Famous Pals Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Sourdough Story

...em gates so bright and pearly?"
"I'm recent dead," the Sourdough said, "and crave to visit Hades,
Where haply pine some pals o' mine, includin' certain ladies."
Said Peter: "Go, you old Sourdough, from life so crooly riven;
And if ye fail to find their trail, we'll have a snoop round Heaven."

He waved, and lo! that old Sourdough dropped down to Hell's red spaces;
But though 'twas hot he couldn't spot them old familiar faces.
The bedrock burned, and so he turned, and climbed ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William


An Electric Sign Goes Dark

...unting in pine and tamarack of the Northwest, stock ranchers in the middle west, mayors of southern cities
Say to their pals and wives now: I see by the papers Anna Held is dead....Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

At The Golden Pig

...I am lord and master here;--
 Thank God! the old man's dead.
I stand behind a blooming bar
 With belly like a tub,
And pals say, seeing my cigar:
 'Bill's wed a pub.'

I wonder now if I did well,
 My freedom for to lose;
Knowing my wife is fly as hell
 I mind my 'Ps' and 'Qs'.
Oh what a fuss she made because
 I tweaked the barmaid's bub:
Alas! a sorry day it was
 I wed a pub.

Fat landlord of the Golden Pig,
 They call me 'mister' now;
And many a mug of beer I swig,
 Yet don...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Australias Peril

...land in Australia – make your own cloth, machines, and guns!

Clear out the Calico Jimmy, the ******, the Chow, and his pals;
Be your foreword for years: Irrigation. Make a network of lakes and canals!
See that your daughters have children, and see that Australia is home,
And so be prepared, a strong nation, for the storm that most surely must come....Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Bills Grave

...'t so long ago;
 But some'ow it changes a feller, 'avin' a taste o' war.

It 'elps a man to be 'elpful, to know wot 'is pals is worth
 (Them golden poppies is blazin' like lamps some fairy 'as lit);
I'm fond o' them big white dysies. . . . Now Jim's o' the salt o' the earth;
 But 'e 'as got a tongue wot's a terror, and 'e ain't sentimental a bit.

I likes them blue chaps wot's 'idin' so shylike among the corn.
 Won't Bill be glad! We was allus thicker 'n thieves, us three.
Wh...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William


Dream Song 120: Foes I sniff when I have less to shout

...Foes I sniff, when I have less to shout
or murmur. Pals alone enormous sounds
downward & up bring real.
Loss, deaths, terror. Over & out,
beloved: thanks for cabbage on my wounds:
I'll feed you how I feel:-”

of avocado moist with lemon, yea
formaldehyde & rotting sardines O
in our appointed time
I would I could a touch more fully say
my consentless mind. The senses are below,
which in this air sublime

do I...Read more of this...
by Berryman, John

Dream Song 45: He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back

...friends. He felt on the stair
where her papa found them bare
they became familiar. When the papers were lost
rich with pals' secrets, he thought he had the knack
of ruin. Their paths crossed

and once they crossed in jail; they crossed in bed;
and over an unsigned letter their eyes met,
and in an Asian city
directionless & lurchy at two & three,
or trembling to a telephone's fresh threat,
and when some wired his head

to reach a wrong opinion, 'Epileptic'.
But he noted now t...Read more of this...
by Berryman, John

Dream Song 71: Spellbound held subtle Henry all his four

...all his four, or more,
depending. And they paid him.

It was not, so, like no one listening
but critics famed & Henry's pals or other
tellers at all
chiefly in another country. No.
He by the heart & brains & tail, because
of their love for it, had them.

Junk he said to all them open-mouthed.
Weather wóuld govern. When the monsoon spread
its floods, few came, two.
Came a day when none, though he began
in his accustomed way on the filthy steps
in a crash of waters, came....Read more of this...
by Berryman, John

Grotty And The Quarryman

..."That bastard

Cheated me, writing lying filth about me and

I never saw a penny!" she’d mutter, side-mouthed,

To her pals.

But that book, that bloody book, was no pub myth,

It even won an Arthur Koestler Literary Award

And is compulsive reading; hardly, as a poet,

My cup of tea but I couldn’t put it down.

Paul Sykes, I salute you, immortaliser of Elaine,

Your book became and is my sweetest pain....Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Laughing Blue Steel

...ld rather be a chisel with you than a fish.
Sure I would rather be a chisel with you than a bird.
Take these two chisel-pals, O God.
Take ‘em and beat ‘em, hammer ‘em, hear ‘em laugh....Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

My Job

...well. -- Your werry lovin' Micky."

I've got a little score to settle wiv them swine out there.
 I've 'ad so many of me pals done in it's quite upset me.
I've seen so much of bloody death I don't seem for to care,
 If I can only even up, how soon the blighters get me.
I'm sorry for them perishers that corpses in a bed;
 I only 'opes mine's short and sweet, no linger-longer-lyin';
I've made a mess of life, but now I'll try to make instead . . .
 It's seven sharp. Good-bye, old...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

My Mate

...rcoat all red,
 Like 'e's spilt a bloomin' paint-pot -- but it's blood.

And I'm tryin' to remember of a time we wasn't pals.
 'Ow often we've played 'ookey, 'im and me;
And sometimes it was music-'alls, and sometimes it was gals,
 And even there we 'ad no disagree.
For when 'e copped Mariar Jones, the one I liked the best,
 I shook 'is 'and and loaned 'im 'arf a quid;
I saw 'im through the parson's job, I 'elped 'im make 'is nest,
 I even stood god-farther to the kid.

So wh...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

My Prisoner

...re dead.

"Sorry, sir. Then on the other 'and
(As a gent like you must understand),
If I 'olds you longer 'ere,
Wiv yer pals so werry near,
 It's me 'oo'll 'ave a free trip to Berlin;
If I lets yer go away,
Why, you'll fight another day:
 See the sitooation I am in.

"Anyway I'll tell you wot I'll do,
Bein' kind and seein' as it's you,
Knowin' 'ow it's cold, the feel
Of a 'alf a yard o' steel,
 I'll let yer 'ave a rifle ball instead;
Now, jist think yerself in luck. . . .
'Er...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Old Bob

...to Kingdom Come
 And left me here below:
Since Death, the bastard, bowled them out,
 And left me faced with--Doubt.

My pals have all passed out on me
 And I am by my lone;
Old Bill was last, and now I see
 His name cut on a stone;
A marble slab, but not as fine
 As I have picked for mine.

I nurse and curse rheumatic pain
 As on the porch I sit;
With nothing special in my brain
 I rock and smoke and spit:
When one is nearing to the end
 One sorely needs a friend.

My Pals ha...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Pals

...Take a hold now
On the silver handles here,
Six silver handles,
One for each of his old pals.

Take hold
And lift him down the stairs,
Put him on the rollers
Over the floor of the hearse.

Take him on the last haul,
To the cold straight house,
The level even house,
To the last house of all.

 The dead say nothing
 And the dead know much
 And the dead hold under their tongues
 A locked-up story....Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Take It Easy

...s to do it.
Just cultivate a sober gait;
Don't emulate the lively conger;
No need to race, slow down the pace,
Go easy, Pals - you'll linger longer....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Bohemian

...Up in my garret bleak and bare
I tilted back on my broken chair,
And my three old pals were with me there,
 Hunger and Thirst and Cold;
Hunger scowled at his scurvy mate:
Cold cowered down by the hollow grate,
And I hated them with a deadly hate
 As old as life is old.

So up in my garret that's near the sky
I smiled a smile that was thin and dry:
"You've roomed with me twenty year," said I,
 "Hunger and Thirst and Cold;
But now, begone d...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Red Retreat

...he bits o' kiddies cryin' there,
 The fell birds a-flyin' there, the 'ouses all aflame;
Tramp, tramp, the sad road, the pals I left a-lyin' there,
 Red there, and dead there. . . . Oh blimy, it's a shame!

A-singin' "'Oo's Yer Lady Friend?" we started out from 'Arver,
 A-singin' till our froats was dry -- we didn't care a 'ang;
The Frenchies 'ow they lined the way, and slung us their palaver,
 And all we knowed to arnser was the one word "vang";
They gave us booze and caporal...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Triumph

...It drizzles on the links?
Why am I buying Veuve Cliquot,
 And setting up the drinks?
Why stand I like a prince amid
 My pals and envy none?
Ye gods of golf! Today I did
 A Hole in One.

I drove my ball to heaven high,
 It over-topped the hill;
I tried to guess how it would lie,
 If on the fairway still.
I climbed the rise, so sure I'd hit
 It straight towards the green:
I looked and looked,--no trace of it
 Was to be seen.

My partner putted to the pin,
 Then hoarse I heard h...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Violets

...Ted 'ud soon be sank?

    Yi, an' 'im that young,
      Snapped sudden out of all
    His wickedness, among
      Pals worse n'r ony name as you could call.

Let be that; there's some o' th' bad as we
  Like better nor all your good, an' 'e was one.
--An' cos I liked him best, yi, bett'r nor thee,
  I canna bide to think where he is gone.

Ah know tha liked 'im bett'r nor me. But let
  Me tell thee about this lass. When you had gone
Ah stopped behind on t' pad ...Read more of this...
by Lawrence, D. H.

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