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Top Ten Poems

Shakespeare's ​Sonnets​
Shakespeare's ​Sonnets​

The Shakespearean sonnets are considered by among the most romantic poems ever written. It was the bard who kickstarted the modern love poetry movement with a collection of 154 love sonnets. You can still hear many of these on Valentine's Day and in marriage ceremonies today.

source: thoughtco.com
Stopping by ​Woods on a Snowy Evening​
Stopping by ​Woods on a Snowy Evening​

A summary of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in Robert Frost's Frost’s Early Poems. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Frost’s Early Poems and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.

Shall I ​Compare Thee to a Summer's day?​
Shall I ​Compare Thee to a Summer's day?​

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18) - Shall I compare thee to a summer's ... In his poems and plays, ... untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not ...

source: poets.org
Do not go ​Gentle Into That Good Night​
Do not go ​Gentle Into That Good Night​

Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

source: poets.org
Dover Beach​
Dover Beach​

Among the major Victorian writers sharing in a revival of interest and respect in the second half of the twentieth century, Matthew Arnold is unique in that his reputation rests equally upon his poetry and his prose.

Sonnet 116​
Sonnet 116​

Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116) ... fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and ... more than one hundred sonnets, ...

source: poets.org
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The Road Not ​Taken​
The Road Not ​Taken​

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. .Two roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where .

The Love ​Song of J
The Love ​Song of J

Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes ...

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I Wandered ​Lonely as a Cloud​
I Wandered ​Lonely as a Cloud​

I wandered lonely as a cloud. Poetry offers solace for the lonely and a positive perspective on being alone.

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The Raven​
The Raven​

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe - Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore

Ozymandias​
Ozymandias​

Ozymandias is first and foremost a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of political power, and in that sense the poem is Shelley’s most outstanding political sonnet, trading the specific rage of a poem like “England in 1819 ” for the crushing impersonal metaphor of the statue.

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To His Coy ​Mistress​
To His Coy ​Mistress​

For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events.

source: poets.org
Dulce et ​Decorum est​
Dulce et ​Decorum est​

It was at this time Owen wrote many of his most important poems, including "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum Est." His poetry often graphically illustrated the horrors of warfare, the physical landscapes that surrounded him, and the human body in relation to those landscapes. His verses stand in stark contrast to the patriotic poems of war written by earlier poets of Great Britain, such as Rupert Brooke.

source: poets.org
Paradise Lost​
Paradise Lost​

In his introduction to the Penguin edition of Paradise Lost, the Milton scholar John Leonard notes, "John Milton was nearly sixty when he published Paradise Lost in 1667.

Invictus​
Invictus​

Poems. Poems Home; Poems for Children; Poems for Teens; Poem Guides; Audio Poems; Poets; Prose. ... Invictus By William Ernest Henley About this Poet ...

A Psalm of ​Life​
A Psalm of ​Life​

The most widely known and best-loved American poet of his lifetime, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequaled in the literary history of the United States.

Iliad​
Iliad​

Iliad, epic poem in 24 books traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. It takes the Trojan War as its subject, though the Greek warrior Achilles is its primary focus. Iliad Frontispiece of Homer's The Iliad, translated by John Ogilby, 1660; engraving by Wenceslas Hollar.

If -​
If -​

Best poems and quotes from famous poets. Read romantic love poems, love quotes, classic poems and best poems. All famous quotes.

Ulysses​
Ulysses​

The poem is based on the character Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey ("Ulysses" is the Latin form of the name), but Tennyson also drew upon Dante's Inferno, Canto XXVI, in which Dante is led by the Roman epic poet Virgil to meet Ulysses and hear his tale.

Sonnet 73​
Sonnet 73​

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

source: poets.org
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Odyssey​
Odyssey​

Little is known about the life of Homer, the author credited with composing The Iliad and The Odyssey who is arguably the greatest poet of the ancient world. Historians place his birth sometime around 750 BC and conjecture that he was born and resided in or near Chios.

source: poets.org
A Red, Red ​Rose​
A Red, Red ​Rose​

A Red, Red Rose Robert Burns, 1759 - 1796 O my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June; O my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune.

source: poets.org
Death Be Not ​Proud​
Death Be Not ​Proud​

Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10) John Donne, 1572 - 1631 Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

source: poets.org
The Tyger​
The Tyger​

Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? This poem is in the public domain. This poem is in the public domain.

source: poets.org
She Walks in ​Beauty​
She Walks in ​Beauty​

She walks in beauty, like the night For Valentines Day, our Facebook fans picked their favorite poems from our archive.

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A Valediction: ​Forbidding Mourning​
A Valediction: ​Forbidding Mourning​

“A Valediction: forbidding Mourning” is one of Donne’s most famous and simplest poems and also probably his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love. For all his erotic carnality in poems, such as “The Flea,” Donne professed a devotion to a kind of spiritual love that transcended the merely physical.

Ode on a ​Grecian Urn​
Ode on a ​Grecian Urn​

John Keats was born in London on 31 October 1795, the eldest of Thomas and Frances Jennings Keats’s four children. Although he died at the age of twenty-five, Keats had perhaps the most remarkable career of any English poet.

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Sonnet 104​
Sonnet 104​

Poetry; Psychology; ... Home → No Fear Shakespeare → Sonnets → Sonnet 104. No Fear Shakespeare Sonnets. Read the SparkNote ... Sonnet 105. Original Text: Modern ...

The ​Windhover​
The ​Windhover​

"The Windhover" is the most startlingly experimental of this gorgeous tranche of sonnets. Hopkins seems at ease, fully in control of the energies of his sprung rhythm and effortlessly folding the extra-metrical feet he called outrides (see line two, for example) into the conventional sonnet form.

O Captain! My ​Captain!​
O Captain! My ​Captain!​

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, Walt Whitman is America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare.

The Charge of ​the Light Brigade​
The Charge of ​the Light Brigade​

The Charge of the Light Brigade By Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I ... Charge for the guns!” he said. ... More About This Poem The Charge of the Light ...

The Rime of ​the Ancient Mariner​
The Rime of ​the Ancient Mariner​

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834) ... More About This Poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834) By Samuel Taylor Coleridge ...

The Waste ​Land​
The Waste ​Land​

C.S. Lewis’s first love was poetry, and it enabled him to write the prose for which he is remembered. Read More. ... The Waste Land By T. S. Eliot

image: lib.udel.edu
Sailing to ​Byzantium​
Sailing to ​Byzantium​

For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events.

source: poets.org
A Dream ​Within a Dream​
A Dream ​Within a Dream​

A Dream Within a Dream ... Poe’s stature as a major figure in world literature is primarily based on his ingenious and profound short stories, poems, ...

The New ​Colossus​
The New ​Colossus​

Lazarus published another volume of poetry, Admetus and Other Poems (1871); a novel, Alide: An Episode in Goethe's Life (1874); and a verse drama, The Spagnoletto (1876), before her interests in Jewish identity and culture were reflected in her work.

source: poets.org
Fern Hill​
Fern Hill​

For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events.

source: poets.org
Ode to the ​West Wind​
Ode to the ​West Wind​

Ode to the West Wind - O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

source: poets.org
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Composed ​Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802​
Composed ​Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802​

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 - Earth has not anything to show more fair:

source: poets.org
My Last ​Duchess​
My Last ​Duchess​

A summary of “My Last Duchess” in Robert Browning's Robert Browning’s Poetry. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Robert Browning’s Poetry and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.

image: youtube.com
Divine ​Comedy​
Divine ​Comedy​

The Divine Comedy, Italian La divina commedia, original name La commedia, long narrative poem written in Italian circa 1308–21 by Dante. It is usually held to be one of the world’s great works of literature.

When I ​Consider How My Light is Spent​
When I ​Consider How My Light is Spent​

Composed sometime between 1652 and 1655, John Milton's "Sonnet 19 [When I consider how my light is spent]" grapples with the subject of the poet's blindness later in life, as well as his changing relationship with God.

source: poets.org
Annabel Lee​
Annabel Lee​

Annabel Lee Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849 It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.

source: poets.org
Easter Wings​
Easter Wings​

"Easter Wings" is one of George Herbert's most famous poems not just because it's shaped like bird wings (cute!), but also because it explains in simple and moving language some of the most complex ideas in all of Christian thought.

source: shmoop.com
Paul Revere's ​Ride​
Paul Revere's ​Ride​

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.

source: poets.org
When I Heard ​the Learn'd Astronomer​
When I Heard ​the Learn'd Astronomer​

When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

source: poets.org
Elegy Written ​in a Country Churchyard​
Elegy Written ​in a Country Churchyard​

"Gray's Elegy" is a poem that most older adults in the UK can quote, if only a few lines. In my ideal school curriculum, it would still be required reading. Musical, eloquent, moral, the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is not only a beautiful poem in its own right, but opens a network of cultural pathways. It connects the reader to English history and to European literature: Dante, Milton, the classical writers. Its ideas about society and education are deeply relevant today.

Holy Sonnets​
Holy Sonnets​

The Holy Sonnets—also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets—are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (1572–1631). The sonnets were first published in 1633—two years after Donne's death.

To a Mouse​
To a Mouse​

To a Mouse - A Poem by Robert Burns (Written by Burns after he had turned over the nest of a tiny field mouse with his plough. Burns was a farmer and farmers are generally far too busy to be concerned with the health of mice.

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Bright Star, ​Would I Were Steadfast as Thou art​
Bright Star, ​Would I Were Steadfast as Thou art​

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art ... He published only fifty-four poems, in ...

This Is Just to ​Say​
This Is Just to ​Say​

No part of this poem may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher. William Carlos Williams Poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright William Carlos Williams is often said to have been one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement.

source: poets.org

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