Famous Rapier Poems by Famous Poets

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

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80. The Jolly Beggars: A Cantata

...r charms had struck a sturdy caird,
 As weel as poor gut-scraper;
He taks the fiddler by the beard,
 An’ draws a roosty rapier—
He swoor, by a’ was swearing worth,
 To speet him like a pliver,
Unless he would from that time forth
 Relinquish her for ever.


Wi’ ghastly e’e poor tweedle-dee
 Upon his hunkers bended,
An’ pray’d for grace wi’ ruefu’ face,
 An’ so the quarrel ended.
But tho’ his little heart did grieve
 When round the tinkler prest her,
He feign’d to snirtle in h...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


Dorothy Q

...in view,--
Look! there's a rent the light shines through,
Dark with a century's fringe of dust,--
That was a Red-Coat's rapier-thrust!
Such is the tale the lady old,
Dorothy's daughter's daughter, told.

Who the painter was none may tell,--
One whose best was not over well;
Hard and dry, it must be confessed,
Fist as a rose that has long been pressed;
Yet in her cheek the hues are bright,
Dainty colors of red and white,
And in her slender shape are seen
Hint and promise of st...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell

The Atavist

...ing here, Tom Thorne, on the white top-knot o' the world,
Where the wind has the cut of a naked knife and the stars are rapier keen?
Hugging a smudgy willow fire, deep in a lynx robe curled,
You that's a lord's own son, Tom Thorne -- what does your madness mean?

Go home, go home to your clubs, Tom Thorne! home to your evening dress!
Home to your place of power and pride, and the feast that waits for you!
Why do you linger all alone in the splendid emptiness,
Scouring the Lan...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Foreigner

...thing so nice
That the hind-side of me
Would escape your assault.
Come on now, all three!
Here's a dandified gentleman,
Rapier at point,
And a wrist which whirls round
Like a circular joint.
A spatter of blood, man!
That's just to anoint
And make supple your limbs.
'Tis a pity the silk
Of your waistcoat is stained.
Why! Your heart's full of milk,
And so full, it spills over!
I'm not of your ilk.
You said so, and laughed
At my old-fashioned hose,
At the cut of my hair,
At the ...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Hemp

...
"The hemp is grown, and my word made good!" 

And the cutlass clanged with a hissing whir 
On the lashing blade of the rapier. 

Hawk roared and charged like a maddened buck. 
As the cobra strikes, Sir Henry struck, 

Pouring his life in a single thrust, 
And the cutlass shivered to sparks and dust. 

Sir Henry stood on the blood-stained deck, 
And set his foot on his foe's neck. 

Then from the hatch, where the rent decks slope, 
Where the dead roll and the wounded grope, 
...Read more of this...
by Benet, Stephen Vincent


The Highwayman

...never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
 And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
 His pistol butts a-twinkle
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dard inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred; 
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
 But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
 Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot in...Read more of this...
by Noyes, Alfred

The Wood-Cutter

...lonely and listless I wait,
 Drowned in a sea of silence, strewn with confetti of stars.

See! from far up the valley a rapier pierces the night,
 The white search-ray of a steamer. Swiftly, serenely it nears;
A proud, white, alien presence, a glittering galley of light,
 Confident-poised, triumphant, freighted with hopes and fears.

I look as one looks on a vision; I see it pulsating by;
 I glimpse joy-radiant faces; I hear the thresh of the wheel.
Hoof-like my heart beats a...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

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