Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it—— A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine…
Tag: poem analysis
50-50
50-50 by Langston Hughes I’m all alone in this world, she said, Ain’t got nobody to share my bed, Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand— The truth of the matter’s I ain’t got no man. Big Boy opened his…
My Friend
My Friend by Khalil Gibran My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear—a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence. The “I” in me, my friend, dwells…
The Walrus and the Carpenter
The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll “The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright — And this was odd, because it was…
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling…
Birches
Birches by Robert Frost When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay As ice-storms do.…
The Wreck of the Hesperus
The Wreck of the Hesperus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, Her cheeks…
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the…
Goblin Market
Goblin Market by Christiana Rossetti Morning and evening Maids heard the goblins cry: “Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy: Apples and quinces, Lemons and oranges, Plump unpeck’d cherries, Melons and raspberries, Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches, Swart-headed mulberries, Wild free-born…
Success is Counted Sweetest
Success is Counted Sweetest by Emily Dickinson Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear…
Bright Star, Would I Were Stedfast as Thou Art
Bright Star, Would I Were Stedfast as Thou Art by John Keats Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, The…
The Highwayman
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes Part One The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman…
To an Athlete Dying Young
To an Athlete Dying Young by A. E. Housman The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. Today, the road all runners come,…
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens Call the roller of big cigars, The muscular one, and bid him whip In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the…
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep by Mother Goose Baa, baa, black sheep Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for the master, And one for the dame, And one for the little boy Who lives down…
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the…
There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe by Mother Goose Version 1 There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do. She gave them some broth…
The Conqueror Worm
The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe Lo! ’t is a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, Sit in a theatre, to see A play of hopes and fears,…
Ode
Ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; — World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers…
The Bridge Builder
The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole An old man going a lone highway, Came, at the evening cold and gray, To a chasm vast and deep and wide. Through which was flowing a sullen tide The old man crossed…