greykit.poetry
-
1928
[w-b-yeats]
Sailing to Byzantium
Yeats leaves the country of the young and sensual — dying generations caught in their music — and sails to the holy city of Byzantium, asking its gold-mosaic sages to gather him out of nature into the artifice of eternity, a hammered golden bird singing of what is past, or passing, or to come.
-
1925
[t-s-eliot]
The Hollow Men
In five sections the hollow men inhabit death's dream kingdom — paralysed force, gesture without motion — circling the prickly pear as the world ends not with a bang but a whimper.
-
1922
[t-s-eliot]
The Waste Land
Eliot's fractured masterpiece in five parts — voices from the ruins of post-war Europe, the Fisher King, the Thames, a game of chess, the fire sermon — ending in the Sanskrit peace of Shantih shantih shantih.
-
1920
[wilfred-owen]
Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for those who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns — no mockeries, no prayers; their only memorial the tenderness of patient minds, and each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
-
1920
[wilfred-owen]
Dulce et Decorum Est
Owen's soldiers march exhausted through sludge; a gas attack takes one too slow with his helmet; the speaker inverts Horace's old lie — you would not glorify war if you had watched this man drown in his own lungs.
-
1920
[wilfred-owen]
Futility
Move him into the sun — it woke him always, even in France, until this morning and this snow; was it for this the clay grew tall? — O what made fatuous sunbeams toil to break earth's sleep at all?
-
1920
[t-s-eliot]
Gerontion
An old man in a dry month speaks his meditation on history, faith, and the failure of knowledge — thought without action, passion lost, a dry brain in a dry season.
-
1920
[w-b-yeats]
The Second Coming
The widening gyre of history unravels ceremony and conviction; out of Spiritus Mundi a rough beast with lion body and human head slouches toward Bethlehem to be born.
-
1919
[rudyard-kipling]
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
Kipling’s bleak parable — the plain truths you can deny, ignore, or outlaw, but never escape.
-
1919
[w-b-yeats]
The Wild Swans at Coole
On his nineteenth October at Coole Park, Yeats counts fifty-nine swans and watches them mount and scatter — unwearied, their hearts not grown old — and wonders where they will delight men's eyes when he wakes to find they have flown away.
-
1918
[gerard-manley-hopkins]
God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God — yet men sear and smear the soil, shod from feeling it; and yet the Holy Ghost broods over the bent world with warm breast and bright wings.
-
1918
[gerard-manley-hopkins]
Pied Beauty
A curtal sonnet of thanksgiving for dappled things — brinded skies, rose-moles on trout, finches' wings, landscape plotted and pieced — all fathered-forth by a beauty past change.
-
1918
[gerard-manley-hopkins]
Spring and Fall: to a young child
Hopkins asks Márgarét, weeping at Goldengrove's unleaving, whether she grieves for the world or for herself — sorrow's springs are the same; it is the blight man was born for, it is Margaret you mourn for.
-
1918
[gerard-manley-hopkins]
The Windhover
Watching a kestrel ride the morning wind, Hopkins finds mastery — the achieve of the thing — that buckles into the beauty of Christ; even the plough-share, shéer plód, flashes gold-vermillion.
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1916
[w-b-yeats]
Easter, 1916
Yeats's elegy for the leaders of the Easter Rising — men he had passed with a nod, transformed utterly by their sacrifice into a terrible beauty that is born.
-
1915
[t-s-eliot]
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Prufrock's hesitant interior monologue circles a visit never quite made — measuring life in coffee spoons, hearing the mermaids sing, asking "Do I dare?" — a portrait of paralysis and the fear of the overwhelming question.
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1912
[thomas-hardy]
The Convergence of the Twain
Hardy's cold meditation on the Titanic and the iceberg, grown in shadowy distance as twin halves of one august event, until the Spinner of the Years said "Now!" and jarred two hemispheres.
-
1910
[rudyard-kipling]
If—
A father’s litany of self-mastery — the whole world for the price of composure.
-
1910
[rudyard-kipling]
The Way Through the Woods
A road the forest swallowed — and the ghosts you can almost hear still riding it.
-
1906
[rudyard-kipling]
Cities and Thrones and Powers
Empires bloom and fall like flowers — each blossom certain its brief season is forever.
-
1904
[christina-rossetti]
In the Bleak Midwinter
Earth hard as iron, water like a stone — what can she give the Lord God in the bleak midwinter? Only what she can: give my heart.
-
1903
[rudyard-kipling]
Boots
The hypnotic, maddening tramp of infantry on an endless route-march (“Infantry Columns”).
-
1902
[rudyard-kipling]
Sussex
A lover’s map of the South Downs — “Yea, Sussex by the sea!”
-
1902
[thomas-hardy]
The Darkling Thrush
On the last evening of the century, Hardy leans on a gate in a desolate frost-gray landscape when a frail old thrush flings out a full-hearted evensong — suggesting some blessed hope the poet cannot share.
-
1902
[rudyard-kipling]
The Islanders
A savage rebuke to a complacent England — “the flannelled fools at the wicket … the muddied oafs at the goals.”
-
1899
[rudyard-kipling]
The White Man’s Burden
Kipling’s notorious exhortation to the United States to take up colonial rule of the Philippines.
-
1898
[thomas-hardy]
Neutral Tones
By a winter pond under a white, chidden sun, Hardy distills the death of a love into a few grey images — the starving sod, the deadest smile, the God-curst sun — that return to him whenever love proves a deceiver.
-
1898
[oscar-wilde]
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Wilde's long narrative poem in six cantos about the hanging of a soldier at Reading Gaol — anchored in the refrain that each man kills the thing he loves, by each let this be heard.
-
1897
[rudyard-kipling]
Recessional
A hymn against imperial pride, written for Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
-
1896
[emily-dickinson]
I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—
In the stillness before death, eyes dry, breaths gathering for the last onset — and then a fly interposes with blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz between the light and me, and the windows failed.
-
1896
[a-e-housman]
Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now
Counting his threescore years and ten, the speaker finds fifty springs too few to see the cherry hung with bloom and snow — and resolves to go about the woodlands now.
-
1896
[rudyard-kipling]
The Song of the Banjo
The brash, portable music that follows the soldier and settler to the ends of the Empire.
-
1896
[a-e-housman]
To an Athlete Dying Young
A Shropshire lad mourns a young runner carried home shoulder-high in triumph, and again shoulder-high in death — lucky, Housman suggests, to slip away before the garland withers and the name outlives the fame.
-
1896
[a-e-housman]
When I was one-and-twenty
A young man ignores the wise man's counsel to keep his heart free — and finds out at two-and-twenty that 't is true, 't is true.
-
1892
[rudyard-kipling]
Gentlemen-Rankers
The lament of well-born men sunk to the ranks — “poor little lambs who’ve lost our way.”
-
1891
[emily-dickinson]
Hope" is the thing with feathers—
Hope — the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, sings without words, and never stops — sweetest in the gale, asking never a crumb of me.
-
1891
[emily-dickinson]
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
I'm nobody! Who are you? — if there's a pair of us, don't tell; how dreary to be somebody, how public like a frog to tell your name the livelong day to an admiring bog.
-
1890
[emily-dickinson]
Because I could not stop for Death—
Death comes as a courteous gentleman who drives the poet past schoolchildren at play, gazing grain, and a house that seems a swelling of the ground, until centuries feel shorter than a single day.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Danny Deever
A hanging at dawn, told in the whispers of the men paraded to watch it.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Ford o’ Kabul River
A cavalryman grieves the mate he lost fording the river in the dark.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Fuzzy-Wuzzy
A soldier’s backhanded salute to the Sudanese warrior who broke the British square.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Gunga Din
A soldier’s rough tribute to the native water-carrier who outdid them all.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Mandalay
A time-expired soldier in grey London aches for Burma, a girl, and the road east.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Screw-Guns
A mountain-battery gunner’s swagger from the passes of the North-West Frontier.
-
1890
[w-b-yeats]
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Yeats's longing for the simple life on Innisfree — a cabin, nine bean-rows, a hive for the honey-bee — heard even in the deep heart's core while standing on city pavements.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
The Widow at Windsor
The Empire’s long reach, sung by the men who garrison it for “the Widow” — Queen Victoria.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
The Young British Soldier
A grizzled veteran’s blunt, brutal advice to the raw recruit shipped out East.
-
1890
[rudyard-kipling]
Tommy
The soldier scorned in peacetime and cheered in war answers back.
-
1889
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
Crossing the Bar
Tennyson's valedictory lyric — written in a single sitting, placed by his own wish at the close of every volume of his work — hopes for no mourning when the tide bears him out, and to see his Pilot face to face.
-
1889
[rudyard-kipling]
The Ballad of East and West
A border horse-thief and a colonel’s son meet as enemies and part as blood-brothers.
-
1887
[robert-louis-stevenson]
Requiem
Stevenson's eight-line epitaph for himself — under the wide and starry sky, glad did I live and gladly die; home is the sailor; home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill.
-
1885
[robert-louis-stevenson]
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches — bridges, hedges, painted stations, a child gathering brambles, a tramp, a mill and a river: each a glimpse and gone for ever.
-
1885
[robert-louis-stevenson]
The Swing
A child swings up in the air so blue — over the wall, over the countryside, down on the garden green — and up in the air and down.
-
1881
[oscar-wilde]
Requiescat
Wilde's elegy for his sister Isola, who died aged nine — tread lightly, speak gently; all her bright golden hair tarnished with rust, all his life's buried here.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto I
Canto I of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto II
Canto II of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto III
Canto III of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto IV
Canto IV of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto IX
Canto IX of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto V
Canto V of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto VI
Canto VI of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto VII
Canto VII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto VIII
Canto VIII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto X
Canto X of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XI
Canto XI of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XII
Canto XII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XIII
Canto XIII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XIV
Canto XIV of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XIX
Canto XIX of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XV
Canto XV of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XVI
Canto XVI of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XVII
Canto XVII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XVIII
Canto XVIII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XX
Canto XX of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXI
Canto XXI of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXII
Canto XXII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXIII
Canto XXIII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXIV
Canto XXIV of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXIX
Canto XXIX of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXV
Canto XXV of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXVI
Canto XXVI of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXVII
Canto XXVII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXVIII
Canto XXVIII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXX
Canto XXX of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXXI
Canto XXXI of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXXII
Canto XXXII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXXIII
Canto XXXIII of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Inferno, Canto XXXIV
Canto XXXIV of the Inferno, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto I
Canto I of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto II
Canto II of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto III
Canto III of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto IV
Canto IV of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto IX
Canto IX of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto V
Canto V of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto VI
Canto VI of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto VII
Canto VII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto VIII
Canto VIII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto X
Canto X of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XI
Canto XI of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XII
Canto XII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XIII
Canto XIII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XIV
Canto XIV of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XIX
Canto XIX of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XV
Canto XV of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XVI
Canto XVI of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XVII
Canto XVII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XVIII
Canto XVIII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XX
Canto XX of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXI
Canto XXI of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXII
Canto XXII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXIII
Canto XXIII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXIV
Canto XXIV of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXIX
Canto XXIX of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXV
Canto XXV of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXVI
Canto XXVI of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXVII
Canto XXVII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXVIII
Canto XXVIII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXX
Canto XXX of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXXI
Canto XXXI of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXXII
Canto XXXII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Paradiso, Canto XXXIII
Canto XXXIII of the Paradiso, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto I
Canto I of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto II
Canto II of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto III
Canto III of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto IV
Canto IV of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto IX
Canto IX of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto V
Canto V of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto VI
Canto VI of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto VII
Canto VII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto VIII
Canto VIII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto X
Canto X of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XI
Canto XI of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XII
Canto XII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XIII
Canto XIII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XIV
Canto XIV of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XIX
Canto XIX of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XV
Canto XV of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XVI
Canto XVI of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XVII
Canto XVII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XVIII
Canto XVIII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XX
Canto XX of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXI
Canto XXI of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXII
Canto XXII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXIII
Canto XXIII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXIV
Canto XXIV of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXIX
Canto XXIX of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXV
Canto XXV of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXVI
Canto XXVI of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXVII
Canto XXVII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXVIII
Canto XXVIII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXX
Canto XXX of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXXI
Canto XXXI of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXXII
Canto XXXII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1867
[dante]
Purgatorio, Canto XXXIII
Canto XXXIII of the Purgatorio, from Longfellow's verse Divine Comedy.
-
1865
[walt-whitman]
O Captain! My Captain!
Whitman's elegy for Lincoln as fallen ship's captain — the voyage won and the port in sight, but the Captain lies cold and dead on the deck while the crowds exult on shore.
-
1865
[walt-whitman]
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Whitman's great elegy for Lincoln — the lilac's perennial bloom, the drooping western star, and the hermit thrush singing death's carol in the swamps; the poem that transformed a president's death into a national rite of mourning.
-
1863
[william-blake]
Auguries of Innocence
Blake's great chain of auguries — 132 lines of compressed vision reading the infinite in the finite: a world in a grain of sand, a heaven in a wildflower, and the tyranny we inflict on the smallest creatures reverberating through all of human life.
-
1862
[christina-rossetti]
Goblin Market
Laura succumbs to the goblin merchants' enchanted fruit and wastes away; her sister Lizzie braves the goblins to win the antidote and save her — a narrative poem of temptation, sacrifice, and the redemptive bond between sisters.
-
1862
[christina-rossetti]
Remember
Rossetti urges her beloved to remember her after death, then revises the plea — better he should forget and smile than remember and be sad.
-
1861
[christina-rossetti]
A Birthday
Rossetti's jubilant lyric — the heart like a singing bird, an apple tree, a rainbow shell — all gladder than all these, because the birthday of my life is come, my love is come to me.
-
1860
[walt-whitman]
I Hear America Singing
Whitman hears the varied carols of America — carpenter, mason, boatman, shoemaker — each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else.
-
1855
[walt-whitman]
Song of Myself
Whitman's great democratic epic — celebrating himself, and through himself, every atom of every person — sprawling across 52 sections from the grass at his feet to the spotted hawk's yawp over the roofs of the world.
-
1854
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Tennyson's galloping tribute to the doomed cavalry charge at Balaclava — half a league onward into the valley of Death, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.
-
1850
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
In Memoriam A.H.H. (selections)
Selections from Tennyson's great elegiac sequence for Arthur Henry Hallam — spanning the Prologue's address to "Strong Son of God," the dark-house vigil of canto VII, the faith-and-doubt crisis of cantos LIV–LVI, the Ring Out Wild Bells of CVI, and the wedding Epilogue that closes the seventeen-year mourning with new life.
-
1850
[elizabeth-barrett-browning]
Sonnet 43: How Do I Love Thee?
Barrett Browning counts the ways she loves her husband — to the depth, breadth, and height her soul can reach, with passion, purity, childhood faith, and all her life's breath.
-
1849
[edgar-allan-poe]
A Dream within a Dream
Poe asks whether a life lived as a dream is therefore less real — then stands on a surf-tormented shore, watching the golden sands slip through his fingers, unable to save even one grain from the pitiless wave.
-
1849
[edgar-allan-poe]
Annabel Lee
Poe's last poem — a love that began in a kingdom by the sea, that the winged seraphs envied, that no angels in heaven above nor demons under the sea can ever dissever.
-
1849
[edgar-allan-poe]
The Bells
Four movements in sound — silver sleigh-bells, golden wedding-bells, brazen alarm-bells, iron tolling-bells — rising from merriment through alarm to the Ghouls' runic rhyme and the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
-
1845
[robert-browning]
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
An exile's longing for an English April — the elm-tree bole in tiny leaf, the chaffinch on the orchard bough, the wise thrush singing each song twice over, the first fine careless rapture.
-
1845
[edgar-allan-poe]
The City in the Sea
Death has reared himself a throne in a strange city far down within the dim West, where no heaven-light reaches and no wind disturbs the melancholy waters — until Hell itself shall rise to do that sunken city reverence.
-
1845
[edgar-allan-poe]
The Raven
A grieving man is visited at midnight by a raven who answers every question with the one word "Nevermore," driving him to the edge of madness over his lost Lenore.
-
1843
[edgar-allan-poe]
Lenore
A mourner refuses to sing a dirge for Lenore — who died so young, doubly dead — and rebukes those who loved her for wealth and hated her for pride; the poem closes with a defiant pæan, sending the angel up to a golden throne beside the King of Heaven.
-
1843
[elizabeth-barrett-browning]
The Cry of the Children
A protest poem on child labor in the mines and factories of England — the children weeping in the playtime of the others, dying before their time, their sob cursing deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath.
-
1842
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
Break, Break, Break
Waves break on cold gray stones — the fisherman's boy shouts, the sailor lad sings, the stately ships go on, but the tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me.
-
1842
[robert-browning]
My Last Duchess
A Duke of Ferrara shows an envoy a portrait of his late wife, revealing through oblique self-justification that he had her killed for being too easily pleased by anyone — then turns the conversation to the terms of his next marriage.
-
1842
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
The Lady of Shalott
Imprisoned in her island tower by a mysterious curse, the Lady of Shalott weaves the world in a mirror until Sir Lancelot's bright passage compels her to look directly at Camelot — and die.
-
1842
[robert-browning]
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
A child's story — the Pied Piper clears Hamelin of its rats for a thousand guilders, the Mayor refuses to pay, and the Piper leads all the town's children away through a mountain door that closes behind them forever.
-
1842
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
Ulysses
The aged Ulysses speaks from Ithaca, chafing against an idle kingship and rallying his mariners for one last voyage beyond the western stars — to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-
1838
[john-keats]
Bright Star
Keats's last sonnet — not to be fixed in lone, patient, priestlike vigil like the star, but steadfast in one thing: pillowed upon his fair love's ripening breast, awake forever in a sweet unrest, or else swoon to death.
-
1836
[robert-browning]
Porphyria's Lover
A lover tells how Porphyria came in from the storm, laid her hair on his cheek and whispered she loved him — and he strangled her with it, to hold that perfect moment forever; all night they sat, and yet God has not said a word.
-
1832
[percy-bysshe-shelley]
The Masque of Anarchy
Written in response to the Peterloo Massacre (1819), in which cavalry charged a crowd of 60,000 reformers in Manchester — Shelley's furious call for non-violent resistance, cataloguing the allegorical figures of Murder, Fraud, and Hypocrisy and ending with the clarion "Rise like Lions after slumber / In unvanquishable number.
-
1830
[lord-byron]
So We'll Go No More a-Roving
Written at twenty-nine after the Venice carnival, Byron's three spare stanzas bid farewell to midnight roving — the sword outwears the sheath, and love itself must rest.
-
1821
[percy-bysshe-shelley]
Adonais
Shelley's pastoral elegy for John Keats in 55 Spenserian stanzas — mourning the death of genius at the hands of hostile critics, tracing the mourning of Urania and Keats's fellow-poets, and arriving at the vision of Adonais absorbed into the eternal One, a star beaconing from the abode where the Eternal are.
-
1821
[lord-byron]
The Isles of Greece
A poem-within-a-poem sung by the anachronistic bard at Lambro's island feast — sixteen stanzas lamenting the fallen glory of Greece, invoking Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylae, and urging the living not to drown their shame in Samian wine but to reclaim their inheritance.
-
1820
[john-keats]
La Belle Dame sans Merci
A knight-at-arms palely loitering tells how a faery's child lulled him to cold-hill sleep, where pale kings warned — La Belle Dame sans Merci hath thee in thrall.
-
1820
[john-keats]
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Meditating on the frozen figures of an ancient urn, Keats finds that unheard melodies surpass the heard, and that the urn's last lesson to man is that beauty and truth are one.
-
1820
[john-keats]
Ode to a Nightingale
Keats follows a nightingale's song out of the mortal world into an immortal darkness, then wakes to find the vision fled — was it a dream or a waking?
-
1820
[percy-bysshe-shelley]
Ode to the West Wind
In five linked terza rima sonnets, Shelley invokes the autumn West Wind — destroyer and preserver — begging it to scatter his words over the earth as seeds of prophecy.
-
1820
[john-keats]
To Autumn
Three stanzas address Autumn as a season and a presence — first as conspirer with the sun, then as a harvest figure at rest, and finally as maker of its own music in the dying day.
-
1818
[lord-byron]
Apostrophe to the Ocean
Seven Spenserian stanzas from the close of Canto IV — Byron's famous apostrophe to the sea as the one force man cannot despoil, the "image of Eternity," ending with the poet's declaration that he has loved the ocean since boyhood and lays his hand upon its mane.
-
1818
[percy-bysshe-shelley]
Ozymandias
A traveller's report of a ruined desert statue whose pedestal proclaims the vast ambitions of a king whose works have wholly vanished.
-
1816
[samuel-taylor-coleridge]
Kubla Khan
A poet recalls a vision of the great Khan’s pleasure-dome in Xanadu, and laments the faded trance that would have let him rebuild it in song.
-
1815
[lord-byron]
She Walks in Beauty
Byron's celebrated lyric of feminine grace, finding in one woman's face the perfect union of dark and bright, inner virtue and outward loveliness.
-
1815
[lord-byron]
The Destruction of Sennacherib
In thundering anapests Byron retells the annihilation of the Assyrian host — gleaming one evening at sunset, silent and dead by dawn, melted by the Lord's glance.
-
1807
[william-wordsworth]
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803
Standing on Westminster Bridge at dawn, Wordsworth finds London more beautiful than any natural scene — the city lying open to sky and fields in smokeless morning calm.
-
1807
[william-wordsworth]
I wandered lonely as a Cloud
A solitary walk past a host of daffodils on a lake shore becomes, in memory, a source of joy that refreshes the poet on his couch in vacant or pensive mood.
-
1807
[william-wordsworth]
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Wordsworth's great ode on the fading of the visionary gleam — the sense, felt in childhood, of a celestial radiance on all things, and the poet's mature consolation in memory, sympathy, and "the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering.
-
1804
[william-blake]
And did those feet in ancient time
Blake's visionary preface-poem to Milton — a defiant call to rebuild Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land through mental fight.
-
1802
[samuel-taylor-coleridge]
Dejection: An Ode
Wrestling with creative paralysis and emotional deadness, Coleridge addresses an unnamed Lady, lamenting that joy must come from within the soul before it can be found in nature.
-
1798
[samuel-taylor-coleridge]
Frost at Midnight
Alone with his sleeping infant at midnight, Coleridge meditates on frost, childhood memory, and the life of open wonder he wishes for his son.
-
1798
[william-wordsworth]
Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798
Revisiting the Wye valley after five years, Wordsworth traces how nature's forms have sustained him in absence and shaped his moral being, closing with a prayer for his sister Dorothy.
-
1798
[samuel-taylor-coleridge]
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
A mariner shoots an albatross and is cursed to wander the earth, telling his tale of guilt, penance, and hard-won grace.
-
1794
[william-blake]
The Tyger
A series of unanswerable questions addressed to the tiger — what immortal daring could have created so fearful and beautiful a creature?
-
1789
[william-blake]
The Lamb
A child asks a lamb who made it, then answers the question himself — the same creator who became a little child and bore the name of lamb.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book I: Minerva's Descent to Ithaca
Book I of Pope's Odyssey: Minerva's Descent to Ithaca.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book II: The Council of Ithaca
Book II of Pope's Odyssey: The Council of Ithaca.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book III: The Interview of Telemachus and Nestor
Book III of Pope's Odyssey: The Interview of Telemachus and Nestor.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book IV: The Conference with Menelaus
Book IV of Pope's Odyssey: The Conference with Menelaus.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book IX: The Adventures of the Cicons, Lotophagi and Cyclops
Book IX of Pope's Odyssey: The Adventures of the Cicons, Lotophagi and Cyclops.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book V: The Departure of Ulysses from Calypso
Book V of Pope's Odyssey: The Departure of Ulysses from Calypso.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book VI
Book VI of Pope's Odyssey.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book VII: The Court of Alcinous
Book VII of Pope's Odyssey: The Court of Alcinous.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book VIII
Book VIII of Pope's Odyssey.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book X: Adventures with Aeolus, the Laestrygons, and Circe
Book X of Pope's Odyssey: Adventures with Aeolus, the Laestrygons, and Circe.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XI: The Descent Into Hell
Book XI of Pope's Odyssey: The Descent Into Hell.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XII: The Sirene, Scylla, and Charybdis
Book XII of Pope's Odyssey: The Sirene, Scylla, and Charybdis.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XIII: The Arrival of Ulysses in Ithaca
Book XIII of Pope's Odyssey: The Arrival of Ulysses in Ithaca.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XIV: The Conversation with Eumaeus
Book XIV of Pope's Odyssey: The Conversation with Eumaeus.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XIX: The Discovery of Ulysses to Euryclea
Book XIX of Pope's Odyssey: The Discovery of Ulysses to Euryclea.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XV: The Return of Telemachus
Book XV of Pope's Odyssey: The Return of Telemachus.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XVI: The Discovery of Ulysses to Telemachus
Book XVI of Pope's Odyssey: The Discovery of Ulysses to Telemachus.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XVII
Book XVII of Pope's Odyssey.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XVIII: The Fight of Ulysses and Irus
Book XVIII of Pope's Odyssey: The Fight of Ulysses and Irus.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XX
Book XX of Pope's Odyssey.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XXI: The Bending of Ulysses' Bow
Book XXI of Pope's Odyssey: The Bending of Ulysses' Bow.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XXII: The Death of the Suitors
Book XXII of Pope's Odyssey: The Death of the Suitors.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XXIII
Book XXIII of Pope's Odyssey.
-
1725
[homer]
The Odyssey, Book XXIV
Book XXIV of Pope's Odyssey.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book I
Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book II
Book II of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book III
Book III of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book IV
Book IV of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book IX
Book IX of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book V
Book V of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book VI
Book VI of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book VII
Book VII of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book VIII
Book VIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book X
Book X of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book XI
Book XI of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book XII
Book XII of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book XIII
Book XIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book XIV
Book XIV of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1717
[ovid]
Metamorphoses, Book XV
Book XV of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Garth–Dryden verse translation.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book I: The Contention of Achilles and Agamemnon
Book I of Pope's Iliad: The Contention of Achilles and Agamemnon.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book II: The Trial of the Army, and Catalogue of the Forces
Book II of Pope's Iliad: The Trial of the Army, and Catalogue of the Forces.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book III: The Duel of Menelaus and Paris
Book III of Pope's Iliad: The Duel of Menelaus and Paris.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book IV: The Breach of the Truce, and the First Battle
Book IV of Pope's Iliad: The Breach of the Truce, and the First Battle.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book IX: The Embassy to Achilles
Book IX of Pope's Iliad: The Embassy to Achilles.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book V: The Acts of Diomed
Book V of Pope's Iliad: The Acts of Diomed.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book VI: The Episodes of Glaucus and Diomed, and of Hector and Andromache
Book VI of Pope's Iliad: The Episodes of Glaucus and Diomed, and of Hector and Andromache.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book VII: The Single Combat of Hector and Ajax
Book VII of Pope's Iliad: The Single Combat of Hector and Ajax.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book VIII: The Second Battle, and the Distress of the Greeks
Book VIII of Pope's Iliad: The Second Battle, and the Distress of the Greeks.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book X: The Night Adventure of Diomed and Ulysses
Book X of Pope's Iliad: The Night Adventure of Diomed and Ulysses.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XI: The Third Battle, and the Acts of Agamemnon
Book XI of Pope's Iliad: The Third Battle, and the Acts of Agamemnon.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XII: The Battle at the Grecian Wall
Book XII of Pope's Iliad: The Battle at the Grecian Wall.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XIII: The Fourth Battle continued, in which Neptune assists the Greeks. The Acts of Idomeneus
Book XIII of Pope's Iliad: The Fourth Battle continued, in which Neptune assists the Greeks. The Acts of Idomeneus.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XIV: Juno deceives Jupiter by the Girdle of Venus
Book XIV of Pope's Iliad: Juno deceives Jupiter by the Girdle of Venus.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XIX: The Reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon
Book XIX of Pope's Iliad: The Reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XV: The Fifth Battle, at the Ships; and the Acts of Ajax
Book XV of Pope's Iliad: The Fifth Battle, at the Ships; and the Acts of Ajax.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XVI: The Sixth Battle. The Acts and Death of Patroclus
Book XVI of Pope's Iliad: The Sixth Battle. The Acts and Death of Patroclus.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XVII: The Seventh Battle, for the Body of Patroclus. The Acts of Menelaus
Book XVII of Pope's Iliad: The Seventh Battle, for the Body of Patroclus. The Acts of Menelaus.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XVIII: The Grief of Achilles, and New Armour made him by Vulcan
Book XVIII of Pope's Iliad: The Grief of Achilles, and New Armour made him by Vulcan.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XX: The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles
Book XX of Pope's Iliad: The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XXI: The Battle in the River Scamander
Book XXI of Pope's Iliad: The Battle in the River Scamander.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XXII: The Death of Hector
Book XXII of Pope's Iliad: The Death of Hector.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XXIII: Funeral Games in Honour of Patroclus
Book XXIII of Pope's Iliad: Funeral Games in Honour of Patroclus.
-
1715
[homer]
The Iliad, Book XXIV: The Redemption of the Body of Hector
Book XXIV of Pope's Iliad: The Redemption of the Body of Hector.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book I
Book I of Dryden's Aeneid — the Trojans, after a Seven Years Voyage, set sail for Italy, but are overtaken by a dreadful Storm, which Æolus raises at Juno's Request.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book II
Book II of Dryden's Aeneid — æneas relates how the City of Troy was taken, after a Ten Tears Siege, by the Treachery of Sinon, and the Stratagem of a Wooden Horse.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book III
Book III of Dryden's Aeneid — æneas proceeds in his Relation: He gives an Account of the Fleet with which he sail'd, and the Success of his first Voyage to Thrace; from thence be directs his Course to Delos, and asks the Oracle…
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book IV
Book IV of Dryden's Aeneid — dido discovers to her Sister her Passion for Æneas, and her thoughts of Marrying him.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book IX
Book IX of Dryden's Aeneid — takes Advantage of s Absence, fires some of his Ships, (which are transform'd into Sea-Nymphs) and assaults his Camp.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book V
Book V of Dryden's Aeneid — setting sail from is driven by a Storm on the Coasts of Where he is hospitably received by his Friend King of part of the Island, and born of Parentage.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book VI
Book VI of Dryden's Aeneid — the Sibyl foretels Æneas the Adventures be should meet with in Italy.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book VII
Book VII of Dryden's Aeneid — king Latinus entertains Æneas, and promises him his only Daughter, Lavinia, the Heiress of his Crown.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book VIII
Book VIII of Dryden's Aeneid — the War being now begun, both the Generals make all possible Preparations.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book X
Book X of Dryden's Aeneid, Virgil's epic of Aeneas and the founding of Rome.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book XI
Book XI of Dryden's Aeneid, Virgil's epic of Aeneas and the founding of Rome.
-
1697
[virgil]
The Aeneid, Book XII
Book XII of Dryden's Aeneid, Virgil's epic of Aeneas and the founding of Rome.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book I
Book I of Milton's Paradise Lost — satan and the fallen angels rouse on the burning lake and raise Pandemonium.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book II
Book II of Milton's Paradise Lost — the infernal council debates revenge; Satan alone sets out for the new world.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book III
Book III of Milton's Paradise Lost — god foresees the Fall, the Son offers himself, and Satan wings toward Eden.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book IV
Book IV of Milton's Paradise Lost — satan enters Paradise and first beholds Adam and Eve in their innocence.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book IX
Book IX of Milton's Paradise Lost — the temptation and the Fall — Eve, and then Adam, eat the forbidden fruit.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book V
Book V of Milton's Paradise Lost — raphael, sent to warn Adam, begins the tale of the angels' revolt.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book VI
Book VI of Milton's Paradise Lost — the three-day war in Heaven and the Son's victory over the rebel host.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book VII
Book VII of Milton's Paradise Lost — raphael recounts the six days' Creation of the world.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book VIII
Book VIII of Milton's Paradise Lost — adam relates his own creation and discourse with God; Raphael departs.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book X
Book X of Milton's Paradise Lost — judgment is passed; Sin and Death bridge Chaos; discord enters the world.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book XI
Book XI of Milton's Paradise Lost — michael foretells to Adam the future woes that follow from sin.
-
1667
[john-milton]
Paradise Lost, Book XII
Book XII of Milton's Paradise Lost — michael's prophecy of redemption through Christ; the expulsion from Paradise.