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Famous Peter Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...sweeter,
Altho’ a ribbon at your lug
 Wad been a dress completer:
As ye disown yon paughty dog,
 That bears the keys of Peter,
Then swith! an’ get a wife to hug,
 Or trowth, ye’ll stain the mitre
 Some luckless day!


Young, royal Tarry-breeks, I learn,
 Ye’ve lately come athwart her—
A glorious galley, 4 stem and stern,
 Weel rigg’d for Venus’ barter;
But first hang out, that she’ll discern,
 Your hymeneal charter;
Then heave aboard your grapple airn,
 An’ large upon her qua...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...talked of growing up
Knew that we'd halved a soul
And fell the one in t'other's arms
That we might make it whole;
Then peter had a murdering look,
For it seemed that he and she
Had spoken of their childish days
Under that very tree.
O what a bursting out there was,
And what a blossoming,
When we had all the summer-time
And she had all the spring!...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler
...ne eyed one ear'd, sister-
 in-law blonde Connie, five nephews, stepbrothers & sisters 
 their grandchildren,
companion Peter Orlovsky, caretakers Rosenthal & Hale, Bill Morgan--
Next, teacher Trungpa Vajracharya's ghost mind, Gelek Rinpoche, 
 there Sakyong Mipham, Dalai Lama alert, chance visiting 
 America, Satchitananda Swami 
Shivananda, Dehorahava Baba, Karmapa XVI, Dudjom Rinpoche, 
 Katagiri & Suzuki Roshi's phantoms
Baker, Whalen, Daido Loorie, Qwong, Frail White-hai...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen
...
Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock, with the selfsame
Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent Peter.
Bursting with hay were the barns, themselves a village. In each one
Far o'er the gable projected a roof of thatch; and a staircase,
Under the sheltering eaves, led up to the odorous corn-loft.
There too the dove-cot stood, with its meek and innocent inmates
Murmuring ever of love; while above in the variant breezes
Numberless noisy weathercocks rattle...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...rraunt.
"Gode sir," quoth Gawan, "woldez thou go myn ernde
To the heygh lorde of this hous, herber to craue?"
"Yghe, Peter," quoth the porter, "and purely I trowee
That yghe be, wyyghe, welcum to won quyle yow lykez."
Then yghede the wyyghe ygherne and com ayghayn swythe,
And folke frely hym wyth, to fonge the knyyght.
Thay let doun the grete drayght and derely out ygheden,
And kneled doun on her knes vpon the colde erthe
To welcum this ilk wyygh as worthy hom thoygh...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)



...shiers, or mobs, he'll never mind;
And knows no losses while the Muse is kind.
To cheat a friend, or ward, he leaves to Peter;
The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre,
Enjoys his garden and his book in quiet;
And then--a perfect hermit in his diet.
Of little use the man you may suppose,
Who says in verse what others say in prose:
Yet let me show, a poet's of some weight,
And (though no soldier) useful to the state.
What will a child learn sooner than a song?
What better ...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...now, I do thine aid entreat, 
 And guidance, that beyond the ills I meet 
 I safety find, within the Sacred Gate 
 That Peter guards, and those sad souls to see 
 Who look with longing for their end to be." 

 Then he moved forward, and behind I trod. 





Canto II



 THE day was falling, and the darkening air 
 Released earth's creatures from their toils, while I, 
 I only, faced the bitter road and bare 
 My Master led. I only, must defy 
 The powers of pity, and the nigh...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...fixed, 
And that crystalling sphere whose balance weighs 
The trepidation talked, and that first moved; 
And now Saint Peter at Heaven's wicket seems 
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot 
Of Heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo 
A violent cross wind from either coast 
Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry 
Into the devious air: Then might ye see 
Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost 
And fluttered into rags; then reliques, beads, 
In...Read more of this...
by Milton, John
...l quietly along the river.
[March 1940. Fontannyi Dom]

FOOTNOTES

1 An elite guard which rose up in rebellion
 against Peter the Great in 1698. Most were either
 executed or exiled.
2 The imperial summer residence outside St
 Petersburg where Ahmatova spent her early years.
3 A prison complex in central Leningrad near the
 Finland Station, called The Crosses because of the
 shape of two of the buildings.
4 The Leningrad house in which Ahmatova lived....Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna
...e gray ash-heap, lies in dung

with his dead wives
with open, bloody eyes,
while those metallic feathers oxidize.


St. Peter's sin
was worse than that of Magdalen
whose sin was of the flesh alone;

of spirit, Peter's,
falling, beneath the flares,
among the "servants and officers."

Old holy sculpture
could set it all together
in one small scene, past and future:

Christ stands amazed,
Peter, two fingers raised
to surprised lips, both as if dazed.

But in between
a little coc...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth
...Poetry Capital of England Re-visited’)



What was it Janice Simmons said to me as James lay dying in Ireland?

“Phone Peter Pegnall in Leeds, an ex-pupil of Jimmy’s. He’s organising

A benefit reading, he’d love to hear from you and have your help.”



‘Like hell he would’ I thought but I phoned him all the same

At his converted farmhouse at Barswill, a Lecturer in Creative Writing

At the uni. But what’s he written, I wondered, apart from his CV?



“Well I am organising ...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry
...re,
For we be out of their correction,
They have of us no jurisdiction,
Ne never shall have, term of all their lives.

"Peter; so be the women of the stives,"* *stews
Quoth this Sompnour, "y-put out of our cure."* *care

"Peace, with mischance and with misaventure,"
Our Hoste said, "and let him tell his tale.
Now telle forth, and let the Sompnour gale,* *whistle; bawl
Nor spare not, mine owen master dear."

This false thief, the Sompnour (quoth the Frere),
Had always bawdes r...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...bag  **pillowcase
Which, as he saide, was our Lady's veil:
He said, he had a gobbet* of the sail *piece
That Sainte Peter had, when that he went
Upon the sea, till Jesus Christ him hent*. *took hold of
He had a cross of latoun* full of stones, *copper
And in a glass he hadde pigge's bones.
But with these relics, whenne that he fond
A poore parson dwelling upon lond,
Upon a day he got him more money
Than that the parson got in moneths tway;
And thus with feigned flattering...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...(PETER RONSARD _loquitur_.)

``Heigho!'' yawned one day King Francis,
``Distance all value enhances!
``When a man's busy, why, leisure
``Strikes him as wonderful pleasure:
`` 'Faith, and at leisure once is he?
``Straightway he wants to be busy.
``Here we've got peace; and aghast I'm
``Caught thinking war the true pastime.
``Is there a reason in metre?
``Give ...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert
...ar,
     Like brethren of the brand and spear.'
     V.

     Soldier's Song.

     Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Poule
     Laid a swinging long curse on the bonny brown bowl,
     That there 's wrath and despair 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...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...en I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...suffer it; but certainly these teachers of 'great moral lessons' are apt to be found in strange company. 




I 

Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate: 
His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull, 
So little trouble had been given of late; 
Not that the place by any means was full, 
But since the Gallic era 'eight-eight' 
The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 
And 'a pull altogether,' as they say 
At sea — which drew most souls another way. 

II 

The angels all were...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...istory.

I saw the picture of every son—
Percy, the eldest, and John; and Bill
In Chinese Customs, and the youngest one
Peter, the sailor, at Osborne still;
And the daughter, Enid, married, alas,
To a civil servant in far Madras.

A little thing happened, just before
We left— the evening papers came;
John, flicking them over to find a score,
Spoke for the first time a certain name—
The name of a town in a distant land
Etched on our hearts by a murderer's hand.

Mother and son...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer
...thus and groan? *complain
Is it for ye would have my [love] 14 alone?
Why, take it all: lo, have it every deal,* *whit
Peter! 19 shrew* you but ye love it well *curse
For if I woulde sell my *belle chose*, *beautiful thing*
I coulde walk as fresh as is a rose,
But I will keep it for your owen tooth.
Ye be to blame, by God, I say you sooth."
Such manner wordes hadde we on hand.

Now will I speaken of my fourth husband.
My fourthe husband was a revellour;
This is to say, he ha...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...d!

If mi mam's up there, don't want to meet 'er
listening to me list mi dirty deeds,
and 'ave to pipe up to St fucking Peter
ah've been on t'dole all mi life in fucking Leeds!

Then t'Alleluias stick in t'angels' gobs.
When dole-wallahs **** off to the void
What'll t'mason carve up for their jobs?
The cunts who lieth 'ere wor unemployed?

This lot worked at one job all life through.
Byron, 'Tanner', 'Lieth 'ere interred'.
They'll chisel fucking poet when they do you
and that...Read more of this...
by Harrison, Tony

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things