Category: Poem Analysis

Eagle Poem

Eagle Poem By Joy Harjo To pray you open your whole self To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon To one whole voice that is you. And know there is more That you can’t see, can’t hear; Can’t know…

Exile

Exile By Julia Alvarez The night we fled the country, Papi, you told me we were going to the beach, hurried me to get dressed along with the others, while posted at a window, you looked out at a curfew-darkened…

The Good-Morrow

The Good-Morrow By John Donne I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then? But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den? ’Twas so;…

October

October By Louise Glück Is it winter again, is it cold again, didn’t Frank just slip on the ice, didn’t he heal, weren’t the spring seeds planted didn’t the night end, didn’t the melting ice flood the narrow gutters wasn’t…

On The Sea

On The Sea By John Keats It keeps eternal whisperings around Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound. Often ‘tis in such gentle temper…

Apologia

Apologia By Oscar Wilde Is it thy will that I should wax and wane, Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey, And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day? Is…

Mutability

Mutability By Percy Bysshe Shelley I. We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; How restlessly they speed and gleam and quiver, Streaking the darkness radiantly! yet soon Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:— II. Or…

Kindness

Kindness By Naomi Shihab Nye Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully…

The Rainbow Bridge

The Rainbow Bridge By Paul C. Dahm Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and…

The Last Ride Together

The Last Ride Together By Robert Browning I SAID—Then, dearest, since ‘tis so, Since now at length my fate I know, Since nothing all my love avails, Since all, my life seem’d meant for, fails, Since this was written and…

Old Testament Psalm 23

Old Testament Psalm 23 Psalm 23:1–6 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth…

Ecce Puer

Ecce Puer By James Joyce Of the dark past A child is born; With joy and grief My heart is torn. Calm in his cradle The living lies. May love and mercy Unclose his eyes! Young life is breathed On…

I Am Offering this Poem

I Am Offering this Poem By Jimmy Santiago Baca I am offering this poem to you, since I have nothing else to give. Keep it like a warm coat when winter comes to cover you, or like a pair of…

The Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes And roofs of villages, on woodland crests And their aerial neighborhoods of nests Deserted, on the curtained window-panes Of rooms where children sleep, on country…

The Builders

The Builders By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme. Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; And what seems but idle show Strengthens and supports the rest. For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. Truly shape and fashion these; Leave no yawning gaps between; Think not, because no man sees, Such things will remain unseen. In the elder days of Art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; For the Gods see everywhere. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen; Make the house, where Gods may dwell, Beautiful, entire, and clean. Else our lives are incomplete, Standing in these walls of Time, Broken stairways, where the feet Stumble as they seek to climb. Build to-day, then, strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure Shall to-morrow find its place. Thus alone can we attain To those turrets, where the eye…

Give Me Your Hand

Give Me Your Hand By Gabriela Mistral Give me your hand and give me your love, give me your hand and dance with me. A single flower, and nothing more, a single flower is all we’ll be. Keeping time in…

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again By Eva Rose York I shall not pass this way again— Although it bordered be with flowers, Although I rest in fragrant bowers, And hear the singing Of song-birds winging To highest heaven…