# Absolutely badass old poems

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 22, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382 "2014-06-22T19:31:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/41 "2014-06-23T09:10:25Z")

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[Dulce et Decorum est](http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html) - Wilfred Owen, out of World War 1:

> [@](#):
>
> Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,  
> Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;  
> But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,  
> And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .  
> Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,  
> As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.  
> In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,  
> He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/42 "2014-06-23T09:26:39Z")

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> [@Oedipus](#):
>
> YES. I am looking for Old Testament badassery. Wrath and might of the lord, swords cutting like hot knifes through butter with the Angel of Death overlooking…all of it hahaha
> 
> And…not looking to derail this but full disclosure, I’m actually looking to get a tattoo…

Ah well. In that case, if you’re going for a small body part, you might want to consider:

Molon labe

Google for full details!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/43 "2014-06-23T12:22:53Z")

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How about this excerpt from Milton’s “Paradise Lost”? Satan’s speech to rally his troops after they just got booted out of Heaven is pretty badass:

Innumerable force of Spirits armed,  
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,  
His utmost power with adverse power opposed  
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven  
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?  
All is not lost—the unconquerable will,  
And study of revenge, immortal hate,  
And courage never to submit or yield:  
And what is else not to be overcome?

---

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/44 "2014-06-23T12:31:41Z")

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I’ve always been partial to

> [@William Butler Yeats](#):
>
> Turning and turning in the widening gyre  
> The falcon cannot hear the falconer;  
> Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;  
> Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,  
> The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere  
> The ceremony of innocence is drowned;  
> The best lack all conviction, while the worst  
> Are full of passionate intensity.
> 
> Surely some revelation is at hand;  
> Surely the Second Coming is at hand.  
> The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out  
> When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi  
> Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert  
> A shape with lion body and the head of a man,  
> A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,  
> Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it  
> Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.  
> The darkness drops again; but now I know  
> That twenty centuries of stony sleep  
> Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,  
> And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,  
> Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/45 "2014-06-23T12:50:27Z")

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“Incident of the French Camp,” Robert Browning:

> [@](#):
>
> YOU know we French stormed Ratisbon:   
> A mile or so away,   
> On a little mound, Napoleon   
> Stood on our storming-day;   
> With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,   
> Legs wide, arms locked behind,   
> As if to balance the prone brow,   
> Oppressive with its mind.
> 
> Just as perhaps he mused, “My plans   
> That soar, to earth may fall,   
> Let once my army-leader Lannes   
> Waver at yonder wall,”   
> Out ’twixt the battery-smokes there flew   
> A rider, bound on bound   
> Full-galloping; nor bridle drew   
> Until he reached the mound.
> 
> Then off there flung in smiling joy,   
> And held himself erect   
> By just his horse’s mane, a boy:   
> You hardly could suspect   
> (So tight he kept his lips compressed,   
> Scarce any blood came through),   
> You looked twice ere you saw his breast   
> Was all but shot in two.
> 
> “Well,” cried he, “Emperor, by God’s grace   
> We ’ve got you Ratisbon!   
> The marshal ’s in the market-place,   
> And you ’ll be there anon   
> To see your flag-bird flap his vans   
> Where I, to heart’s desire,   
> Perched him!” The chief’s eye flashed; his plans   
> Soared up again like fire.
> 
> The chief’s eye flashed; but presently   
> Softened itself, as sheathes   
> A film the mother-eagle’s eye   
> When her bruised eaglet breathes:   
> “You ’re wounded!” “Nay,” his soldier’s pride   
> Touched to the quick, he said:   
> “I ’m killed, sire!” And, his chief beside,   
> Smiling, the boy fell dead.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/46 "2014-06-23T13:32:02Z")

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From _The Rehearsal_, by George Villiers, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham:

> [@](#):
>
> “Others may boast a single man to kill;  
> But I the blood of thousands daily spill.  
> Let petty kings the name of parties know,  
> Where’er I come I slay both friend and foe.  
> The swiftest horsemen my swift rage controuls,  
> And from their bodies drives their trembling souls.  
> If they had wings, and to the gods cou’d fly,  
> I would pursue and beat them thro’ the sky;  
> And make proud Jove, with all his thunder, see,  
> This single arm more dreadful is than he.”

---

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**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/47 "2014-06-23T15:26:19Z")

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Since I know something about President’s I know this is Abe Lincoln’s favorite poem, and it is a Masterpiece, Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud, in part and more like it;  
The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven;  
The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven;  
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/48 "2014-06-23T15:31:21Z")

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Which reminds me of Omar Khayyam (via Edward FitzGerald):

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d  
Of the Two Worlds so wisely–they are thrust  
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn  
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

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**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/49 "2014-06-23T15:34:13Z")

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> [@Superhal](#):
>
> What kind of badass are we talking about?
> 
> Kung fu movie badass: Jabberwocky

Yep.

“One two, one two, and through and through,  
His vorpal blade went snickersnack,  
He left it dead, and with its head,  
He went galumphing back.”  
That’s pretty bad-ass. Except maybe for the “galumphing”. I’m really not sure how bad-ass “galumphing” is.

---

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/50 "2014-06-23T15:49:01Z")

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> [@Oedipus](#):
>
> YES. I am looking for Old Testament badassery. Wrath and might of the lord, swords cutting like hot knifes through butter with the Angel of Death overlooking…all of it

Then you really can’t beat Psalm 18:37-45 for biblical badassery:

> [@](#):
>
> I pursued my enemies and overtook them;  
> I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
> 
> I crushed them so that they could not rise;  
> they fell beneath my feet.
> 
> You armed me with strength for battle;  
> you humbled my adversaries before me.
> 
> You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,  
> and I destroyed my foes.
> 
> They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—  
> to the Lord, but he did not answer.
> 
> I beat them as fine as windblown dust;  
> I poured them out like mud in the streets.
> 
> You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;  
> you have made me the head of nations.
> 
> People I did not know now serve me,  
> foreigners cower before me;  
> as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
> 
> They all lose heart;  
> they come trembling from their strongholds.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/51 "2014-06-23T16:46:10Z")

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Others have already beaten me to my first two choices (Ballad of East and West by Kipling and The Highwayman by Noyes–which, btw, has a great musical version by Loreena McKennitt) but how about this one, for certain values of “badass”:

**Down, Wanton, Down**  
by Robert Graves

```
    Down, wanton, down! Have you no shame
    That at the whisper of Love's name,
    Or Beauty's, presto! up you raise
    Your angry head and stand at gaze?

    Poor bombard-captain, sworn to reach
    The ravelin and effect a breach--
    Indifferent what you storm or why,
    So be that in the breach you die!

    Love may be blind, but Love at least
    Knows what is man and what mere beast;
    Or Beauty wayward, but requires
    More delicacy from her squires.

    Tell me, my witless, whose one boast
    Could be your staunchness at the post,
    When were you made a man of parts
    To think fine and profess the arts?

    Will many-gifted Beauty come
    Bowing to your bald rule of thumb,
    Or Love swear loyalty to your crown?
    Be gone, have done! Down, wanton, down!

```

It’s got to be at least a _little_ bit badass to write a poem about your wang… 😃

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/52 "2014-06-23T17:39:16Z")

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I’m fond of["Old Ironsides",](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Ironsides_(poem))written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. to protest the decommissioning of the USS Constitution.

Aye tear her tattered ensign down  
long has it waved on high,  
And many an eye has danced to see  
That banner in the sky;  
Beneath it rung the battle shout,  
And burst the cannon’s roar;–  
The meteor of the ocean air  
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,  
Where knelt the vanquished foe,  
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,  
And waves were white below,  
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,  
Or know the conquered knee;–  
The harpies of the shore shall pluck  
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk  
Should sink beneath the wave;  
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,  
And there should be her grave;  
Nail to the mast her holy flag,  
Set every threadbare sail,  
And give her to the god of storms,  
The lightning and the gale!’

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/53 "2014-06-23T18:20:04Z")

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Thanks for that. A couple of references from M_A_S\*H (the novel) just dropped into place after the thick end of forty year. 🆒

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**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/54 "2014-06-23T21:29:24Z")

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T. S. Eliot from _The Wasteland_:

And I will show you something different from either   
Your shadow at morning striding behind you   
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;   
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

* * *

It’s the last line there that gets me.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/55 "2014-06-23T22:06:01Z")

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Virgil’s Aeneid:

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris  
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit  
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto  
vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;  
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,  
inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,  
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

But for a tattoo, I’d suggest short and sweet, maybe a haiku?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/56 "2014-06-24T01:32:30Z")

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Kipling pulled strings to get his son John into the army after he had been twice rejected as medically unfit. John was killed shortly after being sent to the front, his body never found. After the war, Kipling wrote,

“If any question why we died,  
Tell them, because our fathers lied.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/57 "2014-06-24T04:49:41Z")

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A.E. Housman’s _Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries_:

These, in the day when heaven was falling,  
The hour when earth’s foundations fled,  
Followed their mercenary calling,  
And took their wages, and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;  
They stood, and earth’s foundations stay;  
What God abandoned, these defended,  
And saved the sum of things for pay.

The first poem I ever memorized. Also [set to music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6K_TMhEyDw&t=0m09s)!

And there’s his untitled “III” from Last Poems:

```
 Her strong enchantments failing,
     Her towers of fear in wreck,
 Her limbecks dried of poisons
     And the knife at her neck,

 The Queen of air and darkness
     Begins to shrill and cry,
 'O young man, O my slayer,
     To-morrow you shall die.'

 O Queen of air and darkness,
     I think 'tis truth you say,
 And I shall die to-morrow;
     But you will die to-day.

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/58 "2014-06-24T05:44:09Z")

</div>

William Blake - [The Tyger](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172943)

_Tyger Tyger, burning bright,  
In the forests of the night;  
What immortal hand or eye,  
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?_

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Detroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@Detroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Detroit)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/59 "2014-06-24T15:10:41Z")

</div>

I always liked this one by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,  
Life is but an empty dream!?  
For the soul is dead that slumbers,  
and things are not what they seem.  
Life is real! Life is earnest!  
And the grave is not its goal;  
Dust thou art; to dust returnest,  
Was not spoken of the soul.

And this one I use to remind myself that things are seldom what they seem (although it might be a bit long for a tattoo.

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,  
We people on the pavement looked at him:  
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,  
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,  
And he was always human when he talked;  
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,  
‘Good-morning,’ and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -  
And admirably schooled in every grace:  
In fine, we thought that he was everything  
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,  
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;  
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,  
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-badass-old-poems/691382/60 "2014-06-24T15:40:10Z")

</div>

This from Housman would make an awesome tattoo:

> [@](#):
>
> The toil of all that be  
> Helps not the primal fault;  
> It rains into the sea  
> And still the sea is salt.

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