Poems : By First Line "T" : The Poetry Foundation

There are 1352 Poems that have a first line beginning with "t"

= First appeared in Poetry magazine.

Take sackcloth of the darkest dye,
Bible Defense of Slavery
By Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Ten thousand women
Watching dan-
-cers on skates
By Lorine Niedecker

The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
"The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!"
By John Keats

The three little kittens, they lost their mittens,
"The three little kittens, they lost their mittens,"
By Anonymous

There was a crooked man,
"There was a crooked man,"
By Anonymous

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe."
By Anonymous

This living hand, now warm and capable
"This living hand, now warm and capable"
By John Keats

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
‘Out, Out—’
By Robert Frost

The moon came late to a lonesome bog,
‘The Moon came late’
By Mary Mapes Dodge

The land was ours before we were the land’s.
The Gift Outright
By Robert Frost

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
'Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend'
By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate,
1492
By Emma Lazarus

These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,
1914 IV. The Dead
By Rupert Brooke

The porchlight coming on again,
1926
By Weldon Kees

The miller is charged to utter a prayer
23
By Jane Miller

The paper table cloth was tastefully bleak,
Nimis Compos Mentis First appeared in Poetry
By Leslie Monsour

To begin with, the slaves had to wash themselves well,
Slave Sale: New Orleans
By Charles Reznikoff

This World’s an Inn, all Travellers are we;
X Mon. December [1744] hath xxxi days.
By Benjamin Franklin

The whole ball
A Ball Rolls on a Point First appeared in Poetry
By Kay Ryan

The burden of hard hitting. Slug away
A Ballad of Baseball Burdens
By Franklin Pierce Adams

There was a graven image of Desire
A Cameo
By Algernon Charles Swinburne

The time is come, I must depart
A Communication Which the Author Had to London, Before She Made Her Will
By Isabella Whitney

There is a change—and I am poor;
A Complaint
By William Wordsworth

The wind may blow the snow about,
A Country Boy in Winter
By Sarah Orne Jewett

The rain’s cold grains are silver-gray
A Crowded Trolley Car
By Elinor Wylie

Their new landlord was a handsome man. On his rounds to
A Deserter
By Charles Reznikoff

They lie in parallel rows,
A Display of Mackerel
By Mark Doty

Take this kiss upon the brow!
A Dream Within a Dream
By Edgar Allan Poe

The function, as it seems to me,
from A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
By Hugh MacDiarmid

Two women with
A Fable
By Louise Glück

That dark adventure was a tree,
A Few Days Ago
By Barbara Howes

Temples look like discarded alphabets.
A Hot Day In Agrigento
By Molly Peacock

There are those who grow
A Knocker
By Zbigniew Herbert

The good dame looked from her cottage
A Leak in the Dike
By Phoebe Cary

The stars of the Great Bear drift apart
A Lesson in Geography
By Kenneth Rexroth

This to the crown and blessing of my life,
A Letter to Daphnis
By Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea

the root and mirror
A Literalist
By Robin Blaser

The old Russian spits up a plum
A Man Then Suddenly Stops Moving
By Alberto Ríos

The first retainer
A Marriage
By Robert Creeley

Today outside your prison I stand
A Message from the Wanderer
By William E. Stafford

The lowest trees have tops, the ant her gall,
A Modest Love
By Sir Edward Dyer

The clouds had made a crimson crown
A Moment
By Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

The heavy, wet, guttural
A Motor
By Marvin Bell

The cheese-mites asked how the cheese got there,
A Parable
By Arthur Conan Doyle

The guards sleep they breathe uneven
A Pathological Case in Pliny
By John Logan

The cruel majority emerges!
A Poem for the Cruel Majority
By Jerome Rothenberg

Trees are never felled . . . in summer . . . Not when the fruit . . .
A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
By Nikki Giovanni

The tea-kettle bubbled, the tea things were set,
A Poem, on the Supposition of an Advertisement Appearing in a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant-Maid
By Elizabeth Hands

Tiny bit of humanity,
A Poet to His Baby Son
By James Weldon Johnson

The first time we talked was in the rooftop
A Poet’s Death
By David Trinidad

There is a land of pure delight
A Prospect of Heaven Makes Death Easy
By Isaac Watts

Tell me not in mormonful numbers
A Psalm of Freudian Life
By Franklin Pierce Adams

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
A Psalm of Life
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The difficulty to think at the end of day,
A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts First appeared in Poetry
By Wallace Stevens

This dog standing in the middle of the street,
A Real-Life Drama
By Michael Collier

This woman was once made of firm, young flesh:
A Season
By Cesare Pavese

Thanksgiving, dark of the moon.
A Short History of the Shadow
By Charles Wright

That’s not a man in pain
A Short Lexicon of Torture in the Eighties
By Edward Hirsch

The lad came to the door at night,
A Shropshire Lad LIII: The lad came to the door at night
By A. E. Housman

The easiest sadness is a boy
A Small Motor
By Alberto Ríos

There were rumors of a priest old enough
A Story
By Colette Inez

The change of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar is not a vegetable.
A Substance in a Cushion
By Gertrude Stein

The amities of morning
A Sum of Destructions
By Theodore Weiss

This youth too long has heard the break
A Tale
By Louise Bogan

The old wooden steps to the front door
A Time Past
By Denise Levertov

The garden of Nature opens.
A Treatise on Poetry: IV Natura
By Czeslaw Milosz

They tore my clothes
A Tree Planted
By Hilda Morley

The Sun woke me this morning loud
A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island
By Frank O'Hara

They pass before me one by one riding on animals
A Vision of the Bodhisattvas
By Philip Whalen

There we go in cars, did you guess we wore sandals?
A Way of Being
By Barbara Guest

The night’s drifts
A Winter Daybreak above Vence
By James Wright

There was a young lady of Lynn,
A Young Lady of Lynn
By Anonymous

There are four men mowing down by the Isar;
A Youth Mowing
By D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Three people come where no people belong any more.
Abandoned Ranch, Big Bend
By Hayden Carruth

The thing about a shark is—teeth,
About the Teeth of Sharks
By John Ciardi

To unlock predisposives in carbon
Above the Human Nerve Domain
By Will Alexander

This time I’m not going to say a thing
Acceptance Speech
By Dean Young

The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.
Account
By Czeslaw Milosz

The Year’s twelve daughters had in turn gone by,
Acon and Rhodope; or, Inconstancy
By Walter Savage Landor

The hounds, you know them all by name.
Actaeon First appeared in Poetry
By A.E. Stallings

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction.
Action and Non-Action
By Chuang Tzu

The only thing under the sun
Acts of Vexation
By Pam Rehm

The morning by a tree of blood was dewed
Adam
By Federico García Lorca

The cedars lie uprooted
Adam After the Ice Storm
By John Engels

Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted
Adam’s Task
By John Hollander

The wind that shows a city
Advent
By Donald Revell

The sober reality
Aesthetics of the Asylum
By Constance Urdang

The man I love most says one day
After a God
By Jenny Browne

The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept
After Death
By Christina Rossetti

The dark streets are deserted,
After Midnight
By Louis Simpson

The barbed-wire fences rust
After the Rain
By Anthony Hecht

The best job I had was moving a stone
After working sixty hours again for what reason
By Bob Hicok

Toadies thick as an Egyptian plague
Afterthought
By Diane Ackerman

These days are best when one goes nowhere,
Against Travel
By Charles Tomlinson

Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee,
Air and Angels
By John Donne

To me myself them and others always then and now that day
Airoplain
By Victor Hernández Cruz

The glories of our blood and state
from Ajax: Dirge
By James Shirley

Then I was sealed, and like the wintering tree
Alas, Kind Element!
By Léonie Adams

The chatter of little people
Aliens First appeared in Poetry
By Amy Lowell

The grains shall be collected
All Shall Be Restored
By Kay Ryan

The dogs eat hoof slivers and lie under the porch.
All Summer Long
By Carol Frost

Think of a self-effacing missionary
All the Members of My Tribe Are Liars
By John Fuller

The Devil’s tour of hell did not include
All This and More
By Mary Karr

Three people drinking out of the bottle
Alla Breve Loving
By C. D. Wright

The Visconti put you on their flag: a snake
Allegory of Evil in Italy
By Stanley Moss

The slight white poet would assume non-human forms, homely
Almost a Conjuror
By Lucie Brock-Broido

The young men ride their horses fast
Alone with the Goddess
By Linda Gregg

The forest of Alzuna hides a pool.
Alzuna
By Alfred Noyes

Then one of the students with blue hair and a tongue stud
America
By Tony Hoagland

Those four black girls blown up
American History
By Michael S. Harper

The survey says all groups can make more money
American Income First appeared in Poetry
By Afaa Michael Weaver

The sovereign beauty which I do admire,
Amoretti III: The Sovereign Beauty
By Edmund Spenser

The weary yeare his race now having run,
Amoretti LXII: "The weary yeare his race now having run"
By Edmund Spenser

To all those happy blessings which ye have,
Amoretti LXVI: "To all those happy blessings which ye have"
By Edmund Spenser

This holy season, fit to fast and pray,
Amoretti XXII: This Holy Season
By Edmund Spenser

There was a church in Umbria, Little Portion,
An Altogether Different Language
By Anne Porter

The Baltic Sea froze in 1307. Birds flew north
An Annual of the Dark Physics
By Norman Dubie

This will be a night in deep snow
An Answer
By Zbigniew Herbert

Though beauty be the mark of praise,
An Elegy
By Ben Jonson

The forward youth that would appear
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland
By Andrew Marvell

The climate thinks with its knees.
An Instrument Also
By Donald Revell

The merchant, to secure his treasure,
An Ode
By Matthew Prior

Twice through my bedroom window
An Owl
By David Bottoms

This city is made of stone, of blood, and fish.
Anchorage
By Joy Harjo

The builder who first bridged Niagara’s gorge,
Anchored to the Infinite
By Edwin Markham

Thu can’t say it that way any more.
And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name
By John Ashbery

The mower flipped it belly up,
Animal Graves
By Chase Twichell

This was gruesome--fighting over a ham sandwich
Another Insane Devotion First appeared in Poetry
By Gerald Stern

Two wandering across the porcelain
Ants First appeared in Poetry
By Joanie V. Mackowski

The humble sense of being alive
Apiary 40 First appeared in Poetry
By Carol Frost

Through the black, rushing smoke-bursts,
Apollo Musagetes
By Matthew Arnold

The paddocks are now empty of wind and all
Apologue on Jealousy
By Lucie Brock-Broido

Taut with longing
Apotheosis First appeared in Poetry
By Samuel Menashe

There was another life of cool summer mornings, the dogwood air and the slag stink so gray like our monsoon which we loved for the rain and cool wind until the rot came into us. And I remember the boys we were the evening of our departure, our mothers waving through the train’s black pluming exhaust; they were not proud in their tears of our leaving, so don’t tell me to shut up about the war or I might pull something from my head, from my head, from my head that you wouldn’t want to see and whoever the people are might be offended.
Apparition of the Exile
By Bruce Weigl

The green catalpa tree has turned
April Inventory
By W. D. Snodgrass

The Pontalba Apartments in the View-Master
Arcade: The Search for a Sufficient Landscape
By Bin Ramke

The tortoise walks on tiptoe in June,
Ardors
By Carol Frost

This is the beginning.
Aristotle
By Billy Collins

The yellow goat in winter sunlight
Arkhangel’sk
By Norman Dubie

The water sings along our keel,
Armistice
By Sophie Jewett

The land is full of what was lost. What's hidden
Arrowhead Hunting First appeared in Poetry
By A.E. Stallings

Trade, Trade versus Art,
Art vs. Trade
By James Weldon Johnson

The bed’s height is one reason
Asked to Recall a Moment of Pure Happiness
By Mary Kinzie

The two boys lean out on the railing
Astronomy Lesson
By Alan Shapiro

The curious wits, seeing dull pensiveness
Astrophel and Stella XXIII
By Philip Sidney

The wisest scholar of the wight most wise
Astrophel and Stella XXV
By Philip Sidney

The statue, that cast
At a Standstill
By Samuel Menashe

The sea here used to look
At Darien Bridge
By James L. Dickey

The lilacs lift in generous bloom
At Home from Church
By Sarah Orne Jewett

The thick-walled room’s cave-darkness,
At Noon
By Reginald Gibbons

They are like those crazy women
At Pegasus
By Terrance Hayes

The worms beneath the grass
At the Beach
By Frederick Morgan

This is how it was:
At the Movie: Virginia, 1956
By Ellen Bryant Voigt

This is the terminal: the light
At the San Francisco Airport
By Yvor Winters

This is the field where the battle did not happen,
At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border
By William E. Stafford

The last time I saw Paul Castle
At the Vietnam Memorial First appeared in Poetry
By George Bilgere

The drunk mechanic is happy to be in the ditch.
Atlantic Oil
By Cesare Pavese

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
Auguries of Innocence
By William Blake

There, beyond the yellowing hills, is the sea,
August Moon
By Cesare Pavese

The thistledown's flying, though the winds are all still,
Autumn
By John Clare

Tonight my children hunch
“It Out-Herods Herod. Pray You, Avoid It.”
By Anthony Hecht

The loop of rusty cable incises
“Luckies”
By Reginald Gibbons

The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly.
“The Dreadful Has Already Happened”
By Mark Strand

The great sea
“The great sea ...”
By Uvavnuk

The ribs and terrors in the whale,
“The ribs and terrors in the whale”
By Herman Melville

The sea and a crescent strip of beach
‘And Their Winter and Night in Disguise’
By George Oppen

The gaunt thing
Babylon Revisited
By Amiri Baraka

They all like to hang out.
backstage drama
By Thulani Davis

The landings had gone wrong; white silk,
Bailing Out-A Poem for the 1970s
By Eleanor Wilner

Things happen when you drink too much mescal.
Bar Napkin Sonnet #11
By Moira Egan

The game of baseball is not a metaphor
Baseball
By Gail Mazur

These are the saddest of possible words:
Baseball’s Sad Lexicon
By Franklin Pierce Adams

The cave looked much like any other
Bat Cave
By Eleanor Wilner

They billow from a hillside in Cha’am.
Bats First appeared in Poetry
By Amanda Jernigan

The generator hums like a distant ding an sich.
Bedtime Story First appeared in Poetry
By Charles Wright

The crow’s raw hectoring cry
Before Dawn on Bluff Road
By August Kleinzahler

The moon drops one or two feathers into the field.
Beginning
By James Wright

The sun is high, the seaside air is sharp,
Bel Canto First appeared in Poetry
By Kenneth Koch

There is a two-headed goat, a four-winged chicken
Believe It
By John Logan

There was such speed in her little body,
Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter
By John Crowe Ransom

Together in this grave lie Benjamin Pantier, attorney at law,
Benjamin Pantier
By Edgar Lee Masters

They had hit Ruben
Bent to the Earth
By Blas Manuel De Luna

The complainant is a big man
Between Neighbors
By David Wagoner

the back wings
Between Walls
By William Carlos Williams

The back roads I’ve traveled late
Beyond Hammonton
By Stephen Dunn

The birds have flown their summer skies to the south,
Beyond the Red River
By Thomas McGrath

Three days I heard them grieve when I lay dead,
Beyond the Stars First appeared in Poetry
By Charles Hanson Towne

They burned lime on the hill and dropped it down here in an iron car
Bixby’s Landing
By Robinson Jeffers

The most popular “act” in
Black Boys Play the Classics
By Toi Derricotte

The houses those suburbs could afford
Blowfly Grass
By Les Murray

They’re gathering now
Blue Moon
By W. S. Di Piero

They grow up together
Body and Soul First appeared in Poetry
By Sharon Bryan

They gave the city a stroke. Its memories
Bottles in the Bombed City
By Les Murray

Turn it over and look up
Bowl
By Valerie Martínez

The boy Alexander understands his father to be a famous lawyer.
Boy and Father
By Carl Sandburg

The darkness crumbles away.
Break of Day in the Trenches First appeared in Poetry
By Isaac Rosenberg

The lump on his neck that no collar
Breughel First appeared in Poetry
By Michael Collier

The magpie and the bowerbird, its odd
Brought from Beyond
By Amy Clampitt

There is a hornet in the room
Buried at Springs
By James Schuyler

The past
from Cabbage Gardens
By Susan Howe

The nurse-life wheat within his green husk growing,
Caelica XXIX
By Fulke Greville

Through the branches of the Japanese cherry
Cage
By Josephine Miles

The thought of what America would be like
Cantico del Sole
By Ezra Pound

The low sandy beach and the thin scrub pine,
Cape Cod
By George Santayana

The stream was swift, and so cold
Captivity
By Louise Erdrich

Trees in the old days used to stand
Carentan O Carentan
By Louis Simpson

The press of the Spoon River Clarion was wrecked,
Carl Hamblin
By Edgar Lee Masters

The extraordinary patience of things!
Carmel Point
By Robinson Jeffers

The dance shoes, seduction
Casanova's Bossa Nova First appeared in Poetry
By Rich Murphy

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
Casey at the Bat
By Ernest Lawrence Thayer

To me, one silly task is like another.
Cassandra
By Louise Bogan

They came like dewdrops overnight
Caterpillars
By Brod Bagert

Turning your back, you button your blouse. That’s new.
Changing What We Mean
By Eloise Klein Healy

That night your great guns, unawares,
Channel Firing
By Thomas Hardy

The nominalist in me invents
Chanson Philosophique First appeared in Poetry
By Timothy Steele

The nicest child I ever knew
Charles Augustus Fortescue
By Hilaire Belloc

The stage is set for imminent disaster.
Charlie Chaplin Impersonates a Poet
By Cornelius Eady

The housework, the factory work, the work
Checklist
By Stephen Dunn

There is a garden in her face
Cherry-Ripe
By Thomas Campion

The white chocolate jar full of petals
Chez Jane First appeared in Poetry
By Frank O'Hara

There is the one who turns
Chiapas First appeared in Poetry
By Gary Soto

Trying to find my roost
Chicago and December First appeared in Poetry
By W. S. Di Piero

The dragon is in the street dancing beneath windows
Chinese New Year First appeared in Poetry
By Lynda Hull

The Crow call this time of year the Black Cherry Moon
Chokecherries
By Melissa Kwasny

This seablue fir that rode the mountain storm
Christmas Tree
By John Frederick Nims

To the north, along Orange Blossom Trail,
Citrus Freeze
By Forrest Gander

The day had finally come
Cleaning an Attic First appeared in Poetry
By Brent Pallas

The clairvoyante, a major general’s wife,
Clear-seeing
By Edgar Bowers

This trace, if it exists, is alms for delusion.
Closing Hours
By Ann Lauterbach

The clouds as I see them, rising
Clouds
By Denise Levertov

The last few gray sheets of snow are gone,
Cold Spring
By Lawrence Raab

They’re over now forever, the long dances.
Cold Turkey First appeared in Poetry
By Joshua Mehigan

To think I might have been dead,
Collision
By Miroslav Holub

Their eggs are laid on lupine. Tiny jade
Common Blue
By Melissa Kwasny

The General’s men sit at the door. Her eyes
Confession
By Norman Dubie

The man in the yellow hard hat,
Consecration First appeared in Poetry
By Susan Stewart

The snail pushes through a green
Considering the Snail
By Thom Gunn

Though he, that ever kind and true,
Consolation
By Robert Louis Stevenson

The ancient songs
CORIKOS First appeared in Poetry
By Richard Aldington

These lovers’ inklings which our loves enmesh,
Counsel to Unreason First appeared in Poetry
By Léonie Adams

This one was put in a jacket,
Counting the Mad
By Donald Justice

They married out of school
Country Marriage
By Carol Frost

These be two
Countrywomen
By Katherine Mansfield

There is a girl you like so you tell her
Courtship
By Mark Strand

The oldest sister, her two hands on the table,
Covenant
By Alan Shapiro

The two authenticated skulls of Cromwell:
Cover Versions
By Roddy Lumsden

The man
Covers
By Rae Armantrout

The crane, eyes fixed, moves steadily,
Crane and Hawk
By John Kinsella

Too much rain
Crown
By Kay Ryan

To my first love, I wept profusely.
Crying in Front of a Man
By Kate Gale

There is no salutation. The
Cups: 8
By Robin Blaser

The day the war against Iraq begins
Daffodils
By Alicia Ostriker

The damselfly folds its wings
Damselfly, Trout, Heron
By John Engels

The errand into the maze,
Dance Piece
By Ben Belitt

The way calcium grows
Danger of Falling
By Patricia Goedicke

The broken oarshaft was stuck in the hill
Danse Macabre
By Norman Dubie

The soft-toned clock upon the stair chimed three—
Dawn
By Ella Higginson

That was a great compliment the Greeks paid to human life
Days of Heaven
By Carl Dennis

The little cousin is dead, by foul subtraction,
Dead Boy
By John Crowe Ransom

The doe lay dead on her back in a field of asters: no.
Dead Doe
By Brigit Pegeen Kelly

The plunging limbers over the shattered track
Dead Man’s Dump
By Isaac Rosenberg

The most inscrutable beautiful names in this world
Dear Gonglya,
By Brenda Shaughnessy

This plot of ground
Dedication for a Plot of Ground
By William Carlos Williams

These are savannas bluer than your dreams
Deep South First appeared in Poetry
By Thomas McGrath

This is about heroes, and you should know
Defense Mechanism
By Calvin Thomas

The chicken I bought last night,
Destiny
By Marin Sorescu

There was the method of kneeling,
Different Ways to Pray
By Naomi Shihab Nye

There is a heaviness between us,
Dio ed Io First appeared in Poetry
By Charles Wright

The Blue Hole Summer Fair, set up and spread out like a butterfly pinned down on paper. Twin bright-lit wings, identically shaped (and fenced) and sized.
Diorama First appeared in Poetry
By Atsuro Riley

Throw away thy rod,
Discipline
By George Herbert

The brown girl, golden, sable-eyed,
Discourse on Pure Virtue
By George Elliott Clarke

Town, a town,
from Discrete Series: "Town, a town ..."
By George Oppen

The houses are haunted
Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock
By Wallace Stevens

Thou water turn’st to wine, fair friend of life,
Divine Epigrams: To our Lord, upon the Water Made Wine
By Richard Crashaw

The dog trots freely in the streets
Dog
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

They are so like
Dolls
By David St. John

Through the Victorians
Dolores Street
By Victor Hernández Cruz

This also is a place that love is known in,
Don Juan in Amsterdam
By Daryl Hine

The dark that’s gathering strength
Doomsday
By Amy Gerstler

The socks
Doppelte Nationaltätsmoral/Dual Nationality: A Moral Tale First appeared in Poetry
By Zehra Çirac

The sea is calm tonight.
Dover Beach
By Matthew Arnold

The message I found on the Post-it note
Draft of a Dream First appeared in Poetry
By Steven Cramer

They are skimming the lake with wooden hooks.
Dragging the Lake
By Thomas James

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry’s heart
Dream Song 29
By John Berryman

They sap man’s substance
Dreams
By Miroslav Holub

They’d been warned
Drowning in Wheat
By John Kinsella

The world is wasted on you. Show us one clear time
Drunk Judgment First appeared in Poetry
By Steven Heighton

Towery city & branchy between towers;
Duns Scotus's Oxford
By Gerard Manley Hopkins

The way a crow
Dust of Snow
By Robert Frost

There might be a planet. Before that,
D____ L____’s
By Albert Goldbarth

The American eagle is not aware he is
Eagle Plain
By Robert Francis

To pray you open your whole self
Eagle Poem
By Joy Harjo

This morning the world’s white face reminds us
Early Frost
By Scott Cairns

That bummy smell you meet
East of the Library, Across from the Odd Fellows Building
By August Kleinzahler

To always be in motion there is no choice
Easy as Falling Down Stairs First appeared in Poetry
By Dean Young

Twelve people, most of us strangers, stand in a room
Eating the Pig
By Donald Hall

There is a spectacle and something is added to history.
Eclipse with Object
By Ann Lauterbach

The woman is perfected.
Edge
By Sylvia Plath

Thomas Edison loved a doll
Edison in Love First appeared in Poetry
By Robin Ekiss

The bluebird's cold mistimed egg
Egg First appeared in Poetry
By Brian Swann

There’s a bird the color of mustard. The bird
Elegy Asking That It Be the Last
By Norman Dubie

That night we drank warm whiskey
Elegy for Peter
By Bruce Weigl

The vase was made of clay
Elegy to the Sioux
By Norman Dubie

Those twenty-six letters filling the blackboard
Elegy with a Chimneysweep Falling Inside It First appeared in Poetry
By Larry Levis

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
By Thomas Gray

The bears are kept by hundreds within fences, are fed cracked
Elizabeth’s War with the Christmas Bear
By Norman Dubie

The tide’s a Bach cantata.
Ellis Island
By Peter Balakian

There was debtors’ prison before inmates,
Empty Pitchforks
By Thomas Lux

The country lies flat, expressionless as the face of a stranger.
Encounter in Buffalo
By Mary Barnard

The old dog and the old rabbit,
England Finally, Like My Mother Always Said We Would
By Alberto Ríos

Terror is not – Ed –
enuresis
By Cid Corman

This rose-tree is not made to bear
Envy
By Mary Lamb

The snake, alphabet of one glide, swims
Ephemera
By Robin Becker

This Humanist whom no beliefs constrained
from Epigrams: A Journal, #30
By J. V. Cunningham

Those blessèd structures, plot and rhyme—
Epilogue
By Robert Lowell

The flowering sea and the mountains in the moon’s waning
Epiphany, 1937
By George Seferis

Think not this paper comes with vain pretense
Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband
By Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

This little vault, this narrow room,
Epitaph on the Lady Mary Villiers
By Thomas Carew

This Little, Silent, Gloomy Monument,
Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven that Died Before
By Aphra Behn

Turning the corner, we discovered it
Equations of the Light
By Dana Gioia

They come down to us
Eschatology of the Lexicon First appeared in Poetry
By J. Allyn Rosser

The god of war assured King Arsounas, “Do not be fooled by words. No life is taken. Know that no one was ever born, nor does anyone die.” In the violent mini-eternity of the warrior, combat is conducted according to a ritual formal as song: no one is ever born, no one can ever die. The left-handed rockabilly guitarist whose left arm was severed by an RPG round at Dak To has come back to life in a part of my body that died long before we started to patrol this part of the river of eternal woe. His life is mine though I never lived it. The violent backwash of the rotors is crimsoned by a fine aerosol spray of blood while a loudspeaker amplifies the goddess’ excited laughter.
Eternity
By Tom Clark

Then there's the Yemeni legend
Eve's Design First appeared in Poetry
By Moira Linehan

The light passes
Evening
By H. D.

The face looking into the room;
Evening News II
By David Ferry

This grandson of fishes holds inside him
Evolution from the Fish
By Robert Bly

The shades of night were falling fast,
Excelsior
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

They pay us time and a half
Excelsior Fashion Products, Easter
By D. Nurkse

These hills are sandy. Trees are dwarfed here. Crows
Exile
By Conrad Aiken

The lords of life, the lords of life,—
Experience
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

That it was shy when alive goes without saying.
Extinction of Silence First appeared in Poetry
By A.E. Stallings

The way we lay
Eye on the Scarecrow
By Nathaniel Mackey

the only parts of the body the same
Eyes:
By William Matthews

The old Roman sow
Fable for a War
By Thomas James Merton

The old wound in my ass
Fabrication of Ancestors First appeared in Poetry
By Alan Dugan

The machines were gone, and so were those who worked them.
Factory
By Charles Simic

The states when they black out and lie there rolling when they turn
Falling
By James L. Dickey

The sun is blue and scarlet on my page,
Falling Asleep over the Aeneid
By Robert Lowell

They were to have been a love gift,
False Flowers
By Anne Stevenson

Those who have lived here since before
False Portrait of D.B. as
Niccolò Paganini
By Michael Palmer

The week in August you come home,
Family Reunion
By Maxine W. Kumin

The river is famous to the fish.
Famous
By Naomi Shihab Nye

To all you ladies now at Bath,
Farewell to Bath
By Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

The first of the undecoded messages read: “Popeye sits in thunder,
Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape
By John Ashbery

That you are fair or wise is vain,
Fate
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Two shall be born the whole world wide apart,
Fate
By Carolyn Wells

The cold grows colder, even as the days
February First appeared in Poetry
By Bill Christophersen

Though they will never have seen
Feeding Our Ancient Ancestors First appeared in Poetry
By Pattiann Rogers

Tell
Fib Time
By Gregory K. Pincus

the relationship between
Fiduciary First appeared in Poetry
By Randall Mann

The stars are pinned between the leaves
Field Guide
By Cynthia Zarin

The boys who fled my father's house in fear
Fifteen
By Leslie Monsour

The spoons have clattered
Final Section from "Eleven Eyes"
By Lyn Hejinian

Toplight hammered down by shadowless noon,
Fire: The People First appeared in Poetry
By Alfred Corn

The Lumieres’ first movies were of ordinary life:
First Glance
By Susan Hutton

The child’s assignment:
First Grade Homework First appeared in Poetry
By D. Nurkse

The women bow and flutter in the field.
First Movement
By Robert Fitzgerald

The field has retreated,
First Song
By Miguel Hernández

The two of them stood in the middle water,
Fishing First appeared in Poetry
By A.E. Stallings

the breath the trees the bridge
Flame
By C. D. Wright

The man Flammonde, from God knows where,
Flammonde
By Edwin Arlington Robinson

To the gentlemen from the south
Flies on Shit
By Frank Stanford

The line didn’t move, though there were not
Flight to Limbo First appeared in Poetry
By John Updike

The night mist leaves us yearning for a new location
Floating Houses
By David Wojahn

To the one who sets a second place at the table anyway.
Flood: Years of Solitude
By Dionisio D. Martinez

THE fog comes
Fog
By Carl Sandburg

The loneliest days,
Fog Horns First appeared in Poetry
By David Mason

The hucksters haggle in the mart
For a War Memorial
By G. K. Chesterton

Thank Heaven! the crisis,
For Annie
By Edgar Allan Poe

That old equalizer
For Billy
By Jack Spicer

The child I left your class to have
For Elizabeth Bishop
By Sandra McPherson

The streets are my body
For Gustave Moreau
By Robin Blaser

Today I blessed every little thing in the world
For H., Dead in a Car at Thirty-eight
By Michael C. Blumenthal

They’re tipping their battered derbies and striding forward
For Laurel and Hardy on My Workroom Wall First appeared in Poetry
By David Wagoner

They will soon be down
For the Last Wolverine
By James L. Dickey

The Fathers put their trust in the end of the world
For the Old Gnostics
By Robert Bly

Talent is what they say
For the young who want to
By Marge Piercy

The house felt like the opera,
For Weeks After the Funeral
By Andrea Hollander Budy

The wild up here is not creatures, wooded,
Foraging for Wood on the Mountain
By Jack Gilbert

The name of the author is the first to go
Forgetfulness First appeared in Poetry
By Billy Collins

This strange thing must have crept
Fork
By Charles Simic

The Chinese concubine feeling has left and the
Formerly Communist Love Sonnet
By Connie Deanovich

The wind blows east, the wind blows west,
Fortuna
By Thomas Carlyle

The mountain north of Pasadena has severe
from Four Good Things
By James McMichael

Tulip, you
Fox in the Landscape First appeared in Poetry
By Leslie Williams

Though friendships differ endless in degree ,
Fragment 10: The Three Sorts of Friends
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Moon, how definite its orb!
Fragment 6: The Moon, how definite its orb!
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Thicker than rain-drops on November thorn.
Fragment 8: Thicker than rain-drops on November thorn
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

They caught them.
Freedom, Revolt, and Love
By Frank Stanford

The yolk went down my leg
Friend of the Enemy
By Frank Stanford

Twenty-eight shotgun pellets
From Violence to Peace
By Jimmy Santiago Baca

The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Frost at Midnight
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

this is just to say I saw the icebox and wheels
Fugue
By Peter Pereira

The grammatical rules of this language can be learned in one
Fundamentals of Esperanto
By Srikanth Reddy

The sky, lazily disdaining to pursue
Georgia Dusk
By Jean Toomer

The Garden called Gethsemane
Gethsemane
By Rudyard Kipling

There’s a mystery
Gin
By David St. John

The threewomen who all walked
Giovanni Franchi
By Mina Loy

The woman across from me looks so familiar,
Giving a Manicure
By Minnie Bruce Pratt

The man with the red hat
Glazunoviana
By John Ashbery

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
God's Grandeur
By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Trailing her father, bearing his hand axe,
Goose
By Richard Emil Braun

The woods is shining this morning.
Grace First appeared in Poetry
By Wendell Berry

This artist’s sculptured, open box of mahogany
Grace
By John Logan

Tomb of a millionaire,
Graceland
By Carl Sandburg

The scent of pig is faint tonight
Gradations of Blue
By Matthea Harvey

That year there were many deaths in the village.
Grandmother Speaks of the Old Country
By Lola Haskins

There is this tea
Green Tea
By Dale Ritterbusch

This is the world we wanted.
Gretel in Darkness
By Louise Glück

The eyes open to a blue telephone
Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World
By Sherman Alexie

They’d been living together a long time
Group
By Marin Sorescu

Those neck-pointing out full bodylength and calling
Gulls
By Jorie Graham

This admirable gadget, when it is
Gyroscope
By Howard Nemerov

The rear half had been run over,
Half a hedgehog
By Miroslav Holub

There are stones even here
Hanging in Egypt with Breyten Breytenbach
By Chris Abani

There’s just no accounting for happiness,
Happiness First appeared in Poetry
By Jane Kenyon

The gregarious dark is shifting
Happy Hour
By Alan Shapiro

the cast-iron moon on the wall
Harp Trees
By Robin Blaser

The fadedness of stone
Harriet Street
By Carol Frost

The wind cooled as it crossed the open pond
Hartley Field First appeared in Poetry
By Connie Wanek

The last days of the summer: bright and clear
Harvest Gathering
By Phoebe Cary

The quiet which is my wife endures:
He Imagined the Gorgeous Pattern of the New Skin and Settled for America
By Primus St. John

This was the work
He Lit a Fire with Icicles First appeared in Poetry
By Kay Ryan

The snail moves like a
Hedgehog
By Paul Muldoon

the Chinaman said don’t take the hardware
Hello, Willie Shoemaker
By Charles Bukowski

The dog licks my hand as I worry
Her my body
By Bob Hicok

The ribbed black of the umbrella
Here I Am, Lord First appeared in Poetry
By Michael Chitwood

The true Name is not the one that gilds porticos,
Hidden Name
By Victor Segalen

To turn a stone
High Noon at Los Alamos
By Eleanor Wilner

There are diagrams on stilts all wired together
High Tension Lines across a Landscape
By John Ciardi

To look at this fictitious steed
Hippogriff
By X J Kennedy

The doctor said to my father, “You asked me
His Stillness
By Sharon Olds

This
His take on Fibs in Fib format
By Alan Reynolds

The sun frets, a fat wafer falling like a trap of failed mesh.
Hole, Where Once in Passion We Swam
By Dave Smith

This is my play's last scene; here heavens appoint
Holy Sonnets: This is my play's last scene
By John Donne

Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?
Holy Sonnets: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?
By John Donne

these hips are big hips
homage to my hips
By Lucille Clifton

The illegal ditch riders of the previous night
Homage to Philip K. Dick
By Norman Dubie

The chickens
Home to Roost First appeared in Poetry
By Kay Ryan

The trees are crystal chandeliers,
Homecoming
By Jay Wright

They are a gift I have wanted again.
Horses in Snow
By Roberta Hill Whiteman

The glass door was spinning panes
Hotel Brindisi
By Honor Moore

There was the day we swam in a river, a lake, and an ocean.
How It Adds Up
By Tony Hoagland

There’s the intuition of a key
How Things Fall
By Kevin Stein

Today it’s going to cost us twenty dollars
How Things Work
By Gary Soto

The river brought down
How We Heard the Name First appeared in Poetry
By Alan Dugan

The human cylinders
Human Cylinders
By Mina Loy

The unicorn is an easy prey: its horn
Hunting Manual
By Eleanor Wilner

The way a tired Chippewa woman
Hush
By David St. John

The awful shadow of some unseen Power
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

The wind rests its cheek upon the ground and feels the cool damp
Hymn to Life First appeared in Poetry
By James Schuyler

Thou hidden love of God, whose height,
Hymn: Thou Hidden Love of God
By John Wesley

The dove-white gulls
I Genitori Perduti
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The northern lights. I wouldn’t have noticed them
I Know, I Remember, But How Can I Help You
By Hayden Carruth

The black kitten cries at her bowl
I Wish I Want I Need
By Gail Mazur

The American public is patient,
I Would Fain Die a Dry Death
By Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman

That story which the bold Sir Bedivere,
Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

To prepare the body,
Ikebana
By Cathy Song

there are shining masters
Image-Nation 9 (half and half
By Robin Blaser

The lieutenant governor sits in the center
Impressions of the New Mexico Legislature
By Arthur Sze

The Japanese next to me at the bar
In a Bar Near Shibuya Station, Tokyo
By Paul Engle

Three days later, Suljic was finally given a drink
In a Field Outside the Town First appeared in Poetry
By Gabriel Spera

The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.
In a London Drawingroom
By George Eliot

The mailman handing me a letter,
In A Row
By Stephen Dobyns

The apparition of these faces in the crowd :
In a Station of the Metro First appeared in Poetry
By Ezra Pound

The image that haunts me is not beautiful.
In Black
By Joyce Sutphen

There came gray stretches of volcanic plains,
In Death Valley
By Edwin Markham

Twilight is here, soft breezes bow the grass,
In Exile
By Emma Lazarus

To-night ungather'd let us leave
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 105
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

That which we dare invoke to bless;
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 124
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

To-night the winds begin to rise
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 15
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The path by which we twain did go,
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 22
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The baby new to earth and sky,
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 45
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The wish, that of the living whole
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 55
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This is just a place:
In Memorium Mae Noblitt
By A. R. Ammons

Tagus, farewell! that westward with thy streams
In Spain
By Thomas Wyatt

The roasting alive of rabbis
In the Absence of Bliss
By Maxine W. Kumin

Through the orange glow of taillights,
In the Black Camaro First appeared in Poetry
By David Bottoms

The large man in the Budweiser tee
In The Black Rock Tavern
By Judith Slater

They have shown her facing, from a range of barley
In the Grand Manner
By Richard Emil Braun

This is the life I wanted, and could never see.
In the Park
By John Koethe

The setting of houses, cafés, the neighborhood
In the Same Space
By C. P. Cavafy

The night the world was going to end
In Time First appeared in Poetry
By W. S. Merwin

Take one Pompeii-eyed old man
In Walked Bud With a Palette
By Clarence Major

The nape of my neck is a tell.
Incision
By Jillian Weise

The dark under the trees is filled with lightning bugs
Indistinguishable from the Darkness
By Charlie Smith

The city had such pretty clotheslines.
Industrial Lace
By Alice Fulton

Take this: for nothing here’s chiming, vibrating
Infighting
By Roddy Lumsden

This tree has two million and seventy-five thousand leaves. Perhaps I missed a leaf or two but I do feel triumphant at having persisted in counting by hand branch by branch and marked down on paper with pencil each total. Adding them up was a pleasure I could understand; I did something on my own that was not dependent on others, and to count leaves is not less meaningful than to count the stars, as astronomers are always doing. They want the facts to be sure they have them all. It would help them to know whether the world is finite. I discovered one tree that is finite. I must try counting the hairs on my head, and you too. We could swap information.
Information
By David Ignatow

The quick-sliding cape of mind
Insanity
By Calvin Thomas

This Sycamore, oft musical with bees,—
Inscription for a Fountain on a Heath
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

That hour-glass-backed,
Insect
By Annie Finch

Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense,
Inside of King's College Chapel, Cambridge
By William Wordsworth

Thin are the night-skirts left behind
Insomnia
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The ladies men admire, I’ve heard,
Interview
By Dorothy Parker

this South American up here on a Gugg
Interview by a Guggenheim Recipient
By Charles Bukowski

This is my cap,
Inventory First appeared in Poetry
By Günter Eich

There’s a sickness in me. During
Invisible Dreams
By Toi Derricotte

Tonight, grave sir, both my poor house, and I
Inviting a Friend to Supper
By Ben Jonson

This morning a cat—bright orange—pawing at the one patch of new grass in the sand-and tanbark-colored leaves.
Iowa City: Early April
By Robert Hass

The stairs lead to the room as bleak as glass
Iphigenia: Politics
By Thomas James Merton

The natives here enjoy a delicate
Islanders
By Richard Emil Braun

Though in them he heard the weird symmetry
It Didn’t Begin with Horned Owls
Hooting at Noon
By Kevin Stein

These are the streets where we walked with war and childhood
It Is There
By Babette Deutsch

The farmhouses north of Driggs,
Itinerary
By James McMichael

The years ride out from the world like couriers gone to a throne
from John Brown's Body: "The years ride out from the world like couriers gone to a throne ..."
By Stephen Vincent Benét

The music was already turning sad,
John Lennon
By Mary Jo Salter

There is joy in the woods just now,
Joy in the Woods
By Claude McKay

The stiff spokes of this wheel
July in Washington
By Robert Lowell

The bleached wood massed in bone piles,
Kalaloch
By Carolyn Forché

The young Endymion sleeps Endymion's sleep;
Keats
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Though I with strange desire
Kisses Desired
By William Drummond of Hawthornden

Truck driver, second-floor roomer.
Kitchen Chair Poem #5
By Clarence Major

The people who live here
La Ghriba (“The Stranger”) Tells How and Why
By Nomi Stone

The hummingbird hovers over bougainvillea, darting in and out
Landscape with Horse Named Popcorn First appeared in Poetry
By Mark Irwin

There were distinctive
Language of Love
By Rae Armantrout

THERE are no handles upon a language
Languages
By Carl Sandburg

The suburbs? Well, for heaven’s sake
Lares and Penates First appeared in Poetry
By Caki Wilkinson

The unsigned architecture of loneliness
Last
By Donald Revell

The first warm day,
Late February
By Ted Kooser

The soil I’m walking over comes
Lava and Sand First appeared in Poetry
By Hester Knibbe

The renewal project is doomed: because
Laws of the Universe
By Albert Goldbarth

Thirty days hath September,
Leap Year Poem
By Anonymous

They said, my saints, my slogan-sayers sang,
Learning from History
By David Ferry

The Hun so loved the cry, one falling elephant’s,
Lenox Hill
By Agha Shahid Ali

The hornet holds on to the curtain, winter
Letter
By Jean Valentine

The island’s dark tonight.
Letter from Swan’s Island
By Elizabeth Spires

There was a message. I have forgotten it.
Letter from the Mountains
By James K. Baxter

The skyscrapers of New York will never know the coolness that comes down on Kifisia
Letter of Mathios Paskalis
By George Seferis

The ward beds float like ghost ships
Letters from an Institution
By Michael Ryan

The disasters numb within us
Life at War
By Denise Levertov

The white clothes on the line put the man to sleep.
Light Blue
By Frank Stanford

The rake is like a wand or fan,
Lightness in Autumn
By Robert Fitzgerald

The directions to the lunatic asylum were confusing;
Like a Scarf
By James Tate

The ones too broke or wise to get parts
Like New
By Linda Gregerson

The victorious army marches into the city,
Lime
By Yusef Komunyakaa

The shine on her buckle took precedence in sun
Lines Depicting Simple Happiness
By Peter Gizzi

These alternate nights and days, these seasons
Lines for a Prologue
By Archibald MacLeish

Tell yourself
Lines for Winter
By Mark Strand

The florist was told, cyclamen or azalea;
Lines to Accompany Flowers for Eve
By Carolyn Kizer

The cold earth slept below;
Lines: The cold earth slept below
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

This tiny ruin in my eye, small
Little Blessing for My Floater First appeared in Poetry
By Jeanne Murray Walker

The number of corners in the soul can't
Little God Origami First appeared in Poetry
By Stefi Weisburd

The white pine
Little Map
By Jean Valentine

To you born into violence,
Look to the Future
By Ruth Stone

The sounds of traffic
Looking Out the Window Poem
By Denis Johnson

Two hands lie still, the hairy and the white,
Love for a Hand
By Karl Shapiro

There is a strong wall about me to protect me:
Love Song
By Mary Carolyn Davies

The fountains mingle with the river
Love’s Philosophy
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

There’s more in words than I can teach:
Loving and Liking: Irregular Verses Addressed to a Child
By Dorothy Wordsworth

The south-wind strengthens to a gale,
Low Barometer
By Robert Bridges

The onion is frost
Lullaby of the Onion
By Miguel Hernández

The kilted porter shook my hand in welcome,
Lumsden Hotel
By Roddy Lumsden

The mountain road ends here,
Lyell’s Hypothesis Again
By Kenneth Rexroth

Thick throng the snow-flakes, the evening is dreary,
from Lyrics of the Street
By Julia Ward Howe

The wild winds weep
Mad Song
By William Blake

This face had no use for light, took none of it,
Made Shine
By Josephine Miles

They say you can jinx a poem
Madmen First appeared in Poetry
By Billy Collins

This is the needle that we give
Magda Goebbels (30 April 1945)
By W. D. Snodgrass

The first commotion stirred him to offend,
Man with a Black Dog
By Richard Emil Braun

This is that blessed Mary, pre-elect
Mary's Girlhood (for a Picture)
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

There once was a Square, such a square little Square,
Maternity
By Robert W. Service

The backyard apple tree gets sad so soon,
May
By Jonathan Galassi

The clouds are marshalling across the sky,
Meditations
By Margaret Fuller

Tengo mucho respeto ’pa
Meditations on the South Valley: Part XX
By Jimmy Santiago Baca

The column of the commander yielded to our first sweep.
Medley of the Cut
By John Peck

The big rock by my door
Memphis Resurrection
By Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

The ones his age who shook my hand
Men at My Father’s Funeral
By William Matthews

The wooden horses
Merry-No-Round First appeared in Poetry
By Bill Knott

The surfers beautiful as men
Middle-Aged Midwesterner at Waikiki Again
By John Logan

The adolescent night, breath of the town,
Midsummer First appeared in Poetry
By Robert Fitzgerald

This being a time confused and with few clear stars,
Minor Litany
By Stephen Vincent Benét

There’s a crack in this glass so fine we can’t see it,
Minuscule Things
By William Matthews

The only potion I saw him brew was tea
Miranda’s Drowned Book
By Debora Greger

Thus piteously Love closed what he begat:
Modern Love: L
By George Meredith

Their sense is with their senses all mixed in,
Modern Love: XLVII
By George Meredith

This morning we shall spend a few minutes
Money
By Howard Nemerov

The children are eating lunch at home on a summer weekday when a man comes to the door and asks their mother if she has anything that needs fixing or carrying or any yardwork he can do. They chew their food a little dreamily as, with her back straight and her voice carefully polite, she says No, thank you, I’m sorry, and the man goes away. Who was that, Mama? they say. Oh, no one, she says.
Money
By Reginald Gibbons

To have known him, to have loved him
Monody
By Herman Melville

There are never any suicides in the quarter among people one knows
Montparnasse
By Ernest M. Hemingway

Today the moon sees fit to come between a parched earth
Monuments
By Myra Sklarew

The only relics left are those long
Monuments for a Friendly Girl at a Tenth Grade Party First appeared in Poetry
By William E. Stafford

The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
More Than Enough
By Marge Piercy

The tortures of lumbago consumed Aunt Madge,
Mortal Sorrows First appeared in Poetry
By Rodney Jones

This is everything she ever closed a door
Mother's Closet
By Maxine Scates

the last time i was home
Mothers
By Nikki Giovanni

There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
Mowing
By Robert Frost

That greasy letter into which my legs entered,
Muckraker First appeared in Poetry
By Cate Marvin

they thought the field was wasting
mulberry fields
By Lucille Clifton

The lord is pregnant & we are not likely
Mums
By Bernadette Mayer

The year I was born the atomic bomb went off.
My Century First appeared in Poetry
By Alan Feldman

This is my father photographed with friends, when he was young.
My Father Photographed With Friends
By William Bronk

Today, lonely for my father, I saw
My Father’s Wedding
By Robert Bly

There are no stars tonight
My Grandmother’s Love Letters
By Hart Crane

The shell of objects inwardly consumed
My Last Dance
By Julia Ward Howe

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
My Last Duchess
By Robert Browning

The huge doll of my body
My Life
By Mark Strand

The fig was full of worms.
My Life
By Roddy Lumsden

They're where all displacement begins.
My Mother's Nipples
By Robert Hass

Three weeks, and now I hear!
My Olson Elegy
By Irving Feldman

The autumn-time has come;
My Triumph
By John Greenleaf Whittier

There are moments
Myself and My Person
By Anna Swir

The wallful of quoted passages from his work,
Nabokov’s Blues First appeared in Poetry
By William Matthews

This present tragedy will eventually
Naming the Stars First appeared in Poetry
By Joyce Sutphen

The soaked books lip open in piles.
Narrative Without People
By Hilda Raz

The Under Secretary leans forward and draws an X
National Insecurity
By Tomas Tranströmer

There was a fire in the night.
Near the Docks
By Dave Smith

They live alone
Neighbors
By David Allen Evans

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
Neo-Thomist Poem
By Ernest M. Hemingway

Time collapses between the lips of strangers
Never to Dream of Spiders
By Audre Lorde

The rain this morning falls
New Year’s Day
By Kim Addonizio

The Christmas twigs crispen and needles rattle
New Year's Poem
By Margaret Avison

Through the cheap iron gate and its mythic
Night Shift, after Drinking Dinner, Container Corporation of America, 1972
By Kevin Stein

The world’s as the world is; the nations rearm and prepare to change; the age of tyrants returns;
Night Without Sleep
By Robinson Jeffers

Tell me no more of minds embracing minds,
No Platonic Love
By William Cartwright

That scraping of iron on iron when the wind
Nocturne
By Li-Young Lee

This happened long ago, before the onset
Normalization First appeared in Poetry
By Czeslaw Milosz

The days are dog-eared, the edges torn,
Not Guilty
By David Rivard

The alternative to flying is cowardice,
Notes for an Elegy
By William Meredith

The fields are white;
Nothing to Do
By James Ephriam McGirt

The almighty cyclop’s-eye clouded over
November in the Former DDR
By Tomas Tranströmer

Toe after toe, a snowing flesh,
Nude Descending a Staircase First appeared in Poetry
By X J Kennedy

the poets have always preceded,
O.
By Robin Blaser

These times strike monied worldlings with dismay:
October, 1803
By William Wordsworth

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Ode on a Grecian Urn
By John Keats

Though loath to grieve
Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
By William Wordsworth

The ploughland has gone to bent
from Odes: 14. Gin the Goodwife Stint
By Basil Bunting

There lies a vale in Ida, lovelier
OEnone
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The poem of the mind in the act of finding
Of Modern Poetry
By Wallace Stevens

There is a little lightning in his eyes.
Of Robert Frost
By Gwendolyn Brooks

They’re waiting to be murdered,
Old Couple
By Charles Simic

The heavy bodies lunge, the broken language
Old Men Playing Basketball First appeared in Poetry
By B. H. Fairchild

Test for the Old Smile, they're going to roast it—
Old Smile at the Roast First appeared in Poetry
By Glyn Maxwell

The ruth of soups and balm of sauces
On A Diet
By William Matthews

That which her slender waist confin’d,
On a Girdle
By Edmund Waller

The sheep-killing dogs saunter home,
On A Moonstruck Gravel Road
By Rodney Torreson

The young are quick of speech.
On Teaching the Young
By Yvor Winters

THERE 's little joy in life for me,
On the Death of Anne Brontë
By Charlotte Brontë

There was Dai Puw. He was no good.
On the Farm
By R. S. Thomas

The castle clock had tolled midnight:
On the Funeral of Charles the First at Night, in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor
By William Lisle Bowles

Those dutiful dogtrots down airport corridors
On the Road First appeared in Poetry
By John Updike

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
One Art
By Elizabeth Bishop

This afternoon the park is filled with brides.
Among varieties of persuasion the big trees turn back toward the forest.
Adventurers gather in side streets.
The police are looking hard at the sky.
Down at the bay, boys trapped in solitude fish.
Girls hike their pants and stare at the wave line,
remembering secrets they once held dear.
The day offers a ridiculous variation as
an excuse for not coming in on time.
Wild imaginings take the place of religion.
Someone who can't swim offers to cook.
We've devised a means for the obstinate children
to be fed, she says, but no one understands this.
We crave affection, but give only advice.
There are walls topped with broken bicycles.
Someone makes an obscene offer and this
is the best we get all day. Oh don't give in
so easily she says, handing over the keys.
We climb the blue fire escape.
We would like to keep going,
skyline climbers, old men remembering their childhood
who devise a few illegal experiences no one wants to try.
It gets to be more than the officers can take.
The park is dusty, dark, yet the children,
ignored all day, play on, convinced their dedication
releases a magic that changes everything.
One Possible Meaning First appeared in Poetry
By Charlie Smith

The count of cappuccino,
Opera Bouffe First appeared in Poetry
By Philip Gross

The air tonight is thick as curry;
Ophelia's Technicolor G-String: An Urban Mythology
By Susan B. Anthony Somers-Willett

They cut off hands and composed cantatas;
Opus
By George Bradley

The man-brained and man-handed ground-ape, physically
Original Sin
By Robinson Jeffers

The figure on this four drachma coin
Orophernis
By C. P. Cavafy

The oakboughs of the cottagers
Orphean Lost First appeared in Poetry
By Carl Rakosi

The nightclub’s neon light glows red with anxiety
Other Fugitives and Other Strangers
By Rigoberto González

This stranger whose flesh we never ate,
Our Father
By Irving Feldman

This sun was mine and yours; we shared it.
Our Sun
By George Seferis

The prayer feather fluttered
Paho at Walpi
By Janet Loxley Lewis

The mountain was close.
Parable for Vanished Countries
By Peter Balakian

Thanks for the violence. Thanks for Walt’s rude muscle
Parable in Praise of Violence
By Tony Barnstone

The Greeks are sitting on the beach
Parable of the Hostages
By Louise Glück

THus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Paradise Lost: Book XI (1674)
By John Milton

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Paradoxes and Oxymorons
By John Ashbery

Thought thrusts up, homely as a hyacinth
from Paragraphs from a Day-Book (section 1 only) First appeared in Poetry
By Marilyn Hacker

The yellow line could be seen for as long a time
Passing the Frontier First appeared in Poetry
By Pierre Martory

They explained to me the bloody bandages
Past-Lives Therapy
By Charles Simic

The man vending needles at our door
Peddler
By Sandra McPherson

Tottering and elastic, middle name of Groan,
Pedestrian
By Thomas Lux

The shadows have their seasons, too.
Penumbrae
By John Updike

The great gold apples of night
People First appeared in Poetry
By D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Today I managed something
Perfect
By Kenn Nesbitt

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
Perhaps the World Ends Here
By Joy Harjo

This circle holding the afternoon sky is a lake
Peripheries
By Ruth Stone

They jumped from the burning floors—
Photograph from September 11
By Wisława Szymborska

This is what you changed me to:
Pig Song First appeared in Poetry
By Margaret Atwood

The first night at the monastery,
Pine
By Chase Twichell

Tree, we take leave of you; you’re on your own.
Planting a Dogwood
By Roy Scheele

Two girls runaway from the Home. They have a revolver
Play in Which Darkness Falls
By Frank Stanford

The ants came
Poem
By Carl Rakosi

The jaunty crop-haired graying
Poem about People
By Robert Pinsky

The eager note on my door said “Call me,
Poem [“The eager note on my door said, ‘Call me,’”]
By Frank O'Hara

The umbrella, in this case;
Poet Dances with Inanimate Object
By Cornelius Eady

Tonight Hazard’s father and stepmother are having
Politics
By William Meredith

The rain set early in to-night,
Porphyria's Lover
By Robert Browning

There is no widening distance at the shore—
Port of Aerial Embarkation
By John Ciardi

The bird’s nest, empty, on her table, feeds her,
Portrait
By Babette Deutsch

The window that faces this street is always
Portrait of the Author
By Cesare Pavese

There are two kinds of people, soldiers and women,
Postfeminism
By Brenda Shaughnessy

The night’s turned everything to junipers
Prairie Octopus, Awake First appeared in Poetry
By Nicky Beer

The hospital
Praise
By Hilda Morley

Those intervals
Prayer Rug
By Agha Shahid Ali

The limit of the song is this
Prelude
By Michael Palmer

The winter evening settles down
Preludes
By T. S. Eliot

The Bone-man lives in a stucco
Preparation
By Ellen Bryant Voigt

The before took us right up to
Preposition
By Sally Van Doren

The skin ripples over my body like moon-wooed water,
Prison Song First appeared in Poetry
By Alan Dugan

Though the road turn at last
Prisoners
By Denise Levertov

The animals are leaving
Privacy
By C. D. Wright

Three crates of Private Eye Lettuce,
Private Eye Lettuce
By Richard Brautigan

The cheap dropped ceiling
Probation First appeared in Poetry
By Averill Curdy

To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,
Prologue
By Anne Bradstreet

Though each single life occurs
Prologue to a Bidding
By Forrest Gander

Titan! to whose immortal eyes
Prometheus
By Lord Byron (George Gordon)

The love we’ve defined for ourselves
Prothalamion
By Michael Ryan

The clock here is quiet.
Psychoanalysis of Water
By Forrest Gander

The porter in the Pullman car
Pullman Porter
By Robert W. Service

The ship at anchor wasn’t what it seemed—
from Punchinello in Chains: VI. Punchinello Dreams of Escape
By William Logan

The people people work with best
Queer People
By Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman

Thousands of planes were flying and then
Radio Crackling, Radio Gone
By Lisa Olstein

The dream went like a rake of sliced bamboo,
Randall Jarrell
By Robert Lowell

The battle rent a cobweb diamond-strung
Range-finding
By Robert Frost

The darkness draws me, kindly angels weep
Re-Incarnation
By Eva Gore-Booth

The first child asks me: Are these poems yours?
Reading to the Children
By Herbert Morris

The smashed weirdness of the raving cadenzas of God
Realism
By Tom Clark

The labeled bins on the California hillside
Recycling Center
By Brenda Hillman

This harpie with dry red curls
Red Dust
By Philip Levine

This old house lodges no ghosts!
Reflections on History in Missouri
By Constance Urdang

The first chainsaw I owned was years ago,
Regarding Chainsaws
By Hayden Carruth

This misalliance
Religious Instruction
By Mina Loy

They flee from me, that sometime did me seek
Remembrance
By Thomas Wyatt

The fake Parthenon in Nashville, Stonehenge reduced by a quarter
Replica
By Marvin Bell

The willows carried a slow sound,
Repose of Rivers
By Hart Crane

The wave of that year
Requiem
By Bei Dao

The angels I love
Requiem First appeared in Poetry
By Peter Munro

The sky was a hot, blue sheet the summer breeze fanned
Requiem
By Camille T. Dungy

the winged thang built her dream palace
Requiem for a Nest
By Wanda Coleman

This morning as I gulp five gleaming white
Requiem Shark First appeared in Poetry
By Rad Smith

This prairie holds us
Reservation
By Diane Glancy

The names of things—sparks!
Resigning from a Job in a Defense Industry
By Sandra McPherson

There was a roaring in the wind all night;
Resolution and Independence
By William Wordsworth

The strident high
Respublica
By Geoffrey Hill

There is a better thing, dear heart,
Retrospect
By Arthur Conan Doyle

THE LAND UNCHANGED, the cattle track,
Return in Autumn
By Paul Engle

Today in Rome, heading down
Return to Rome
By Stanley Moss

Twelve o'clock.
Rhapsody on a Windy Night
By T. S. Eliot

This time we are getting drunk on retsina
Rider
By Charlie Smith

That year of the cloud, when my marriage failed,
River Road
By Stanley Kunitz

This is what poetry is (says the Road),
Road First appeared in Poetry
By Lisa Williams

The dog stops barking after Robinson has gone.
Robinson
By Weldon Kees

To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,
Romance
By Claude McKay

The same to me are sombre days and gay.
Rondeau Redoublé (and Scarcely Worth the Trouble, at That)
By Dorothy Parker

To tell you the truth I’d have thought it had gone out of use long ago;
Rorschach Test
By Franz Wright

That there should never be air
Roses
By Barbara Guest

There was another life we knew each other
Rotogravure
By Cynthia Zarin

This is how it’s done.
Rough Music
By Deborah Digges

The shoemaker’s wife ran preschool
ROYGBIV First appeared in Poetry
By Fred D'Aguiar

They brought me ambrotypes
Rutherford McDowell
By Edgar Lee Masters

Thy will be done, dear God. Is this Thy will,
Rwanda, Memorial Day, 1994
By Janet Loxley Lewis

The hard thing’s to sit without being noticed.
Sad Wine (II)
By Cesare Pavese

The rugs had been rolled up and islands of them
Sailing to America
By Gregory Djanikian

The bud
Saint Francis and the Sow
By Galway Kinnell

There, in that lost
Salter's Gate
By Anne Stevenson

Think of the fox skins belted to the backs of the dancers
Santo Domingo Feast Day
By Robin Becker

The twilight falls; I soften the dusting feathers,
Sappho
By James Wright

The father of two silver medal figure skaters
Saturn
By Cynthia Zarin

They will not be the same next time. The sayings
Saying Goodbye to Very Young Children First appeared in Poetry
By John Updike

Today the cloud shapes are terrifying,
Scary Movies First appeared in Poetry
By Kim Addonizio

Taste of salt on my fingers,
Sea-Map
By Hilda Morley

This was the winter mother told time by my heart
Seizure
By Lynn Emanuel

To catch the spirit in its wayward flight
Self-Mastery
By Henrietta Cordelia Ray

The light has traveled unthinkable thousands of miles to be
Sentimental
By Albert Goldbarth

This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
September, 1918
By Amy Lowell

To the dim light and the large circle of shade
Sestina of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni
By Cino da Pistoia

The shoe repairman works behind the married shoes,
Several Errands
By Brenda Hillman

that comes to pieces in your hand
Shale
By Anne Stevenson

The shape of her soul is a square.
She Considers the Dimensions of Her Soul First appeared in Poetry
By Young Smith

The first four leaders had broken knees
Sheep
By Judy Grahn

The quality of these trees, green height; of the sky, shining; of water, a clear flow; of the rock, hardness
Shine, Republic
By Robinson Jeffers

The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
Shirt
By Robert Pinsky

There were bees about. From the start I thought
Shore Scene
By John Logan

The seas has made a wall for its defence
Shoreline First appeared in Poetry
By Mary Barnard

The sidewalks were long where I grew up.
Sidewalk Games
By Colleen J. McElroy

There is the sudden silence of the crowd
Silence First appeared in Poetry
By Billy Collins

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
Silence
By Thomas Hood

There was once a little animal,
Similar Cases
By Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman

The mouth of the cavern
Simple Gift
By Cedar Sigo

This poetry is a picture or graph of a mind moving, which is a
Since You Ask Me
By Philip Whalen

This is the one song everyone
Siren Song First appeared in Poetry
By Margaret Atwood

The edge of our bed was a wide grid
Sisters in Arms
By Audre Lorde

Three years ago, in the afternoons,
Sitting Outside at the End of Autumn
By Charles Wright

The front seats filled last. Laggards, buffoons,
Sitting with Others
By Rodney Jones

the streets of hell are also paved
skinny-dippin’ in the gene pool
By Thulani Davis

The .32 Special,
Skirts and Slacks
By W. S. Di Piero

Three jets are streaking west:
Skywriting
By Charles Tomlinson

The release itself—
Small Tantric Sermon
By Philip Whalen

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
Snow Day
By Billy Collins

They say it is waiting for more, the snow
Snow Signs
By Charles Tomlinson

The sun that brief December day
Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl
By John Greenleaf Whittier

Timing’s everything. The vapor rises
Snowflake
By William Baer

The gravel road rides with a slow gallop
So This Is Nebraska
By Ted Kooser

The desert is butch, she dismisses your illusions
Solar
By Robin Becker

To say screw them, to be screw-them
Sole Blessing
By J. Allyn Rosser

the brownstone warehouse roof
Somehow They Got Three Stories Up First appeared in Poetry
By W. S. Di Piero

Talking, we begin to find the way into
our hearts, we who knew no words,
words being a rare commodity
in those countries we left behind.
Sometimes Never First appeared in Poetry
By Joyce Sutphen

The galloping collection of boards
Somewhere
By Robert Creeley

There are places in this world where
Somewhere Holy
By Carl Phillips

The vias of Italy turn to memory with each turn
Somewhere to Paris
By Richard Blanco

The bottom of the sea has come
Song
By Thomas James Merton

The moon is a sow
Song for Ishtar
By Denise Levertov

There's a place I know where the birds swing low,
Song in a Minor Key
By Dorothy Parker

They have no song, the sedges dry,
Song in the Songless
By George Meredith

The vote came in early. We ignored
Song of the Andoumboulou: 60
By Nathaniel Mackey

The round and sad-eyed man puffed cigars as if
Song of the Round Man
By Michael Palmer

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
Sonnet CIV: To me, fair friend, you never can be old
By William Shakespeare

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Sonnet CXLIV: Two loves I have of comfort and despair
By William Shakespeare

Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Sonnet CXXIX: "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame"
By William Shakespeare

Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry,
Sonnet LXVI: Tir'd with all these, for Restful Death
By William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
Sonnet LXXIII: That Time of Year thou mayst in me Behold
By William Shakespeare

The Augsburg poet once said he had tacked
Sonnet of the Seven Chinese First appeared in Poetry
By Franco Fortini

The cold transparent ham is on my fork—
Sonnet to Vauxhall
By Thomas Hood

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
Sonnet XCIV: They that have Power to Hurt and will do None
By William Shakespeare

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all:
Sonnet XL: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all
By William Shakespeare

To tell the truth, those brick Housing Authority buildings
Sonnet. To Tell the Truth
By Alicia Ostriker

They dub thee idler, smiling sneeringly,
Sonnet: They Dub Thee Idler
By Henry Timrod

The face of all the world is changed, I think,
Sonnets from the Portuguese 7: The Face
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

the wind hits and returns it is easy to personify
Sophia Nichols,
By Robin Blaser

To be so held by brittleness, shapeliness.
Soul Says
By Jorie Graham

The jade slipped from my wrist
Spaces We Leave Empty
By Cathy Song

The spider, juiced crystal and Milky Way, drifts on his web through the night sky
Spider Crystal Ascension
By Charles Wright

The telephone company calls and asks what the fuss is.
Spirit ditty of no fax-line dial tone
By Bob Hicok

The trouble with comparing a poet with a radio is that radios don’t develop scar-tissue. The tubes burn out, or with a transistor, which most souls are, the battery or diagram burns out replaceable or not replaceable, but not like that punchdrunk fighter in the bar. The poet
Sporting Life
By Jack Spicer

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Spring
By Edna St. Vincent Millay

Thinking of rain clouds that rose over the city
St Vincent’s
By W. S. Merwin

Through Alpine meadows soft-suffused
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse
By Matthew Arnold

There may be pink with white or white with rose
from Stanzas in Meditation: Stanza XIII
By Gertrude Stein

The angel asked, as his shoulders were pressed into the stone
Statue
By Tom Clark

This day, whate'er the Fates decree,
Stella's Birthday March 13, 1727
By Jonathan Swift

The last snow is baited.
Stilling
By Donald Revell

This is my advice to foreigners:
from Stops Along the Western Bank of the Missouri River: Of the River Itself
By Michael Anania

They'd show up at evening, with the change
Strays
By Stanley Plumly

The afternoon slows down, the town in steady rain.
Street Boy First appeared in Poetry
By J. Allyn Rosser

There’s something in me that likes
Stripped Car
By Chase Twichell

They are so beautiful, and so very young
Subject To Change First appeared in Poetry
By Marilyn Taylor

The answer is entropy—how smell works—
Sublimation Point
By Jason Schneiderman

Twilight folds over houses on our street;
Suburban Pastoral First appeared in Poetry
By Dave Lucas

The mother bending over a baby named Shug
Sugar Cane
By Alfred Corn

This is the time lean woods shall spend
Sundown
By Léonie Adams

The traveler who crossed Les Halles at summer’s end
Sunflower
By André Breton

The lions who ate the Christians on the sands of the arena
Sunt Leones
By Stevie Smith

Tired of waiting for him, I think of a plan to stick it to the
Superfly
By Lynn Crosbie

There is a drear and lonely tract of hell
Supremacy
By Edwin Arlington Robinson

The man who stood beside me
Sweet Will First appeared in Poetry
By Philip Levine

The very longest swell in the ocean, I suspect,
Swells
By A. R. Ammons

To estrus and estrogen very responsive
Synchronous Chronology
By Alice Notley

The Doctor is glimpsed among his mulberry trees.
Synopsis for a German Novella
By John Fuller

Take, oh take those lips away,
Take, Oh Take Those Lips Away
By William Shakespeare

Take, oh, take those lips away
Take, Oh, Take Those Lips Away
By John Fletcher

The first morning of Three Mile Island: those first disquieting, uncertain, mystifying hours.
Tar
By C. K. Williams

The Phoenicians guarded a recipe that required
Ten Thousand to One
By Arthur Sze

Tender only to one
Tender Only to One
By Stevie Smith

Tenderness and rot
Tenderness and Rot First appeared in Poetry
By Kay Ryan

This night we’re drinking beer a pint
Terms First appeared in Poetry
By Kevin Stein

They thought the trouble was over,
Territories
By Gregory Djanikian

The moon revolves in the sky
Thamar and Amnon
By Federico García Lorca

The relief of putting your fingers on the keyboard,
Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons
By Diane Wakoski

Thanksgiving Day I like to see
Thanksgiving Magic
By Rowena Bastin Bennett

That child was dangerous. That just-born
That Child First appeared in Poetry
By David Wagoner

This is about the women of that country
That Country
By Grace Paley

The ache of marriage:
The Ache of Marriage
By Denise Levertov

This room, how well I know it.
The Afternoon Sun
By C. P. Cavafy

The age demanded that we sing
The Age Demanded
By Ernest M. Hemingway

There are, of course, theories
The Age of Dinosaurs First appeared in Poetry
By James Scruton

This tuft that thrives on saline nothingness,
The Air Plant
By Hart Crane

The long darkness of forks and spoons
The Alchemist
By Lawrence Raab

The letters of the Jews as strict as flames
The Alphabet First appeared in Poetry
By Karl Shapiro

Then what is the answer?—Not to be deluded by dreams.
The Answer
By Robinson Jeffers

The princess in her world-old tower pined
The Anti-Suffragist
By Eva Gore-Booth

The one horse you gave me
The Appaloosa
By Afaa Michael Weaver

The city budget squads have trimmed its hours.
The Apples
By W. S. Di Piero

Through the meridian’s fine blue hairlines, the admirals are converging
The Armada
By Anne Winters

This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
The Arsenal at Springfield
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

this little phase
the attack could not be seen by night
By Thulani Davis

The blessing safely lifted onto Joshua’s shoulders,
The Author of Torah
By Alfred Corn

Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,
The Author to Her Book
By Anne Bradstreet

To wed, or not to wed; that is the question;
The Bachelor’s Soliloquy
By Edgar Albert Guest

The bad mother wakes from dreams
The Bad Mother
By Susan Griffin

The summer of nineteen eighteen
The Bad Old Days
By Kenneth Rexroth

Then fled, O brethren, the wicked juba
The Ballad of Nat Turner
By Robert E. Hayden

There’s a black wind howlin’ by Whylah Falls;
The Ballad of Othello Clemence
By George Elliott Clarke

The end of the affair is always death.
The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator
By Anne Sexton

There once was a bamboo ladder.
The Bamboo Ladder
By Anonymous

The Italian barber
The Barber's Fountain
By Henry Carlile

There’s a barrel-organ carolling across a golden street
The Barrel-Organ
By Alfred Noyes

This year an ocean trip I took, and as I am a Scot
The Battle of the Bulge
By Robert W. Service

The batture’s water and sand disappear
The Batture
By Dara Wier

The cliff above where we stand is crumbling
The Beach at Sunset
By Eloise Klein Healy

The day the fat woman
The Beach in August
By Weldon Kees

They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
The Bean Eaters First appeared in Poetry
By Gwendolyn Brooks

Tonight the bear
The Bear
By Susan Mitchell

To feel and speak the astonishing beauty of things—earth, stone and water,
The Beauty of Things
By Robinson Jeffers

The little pitiful, worn, laughing faces,
The Beggars First appeared in Poetry
By Margaret Widdemer

They christened my brother of old—
The Bell Buoy
By Rudyard Kipling

The best game the fairies play,
The Best Game the Fairies Play
By Rose Fyleman

The Bison is vain, and (I write it with pain)
The Bison
By Hilaire Belloc

There they are.
The Blackstone Rangers
By Gwendolyn Brooks

The blue booby lives
The Blue Booby First appeared in Poetry
By James Tate

The body frozen in the lake
The Body
By Frederick Morgan

The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript
The Boston Evening Transcript
By T. S. Eliot

Through the bound cable strands, the arching path
from The Bridge: Atlantis
By Hart Crane

The swift red flesh, a winter king—
from The Bridge: The Dance
By Hart Crane

The Bustle in a House
The Bustle in a House (1108)
By Emily Dickinson

That’s right, said the cab driver,
The Cab Driver Who Ripped Me Off
By Cornelius Eady

The mind goes caw, caw, caw, caw,
The Calves Not Chosen
By Linda Gregg

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
By E. E. Cummings

The jester walked in the garden:
The Cap and Bells
By William Butler Yeats

The catalpa’s white week is ending there
The Catalpa
By John Ciardi

The cemetery lies near
The cemetery lies near
By Miguel Hernández

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
The Chambered Nautilus
By Oliver Wendell Holmes

The children are hiding among the raspberry canes.
The Children
By Mark Jarman

They have set aside their black tin boxes,
The China Painters
By Ted Kooser

Take note, passers-by, of the sharp erosions
The Circuit Judge
By Edgar Lee Masters

The last light of a July evening drained
The Cloister
By William Matthews

These of living emanate a formidable light,
The Cloth of the Tempest
By Kenneth Patchen

The day is dark and the night
The Cloud Confines
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

There is no woman living that draws breath
The Complaint of Lisa
By Algernon Charles Swinburne

The gates clanged and they walked you into jail
The Conscientious Objector
By Karl Shapiro

Those scars rooted me. Stigmata stalagmite
The Consolations of Sociobiology
By Bill Knott

They brought it. It was brought
The Corn Baby First appeared in Poetry
By Mark Wunderlich

The big front wall that blocks off the courtyard
The Country Whore
By Cesare Pavese

The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz hour concludes
The Cover of Mars
By Jane Miller

The twilight is the morning of his day.
The Cricket
By Edwin Markham

The crowd at the ball game
The crowd at the ball game
By William Carlos Williams

The smell of snow, stinging in nostrils as the wind lifts it from a beach
The Crystal Lithium
By James Schuyler

The cypress broke like a minaret, and slept on
The Cypress Broke
By Mahmoud Darwish

The brain forgets but the blood will remember.
The Dark Chamber
By Louis Untermeyer

The New York dawn has
The Dawn
By Federico García Lorca

This morning Hitler spoke in Danzig, we heard his voice.
The Day is a Poem
By Robinson Jeffers

The day is done, and the darkness
The Day is Done
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

They hail me as one living,
The Dead Man Walking
By Thomas Hardy

This is the debt I pay
The Debt
By Paul Laurence Dunbar

The deer is humble, lovely as God made her
The Deer and the Snake
By Kenneth Patchen

This morning, between two branches of a tree
The Dependencies
By Howard Nemerov

Their authority did not unfold
The Dignity of Ushers First appeared in Poetry
By Al Maginnes

The short-order cook and the dishwasher
The Diner
By Richard Jones

tra
The Dirt-Eaters
By Elizabeth Alexander

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
The Divine Image
By William Blake

The dog Stoltz pushed his paw pads into my neck,
The Dog Stoltz
By August Kleinzahler

This lifeless construction,
The Doll Believers
By Clarence Major

Time, wouldst thou hurt us? Never shall we grow old.
The Double Fortress
By Alfred Noyes

The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy,
The Doubt of Future Foes
By Elizabeth I

The clouds shouldered a path up the mountains
The Drought First appeared in Poetry
By Gary Soto

The gingham dog and calico cat
The Duel
By Eugene Field

They demonstrate against Pinochet now,
The Dust Covers My Shoes
By Hilda Morley

The t(rain)
The Eight O Five
By Diane Glancy

The bird had come to the very end of its song
The end of the world
By Miroslav Holub

They landed and could
The English in Virginia, April 1607
By Charles Reznikoff

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
The Enkindled Spring
By D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Then the cicadas again like kindling that won’t take.
The Errancy
By Jorie Graham

The phantoms flit before our dazzled eyes,
The Eternal Rebel
By Eva Gore-Booth

The evening darkens over
The Evening Darkens Over
By Robert Bridges

There is a face I know too well,
The Face
By Stevie Smith

The idiot goes round and around
The Fair
By R. S. Thomas

To make a final conquest of all me,
The Fair Singer
By Andrew Marvell

The fascination of what's difficult
The Fascination of What’s Difficult
By William Butler Yeats

The drum says that the night we die will be a long night.
The Fat Old Couple Whirling Around
By Robert Bly

The best words get said frequently—they are like fertile pips.
from The Fatalist: The best words get said frequently‚ they are like fertile pips.
By Lyn Hejinian

Time is filled with beginners. You are right. Now
from The Fatalist: Time is filled with beginners. You are right. Now
By Lyn Hejinian

This that is washed with weed and pebblestone
The Figurehead
By Léonie Adams

The night Tony decided to end it all,
The Fire
By Deborah Parédez

The first day of Christmas,
The First Day of Christmas
By Anonymous

The fitful alternations of the rain,
The Fitful Alternations of the Rain
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

That day I hired a private detective to follow me,
The Flight
By Grace Schulman

The folk who live in Backward Town
The Folk Who Live in Backward Town
By Mary Ann Hoberman

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
The Force That through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower
By Dylan Thomas

The harbingers are come. See, see their mark:
The Forerunners
By George Herbert

The dim boy claps because the others clap.
The Freaks at Spurgin Road Field
By Richard F. Hugo

The generalissimo’s glands directed him
The Future of Terror / 1
By Matthea Harvey

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
The Gift
By Li-Young Lee

The man with the butterfly net has given up on wings.
The Glass-Walled Conservatory
By Cynthia Macdonald

The Goddess who created this passing world
The Goddess Who Created This Passing World
By Alice Notley

The unclean spirits cry out in the body
The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People
By David Ferry

The hand and foot that stir not, they shall find
The hand and foot
By Jones Very

The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
The Hand That Signed the Paper
By Dylan Thomas

The heart and service to you proffer'd
The Heart and Service
By Thomas Wyatt

The legendary muscle that wants and grieves,
The Hearts
By Robert Pinsky

The heavy bear who goes with me,
The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me
By Delmore Schwartz

The Hedgehog sleeps beneath the hedge—
The Hedgehog
By J. J. Bell

Though you live in a little country,
The Here and Now
By Theodore Weiss

The gods are less
The Hidden Singer
By Wendell Berry

The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains,-
The Higher Pantheism
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The leaves of blue came drifting down.
The History of Jazz
By Kenneth Koch

They burn you
The Hitchhikers First appeared in Poetry
By Diane Wakoski

The plane tilts in to Nashville,
The Homecoming Singer
By Jay Wright

The mountains carry snow, the season fails.
The Homer Mitchell Place
By John Engels

They spoke of the horse alive
The Horse First appeared in Poetry
By Philip Levine

The horse fell off the poem
The Horse Fell Off the Poem
By Mahmoud Darwish

Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die
The House of Life: 73. The Choice, III
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

They are all gone away,
The House on the Hill
By Edwin Arlington Robinson

The house was just twinkling in the moon light,
The house was just twinkling in the moon light
By Gertrude Stein

Touching your goodness, I am like a man
The Illiterate
By William Meredith

The noise throws down
The Immortal Pilots
By Chase Twichell

The thing about the dove was how he cried in
The Inkspots
By Gerald Stern

The man behind the book may not be man,
The Intellectual
By Karl Shapiro

The frozen sleepy pause
The Interrupted Concert
By Federico García Lorca

The Israeli Navy,
The Israeli Navy
By Marvin Bell

The popcorn is greasy, and I forgot to bring a Kleenex.
The James Bond Movie
By May Swenson

The jewelled steps are already quite white with dew,
The Jewel Stairs’ Grievance
By Li Po

The kindergarten concert was an interesting show.
The Kindergarten Concert
By Robert Pottle

The kindness of others
The Kindness of Others
By Cathy Song

The mossy transom light, odors of cabbage
The Kiss
By W. S. Di Piero

The western waves of ebbing day
from The Lady of the Lake: The Western Waves of Ebbing Day
By Sir Walter Scott

Through the blinds, it must have been the searchlight I saw
The Landing
By J. D. McClatchy

The day was cloudy. No one could come to a decision;
The Last Day
By George Seferis

The laws of science teach us a pound of gold weighs as
The Laws of Motion
By Nikki Giovanni

The evenfall, so slow on hills, hath shot
The Lights of London
By Louise Imogen Guiney

The crowded street his playground is, a patch of blue his sky;
The Little Orphan
By Edgar Albert Guest

There was a little turtle.
The Little Turtle
By Vachel Lindsay

The grand road from the mountain goes shining to the sea,
The Little Waves of Breffny
By Eva Gore-Booth

The rose of all the world is not for me.
The Little White Rose
By Hugh MacDiarmid

The way she puts her fingers to his chest when she greets him.
The Local Language
By Ralph Angel

The longë love that in my thought doth harbour
The Long Love that in my Thought doth Harbour
By Thomas Wyatt

There’s a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,
The Long Trail
By Rudyard Kipling

The Lord sits with me out in front watching
The Lord Sits with Me Out Front
By Jack Gilbert

The flag is folded
The Lowering
By May Swenson

Travel is a vanishing act
The Luggage
By Constance Urdang

They draw me closer like the hands
The Magnets
By Ray Gonzalez

The pearls, mere reminders.
The Magus
By C. Dale Young

The man I could have been works for a vital institution, is a vital
The Man I Could Have Been
By Roddy Lumsden

The man moves earth
The Man Moves Earth
By Cathy Song

The man splitting wood in the daybreak
The Man Splitting Wood in the Daybreak
By Galway Kinnell

The man who married Magdalene
The Man Who Married Magdalene
By Louis Simpson

The sight of beauty simply makes us sick:
The March� aux Puces and the Jardin des Plantes
By Daryl Hine

The wind comes from opposite poles,
The Marriage
By Mark Strand

The law moves quickly in the rain
The Massacre of the Innocents
By Donald Revell

The scowl in caught in jadeite.
The Mayans
By Eleanor Lerman

The Mayor of Scuttleton burned his nose
The Mayor of Scuttleton
By Mary Mapes Dodge

This was the dictator’s land
The Meaning of the Shovel
By Martín Espada

The messenger runs, not carrying the news
The Messenger
By Eleanor Wilner

The wrinkles on the brown face
The Militance of a Photograph in the Passbook of a Bantu under Detention
By Michael S. Harper

The miller's wife had waited long,
The Mill
By Edwin Arlington Robinson

This high up, the face
The Moment When Your Name is Pronounced
By Forrest Gander

The monsters in my closet
The Monsters in My Closet
By Phil Bolsta

This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary.
The Moon and the Yew Tree
By Sylvia Plath

The Moon is distant from the Sea –
The Moon is distant from the Sea – (387)
By Emily Dickinson

The moon now rises to her absolute rule,
The moon now rises to her absolute rule
By Henry David Thoreau

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
The Mower
By Philip Larkin

The body is a nation I have not known.
The New Religion
By Chris Abani

The sun is folding, cars stall and rise
The New World
By Amiri Baraka

The niche narrows
The Niche
By Samuel Menashe

The night is darkening round me,
The night is darkening round me
By Emily Jane Brontë

The nightingale, as soon as April bringeth
The Nightingale
By Philip Sidney

The north wind whips through,
The north wind whips First appeared in Poetry
By Víctor Terán

The bar in the commuter station steams
The Northeast Corridor
By Donald Revell

The baby
The Nursery
By Fanny Howe

The wanton troopers riding by
The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn
By Andrew Marvell

There are many monsters that a glassen surface
The Octopus First appeared in Poetry
By James Merrill

This is the factory
The Old Maid Factory
By Constance Urdang

The old man
The Old Man Drew the Line
By Carl Rakosi

There are who separate the eternal light
The One in All
By Margaret Fuller

The straight neck held up out of the lace
The Only Portrait of Emily Dickinson
By Irene McKinney

The coroner said a white picket fence,
The Open Happens in the Midst of Beings
By Norman Dubie

The girls with eyes of wicks of lights,
The Oracle
By Thomas James Merton

The order of islands here
The order of islands here
By Michael Palmer

The leaves had fallen in that sullen place,
The Other Place First appeared in Poetry
By William Logan

They slept and ate like us.
The Others
By Michael Ryan

The painter’s eye follows relation out.
The Painter Dreaming in the Scholar’s House
By Howard Nemerov

The moon shears up on Tahoe now:
The Panther
By Edwin Markham

They collected them one by one
The Passing of the Wise Men First appeared in Poetry
By Pattiann Rogers

The passions that we fought with and subdued
The Passions that we Fought with and Subdued
By Trumbull Stickney

To-day’s most trivial act may hold the seed
The Past
By Henry Timrod

The debt is paid,
The Past
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The island, you mustn’t say, had only rocks and scrub pine;
The Pennacesse Leper Colony for Women, Cape Cod: 1922
By Norman Dubie

The last time I saw Donald Armstrong
The Performance First appeared in Poetry
By James L. Dickey

The shallows, brighter,
The Pier: Under Pisces
By James Merrill

The coast hills at Sovranes Creek;
The Place for No Story
By Robinson Jeffers

The jolt that comes to bones inside a tumbled streetcar
The Poet as Setting
By Douglas Kearney

This is her picture as she was:
The Portrait
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

There could be a quirk in the conception of time.
The Possible Advantages of the Expendable Multitudes
By Pattiann Rogers

The power of Armies is a visible thing,
The Power of Armies is a Visible Thing
By William Wordsworth

That night the moon drifted over the pond,
The Prediction
By Mark Strand

Thus far, O Friend! have we, though leaving much
from The Prelude: Book 2: School-time (Continued)
By William Wordsworth

The show did not start off
The Price is Right: A Torture Wheel of Fortune
By Edward Dorn

The splendour falls on castle walls
The Princess: The Splendour Falls on Castle Walls
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Thy voice is heard thro' rolling drums,
The Princess: Thy Voice is Heard
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Props assist the House
The Props assist the House (729)
By Emily Dickinson

There was always a lizard
The Pump
By Frank Stanford

The elements have merged into solicitude.
The Racer’s Widow
By Louise Glück

The razor-tailed wren,
The Razor-Tailed Wren
By Shel Silverstein

There is a wall of which the stones
The Rebel
By Hilaire Belloc

The man sits in a timelessness
The Rescue
By Robert Creeley

The shag rug of a Great Plains buffalo,
The Right Whale in Iowa
By Debora Greger

The sleds of the children
The Rites of Darkness
By Kenneth Patchen

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost

Think of our blindness where the water burned!
The Rock in the Sea
By Archibald MacLeish

There are wolves
The Rocky Islands
By Janet Loxley Lewis

The role of elegy is
The Role of Elegy
By Mary Jo Bang

Throw a few more logs
The Sacred Flame
By Marin Sorescu

The rain falling on a night
The Same City
By Terrance Hayes

There’s teuch sauchs growin’ i’ the Reuch Heuch Hauch.
The Sauchs in the Reuch Heuch Hauch
By Hugh MacDiarmid

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The Second Coming
By William Butler Yeats

Two girls discover
The Secret
By Denise Levertov

The man was white, grey and pale brown,
The Seer First appeared in Poetry
By A. F. Moritz

THENOT & HOBBINOLL
from The Shepheardes Calender: April
By Edmund Spenser

The shirt touches his neck
The Shirt
By Jane Kenyon

The beer company
The Sign in My Father’s Hands
By Martín Espada

The nights have grown cool again, like the nights
The Silver Lily
By Louise Glück

The silver swan, who living had no note,
The Silver Swan
By Anonymous

The rolls and harrows lie at rest beside
The Skylark
By John Clare

The sale began—young girls were there,
The Slave Auction
By Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Tip their mouths open to the sky.
The Small Vases from Hebron
By Naomi Shihab Nye

There is a smile of love,
The Smile
By William Blake

The snail’s covered up
The Snail
By Marin Sorescu

The snow is deep on the ground.
The Snow Is Deep on the Ground
By Kenneth Patchen

The wind blew high, the waters raved,
The Song of the Wreck
By Charles Dickens

The brawling of a sparrow in the eaves,
The Sorrow of Love
By William Butler Yeats

Through the window screen I can see an angle of grey roof
The Sound of One Fork
By Minnie Bruce Pratt

The spirit is too blunt an instrument
The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument
By Anne Stevenson

This motley piece to you I send,
from The Spleen
By Matthew Green

They splay at a bend of the road, rifles slung, the
The Spool
By Ben Belitt

The red eyes of rabbits
The Springtime
By Denise Levertov

TWINKLE, twinkle, little star,
The Star
By Ann Taylor

The town does not exist
The Starry Night
By Anne Sexton

The stars are
The Stars Are First appeared in Poetry
By Samuel Menashe

That I might chisel a statue, line on line,
The Statue
By Ella Higginson

Think of the woman who first touched fire
The Story of Light
By Peggy Shumaker

Thyrsis, a youth of the inspired train,
The Story of Phœbus and Daphne, Applied
By Edmund Waller

To keep from ending
The Story of the End of the Story
By James Galvin

The strangers in the woods must mimic squirrels and crackle
The Strangers Who Find Me in the Woods
By Rigoberto González

There is far too much of the suburban classes
The Suburban Classes
By Stevie Smith

There is one mind in all of us, one soul,
The Sun First appeared in Poetry
By Dan Chiasson

There is a coal-black Angel
The Swamp Angel
By Herman Melville

To this man, to his boned shoulders
The Sympathizers
By Josephine Miles

The Tartar swept across the plain
The Tartar Swept
By August Kleinzahler

Thou know’st my praise of nature most sincere,
from The Task, Book I: The Sofa
By William Cowper

Thus heav’n-ward all things tend. For all were once
from The Task, Book VI: The Winter Walk at Noon
By William Cowper

The house in Broad Street, red brick, with nine rooms
The Things
By Conrad Aiken

There is a thorn—it looks so old,
The Thorn
By William Wordsworth

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The time I’ve lost in wooing,
The Time I’ve Lost in Wooing
By Thomas Moore

The time of youth is to be spent
The Time of Youth is to be Spent
By Henry VIII, king of England

They are cutting down the great plane-trees at the end of the gardens.
The Trees are Down
By Charlotte Mew

There were two brothers, John and James,
The Twins
By Robert W. Service

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
The Tyger
By William Blake

The rain is plashing on my sill,
The Unknown Dead
By Henry Timrod

There is a company called Marathon Oil, mother,
The Unruly Child
By Bob Perelman

The house is so quiet now
The Vacuum
By Howard Nemerov

This was the story never told
The Vagrant’s Romance
By Eva Gore-Booth

The village life, and every care that reigns
The Village: Book I
By George Crabbe

This dry night, nothing unusual
The War Horse
By Eavan Boland

Thoughtful, hands behind my back,
The Way
By Marin Sorescu

There were words I had to leave behind,
The Way I Learned to Write
By Kate Gale

The way to the river leads past the names of
The Way to the River
By W. S. Merwin

That time my grandmother dragged me
The Weakness
By Toi Derricotte

the weather is hot on the back of my watch
the weather is hot on the back of my watch
By Charles Bukowski

Two horses were put together in the same paddock.
The Weight
By Linda Gregg

The well rising without sound,
The Well Rising
By William E. Stafford

The Whale that wanders round the Pole
The Whale
By Hilaire Belloc

The wheels on the bus
The Wheels on the Bus
By Anonymous

The cicadas were loud and what looked like a child’s
The White Pilgrim: Old Christian Cemetery
By Brigit Pegeen Kelly

That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
The Whitsun Weddings
By Philip Larkin

The men that cut their graves in the grey rocks
The Widow of Naim
By Thomas James Merton

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The Wild Swans at Coole
By William Butler Yeats

Two wind chimes,
The Wind Chimes
By Shirley Buettner

The length of the wind runs from mid-May to murder.
The Wind’s Measure First appeared in Poetry
By Peter Munro

The wine of Love is music,
The Wine of Love
By James Thomson

The saris go by me from the embassies.
The Woman at the Washington Zoo
By Randall Jarrell

The woodpecker keeps returning
The Woodpecker Keeps Returning
By Jane Hirshfield

The wind flapp'd loose, the wind was still,
The Woodspurge
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The world below the brine,
The World below the Brine
By Walt Whitman

The world is as it appears
The world is as it appears
By Miguel Hernández

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
The World Is Too Much With Us
By William Wordsworth

The harp at Nature’s advent strung
The Worship of Nature
By John Greenleaf Whittier

The shock comes slowly
The Wound
By Ruth Stone

The woman I love is greedy,
The Yellow Bicycle
By Robert Hass

The sky has been dark
The Youngest Daughter
By Cathy Song

That gaunt old man came first, his hair as white
Their Bodies First appeared in Poetry
By David Wagoner

The instructor said,
Theme for English B
By Langston Hughes

Then was the grown-up world of tall decision,
Then and Now
By Babette Deutsch

That last time, Mallorca,
Then Another Petal
By Hilda Morley

There is a garden in her face
There Is A Garden In Her Face
By Thomas Campion

There is another way to enter an apple:
There Is Another Way
By Pat Schneider

There is no age, this darkness and decay
There Is No Age
By Eva Gore-Booth

There is no Frigate like a Book
There is no Frigate like a Book (1286)
By Emily Dickinson

The engineer’s story of hauling coal
There Is No One Story and One Story Only
By Adrienne Rich

There may be chaos still around the world,
There may be Chaos still around the World
By George Santayana

There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs
There was a Boy
By William Wordsworth

There was a little girl,
There was a little girl
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There was a little turtle.
There Was a Little Turtle
By Anonymous

There was an old man of Thermopylæ,
There was an Old Man of Thermopylæ
By Edward Lear

There was an old man on the Border,
There was an Old Man on the Border
By Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a beard,
There was an Old Man with a Beard
By Edward Lear

There was an old person of Nice,
There was an Old Person of Nice
By Edward Lear

There's a certain Slant of light,
There's a certain Slant of light, (320)
By Emily Dickinson

There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,
There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House
By Emily Dickinson

These lacustrine cities grew out of loathing
These Lacustrine Cities
By John Ashbery

These poems, these poems,
These Poems, She Said
By Robert Bringhurst

They are all gone into the world of light!
They are all Gone into the World of Light
By Henry Vaughan

they clapped when we landed
They Clapped
By Nikki Giovanni

They flee from me that sometime did me seek
They Flee From Me
By Thomas Wyatt

They shut me up in Prose –
They shut me up in Prose – (445)
By Emily Dickinson

They sit together on the porch, the dark
They Sit Together on the Porch
By Wendell Berry

To live and not be Thine Own,
Thine Own
By Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard

This ocean, humiliating in its disguises
Thing Language
By Jack Spicer

Third Avenue in sunlight. Nature’s error.
Third Avenue in Sunlight
By Anthony Hecht

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
This Be the Verse
By Philip Larkin

the place of consequence, the station of his embrace.
This Can’t Be
By Bruce Smith

Tonight my brother, in heavy boots, is walking
This Hour and What Is Dead
By Li-Young Lee

This is a letter to the worm-threaded earth.
This is a Letter
By Rebecca Dunham

This little piggy went to market,
This Little Piggy
By Anonymous

to beat the froggiest
This Morning in a Morning Voice First appeared in Poetry
By Todd Boss

The room I entered was a dream of this room.
This Room
By John Ashbery

Tho’ lack of laurels and of wreaths not one
Tho’ Lack of Laurels and of Wreaths Not One
By Trumbull Stickney

The first morning after anyone’s death, is it important
Thomas Hardy
By Norman Dubie

The cry of those being eaten by America,
Those Being Eaten by America
By Robert Bly

Those
Those Various Scalpels
By Marianne Moore

Though I am young, and cannot tell
Though I Am Young and Cannot Tell
By Ben Jonson

Though some saith that youth ruleth me,
Though some Saith that Youth Ruleth me
By Henry VIII, king of England

Though that men do call it dotage,
Though that Men do Call it Dotage
By Henry VIII, king of England

There, Robert, you have kill'd that fly — ,
Thoughtless Cruelty
By Charles Lamb

They in their cruel traps, and we in ours,
Thoughts in a Zoo
By Countee Cullen

They remember the dead who died in the resistance.
Three Men Walking, Three Brown Silhouettes
By Alicia Ostriker

The aqua green goes with the pink
Three Trees
By Mary Jo Bang

Three years she grew in sun and shower,
Three Years She Grew
By William Wordsworth

Thrice toss these oaken ashes in the air,
Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes
By Thomas Campion

Through these pale cold days
Through these Pale Cold Days
By Isaac Rosenberg

Tossed on the glittering air they soar and skim,
Thrushes
By Siegfried Sassoon

The spring has darkened with activity.
Time and the Garden
By Yvor Winters

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Time Does Not Bring Relief: You All Have Lied
By Edna St. Vincent Millay

That old guy, in the old days, would sit in the grass
Time Passes
By Cesare Pavese

The problem
Time Problem
By Brenda Hillman

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
Tithonus
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The skies they were ashen and sober;
To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad
By Edgar Allan Poe

The leaves talked in the twilight, dear;
To a Child
By Sophie Jewett

The dark is thrown
To a Dead Lover First appeared in Poetry
By Louise Bogan

They saw you behind your muzzle much more clearly
To a Farmer Who Hung Five Hawks on His Barbed Wire
By David Wagoner

To love these books, and harmless tea,
To A Lady Who Said It Was Sinful to Read Novels
By Christian Milne

There is health in thy gray wing,
To a Marsh Hawk in Spring
By Henry David Thoreau

The time you won your town the race
To an Athlete Dying Young
By A. E. Housman

The night reduced to a siren, a sigh:
To Arielle and the Moon
By David Trinidad

The world is full of mostly invisible things,
To David, About His Education
By Howard Nemerov

That poets are far rarer births than kings
To Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland
By Ben Jonson

The pure products of America
To Elsie
By William Carlos Williams

Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike:
To Fool or Knave
By Ben Jonson

To go to Lvov. Which station
To Go to Lvov
By Adam Zagajewski

The wind, that beats the mountain, blows
To J. S.
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The poet’s duties: no need to stress
To James Fenton
By John Fuller

To learn what to say to unlearn
To learn what to say to unlearn
By Michael Palmer

To lie back under the tallest
To Live in the Mercy of God
By Denise Levertov

Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
By Richard Lovelace

Take back the heart you with such caution give,
To Lysander
By Aphra Behn

The tale which I send, will, I’m sure, hit your fancy,
To Matthew Dodsworth, Esq., On a Noble Captain Declaring that His Finger Was Broken by a Gate
By Anna Dodsworth

Thou wast that all to me, love,
To One in Paradise
By Edgar Allan Poe

To one who has been long in city pent,
To One Who Has Been Long in City Pent
By John Keats

To our land,
To Our Land
By Mahmoud Darwish

Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show,
To Penshurst
By Ben Jonson

There is delight in singing, tho’ none hear
To Robert Browning
By Walter Savage Landor

That neither fame nor love might wanting be
To Sir Henry Cary
By Ben Jonson

Thank you but
To the Consolations of Philosophy First appeared in Poetry
By W. S. Merwin

To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name,
To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
By Ben Jonson

To the same purpose: he, not long before
To the Same Purpose
By Thomas Traherne

There is a strain to read among the hills,
To Wordsworth
By Felicia Dorothea Hemans

The water closing
Together
By Maxine W. Kumin

To have gold in your back yard and not know it. . .
Tom O’ Bedlam among the Sunflowers
By Thomas James

tomorrow we'll see the lightbulb in schenectady,
Tomorrow
By Bernadette Mayer

The spirit has infinite facets, but the body
Tossing and Turning
By John Updike

To those fair isles where crimson sunsets burn,
Toussaint L’Ouverture
By Henrietta Cordelia Ray

Though there's no such thing as a "self," I missed it—
Translation First appeared in Poetry
By Deirdre O'Connor

There is a tradition in Laparone that the first
Translator's note
By Bob Hicok

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
Traveling through the Dark
By William E. Stafford

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
Traveling through the Dark
By n/a

They were the local Ohio palm, tropic in the heat of trains.
Tree Ferns
By Stanley Plumly

The morwen com, and gostly for to speke,
from Troilus and Criseyde: Book V
By Geoffrey Chaucer

Trust that there is a tiger, muscular
Trust First appeared in Poetry
By Susan Kinsolving

There was a great tenderness to the sadness
Trying to Have Something Left Over
By Jack Gilbert

Today is a Tuesday, one of many.
Tuesdays
By Kate Gale

The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Tulips
By Sylvia Plath

The barroom mirror lit up with our wives
Turning Forty
By Jonathan Galassi

Twenty below, I said, and closed the door,
Twenty Below
By Paul Engle

Two guitars were left in a room all alone
Two Guitars
By Victor Hernández Cruz

Two that could not have lived their single lives
Two in August
By John Crowe Ransom

Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall,
Two Little Dickie Birds
By Anonymous

Two old crows sat on a fence rail.
Two Old Crows
By Vachel Lindsay

They’ve perched for hours
Two Pigeons
By Mary Jo Salter

The sleep of this night deepens
Under Stars
By Tess Gallagher

To hurt the Negro and avoid the Jew
University First appeared in Poetry
By Karl Shapiro

There is no stillness in this wood.
Unromantic Love
By J. V. Cunningham

This is in the wind:
Unswerving Marine First appeared in Poetry
By Carl Rakosi

There will be no deafening noise. No hornblow of thunder.
Update on the Last Judgment First appeared in Poetry
By Ellen Hinsey

Thou sorrow, venom Elfe:
Upon a Spider Catching a Fly
By Edward Taylor

To see both blended in one flood,
Upon the Infant Martyrs
By Richard Crashaw

The sun slides down behind brick dust,
Urban Renewal
By Yusef Komunyakaa

Too high, too high to pluck
Valentine
By Elinor Wylie

there was a frozen tree that I wanted to paint
vegas
By Charles Bukowski

The doll told me
Veil
By Rae Armantrout

Tell me,
Venus Transiens First appeared in Poetry
By Amy Lowell

The streamers choking the main arteries
Victims of the Latest Dance Craze
By Cornelius Eady

There is no Rescue Mission where it isn’t freezing
Victory
By Fanny Howe

They are weighing the babies again on color television.
Video Cuisine
By Maxine W. Kumin

The shape of it bending like an eel
Vietnam
By Michael Collier

This is the house of Bedlam.
Visits to St. Elizabeths
By Elizabeth Bishop

Take a statement, the same as yesterday’s dictation:
Vowel Movements First appeared in Poetry
By Daryl Hine

The householder issuing to the street
Vulcan
By George Oppen

The orphanage
Waiting
By Nikki Grimes

The sweetest waiting is waiting for Sweet Betty.
Waiting for Sweet Betty
By Clarence Major

To walk abroad is, not with eyes,
Walking
By Thomas Traherne

The whole world was there, plucking their linen,
Walt, the Wounded
By W. S. Di Piero

Two musics washing over me, and morning asks,
Want Song
By Lance Larsen

The piano has crawled into the quarry. Hauled
War Ballad
By Stanley Moss

The telephone never rings. Still
War Widow
By Chris Abani

To airmen crossing and communicant
Warning from a Visitor in the Control Tower
By Calvin Thomas

The Muses are turned gossips; they have lost
Washing Day
By Anna Lætitia Barbauld

The water understands
Water
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mornings are his,
Waterwings
By Cathy Song

They were sitting on the thin mattress
Wavelength
By David St. John

The world bends us to its purpose.
Waving Goodbye
By Elizabeth Spires

Todd’s Hardware was dust and a monkey—
Wax Lips
By Cynthia Rylant

The opposite of walk?
Way Opposite
By Harryette Mullen

The incoherent rushing of the train
Way-Station
By Archibald MacLeish

than we do
We Tend to Sleep Better When the Clock Is Wound First appeared in Poetry
By Todd Boss

That Halloween I wore your wedding dress,
Wedding Dress
By Michael Waters

Thou God, whose high, eternal Love
Wedding Hymn
By Sidney Lanier

The CIA and the KGB exchange Christmas cards
Weltende Variation #?
By Bill Knott

There was ance a may, and she lo’ed na men;
Werena My Heart Licht I Wad Dee
By Grizel Baillie

Then the day passed into the evening,
Westray: 1991
By Linda Bierds

They are pilferes
What are the Days?
By Colette Inez

That was not the summer of aspic
What Grieving Was
By Lynn Emanuel

The white peacock roosting
What I Saw
By Robert Duncan

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill
What Kind of Times Are These
By Adrienne Rich

Today I’m thinking of St. Paul—St. Paul,
What Light Destroys
By Andrew Hudgins

The birds against the April wind
What the Birds Said
By John Greenleaf Whittier

The Moon's a little prairie-dog.
What the Rattlesnake Said First appeared in Poetry
By Vachel Lindsay

The boy who is kind to animals
Whatever Can Be Done, Will Be Done
By Constance Urdang

Tonight I will remember the model
When Father Decided He Did Not Love Her Anymore First appeared in Poetry
By Lynn Emanuel

The feverish room and that white bed,
White Heliotrope
By Arthur Symons

There are so many roots to the tree of anger
Who Said It Was Simple
By Audre Lorde

They turn the water off, so I live without water,
Who Understands Me but Me
By Jimmy Santiago Baca

The morning that the world began
Why Nobody Pets the Lion at the Zoo
By John Ciardi

This was a true happening but (as you
Why the Pretty One
By Richard Emil Braun

The garments worn in flying dreams
Windy City
By Stuart Dybek

The flowers I planted along my road
Wine First appeared in Poetry
By Pierre Martory

The pungent smells of a California winter,
Winter
By Czeslaw Milosz

The reservoir churned and cloud-deformed
Winter Journal: Disseminate Birds over Water
By Emily Wilson

The shelter of it carved, caved
Winter Journal: The Sky Is the Lost Orpheum
By Emily Wilson

Two evils, monstrous either one apart,
Winter Remembered
By John Crowe Ransom

The simple contact with a wooden spoon and the word
Words
By Barbara Guest

The sinew of the hickory that grips
Words for a Young Widow in Maine
By Norman Williams

To be poor and raise skinny children.
Work Shy
By Alex Phillips

The moon swells
Working Outside at Night
By Denis Johnson

There’s a truth limits man
Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem
By Gregory Corso

The cursive crawl, the squared-off characters
Writing
By Howard Nemerov

This morning the peso is free-floating
Writing Off Argentina
By Ron Slate

The old woman comes
XXVIII
By Clarence Major

The gallant Youth, who may have gained,
Yarrow Revisited
By William Wordsworth

Two flags nuzzle each other in the desultory gust
Year Round First appeared in Poetry
By Ange Mlinko

They got me into the Sunday-school
Yee Bow
By Edgar Lee Masters

They did the deed of darkness
You and I Saw Hawks Exchanging the Prey
By James Wright

That you, Father, are “in my mind,”
You Would Know
By Marvin Bell

The night sits wherever you are. Your night
Your Night Is of Lilac
By Mahmoud Darwish

Through your lens the sequoia swallowed me
Yours & Mine
By Alice Fulton

The birds have vanished down the sky.
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
By Li Po

Tropical nights in Central America,
from ZERO HOUR
By Ernesto Cardenal

The bird’s-eye view abstracted from the bird. Cover me, says the soldier on the
[The bird’s-eye view]
By Ben Lerner

The bread has become moldy
[The bread has become moldy]
By Charles Reznikoff

The house in which we now lived was old—
[The house in which we now lived was old—]
By Charles Reznikoff

The predictability of these rooms is, in a word, exquisite. These rooms in a word.
[The predictability of these rooms]
By Ben Lerner

The wild and wavy event
[The wild and wavy event]
By Lorine Niedecker

IN THIS ISSUE: November 2009