A companion piece to the previous work, "Nocturne II" was also featured in the 1913 edition of Poetry magazine. Skipwith Cannéll continues to utilize the spare, evocative language of the Imagist movement to capture a moment of spiritual or em…
First appearing in the avant-garde literary magazine Poetry in 1913, "Nocturne I" is a hauntingly beautiful work by Skipwith Cannéll. An American poet associated with the Imagist movement, Cannéll was known for his rhythmic, almost inc…
First published in 1890, years after her death, "The Dying Need But Little, Dear,—" captures the profound, quiet intimacy that Emily Dickinson is known for. As one of America’s most influential poets, Dickinson lived a famously secluded …
A key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Lewis Alexander was celebrated for his ability to weave the energy of the urban environment into traditional poetic forms. First published in 1926, "Streets" is a masterful example of his minimalist style. Ale…
Published posthumously in 1824, "To Night" is a masterful example of the lyrical intensity of Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets. Shelley was a revolutionary spirit who often found his greatest inspiration in the sublime f…
First published in his landmark 1925 debut collection Color, "For My Grandmother" is a poignant epitaph by Countee Cullen. One of the most celebrated voices of the Harlem Renaissance, Cullen often blended traditional European poetic forms with theme…
First published in 1849, just months before his tragic and mysterious death, "A Dream Within a Dream" is a quintessential work by Edgar Allan Poe. As the master of American Gothic literature, Poe was renowned for exploring themes of loss and the bre…
First published in 1908, "Above the Dock" is a seminal work by T.E. Hulme, an English critic and poet who was a central figure in the development of Modernism. Hulme was the driving force behind the Imagist movement, which championed precision, clar…
A prolific poet and humorist in the late 19th century, Eugene Field was affectionately known as the "Poet of Childhood." First published in his 1892 collection A Second Book of Verse, "Red" is a multi-stanza work that is often distilled down to this…
Published in his 1893 collection The Rose, "When You Are Old" is one of the most poignant works of William Butler Yeats, a titan of 20th-century Irish literature. Written during his intense and often unrequited pursuit of the Irish revolutionary Mau…
First published in his 1867 collection May-Day and Other Pieces, this concise quatrain highlights the transcendentalist philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. As a central figure in the 19th-century American Transcendentalist movement, Emerson’s w…
First published in 1897 as a standout piece in More Beasts for Worse Children, "The Scorpion" is a masterclass in Hilaire Belloc’s signature sardonic wit. This collection served as the popular follow-up to his earlier Bad Child&rsquo…
Written by the master of metaphysical devotion, George Herbert, "The World" was first published posthumously in his 1633 collection, The Temple. As a priest and poet, Herbert used architectural metaphors to explore the fragile relationship betw…
Best known for his cycle A Shropshire Lad, A. E. Housman was a master of capturing profound grief and longing with deceptive simplicity. "The Half-Moon Westers Low, My Love" was published in his 1922 collection, Last Poems. It serves as a haunting e…
Best known for penning the lyrics to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," Jane Taylor was a prolific English poet and novelist whose work often focused on moral and spiritual themes for children. "The Violet," published in 1806 within the collection Rhy…
Published in 1917 as part of his collection Look! We Have Come Through!, "Green" captures D.H. Lawrence at his most lyrically vibrant. As a titan of 20th-century literature known for his exploration of human emotion and vitality, Lawrence uses this …
A prominent voice of the Harlem Renaissance, Angelina Weld Grimké was a master of the "color poem," using brief, vivid snapshots of the natural world to convey complex emotional states. First published in the early 1920s, "Dusk" is a quintess…
William Blake, a visionary artist and poet of the Romantic era, often used his work to explore the "two contrary states of the human soul." His poem "A Poison Tree," first published in 1794 in the landmark collection Songs of Experience, serves as a…
Frank Dempster Sherman was a master of the "lyric" form—short, musical poems that capture a singular emotion or image with crystalline clarity. His poem "At Midnight," first published in 1890 in his collection Lyrics for a Lute, is a perfect e…
Badger Clark, the first Poet Laureate of South Dakota, captured the spirit of the American West with a voice that was both rugged and deeply reverent. His poem "A Cowboy's Prayer," first published in 1906, remains one of the most beloved pieces of "…
Gwendolyn Bennett was a multi-talented artist and writer whose work helped define the aesthetic of the Harlem Renaissance. Her poem "Quatrain," first published in 1927, is a stunning example of her ability to capture complex sensory experiences in a…
William Shakespeare, the definitive voice of English literature, had a profound gift for using theatrical metaphors to explain the human condition. Perhaps his most famous instance of this is the monologue delivered by the melancholy Jaques in the c…
Christina Rossetti, a titan of the Victorian era and a central figure in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, often explored the delicate intersections of love, faith, and mortality. Her poem "Song" (frequently known by its first line, "When I am dead, my d…
Walt Whitman, often called the "Bard of Democracy," is best known for his sprawling, expansive free verse, yet he frequently captured immense energy in brief, potent snapshots. His poem "The Ship Starting," first published in 1860 as part of the thi…