting by degrees,
Exalts the spirit...Read more of this...

by Doty, Mark
...d him to new marsh
or old home ground. The next day you saw,
one town over, remains of shell
in front of the little liquor store. I argued
it was too far from where we'd seen him,
too small to be his... though who could tell

what the day's heat might have taken
from his body. For days he became a stain,
a blotch that could have been merely
oil. I did not want to believe that
was what we saw alive in the firm center
of his authority and right

to w...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Liquor poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things