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A Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns wrote this romantic song in the Scots language to his bonnie lass in 1794.
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How Do I Love Thee?
Sure, you remember the Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd spoof, but this is the real deal! "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height..." (that's love in volume).
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He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
One of our favorite poems ever, Anthony Hopkins memorably recites Yeats' verses in 84, Charing Cross Road.
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My Heart and I
Barrett's poems are described as a fresh, strange music. She expresses her love and loss of a dear friend, and coming to terms with her own imminent death.
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She Walks in Beauty
One of England's greatest poets and leader of the romantic movement, Byron composed this piece in 1813 after being mesmerized by a lady dressed in black at a ball, his cousin by marriage.
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Give All to Love
"'Tis a brave master; Let it have scope: Follow it utterly, Hope beyond hope..." Emerson encourages us to obey our heart, even if eventually "her parting dims the day."
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Meeting at Night
Yes, he and his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning were both romantic poets who clearly inspired each other's writing. No doubt better than your standard Valentine's Day card.
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The Last Ride Together
This is a beautiful tribute to his life-long partner, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, at the end of their journey together.
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A November Night
A lovely discovery, Ms. Teasdale's passionate poetry resonates beautifully as a timeless expression of love.
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I Am Not Yours
"Oh, plunge me deep in love, put out my senses, leave me deaf and blind, swept by the tempest of your love, a taper in a rushing wind."
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Time Is
"Time is too slow for those who Wait, Too swift for those who Fear, Too long for those who Grieve, Too short for those who Rejoice; But for those who Love, Time is not."
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Riposte
"Love is like water or the air my townspeople; it cleanses, and dissipates evil gases. It is like poetry too and for the same reasons."
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Annabel Lee
A loving tribute to a woman he will never forget, "For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee..."
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To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time
You know this one from Dead Poets Society: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..." A carpe diem theme poem.
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Sonnet 18
No collection of love poems would be complete without a Shakespeare sonnet, though it should be renamed the more romantic title, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day.
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Love and Friendship
Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights, offers similes using the wild rose-briar and the holly-tree to contrast the endurance of both types of relationships.
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I Cannot Live Without You
This poem is reminiscent of the old ditty: "Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, there's something irresistable about 'em..."
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The Broken Heart
Donne offers imagery that a cracked and worn heart reflects its many mirrored pieces, and remains capable of love (but maybe just one).
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I Do Not Love Thee
"...And often in my solitude I sigh / That those I do love are not more like thee!"
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You'll Love Me Yet
Browning offers a charming simile that love is like a seed to be planted, which takes time and nurturing.
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Roses are Red
Sometimes the classic nursery rhyme says it best.
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Song of Myself
One of the most influential and greatest poems of all times, from Whitman's collection, Leaves of Grass.
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O Captain! My Captain!
Whitman's tribute poem following Abraham Lincoln's assassination, it is memorably taught by John Keating in the movie, Dead Poets Society.
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Do not go gentle into that good night
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light." One of the most famous villanelles in English poetry, Thomas' powerful meditation on death and defiance.
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The Road Not Taken
The poem isn't what most people think it's about; read it again to find out whether you're on the right track.
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I Taught Myself to Live Simply
The acclaimed Russian modernist poet, having survived a totalitarian regime, offers verses to keep us from "superfluous worry."
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Poppies on Ludlow Castle
The red poppies "so cruel and gay and red" continue to thrive long after the brave knights and royalty who lived in the castle have perished.
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Ravenna
Wilde won Oxford's prize for English verse with his recollections of this charming northern Italian capital city.
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Mending Wall
This poem is where the expression comes from: "Good fences make good neighbors."
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In Flanders Fields
"In Flanders fields the poppies grow between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly scarce heard amid the guns below."
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Oh Could I Raise the Darken'd Veil
Hawthorne's lesser-known poems are a fine example of his achievements in Dark Romanticism. An interesting compliment to his well-known short story, The Minister's Black Veil
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A Thought for Washing Day
"The clothes-line is a Rosary of household help and care, each little saint the Mother loves is represented there."
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Ultimately
Hemingway's description of how truth isn't always expressed elegantly, in fact sometimes it just dribbles.
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Journey
"All my life, Following Care along the dusty road, Have I looked back at loveliness and sighed..."
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A Dream Within a Dream
Could it be true? "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream?"
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I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
Inspired by seeing a long belt of daffodils on a walk with his sister, Wordsworth wrote this, one of his most famous works.
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
This poem is where these expressions came from: "having an albatross around one's neck" and "water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink."
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My Lost Youth
"A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
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Transfiguration
A moving tribute to her mother, Abby May Alcott, who died in 1877.
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Success is Counted Sweetest
"Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed."
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The Song of Wandering Aengus
You might remember this as required reading in high school. It might be more meaningful to you now, also a great exploration of music's literary form.
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Ode on a Grecian Urn
Keats' most famous "ode," about love and sacrifice. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know."
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O Sleep, My Babe
Daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sara's poem is a melancholy tribute to her departed child.
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Last Lines
"I see heaven's glories shine, And faith shines equal, arming me from fear."
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Piano
Lawrence's reminiscence of his childhood spent under the piano, listening to the "tingling strings."
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Grown-up
It's true, getting old is rough.
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Lines on Ale
The best part about this poem is that Poe supposedly wrote and gave it to the tavern to pay his bar tab.
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The Wanderers
Joyous sailors landing ashore: "Each sail was loosed to the wind so free, Each helm made sure by the twilight star..."
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Our Little Ghost
Not the least bit spooky, "For, in this happy little soul, shines a sun that never sets."
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The Charge of the Light Brigade
"Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die, Into the valley of Death."
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The Battle Hymn of the Republic
What became the most popular song for the Union during the Civil War, Howe wrote the acclaimed lyrics, "Mine eyes have seen the glory" after an inspiring visit with President Lincoln in 1862.
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The Dying Christian to His Soul
An evocative poem about the end of life, leading us to question what's next.
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If
This poem is reminiscent of an "if...then" statement, only much more provocative.
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In Memoriam 131: O Living Will That Shalt Endure
"Rise in the spiritual rock, Flow thro' our deeds and make them pure..."
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Sorrow
Though Chekhov and Millay both have works sharing the same title, de Vere's stands alone for its spiritual gravity: "Grief should be, Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate; Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free..."
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Grandmother's Battle of Bunker Hill As She Saw It From the Belfry
A home's rooftop view allowed this grandmother to be an eye witness to what became the start of the Revolutionary War.
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Boston
This poem was read in Faneuil Hall on the Centennial of the Boston Tea Party.
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Casey at the Bat
"It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville nine that day..."
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Afternoon on a Hill
"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!"
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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
"The wood are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep..."
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Nothing Will Die
A poem that speaks to the resilience of all things: "The world was never made; It will change, but it will not fade."
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In Memoriam A.H.H.
Though a ridiculously long poem, it's where you'll find Tennyson's most remembered quote: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
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Three little birds in a row
A whimsical poem to delight readers of all ages. The author of The Red Badge of Courage said he was much fonder of his little book of poems.
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Pastoral
"But we who are wiser shut ourselves in on either hand and no one knows whether we think good or evil."
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A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever
"Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness; but still will keep a bower quiet for us, and a sleep full of sweet dreams..."
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Winter in the Boulevard
"Their abundant summery wordage silenced, caught in the grim undertow; naked the trees confront implacable winter's long, cross-questioning brunt."
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There Will Come Soft Rains
One of Teasdale's best known poems about nature's resilience after the Great War's destruction. "Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly."
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It Was an April Morning: Fresh and Clear
"I roamed in the confusion of my heart, Alive to all things and forgetting all."
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A Shropshire Lad - II - Loveliest of Trees
A lovely poem marking the seasons of pastoral beauty compared to fleeting youth and growing old.
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Wishes
"I wish we could live as the flowers live, to breathe and to bloom in the summer and sun; to slumber and sway in the heart of night, and to die when our glory had done."
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Trees
"I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree."
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An ancient pond...
Inventor of the haiku poetry form, Basho treats us to small but rich servings of syllables heralding nature's beauty.
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The Deserted Garden
Browning's reminiscence of her secret, wild garden and lost childhood.
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Each and All
Existentialism and minimalism at its best: "Beauty through my senses stole; I yielded myself to the perfect whole."
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Ode to a Nightingale
One of Keats' six "Odes of 1819" and best regarded works, he wrote it in a day after watching a nightingale build a nest in a plum tree. "'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness."
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Just So Stories Poems
Enjoy the poems to discover how the elephant, camel, whale, leopard, armadillo and more got their animal characteristics in Just So Stories.
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Magdalen Walks
Wilde's poem almost pops with the energy of spring emerging: "The crocus-bed is a quivering moon of fire..."
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The Nightingale, a Conversational Poem
Coleridge's 'blank verse' poetry is as natural as prose, yet as artful as a sonnet.
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A Night Thought
Every poetry collection must have least one about the moon; here's our pick. "But when the clouds asunder fly / How bright her mien!"
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Thanatopsis
"Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim, Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again..."
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To a Waterfowl
You can almost hear wood ducks quacking and splashing in the reeds, Bryant's poem is a vivid tribute to our fine feathered friends.
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To a Skylark
"The pale purple even melts around thy flight; Like a star of heaven in the broad daylight, Though art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight--"
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The World is Too Much With Us
An environmentalist's cautionary tale: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours;..."
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The Inward Morning
"Packed in my mind lie all the clothes which outward nature wears..."
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Songs of Innocence: Laughing Song
Considered a visionary of the Romantic Age for his literary and visual art, you might enjoy Blake's entire collection featuring his illustrations. Songs of Innocence appeals to children's joy and whimsy. Songs of Experience is more contemplative.
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Ode to the West Wind
Shelley's innovative rhyming scheme called "terza rima" is employed artfully to cast nature as both destroyer and preserver.
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A Day of Sunshine
It's one of those days that makes you feel exhilarated! "I feel the electric thrill, the touch / Of life, that seems almost too much."
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The Lotos-Eaters
A crew comes ashore and discovers an island's foreign flora and fauna. "And all at once they sang, Our island home / Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam."
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Daylight and Moonlight
Longfellow composes poetry about the sun and the moon-- what we see everyday-- with grace and mystery.
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Christmas Trees
Reads more like prose, the story of a sensible New Englander who makes a deal with a city man for the Christmas trees he didn't know he had.
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
A farcical poem about a "prude" in a "frock" who observes: "In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo."
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Jabberwocky
"'Twas brilling, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe;" -- it's just fun to read aloud!
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The Hunting of the Snark
This "agony of fits" is a self-described nonsense poem based on this line: "Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes."
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The Walrus and the Carpenter
This memorable poem is recited by Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Through the Looking Glass.
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A Valentine
A more apt title for this poem is "A Very Un-Valentine." I think Carroll would agree.
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If Those I Loved Were Lost
A short, quirky Dickinson poem, too good not to share.
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A Certain Lady
Parker's cynicism is rather biting and amusing, but perhaps not to the man she's addressing.
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A Little Poem
Having never thought of George Orwell as a poet, this was a nice discovery, and well-suited to his canon.
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A Song About Myself
Quite different from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, Keats' simple rhyming scheme is playful and fresh, about himself as a "naughty boy" who runs away.
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Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream
Describing his trip to Xanadu, Coleridge composed it in one night coming off of an opium-stupor. It took critics years before it was openly admired.
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He loved three things, alive:
Akhmatova, one of the highest regarded Russian modernist poets, has a number of arresting poems like this. A wonderful diversion if you need a reminder to avoid taking yourself too seriously.
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You should appear less often in my dreams
"Yet only in night's sanctuary are you sad, troubled, and tender."
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Daybreak
You may not think of Jack London as a poet, acclaimed for The Call of the Wild and man versus nature themes; which makes this tender poem an unexpected treat.
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Songs of Innocence: Infant Joy
"I happy am, Joy is my name." Enjoy the entire collection of Songs of Innocence poems, all from a child's perspective or for children's enjoyment.
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A.B.A.
An endearing tribute to Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott.
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Pippa's Song
It's a perfect spring day: "All's right with the world!"
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Old Song
"Then with an old friend I talk of our youth-- How 'twas gladsome, but often foolish, forsooth; but gladsome, gladsome!"
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Before the Cask of Wine
"Rise and dance / In the westering sun / While the urge of youthful ears is yet unsubdued!"
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This Land Is Your Land
The most famous American folk song: "This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Island, from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me."
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The New Colossus
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
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Christmas Bells
Ring in the holidays with Longfellow's festive poem.
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Carol
The author of The Wind in the Willows offers a joyful Christmas poem.
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Christmastide
An exceedingly bright and cheery poem (especially for Lovecraft).
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Auld Lang Syne
Meaning "old long since," this poem is usually sung to bring in the new year or other sentimental occasions.
Showing all 100 poems
