Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Classic Poets
O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Afternoon in February by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It is rare for us to publish a classic poem these days. We would like to more often. Being the end of February and just coming out of a very cold spell, we are happy to see the sun. Longfellow was born in February, so it just seemed like a good idea.
Dualisms by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Dualisms by Alfred Lord Tennyson Two bees within a chrystal flowerbell rocked Hum a lovelay to the westwind at noontide. Both alike, they buzz together, Both alike, they hum together Through and through the flowered heather. Where in a creeping cove the wave unshocked Lays itself calm and wide, Over a stream two birds of […]
A Pause of Thought by Christina Rossetti
A Pause of Thought by Christina Rossetti I looked for that which is not, nor can be, And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth: But years must pass before a hope of youth Is resigned utterly. I watched and waited with a steadfast will: And though the object seemed to flee away That […]
Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot
Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot Webster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin; And breastless creatures under ground Leaned backward with a lipless grin. Daffodil bulbs instead of balls Stared from the sockets of the eyes! He knew that thought clings round dead limbs Tightening its lusts and […]
Memorial Day by Joyce Kilmer
Memorial Day by Joyce Kilmer “Dulce et decorum est” The bugle echoes shrill and sweet, But not of war it sings to-day. The road is rhythmic with the feet Of men-at-arms who come to pray. The roses blossom white and red On tombs where weary soldiers lie; Flags wave above the honored dead And martial […]
Love and a Question by Robert Frost
Love and a Question by Robert Frost A STRANGER came to the door at eve, And he spoke the bridegroom fair. He bore a green-white stick in his hand, And, for all burden, care. He asked with the eyes more than the lips For a shelter for the night, And he turned and looked at […]
His Dream by W. B. Yeats
His Dream by W. B. Yeats I swayed upon the gaudy stern The butt end of a steering oar, And everywhere that I could turn Men ran upon the shore. And though I would have hushed the crowd There was no mother’s son but said, What is the figure in a shroud Upon a gaudy […]
Sonnet VI by William Shakespeare
Sonnet VI by William Shakespeare Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface, In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill’d: Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place With beauty’s treasure ere it be self-kill’d. That use is not forbidden usury, Which happies those that pay the willing loan; That’s for thy self to breed […]
Kindliness by Rupert Brooke
Kindliness by Rupert Brooke When love has changed to kindliness Oh, love, our hungry lips, that press So tight that Time’s an old god’s dream Nodding in heaven, and whisper stuff Seven million years were not enough To think on after, make it seem Less than the breath of children playing, A blasphemy scarce worth […]
Only A Woman’s Hair by Lewis Carroll
Only A Woman’s Hair by Lewis Carroll Only a woman’s hair! Fling it aside! A bubble on Life’s mighty stream: Heed it not, man, but watch the broadening tide Bright with the western beam. Nay! In those words there rings from other years The echo of a long low cry, Where a proud spirit wrestles […]
Wild Asters by Sara Teasdale
Wild Asters by Sara Teasdale In the spring I asked the daisies If his words were true, And the clever little daisies Always knew. Now the fields are brown and barren, Bitter autumn blows, And of all the stupid asters Not one knows. Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American lyric poet known for her intimate […]
In a Library by Emily Dickinson
In a Library by Emily Dickinson A precious, mouldering pleasure ‘t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think, His venerable hand to take, And warming in our own, A passage back, or two, to make To times when he was young. His quaint opinions to […]
The Second Coming by W. B. Yeats
The Second Coming by W. B. Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst […]