Famous Syncopated Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dead Musicians

...won’t do us any harm.’
I think of rag-time; a bit of rag-time; 
And see their faces crowding round 
To the sound of the syncopated beat. 
They’ve got such jolly things to tell, 
Home from hell with a Blighty wound so neat... 

. . . . 
And so the song breaks off; and I’m alone. 
They’re dead ... For God’s sake stop that gramophone....Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried


Mind

...The slow overture of rain, 
each drop breaking 
without breaking into 
the next, describes 
the unrelenting, syncopated 
mind. Not unlike 
the hummingbirds 
imagining their wings 
to be their heart, and swallows 
believing the horizon 
to be a line they lift 
and drop. What is it 
they cast for? The poplars, 
advancing or retreating, 
lose their stature 
equally, and yet stand firm, 
making arrangements 
in order to become 
imaginary. The city 
draws the mind in st...Read more of this...
by Graham, Jorie

Pink Champagne (for Digby Fairweather)

...Not blues in twelve
but there is joy
and pink champagne,

the maker’s music
trading eights
in syncopated synergy
from Dixieland to Rock ‘n’ Roll,

and here the cornet-master
leads in tones
a trumpet cannot blow.

The sidemen nod their harmonies,
engrossed;
their music coursing
through an energy of swing;

piano-player’s fingers
dancing round the tune;
a lover’s touch
caressing melody from bass;
and sax, deep throated tenor
shouting counterpoint
above...Read more of this...
by Green, Adrian

Prelude

...e empty belly,
Who seeks to please the bored and waiting throng,
Outside the Opera with ukulele,
And raucous strains of syncopated song.
His rag-time mocks their eager hearts a-hunger
For golden voices, melody divine:
Yet . . . throw a penny to the ballad-monger;
Yet . . . listen idly to this song of mine.

For with a humble heart I clank rhyme's fetters,
And bare my buttocks to the critic knout;
A graceless hobo in the Land of Letters,
Piping my ditties of the down-and-out.
...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Ballad Of How Macpherson Held The Floor

...e to Treasurer MacCall:
"We ought to have a piper for our next Saint Andrew's Ball.
Yon squakin' saxophone gives me the syncopated gripes.
I'm sick of jazz, I want to hear the skirling of the pipes."
"Alas! it's true," said Tam MacCall. "The young folk of to-day
Are fox-trot mad and dinna ken a reel from Strathspey.
Now, what we want's a kiltie lad, primed up wi' mountain dew,
To strut the floor at supper time, and play a lilt or two.
In all the North there's only one; of him...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William


The Weary Blues

...Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
 I heard a ***** play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
 He did a lazy sway . . .
 He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
 O Blues!
Swaying to and fro o...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

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