Call It A Good Marriage By Robert Graves Call it a good marriage – For no one ever questioned Her warmth, his masculinity, Their interlocking views; Except one stray graphologist Who frowned in speculation At her h’s and her s’s,…
Category: Poem Analysis
Cactus
Cactus By K. Satchidanandan Thorns are my language. I announce my existence with a bleeding touch. Once these thorns were flowers. I loathe lovers who betray. Poets have abandoned the deserts to go back to the gardens. Only camels remain…
No Loser, No Weeper
No Loser, No Weeper By Maya Angelou “I hate to lose something,” then she bent her head, “even a dime, I wish I was dead. I can’t explain it. No more to be said. ‘Cept I hate to lose something.…
Bye-Child
Bye-Child By Seamus Heaney He was discovered in the henhouse where she had confined him. He was incapable of saying anything. When the lamp glowed, A yolk of light In their back window, The child in the outhouse Put his…
Summons
Summons By Robert Francis Keep me from going to sleep too soon Or if I go to sleep too soon Come wake me up. Come any hour Of night. Come whistling up the road. Stomp on the porch. Bang on…
What is Success
What is Success By Ralph Waldo Emerson What is Success? To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false…
Ol’ Higue
Ol’ Higue By Mark McWatt You think I like all this stupidness gallivanting all night without skin burning myself out like cane –fire To frighten the foolish? And for what? A few drops of baby blood? You think I wouldn’t…
The Shepherd and His Flock
The Shepherd and His Flock By Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali The rays of the sun are like a pair of scissors cutting the blanket of the dawn from the sky. The young shepherd drives the master’s sheep from the paddock into…
The Runaway
The Runaway By Robert Frost Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall, We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, ‘Whose colt?’ A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall, The other curled at his…
Subway Wind
Subway Wind By Claude McKay Far down, down through the city’s great gaunt gut The gray train rushing bears the weary wind; In the packed cars the fans the crowd’s breath cut, Leaving the sick and heavy air behind. And…
Last Lesson of the Afternoon
Last Lesson of the Afternoon By D. H. Lawrence When will the bell ring, and end this weariness? How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart, My pack of unruly hounds! I cannot start Them again on a…
The Panic Bird
The Panic Bird By Robert Phillips just flew inside my chest. Some days it lights inside my brain, but today it’s in my bonehouse, rattling ribs like a birdcage. If I saw it coming, I’d fend it off with machete…
Stolen Rivers
Stolen Rivers By Phillippa Yaa de Villiers for Chiwoniso Maraire We Africans came to Berlin to sing and recite poetry. We had an agenda: remembering our anthems of loss, galloping, consuming, the pillage, the cries like forest fires, like haunted…
Southern History
Southern History By Natasha Trethewey Before the war, they were happy, he said. quoting our textbook. (This was senior-year history class.) The slaves were clothed, fed, and better off under a master’s care. I watched the words blur on the…
The Spring
The Spring By Thomas Carew Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream; But the…
If I Could Tell You
If I Could Tell You By W. H. Auden Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know. If we should…
Homework! Oh, Homework!
Homework! Oh, Homework! By Jack Prelutsky Homework! Oh, Homework! I hate you! You stink! I wish I could wash you away in the sink, if only a bomb would explode you to bits. Homework! Oh, homework! You’re giving me fits.…
Aboriginal Charter of Rights
Aboriginal Charter of Rights By Oodgeroo Noonuccal We want hope, not racialism, Brotherhood, not ostracism, Black advance, not white ascendance: Make us equals, not dependants. We need help, not exploitation, We want freedom, not frustration; Not control, but self-reliance, Independence,…
We Grow Accustomed to the Dark
We Grow Accustomed to the Dark By Emily Dickenson We grow accustomed to the Dark – When Light is put away – As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp To witness her Good bye – A Moment – We uncertain…
Piano
Piano By D. H. Lawrence Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings And…