Famous Whitsun Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Ballad upon a Wedding

...e did not so much wish all past, 
Perchance, as did the maid.

The maid (and thereby hangs a tale), 
For such a maid no Whitsun-ale 
Could ever yet produce; 
No grape that's kindly ripe could be 
So round, so plump, so soft, as she, 
Nor half so full of juice!

Her finger was so small the ring 
Would not stay on, which they did bring; 
It was too wide a peck: 
And to say truth (for out it must), 
It looked like a great collar (just) 
About our young colt's neck.

Her feet ben...Read more of this...
by Suckling, Sir John


Diary of a Church Mouse

...straw;
My jam is polish for the floor.
Christmas and Easter may be feasts
For congregations and for priests,
And so may Whitsun. All the same,
They do not fill my meagre frame.
For me the only feast at all
Is Autumn's Harvest Festival,
When I can satisfy my want
With ears of corn around the font.
I climb the eagle's brazen head
To burrow through a loaf of bread.
I scramble up the pulpit stair
And gnaw the marrows hanging there.
It is enjoyable to taste
These items ere they go...Read more of this...
by Betjeman, John

On A Great Hollow Tree

...s of so many men
Fattned the ground? or cause the neighbor spring
Conduits of water to the roote did bring?
Was it with Whitsun sweat, or ample snuffes
Of my Lord's beere that such a bignesse stuffes
And breaks the barke? O this it is, no doubt:
This tree, I warrant you, can number out
Your Westwell annals, & distinctly tell
The progresse of this hundred years, as well
By Lords and Ladies, as ere Rome could doe
By Consulships. These boughes can witnesse too
How goodman Berry ...Read more of this...
by Strode, William

The Country Life:

...daisies crown'd.
Thy wakes, thy quintels, here thou hast,
Thy May-poles too with garlands graced;
Thy Morris-dance; thy Whitsun-ale;
Thy shearing-feast, which never fail.
Thy harvest home; thy wassail bowl,
That's toss'd up after Fox i' th' hole:
Thy mummeries; thy Twelve-tide kings
And queens; thy Christmas revellings:
Thy nut-brown mirth, thy russet wit,
And no man pays too dear for it.--
To these, thou hast thy times to go
And trace the hare i' th' treacherous snow:
Thy wi...Read more of this...
by Herrick, Robert

The Whitsun Weddings

...That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
 Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday 
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone. We ran 
Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street
Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thence 
The river's level drifting breadth began, 
Where sky...Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip


Three Songs For Mayday Morning

...– 

Vague sad memories of mam n’dad

Leeds 1942 back-to-back with shared outside lav.

Hosannas of sweet May mornings

Whitsun glory of lilac blooming

Sixty years on I run and run

From death, from loss, from everyone.

Which are the paths I never ventured down,

Or would they, too, be vain?

O for the secret anima of Leeds girlhood

A thousand times better than snide attacks in the TLS

By ‘JC’. **** you, Jock, you should be ashamed,

Attacking Brenda Williams, who had a b...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

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