Famous Shank Poems by Famous Poets

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

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147. Address to a Haggis

...neering, scornfu’ view
 On sic a dinner?


Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckles as wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash;
 His nieve a nit;
Thro’ blody flood or field to dash,
 O how unfit!


But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
 He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ hands will sned,
 Like taps o’ trissle.


Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ f...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


55. The Twa Herds; or The Holy Tulyie

...e brutes themselves eleckit,
 To be their guide.


What flock wi’ Moodie’s flock could rank?—
Sae hale and hearty every shank!
Nae poison’d soor Arminian stank
 He let them taste;
Frae Calvin’s well, aye clear, drank,—
 O, sic a feast!


The thummart, willcat, brock, an’ tod,
Weel kend his voice thro’ a’ the wood,
He smell’d their ilka hole an’ road,
 Baith out an in;
An’ weel he lik’d to shed their bluid,
 An’ sell their skin.


What herd like Russell tell’d his tale;
His vo...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

61. Second Epistle to J. Lapraik

...
 A bailie’s name?


Or is’t the paughty, feudal thane,
Wi’ ruffl’d sark an’ glancing cane,
Wha thinks himsel nae sheep-shank bane,
 But lordly stalks;
While caps and bonnets aff are taen,
 As by he walks?


“O Thou wha gies us each guid gift!
Gie me o’ wit an’ sense a lift,
Then turn me, if thou please, adrift,
 Thro’ Scotland wide;
Wi’ cits nor lairds I wadna shift,
 In a’ their pride!”


Were this the charter of our state,
“On pain o’ hell be rich an’ great,”
Damnation the...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

86. The Auld Farmer's New-Year-Morning Salutation to his Auld Mare Maggie

...,
 Ance in a day.


Thou ance was i’ the foremost rank,
A filly buirdly, steeve, an’ swank;
An’ set weel down a shapely shank,
 As e’er tread yird;
An’ could hae flown out-owre a stank,
 Like ony bird.


It’s now some nine-an’-twenty year,
Sin’ thou was my guid-father’s mear;
He gied me thee, o’ tocher clear,
 An’ fifty mark;
Tho’ it was sma’, ’twas weel-won gear,
 An’ thou was stark.


When first I gaed to woo my Jenny,
Ye then was trotting wi’ your minnie:
Tho’ ye was trick...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

96. The Inventory

...se nor hizzie mair;
Thro’ dirt and dub for life I’ll paidle,
Ere I sae dear pay for a saddle;
My travel a’ on foot I’ll shank it,
I’ve sturdy bearers, Gude the thankit!
The kirk and you may tak you that,
It puts but little in your pat;
Sae dinna put me in your beuk,
Nor for my ten white shillings leuk.


 This list, wi’ my ain hand I wrote it,
The day and date as under noted;
Then know all ye whom it concerns,
Subscripsi huic, ROBERT BURNS.MOSSGIEL, February 22, 1786.


 Note...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


All the Worlds a Stage

...ed pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything....Read more of this...
by Shakespeare, William

Dark Prophecy: I Sing Of Shine

...gger Shine in the name of the Lord—
and how the preacher grabbed Shine's arm and broke his stroke—
how Shine pulled his shank and cut the preacher's throat—
And Shine swam on—Shine swam on—
And when news hit shore that the titanic had sunk
Shine was up in Harlem damn near drunk—...Read more of this...
by Knight, Etheridge

Harry Ploughman

...oth of goldish flue
Breathed round; the rack of ribs; the scooped flank; lank
Rope-over thigh; knee-nave; and barrelled shank—
 Head and foot, shoulder and shank—
By a grey eye's heed steered well, one crew, fall to;
Stand at stress. Each limb's barrowy brawn, his thew
That onewhere curded, onewhere sucked or sank—
 Soared or sank—,
Though as a beechbole firm, finds his, as at a roll-call, rank
And features, in flesh, what deed he each must do—
 His sinew-service where do. 

...Read more of this...
by Hopkins, Gerard Manley

If I Were Tickled By the Rub of Love

...il's and my own,
Daft with the drug that's smoking in a girl
And curling round the bud that forks her eye.
An old man's shank one-marrowed with my bone,
And all the herrings smelling in the sea,
I sit and watch the worm beneath my nail
Wearing the quick away.

And that's the rub, the only rub that tickles.
The knobbly ape that swings along his sex
From damp love-darkness and the nurse's twist
Can never raise the midnight of a chuckle,
Nor when he finds a beauty in the breast
...Read more of this...
by Thomas, Dylan

The Task: Book V The Winter Morning Walk (excerpts)

...a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance
I view the muscular proportion'd limb
Transform'd to a lean shank. The shapeless pair,
As they design'd to mock me, at my side
Take step for step; and, as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plaster'd wall,
Prepost'rous sight! the legs without the man.
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge; and the bents,
And coarser grass, upspearing o'er the rest,
Of late unsightly and unseen...Read more of this...
by Cowper, William

Troll Sat Alone on His Seat of Stone

...'t need his shinbone.'

Said Tom: 'I don't see why the likes o' thee
Without axin' leave should go makin' free
With the shank or the shin o' my father's kin;
So hand the old bone over!
Rover! Trover!
Though dead he be, it belongs to he;
So hand the old bone over!'

'For a couple o' pins,' says Troll, and grins,
'I'll eat thee too, and gnaw thy shins.
A bit o' fresh meat will go down sweet!
I'll try my teeth on thee now.
Hee now! See now!
I'm tired o' gnawing old bones and ski...Read more of this...
by Tolkien, J R R

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