Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Sixpence Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Burns, Robert
...poorest wretch in life,
The crouching vassal to a tyrant wife!
Who has no will but by her high permission,
Who has not sixpence but in her possession;
Who must to he, his dear friend’s secrets tell,
Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell.
Were such the wife had fallen to my part,
I’d break her spirit or I’d break her heart;
I’d charm her with the magic of a switch,
I’d kiss her maids, and kick the perverse b——h....Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...ot contain
May yet a transport be --
Though God forbid it lift the lid --
Unto its Ecstasy!

A Diagram -- of Rapture!
A sixpence at a Show --
With Holy Ghosts in Cages!
The Universe would go!...Read more of this...

by Edgar, Marriott
...llings,
We'll buy National Savings and then...
In five years we'll have seventeen and six
And one pound and sixpence, in ten!"

Young Albert weren't what you'd call eager
He saw his sweet dreams fade away,
Ma said, "Let 'im 'ave the odd fourpence."
Pa lovingly answered, "Nay... nay!"

"It's our duty in crisis... what's 'appened
For every child, woman and man
To strain every muscle and sinew
To raise every penny we can!"

He said, "Even ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...h a skewer,
All to tempt the apptite
Of the epicure.

Shade of Shelley! Come not nigh
This accursèd spot,
Where for sixpence one can buy
Skylarks for the pot;
Dante, paint a blacker hell,
Plunge in deeper darks
Wretches who can slay and sell
Sunny-hearted larks.

You who eat, you are the worst:
By internal pains,
May you ever be accurst
Who pluck these poor remains.
But for you wingèd joy would soar
To heaven from the sod:
In ecstasy a lark would pour
Its gratitud...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...ippin hung
To hear him, clapt his hand in mine and sang–


‘Oh! who would fight and march and countermarch,
Be shot for sixpence in a battle-field,
And shovell’d up into some bloody trench
Where no one knows? but let me live my life.
‘Oh! who would cast and balance at a desk,
Perch’d like a crow upon a three-legg’d stool,
Till all his juice is dried, and all his joints
Are full of chalk? but let me live my life.
‘Who’d serve the state? for if I carved my name
Upon the...Read more of this...



by Larkin, Philip
...deth much more loudly than I'd meant
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book donate an Irish sixpence 
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do 
And always end much at a loss like this 
Wondering what to look for; wondering too
When churches fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show 
Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases ...Read more of this...

by Goose, Mother
... I love sixpence, a jolly, jolly sixpence,  I love sixpence as my life;I spent a penny of it, I spent a penny of it,  I took a penny home to my wife.Oh, my little fourpence, a jolly, jolly fourpence,  I love fourpence as my life;I spent twopence of it, I spent twopence of it,  And I took twopenc...Read more of this...

by Swift, Jonathan
...ent to warm myself in Lady Betty's chamber, because I 
was cold;
And I had in a purse seven pounds, four shillings, and sixpence, (besides 
farthings) in money and gold;
So because I had been buying things for my lady last night,
I was resolved to tell my money, to see if it was right.
Now, you must know, because my trunk has a very bad lock,
Therefore all the money I have, which, God knows, is a very small stock,
I keep in my pocket, tied about my middle, next my smock.<...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...better if you can. The Rains may serve,
Rupees may rise -- three pence will give you Fame --
It's rash to hope for sixpence -- If they rise
Get guns, more guns, and lift the salt-tax.
     Oh!
I told you what the Congress meant or thought?
I'll answer nothing. Half a year will prove
The full extent of time and thought you'll spare
To Congress. Ask a Lady Doctor once
How little Begums see the light -- deduce
Thence how the True Reformer's child is born.
It...Read more of this...

by Goose, Mother
... Sing a song of sixpence,   A pocket full of rye;Four-and-twenty blackbirds   Baked in a pie!When the pie was opened   The birds began to sing;Was not that a dainty dish   To set before the king?The king was in his counting-house,   Counting out his money;The queen was in the parlor,Read more of this...

by Goose, Mother
...There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,He found a crooked sixpence beside a crooked stile;He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,And they all lived together in a little crooked house. ...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...hurrah! for the mighty monster whale,
Which has got 17 feet 4 inches from tip to tip of a tail!
Which can be seen for a sixpence or a shilling,
That is to say, if the people all are willing....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Mary Darby
...

The gypsy-girl, with speaking eyes,
Observ'd her pupil's fond surprize,
She begg'd that he her hand would cross,
With Sixpence; and that He should know
His future scene of gain and loss,
His weal and woe.--

LUBIN complies. And straight he hears
That he had many long, long years;
That he a maid inconstant, loves,
Who, to another slyly roves.
That a dark man his bane will be--
"And poison his domestic hours;
"While a fair woman, treach'rously--
"Will dress his br...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...Life hard for those who did not come to her aid. 

XXXIII 
'They must come in in the spring.' 
'Don't they care sixpence who's right?'
'What a ridiculous thing— 
Saying they're too proud to fight.' 
'Saying they're too proud to fight.' 
'Wilson's pro-German, I'm told.' 
'No, it's financial.' 'Oh, quite, 
All that they care for is gold.' 
'All that they care for is gold.' 
'Seem to like writing a note.' 
'Yes, as a penman, he's bold.'
'N...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Sixpence poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs