My Father’s Sadness By Shirley Geok-lin Lim My father’s sadness appears in my dreams. His young body is dying of responsibility. So many men and women march out of his mouth each time he opens his heart for fullness, he…
Category: Poem Analysis
In This Blind Alley
In This Blind Alley By Ahmad Shamlu They smell your mouth Lest you’ve told someone ‘I love you.’ They smell your heart These are strange times, my dear Love, they drag out under lampposts to thrash. Love must be hid…
Terezin
Terezin By Hanus Hachenburg “That bit of filth in dirty walls, And all around barbed wire, And 30,000 souls who sleep Who once will wake And once will see Their own blood spilled. I was once a little child, Three…
There Will Come Soft Rains
There Will Come Soft Rains By Sara Teasdale There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous…
A Bag of Tools
A Bag of Tools By R. L. Sharpe ISN’T IT strange That princes and kings, And clowns that caper In sawdust rings, And common people Like you and me Are builders for eternity? Each is given a bag of tools,…
The Secret of the Machines
The Secret of the Machines By Rudyard Kipling (MODERN MACHINERY) We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine, We were melted in the furnace and the pit— We were cast and wrought and hammered to design, We were cut…
All But Blind
All But Blind By Walter De La Mare All but blind In his chambered hole, Gropes for worms The four-clawed mole. All but blind In the evening sky, The hooded Bat Twirls softly by. All but blind In the burning…
At the Border, 1979
At the Border, 1979 By Choman Hardi ‘It is your last check-in point in this country!’ We grabbed a drink – soon everything would taste different. The land under our feet continued divided by a thick iron chain. My sister…
Daddy Fell into the Pond
Daddy Fell into the Pond By Alfred Noyes Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey. We had nothing to do and nothing to say. We were nearing the end of a dismal day, And then there seemed to be nothing beyond,…
For Julia, In the Deep Water
For Julia, In the Deep Water By John N. Morris The instructor we hire because she does not love you Leads you into the deep water, The deep end Where the water is darker— Her open, encouraging arms That never…
Everything Has Changed (Except Graves)
Everything Has Changed (Except Graves) By Mzi Mahola I stood at the ruins of my former school where I was patiently moulded; wild plants own every space now; my soul was paralyzed. What happened to the roofs the doors and…
Poverty
Poverty by Jane Taylor I saw an old cottage of clay, And only of mud was the floor; It was all falling into decay, And the snow drifted in at the door. Yet there a poor family dwelt, In a…
Man and Woman
Man and Woman by Victor Marie Hugo Man is the highest of creatures. The woman is the most sublime of ideals. God made for man a throne for the woman an altar. The throne exalts, the altar sanctifies. Man is…
I’M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU?
I’M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU? By Emily Dickinson I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—Too? Then there’s a pair of us! Don’t tell! they’d advertise—you know! How dreary—to be—Somebody! How public—like a Frog— To tell one’s name—the livelong June— To…
For My Daughter
For My Daughter By Weldon Kees Looking into my daughter’s eyes I read Beneath the innocence of morning flesh Concealed, hintings of death she does not heed. Coldest of winds have blown this hair, and mesh Of seaweed snarled these…
The Fish
The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung…
Remember
Remember by Joy Harjo Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories. Remember the moon, know who she is. Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the strongest point of time. Remember sundown…
In and Out of Time
In and Out of Time By Maya Angelou The sun has come. The mist has gone. We see in the distance… our long way home. I was always yours to have. You were always mine. We have loved each other…
After Death
After Death by Christina Rossetti The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay, Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept. He leaned above me,…
A Time to Believe
A Time to Believe by B. J Morbitzer To believe is to know that everyday is a new beginning. Is to trust that miracles happen, and dreams really do come true. To believe is to see angels dancing among the…