Great Short Poems: Selections by Shakespeare, Burns, Wordsworth, Shelley, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Dunbar and many more
64
Great Short Poems: Selections by Shakespeare, Burns, Wordsworth, Shelley, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Dunbar and many more
64Overview
This outstanding anthology of short verse offers poetry lovers an impressive sampling of more than 150 masterpieces spanning over 400 years of English and American literary history. Although short in length (the longest are 24 lines, most 16 lines or less), these poems are long on beauty, power, imagination, and originality.
Included are such memorable compositions as John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud," Shakespeare's "When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes," "On His Blindness" by John Milton, William Blake's "The Tyger," Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," Shelley's "Ozymandias," as well as works by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Amy Lowell, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, Dylan Thomas, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and many others.
Attractive and inexpensive, this compilation of carefully chosen verse contains many of the most loved, most anthologized poems in the English language. Students, teachers, and any lover of great poetry will treasure this splendid collection.
Includes "The Road Not Taken," "Loveliest of Trees," and "Ozymandias."
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780486110288 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 02/01/2012 |
| Series: | Dover Thrift Editions: Poetry |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 64 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
| Age Range: | 14 - 18 Years |
Read an Excerpt
Great Short Poems
By Paul Negri
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2000 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-11028-8
CHAPTER 1
Sir Walter Ralegh (1554—1618)
Even Such Is Time
Even such is time that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust,
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.
William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest'
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
John Donne (1572-1631)
Death, Be Not Proud
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.
Ben Jonson (1572—1637)
Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
John Webster (1580?—1634)
A Dirge
Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
Call unto his funeral dole
The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole,
To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm,
And (when gay tombs are robb'd) sustain no harm;
But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.
Robert Herrick (1591—1674)
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.
Upon Julia's Clothes
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free,
O how that glittering taketh me!
Francis Quarles (1592-1644)
On the World
The world's an inn; and I her guest.
I eat; I drink; I take my rest.
My hostess, nature, does deny me
Nothing, wherewith she can supply me;
Where, having stayed a while, I pay
Her lavish bills, and go my way.
Thomas Carew (1595—1639)
The Unfading Beauty
He that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires:
As old Time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.
But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires.
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.
John Milton (1608—1674)
On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask; by Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest.
They also serve who only stand and wait."
Sir John Suckling (1609—1642)
Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prithee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prithee, why so pale?
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Prithee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
Saying nothing do't?
Prithee, why so mute?
Quit, quit, for shame; this will not move,
This cannot take her.
If of herself she will not love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her!
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)
To My Dear and Loving Husband
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor aught but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.
Richard Lovelace (1618-1658)
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.
Sir George Etherege (1635—1691)
To a Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her
It is not, Celia, in our power
To say how long our love will last;
It may be we within this hour
May lose those joys we now do taste;
The Blessed, that immortal be,
From change in love are only free.
Then since we mortal lovers are,
Ask not how long our love will last;
But while it does, let us take care
Each minute be with pleasure past:
Were it not madness to deny
To live because we're sure to die?
Matthew Prior (1664—1721)
A Reasonable Affliction
On his death-bed poor Lubin lies:
His spouse is in despair;
With frequent cries, and mutual sighs,
They both express their care.
"A different cause," says Parson Sly,
"The same effect may give:
Poor Lubin fears that he may die;
His wife, that he may live."
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Ode on Solitude
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixt; sweet recreation:
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
John Gay (1688—1732)
Song
O ruddier than the cherry!
O sweeter than the berry!
O nymph more bright
Than moonshine night,
Like kidlings blithe and merry!
Ripe as the melting cluster!
No lily has such lustre;
Yet hard to tame
As raging flame,
And fierce as storms that bluster!
Oliver Goldsmith (c. 1730-1774)
When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly
When lovely woman stoops to folly,
And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy,
What art can wash her guilt away?
The only art her guilt to cover,
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
And wring his bosom—is to die.
George Crabbe (1754-1832)
A Marriage Ring
The ring, so worn as you behold,
So thin, so pale, is yet of gold:
The passion such it was to prove—
Worn with life's care, love yet was love.
William Blake (1757-1827)
The Tiger
Tiger, Tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes!
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tiger, Tiger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau
Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, mock on, 'Tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a Gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.
The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.
The Sick Rose
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
A Red, Red Rose
O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune!
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Great Short Poems by Paul Negri. Copyright © 2000 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Sir Walter RaleghEven Such Is Time
William Shakespeare
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
"When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes"
Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
John Donne
"Death, Be Not Proud"
Ben Jonson
Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
John Webster
A Dirge
Robert Herrick
"To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"
Upon Julia's Clothes
Francis Quarles
On the World
Thomas Crew
The Unfading Beauty
John Milton
On His Blindness
Sir John Suckling
"Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?"
Anne Bradstreet
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Richard Lovelace
"To Lucasta, Going to the Wars"
Sir George Etherege
To a Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her
Matthew Prior
A Reasonable Affliction
Alexander Pope
Ode on Solitude
John Gay
Song
Oliver Goldsmith
When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly
George Crabbe
A Marriage Ring
William Blake
The Tiger
"Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau"
The Sick Rose
Robert Burns
"A Red, Red Rose"
William Wordsworth
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
My Heart Leaps Up
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
Walter Savage Landor
Rose Aylmer
Twenty Years Hence
Thomas Moore
"Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms"
Leigh Hunt
Abou Ben Adhem
Jenny Kiss'd Me
Thomas Love Peacock
Beneath the Cypress Shade
"George Gordon, Lord Byron"
So We'll Go No More a-Roving
She Walks in Beauty
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ozymandias
John Keats
When I Have Fears
Hartley Coleridge
Song
Early Death
Thomas Hood
The Death-Bed
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Days
Character
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Arrow and the Song
There Was a Little Girl
Edgar Allan Poe
To One in Paradise
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson"
The Splendor Falls
Crossing the Bar
The Eagle
Flower in the Crannied Wall
Edward FitzGerald
The Three Arrows
Robert Browning
Meeting at Night
Parting at Morning
Pippa's Song
Henry David Thoreau
"I Was Born Upon Thy Bank, River"
My Life Has Been the Poem
Emily Brontë
The Old Stoic
Arthur Hugh Clough
Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
I Hear America Singing
Coventry Patmore
The Kiss
Magna Est Veritas
George Meredith
Lucifer in Starlight
Emily Dickinson
I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died
The Soul Selects Her Own Society
My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close
I Never Saw a Moor
Christina Rossetti
Remember
Up-Hill
Lewis Carroll
How Doth the Little Crocodile
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Memory
Thomas Hardy
Hap
"In Time of "The Breaking of Nations"
I Look into My Glass
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Pied Beauty
God's Grandeur
"No Worst, There Is None"
John Banister Tabb
Evolution
The Shadow
The Mid-Day Moon
Emma Lazarus
The New Colossus
William Ernest Henley
Invictus
Robert Louis Stevenson
Requiem
Francis William Bourdillon
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Solitude
The Winds of Fate
Oscar Wilde
E Tenebris
Symphony in Yellow
John Davidson
Song
A. E. Housman
When I Was One-and-Twenty
Into My Heart an Air That Kills
With Rue My Heart Is Laden
Loveliest of Trees
William Butler Yeats
Leda and the Swan
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Down by the Salley Gardens
When You Are Old
Gelett Burgess
The Purple Cow
Cinque Ans Aprés
Ernest Dowson
Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae
Envoy
E. A. Robinson
Richard Cory
Eros Turannos
Stephen Crane
I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon
In the Desert
A Learned Man Came to Me Once
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Life
We Wear the Mask
Silence
Amy Lowell
Solitaire
Robert Frost
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Fire and Ice
The Road Not Taken
Acquainted with the Night
Hughes Mearns
Antigonish
Adelaide Crapsey
November Night
The Warning
John Masefield
Sea Fever
Carl Sandburg
Fog
Grass
Wallace Stevens
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
William Carlos Williams
The Red Wheelbarrow
Sara Teasdale
The Kiss
I Shall Not Care
Ezra Pound
In a Station of the Metro
"L'Art, 1910"
Joyce Kilmer
Trees
Rupert Brooke
The Soldier
Claude McKay
Harlem Shadows
T.S. Eliot
Morning at the Window
The Boston Evening Transcript
Archibald MacLeish
The End of the World
Edna St. Vincent Millay
First Fig
Euclid Alone Has Looked On Beauty Bare
Wilfred Owen
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Dylan Thomas
Do Not So Gentle into That Good Night