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Famous Ranch Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...out of me.

She whisked me off over the ocean,
And had me presented at court,
And got me all out of the notion
That ranch life out west was my forte.
Of course I have never repented---
I'm not such a goose of a thing;
But after I had consented
To Joe---and he gave me the ring---

I felt such a ***** sensation.
I seemed to go into a trance,
Away from the music's pulsation,
Away from the lights and the dance.
And the wind o'er the wild prairie
Seemed blowing str...Read more of this...



by Lindsay, Vachel
...d,
The street, the high and solemn range.

The while the coyote barked afar
All shadowy was the battlement.
The ranch-boys huddled and grew pale,
Youths who had come on riot bent.
Forgot were pranks well-planned to sting.
Behold there rose a ghostly king,
And veils of smoking Hell were rent.

When Edwin Booth played Hamlet, then
The camp-drab's tears could not but flow.
Then Romance lived and breathed and burned.
She felt the frail queen-mother's w...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...

 Pard was born of Okie parents in British Nigeria and came

to America when he was two years old and was raised as a

ranch kid in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

 He was a machinegunner in the Second World War, against

the Germans. He fought in France and Germany. Sergeant

Pard. Then he came back from the war and went to some

hick college in Idaho.

 After he graduated from college, he went to Paris and be-

came an Existentialist, He had a photograph...Read more of this...

by Clark, Badger
...When my earthly trail is ended
    And my final bacon curled
  And the last great roundup's finished
    At the Home Ranch of the world
  I don't want no harps nor haloes,
    Robes nor other dressed up things--
  Let me ride the starry ranges
    On a pinto hawse with wings!

  _Just a-ridin', a-ridin'--_
    _Nothin' I'd like half so well_
  _As a-roundin' up the sinners_
    _That have wandered out of Hell,_
        _And a-ridin'._...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking; 
At home on the hills of Vermont, or in the woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch; 
Comrade of Californians—comrade of free north-westerners, (loving their big
 proportions;) 
Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen—comrade of all who shake hands and welcome
 to drink and meat;
A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest; 
A novice beginning, yet experient of myriads of seasons; 
Of every hue and caste am I, of every...Read more of this...



by Field, Eugene
...in the spring uv '69!

The conversazzhyony wuz a notable affair,
The bong tong deckolett 'nd en regaly bein' there;
The ranch where Sorry Tom hung out wuz fitted up immense,--
The Denver papers called it a "palashal residence."
There wuz mountain pines an' fern an' flowers a-hangin' on the walls,
An' cheers an' hoss-hair sofies wuz a-settin' in the halls;
An' there wuz heaps uv pictures uv folks that lived down East,
Sech ez poets an' perfessers, an' last, but not the lea...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...-juice Cure.

"It's mighty *****," sez Deep-hole Dan, "I'm puzzled through and through;
It's only milk from Riley's ranch, no other milk will do."
An' it jest happened on that night with no predictive plan,
He left some milk from Riley's ranch a-settin' in a pan;
An' picture his amazement when he poured that milk next day --
There in the bottom of the pan a dozen "colours" lay.

"Well, what d'ye know 'bout that," sez Dan; "Gosh ding my dasted eyes,
We've been an' ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...br>

Oh, I have guarded my secret well! And who would dream as I speak
In a tribal tongue like a rogue unhung, 'mid the ranch-house filth and reek,
I could roll to bed with a Latin phrase and rise with a verse of Greek?

Yet I was a senior prizeman once, and the pride of a college eight;
Called to the bar -- my friends were true! but they could not keep me straight;
Then came the divorce, and I went abroad and "died" on the River Plate.

But I'm not dead yet; though with ...Read more of this...

by Clark, Badger
...When my earthly trail is ended
    And my final bacon curled
  And the last great roundup's finished
    At the Home Ranch of the world
  I don't want no harps nor haloes,
    Robes nor other dressed up things--
  Let me ride the starry ranges
    On a pinto hawse with wings!

  _Just a-ridin', a-ridin'--_
    _Nothin' I'd like half so well_
  _As a-roundin' up the sinners_
    _That have wandered out of Hell,_
        _And a-ridin'._...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...as 
it stands on the front porch 
considering the day's agenda. 
Whether to go straight ahead 
passing through the ranch houses 
of the rich, living rooms 
panelled with a veneer of fake 
Philippine mahogany and bedrooms 
with ermined floors and tangled 
seas of silk sheets, through 
adobe walls and secret gardens 
of sweet corn and marijuana 
until it crosses several sets 
of tracks, four freeways, and 
a mountain range and faces 
a great ocean each drop of 
which is kn...Read more of this...

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