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Famous Rum Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Thomas, Dylan
...blow up balloons to
see how big they would blow up to; and, when they burst, which they all did, the Uncles jumped and rumbled. In
the rich and heavy afternoon, the Uncles breathing like dolphins and the snow descending, I would sit among
festoons and Chinese lanterns and nibble dates and try to make a model man-o'-war, following the Instructions
for Little Engineers, and produce what might be mistaken for a sea-going tramcar.

Or I would go out, my bright new boots ...Read more of this...



by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...ry and all is hot, 
There stands the town of Dandaloo -- 
A township where life's total sum 
Is sleep, diversified with rum. 
Its grass-grown streets with dust are deep; 
'Twere vain endeavour to express 
The dreamless silence of its sleep, 
Its wide, expansive drunkenness. 
The yearly races mostly drew 
A lively crowd at Dandaloo. 

There came a sportsman from the East, 
The eastern land where sportsmen blow, 
And brought with him a speedy beast -- 
A speedy beas...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...OH some are fond of red wine, and some are fond of white, 
And some are all for dancing by the pale moonlight; 
But rum alone's the tipple, and the heart's delight 
Of the old bold mate of Henry Morgan. 

Oh some are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French, 
And some'll swallow tay and stuff fit only for a wench; 
But I'm for right Jamaica till I roll beneath the bench, 
Says the old bold mate of Henry Morgan. 

Oh some are for the lily, and some are for...Read more of this...

by Heaney, Seamus
...I

He would drink by himself
And raise a weathered thumb
Towards the high shelf,
Calling another rum
And blackcurrant, without
Having to raise his voice,
Or order a quick stout
By a lifting of the eyes
And a discreet dumb-show
Of pulling off the top;
At closing time would go
In waders and peaked cap
Into the showery dark,
A dole-kept breadwinner
But a natural for work.
I loved his whole manner,
Sure-footed but too sly,
His deadpan sidling tact,
His ...Read more of this...

by Nash, Ogden
...sband thinks something is a terrible idea she is bound to think it a good one,
So he perfumed his handkerchief with bay rum and citronella,
And he went to see Isabella,
And he looked wonderful but he had never felt sillier,
And she said, I can't place the face but the aroma is familiar,
And Columbus didn't say a word,
All he said was, I am Columbus, the fifteenth-century Admiral Byrd,
And, just as he thought, her disposition was very malleable,
And she said, Here are my jewel...Read more of this...



by Milosz, Czeslaw
...ibiscus, alamanda, a red lily, devouring
With my eyes, lips, tongue, the guava juice, the juice of la prune de Cyth?re,
Rum with ice and syrup, lianas-orchids
In a rain forest, where trees stand on the stilts of their roots.

Death, you say, mine and yours, closer and closer,
We suffered and this poor earth was not enough.
The purple-black earth of vegetable gardens
Will be here, either looked at or not.
The sea, as today, will breathe from its depths.
Growing...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...er’, either way

She is afraid; I marvel at a tongue so readily ambiguous,

Lying across her forked thigh.



I buy rum for her ‘many parents’, for her

One cheap dress a month suffices; in return

She gathers fish and wild-fruit from the blue

Mountain groves where no white man walks.

Once when I fished from the long canoes

A fish caught the hook in its lower jaw, laughing

I learnt this meant my vahine was unfaithful :

She answered ‘Beat me’ but I lay down by her...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...t more.

Not one word or deed—not venereal sore, discoloration, privacy of the onanist,
 putridity
 of
 gluttons or rum-drinkers, peculation, cunning, betrayal, murder, seduction, prostitution,
 but
 has
 results beyond death, as really as before death. 

4
Charity and personal force are the only investments worth anything. 

No specification is necessary—all that a male or female does, that is vigorous,
 benevolent,
 clean, is so much profit to him or her, in the...Read more of this...

by Trumbull, John
...dupes to every factious rogue
And tavern-prating demagogue,
Whose tongue but rings, with sound more full,
On th' empty drumhead of his scull;
Behold you not what noisy fools
Use you, worse simpletons, for tools?
For Liberty, in your own by-sense,
Is but for crimes a patent license,
To break of law th' Egyptian yoke,
And throw the world in common stock;
Reduce all grievances and ills
To Magna Charta of your wills;
Establish cheats and frauds and nonsense,
Framed to the model o...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...see those errors, diseases, weaknesses,
 lies,
 thefts? 
Do you see that lost character?—Do you see decay, consumption, rum-drinking, dropsy,
 fever, mortal cancer or inflammation?
Do you see death, and the approach of death?...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...RUM tiddy um,
 tiddy um,
 tiddy um tum tum.
My knees are loose-like, my feet want to sling their selves.
I feel like tickling 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 r...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...square, 
The arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping and daring, 
The strong command through the fire-trumpets, the falling in line, the rise and fall of
 the
 arms
 forcing the water, 
The slender, spasmic, blue-white jets—the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders, and
 their
 execution,
The crash and cut away of connecting wood-work, or through floors, if the fire smoulders
 under
 them,

The crowd with their lit faces, watching—the glare and dense shad...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ready spent the best of yourself; 
Only those may come, who come in sweet and determin’d bodies; 
No diseas’d person—no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here. 

I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes; 
We convince by our presence.

11
Listen! I will be honest with you; 
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes; 
These are the days that must happen to you: 

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches, 
You shall scat...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...ve them scanty bread,
They lied about the Earth beneath,
 The Heavens overhead,
For they had looked too often on
 Black rum when that was red.

They told their tales of wreck and wrong,
 Of shame and lust and fraud,
They backed their toughest statements with
 The Brimstone of the Lord,
And crackling oaths went to and fro
 Across the fist-banged board.

And there was Hans the blue-eyed Dane,
 Bull-throated, bare of arm,
Who carried on his hairy chest
 The maid Ultruda'...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...Out him, bill. 
Out him." Bill rushed . . . and Clink, Clink, Clink. 
Time! And Jim's knee, and rum to drink. 
And round the ring there ran a titter: 
"Saved by the call, the bloody quitter." 

They drove (a dodge that never fails) 
A pin beneath my finger nails. 
They poured what seemed a running beck 
Of cold spring water down my neck; 
Jim with a lancet quick as flies 
Lowered the swelling round my eyes. 
They sluiced my legs and fan...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...he blood of bulls and elephants, as all conventional meat-eaters do, I suppose"--Dalroy.

You will find me drinking rum,
Like a sailor in a slum,
You will find me drinking beer like a Bavarian
You will find me drinking gin 
In the lowest kind of inn
Because I am a rigid Vegetarian.

So I cleared the inn of wine,
And I tried to climb the sign,
And I tried to hail the constable as "Marion."
But he said I couldn't speak,
And he bowled me to the Beak
Because I was a H...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...t, like the pelicans know,
so I got raptures once, and I saw God
like a harpooned grouper bleeding, and a far
voice was rumbling, "Shabine, if you leave her,
if you leave her, I shall give you the morning star."
When I left the madhouse I tried other women
but, once they stripped naked, their spiky cunts
bristled like sea eggs and I couldn't dive.
The chaplain came round. I paid him no mind.
Where is my rest place, Jesus? Where is my harbor?
Where is the pillo...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...
Acclaimed as nominee to the mayoralty
To vanquish A. D. Blood.
But as the war
Waged bitterly for votes and rumors flew
About the bank, and of the heavy loans
Which Rhodes' son had made to prop his loss
In wheat, and many drew their coin and left
The bank of Rhodes more hollow, with the talk
Among the liberals of another bank
Soon to be chartered, lo, the bubble burst
'Mid cries and curses; but the liberals laughed
And in the hall of Nicholas Bindle held
Wise conv...Read more of this...

by Duhamel, Denise
...marijuana but I
couldn't inhale because of my lungs my sister was the one to pass out
behind the church for both of us rum and angel dust

and that's how it was my sister standing at the top of all those stairs that 
lead up to the apartment and she pushed down the empty suitcase that
banged the banister and wall as it tumbled and I was crying on the other side 
of the door because I was sure it was my sister who fell all ketchup blood and 
stuck out bones my mother wouldn't...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...I smiled politely, not thinking I 
Would hear one midnight that long sad sigh. 

I saw the gardens, after our tea
(Crumpets and marmalade, toast and cake)
And Drake's Walk, leading down to the sea;
Lady Jean was startled I'd heard of Drake,
For the English always find it a mystery
That Americans study English history.

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...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs