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Famous Swagger Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...e wreathing,
And when he has wasted his time,
 He’s kindly rewarded wi’—naething.


The thundering bully may rage,
 And swagger and swear like a heathen;
But collar him fast, I’ll engage,
 You’ll find that his courage is—naething.


Last night wi’ a feminine whig—
 A Poet she couldna put faith in;
But soon we grew lovingly big,
 I taught her, her terrors were naething.


Her whigship was wonderful pleased,
 But charmingly tickled wi’ ae thing,
Her fingers I lovingly squeezed,...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...roclaims wi’ tout o’ trumpet,
 “Tam Samson’s dead!”


When at his heart he felt the dagger,
He reel’d his wonted bottle-swagger,
But yet he drew the mortal trigger,
 Wi’ weel-aimed heed;
“L—d, five!” he cry’d, an’ owre did stagger—
 Tam Samson’s dead!


Ilk hoary hunter mourn’d a brither;
Ilk sportsman youth bemoan’d a father;
Yon auld gray stane, amang the heather,
 Marks out his head;
Whare Burns has wrote, in rhyming blether,
 “Tam Samson’s dead!”


There, low he lies, in ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...ong it—’tis decorum.—
There was, indeed, in far less polish’d days,
A time, when rough rude man had naughty ways,
Would swagger, swear, get drunk, kick up a riot,
Nay even thus invade a Lady’s quiet.


Now, thank our stars! those Gothic times are fled;
Now, well-bred men—and you are all well-bred—
Most justly think (and we are much the gainers)
Such conduct neither spirit, wit, nor manners.


For Right the third, our last, our best, our dearest,
That right to fluttering femal...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...n,
And dares the public like a noontide sun.
What scandal called Maria’s jaunty stagger
The ricket reeling of a crooked swagger?
Whose spleen (e’en worse than Burns’ venom, when
He dips in gall unmix’d his eager pen,
And pours his vengeance in the burning line,)—
Who christen’d thus Maria’s lyre-divine
The idiot strum of Vanity bemus’d,
And even the abuse of Poesy abus’d?—
Who called her verse a Parish Workhouse, made
For motley foundling Fancies, stolen or strayed?


A Workh...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert
...kebbuck-heel
 Let lasses be affronted
 On sic a day!


Now Clinkumbell, wi’ rattlin tow,
 Begins to jow an’ croon;
Some swagger hame the best they dow,
 Some wait the afternoon.
At slaps the billies halt a blink,
 Till lasses strip their shoon:
Wi’ faith an’ hope, an’ love an’ drink,
 They’re a’ in famous tune
 For crack that day.


How mony hearts this day converts
 O’ sinners and o’ lasses!
Their hearts o’ stane, gin night, are gane
 As saft as ony flesh is:
There’s some ar...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert



...A Toad, can die of Light --
Death is the Common Right
Of Toads and Men --
Of Earl and Midge
The privilege --
Why swagger, then?
The Gnat's supremacy is large as Thine --

Life -- is a different Thing --
So measure Wine --
Naked of Flask -- Naked of Cask --
Bare Rhine --
Which Ruby's mine?...Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily
...i

Blustering God,
Stamping across the sky
With loud swagger,
I fear You not.
No, though from Your highest heaven
You plunge Your spear at my heart,
I fear You not.
No, not if the blow
Is as the lightning blasting a tree,
I fear You not, puffing braggart.

ii

If Thou canst see into my heart
That I fear Thee not,
Thou wilt see why I fear Thee not,
And why it is right.
So threaten not, Thou, with Thy bloody spe...Read more of this...
by Crane, Stephen
...n June make throats damned dry. 
Then through the window suddenly, 
Badge, stripes and medals all complete, 
We saw him swagger up the street,
Just like a live man—Corporal Stare! 
Stare! Killed last May at Festubert. 
Caught on patrol near the Boche wire, 
Torn horribly by machine-gun fire! 
He paused, saluted smartly, grinned,
Then passed away like a puff of wind, 
Leaving us blank astonishment. 
The song broke, up we started, leant 
Out of the window—nothing there, 
Not th...Read more of this...
by Graves, Robert
...y straight 
 in the eye
and asked:
"Those who crush our rice fields
 with the caterpillar treads of their tanks
and who swagger through our cities
 like emperors of hell,
are they of YOUR race,
 the race of him who CREATED you?"
I almost raised my hand
 and cried "No!"


27 April

 Tonight at the blare of an American trumpet
--the horn of a 12-horsepower Ford--
 I awoke from a dream,
and what I glimpsed for an instant
 instantly vanished.
What I'd seen was a still blue lake.
...Read more of this...
by Hikmet, Nazim
...ake that you bastard;
Surely I can, if he did?
And that helps me to stay
Sober and industrious.
But I'd go today,

Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
Crouch in the fo'c'sle
Stubbly with goodness, if 
It weren't so artificial,
Such a deliberate step backwards
To create an object:
Books; china; a life
Reprehensibly perfect....Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip
...ow bits past apogee,
the faded cloth, the pollen-free abandoned marriage-hymn
back out, leaving the few crisp blooms to swagger, winglets, limpid

 debris
Shall I arrange these few remaining flowers?
Shall I rearrange these gossamer efficiencies?
Please don't touch me with your skin.
Please let the thing evaporate.
Please tell me clearly what it is.
The party is so loud downstairs, bristling with souvenirs.
It's a philosophy of life, of course,
drinks fluorescent, whips of sy...Read more of this...
by Graham, Jorie
...
He carried along,

First of all the posies,
Dewy and red.
They that have roses
Never need bread.

There was one with a swagger
And a soft, slow tongue,
And a bright, cold dagger
Where his left hand swung-

Craven and gilt,
Old and bad-
And his stroking of the hilt
Set a girl mad.

There was one a-riding grand
As he rode from me.
And he raised his golden band
And he threw it in the sea.

There was one a-walking slow
To a sad, Iong sigh.
And his rose drooped low,
And he flung ...Read more of this...
by Parker, Dorothy
...later she smiled at me.She
Named my name. I thought I would wake up dead.

Her grown brothers walked with the bent-knee
Swagger of horsemen.They were slick-faced.
Told jokes in the barbershop. Did no work.

Their father was what is called a drunkard.
Whatever he was he stayed on the third floor
Of the big white farmhouse under the maples for twenty-five years.

He never came down.They brought everything up to him.
I did not know what a mortgage was.
His wife was a good, Chris...Read more of this...
by Warren, Robert Penn
...ll
That all eyes were watching us two,
And that she was the Belle of the Ball.
The fellows came buzzing like bees,
With swagger and posture and prance,
But her programme was full of "M.E."s,
So she couldn't afford them a dance.

Said mother: "You've been a nice boy,
But had a good time I suppose.
You've filled that poor kid's heart with joy,
From now she'll have plenty of beaus." . . .
So fellows, please listen to me:
Don't look at a wallflower askance;
If a girl sitting lone...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things