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The Collection
Public-domain poems to warm up on
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A BirthdayChristina Rossetti My heart is like a singing bird A Dream Within a DreamEdgar Allan Poe Take this kiss upon the brow! A Man Said to the UniverseStephen Crane A man said to the universe: A Noiseless Patient SpiderWalt Whitman A noiseless patient spider, A Psalm of LifeHenry Wadsworth Longfellow Tell me not, in mournful numbers, A Red, Red RoseRobert Burns O my Luve is like a red, red rose A Valediction: Forbidding MourningJohn Donne As virtuous men pass mildly away, Abou Ben AdhemLeigh Hunt Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Afternoon on a HillEdna St. Vincent Millay I will be the gladdest thing AmericaClaude McKay Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, Annabel LeeEdgar Allan Poe It was many and many a year ago, Anthem for Doomed YouthWilfred Owen What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Auguries of InnocenceWilliam Blake To see a World in a Grain of Sand, Because I Could Not Stop for DeathEmily Dickinson Because I could not stop for Death, Bright StarJohn Keats Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Composed upon Westminster BridgeWilliam Wordsworth Earth has not anything to show more fair: Crossing the BarAlfred, Lord Tennyson Sunset and evening star, Death, Be Not ProudJohn Donne Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Dover BeachMatthew Arnold The sea is calm to-night. DreamsLangston Hughes Hold fast to dreams Dulce et Decorum EstWilfred Owen Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Elegy Written in a Country ChurchyardThomas Gray The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, Everyone SangSiegfried Sassoon Everyone suddenly burst out singing; Fire and IceRobert Frost Some say the world will end in fire, First FigEdna St. Vincent Millay My candle burns at both ends; FogCarl Sandburg The fog comes He Wishes for the Cloths of HeavenW. B. Yeats Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Home-Thoughts, from AbroadRobert Browning Oh, to be in England Hope is the Thing with FeathersEmily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I Wandered Lonely as a CloudWilliam Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud I, TooLangston Hughes I, too, sing America. If We Must DieClaude McKay If we must die, let it not be like hogs If—Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you In a Station of the MetroEzra Pound The apparition of these faces in the crowd; In the Bleak MidwinterChristina Rossetti In the bleak midwinter, InvictusWilliam Ernest Henley Out of the night that covers me, JabberwockyLewis Carroll 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Kubla KhanSamuel Taylor Coleridge In Xanadu did Kubla Khan La Belle Dame sans MerciJohn Keats O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Lift Every Voice and SingJames Weldon Johnson Lift every voice and sing, LondonWilliam Blake I wander thro' each charter'd street, Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry NowA. E. Housman Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Mother to SonLangston Hughes Well, son, I'll tell you: No Coward Soul Is MineEmily Brontë No coward soul is mine, Nothing Gold Can StayRobert Frost Nature's first green is gold, O Captain! My Captain!Walt Whitman O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, Ode on a Grecian UrnJohn Keats Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Ode to the West WindPercy Bysshe Shelley O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, On Being Brought from Africa to AmericaPhillis Wheatley 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, On His BlindnessJohn Milton When I consider how my light is spent, OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land RecuerdoEdna St. Vincent Millay We were very tired, we were very merry- RememberChristina Rossetti Remember me when I am gone away, RequiemRobert Louis Stevenson Under the wide and starry sky, Richard CoryEdwin Arlington Robinson Whenever Richard Cory went down town, Sea FeverJohn Masefield I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, She Walks in BeautyLord Byron She walks in beauty, like the night SilverWalter de la Mare Slowly, silently, now the moon So We'll Go No More a RovingLord Byron So, we'll go no more a roving Song: To CeliaBen Jonson Drink to me only with thine eyes, Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?William Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Sonnet 75 (One Day I Wrote Her Name)Edmund Spenser One day I wrote her name upon the strand, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningRobert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know. Success Is Counted SweetestEmily Dickinson Success is counted sweetest SympathyPaul Laurence Dunbar I know what the caged bird feels, alas! The Charge of the Light BrigadeAlfred, Lord Tennyson Half a league, half a league, The Darkling ThrushThomas Hardy I leant upon a coppice gate The DonkeyG. K. Chesterton When fishes flew and forests walked The EagleAlfred, Lord Tennyson He clasps the crag with crooked hands; The Lake Isle of InnisfreeWilliam Butler Yeats I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, The LambWilliam Blake Little Lamb, who made thee? The ListenersWalter de la Mare 'Is there anybody there?' said the Traveller, The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockT. S. Eliot Let us go then, you and I, The Negro Speaks of RiversLangston Hughes I've known rivers: The New ColossusEmma Lazarus Give me your tired, your poor, The OxenThomas Hardy Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. The Passionate Shepherd to His LoveChristopher Marlowe Come live with me and be my love, The RavenEdgar Allan Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, The Red WheelbarrowWilliam Carlos Williams so much depends The Rime of the Ancient MarinerSamuel Taylor Coleridge It is an ancient Mariner, The Road Not TakenRobert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, The Second ComingW. B. Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyre The Snow ManWallace Stevens One must have a mind of winter The SoldierRupert Brooke If I should die, think only this of me: The TygerWilliam Blake Tyger Tyger, burning bright, The World Is Too Much with UsWilliam Wordsworth The world is too much with us; late and soon, There Will Come Soft RainsSara Teasdale There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, They Are Not LongErnest Dowson They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, To AutumnJohn Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, To His Coy MistressAndrew Marvell Had we but world enough, and time, To My Dear and Loving HusbandAnne Bradstreet If ever two were one, then surely we. To the Virgins, to Make Much of TimeRobert Herrick Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, TreesJoyce Kilmer I think that I shall never see UlyssesAlfred, Lord Tennyson It little profits that an idle king, VirtueGeorge Herbert Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, We Wear the MaskPaul Laurence Dunbar We wear the mask that grins and lies, When I Was One-and-TwentyA. E. Housman When I was one-and-twenty When You Are OldWilliam Butler Yeats When you are old and grey and full of sleep, Yet Do I MarvelCountee Cullen I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,