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Keep me away from the wisdom

which does not cry,

the philosophy

which does not laugh

and the greatness
which does not bow   before children

           Kahlil Gibran

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

   
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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.

A beautiful sentiment emerges from Robert Frost's observations and reflections in The Tuft of Flowers.

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.
 

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.”

Poems on Life Experiences, Courage and Destiny

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

 

Sara Teasdale who  won the first Pulitzer Prize in poetry writes about the cost of Wisdom and the beauty of the world in Barter.

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.

Simultaneous feelings of regret and hope mingle in James Joyce's Ecce Puer about the birth of his son.

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.

 


 

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.

Poems on the Human Condition, Love, and Peace

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.

Disarmament is a poem about peace and the lasting power of love written by John Greenleaf Whittier.

“Hate hath no harm for love,” so ran the song,  
“And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!'”

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.
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The great poet has the ability to compress meaning in few words as Charles Baudelaire does so well in his ekphrastic tribute to artists in The Beacons.

Baudelaire, a leader of the French Symbolist movement, also explores the soul's transcendence of life's sorrows and vexations in Elevation. This fine translation is by William Aggeler. Finally, we have Baudelaire's Calm, where the poet examines regret.

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.

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.

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.

 

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