Famous Pokes Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The eathen

by Rudyard Kipling
 The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone;
'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own;
'E keeps 'is side-arms awful: 'e leaves 'em all about,
An' then comes up the Regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out.

 All along o' dirtiness, all along o' mess,
 All along o' doin' things rather-more-or-less,
 All along of abby-nay, kul, an'...Read more of this...

Two Travellers in the Place Vendome

by Amy Lowell
 Reign of Louis Philippe

A great tall column spearing at the sky
With a little man on top. Goodness! Tell me 
why?
He looks a silly thing enough to stand up there so high.
What a strange fellow, like a soldier in a play,
Tight-fitting coat with the tails cut away,
High-crowned hat which the brims overlay.
Two-horned hat makes an outline like a bow.
Must have...Read more of this...

Camouflage

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Beside the bare and beaten track of travelling flocks and herds 
The woodpecker went tapping on, the postman of the birds, 
"I've got a letter here," he said, "that no one's understood, 
Addressed as follows: 'To the bird that's like a piece of wood.' 
"The soldier bird got very cross -- it wasn't meant for her; 
The spurwing plover...Read more of this...

Black Moran

by Robert William Service
 The mule-skinner was Bill Jerome, the passengers were three;
Two tinhorns from the dives of Nome, and Father Tim McGee.
And as for sunny Southland bound, through weary woods they sped,
The solitude that ringed them round was silent as the dead.

Then when the trail crooked crazily, the frost-rimed horses reared,
And from behind a fallen tree a grim galoot appeared;
He wore a...Read more of this...

The Twins Of Lucky Strike

by Robert William Service
 I've sung of Violet de Vere, that slinky, minky dame,
Of Gertie of the Diamond Tooth, and Touch-the-Button Nell,
And Maye Lamore,--at eighty-four I oughta blush wi' shame
That in my wild and wooly youth I knew them ladies well.
And Klondike Kit, and Gumboot Sue, and many I've forgot;
They had their faults, as I recall, the same as you and me;
But come...Read more of this...

Turns And Movies: Zudora

by Conrad Aiken
 Here on the pale beach, in the darkness; 
With the full moon just to rise; 
They sit alone, and look over the sea, 
Or into each other's eyes. . .

She pokes her parasol into the sleepy sand, 
Or sifts the lazy whiteness through her hand.

'A lovely night,' he says, 'the moon, 
Comes up for you and me. 
Just like...Read more of this...

Afternoon Rain in State Street

by Amy Lowell
 Cross-hatchings of rain against grey walls,
Slant lines of black rain
In front of the up and down, wet stone sides of buildings.
Below,
Greasy, shiny, black, horizontal,
The street.
And over it, umbrellas,
Black polished dots
Struck to white
An instant,
Stream in two flat lines
Slipping past each other with the smoothness of oil.
Like a four-sided wedge
The Custom House Tower
Pokes at the low, flat sky,
Pushing it farther and...Read more of this...

Sea Song

by Katherine Mansfield
 I will think no more of the sea! Of the big green waves And the hollowed
shore, Of the brown rock caves No more, no more Of the swell and the weed
And the bubbling foam. Memory dwells in my far away home, She has nothing
to do with me. She is old and bent With a pack On her back. Her...Read more of this...

Camouflage

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Beside the bare and beaten track of travelling flocks and herds 
The woodpecker went tapping on, the postman of the birds, 
"I've got a letter here," he said, "that no one's understood, 
Addressed as follows: 'To the bird that's like a piece of wood.' 
"The soldier bird got very cross -- it wasn't meant for her; 
The spurwing plover...Read more of this...

The Married Man

by Rudyard Kipling
 The bachelor 'e fights for one
 As joyful as can be;
But the married man don't call it fun,
 Because 'e fights for three --
For 'Im an' 'Er an' It
 (An' Two an' One make Three)
'E wants to finish 'is little bit,
 An' e' wants to go 'ome to is tea!

The bachelor pokes up 'is 'ead
 To see if you...Read more of this...

No Return

by William Matthews
 I like divorce. I love to compose
letters of resignation; now and then
I send one in and leave in a lemon-
hued Huff or a Snit with four on the floor.
Do you like the scent of a hollyhock?
To each his own. I love a burning bridge.

I like to watch the small boat go over
the falls -- it swirls in a circle
like...Read more of this...

Zudora

by Conrad Aiken
Here on the pale beach, in the darkness; 
With the full moon just to rise; 
They sit alone, and look over the sea, 
Or into each other's eyes. . . 
  
She pokes her parasol into the sleepy sand, 
Or sifts the lazy whiteness through her hand. 
  
'A lovely night,' he says, 'the moon, 
Comes up for...Read more of this...

My Prisoner

by Robert William Service
 We was in a crump-'ole, 'im and me;
Fightin' wiv our bayonets was we;
Fightin' 'ard as 'ell we was,
Fightin' fierce as fire because
 It was 'im or me as must be downed;
'E was twice as big as me;
I was 'arf the weight of 'e;
 We was like a terryer and a 'ound.

'Struth! But 'e was sich a 'andsome bloke.
Me, I'm...Read more of this...

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