A Route of Evanescence By Emily Dickinson A Route of Evanescence, With a revolving Wheel, A Resonance of Emerald A Rush of Cochineal And every Blossom on the Bush Adjusts its tumbled head Mail from Tunis, probably, An easy Morning’s…
Category: Poem Analysis
Inventory
Inventory By Dorothy Parker Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things I’d been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. Three be the things I shall never…
The House of Life 19 Silent Noon
Silent Noon By Dante Gabriel Rossetti Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, and The fingers point like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms ’Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All around…
From the Dark Tower
From the Dark Tower By an Anonymous Poet We shall not always plant while others reap The golden increment of bursting fruit, Not always countenance, abject and mute, That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap; Not everlastlessly while others…
As Froth on the Face of the Deep
As Froth on the Face of the Deep By Christina Rossetti As froth on the face of the deep, As foam on the crest of the sea, As dreams at the waking of sleep, As gourd of a day and…
Wilderness
Wilderness There is a wolf in me, a fox in me, a hog in me, a fish in me, a baboon in me, an eagle in me, and a mockingbird in me. I got a zoo, I got a menagerie,…
All Hallows’ Eve
All Hallows’ Eve By Dorothea Tanning Be perfect, make it otherwise. Yesterday is torn in shreds. Lightning’s thousand sulfur eyes Rip apart the breathing beds. Hear bones crack and pulverize. Doom creeps in on rubber treads. Countless overwrought housewives, Minds…
Sonnet 104
Sonnet 104: To Me, Fair Friend, You Never Can Be Old By William Shakespeare To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. Three winters…
Sonnet 43
Sonnet 43: Exploring Enduring Beauty and Joy By William Shakespeare Original text of Sonnet 43 (Shakespeare) reads: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” (The full poem is available in standard editions of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; the opening quatrain and…
The Bright Lights of Sarajevo
The Bright Lights of Sarajevo By Tony Harrison After the hours that Sarajevans pass Queuing with empty canisters of gas to get the refills they wheel home in prams, or queuing for the precious meagre grams of bread they’re rationed…
The Waking
The Waking Author unknown I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go. We think by feeling. What is there to know?…
Lot’s Wife
Lot’s Wife By Anna Akhmatova And the just man trailed God’s shining agent, over a black mountain, in his giant track, while a restless voice kept harrying his woman: “It’s not too late, you can still look back at the…
The Garden
The Garden By Andrew Marvell How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bay, And their unceasing labors see Crowned from some single herb or tree, Whose short and narrow shade Prudently upbraids their toils; While…
September Midnight
September Midnight By Sara Teasdale Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer, Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing, Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects, Ceaseless, insistent. The grasshopper’s horn, far off, high in the…
Youth and Age
Youth and Age By Samuel Taylor Coleridge Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying, Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee— Both were mine! Life went a-maying With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young! When I was young?—Ah, woful…
Daystar
Daystar By Rita Dove She wanted a little room for thinking; but she saw diapers steaming on the line, a doll slumped behind the door. So she lugged a chair behind the garage to sit out the children’s naps. Sometimes…
Solomon Grundy
Solomon Grundy By Anonymous Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday, Christened on Tuesday, Married on Wednesday, Took ill on Thursday, Grew worse on Friday, Died on Saturday, Buried on Sunday. That was the end, Of Solomon Grundy Understanding “Solomon Grundy”…
Row Row Row Your Boat
Row, Row, Row Your Boat Row, row, row your boat Gently up the creek If you see a little mouse Don’t forget to squeak! Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream If you see a crocodile Don’t forget…
Lizzie Borden Took an Ax
Lizzie Borden Took an Axe By Anonymous Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks, And when she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one. Summary of “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe” This concise…
New Day’s Lyric
New Day’s Lyric By Amanda Gorman May this be the day We come together. Mourning, we come to mend, Withered, we come to weather, Torn, we come to tend, Battered, we come to better. Tethered by this year of yearning,…