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Famous Sakes Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...he forest rends,
The robin in the hedge descends,
 And sober chirps securely.


Now, for my friends’ and brethren’s sakes,
And for my dear-lov’d Land o’ Cakes,
 I pray with holy fire:
Lord, send a rough-shod troop o’ Hell
O’er a’ wad Scotland buy or sell,
 To grind them in the mire!...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...or poor mortals
That frequent pass douce Wisdom’s door
 For glaikit Folly’s portals:
I, for their thoughtless, careless sakes,
 Would here propone defences—
Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes,
 Their failings and mischances.


Ye see your state wi’ theirs compared,
 And shudder at the niffer;
But cast a moment’s fair regard,
 What maks the mighty differ;
Discount what scant occasion gave,
 That purity ye pride in;
And (what’s aft mair than a’ the lave),
 Your bette...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...an' what I say;
Somethin' might slip out unheeded,
'Cause it's hot to-day.
Git up, there, Suke! you, Sal, git over!
Sakes alive! how I do sweat.
Every stitch that I've got on me,
Bet a cent, is wringin' wet.
[Pg 280]If this keeps up, I'll lose my temper.
Gee there, Sal, you lazy brute!
Wonder who on airth this weather
Could 'a' be'n got up to suit?
You, Sam, go bring a tin o' water;
Dash it all, don't be so slow!...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...I cannot let you go, I would do you good, 
I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others’ sakes; 
Envelop’d in you sleep greater heroes and bards, 
They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me.

It is I, you women—I make my way, 
I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you, 
I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you, 
I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for These States—I press with slow
 rude muscle,...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...But to my selfe my selfe did giue the blow,
While too much wit, forsooth, so troubled me
That I respects for both our sakes must show:
And yet could not, by rysing morne fore-see
How fair a day was near: O punisht eyes,
That I had bene more foolish, or more wise! 
XXXIV 

Come, let me write. And to what end? To ease
A burthen'd heart. How can words ease, which are
The glasses of thy dayly-vexing care?
Oft cruel fights well pictur'd-forth do please.
Art...Read more of this...



by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
...d
Out of the mind when the dreamer awakes; 
That I know it will be when the spell has vanished, 
Better for both of our sakes.

When the court of the mind is ruled by Reason, 
I know it wiser for us to part; 
But Love is a spy who is plotting treason, 
In league with that warm, red rebel, the Heart.
They whisper to me that the King is cruel, 
That his reign is wicked, his law a sin, 
And every word they utter is fuel
To the flame that smoulders within.

And on nig...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...he looked at him, as one who awakes:
The past was a sleep, and her life began.

Now, love so ordered for both their sakes,
A feast was held that selfsame night
In the pile which the mighty shadow makes.

(For Via Larga is three-parts light,
But the palace overshadows one,
Because of a crime which may God requite!

To Florence and God the wrong was done,
Through the first republic's murder there
By Cosimo and his cursed son.)

The Duke (with the statue's face in th...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...im and said wildly to him
`There is no reason why we should not wed.'
`Then for God's sake,' he answer'd, `both our sakes,
So you will wed me, let it be at once.' 

So these were wed and merrily rang the bells,
Merrily rang the bells and they were wed.
But never merrily beat Annie's heart.
A footstep seem'd to fall beside her path,
She knew not whence; a whisper in her ear,
She knew not what; nor loved she to be left
Alone at home, nor ventured out alone.
...Read more of this...

by Hopkins, Gerard Manley
...sts on, so throngs the ear. 

Let him Oh! with his air of angels then lift me, lay me! only I'll
Have an eye to the sakes of him, quaint moonmarks, to his pelted plumage under
Wings: so some great stormfowl, whenever he has walked his while 

The thunder-purple seabeach plumèd purple-of-thunder,
If a wuthering of his palmy snow-pinions scatter a colossal smile
Off him, but meaning motion fans fresh our wits with wonder....Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...d of man can raise.

O smitten mouth! O forehead crowned with thorn!
O chalice of all common miseries!
Thou for our sakes that loved thee not hast borne
An agony of endless centuries,
And we were vain and ignorant nor knew
That when we stabbed thy heart it was our own real hearts we slew.

Being ourselves the sowers and the seeds,
The night that covers and the lights that fade,
The spear that pierces and the side that bleeds,
The lips betraying and the life betrayed;
...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...t' othah way?
Dat ere move 's a new one,
Some one call him, "Say!"
Can't you see no pusson—
Puttin' on you' airs,
Sakes alive, you 's wuss'n
Dese hyeah millionaires.
Need n't git so flighty,
Case you got dat suit.
Dem cloes ain't so mighty,—
Second hand to boot,
I 's a-tryin' to spite you!
Full of jealousy!
Look hyeah, man, I 'll fight you,
Don't you fool wid me!
...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...first train in th' mornin'.
Yes, it do seem kinder *****
Not to be goin' to see Cherry's Orchard no more,
But Land Sakes! When a change's comin',
Why, I al'ays say it can't come too quick.
Now, that's real kind o' you,
Your doughnuts is always so tasty.
Yes, I'm goin' to Chicago,
To my niece,
She's married to a fine man, hardware business,
An' doin' real well, she tells me.
Lizzie's be'n at me to go out ther for the longest while.
She ain't got no kith no...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...h undermining sink below) 
No more her wonted Strength retains; 
Nor you so fix'd within her Bosom grow, 
That for your sakes she can resolve to bear 
These furious Shocks of hurrying Air; 
But finding All your Ruin did conspire, 
She soon her beauteous Progeny resign'd 
To this destructive, this imperious Wind, 
That check'd your nobler Aims, and gives you to the Fire. 


Thus! have thy Cedars, Libanus, been struck 
As the lythe Oziers twisted round; 
Thus! Cadez, has th...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...gave -- nothing grudged, naught denying,
Not even the last gasp of his breath when he strove for us, dying.
For our sakes, without question, he put from him all that he cherished.
Simply as any that serve him he served and he perished.
All that Kings covet was his, and he flung it aside for us.
Simply as any that die in his service he died for us!

Who in the Realm to-day has choice of the easy road or the hard to tread?
And, much concerned for his own estate,...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...blow
An' then come back at me so hard,
I guess I must 'a' hurt the yard,
Er spilet the grass plot where I fell,
An' sakes alive it hurt me; well,
It would n't be'n so bad, you see,
But he jest kep' a-hittin' me.
An' I hit back an' kicked an' pawed,
But 't seemed 't was mostly air I clawed,
While Zekel used his science well
A-makin' every motion tell.
He punched an' hit, why, goodness lands,
Seemed like he had a dozen hands.
Well, afterwhile they stopped the fuss,...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...br> It isn't play
With the little fellow at all. He's running away.
I doubt if even his mother could tell him, "Sakes,
It's only weather". He'd think she didn't know !
Where is his mother? He can't be out alone.'
And now he comes again with a clatter of stone
And mounts the wall again with whited eyes
And all his tail that isn't hair up straight.
He shudders his coat as if to throw off flies.
'Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,
When other creat...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...looked at him, as one who awakes: 
The past was a sleep, and their life began.

Now, love so ordered for both their sakes, 
A feast was held that selfsame night 
In the pile which the mighty shadow makes. 

(For Via Larga is three-parts light, 
But the palace overshadows one, 
Because of a crime which may God requite! 

To Florence and God the wrong was done, 
Through the first republic's murder there 
By Cosimo and his curs?d son.) 

The Duke (with the statue's f...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...nscience-aches
With jibes at Chivalry's old mistakes --
The wars that o'erhot knighthood makes
For Christ's and ladies' sakes,
Fair Lady?
Now by each knight that e'er hath prayed
To fight like a man and love like a maid,
Since Pembroke's life, as Pembroke's blade,
I' the scabbard, death, was laid,
Fair Lady,
I dare avouch my faith is bright
That God doth right and God hath might.
Nor time hath changed His hair to white,
Nor His dear love to spite,
Fair Lady.
I doubt n...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...am of autumn breaks,
Let the flight of the wide-winged word
Come over, come in and be heard,
Take form and fire for our sakes.

For a continent bloodless with travail
Here toils and brawls as it can,
And the web of it who shall unravel
Of all that peer on the plan;
Would fain grow men, but they grow not,
And fain be free, but they know not
One name for freedom and man?

One name, not twain for division;
One thing, not twain, from the birth;
Spirit and substance and vision...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes....Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs