Poetry

Introduction

An Anecdote: Where Poetry Starts 

Speaker, Listener, and Context 

The Star-Spangled Banner

Lyric, Narrative, Dramatic 

The Language of Poetry 

Figurative Language 

Allegory and Symbol 

Tone of Voice 

Repetition: Sounds and Schemes 

Meter and Rhythm 

Free Verse, Open Form and Closed Forms

Stanza Forms 

Fixed Forms 

Literary History, Poetic Conventions, and Theory

 

Writing about Poetry

 

Poetry

 

Anonymous

            Western Wind

            Bonny Barbara Allan

            Sir Patrick Spens

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542)

            They Flee from Me 

            Whoso List to Hunt

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

            Amoretti: Sonnet 75

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

            Astrophel and Stella: Sonnet 1

Robert Southwell (1561?-1595)

            The Burning Babe

Michael Drayton (1563-1631)

            Idea: Sonnet 61

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

            Sonnet 18

            Sonnet 20

            Sonnet 29

            Sonnet 73

            Sonnet 116

            Sonnet 129

            Sonnet 130

            When Daisies Pied (Spring and Winter)

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

            There Is a Garden in Her Face

John Donne (1572-1631)

            The Flea

            Holy Sonnet 10

            Holy Sonnet 14

            The Sun Rising

            A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Ben Jonson (1573-1637)

            On My First Son

            Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount

Mary Wroth (1587?-1651?)

            In This Strange Labyrinth How Shall I Turn

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

            To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

George Herbert (1593-1633)

            Easter Wings

            The Pulley

            Redemption

Edmund Waller (1606-1687)

            Song

John Milton (1608-1674)

            How Soon Hath Time

            On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

            When I Consider How My Light Is Spent

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

            The Author to Her Book

Richard Lovelace (1618-1658)

            To Lucasta, Going to the Wars

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

            To His Coy Mistress

John Dryden (1631-1700)

            To the Memory of Mr. Oldham

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

            A Description of a City Shower

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

            from An Essay on Criticism

            Ode on Solitude

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

            Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

William Blake (1757-1827)

            The Chimney Sweeper

            The Little Black Boy

            A Poison Tree

            The Tyger

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

            A Red, Red Rose

            John Barleycorn

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

            I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

            It Is a Beauteous Evening

            Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room

            Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

            Frost at Midnight

            Kubla Khan

            Work Without Hope

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

            She Walks in Beauty

            Stanzas

            When We Two Parted

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

            Ode to the West Wind

            Ozymandias

John Keats (1795-1821)

            * Bright Star, Would I Were Stedfast as Thou Art

            La Belle Dame sans Merci

            Ode to a Nightingale

            On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

            Sonnets from the Portuguese, 18

            Sonnets from the Portuguese, 43

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

            The Arsenal at Springfield

            The Cross of Snow

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

           The Haunted Palace

             The Raven

             Sonnet: To Science

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

            The Eagle

            The Lady of Shalott

            Tears, Idle Tears

            Ulysses

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

            My Last Duchess

            Porphyria’s Lover

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

            A Noiseless Patient Spider

            O Captain, My Captain

           A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Grey and Dim

           Song of Myself, 1

            Song of Myself, 5

           Song of Myself, 6

           Song of Myself, 11

           Song of Myself, 21

           Song of Myself, 32

           Song of Myself, 52

           When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

            Dover Beach

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

           After Great Pain a Formal Feeling Comes

            Because I Could Not Stop for Death

           The Brain Is Wider than the Sky

            I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain 

            Much Madness is Divinest Sense

            A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

            Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church

            The Soul Selects Her Own Society

            Tell All the Truth, But Tell It Slant

            There’s a Certain Slant of Light

            Wild Nights–Wild Nights

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

            Up-Hill

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

            Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?

            Channel Firing

            Neutral Tones

            The Ruined Maid

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

            God’s Grandeur

            Pied Beauty

            Spring and Fall: To a Young Child 

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

            The New Colossus

A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

            Eight O’Clock

            Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now

            Stars, I Have Seen Them Fall

            “Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff . . .”

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

            The Lake Isle of Innisfree

            Leda and the Swan

            Sailing to Byzantium

            The Second Coming

            The Song of Wandering Aengus

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

            Firelight

            The Mill

            Richard Cory

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

            The Trees in the Garden Rained Flowers

            The Wayfarer

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

            We Wear the Mask

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

            Acquainted with the Night

            After Apple-Picking

            Design

            Home Burial

            The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

            The Road Not Taken

            Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1034)

            Amaze

            Languor after Pain

            Trapped

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

            Anecdote of the Jar

            Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock

            The Emperor of Ice-Cream

            The Snow Man

            Sunday Morning

            The Worms at Heavens Gate

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

            The Last Words of My English Grandmother

            The Red Wheelbarrow

            Spring and All

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

            In a Station of the Metro

            Portrait d’une Femme

            The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter

Elinor Wylie (1885-1928)

            Let No Charitable Hope

            Ophelia

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)

            Pear Tree

            Sea Rose

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

            Dreamers

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

            The Purse-Seine

Marianne Moore (1887-1972)

            The Fish

            Silence

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

            Journey of the Magi

            The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

            Preludes

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

            If I Should Learn, in Some Quite Casual Way

            Oh, Oh, You Will Be Sorry for that Word

            What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

            Dulce et Decorum Est

e. e. cummings (1894-1962)

            pity this busy monster,manunkind

            plato told

            r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

            *  somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond

Jean Toomer (1894-1967)

            Georgia Dusk

Louise Bogan (1897-1970)

            Women

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

            Dream Boogie

            * Harlem Sweeties

            The Weary Blues

Stevie Smith (1902-1971)

           Our Bog Is Dood

Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

            Incident

            Yet Do I Marvel

W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

            As I Walked Out One Evening

            Musée des Beaux Arts

            The Unknown Citizen

Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

            Dolor

            My Papa’s Waltz

            Root Cellar

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)

            The Fish

           One Art

            * The Shampoo

Robert Hayden (1913-1980)

            Those Winter Sundays 

Dudley Randall (1914-2000)

            Ballad of Birmingham

William Stafford (1914-1993)

            Traveling through the Dark

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

            Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

            Poem in October

Weldon Kees (1914-1955)

            For My Daughter

Margaret Walker (1915-1998)

            For Malcolm X

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

            the ballad of chocolate Mabbie

            the mother

            We Real Cool

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919)

            A Coney Island of the Mind, #15

May Swenson (1919-1989)

            How Everything Happens

Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)

            A Primer of the Daily Round

Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)

            Junk

            * For C

            The Writer

            Year’s End

Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

            Next, Please

            This Be the Verse

           The Whitsun Weddings

James Dickey (1923-1997)

            The Heaven of Animals

Alan Dugan (1923-2003)

            Love Song: I and Thou

Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)

           The Dover Bitch

            Third Avenue in Sunlight

Daniel Hoffman (b. 1923)

            As I Was Going to Saint-Ives

Louis Simpson (b. 1923)

            American Classic

            My Father in the Night Commanding No

Vassar Miller (1924-1997)

            Subterfuge

Donald Justice (b. 1925)

            Counting the Mad

Carolyn Kizer (b. 1925)

            The Ungrateful Garden

           Pro Femina: Part Three 

Maxine Kumin (b. 1925)

            Noted in the New York Times

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

            A Supermarket in California

James Merrill (1926-1995)

            Casual Wear

Frank O’Hara (1926-1966)

            The Day Lady Died

W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009)

            Mementos, I

John Ashbery (b. 1927)

            Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape

            Paradoxes and Oxymorons

W. S. Merwin (b. 1927)

            For the Anniversary of My Death

            The Last One

James Wright (1927-1980)

            Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

            Saint Judas

Philip Levine (b. 1928)

            You Can Have It

Anne Sexton (1928-1974)

            Cinderella

Thom Gunn (b. 1929)

            From the Wave

            Terminal

X. J. Kennedy (b. 1929)

            In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day

            Little Elegy

Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

            Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

            Diving into the Wreck

            Rape

Ted Hughes (b. 1930-1998)

            Pike

Gary Snyder (b. 1930)

            A Walk

Miller Williams (b. 1930)

            The Book

Linda Pastan (b. 1932)

            Ethics

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

            Daddy

            Edge

            Metaphors

Gerald Barrax (b. 1933)

            Strangers like Us: Pittsburgh, Raleigh, 1945-1985

Mark Strand (b. 1934)

            The Tunnel

Lewis Turco (b. 1934)

           The Premonition

Russel Edson (b. 1935)

            Ape

Mary Oliver (b. 1935)

            The Black Walnut Tree

            Honey at the Table

Fred Chappell (b. 1936)

            Narcissus and Echo

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)

            homage to my hips

            wishes for sons

Marge Piercy (b. 1936)

            What’s That Smell in the Kitchen!

Betty Adcock (b. 1938)

            Voyages

Robert Phillips (b. 1938)

            The Stone Crab: A Love Poem

Dabney Stuart (b. 1938)

            Discovering My Daughter

Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)

            Siren Song

Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)

            The Sacred

Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)

            Digging

            Punishment

Ted Kooser (b. 19390

           Abandoned Farmhouse

Tom Disch (b. 1940)

            Ballade of the New God

Florence Cassen Mayers (b. 1940)

            All American Sestina

Pattiann Rogers (b. 1940)

            Foreplay

Billy Collins (b. 1941)

            Litany

            Paradelle for Susan 

Robert Hass (b. 1941)

           Meditation at Lagunitas

Simon J. Ortiz (b. 1941)

            The Serenity in Stones

Gibbons Ruark (b. 1941)

            The Visitor

Gladys Cardiff (b. 1942)

            Combing

B.H. Fairchild (b. 1942)

            Body and Soul

Charles Martin (b. 1942)

            E.S.L.

Sharon Olds (b. 1942)

            The One Girl at the Boys Party

Henry Taylor (b. 1942)

            From Brief Candles

Diane Lockward (b. 1943)

            My Husband Discovers Poetry

Ellen Bryant Voight (b. 1943)

            Daughter

Robert Morgan (b. 1944)

            Mountain Bride

Craig Raine (b. 1944)

            A Martian Sends a Postcard Home

Enid Shomer (b. 1944)

            Women Bathing at Bergen Belsen

Wendy Cope (b. 1944)

            Rondeau Redoublé

Dick Davis (b. 1945)

            A Monorhyme for the Shower

Kay Ryan (b. 1945)

            Bestiary

Leon Stokesbury (b. 1945)

            The Day Kennedy Died

John Whitworth (b. 1945)

            The Examiners

Marilyn Nelson (b. 1946)

            The Ballad of Aunt Geneva

Ai (1947-2010)

            Child Beater

Jim Hall (b. 1947)

            Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too

Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947)

            Facing It

R.S. Gwynn (b. 1948)

            Approaching a Significant Birthday, He Peruses an Anthology of Poetry

Timothy Steele (b. 1948)

            Sapphics Against Anger

James Fenton (b. 1949)

            God, a Poem

Sarah Cortez (b. 1950)

            Tu Negrito

Carolyn Forché (b. 1950)

            The Colonel

Dana Gioia (b. 1950)

            Planting a Sequoia

Rodney Jones (b. 1950)

            Winter Retreat: Homage to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Timothy Murphy (b. 1950)

            Case Notes

Joy Harjo (b. 1951)

            She Had Some Horses

Andrew Hudgins (b. 1951)

            Air View of an Industrial Scene

Robert Wrigley (b. 1951)

            Thatcher Bitchboy

Judith Ortiz Cofer (b. 1952)

            The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica

Rita Dove (b. 1952)

             American Smooth

Mark Jarman (b. 1952)

            After Disappointment

Julie Kane (b. 19520

            Alan Doll Rap

Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952)

            The Traveling Onion

Alberto Ríos (b. 1952)

            The Purpose of Altar Boys

Julia Alvarez (b. 1953)

            Bilingual Sestina

Harryette Mullen (b. 1953)

            Dim Lady

Kim Addonizio (b. 1954)

            Sonnenizio on a Line by Millay

David Mason (b. 1954)

           Fog Horns

Mary Jo Salter (b. 1954)

            Welcome to Hiroshima

Cathy Song (b. 1955)

            Stamp Collecting

Ginger Andrews (b. 1956)

            Primping in the Rearview Mirror

Annie Finch (b. 1956)

            Coy Mistress

* Amy Gerstler (B. 1956)

            Advice from a Caterpillar

* Rebecca Faust (B. 1957)

      Family Story

April Lindner (b. 1962)

            First Kiss

Catherine Tufariello (b. 1963)

            Useful Advice

Sherman Alexie (b. 1966)

            The Exaggeration of Despair

Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966)

            Domestic Work, 1937

* Craig Arnold (1967-2009)

             The Singers

Allison Joseph (b. 1967)

            The Athlete

Brian Turner (b. 1967)

            Here. Bullet

Suji Kwock Kim (b. 1968)

            Occupation

A. E. Stallings (b. 1968)

           First Love: A Quiz

Joshua Mehigan (b. 1969)

            Riddle

* Ernest Hilbert (B. 1970)

             Domestic Situation

Sophie Hannah (b. 1971)

            The Guest Speaker

Emily Moore (b. 1977)

            Auld Lang Syne

* Erica Dawson (B. 1979)

             Somewhere Between Columbus and Cincinnati

 

Appendix: Stanza, Fixed, and Nonce Forms

 

Acknowledgments

 

Index of Critical Terms

 

Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines of Poems

 

Additional Titles of Interest

 

 

 

A perfect alternative to massive poetry anthologies, this brief, affordable collection of over 250 poems provides a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the study of poetry.  Authors new to this collection, including Amy Gerstler (named by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the best poets in the nation”), and award winners Rebecca Foust and Craig Arnold, provide ample evidence that poetry continues to flourish in today’s world.  Young writers Ernest Hilbert and Erica Dawson bring poetry into the 21 ^st century and provide inspiration for aspiring young poets.