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Life is made up of a succession of choices. This famous poem begins at a fork in a wooded path and
ushers the reader along one “road" as a means of explaining that we must choose one way or another
and not dilly-dally in life.
No matter which way we go, we cannot foresee where it will take us, nor how the other would have
turned out.
We can do our best to make good decisions, but we’ll never truly know how much worse or better an
alternative might have been. And so, we mustn’t regret the road not taken.
Life will challenge you – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This poem calls out for you to
endure, keep going through, and rise above the adversity you will face.
It inspires, it motivates, it provides an example to follow. It’s like a recipe for life – and it provides a most
satisfying meal.
If you can keep your head when all about you
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Death is inevitable, and as this poem states (‘death’ being ‘dark’), it is right. But the author urges us not
to yield to death too easily and to fight for life ‘til our last breath.
It reminds us in a powerful and persuasive way that life is fleeting and we ought to make the most of the
time we have on this planet.
This prose poem is like an instruction manual for life. It is hugely uplifting and affirms life as something to
be journeyed through with integrity and compassion.
It touches upon many areas of existence from our relationships and careers to ageing and our mental
well-being.
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as
possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too
have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is
a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what
virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity
and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark
imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the
trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at
peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the
noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a
beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Leisure by W. H. Davies
This short poem could not be more pertinent to the world of today if it tried. It counsels us to take the
time to “stand and stare" or, in other words, to slow down and observe all the beauty that surrounds
you.
Don’t let the world rush by without notice; open your eyes and see – really see – it in all its glory. Make
space in your life for this simplest act of leisure.
What is this life if, full of care,
It talks of great acts and great deeds, but also of love and romance and laughter and loyalty – things that
every man or woman is capable of.
Stepping away from the famous and classic works, we find this gem of a poem by an amateur writer (just
goes to show that anyone can create pieces of great meaning).
Much like those more well-known poems above, it talks us through how we ought to try to live our lives.
It’s simple, yet inspiring.
Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/what-life-should-be
This is the shortest poem on the list at just 10 lines, but it encapsulates how life should not be taken
seriously. Instead, the author suggests that life is a comedy and that the earth is our stage.
So what should we do? Act well. Make people laugh. Play our part in the world until the curtain falls and
we depart this life.
We started with a poem by this author and so we shall end with another. Here, we are taught that life
sits atop the building blocks of time and that our actions today give rise to our tomorrows.
We are the architects and builders of our lives and if we want to attain our own version of success, we
must put in the hard work and energy.
All are architects of Fate,
A closer reading reveals that the lonely choice that was made earlier by our traveling narrator maybe
wasn’t all that significant since both roads were pretty much the same anyway (“Had warn them really
about the same”) and it is only in the remembering and retelling that it made a difference. We are left to
ponder if the narrator had instead traveled down “The Road Not Taken” might it have also made a
difference as well. In a sense, “The Road Not Taken” tears apart the traditional view of individualism,
which hinges on the importance of choice, as in the case of democracy in general (choosing a candidate),
as well as various constitutional freedoms: choice of religion, choice of words (freedom of speech),
choice of group (freedom of assembly), and choice of source of information (freedom of press). For
example, we might imagine a young man choosing between being a carpenter or a banker later seeing
great significance in his choice to be a banker, but in fact there was not much in his original decision at all
other than a passing fancy. In this, we see the universality of human beings: the roads leading to
carpenter and banker being basically the same and the carpenter and bankers at the end of them—
seeming like individuals who made significant choices—really being just part of the collective of the
human race.
Then is this poem not about the question “How to make a difference in the world?” after all? No. It is still
about this question. The ending is the most clear and striking part. If nothing else, readers are left with
the impression that our narrator, who commands beautiful verse, profound imagery, and time itself
(“ages and ages hence”) puts value on striving to make a difference. The striving is reconstituted and
complicated here in reflection, but our hero wants to make a difference and so should we. That is why
this is a great poem, from a basic or close reading perspective.
Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, this sonnet may have the greatest placement of
any English poem. It also has one of the greatest placements in history. Lazarus compares the Statue of
Liberty to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Like the Statue of
Liberty, the Colossus of Rhodes was an enormous god-like statue positioned in a harbor. Although the
Colossus of Rhodes no longer stands, it symbolizes the ancient Greek world and the greatness of the
ancient Greek and Roman civilization, which was lost for a thousand years to the West, and only fully
recovered again during the Renaissance. “The New Colossus” succinctly crystallizes the connection
between the ancient world and America, a modern nation. It’s a connection that can be seen in the
White House and other state and judicial buildings across America that architecturally mirror ancient
Greek and Roman buildings; and in the American political system that mirrors Athenian Democracy and
Roman Republicanism.
In the midst of this vast comparison of the ancient and the American, Lazarus still manages to clearly
render America’s distinct character. It is the can-do spirit of taking those persecuted and poor from
around the world and giving them a new opportunity and hope for the future, what she calls “the golden
door.” It is a uniquely scrappy and compassionate quality that sets Americans apart from the ancients.
The relevance of this poem stretches all the way back to the pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in
Europe to the controversies surrounding modern immigrants from Mexico and the Middle East. While
circumstances today have changed drastically, there is no denying that this open door was part of what
made America great once upon a time. It’s the perfect depiction of this quintessential Americanness that
makes “The New Colossus” also outstanding.
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
In this winding story within a story within a poem, Shelley paints for us the image of the ruins of a statue
of ancient Egyptian king Ozymandias, who is today commonly known as Ramesses II. This king is still
regarded as the greatest and most powerful Egyptian pharaoh. Yet, all that’s left of the statue are his
legs, which tell us it was huge and impressive; the shattered head and snarling face, which tell us how
tyrannical he was; and his inscribed quote hailing the magnificent structures that he built and that have
been reduced to dust, which tells us they might not have been quite as magnificent as Ozymandias
imagined. The image of a dictator-like king whose kingdom is no more creates a palpable irony. But,
beyond that there is a perennial lesson about the inescapable and destructive forces of time, history, and
nature. Success, fame, power, money, health, and prosperity can only last so long before fading into
“lone and level sands.”
There are yet more layers of meaning here that elevate this into one of the greatest poems. In terms of
lost civilizations that show the ephemeralness of human pursuits, there is no better example than the
Egyptians—who we associate with such dazzling monuments as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at
Giza (that stands far taller than the Statue of Liberty)—yet who completely lost their spectacular
language, culture, and civilization. If the forces of time, history, and nature can take down the Egyptian
civilization, it begs the question, “Who’s next?” Additionally, Ozymandias is believed to have been the
villainous pharaoh who enslaved the ancient Hebrews and who Moses led the exodus from. If all
ordinary pursuits, such as power and fame, are but dust, what remains, the poem suggests, are
spirituality and morality—embodied by the ancient Hebrew faith. If you don’t have those then in the
long run you are a “colossal wreck.” Thus, the perfectly composed scene itself, the Egyptian imagery, and
the Biblical backstory convey a perennial message and make this a great poem.
Keats_urn
Keats’s own drawing of the Grecian Urn.
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
As if in response to Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” offers a sort of antidote to
the inescapable and destructive force of time. Indeed, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was published in 1819
just a year or so after “Ozymandias.” The antidote is simple: art. The art on the Grecian urn—which is
basically a decorative pot from ancient Greece—has survived for thousands of years. While empires rose
and fell, the Grecian urn survived. Musicians, trees, lovers, heifers, and priests all continue dying decade
after decade and century after century, but their artistic depictions on the Grecian urn live on for what
seems eternity.
This realization about the timeless nature of art is not new now nor was it in the 1800s, but Keats has
chosen a perfect example since ancient Greek civilization so famously disappeared into the ages, being
subsumed by the Romans, and mostly lost until the Renaissance a thousand years later. Now, the ancient
Greeks are all certainly dead (like the king Ozymandias in Shelley’s poem) but the Greek art and culture
live on through Renaissance painters, the Olympic Games, endemic Neoclassical architecture, and, of
course, the Grecian urn.
Further, what is depicted on the Grecian urn is a variety of life that makes the otherwise cold urn feel
alive and vibrant. This aliveness is accentuated by Keats’s barrage of questions and blaring exclamations:
“More happy love! more happy, happy love!” Art, he seems to suggest, is more alive and real than we
might imagine. Indeed, the last two lines can be read as the urn itself talking: “Beauty is truth, truth
beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” In these profound lines, Keats places us
within ignorance, suggesting that what we know on earth is limited, but that artistic beauty, which he
has now established is alive, is connected with truth. Thus, we can escape ignorance, humanness, and
certain death and approach another form of life and truth through the beauty of art. This effectively
completes the thought that began in Ozymandias and makes this a great poem one notch up from its
predecessor.
“The Tiger” by William Blake (1757-1827)
This poem contemplates a question arising from the idea of creation by an intelligent creator. The
question is this: If there is a loving, compassionate God or gods who created human beings and whose
great powers exceed the comprehension of human beings, as many major religions hold, then why
would such a powerful being allow evil into the world. Evil here is represented by a tiger that might,
should you be strolling in the Indian or African wild in the 1700s, have leapt out and killed you. What
would have created such a dangerous and evil creature? How could it possibly be the same divine
blacksmith who created a cute harmless fluffy lamb or who created Jesus, also known as the “Lamb of
God” (which the devoutly Christian Blake was probably also referring to here). To put it another way, why
would such a divine blacksmith create beautiful innocent children and then also allow such children to
be slaughtered. The battery of questions brings this mystery to life with lavish intensity.
Does Blake offer an answer to this question of evil from a good God? It would seem not on the surface.
But, this wouldn’t be a great poem if it were really that open ended. The answer comes in the way that
Blake explains the question. Blake’s language peels away the mundane world and offers a look at the
super-reality to which poets are privy. We fly about in “forests of the night” through “distant deeps or
skies” looking for where the fire in the tiger’s eye was taken from by the Creator. This is the reality of
expanded time, space, and perception that Blake so clearly elucidates elsewhere with the lines “To see a
world in a grain of sand / And a heaven in a wild flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, / And
eternity in an hour” (“Auguries of Innocence”). This indirectly tells us that the reality that we ordinarily
know and perceive is really insufficient, shallow, and deceptive. Where we perceive the injustice of the
wild tiger something else entirely may be transpiring. What we ordinarily take for truth may really be far
from it: a thought that is scary, yet also sublime or beautiful—like the beautiful and fearsome tiger. Thus,
this poem is great because it concisely and compellingly presents a question that still plagues humanity
today, as well as a key clue to the answer.
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
This poem deals with one’s limitations and shortcomings in life. Everyone has them and Milton’s
blindness is a perfect example of this. His eyesight gradually worsened and he became totally blind at the
age of 42. This happened after he served in an eminent position under Oliver Cromwell’s revolutionary
Puritan government in England. To put it simply, Milton rose to the highest position an English writer
might at the time and then sank all the way down to a state of being unable read or write on his own.
How pathetic!
The genius of this poem comes in the way that Milton transcends the misery he feels. First, he frames
himself, not as an individual suffering or lonely, but as a failed servant to the Creator: God. While Milton
is disabled, God here is enabled through imagery of a king commanding thousands. This celestial
monarch, his ministers and troops, and his kingdom itself are invisible to human eyes anyway, so already
Milton has subtly undone much of his failing by subverting the necessity for human vision. More
straightforwardly, through the voice of Patience, Milton explains that serving the celestial monarch only
requires bearing those hardships, which really aren’t that bad (he calls them “mild”) that life has
burdened you with (like a “yoke” put on an ox). This grand mission from heaven may be as simple as
standing and waiting, having patience, and understanding the order of the universe. Thus, this is a great
poem because Milton has not only dispelled sadness over a major shortcoming in life but also shown
how the shortcoming is itself imbued with an extraordinary and uplifting purpose.
In this nine-stanza poem, the first six stanzas are rather vague since each stanza seems to begin a new
thought. Instead, the emphasis here is on a feeling rather than a rational train of thought. What feeling?
It seems to be a reaction against science, which is focused on calculations (“mournful numbers”) and
empirical evidence, of which there is no, or very little, to prove the existence of the soul. Longfellow lived
when the Industrial Revolution was in high gear and the ideals of science, rationality, and reason
flourished. From this perspective, the fact that the first six stanzas do not follow a rational train of
thought makes perfect sense.
According to the poem, the force of science seems to restrain one’s spirit or soul (“for the soul is dead
that slumbers”), lead to inaction and complacency from which we must break free (“Act,—act in the
living Present! / Heart within, and God o’erhead!”) for lofty purposes such as Art, Heart, and God before
time runs out (“Art is long, and Time is fleeting”). The last three stanzas—which, having broken free from
science by this point in the poem, read more smoothly—suggest that this acting for lofty purposes can
lead to greatness and can help our fellow man.
We might think of the entire poem as a clarion call to do great things, however insignificant they may
seem in the present and on the empirically observable surface. That may mean writing a poem and
entering it into a poetry contest, when you know the chances of your poem winning are very small;
risking your life for something you believe in when you know it is not popular or it is misunderstood; or
volunteering for a cause that, although it may seem hopeless, you feel is truly important. Thus, the
greatness of this poem lies in its ability to so clearly prescribe a method for greatness in our modern
world.
William_Wordsworth_at_28_by_William_Shuter2
Through the narrator’s chance encounter with a field of daffodils by the water, we are presented with
the power and beauty of the natural world. It sounds simple enough, but there are several factors that
contribute to this poem’s greatness. First, the poem comes at a time when the Western world is
industrializing and man feels spiritually lonely in the face of an increasingly godless worldview. This
feeling is perfectly harnessed by the depiction of wandering through the wilderness “lonely as a cloud”
and by the ending scene of the narrator sadly lying on his couch “in vacant or in pensive mood” and
finding happiness in solitude. The daffodils then become more than nature; they become a companion
and a source of personal joy. Second, the very simplicity itself of enjoying nature—flowers, trees, the
sea, the sky, the mountains etc.—is perfectly manifested by the simplicity of the poem: the four stanzas
simply begin with daffodils, describe daffodils, compare daffodils to something else, and end on
daffodils, respectively. Any common reader can easily get this poem, as easily as her or she might enjoy a
walk around a lake.
Third, Wordsworth has subtly put forward more than just an ode to nature here. Every stanza mentions
dancing and the third stanza even calls the daffodils “a show.” At this time in England, one might have
paid money to see an opera or other performance of high artistic quality. Here, Wordsworth is putting
forward the idea that nature can offer similar joys and even give you “wealth” instead of taking it from
you, undoing the idea that beauty is attached to earthly money and social status. This, coupled with the
language and topic of the poem, which are both relatively accessible to the common man, make for a
great poem that demonstrates the all-encompassing and accessible nature of beauty and its associates,
truth and bliss.
CIS:DYCE.52. “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, Be Not Proud” by John Donne (1572-1631)
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
Death is a perennial subject of fear and despair. But, this sonnet seems to say that it need not be this
way. The highly focused attack on Death’s sense of pride uses a grocery list of rhetorical attacks: First,
sleep, which is the closest human experience to death, is actually quite nice. Second, all great people die
sooner or later and the process of death could be viewed as joining them. Third, Death is under the
command of higher authorities such as fate, which controls accidents, and kings, who wage wars; from
this perspective, Death seems no more than a pawn in a larger chess game within the universe. Fourth,
Death must associate with some unsavory characters: “poison, wars, and sickness.” Yikes! They must
make unpleasant coworkers! (You can almost see Donne laughing as he wrote this.) Fifth, “poppy and
charms” (drugs) can do the sleep job as well as Death or better. Death, you’re fired!
The sixth, most compelling, and most serious reason is that if one truly believes in a soul then Death is
really nothing to worry about. The soul lives eternally and this explains line 4, when Donne says that
Death can’t kill him. If you recognize the subordinate position of the body in the universe and identify
more fully with your soul, then you can’t be killed in an ordinary sense. Further, this poem is so great
because of its universal application. Fear of death is so natural an instinct and Death itself so all-
encompassing and inescapable for people, that the spirit of this poem and applicability of it extends to
almost any fear or weakness of character that one might have. Confronting, head on, such a fear or
weakness, as Donne has done here, allows human beings to transcend their condition and their
perception of Death, more fully perhaps than one might through art by itself—as many poets from this
top ten list seem to say—since the art may or may not survive may or may not be any good, but the
intrinsic quality of one’s soul lives eternally. Thus, Donne leaves a powerful lesson to learn from: confront
what you fear head on and remember that there is nothing to fear on earth if you believe in a soul.
Basically, the narrator tells someone he esteems highly that this person is better than a summer’s day
because a summer’s day is often too hot and too windy, and especially because a summer’s day doesn’t
last; it must fade away just as people, plants, and animals die. But, this esteemed person does not lose
beauty or fade away like a summer’s day because he or she is eternally preserved in the narrator’s own
poetry. “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” means “This poetry lives long, and this poetry gives
life to you.”
From a modern perspective this poem might come off as pompous (assuming the greatness of one’s own
poetry), arbitrary (criticizing a summer’s day upon what seems a whim), and sycophantic (praising
someone without substantial evidence). How then could this possibly be number one? After the bad
taste of an old flavor to a modern tongue wears off, we realize that this is the very best of poetry. This is
not pompous because Shakespeare actually achieves greatness and creates an eternal poem. It is okay to
recognize poetry as great if it is great and it is okay to recognize an artistic hierarchy. In fact, it is
absolutely necessary in educating, guiding, and leading others. The attack on a summer’s day is not
arbitrary. Woven throughout the language is an implicit connection between human beings, the natural
world (“a summer’s day”), and heaven (the sun is “the eye of heaven”). A comparison of a human being
to a summer’s day immediately opens the mind to unconventional possibilities; to spiritual perspectives;
to the ethereal realm of poetry and beauty. The unabashed praise for someone without a hint as to even
the gender or accomplishments of the person is not irrational or sycophantic. It is a pure and simple way
of approaching our relationships with other people, assuming the best. It is a happier way to live—
immediately free from the depression, stress, and cynicism that creeps into our hearts. Thus, this poem
is strikingly and refreshingly bold, profound, and uplifting.
Finally, as to the question of overcoming death, fear, and the decay of time, an overarching question in
these great poems, Shakespeare adroitly answers them all by skipping the question, suggesting it is of no
consequence. He wields such sublime power that he is unmoved and can instead offer remedy, his verse,
at will to those he sees befitting. How marvelous!
Reid McGrath
January 7, 2016
What an interesting enterprise, Evan? I have always loved lists. Thank you for taking the time to write out
all of these insightful analyses. You really know how to capture a person’s attention with your headlines.
“Ten Greatest Poems Ever Written” reminded me of what first drew me to your site in the first place, a
few years back. I believe it was something as blunt and as brazen as this: “Poetry should be metered,
because metered poetry is, quite simply, better than free verse.”
While my list may be different than yours (I probably would add a Yeats and Millay or a Hardy), it would
obviously be difficult to bench any of the all-stars you have in your present lineup. What would make it
easier, or more amenable to more great poems being subsumed in more lists, would be to narrow the
scope of the lists. For example, Ten Greatest Sonnets Ever, Ten Greatest Ballads Ever, Ten Greatest
Romantic Poems Ever, Ten Greatest Twentieth-Century Sonnets Ever, Ten Greatest Eulogies and Elegies
Ever, etc.. For what constitutes a poem? We are obviously excluding Epics.
I have invariably been drawn to your brazenness though. You know how to get a crowd into it…
Concerning your analyses, I thought that it was interesting that you associated “mournful numbers” with
a “reaction against science.” I have always been under the impression that Longfellow was referring to
“morbid poems” or psalms: as Petrarch often called his poems “numbers,” which in a sense metered
poetry is, a compilation of syllables and stresses (i.e. music); but your postulation seems to work as well,
and would function propitiously in an essay for one of your students comparing and contrasting Poe’s
“Sonnet–To Science” and Whitman’s (hate him or love him–unlike Pound, I have still not made my pact)
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.”
I will have to start working on my own lists; although I believe it could be an eternal task, for “man is a
giddy thing,” as Shakespeare wrote, and I thoroughly love so many diverse poems.
REPLY
Evan
January 7, 2016
Thanks, Reid. I mention at the beginning that it is only short poems, not longer works or excerpts of
longer works, so epics are out. If you want to make a top ten (or five?) list for specific poetry fields for
the Society that would be great! I am contemplating one on war poems (again, short poems, not epics or
excerpts). Any ideas?
For “numbers” in Psalm of Life, I’ve seen interpretations such as poetic meter, Bible or poetic verses, or
the Book of Numbers in the Bible specifically. After studying Longfellow quite a bit and particularly this
poem, memorizing it and teaching it to my students, my own interpretation is that Longfellow is basically
saying “don’t be daunted by the odds” “take some risks” or “don’t approach things in such a calculating
and scientific way” If you take a look at a map of the U.S. in the 1830s, you’ll see that most of the U.S. is
territories, much of it unsettled. This was the time of the Wild West and Manifest Destiny (the pitfalls in
expansion can be seen in Little House on the Prairie and that was 40 years later). Doing things by the
numbers would not have meant a healthy, expanding U.S. in the long run. This also fits in with the
recurring war theme since enlisting is a similarly risky proposition. IMO.
If
By Rudyard Kipling
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Reid McGrath
January 8, 2016
In the words of Auden: “[Time] Worships language and forgives / Everyone by whom it lives… Time that
with this strange excuse / Pardoned Kipling and his views.” THE JUNGLE BOOK was one of my favorite
stories as a kid and “IF” is an unforgettable poem.
REPLY
james sale
January 9, 2016
I love this series of the ten best. To comment on the first two – whilst not disagreeing with Evan’s
analysis, I think there is even more technical genius in this poem: for example, the rhyming of ‘hence’
obliquely with ‘difference’, that off-rhyme conveys just that sense of uncertainty about choice that Evan
outlines. And as for Emma Lazarus – isn’t her surname part of the poem: America, the land where the
dead came back and were welcomed to life? So brilliantly synchronous!
REPLY
Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi
January 11, 2016
This is a wonderful list, Evan, and thank you for sharing!
REPLY
your mum
June 24, 2018
Honey what are you doing on this website you are grounded for 5 months
REPLY
Lew Icarus Bede
January 31, 2016
In this data-rich period of the last 100 years, we have seen myriads of lists composed, the top 10 vehicles
of the last fifty years, the top 40 songs of the week, the top 100 contributers to humanity of the last
1000 years, the 500 richest people in the World this year, and so forth. It is a way for us in mass society
to make sense of all the information that comes our way. Another reason for compiling such lists is that it
clarifies our own visions, artistic, scientific, philosophical, etc.
However, all lists are at best provisional. They are works in progress. Things change. The most popular
meme this week might not be the most popular meme next week. Our favourite cuisine this season may
not be our favourite the next. In fact, we are creatures of change. We thrive on variety. So it should not
come as a surprise to anyone that even our own lists will alter over time.
Mr. Evan Mantyk has done us a great service in posting his list of the 10 Greatest Poems Ever Written,
not because he was right (after all, who could be right? De gustibus non est disputandum.), but because
he gets us thinking. As Mr. Mantyk knows, by emphasizing poems of 50 lines or less (not his exact
requirement, but his example), one must exclude epics, poetic plays, narrative poems, dramatic
monologues, didactic verse essays, satires and epistles, etc. One of the paradoxes of making a list of the
greatest short poems ever written is in attributing greatness to the smaller works, when the very
meaning of greatness implies a largeness of expanse, of vision, etc.
Perhaps his title could have been retitled The Ten Short Poems in English I Admire Most. However, his
title is catchier, and may even draw more readers in to this growing site; but I can’t imagine anyone
would have the exact same list in the exact same order. Even he, I suspect, will change his list over time.
Here is his list.
What is remarkable about his list is its specificity and his analyses, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
As I read his list, however, I kept thinking, but what about this poem, or that poem?
First off, on his list, Shakespeare’s sonnet which begins with “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” is
a wonderful choice. I have always enjoyed his comparison with a summer’s day, because for me a
summer’s day has always seemed the best of days, and Shakespeare indicates its flaws in marvelous
diction. Yet, the theme of love being preserved in verse Shakespeare has used elsewhere, as so has
Edmund Spenser in Amoretti, Sonnet 75, “Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,/ Our love
shall live, and later life renew.” In addition, Spenser’s sonnet, which takes place upon a beach next to a
sea, sets up a dramatic contrast of two points of view on the topic, in a dialogue between a man and a
woman. Other Shakespearean sonnets are also in competition with Sonnet 30. One could, in fact, make a
top 10 of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Sonnet 116 for me has always had a special place, because in its
delivery, Shakespeare even goes so far as to suggest that if true love does not exist, then he never wrote
a thing. It is the Shakespearean sonnet that most moves me, so much so I recited it at the wedding of my
college roommate many years ago. This shows one of the pitfalls of poetic placement; various poems
may suggest more to us than others because of our own particular circumstances. One more example
will suffice. Although I do not think it superior (nor inferior) to Wordsworth’s Daffodils, his sonnet
Composed On Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, has stirred me to write my own sonnet on
Westminster Bridge in London. What appeals to me in that sonnet is its unusual vantage point, its
precision, the use of particular words, like steep, and its terse landscaping.
Mr. Mantyk’s second choice, Death, Be Not Proud is a fine sonnet as well. As in Shakespeare’s Sonnet
116, what appeals to me is the audacity of the author, “And death shall be no more. Death thou shalt
die.” One would be hard-pressed to find such confidence in the face of death in any writer since. But for
me, the John Donne poem that takes my breath away is A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, with its
extraordinary conceit of love with a mathematical compass. It is a linguistic tour de force that sweeps me
away with its idealism, its learning, and its paradoxically intricate simplicity. For me, nothing like it in
English poetry reaches such a refined, intellectual brilliance; and for a long time, it has seemed a worthy
paradigm to emulate in my poetry.
I agree with Reid McGrath that it would be difficult to bench any of the all-stars Mr. Mantyk has in his
present lineup, and concur with his idea that there could be more lists with the narrowing of the scope,
as one’s ten top sonnets, etc. I do admit to favouring Shelley’s Ozymandias over Ode to the West Wind,
but is it a better poem? Blake’s The Tyger may be the most anthologized poem in English literature, but is
it superior to Ode on a Grecian Urn? And at 50 lines long shouldn’t Keats’ Ode rather be compared to
works, like Jonson’s To the Memory of My Beloved Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, Marvell’s To His Coy
Mistress, Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Browning’s My Last Duchess, Tennyson’s Ulysses,
Poe’s The Raven, Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride, T. S. Eliot’s The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, Dylan
Thomas’ Fern Hill, Robert Lowell’s Mr. Edwards and the Spider, etc. I do think Frost’s The Road Not Taken
is his best performance, but I very much admire Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. And other
poems come to mind: Auld Lang Syne author Burns’ lively To a Mouse, A. E. Housman’s terse To an
Athlete Dying Young, (BJM’s offer of) Rudyard Kipling’s inspiring If, Matthew Arnold’s visionary,
melancholic Dover Beach, Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, Thomas’ villanelle Do Not Go Gentle
Into That Good Night…the list going on to the crack of doom.
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NealD
February 7, 2016
& the minority report is chosen
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Eric King
March 31, 2016
a hundred years from now at least one or two of the poems on your list
will be voted off by future scholars (if humans have not already
destroyed themselves), and bob dylan’s desolation row will be half way
up the list.
for my two cents worth the choices you made aren’t bad.
a lot of people now believe that the most beautiful image to be found
whispered the siren words in my ear, “turn on, tune in, drop out,” but
professional value.
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Mike Vandeman
September 12, 2016
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack,
the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths- for you the shores
a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
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Dustin Pickering
September 14, 2016
I think your analysis of “The Tyger” is mistaken. Critics such as Harold Bloom have suggested the Tyger is
actually a gentle, playful creature. It is seen in his carvings as a smiling, toy-like beast. I sometimes quote
“The Tyger” when discussing inspiration as a Promethean current, the fire in the eyes being like the fire
given to Man. However, the poet (as in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound) is a Satanic figure, rebelling
against orthodoxy. There was an error in Romantic literature that Satan was the hero of Paradise Lost but
contemporary analysis suggests Adam is the hero, with Satan as an antihero. Satan became a mythical
revolutionary telling God where to stick it for His oppressions. Blake in “The Tyger”, I think, is indicating
that wisdom and inspiration are stolen from God Himself, a la Satan or Prometheus. I think this is
validated by the lines “What immortal hand or eye/dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” The poet, as
mythmaker, must have a solid set of experiences with the God he/she wishes to mythologize. Symmetry
implies that order is addressed, a fearful order because it is misunderstood or new to the seer. The fact
that Blake uses the word immortal in reference to eye and hand makes the poem extra enchanting–
because he is calling poetry an immortal art that would not be what it is without a touch of the
forbidden and the divine frenzy.
The list was great,
interesting ……
So forget it.
“A Drover”
To Meath of the pastures,
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Joan Carol Fullmore
March 15, 2017
INVICTUS my favorite of all time too!!!
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Philip
March 30, 2018
I love this too. It’s my anchor.
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Jac
March 15, 2017
Nothing by Goethe, Rilke, or Schiller? Nothing by Rumi, Homer, Li Bai, Dante Alighieri etc…? Or are great
poems written only by native English speakers?
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Juanita Hamilton
March 21, 2017
from the first line…
the poems in this list are limited to ones originally written in the English language and which are under
50 lines, excluding poems like Homer’s Iliad and Edgar Allan Poe’s “Raven.”
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Peter
March 29, 2017
First Letter
by M. Eminescu (1850-1889)
You spot a king, who webs the globe with plans for a century,
While a poor guy dares not to think about the next day…
While a new rank was drawn from the urn of fate for each guy,
Your ray and the skill of death, rule them in the same way.
Some other guy seeks the truth in this world, and in these times.
And some guy at his office desk carves up the world, and he tallies
How much gold, the sea is hauling in its dark ships hulls.
And there is the old professor, with his coat faded at the elbows.
He sinks his neck in his collar, plugs his ears, and he sneezes.
Since at the back of his brow, the past and the future unite.
Like Atlas of ancient times, who propped the sky on his shoulder,
So, our professor props the space and the eternal time in a number.
While over the old scripts, the moon lights with its glow,
When hidden was nil, though the lot was out of sight,
When weighed down with wisdom, the Hidden One relaxed His might.
Was it a deep rift? Was it a sheer fall? Was it a vastness of water? Right…
But there was nothing to look at, nor eye to see into the night.
The shape of the un-formed did not start yet to work loose
But all of a sudden, the first and the only one, a point stirs rather…
Look how out of the chaos it forms a mother, and it grows to be the Father.
That point of motion, even weaker than a bubble,
It has total control over the entire Universe, without any trouble…
Since then, come to light the Sun, the Earth, the Moon and the stars…
Like flies that live a day, in a tiny world that is measured by the foot,
In that deep space with no end, we spin following the same route.
When it will switch off, everything will vanish, like a shadow into the night.
Now, the thinker doesn’t stop his search, and in the twinkling of an eye
His contemplation takes him billions of years to the future to see a ray.
The Sun that now shines, he sees it dim and red, like veiled in dust,
Everything freezes up. And in space, like rebels the spheres fling,
And flee beyond the light’s reign, and Sun’s gravity ring.
And the altar screen of the world has dimmed altogether its ray
Like the autumn leaves, all the stars have gone astray.
The ended time spreads out what’s left, and it turns into infinity,
And in a state of ease, the eternal peace gets going again in this instance.
……………………………………………………………………………
And do not grasp that like the unseen foam they quietly die.
Whatever they want or think, what should the blind fate agonize?
Eternal life, they shall say. It is true that all his time,
Forever, in all places they shall pass it on, all the same,
Oh, poor guy! Do you call to mind what in life you’ve read?
And when your own life, you don’t know by heart how it goes,
He shall sit among books of no use — himself, a redundant horse, let’s say —
You can build a whole way of life. You can wreck it.
Whatever you say, a shovel of dust shall stack over the whole lot.
The hand that wanted the sceptre of the Universe, and higher ranks…
And with vision to grasp the Cosmos, fits perfect in four planks.
And with cold stares, like they are mocking you too,
Will widen his or her nose, when about you they talk in session.
And so, fallen in the hands of anyone, they shall assess your toil.
And apart from that, about your life, they shall stick their nose in.
They shall look for dirt, faults and for some sin.
That you shed on the world, but the sins, flaws and excitement,
And blunders, and weak moments, and guilt from the past,
………………………………………………………….…………………………………
In the same way the full moon glows with gentle light for hours,
It gets back much painful feeling from the faintness of our memories
How many a forest, hide in its shade shimmer of springs, from your view?
When, over the rough expanse of the seas, your light shall drift?
And everything that under the power of fate in this world stays,
It’s ruled in the same way by the skill of the death and your rays.
Kelly Kasper
August 8, 2017
Oh stop it! Don’t be that person!
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Davis
April 12, 2017
Thoughts
Repeating on and on
In my head, in my brain
let go yet
Mist, there’s a mist coming in
Let go yet
Am I really ready to
Let go yet
Dead,
Nothing else
Nothing left
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Kelly Kasper
August 8, 2017
I absolutely love this one! I wish I could say I have achieved the privilege of mastering the worlds
greatest poets, but blessed that I can appreciate ones beauty of expression! Can I ask who the poet is
who wrote this and where you found it? Thank you!!
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JK
May 5, 2017
Great list. Ozymandias my favorite short-form poem ever. But where is something from Dickinson, the
Bard of Amherst? Brilliant poems too numerous to enumerate…
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Geoff
May 29, 2017
A good list apart from number one by Shakespeare. This sonnet fails because it claims to give life to the
subject but says nothing specific through which the reader could know anything about the subject; it’s
just an ordinary rhyme. Number two by Donne is not bad. Number four by Longfellow is also okay
especially the line “Be not like dumb driven cattle, be a hero in the strife”.
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Kelly Kasper
August 8, 2017
why would you say such things? How ironic are you to judge something and have zero information to
explain or prove your words, yet your judgement words are identical to your expression of what you
think of “mundane” is!!!
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Cody Ferguson
November 16, 2017
“but says nothing specific through which the reader could know anything about the subject;” What more
about the subject do you wish to know? Perhaps he should have listed off her favorite foods.
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Geoff
November 28, 2018
I would have liked to know what made her interesting, unique or out of the ordinary; what she did with
her life; what her personality was like; and / or what virtues she possessed. Or even something about
her physical appearance would have been better than nothing. There really is nothing about her,
assuming it is a she. Shakespeare is grossly overrated. Most of his work is unremarkable but gets more
attention because when he was writing hardly anyone had written anything.
Laya
June 23, 2017
Persian poetry is the best in the history of poems;
If you read their poems you will sea they were great.
Many people on the world have ridden them for many years… .
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Cody Ferguson
November 16, 2017
Did you intentionally use “sea” instead of “see”? Very clever. Persian poems are as great as the sea is
expansive.
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Aiden
June 24, 2017
No mention of Invictus? That’s a shame. One of my personal favourites, Henley’s poem is. It evokes such
raw willpower as to overcome any inner demon.
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Evan
June 24, 2017
There seems to be a ground swell of support for Henley’s Invictus, so I may have to consider an
Honorable Mention. That said, there is a sense, to me anyway, of godlessness to it. The depth of the
darkness and terror is almost overwhelming, the gods “may be,” and you are “master” of your own fate.
These strike me as relatively hollow reflections compared to those on the list. I’m still thinking this one
over anyway.
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Ron
July 14, 2017
I came across your list only yesterday. I think it’s terrific. At most, there may be a couple of substitutes I
might make, but I’m not even sure of that. Great choices. By the way, I happen to agree with you
regarding Invictus.
Ron
Kelly Kasper
August 8, 2017
Please don’t change anything, unless it’s in your heart to do so. Your list is so beautiful, inspiring and for
me personally extremely therapeutic! Whether or not your list gets changed, is most meaningful when
it’s done by your own will. Again in my personal opinion ones own view is by far more interesting, pure
and appreciated! Thank you for this list! As someone who’s been really struggling daily for almost a year
now due to tragedy, heartache that proved to be very traumatic for me, reading your pick of poems for a
moment soothed the pain I’ve been feeling as well as reminded me just how powerful expression and
perception are. Most importantly it is not right nor wrong and should just simply (not literally) be
appreciated! Thank you for lifting a tiny piece of fog that’s clouding my brain at this time!!!
Evan
August 8, 2017
Thank you, Kelly! Yours are some of the most encouraging words I think anyone’s poetry analysis could
hope to receive.
Cody Ferguson
November 16, 2017
A superb poem.
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thatpoetrychick420
May 23, 2018
thank you for these deep and inspirational words! keep up your ongoing effort to expand your
vocabulary (vocabulary means words that you know)
David
August 2, 2017
I don’t understand the last line of The Road Not Taken. Why does Frost say that his choice has made all
the difference if the intent is that it hasn’t?
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Evan
August 2, 2017
My understanding is that Frost is implying two different principles:
(1) what we think makes a difference may not make any difference at all. For instance, suppose you feel
someone has wronged you, say a politician or perhaps someone close to you, and the actions you take
driven by irrational emotion you realize later were silly. That person’s original actions you realize didn’t
make a difference and your own subsequent actions didn’t make a difference.
(2) We should strive to make a positive difference in our world, even in whatever small and insignificant
way it may seem. If something appears in need of attention and underserved or underutilized, as in the
less warn path, then we should naturally feel inclined to help and participate where it is needed. We
should naturally be open minded and compassionate to our fellow man, even if they suffer for a sound
reason.
The two principles are perhaps contradictory, but I think Frost has experienced them and recognizes that
he has them internalized, so the poem is an expression of that contradictory experience and elucidates
the sometimes seemingly contradictory nature of life itself.
If there are layers of consciousness and layers of reality then the truth can perhaps be more closely
approached. Principle 2 applies to ordinary human interactions at the most surface level and principle 1
demonstrates a larger scale principle that we can reflect upon in a more spiritual or philosophical state
of mind but cannot entirely attain when confined to a human body.
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Cody Ferguson
November 16, 2017
An individuals choices will make a difference in their own life but will have no effect whatsoever on
society as a whole in most cases.
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Kyle
October 19, 2018
It’s because he knows that it is a lie. The poem mentions: “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere
ages and ages hence”. He is sighing because he knows that it’s wrong to lie about his past, but he also
knows that people crave excitement, and that ordinary things go overlooked. So he makes it seem as if
taking the path less traveled is what made the difference, when really, the were either the same, or
there would have been no way to differentiate to begin with.
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David
August 2, 2017
Thanks Evan. I do agree with those principles (#1 borne out many times) but the last line still flummoxes
me a bit. I’m new to poetry though and suspect I’m approaching it with too much concrete thinking.
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JENICA MATIONG
October 2, 2017
this was nice poems ive ever read… pls send me poems via email thank you GODBLESS more powers.
yacin09281989@gmail.com
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thatpoetrychick420
May 23, 2018
did you mean these were the nicest poems that you’ve ever read or this was one of the nicest poems
that you’ve ever read? re-read your comment before you post it next time Jenica �
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Dom
October 17, 2017
A great list. I would add one more though, High Flight by John Magee
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Ron
October 19, 2017
Dom,
Great thought. I love that poem also. The story that goes with it makes it all the more moving.
Ron
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thatpoetrychick420
May 23, 2018
*I also love that poem �
Cherish
October 25, 2017
Thank you for taking the time to compile this list. I was inspired to revisit poetry after teaching it to my
3rd grade students. They seem to really enjoy poetry and grasping meaning from it. After reading all the
comments, it’s reassuring to know that adults take the time to slow down and contemplate such written
work. Thank you again!
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Shahzad
October 27, 2017
I would love to understand these poems. Even reading them gives me a good feeling.
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Mr Ala Gan
October 29, 2017
I like poems full of internal music , rich in rhythm ,touching mature thought ,of well-engineered words …
please should you come across one of these ,be kind to send … Christina Rossetti’s poems are readable
for me . … Good list !
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James A. Tweedie
November 3, 2017
I suspect that if Wordsworth had compiled a list of his best 10 poems, Daffodils would not have been on
it. It’s funny how time and criticism (both formal and popular) separates out who and what is “great”
whether in poetry, music, painting or any of the the arts. Personally, I would have had Burns in there
somewhere, either “To a Louse” or “To a Mouse.” Even so, each poem in the list is worthy of admiration
and the analysis is, for the most part, spot on. Thanks for sharing.
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ASGHAR SOLANGI
November 16, 2017
I really Thanks to All Friends thos who shared these poems
because these poems are related to our study course in ( ENGLISH LITERATURE )
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Cody Ferguson
November 16, 2017
Can’t disagree with your list. Thank you for sharing.
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Anthony
December 2, 2017
Hi Evan,
What a wonderful set of poems! Thank you for sharing.
I was also thinking of John Donne’s beautiful poem a little bit more as you shared it, along with your
thoughts. As you outline it, the sixth reason death is not to be feared is that death is not extinction for
John Donne. But what is the victory he imagines? What does it mean that death will die?
Certainly John Donne believed in an enduring soul, but I would submit that the reason in his poem
hinges instead on his Christian belief in the resurrection of the body, not on the continuation of a non-
physical soul. I would suggest it is not primarily a realization that the body is subordinate, nor that there
is a greater identification with the soul. It is that one day, “when we wake” as he says, the body will be
remade. And in that day, corruption, decay, and death will no longer exist. This is the source of his hope
and how he sees the powerlessness of death.
The most obvious reason for this is that in the last line of his poem there is a clear allusion, if not a direct
quote, from his treasured scriptures, “And death shall be no more” (Rev 21:4). The reality he is
undoubtedly picturing is this same reality the writer of Revelation is picturing. It is a physical world that
is being remade. It is not a world of disembodied souls. It is a world where the former order of things has
passed away, corruption and death itself have become extinct. As the poem says, death thou shalt die.
And if this is true, I wonder if the possible applications you envision might need to be narrowed a bit
more. Love to hear your thoughts. Thanks again for sharing.
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Evan
December 2, 2017
Dear Anthony,
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis and question. Given Donne’s Christian background, you have a
solid case for that interpretation for sure.
To me, there is not necessarily any contradiction between our two interpretations. If the soul is made of
matter, possibly itself composed of yet unknown or yet enigmatic particles that far exceed current
scientific understanding, then from the perspective of the other side, from heavenly realms, the soul is
the real body, potentially capable of regenerating or reconstituting lesser forms of matter, which include
what we human beings perceive to be the physical human body. Perhaps it is like a photograph. The
human body is flat and two dimensional and captures a mere glimpse of the person, but the source of
the photo, capable of generating more photos, is the soul. Both we might say present to us a complete
physical body and a complete being, although the person obviously trumps the photo.
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Anthony
December 2, 2017
Okay, you hooked me into another question! It sounds like what you’re envisioning is a deeper physical
reality, that perhaps science has not uncovered. You definitely have a revision of the traditional
understanding of the soul when you say it can be composed of physical matter. But I’d be intrigued to
know how the regeneration and reconstitution would work as you see it? When a person dies and all
their physical parts decompose, are you imagining a scenario where some of those physical particles of
matter (the ones that make up the “soul”) would actually reform together through natural processes…
such that the same conscious soul is truly regenerated?
Evan
December 2, 2017
Dear Anthony, hahaha, we are getting very theoretical now and I’m not sure that I’m understanding the
terms you’re using correctly. I apologize if I am not. I am imagining that the physical matter, or super
matter, never usually decomposes, just what we perceive on the surface as the physical body
decomposes. Another metaphor: the physical body is like clothing and the soul is the body, so the
consciousness is the same. At death, it is merely that the dirty or worn clothes are taken off. Without the
restraints of this physical dimension there is an expanded consciousness encompassing our human
consciousness. To put it another way, if someone dies, the atoms don’t stop working. The electrons keep
spinning and they maintain their atomic structure. Our bodies are made of cells and molecules that
maintain an overall macro-structure, so it could be that our souls are composed of atoms and subatomic
particles and also have an overall macro-structure. If you were to destroy the atoms or split them, then
you would be destroying the soul and releasing a huge amount of energy, which is basically a nuclear
explosion or nuclear energy. That is the power of but a few particles of the soul (I cannot mention this
last metaphor and proceeding discourse without citing my own spiritual mentor Master Li Hongzhi:
http://en.falundafa.org/eng/pdf/ZFL2014.pdf)
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Bill
December 4, 2017
I disagree with the title of this list. It should be the “10 most famous and memorable poems”. These are
definitely not the 10 greatest poems ever written. At least half of these poems are quaint trifles. The list
also exaggerates the importance of rhyme in English poetry. Let’s face it, the great classical poets
(including Milton and Wordsworth) and most modern poets eventually rejected rhyme as an annoying
and embarrassing, pointless hindrance and good riddance. Or they transformed the way rhyme is used
to make it less conspicuous and awkward. Furthermore, the under-representation of modern poetry in
this list gives the impression that the compiler of the list hasn’t actually read that much poetry. Compare
the poems in this list to the power and wizardry of a work like “The Windhover” by G.M. Hopkins.
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Evan
December 4, 2017
Dear Bill,
You give a passionate attack on rhyme and then go on to cite a sonnet, Hopkins’ “The Windhover,”
(which I have pasted below) which is bursting not only with an only somewhat subtle Petrarchan rhyme
scheme but also copious and completely conspicuous alliteration. Alliteration predates rhyme as the
“annoying and embarrassing” English poetry device of choice. Perhaps, if you try this argument
elsewhere, you may consider using a different example.
(Hopkins by the way is featured in our 10 Greatest Poems about Death: http://classicalpoets.org/10-
greatest-poems-about-death-a-grim-reader/)
You do have an interesting point in which you correlate power and wizardry to greatness, but do no
correlate posthumous fame or memorableness to greatness. What exactly is found in this “power and
wizardry” of which you speak? Perhaps you have your own top ten list that you can compile and share.
I think in the future the list will need to be rewritten or expanded to include 21st century poets too, but
we are not there yet.
The Windhover
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Kind regards,
The Author
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Bill
December 4, 2017
Dear Evan,
thank you for your response. I would argue that Hopkins is using rhyme here in a very natural and unique
manner, not in the service of an awkward convention. The sheer number of internal rhymes and
alliterative and assonant phrases in this poem that do not feel forced is impressive. The experimental
technical elements of the poem and its exciting rhythm do not in any way impair the poem’s ability to
convey its principal theme, which is “being inspired by nature and the mundane”. In, fact I think they
help to convey this theme most powerfully. I have not read enough to confidently conclude, as one critic
did, that it is the “most beautiful poem in the English language”, but I think it is up there among the
greatest. Hopkins himself said it was the best thing he ever wrote.
Rick Smith
December 6, 2017
Poetry is our hearts, our lives, our pain, and pleasure all penned for sheer enjoyment or reflection. I
enjoyed the list (Shake’s is a amazing) especially to measure my own works against how clearly the
others conveyed their message and the emotion they were trying to reach. My own poem below is my
personal favorite amongst those I’ve written, but friends love many others because they find a personal
message in the words I’ve written. Enjoy and comment on the below.
“The Test”
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Jack
December 9, 2017
It is a shame a summer day come to, I
Thine self ist warned that such a bond be worthy not at all,
but thine forgets the words of thou when he has lost it all.
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John White
January 5, 2018
Rumi should be on the list perhaps the one of the most popular poets of the day
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ayubmahamed
January 10, 2018
im ayub and iwant to be the member of poems
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Bob S.
January 11, 2018
Dirge Without Music Launch Audio in a New Window
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
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sydney
January 23, 2018
William Blake’s poem is actually called “The Tyger” rather than “The Tiger” (common mistake)
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Evan
February 6, 2018
Of course, originally it was “Tyger.” Here the spelling has been updated to avoid confusion (a common
editorial choice). We have the original spelling here: http://classicalpoets.org/tyger-tiger-william-blake/
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Hussain
February 2, 2018
Good name of a website.
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may
February 6, 2018
Most of the interpretations of these poems are not profound at all. Very shallow. Also the writer used
the word “basically” which if informal and not appropriate for the caliber of writing glorified by
classicalpoets.org
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Evan
February 6, 2018
Dear May,
Thank you for your feedback. Feel free to offer your own interpretation of any of the poems, either in
the comments section or for submission for publication to submissions@classicalpoets.org. Alternatively,
you may post a link to an interpretation that you feel is worthy.
Perhaps the style is too informal in places, I agree. However, recently I’ve found my self de-formalizing
my prose because I feel it quickly becomes stuffy, inaccessible, and irrelevant. It seems to me that the
place of “the writer” currently is to reach people of all socioeconomic backgrounds across a large
segment of the world, not echo hallow sentiments in small and entrenched communities. The Society of
Classical Poets is hopefully raising poetry to greater heights and opening it up to common people who
find that prevailing modes of poetry nonsensical and dull, and again inaccessible and irrelevant.
Regards,
The Writer
REPLY
erika johnson
February 6, 2018
good
REPLY
Natasha Singh
February 18, 2018
Rabindranath Tagore…. An Indian writer….
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action–
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!
The poem ‘Leave This’ addresses the hypocrisy within our hearts in the name of religion. In our pursuit
of God, we truly seem to be running away from Him.
When my rooms have been decked out and the flutes sound
This exquisite piece of poetry, ‘Let Me Not Forget’ expresses the melancholic emptiness behind missing
the beloved. The lines are beautiful yet they carry spasms of distress.
Try and the logophiles like me would definitely enjoy with mirth because words rearranged beautifully
always fascinate the likes of us…
REPLY
Natasha Singh
February 18, 2018
A good thesis when we mention the list but the fact that the greatest poems cannot be listed ,as there
are innumerable languages in the world and the essence of a poem felt in its own language cannot be
easily engrossed in a translation, cannot be ignored. Thanking you.
REPLY
Nicholas
March 7, 2018
Hitting the nail on its head! Incidentally, there are many more and better English poems than these
listed. What is a great poem? What is a good poem? What is a classic poem? What is simply a brilliant
poem? People tend to get fixated on classic poets.
REPLY
William
February 28, 2018
I rather like the list, but I think there is some room for debate and discourse. With that being said, allow
me to throw my favorite poem in the ring.
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
REPLY
Gage Edwards
March 2, 2018
Smallest and Comforted,
in the field.
sitting in my room,
sobbing.
In my room.
In the garbage,
REPLY
Nicholas
March 7, 2018
Definitely great poems. But what are the ‘greatest’? In my opinion not the best ever written. And these
are for the English language. In German, Dutch, French and Afrikaans poems just as great or even better
have been written
REPLY
Kevin Joyce
March 21, 2018
I always liked Richard Cory, Winifred Owen’s “dulce et decorum est” and in a similar vein ” death of a ball
turret gunner. All are kind of shocking, and some may feel cheap. But I think they are good.
But I like them. I DO think you could pull out a Wadsworth and throw in an Emily Dickinson. ( and there
are a lot of hers to consider)
Frost likely has 4 poems worth considering. The two mentioned above as well as “out, out-” and ”
mending wall”.
Overall a great list
REPLY
Kevin Joyce
March 21, 2018
BTW… I know Wadsworth wrote one, and Wadsworth Longfellow wrote two…. but I had guessed you
would catch my drift
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safa
March 30, 2018
It was excellent and useful. Thank you very much from the members of your website.
REPLY
l
April 6, 2018
odjiofugb
REPLY
Fernando
April 10, 2018
Genial me encantan los poemas cortos en ingles, me gustaria que uno de ustedes me ayude a escribir
algunos poemas cortos cuánto me cobran?
REPLY
Etta Mae Kibby
May 1, 2018
I enjoyed your list and your commentary on each poem. I ran into it looking for a poem that I memorized
at least 60 years ago. I do not know who wrote it, do you?
REPLY
The Society
May 1, 2018
I believe that this is the poem you are looking for:
Now
REPLY
SK Sharma
May 18, 2018
How much more enriched we all are after such contributions!
Excellent.
Anamika
May 5, 2018
This is definitely an amazing collection but I believe that everyone has a different perspective of
analyzing a piece of poetry. So, coming up with a single meaning is not just and it often hinders the
feelings with which a poets writes his poetry. Poems are worth feeling than understanding and no poem
is great or the greatest its just the reader’s connection with it that makes it great.
Moreover, I loved the collection as it was more about the truth of the world rather than some orthodox
philosophy.
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SK Sharma
May 18, 2018
How many different ways to describe just one fleeting facet ofGod’s Creation – life. And obversely Death.
These significantly beautiful Poems and the import latent in them takes my mind right to the meaning
imparted by the sculptures created on the walls of The Holy Temples of Angkor. Each Pilgrim visiting
Angkor carries back as varied meanings from the Temples as any reader shall after making a serious
endeavor of understanding these lovely pieces of literary art.
Though these Poems and those Temples belong to entirely different time-frames in our Historical past,
both underscore the beauty of God’s Creativity and its understanding by the human being, perhaps as
He might have willed.
My mind also goes to yet another time slot when visionaries such as Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato also
threw light on virtues related to inner-bliss and well-being of humanity and creativity of our maker in
order to facilitate a better understanding of the ethereal facets of our existence. And after that.
Hope that we all individually as also collectively are able to make some tiny difference to the times that
we all live in.
REPLY
nobodyinparticular
July 6, 2018
Re: Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” commentary:
Sometimes commentaries reflect the personal obsessions of the individual writing them far more than
they do the poem itself. I believe that is what’s going on here. Robert Frost’s short, profound poem is
about many different things and can have many different interpretations. But the last thing I see it as
being about is the simple heroic narrative: making a difference in the world because the Hero Knows
which is the Right Path to take.
To me it’s a commentary on tremendous unknown complexity of the world around us and how an almost
random minor decision or event leads one, over time to a vastly different and completely unpredictable
future than one ever imagined for oneself.
The individual at the crossroads is jejune, a immature youth or an innocent mind, inexperienced with
life, who believes his clear choices, even ones make for shallow, almost random reasons, are always for
the good or are always right, reflect deep intelligence and thought, and always have a strong impact on
the world.
The individual looking back on that early decision point in time is a more experienced and wiser man and
understands the effect of randomness on human beings, creatures who always falsely try to force order
and “narrative” (to use that self-important and egregious popular term in the way that is a bit more
accurate), a soothing coherent self-lullaby onto ones’ life. As one ages and one learns, however, you start
to see how really random and chaotic the world (and your own personal “life story”) is. One starts to get
a bit more honest and clear-sighted. One starts to grasp that one’s neat little life story (I did *this* very
clearly and consciously because of *that*) isn’t actually how things actually transpired: happenstance
and random chance played a far greater role in one’s life than one’s personal (and, to be honest,
immature) meaningful heroic narrative allowed one to admit. With experience and age, the ego starts to
get over itself, and other, more relevant information than that allowed by one’s youthful personal self-
absorbed heroic fairy tale, starts to seep in. Or, at least, that’s what happens if one is lucky and one’s
mental maturity progresses in pace with one’s physical aging.
The Road Less Traveled looks at a youthful decision-point, one of many, and sees how this rather light
and ego-driven (I’ll be cool and do what others _don’t_ do) decision had echoing repercussions down
the halls of time and made a tremendous difference on the narrator’s life. We aren’t told if the
repercussions were good or bad (it’s the egotistic desire to believe one always chooses rightly, even
when one is young and inexperienced that leads the reader to that conclusion). What we are told is that
one minor, almost trivial decision had a tremendous effect on the writer’s life over time. It hints at the
way little actions or choices can snowball as they roll forward into time and have tremendous effects. It’s
not a warning to “choose wisely” because we can’t do that, really, at any time in life. We just haven’t
enough information, except in the most overly simplistic of cases.
And yet we try. We always strive to know more, to get an edge, to discover the secrets that will make “it
all” make sense. That’s human nature, and results in some of the finest behavior and effects on society.
But sometimes I do wonder if we’re striving in the right direction. As people mature, they start to see
how precarious, unknown, and unpredictable the world and one’s life in it actually is. Life can turn on the
drop of a can of soup in a grocery aisle. To me, Frost’s poem gently suggests the reader take a break from
self-absorbed life-story narratives (or fairy tales, from one perspective) and start looking a bit more
closely at how the world actually works. There may be something worth learning from that.
REPLY
Gobbledygook
August 26, 2018
Yes. This. So much this. We forgo pragmatism (and why not of course, it’s boring!) for loftiness; our head
in the clouds filled with rabbit holes lit by the light of our own ideals and self involved interpretation. We
come by it earnest if only by basic human nature but even moreso because we are thinkers, creators,
dreamers, seekers of beauty and purpose and mystery- and all those things that make some of us to be
perceived as a little weird and seemingly irrelevant. Pointless observation perhaps, as I lack any formal
training whatsoever in the way of dictation of observation or rhetoric or what have you. I just love the
music of word- or the attempt to happen upon a piece or compose something akin to the type of
melodies that provoke a chill or a tear or a feeling in the pit of your stomach. Beautiful art. How weird of
me to leave a comment like this.
REPLY
Gobbledygook
August 26, 2018
The Road Not Taken seems to be an inadvertent inspiration or source for cause to pause and ponder in
wonderment for some; A happy unintentional gift, to it’s now readers. A closer look, however, may
reveal a question that begs to be unavoidable and sneeringly unanswerable at the readers expense. The
way it is written romances us into false wonderment and sense of security about the choices we have
made. however, there’s still the matter of: what about the Road not Taken? What about that sigh?
I think it’s interesting how we analyze and have a need to interpret a deep meaning and we expect so
much purpose from the writings of others. And that we actually find deep meaning in the poetry of
others. It can bring healing to our souls even when not intended to do so. This poem actually originated
as an ironic jest written for Frost’s friend Edward Thomas (with whom he would take frequent walks in
the woods and without fail, Thomas would always grumble about choosing the wrong path or wrong way
or wrong turn while they walked and talked. But Thomas’ personality and temperament was such that
the he took the poem seriously as somewhat of a slight towards his inability to make decisions and make
the right decisions that it affected his confidence about his own writings and seemed have an affect on
his impending decision to fight in the war- even though Frost related to him the playfulness of spirit in
which it was written). All of it is just intersting and it reveals something about the nature of humans in
general. I wonder what Frost would have to say about the the influence and popularity and sheer
endearment of his poem that was written out of playfulness.
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mahendra Bhatt
August 29, 2018
Read Kalidas’s and then compare all above with him.
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f b abbas
August 29, 2018
yes …. thanks … lovely poems … any more ?
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Hamilton Delany
September 21, 2018
There must be at least 6 Keats poems which I prefer to the Urn. Autumn and/or Nightingale must be
included in any top 10.
These are all great poets and yet the superiority of Shakespeare is astounding. He is on a different level,
inhabiting a different world, speaking a different language. Was he a man or an alien or a god? How the
hell did he do it? Astonishing.
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M
December 6, 2018
“Where the mind is without fear
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
REPLY
Ron
December 9, 2018
I enjoyed the immense dialogue. Here’s one of mine:
Well
In interstices of contingency
REPLY
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Education
the key to unlock the golden door of freedom
And stage our rise to stardom
Education
A life sustaining material
Without it we can’t lead a life which is congenial
Education
not all about bookish knowledge
But it is also about practical knowledge
Education
makes a person stand up on his on toes
And helps a person to fight with all his foes
Education
A fundamental foundation
For any country state or nation
Education
A thick line between right and wrong
A ladder that takes us to the height where we belong
Education
Mother of all profession
That helps acquires all our possession
Education Is our right
For in it our future is bright.
By
Stanley Oguh