|
All that is great in
heaven, or fair on earth,
Unveils its glories to the dreamer's eye
Johann Goethe
This site is intended for the enjoyment of all those who love poetry.
It
will develop as you participate. Please contribute by sharing a favorite poem, your original
work, or your thoughts on poetry with us and with other poetry fans.
You may send your message to editor@poetryfans.com or
use the
Poetry Submission Form.
In this spirit, we invite you to do as Longfellow did: breathe “a song into
the air,” because you may find it again
“in
the heart of a friend.”
The Arrow and the Song.
As
tribute to the election of our wonderful new American President, Barak
Obama, a poem from almost one hundred years ago by James Weldon Johnson
looking back on the achievement of the Emancipation Proclamation and the
still unmet aspirations for racial equality fifty years later. Hopefully
Johnson is smiling in heaven.
Fifty Years
As Matthew Arnold wrote, "The same heart beats
in every
human breast!" Instead of concealing our thoughts and meeting the world "With blank
indifference, or with blame reproved," we should follow
our true course and " . . . unlock the heart, and let it speak "
Buried Life.
We also have Arnold's
Self-Dependence,
where we are urged to be true to ourselves.
|
I am trembling with cold—
I want to feel nothing!
But the sky dances with gold—
It orders me to sing.
Osip
Mandelstam
|
You can
read more about Osip Mandelstam, a brave voice against tyranny, at
Nextbook.org. But return here to read more great poems.
Here's
another example of Mandelstam's stunning anti-Stalinist verse: “Mounds of human heads are
wandering into the distance. / I dwindle among them. Nobody sees
me. / But in books much loved, and in children's games / I shall rise
from the dead / To say the sun is shining.”
Against Forgetting
If you want to read a great edition of
poetry, Poetryfans highly recommends this collection, edited by
contemporary poet Carolyn Forché. Selections range from a
heartbreaking poem by Paul Celan, to the black comedy of Charles Simic,
to a fantastic poem by Bei Dao in which the future is watching us.
Great and important poems from around the world abound in this
collection. Clicking the title will bring you to the Barnes and Noble
link or search for it at your favorite book site.
A beautiful
sentiment emerges from Robert Frost's observations and reflections in
The Tuft of
Flowers.
|
Henceforth I ask not
good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing . . .
From this hour I ordain myself loosened of limits and imaginary lines
|
Read this great
poem by Walt Whitman, which expresses the
wisdom of living without imaginary limits and
being open to life's experiences, thus achieving the freedom to
create our own destiny.
Song of the Open Road
Simultaneous feelings of regret and hope mingle in James
Joyce's Ecce
Puer about the birth of his son.
Sara Teasdale
who won the first Pulitzer Prize in poetry writes about the cost of
Wisdom and
the beauty of the world in
Barter.
Edgar Allan
Poe's reputation grew as his work influenced the French
symbolists, who in turn heavily influenced modern poetry. Here is
Poe's A Dream Within a Dream.
Where The Mind is
Without Fear
Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore had a hope
for his native India apt for all nations. To read a biography of Tagore,
visit the
Nobel E-Museum. For information and sources about other Nobel
Prize winners, visit
Nobel E-Museum literature page or www.almaz.com.
Christina Rossetti faced the daunting immensity of the world, hanging on to hope in
De Profundis.
From Thomas Gray′s
Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard, one of England's most famous poems:
Full many a flow′r is
born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Don't be that way, Share
your poems.
Submit poems.
|
|
I am with you, you
men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you
feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt
Walt
Whitman
Click Here For Our Featured Poem
Edna St. Vincent Millay takes the soul
on a wild ride through various stages of disenchantment, despair and
delight toward a dramatic renewal of spirit in her poem Renascence.
The regular meter and AABB rhyme scheme will guide you easily through
the stanzas of this poem.
Has anyone in any language better
expressed the human condition than William Shakespeare? If so, let us
know. Here is
All the World's a Stage, the viewpoint
of Jacques in As You Like It. It may be a satirical take on the
melancholy spirit, but it sure rings true. This is followed by two
Shakespearean sonnets, both about the redemptive power of affection.
The creators of
poetryfans.com know the joyous feeling that can
come from reaching out to someone through the written word. The long
correspondence between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning led to a
deep and enduring love between the two poets. Here is one of the
world's greatest love sonnets,
How Do I Love Thee, written in secret by
Elizabeth Barrett Browning for her beloved.
Then read two
poems from the other half of literature's greatest one-two punch:
A Woman's Last Word and
Love in Life.
Another great love poem is John Donne′s
The Sun Rising.
Ralph Waldo Emerson had a profound impact
on American thought with such works as
Self-Reliance (read at Virginia Commonwealth University site), and
his spirit is found in poetry from Whitman to Frost to the present
day. Compare his
Each and All to Frost's poem above.
“Hate hath no harm for love,” so ran
the song,
“And peace unweaponed conquers every
wrong!'”
Disarmament is a poem about peace and the lasting power of love
written by John Greenleaf Whittier.
Sometimes, as Margaret Sangster said,
“It isn't the thing you do / It's the thing you leave undone / Which
gives you a bit of heartache.”
The Sin of Omission.
__________________________________
Baudelaire, a leader of the French Symbolist movement, explores the
soul's transcendence of life's sorrows and vexations in
Elevation.
This fine translation is by William Aggeler. We also have Baudelaire's Calm,
where the poet examines regret, and his tribute to art in
The Beacons.
Paul Laurence Dunbar tells us what kind of poems he prefers in
A Choice.
What kind of poem do you like. Let us know. Also read about the caged
bird in Dunbar's
Sympathy.
William Wordsworth, the great English
romantic poet, made a significant contribution to modern poetry by
humanizing and broadening its scope with his use of common language.
His love of nature as being reflective of divine force in the world is
evident in his work. Start by reading
Daffodils (alt. "I Wandered
Lonely as a Cloud").
Tri Budhi Sastrio has written an original poem in tribute to this
poem:
How a Poem Was Made.
Edgar Lee Masters encourages us to face our destiny with courage because "To
put meaning in one's life may end in madness, / But life without meaning is
the torture."
George Gray
We also have
poems written by visitors to our site. Check out
The Phone Call by Tasha from Pune, India or a poem about
addiction
by Christopher Johnson. Barbara Kelsey's
The Stolen Smile
is another fine poem you can find in the
Original Poems
section or Index.
Use the links to
Favorite Poems or
Original Poems to read
more selections.
|
