Classic and Contemporary Poetry
POKER, by ANONYMOUS First Line: "to draw, or not to draw, that is the question" Last Line: And lose the right to open Subject(s): Gambling;games; Wagering;betting;recreation;pastimes;amusements | ||||||||
To draw, or not to draw, that is the question. Whether it is safer in the player to take The awful risk of skinning for a straight, Or, standing pat, to raise 'em all the limit. And thus, by bluffing, get it. To draw -- to skin; No more -- and by that skin to get a full, Or two pairs, or the fattest bouncing kings That luck is heir to -- 't is a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To draw -- to skin; To skin! perchance to burst -- ay, there's the rub! For in the draw of three what cards may come, When we have shuffled off the uncertain pack, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of a bobtail flush; For who would bear the overwhelming blind, The reckless straddle, the wait on the edge, The insolence of pat hands, and the lifts That patient merit of the bluffer takes, When he himself might be much better off By simply passing? Who would trays uphold, And go out on a small progressive raise, But that the dread of something after call, The undiscovered ace-full, to whose strength Such hands must bow, puzzles the will, And makes us rather keep the chips we have Than be curious about the hands we know not of. Thus bluffing does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of a four-heart flush Is sicklied with some dark and cussed club, And speculators in a jack-pot's wealth With this regard their interest turn awry And lose the right to open. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLOODY SIRE by ROBINSON JEFFERS GAME AFTER SUPPER by MARGARET ATWOOD DANGEROUS GAMES by CAROLYN KIZER THE GOOD AUTHOR by CAROLYN KIZER BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK by AMY LOWELL THE LOST CHILDREN by GREGORY ORR SNAKE EYES by MINNIE BRUCE PRATT TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
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