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Famous Tradesman Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...gs,
So thick, even Freddy can't thin 'em;
I've torn up my old money-bags,
Having little or nought to put in 'em.
My tradesman are smashing by dozens,
But this is all nothing, they say;
For bankrupts, since Adam, are cousins,
So, it's all in the family way.


My Debt not a penny takes from me,
As sages the matter explain; --
Bob owes it to Tom and then Tommy
Just owes it to Bob back again.
Since all have thus taken to owing,
There's nobody left that can pay;
And th...Read more of this...
by Moore, Thomas



...His awful skin 
stretched out by some tradesman 
is like my skin, here between my fingers, 
a kind of webbing, a kind of frog. 
Surely when first born my face was this tiny 
and before I was born surely I could fly. 
Not well, mind you, only a veil of skin 
from my arms to my waist. 
I flew at night, too. Not to be seen 
for if I were I'd be taken down. 
In August perhaps as ...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...olerably mild, 
To make a wash, would hardly stew a child; 
Has ev'n been prov'd to grant a Lover's pray'r, 
And paid a Tradesman once to make him stare; 
Gave alms at Easter, in a Christian trim, 
And made a Widow happy, for a whim. 
Why then declare Good-nature is her scorn, 
When 'tis by that alone she can be borne? 
Why pique all mortals, yet affect a name? 
A fool to Pleasure, yet a slave to Fame: 
Now deep in Taylor and the Book of Martyrs, 
Now drinking citron with...Read more of this...
by Pope, Alexander
...f ammunition and a rifle in green baize. 
And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land, 
Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand. 

No - no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss - 
In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us! 
Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be, 
We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea. 
While the bitter parties stifle every ...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry
...could ride. 
Some of the chaps said you couldn't, an' I says just like this a' one side: 
Mark me, I says, that's a tradesman -- the saddle is where he was bred. 
Weight! you're all right, sir, and thank you; and them was the words that I said....Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton



...he said, I am not a vagabond,
a cattle farmer, a shepherd,
a doorkeeper, a postman
or a laborer.
I come to you as a tradesman.
I have something to sell.
Your ball, he said,
for just three things.
Let me eat from your plate.
Let me drink from your cup.
Let me sleep in your bed.
She thought, Old Waddler,
those three you will never do,
but she made the promises
with hopes for her ball once more.
He brought it up in his mouth
like a tricky old dog
...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne
...kness, -- no rainbow for traveler. 

 There once lived an artist, red-haired Gauguin, 
 he was a bohemian, a former tradesman. 
 To get to the Louvre 
 from the lanes of Montmartre 
 he circled around 
 as far as Sumatra! 

 He had to abandon the madness of money, 
 the filth of the scholars, the snarl of his honey. 
 The man overcame the terrestrial gravity, 
 The priests, drinking beer, would laugh at his "vanity": 
 "A straight line is short, but it is much too...Read more of this...
by Voznesensky, Andrei
...men,
Love, overcoming the law, love from people to people.
I find them all again, nobly transformed:
Farmer, king, tradesman, busy sailors,
Shepherd and gardener, all of them
Gratefully celebrate the festival of the future world.
Only the poet is missing,
The lonely one who looks on,
The bearer of human longing, the pale image
Of whom the future, the fulfillment of the world
Has no further need. Many garlands
Wilt on his grave,
But no one remembers him....Read more of this...
by Hesse, Hermann
...he would ask her to forgive
All he had done. And broken, spent,
He would call himself impertinent;
Presumptuous; a tradesman; a nothing; driven
To madness by the sight of Heaven.
At other times he would take the things
He had made, and winding them on strings,
Hang garlands before her, and burn perfumes,
Chanting strangely, while the fumes
Wreathed and blotted the shadow face,
As with a cloudy, nacreous lace.
There were days when he wooed as a lover, sighed
In te...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy
...A Citizen of mighty Pelf, 
But much a Blockhead, in himself 
Disdain'd a Man of shining Parts, 
Master of Sciences and Arts, 
Who left his Book scarce once a day 
For sober Coffee, Smoak, or Tea; 
Nor spent more Money in the Town 
Than bought, when need requir'd, a Gown; 
Which way of Living much offends 
The Alderman, who gets and spends, 
And grudges him...Read more of this...
by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...d the good ones low,
And all with an easy self-satisfied face;
Then, having bought nothing, he left the place.

The tradesman now felt sorely vex'd,
So when the fellow went there next,
A lock of steel made quite red hot.
The other cried upon the spot:
"Such wares as these, who'd ever buy?
the steel is tarnish'd shamefully,"--
Then pull'd it, like a fool about,
But soon set up a piteous shout.
"Pray what's the matter?" the shopman spoke;
The other scream'd: "Faith,...Read more of this...
by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...really, if there may be,
He surely did not mean a man
Always to be a baby."

"There is no God, or if there is,"
The tradesman thinks, "'twere funny
If He should take it ill in me
To make a little money."

"Whether there be," the rich man says,
"It matters very little,
For I and mine, thank somebody,
Are not in want of victual."

Some others, also, to themselves,
Who scarce so much as doubt it,
Think there is none, when they are well,
And do not think about it....Read more of this...
by Clough, Arthur Hugh

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry