Poetry
"Buxom Meg, she washed my clothes" - when Jack Randall asks Corporal Hawkins to recite something to see if Claire can place his accent, he recites a short four line ditty which starts, "Buxom Meg ..." (Outlander, chapter 12)
Donald Donn - When Frank and Claire are told the legend of Mary Grant and her lover, the poet Donald Donn while on their boat trip on Loch Ness, Frank recites three lines of one of Donald Donn's poems (Outlander, chapter 2)
Fingal - Fingal is an epic poem from the Poems of Ossian which were published by the Scottish poet James MacPherson from 1760. MacPherson claimed that the poems were oral poems that he had collected and recorded but there is some doubt as to the authenticity of his claims. When Jamie is greeted by his staghound Bran, he quotes four lines of the poem to Claire (Outlander, chapter 26)
Hell's Gate - the title of part one of Voyager is 'Battle, and the loves of men.' This is a line from the poem Hell's Gate by A.E. Housman
Lady Clara Vere de Vere - Claire quotes the line "Kind hearts are more than coronets" from the poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere by Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Jamie when he goes off to do a good deed (DIA, chapter 24)
Lesbia - by Catullus. It is part of this poem that Hugh Munro writes on the piece of paper that he wraps his dragonfly in amber gift in - "Then let amorous kisses dwell, On our lips begin and tell, A thousand and a hundred score, An hundred and a thousand more .." (Outlander, chapter 19)
Marmion - Claire taught Jamie the line, "When pain and anguish wring the brow, a ministering angel thou!", from Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion and Jamie jokingly quotes it back to her when she is threatening him bodily harm if he doesn't stop teasing her (DIA, chapter 36) When Claire and Jamie are discussing how to explain away Claire's twenty year absence, Claire quotes from Marmion, the line, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive" (V, chapter 29) The poem Marmion is about the Battle of Flodden which was fought between the English and the Scots in 1513
No Man is an Island - when Claire sees the highhanded entitled behaviour of the Vicomtesse de Rambeau she reflects that the Vicomtesse will likely lose her life in the forthcoming French Revolution, and remarks to Master Raymond, 'Ask not for whom the tumbril calls, it calls for thee'. (DIA, chapter 8) This is an illusion to the last lines of John Donne's poem, No Man is an Island, which read "And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." A tumbril was the name of the carts used during the French Revolution to carry victims to the guillotine
Rat satire - Roger composes a rat satire poem for Brianna to scare away any rats that might be in the Reverend Wakefield's garage (DIA, chapter 4)
Requiem - Claire quotes the last two lines of this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson when she sees Jamie with some rabbits he has snared - "Home is the sailor, home from the sea and the hunter home from the hill"
The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer - Claire tells Jamie the line 'Freedom and whisky gang tegither' from Robbie Burn's poem The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer. The actual line is "Freedom an’ whisky gang thegither!" (DIA, chapter 24)
The Building of the Ship - Claire quotes a couple of lines from this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as the Artemis prepares to sail away from the port of Cape Wrath in Scotland (V, chapter 41)
The Death of the Hired Man - Claire quotes the line, "Home is the place, where, when you go there they have to take you in", from this poem by Robert Frost (V, chapter 32)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Claire quotes the line, "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" from this poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (V, chapter 50)
To a Mouse - The chapter title of chapter 23 of Dragonfly in Amber is 'The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men' . It is part of a line from the poem 'To a Mouse' by Robbie Burns. The full correctly worded line is "The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley". This poem is furthered referenced in chapter 44 of Dragonfly in Amber which is titled, 'In Which Quite a Lot of Things Gang Agley'.
To His Coy Mistress - Claire thinks of the lines "The grave's a fine and private place / but none, I think, do there embrace" from the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell when she and Jamie make love on the night that Alex Randall dies (DIA, chapter 45)
Donald Donn - When Frank and Claire are told the legend of Mary Grant and her lover, the poet Donald Donn while on their boat trip on Loch Ness, Frank recites three lines of one of Donald Donn's poems (Outlander, chapter 2)
Fingal - Fingal is an epic poem from the Poems of Ossian which were published by the Scottish poet James MacPherson from 1760. MacPherson claimed that the poems were oral poems that he had collected and recorded but there is some doubt as to the authenticity of his claims. When Jamie is greeted by his staghound Bran, he quotes four lines of the poem to Claire (Outlander, chapter 26)
Hell's Gate - the title of part one of Voyager is 'Battle, and the loves of men.' This is a line from the poem Hell's Gate by A.E. Housman
Lady Clara Vere de Vere - Claire quotes the line "Kind hearts are more than coronets" from the poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere by Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Jamie when he goes off to do a good deed (DIA, chapter 24)
Lesbia - by Catullus. It is part of this poem that Hugh Munro writes on the piece of paper that he wraps his dragonfly in amber gift in - "Then let amorous kisses dwell, On our lips begin and tell, A thousand and a hundred score, An hundred and a thousand more .." (Outlander, chapter 19)
Marmion - Claire taught Jamie the line, "When pain and anguish wring the brow, a ministering angel thou!", from Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion and Jamie jokingly quotes it back to her when she is threatening him bodily harm if he doesn't stop teasing her (DIA, chapter 36) When Claire and Jamie are discussing how to explain away Claire's twenty year absence, Claire quotes from Marmion, the line, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive" (V, chapter 29) The poem Marmion is about the Battle of Flodden which was fought between the English and the Scots in 1513
No Man is an Island - when Claire sees the highhanded entitled behaviour of the Vicomtesse de Rambeau she reflects that the Vicomtesse will likely lose her life in the forthcoming French Revolution, and remarks to Master Raymond, 'Ask not for whom the tumbril calls, it calls for thee'. (DIA, chapter 8) This is an illusion to the last lines of John Donne's poem, No Man is an Island, which read "And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." A tumbril was the name of the carts used during the French Revolution to carry victims to the guillotine
Rat satire - Roger composes a rat satire poem for Brianna to scare away any rats that might be in the Reverend Wakefield's garage (DIA, chapter 4)
Requiem - Claire quotes the last two lines of this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson when she sees Jamie with some rabbits he has snared - "Home is the sailor, home from the sea and the hunter home from the hill"
The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer - Claire tells Jamie the line 'Freedom and whisky gang tegither' from Robbie Burn's poem The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer. The actual line is "Freedom an’ whisky gang thegither!" (DIA, chapter 24)
The Building of the Ship - Claire quotes a couple of lines from this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as the Artemis prepares to sail away from the port of Cape Wrath in Scotland (V, chapter 41)
The Death of the Hired Man - Claire quotes the line, "Home is the place, where, when you go there they have to take you in", from this poem by Robert Frost (V, chapter 32)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Claire quotes the line, "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" from this poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (V, chapter 50)
To a Mouse - The chapter title of chapter 23 of Dragonfly in Amber is 'The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men' . It is part of a line from the poem 'To a Mouse' by Robbie Burns. The full correctly worded line is "The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley". This poem is furthered referenced in chapter 44 of Dragonfly in Amber which is titled, 'In Which Quite a Lot of Things Gang Agley'.
To His Coy Mistress - Claire thinks of the lines "The grave's a fine and private place / but none, I think, do there embrace" from the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell when she and Jamie make love on the night that Alex Randall dies (DIA, chapter 45)