Excellence in Literature: Because reading well can change your life.

Tagged: poem

E3-Resources / Poetry

The Haunted Oak by Paul Dunbar

THE HAUNTED OAK by Paul Laurence Dunbar Pray why are you so bare, so bare, Oh, bough of the old oak-tree; And why, when I go through the shade you throw, Runs a shudder...

E4-Resources / Poetry

Lycidas by John Milton

English poet John Milton wrote this pastoral elegy in mourning for a childhood friend. It is saturated throughout with classical allusions, so it’s best to read it with a Dictionary of Allusions close at...

On His Blindness - they also serve . . . who wait.

E4-Resources / Poetry

On His Blindness by John Milton

On His Blindness by John Milton When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg’d...

E4-Resources / Poetry

Gratefulnesse by George Herbert

Gratefulnesse by George Herbert Thou that hast giv’n so much to me, Give one thing more, a gratefull heart. See how thy beggar works on thee By art. He makes thy gifts occasion more,...

Easter Wings by George Herbert 1633

E4-Resources / Poetry

Easter Wings by George Herbert

Easter Wings by George Herbert Easter Wings Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poore: With thee Oh let...

E3-Resources / Poetry

Good Bye by Emerson

GOOD-BYE by Ralph Waldo Emerson Good-bye, proud world! I’m going home: Thou art not my friend, and I’m not thine. Long through thy weary crowds I roam; A river-ark on the ocean brine, Long...

The lily is beautiful, although its time on earth is limited, just like ours.

E3-Resources / Poetry

The Day’s Ration by Emerson

THE DAY’S RATION by Ralph Waldo Emerson When I was born, From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice, Saying, ‘This be thy portion, child; this chalice, Less than a lily’s, thou...

E3-Resources

Concord Hymn by Emerson

CONCORD HYMN by Ralph Waldo Emerson SUNG AT THE COMPLETION OF THE BATTLE MONUMENT, JULY 4, 1837 By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the...

E3-Resources / Poetry

Annabel Lee poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Annabel Lee is Edgar Allan Poe’s last complete poem, published after his death in 1849. Scholars have speculated that the poem was inspired by his wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, but there is no...

E4-Resources / Poetry

The Hippopotamus by T S Eliot

The Hippopotamus by T. S. Eliot This odd little quatrain poem was written by Eliot before his conversion to the Christian faith. Similiter et omnes revereantur Diaconos, ut mandatum Jesu Christi; et Episcopum, ut...

E4-Resources / Poetry

God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins

God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins You may find it helpful to listen to Richard Austin’s excellent recitation of this poem. THE world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out,...

E4-Resources / Poetry

Surprised by Joy by William Wordsworth

Surprised by Joy by William Wordsworth Surprised by joy, impatient as the wind, I turned to share the transport, — oh, with whom? But thee, deep buried in the silent tomb, That spot which...

Autumn bounty of pumpkins and gourds from Longwood Gardens By Sdwelch1031 (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

E4-Resources / Poetry

To Autumn by John Keats

To Autumn by John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;...

E4-Resources / Poetry

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert…Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered...

E3-Resources / Poetry

Nobody poem by Emily Dickinson

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...

Old Ironsides

E3-Resources / Poetry

Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr

OLD IRONSIDES by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr This was the popular name by which the frigate Constitution was known. The poem was first printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser, at the time when it...