You drew breath as a boy draws something silver from a river, an angler from the sea a bale of weed; as a woman draws herself from a bath, as blood is drawn from a vein. You drew breath as thread is drawn through the eye of a needle, wet sheets through a mangle, as…

The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot Burnt Norton I Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation.…

For A Thirteenth Birthday by Lisel Mueller You have read War and Peace. Now here is Sister Carrie, not up to Tolstoy; still it will second the real world: predictable planes and levels, pavement that holds you, stairs that lift you, ice that trips you, nights that begin after sunset, four lunar phases, a finite…

Not marble nor the gilded monuments (Sonnet 55) by William Shakespeare Not marble nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor…

[To hear it read by Auden] As I Walked Out One Evening by W. H. Auden As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: ‘Love has no…

Digging by Seamus Heaney Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks…   [read the rest of the poem] (You can also hear the Irish poet reciting his poem via the link above.)  

In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’ by Thomas Hardy Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk. Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass. Yonder a…

This Evening’s Light Is Golden Bright by Anna Akhmatova This evening’s light is golden bright, The April’s coolness is so tender, though you are …(read more) __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ Attention: Students of Poetry! If you are a student of poetry,  you are invited to share an original poem.  Just post it in the comment section below and we…

Here’s a great poem I memorized yesterday: It’s simplicity embodied in 8 short truthful lines, that you may want to keep in mind… Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden…