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Famous Roosters Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...ield of battle, 
In the great barnyard of life, 
Be not like those lazy cattle! 
Be a rooster in the strife! 

Lives of roosters all remind us, 
We can make our lives sublime, 
And when roasted, leave behind us, 
Hen tracks on the sands of time.

Hen tracks that perhaps another
Chicken drooping in the rain, 
Some forlorn and henpecked brother, 
When he sees, shall crow again....Read more of this...



by Sexton, Anne
...ed with kisses. 
I was the engine that couldn't. 
Cold wigs blew on the trees outside 
and car lights flew like roosters 
on the ceiling. 
Cradle, you are a grave place. 

Interrogator: 
What color is the devil? 

Anne: 
Black and blue. 

Interrogator: 
What goes up the chimney? 

Anne: 
Fat Lazarus in his red suit. 

Forgive us, Father, for we know not. 

Ms. Dog prefers to sunbathe nude. 
Let the indifferent sky look on. 
So what! 
Le...Read more of this...

by Cheney-Coker, Syl
...or,
who was really unveiling his ancient lust?
Even so, someone was saying a new king deserves
vestal virgins, white roosters and the finest harvest—
a crest on his head woven by our hands,
using the most precious leaves; an aged wine
offered to a Messiah, only to be deceived by the false crown
in his teeth, soon after we had silenced the red barbarians.
The chosen was what we could have been,
but since we have only one story to tell:
whether it be of The Athens...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...n to fail, 
Bosom chums, cigars, tobacco, and a case of English ale -- 
Gloriously drunk and happy, till they heard the roosters crow -- 
And the landlady and neighbours made complaints about the Co. 
But that life! it might be likened to a reckless drinking-song, 
For it can't go on for ever, and it never lasted long. 

. . . . . 

Debt-collecting ruined Peter -- people talked him round too oft, 
For his heart was soft as butter (and the Co.'s...Read more of this...

by Atwood, Margaret
...y after the other rolling on;
I move up, it's called
awake, then down into the uneasy
nights but never
forward. The roosters crow
for hours before dawn, and a prodded
child howls & howls
on the pocked road to school.
In the hold with the baggage
there are two prisoners,
their heads shaved by bayonets, & ten crates
of queasy chicks. Each spring
there's race of cripples, from the store
to the church. This is the sort of junk
I carry with me; and a clipping
about...Read more of this...



by Sandburg, Carl
...ling you under the chin—honey—and a-asking: Why Does a Chicken Cross the Road?
When the hens are a-laying eggs, and the roosters pluck-pluck-put-akut and you—honey—put new potatoes and gravy on the table, and there ain’t too much rain or too little:
 Say, why do I feel so gabby?
 Why do I want to holler all over the place?. . .
Do you remember I held empty hands to you
 and I said all is yours
 the handfuls of nothing?. . .
I ask you for white blossoms...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...water-closet door,
from the dropping-plastered henhouse floor,

where in the blue blur 
their rusting wives admire,
the roosters brace their cruel feet and glare

with stupid eyes
while from their beaks there rise
the uncontrolled, traditional cries.

Deep from protruding chests
in green-gold medals dressed,
planned to command and terrorize the rest,

the many wives 
who lead hens' lives
of being courted and despised;

deep from raw throats
a senseless order floats
all ov...Read more of this...

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