Famous Skulking Poems by Famous Poets

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

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466. Ode for General Washington's Birthday

...aud the hand that struck th’ insulting blow!
Art thou of man’s Imperial line?
Dost boast that countenance divine?
 Each skulking feature answers, No!
But come, ye sons of Liberty,
Columbia’s offspring, brave as free,
In danger’s hour still flaming in the van,
Ye know, and dare maintain, the Royalty of Man!


Alfred! on thy starry throne,
 Surrounded by the tuneful choir,
 The bards that erst have struck the patriot lyre,
 And rous’d the freeborn Briton’s soul of fire,
No more...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A poem on the rising glory of America

...l! 
What could avail Britannia's warlike troops, 
Choice spirits of her isle? What could avail 
America's own sons? The skulking foe, 
Hid in the forest lay and sought secure, 
What could the brave Virginians do o'erpower'd 
By such vast numbers and their leader dead? 
'Midst fire and death they bore him from the field, 
Where in his blood full many a hero lay. 
'Twas there O Halkut! thou so nobly fell, 
Thrice valiant Halkut early son of fame! 
We still deplore a fate so imm...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

It Is Much

...aughter:
 It is much to be warm and sure of to-morrow.

Women of night life along the shadows,
Lean at your throats and skulking the walls,
Gaunt as a ***** worn to the bone,
Under the paint of your smiling faces:
 It is much to be warm and sure of to-morrow....Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Lament

...ry, biding herds, I said,
Oh, time enough when the blood runs cold,
And I lie down but to sleep in bed,
For my sulking, skulking, coal black soul!

When I was half the man I was
And serve me right as the preachers warn,
(Sighed the old ram rod, dying of downfall),
No flailing calf or cat in a flame
Or hickory bull in milky grass
But a black sheep with a crumpled horn,
At last the soul from its foul mousehole
Slunk pouting out when the limp time came;
And I gave my soul a blin...Read more of this...
by St. Vincent Millay, Edna

Liberty

...Of Heaven by the great Jehovah's hand,
Had blossomed into light to look upon
The dusky warrior with his arrow drawn,
As skulking from the covert of the night
With serpent cunning and a fiend's delight,
With murderous spirit, and a yell of hate
The voice of Hell might tremble to translate:
When the fond mother's tender lullaby
Went quavering in shrieks all suddenly,
And baby-lips were dabbled with the stain
Of crimson at the bosom of the slain,
And peaceful homes and fortunes ...Read more of this...
by Riley, James Whitcomb


Song of the Open Road

...and despair. 

No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession; 
Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes, 
Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and bland in the parlors,
In the cars of rail-roads, in steamboats, in the public assembly, 
Home to the houses of men and women, at the table, in the bed-room, everywhere, 
Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright, death under the breast-bones, hell
 unde...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Ballad Of Touch-The-Button Nell

...each cabin light goes out and then goes in,
A blood-red heliograph of lust, a semaphore of sin.
From Dawson Town, soft skulking down, each lewdster seeks his mate;
And glad and bad, kimono clad, the wanton women wait.
The Klondike gossips to the moon, and sinners o'er its bars;
Each silent hill is dark and chill, and chill the patient stars.
Yet hark! upon the Rocking Bridge a bacchanalian step;
A whispered: "Come," the skirl of some hell-raking demirep...

 * * * * * * * * ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The drum

...tapat
When they hear the soldiers come
With a r-r-rat-tat-tat
And a tum-titty-um-tum-tum!

Course it's all in play!
The skulking Injun crew
That hustled the kite away
Are little white boys, like you!
But "honest" or "just in fun,"
It is all the same to me;
And, when the battle is won,
Home once again march we
With a r-r-rat-tat-tat
And tum-titty-um-tum-tum;
And there's glory enough in that
For the boys with their little red drum!...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene

The Fortune-Teller a Gypsy Tale

...of night.
Nor was sly KATE by all unseen
Peeping, the hazle copse between.

And now across the thicket side
A tatter'd, skulking youth she spied;
He beckon'd her along, and soon,
Hid safely from the prying moon,
His hand with silver, thrice she crosses--
"Tell me," said she, "my gains and losses?"

"You gain a fool ," the youth replies,
"You lose a lover too."
The false one blushes deep, and sighs,
For well the truth she knew!
"You gave to STEPHEN, vows; nay more
"You gave hi...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

The Nithsdale Widow and Her Son

...s were in front of the cottage door,
When one of them dismounted, and loudly did roar,
"Is there any rebels, old woman, skulking hereabouts?"
"Oh, no, Sir, no! believe my word without any doubts." 

"Well, so much the better, my good woman, for you and them;
But, old girl, let's have something to eat, me, and my men":
"Blithely, sir, blithely! ye're welcome to what I hae,"
When she bustled into the cottage without delay. 

And she brought out oaten cakes, sweet milk, and chee...Read more of this...
by McGonagall, William Topaz

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