*New poems boldedPreface for Instructors How to Read a Poem — and Why Geoffrey Chaucer, from The Canterbury TalesAnonymous, Western WindAnonymous, Lord Randal Sir Thomas Wyatt, They flee from meQueen Elizabeth I, When I was fair and youngEdmund Spenser, One day I wrote her name upon the strand Sir Philip Sidney, Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to showMichael Drayton, Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and partChristopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?") William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold") William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds") William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 ("My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun")John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning John Donne, The FleaJohn Donne, Death, be not proud Ben Jonson, On My First Son Lady Mary Wroth, Love like a juggler comes to play his prize Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time George Herbert, Easter-wings George Herbert, Redemption John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent Anne Bradstreet, Before the Birth of One of Her ChildrenAndrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress Edward Taylor, HousewiferyJonathan Swift, A Description of a City ShowerAlexander Pope, From An Essay on Criticism, Part 2 Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Christopher Smart, From Jubilate AgnoWilliam Blake, The Lamb William Blake, The TygerWilliam Blake, A Poison Tree Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern AbbeyWilliam Wordsworth, I wandered lonely as a cloud William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality William Wordsworth, The world is too much with us Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan George Gordon, Lord Byron, She walks in beauty Percy Bysshe Shelley, OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West WindJohn Keats, When I have fears that I may cease to be John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci John Keats, To Autumn Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways Edgar Allan Poe, The RavenEdgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Crossing the BarRobert Browning, My Last Duchess Walt Whitman, From Song of Myself Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’dWalt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach Christina Rossetti, SongEmily Dickinson, Wild Nights — Wild Nights! Emily Dickinson, Much Madness is divinest sense Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz — when I died Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall A. E. Housman, Loveliest of trees, the cherry now A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask Gertrude Stein, Susie AsadoRobert Frost, After Apple-Picking Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired ManRobert Frost, The Road Not Taken Robert Frost, "Out, Out — " Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice Cream Wallace Stevens, Sunday MorningWilliam Carlos Williams, The Red WheelbarrowWilliam Carlos Williams, Spring and All William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say Ezra Pound, The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter Ezra Pound, In a Station of the MetroH.D. [Hilda Doolittle], GardenRobinson Jeffers, Hurt HawksEdith Sitwell, LullabyMarianne Moore, Poetry John Crowe Ransom, Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockT.S. Eliot, PreludesT.S. Eliot, Journey of the MagiClaude McKay, America Edna St. Vinent Millay, Pity Me Not Because the Light of DayWilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum EstE. E. Cummings, in Just — E. E. Cummings, "next to of course god america iJean Toomer, FaceSterling A. Brown, Riverbank BluesLangston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of RiversLangston Hughes, Mother to Son Langston Hughes, Theme for English BLangston Hughes, HarlemCountee Cullen, IncidentLorine Niedecker, My Life by Water Stanley Kunitz, The War against the TreesW. H. Auden, As I Walked Out One EveningW. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts George Oppen, Myself I SingTheodore Roethke, My Papa’s Waltz Theodore Roethke, Elegy for JaneCharles Olson, Maximus, to himselfElizabeth Bishop, The Fish Elizabeth Bishop, In the Waiting RoomElizabeth Bishop, One ArtRobert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays John Frederick Nims, Love Poem Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner John Berryman, Certainty Before LunchDylan Thomas, Fern Hill Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night Ruth Stone, What We Have Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters Charles Bukowski, my old manRichard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World Philip Larkin, High WindowsDenise Levertov, The ache of marriage Gerald Stern, The Dog Maxine Kumin, The Sound of NightPhilip Booth, A Two Inch WaveFrank O’Hara, Why I Am Not a PainterFrank O’Hara, The Day Lady Died Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a LetterGalway Kinnell, The Bear John Ashbery, Mixed FeelingsW. S. Merwin, For the Anniversary of My DeathJames Wright, A Blessing Philip Levine, What Work Is Anne Sexton, Cinderella Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer’s TigersAdrienne Rich, Diving Into the WreckDerek Walcott, Sea GrapesGary Snyder, Hitch Haiku Linda Pastan, love poem Geoffrey Hill, In Memory of Jane FraserSylvia Plath, Metaphors Sylvia Plath, Morning SongSylvia Plath, Daddy Etheridge Knight, Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane Jim Barnes, Return to La Plata, MissouriAudre Lorde, Coal Mark Strand, Eating PoetryJean Valentine, December 21stWendell Berry, The Peace of Wild ThingsPaul Zimmer, Zimmer Imagines HeavenCharles Wright, ReunionMary Oliver, First Snow Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll Nancy Willard, Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him Lucille Clifton, homage to my hipsLucille Clifton, at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989 Charles Simic, Begotten of the Spleen Michael S. Harper, Nightmare Begins Responsibility Seamus Heaney, DiggingSeamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break Seamus Heaney, Glanmore Sonnets #4Ted Kooser, Abandoned Farmhouse Al Young, A Dance for Ma Rainey Quincy Troupe, A Poem for "Magic" Margaret Atwood, True Stories James Welch, Christmas Comes to Moccasin Flat Robert Pinsky, Shirt Billy Collins, Litany Toi Derricotte, A Note on My Son’s Face Simon J. Ortiz, Speaking Richard Garcia, Why I Left the Church Sharon Olds, The One Girl at the Boys’ PartySharon Olds, I Go Back to May 1937 Marilyn Hacker, Villanelle Ellen Bryant Voigt, The Lotus FlowersLouise Glück, The Wild IrisJames Tate, The Wheelchair ButterflyEavan Boland, The Pomegranate Anne Waldman, Icy RoseMarilyn Nelson, Minor MiracleLarry Levis, The Poem You Asked ForYusef Komunyakaa, Facing It Jane Kenyon, Let Evening Come Linda Hogan, Crow LawAi, Why Can’t I Leave You? Leslie Marmon Silko, Prayer to the Pacific Heather McHugh, What He Thought Sekou Sundiata, Blink Your Eyes Agha Shahid Ali, I Dream It Is Afternoon When I Return to DelhiVictor Hernandez Cruz, Problems with Hurricanes Julia Alvarez, Bilingual SestinaCarolyn Forché, The Colonel Ray A. Young Bear, From the Spotted Night Joy Harjo, She Had Some Horses Garrett Kaoru Hongo, Yellow Light Jimmy Santiago Baca, Family Ties Judith Ortiz Cofer, Cold as Heaven Naomi Shihab Nye, Kindness Naomi Shihab Nye, The Small Vases from HebronGary Soto, Moving Away Rita Dove, Fifth Grade Autobiography Alberto Ríos, NaniMary Ruefle, Barbarians Anita Endrezze, The Girl Who Loved the Sky David Mura, Grandfather-in-LawRay González, Praise the Tortilla, Praise Menudo, Praise Chorizo Jane Hirshfield, To Drink Mark Doty, Tiara Richard Jones, Cathedral Thylias Moss, The Lynching Lorna Dee Cervantes, Freeway 280 Mary Jo Salter, Half a Double SonnetDonald Revell, MignonetteCornelius Eady, My Mother, If She Had Won Free Dance Lessons Cathy Song, Girl Powdering her Neck Marilyn Chin, How I Got That NameKimiko Hahn, Mother’s Mother Li-Young Lee, Eating AloneLi-Young Lee, The GiftMartín Espada, The Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry StompWang Ping, SyntaxBob Hicok, In the loop Atsuro Riley, DrillDenise Duhamel, One Afternoon when Barbie Wanted to Join the MilitaryVirgil Suárez, Tea Leaves, Caracoles, Coffee Beans Vievee Francis, 1864, A Pocket Full of RyeCatherine Tufariello, This ChildA. Van Jordan, From Natasha Trethewey, History LessonSherman Alexie, Postcards to Columbus Thom Satterlee, Question 4: Whether, Once Wounded by Love, One Ever Heals CompletelyAnna Maria Hong, The Frog-PrinceHonorée Fanonne Jeffers, Unidentified Female Student, Former SlaveAllison Joseph, On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person A. E. Stallings, OlivesKevin Young, Song of SmokeTerrance Hayes, TalkRandall Mann, The HeronErika Meitner, North Country CanzoneAracelis Girmay, Snail, or, To a House* How to Write about a Poem – and WhyBiographical Notes on the Authors * Groupings of Poems by Topic and ThemeGroupings of Poems by Form and Type Glossary of Poetic Terms Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines