Famous Shaw Poems by Famous Poets

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

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101. Song—Composed in Spring

...it winna let a body be.


In vain to me the cowslips blaw,
 In vain to me the vi’lets spring;
In vain to me in glen or shaw,
 The mavis and the lintwhite sing.
 And maun I still, &c.


The merry ploughboy cheers his team,
Wi’ joy the tentie seedsman stalks;
But life to me’s a weary dream,
A dream of ane that never wauks.
 And maun I still, &c.


The wanton coot the water skims,
Amang the reeds the ducklings cry,
The stately swan majestic swims,
And ev’ry thing is blest but I...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


171. Burlesque Lament fo Wm. Creech's Absence

...awkies, tawpies, gowks and fools,
Frae colleges and boarding schools,
May sprout like simmer puddock-stools
 In glen or shaw;
He wha could brush them down to mools—
 Willie’s awa!


The brethren o’ the Commerce-chaumer
May mourn their loss wi’ doolfu’ clamour;
He was a dictionar and grammar
 Among them a’;
I fear they’ll now mak mony a stammer;
 Willie’s awa!


Nae mair we see his levee door
Philosophers and poets pour,
And toothy critics by the score,
 In bloody raw!
The adj...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

194. Song—Blythe was She

...ythe by the banks of Earn,
 And blythe in Glenturit glen.


BY 1 Oughtertyre grows the aik,
 On Yarrow banks the birken shaw;
But Phemie was a bonier lass
 Than braes o’ Yarrow ever saw.
 Blythe, blythe, &c.


Her looks were like a flow’r in May,
 Her smile was like a simmer morn:
She tripped by the banks o’ Earn,
 As light’s a bird upon a thorn.
 Blythe, blythe, &c.


Her bonie face it was as meek
 As ony lamb upon a lea;
The evening sun was ne’er sae sweet,
 As was the blin...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

230. The Fête Champêtre

...mounted Mirth, on gleesome wing
 O’er hill and dale she flew, man;
Ilk wimpling burn, ilk crystal spring,
 Ilk glen and shaw she knew, man:
She summon’d every social sprite,
 That sports by wood or water,
On th’ bonie banks of Ayr to meet,
 And keep this Fête Champêtre.


Cauld Boreas, wi’ his boisterous crew,
 Were bound to stakes like kye, man,
And Cynthia’s car, o’ silver fu’,
 Clamb up the starry sky, man:
Reflected beams dwell in the streams,
 Or down the current shatter...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

39. Ballad on the American War

...


Burgoyne gaed up, like spur an’ whip,
 Till Fraser brave did fa’, man;
Then lost his way, ae misty day,
 In Saratoga shaw, man.
Cornwallis fought as lang’s he dought,
 An’ did the Buckskins claw, man;
But Clinton’s glaive frae rust to save,
 He hung it to the wa’, man.


Then Montague, an’ Guilford too,
 Began to fear, a fa’, man;
And Sackville dour, wha stood the stour,
 The German chief to thraw, man:
For Paddy Burke, like ony Turk,
 Nae mercy had at a’, man;
An’ Charlie...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


518. Ballad on Mr. Heron's Election—No. 1

...at!
 The independent patriot,
 The honest man, and a’ that.


Tho’ wit and worth, in either sex,
 Saint Mary’s Isle can shaw that,
Wi’ Dukes and Lords let Selkirk mix,
 And weel does Selkirk fa’ that.
 For a’ that, and a’ that,
 Here’s Heron yet for a’ that!
 The independent commoner
 Shall be the man for a’ that.


But why should we to Nobles jouk,
 And is’t against the law, that?
For why, a Lord may be a gowk,
 Wi’ ribband, star and a’ that,
 For a’ that, and a’ that,
 Here...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

55. The Twa Herds; or The Holy Tulyie

...mple 6 has been lang our fae,
M’Gill 7 has wrought us meikle wae,
An’ that curs’d rascal ca’d M’Quhae, 8
 And baith the Shaws, 9
That aft hae made us black an’ blae,
 Wi’ vengefu’ paws.


Auld Wodrow 10 lang has hatch’d mischief;
We thought aye death wad bring relief;
But he has gotten, to our grief,
 Ane to succeed him,
A chield wha’ 11 soundly buff our beef;
 I meikle dread him.


And mony a ane that I could tell,
Wha fain wad openly rebel,
Forby turn-coats amang oursel’,
 ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

75. Halloween

...haurlin
 Aff’s nieves that night.


A wanton widow Leezie was,
 As cantie as a kittlen;
But och! that night, amang the shaws,
 She gat a fearfu’ settlin!
She thro’ the whins, an’ by the cairn,
 An’ owre the hill gaed scrievin;
Whare three lairds’ lan’s met at a burn, 14
 To dip her left sark-sleeve in,
 Was bent that night.


Whiles owre a linn the burnie plays,
 As thro’ the glen it wimpl’t;
Whiles round a rocky scar it strays,
 Whiles in a wiel it dimpl’t;
Whiles glitter’d...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

90. Epistle to James Smith

...black prent;
But still the mair I’m that way bent,
 Something cries “Hooklie!”
I red you, honest man, tak tent?
 Ye’ll shaw your folly;


“There’s ither poets, much your betters,
Far seen in Greek, deep men o’ letters,
Hae thought they had ensur’d their debtors,
 A’ future ages;
Now moths deform, in shapeless tatters,
 Their unknown pages.”


Then farewell hopes of laurel-boughs,
To garland my poetic brows!
Henceforth I’ll rove where busy ploughs
 Are whistlin’ thrang,
An’ t...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

A Ballad Of Suicide

...another washing-day;

The decadents decay; the pedants pall; 
And H.G. Wells has found that children play,

And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall,
Rationalists are growing rational— 
And through thick woods one finds a stream astray

So secret that the very sky seems small— 
I think I will not hang myself to-day. 

ENVOI 
Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal, 
The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;

Even to-day your royal head may fall, 
I think I will not han...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

A Three-Part Song

...ve the most,
The Weald or the Marsh or the white Chalk coast!

I've buried my heart in a ferny hill,
Twix' a liddle low shaw an' a great high gill.
Oh hop-bine yaller an' wood-smoke blue,
I reckon you'll keep her middling true!

I've loosed my mind for to out and run
On a Marsh that was old when Kings begun.
Oh Romney Level and Brenzett reeds,
I reckon you know what my mind needs!

I've given my soul to the Southdown grass,
And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass.
Oh Firle an'...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Ace Shaw

...I never saw any difference
Between playing cards for money
And selling real estate,
Practicing law, banking, or anything else.
For everything is chance.
Nevertheless
Seest thou a man diligent in business?
He shall stand before Kings!...Read more of this...
by Masters, Edgar Lee

An Ode in Time of Hesitation

...After seeing at Boston the statue of Robert Gould Shaw, killed while storming Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863, at the head of the first enlisted ***** regiment, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts.


I 

Before the solemn bronze Saint Gaudens made 
To thrill the heedless passer's heart with awe, 
And set here in the city's talk and trade 
To the good memory of Robert Shaw, 
This bright March morn I stand, 
And hear t...Read more of this...
by Moody, William Vaughn

For the Union Dead

...ge, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
braces the tingling Statehouse, 

shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
and his bell-cheeked ***** infantry
on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
propped by a plank splint against the garage's earthquake.

Two months after marching through Boston,
half the regiment was dead;
at the dedication,
William James could almost hear the bronze ******* breathe.

Their monument sticks like a fishbone
in the city's throat.
Its Col...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Robert

Lament for the Makers

...he Ross enbrast has he:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

And he has now tane, last of a, 
Good gentil Stobo and Quintin Shaw, 
Of quhom all wichtis hes pitie:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

Good Maister Walter Kennedy 
In point of Death lies verily; 
Great ruth it were that so suld be:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

Sen he has all my brether tane, 
He will naught let me live alane; 
Of force I man his next prey be:-- 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me. 

Since for the Death reme...Read more of this...
by Dunbar, William

Reasonable Interest

...I want to know how Bernard Shaw
Likes beefsteak—fairly done, or raw?
I want to know what kinds of shoes
M. Maeterlinck and Howells use.

I have great curiosity
Regarding George Ade’s new boot tree.
Has Carolyn Wells of late employed
Hairpins of wire or celluliod?

What kind of soap does London like?
Does Robert Chambers ever “hike”?
Or did he ever? Or, if not,
Does he like cabbage, ch...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

South London Sketch

...
So many churches are,
Some with apsidal chancels,
Some Perpendicular
And schools by E.R. Robson
In the style of Norman Shaw
Where blue-serged adolescence learn'd
To model and to draw.

Oh, in among the houses,
The viaduct below,
Stood the Coffee Essence Factory
Of Robinson and Co.
Burnt and brown and tumbled down
And done with years ago
Where the waters of the Wandle do
Lugubriously flow.

From dust of dead explosions
From scarlet-hearted fires,
All unconcerned this train dr...Read more of this...
by Betjeman, John

The Cooks Tale

...ALE.


A prentice whilom dwelt in our city,
And of a craft of victuallers was he:
Galliard* he was, as goldfinch in the shaw**, *lively **grove
Brown as a berry, a proper short fellaw:
With lockes black, combed full fetisly.* *daintily
And dance he could so well and jollily,
That he was called Perkin Revellour.
He was as full of love and paramour,
As is the honeycomb of honey sweet;
Well was the wenche that with him might meet.
At every bridal would he sing and hop;
He better...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Friars Tale

...Sompnour, "hail, and well o'ertake."
"Welcome," quoth he, "and every good fellaw;
Whither ridest thou under this green shaw?"* shade
Saide this yeoman; "wilt thou far to-day?"
This Sompnour answer'd him, and saide, "Nay.
Here faste by," quoth he, "is mine intent
To ride, for to raisen up a rent,
That longeth to my lorde's duety."
"Ah! art thou then a bailiff?" "Yea," quoth he.
He durste not for very filth and shame
Say that he was a Sompnour, for the name.
"De par dieux," <5...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Testing-Tree

...trials of summer.

4

In the recurring dream
my mother stands
in her bridal gown
under the burning lilac,
with Bernard Shaw and Bertie
Russell kissing her hands;
the house behind her is in ruins;
she is wearing an owl’s face
and makes barking noises.
Her minatory finger points.
I pass through the cardboard doorway
askew in the field
and peer down a well
where an albino walrus huffs.
He has the gentlest eyes.
If the dirt keeps sifting in,
staining the water yellow,
why should...Read more of this...
by Kunitz, Stanley

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