Famous Bastard Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Farewell to False Love

...well false love, the oracle of lies, 
A mortal foe and enemy to rest, 
An envious boy, from whom all cares arise, 
A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed, 
A way of error, a temple full of treason, 
In all effects contrary unto reason. 

A poisoned serpent covered all with flowers, 
Mother of sighs, and murderer of repose, 
A sea of sorrows whence are drawn such showers 
As moisture lend to every grief that grows; 
A school of guile, a net of deep deceit, 
A ...Read more of this...
by Raleigh, Sir Walter


A Letter from Artemesia in the Town to Chloe in the Country

...ndness he is grown,
'Tis time to poison him, and all's her own.
Thus meeting in her common arms his fate,
He leaves her bastard heir to his estate,
And, as the race of such an owl deserves,
His own dull lawful progeny he starves.
--"Nature, who never made a thing in vain,
But does each insect to some end ordain,
Wisely contrived kind keeping fools, no doubt,
To patch up vices men of wit wear out."
Thus she ran on two hours, some grains of sense
Still mixed with volleys of imp...Read more of this...
by Wilmot, John

A little ink more or less!

...s?
Or even upon the measured pulpitings
Of the familiar false and true?
Is this God?
Where, then, is hell?
Show me some bastard mushroom
Sprung from a pollution of blood.
It is better.

Where is God?...Read more of this...
by Crane, Stephen

Daddy

...the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through. 

(1962)...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Death and Co

...r Ionian
Death-gowns.
Then two little feet.
He does not smile or smoke.

The other does that
His hair long and plausive
Bastard
Masturbating a glitter
He wants to be loved.

I do not stir.
The frost makes a flower,
The dew makes a star,
The dead bell,
The dead bell.

Somebody's done for....Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia


Elegy On The Death Of A Young Man

...
O'er the wrangle on the Pharisee,
Murderous bigots banish thee to hell!
Rogues beneath apostle-masks may leer,
And the bastard child of justice play,
As it were with dice, with mankind here,
And so on, until the judgment day!

O'er thee fortune still may juggle on,
For her minions blindly look around,--
Man now totter on his staggering throne,
And in dreary puddles now be found!
Blest art thou, within thy narrow cell!
To this stir of tragi-comedy,
To these fortune-waves that...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

Grotty And The Quarryman

..., drawling

From the corner of her mouth like a

Thirties gangsters’ moll, her true ambition.

"Kill him, kill him, the bastard!" she’d scream

As all Wakefield watched, "It’s Grotty,

Grotty’s at it again!" as pubs and clubs

Banned them, singly or together and they

Moved lodgings yet again, landlords and

Landladies left reeling behind broken doors.

Blood-smeared walls covered with a shiny

Patina of carefully applied deceits! "It was

The cat, the kids, them druggies, la...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

Jubilate Agno: Fragment C

...Hanan rejoice with Poley of Crete. 

Let Sheshbazzar rejoice with Polygonatum Solomon's seal. 

Let Zeboim rejoice with Bastard Dittany. 

Let The Queen of Sheba rejoice with Bulapathon Herb Patience. 

Let Cyrus rejoice with Baccharis Plowman's Spikenard. God be gracious to Warburton. 

Let Lebanah rejoice with the Golden Wingged Flycatcher a Mexican Small Bird of Passage. 

Let Hagabah rejoice with Orchis. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus for my seed in eternity. 

Let...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Jubilate Agno: Fragment D

...-Barley -- God give grace to my adversaries to ask council of Abel. 

Let Graner, house of Graner rejoice with Hircules Bastard Nard. The Lord English Granier and his family. 

Let Cape, house of Cape rejoice with Orgament an herb. 

Let Oram, house of Oram rejoice with Halus an herb like unto Orgament. 

Let Sykes, house of Skyes rejoice with Hadrobolum a kind of sweet gum. 

Let Plumer, house of Plumer rejoice with Hastula Regia an herb resembling a spear. 

Let Digby, hous...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Part 3 of Trout Fishing in America

.... He came kind of smiling

into the kitchen and we ate breakfast.

Fried potatoes and eggs and coffee.

 "Well, you old bastard, " he said. "Pass the salt. "

 The tackle was already in the car, so we just got in and

drove away. Beginning at the first light of dawn we hit the

road at the bottom of the mountains, and drove up into the

dawn.

 The light behind the trees was like going into a gradual

and strange department store.

 "That was a good-looking girl last night, "...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Part 6 of Trout Fishing in America

...ndy bar and

asked how the trout fishing was in Cuba. The woman at the

store said, "You're better off dead, you Commie bastard. "

I got a receipt for the candy bar to be used for income tax

purposes.

 The old ten-cent deduction.

 I didn't learn anything about fishing in that store. The

people were awfully nervous, especially a young man who

was folding overalls. He had about a hundred pairs left to

fold and he was really nervous.

 We went over to a restaurant and I h...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Street Cries

...ays
Smell scorched; I would

"-- Thou base-born Accident of time and place --
Bigot Pretender unto Judgment's throne --
Bastard, that claimest with a cunning face
Those rights the true, true Son of Man doth own
By Love's authority -- thou Rebel cold
At head of civil wars and quarrels old --
Thou Knife on a throne --

"I would thou left'st me free, to live with love,
And faith, that through the love of love doth find
My Lord's dear presence in the stars above,
The clods below,...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Ballad of the Kings Mercy

..., O friend! Yea, Death disgraced is hard;
Much honour shall be thine"; and called the Captain of the Guard,
Yar Khan, a bastard of the Blood, so city-babble saith,
And he was honoured of the King -- the which is salt to Death;
And he was son of Daoud Shah, the Reiver of the Plains,
And blood of old Durani Lords ran fire in his veins;
And 'twas to tame an Afghan pride nor Hell nor Heaven could bind,
The King would make him butcher to a yelping cur of Hind.

"Strike!" said the ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Everlasting Mercy

...mme, 
And now't's to be the same with Jimmy. 
And all I've done and all I've bore 
Has made a drunkard and a whore,, 
A bastard boy who wasn't meant, 
And Jimmy gwine where Dicky went; 
For Dick began the self-same way 
And my old hairs are going gray, 
And my poor man's a withered knee, 
And all the burden falls on me. 
"I've washed eight little children's limbs, 
I've taught eight little souls their hymns, 
I've risen sick and lain down pinched 
And borne it all and never f...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

The Infanticide

...hee, there is no father's kiss;--
He fondleth other children on his knee.
How thou wilt curse our momentary bliss,
When bastard on thy name shall branded be!

Thy mother--oh, a hell her heart concealeth,
Lone-sitting, lone in social nature's all!
Thirsting for that glad fount thy love revealeth,
While still thy look the glad fount turns to gall.
In every infant cry my soul is hearkening,
The haunting happiness forever o'er,
And all the bitterness of death is darkening
The hea...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Jacquerie A Fragment

...e an ass is he
Whom Silliness' sweetheart drives so, by the ear!
Thou languid, lordly, most heart-breaking Nought!
Thou bastard zero, that hast come to power,
Nothing's right issue failing! Thou mere `pooh'
That Life hath uttered in some moment's pet,
And then forgot she uttered thee! Thou gap
In time, thou little notch in circumstance!"


Chapter IV.

Lord Raoul drew rein with all his company,
And urged his horse i' the crowd, to gain fair view
Of him that spoke, and stopped...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Man of Laws Tale

.... Thennes would it not in all a tide: thence would it not move
for long, at all.

13. A manner Latin corrupt: a kind of bastard Latin.

14. Knave child: male child; German "Knabe".

15. Heried: honoured, praised; from Anglo-Saxon, "herian."
Compare German, "herrlich," glorious, honourable.

16. Beknow: confess; German, "bekennen."

17. The poet here refers to Gower's version of the story.

18. Stound: short time; German, "stunde", hour.

19. Gestes: histories, exploits; Latin...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Most Beautiful Woman In Town

...be gone, but I had been sitting in the West End Bar about 30 minutes when
she walked in and sat down next to me.
"Well, bastard, I see you've come back." 
I ordered her a drink. Then I looked at her. She had on a high- necked dress. I had
never seen her in one of those. And under each eye, driven in, were 2 pins with glass
heads. All you could see were the heads of the pins, but the pins were driven down into
her face. 
"God damn you, still trying to destroy your beauty, eh?"...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

The Wizard Way

...world alight 
With music out of the pale moonlight! 
O She is like the river of blood 
That broke from the lips of the bastard god, 
When he saw the sacred mother smile 
On the ibis that flew up the foam of Nile 
Bearing the limbs unblessed, unborn, 
That the lurking beast of Nile had torn! 

So (for the world is weary) I 
These dreadful souls of sense lay by. 
I sacrifice these impure shoon 
To the cold ray of the waning moon. 
I take the forked hazel staff, 
And the rose o...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister

White Flock

...the road is not short.
He pushed back the door and came out
Greyhaired, luminous, short.

He looked at me, insolent bastard,
And muttered at once, "Christ's bride!
Do not envy success of the happy,
A place for you there does hide.

Do forget your parents' abode,
Get accustomed to open heaven
You will sleep on the straw and dirty,
And will meet a blissful end."

Truly, the priest must have heard
On the way back my singing voice
As I of untold happiness
Marvele...Read more of this...
by Akhmatova, Anna

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