Famous Oysters Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Apple-Pie and Cheese

...lavored creams and ices
And your dainty angel-food
Are mighty fine devices
To regale the dainty dude;
Your terrapin and oysters,
With wine to wash 'em down,
Are just the thing for roisters
When painting of the town;
No flippant, sugared notion
Shall my appetite appease,
Or bate my soul's devotion
To apple-pie and cheese!

The pie my Julia makes me
(God bless her Yankee ways!)
On memory's pinions takes me
To dear Green Mountain days;
And seems like I see Mother
Lean on the win...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene


Epistle to Neruda

...bought a book…"
Waving his hand in farewell,
like a Roman
 rather dreamily royal, 
in the air scented with mollusks, 
 oysters,
 rice, 
he walks with the bread through Valparaiso. 
He says:
 " Eugenio, look!
You see--
 over there, among the puddles and garbage,
standing up under the red lamps
stands Bilbao-with the soul
 of a poet -- in bronze.
Bilbao was a tramp and a rebel.
Originally
 they set up the monument, fenced off
by a chain, with due pomp, right in the center,
alt...Read more of this...
by Yevtushenko, Yevgeny

Fit the Fifth ( Hunting of the Snark )

...he door, 
And collects--though it does not subscribe. 

" Its flavor when cooked is more exquisite far 
Than mutton, or oysters, or eggs: 
(Some think it keeps best in an ivory jar, 
And some, in mahogany kegs) 

"You boil it in sawdust: you salt it in glue: 
You condense it with locusts and tape: 
Still keeping one principal object in view-- 
To preserve its symmetrical shape." 

The Butcher would gladly have talked till next day, 
But he felt that the lesson must end, 
And ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Florida

...ith the prettiest name,
the state that floats in brackish water,
held together by mangrave roots
that bear while living oysters in clusters, 
and when dead strew white swamps with skeletons, 
dotted as if bombarded, with green hummocks
like ancient cannon-balls sprouting grass. 
The state full of long S-shaped birds, blue and white,
and unseen hysterical birds who rush up the scale
every time in a tantrum.
Tanagers embarrassed by their flashiness,
and pelicans whose delight i...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth

Gentleman Alone

...wives thirty hours' pregnant,
And the hoarse tomcats that cross my garden at night,
Like a collar of palpitating sexual oysters
Surround my solitary home,
Enemies of my soul,
Conspirators in pajamas
Who exchange deep kisses for passwords.
Radiant summer brings out the lovers
In melancholy regiments,
Fat and thin and happy and sad couples;
Under the elegant coconut palms, near the ocean and moon,
There is a continual life of pants and panties,
A hum from the fondling of silk s...Read more of this...
by Neruda, Pablo


Gigolo

...itches to ripples of silver
Rolls out a carpet, a hush.

And there is no end, no end of it.
I shall never grow old. New oysters
Shriek in the sea and I
Glitter like Fontainebleu

Gratified,
All the fall of water an eye
Over whose pool I tenderly
Lean and see me....Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Little Birds

...their gaiters -
I've a Tale to tell.

Little Birds are feeding
Justices with jam,
Rich in frizzled ham:
Rich, I say, in oysters
Haunting shady cloisters -
That is what I am.

Little Birds are teaching
Tigresses to smile,
Innocent of guile:
Smile, I say, not smirkle -
Mouth a semicircle,
That's the proper style!

Little Birds are sleeping
All among the pins,
Where the loser wins:
Where, I say, he sneezes
When and how he pleases -
So the Tale begins.

Little Birds are writing
I...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Noctambule

...how I wish
I was in my attic!
Full am I with cheer;
In my heart the joy stirs;
Couldn't be the beer,
Must have been the oysters.

In obscene array
Garbage cans spill over;
How I wish that they
Smelled as sweet as clover!
Charing women wait;
Cafes drop their shutters;
Rats perambulate
Up and down the gutters.

Down the darkened street
Market carts are creeping;
Horse with wary feet,
Red-faced driver sleeping.
Loads of vivid greens,
Carrots, leeks, potatoes,
Cabbages and beans,...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Oysters

...Charming oysters I cry:
My masters, come buy,
So plump and so fresh,
So sweet is their flesh,
No Colchester oyster
Is sweeter and moister:
Your stomach they settle,
And rouse up your mettle:
They'll make you a dad
Of a lass or a lad;
And madam your wife
They'll please to the life;
Be she barren, be she old,
Be she ****, or be she scold,
Eat my oysters, and lie near h...Read more of this...
by Swift, Jonathan

The Conversazzhony

...dwidges, an' forty kinds uv sass,
An' floatin' Irelands, custards, tarts, an' patty dee foy grass;
An' millions uv cove oysters wuz a-settin' round in pans,
'Nd other native fruits an' things that grow out West in cans.
But I wuz all kufflummuxed when Hoover said he'd choose
"Oon peety morso, see voo play, de la cette Charlotte Rooze;"
I'd knowed Three-fingered Hoover for fifteen years or more,
'Nd I'd never heern him speak so light uv wimmin folks before!

Bill Goslin heern ...Read more of this...
by Field, Eugene

The Dong with a Luminous Nose

...se shores one day.
For the Jumblies came in a sieve, they did, --
Landing at eve near the Zemmery Fidd
Where the Oblong Oysters grow,
And the rocks are smooth and gray.
And all the woods and the valleys rang
With the Chorus they daily and nightly sang, --
"Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and the hands are blue
And they went to sea in a sieve.

Happily, happily passed those days!
While the cheerful Jumblies staid;
They da...Read more of this...
by Lear, Edward

The Hunting Of The Snark

...the door,
 And collects--though it does not subscribe.

"Its flavour when cooked is more exquisite far
 Than mutton, or oysters, or eggs:
(Some think it keeps best in an ivory jar,
 And some, in mahogany kegs:)

"You boil it in sawdust: you salt it in glue:
 You condense it with locusts and tape:
Still keeping one principal object in view--
 To preserve its symmetrical shape."

The Butcher would gladly have talked till next day,
 But he felt that the Lesson must end,
And he w...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Pearl Diver

...o the Islands they went. 

Close to the headlands they drifted, picking up shell by the ton, 
Piled up on deck were the oysters, opening wide in the sun, 
When, from the lee of the headland, boomed the report of a gun. 

Then if the diver was sighted, pearl-shell and lugger must go -- 
Joe Nagasaki decided (quick was the word and the blow), 
Cut both the pipe and the life-line, leaving the diver below! 

Kanzo Makame, the diver, failing to quite understand, 
Pulled the "haul ...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

The Plant Of The Camel

...Cats, you’re aware, can repose in a chair,
Chickens can roost upon rails;
Puppies are able to sleep in a stable,
And oysters can slumber in pails.
But no one supposes
A poor Camel dozes—
Any place does for me!

“Lambs are enclosed where it’s never exposed,
Coops are constructed for hens;
35Kittens are treated to houses well heated,
And pigs are protected by pens.
But a Camel comes handy
Wherever it’s sandy—
Anywhere does for me!

“People would laugh if you rod...Read more of this...
by Carryl, C. E.

The Three Voices

...knew for whom: 

He saw them drooping here and there,
Each feebly huddled on a chair,
In attitudes of blank despair: 

Oysters were not more mute than they,
For all their brains were pumped away,
And they had nothing more to say - 

Save one, who groaned "Three hours are gone!"
Who shrieked "We'll wait no longer, John!
Tell them to set the dinner on!" 

The vision passed: the ghosts were fled:
He saw once more that woman dread:
He heard once more the words she said. 

He lef...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

The Walrus and the Carpenter

...e Walrus said,
   "That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
   And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
   The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
   Along the briny beach;
We cannot do with more than four,
   To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
   But never a word he said;
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
   And shook his heavy head—
Meaning to say he did not choose
   To ...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Tim Turpin

...he life of any dog.

But just when Tim had lived a month
In honey with his wife, 
A surgeon ope'd his Milton eyes,
Like oysters, with a knife. 

But when his eyes were opened thus, 
He wished them dark again : 
For when he looked upon his wife, 
He saw her very plain.

Her face was bad, her figure worse,
He couldn't bear to eat :
For she was anything but like 
A grace before his meat.

Now Tim he was a feeling man : 
For when his sight was thick 
It made him feel for everythi...Read more of this...
by Hood, Thomas

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