Fire and Ice by Robert Frost Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I…
Category: Poem Analysis
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove, That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon…
Alone
Alone by Edgar Allan Poe From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were—I have not seen As others saw—I could not bring My passions from a common spring— From the same source I have not taken My sorrow—I could…
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow; And everywhere that Mary went The lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, Which was against…
Daddy
Daddy by Sylvia Plath You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had…
Those Winter Sundays
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early And put his clothes on in the blue black cold, Then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one…
Dover Beach
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in…
Home Burial
Home Burial by Robert Frost He saw her from the bottom of the stairs Before she saw him. She was starting down, Looking back over her shoulder at some fear. She took a doubtful step and then undid it To raise…
Thanatopsis
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of…
The Flea
The Flea by John Donne Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; Thou know’st that…
My Parents
My Parents by Stephen Spender My parents kept me from children who were rough Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country…
Auguries of Innocence
Auguries of Innocence by William Blake To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour A Robin Red breast in…
Not Waving but Drowning
Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s…
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The tide rises, the tide falls, The twilight darkens, the curlew calls; Along the sea-sands damp and brown The traveler hastens toward the town, And the tide rises, the tide…
When You Are Old
When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once,…
Silence
Silence by Thomas Hood There is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be, In the cold grave—under the deep deep sea, Or in the wide desert where no life is found, Which…
The Voice
The Voice by Thomas Hardy Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me, Saying that now you are not as you were When you had changed from the one who was all to me, But as at…
Old Ironsides
Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high? And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst…
Miniver Cheevy
Miniver Cheevy by Edwin Arlington Robinson Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn, Grew lean while he assailed the seasons; He wept that he was ever born, And he had reasons. Miniver loved the days of old When swords were bright and…
Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and…