Poetry / Famous Poems

The brightest minds of our past dedicated themselves to poetry. Their work continues to inspire, amaze, and help to educate poets today. Leave a comment or a question on one of these famous poems, or check out our free courses to learn how to write in certain styles like the sonnet. Interested in helping add or translate classic poems? Please join our researchers.

Like hearing poems out loud? Browse famous poems.

Top 500 famous poems

Picks Following Famous Newest Trade comments

Charles Bukowski Follow

Bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

This was published in Bukowski's book "The Last Night of the Earth Poems" circa 1992

Analysis (ai): The poem contrasts emotional vulnerability with performative stoicism, framing inner sensitivity as a subdued, almost forbidden presence. The bluebird symbolizes repressed tenderness in a life defined by excess and detachment. Unlike many confessional works of the mid-20th century that dramatize breakdown, this poem underplays crisis, favoring wry self-awareness.

Voice and Persona: The speaker adopts a gruff, defiant tone, consistent with the author’s typical persona of the hard-drinking urban outsider. Yet this mask is deliberately undercut by quiet admissions of complicity in emotional suppression. The irony lies in how carefully he tends the very repression he claims to enforce.

Form and Structure: Repetition anchors the poem’s rhythm, mimicking both obsession and containment. The incremental variation in each stanza—especially the shift from brute denial to covert acknowledgment—mirrors internal negotiation. Line breaks mimic halting speech, reinforcing authenticity over formal design.

Context and Comparison: Compared to the author’s broader work, known for raw depictions of vice and alienation, this poem is unusually introspective. While most of his poetry externalizes blame, here the conflict is internalized, marking a subtle evolution. Unlike Beat contemporaries who sought transcendence in experience, this poem rejects catharsis.

Engagement with Modern Concerns: The poem critiques masculinity’s emotional economies, a persistent undercurrent in postwar American literature. Its late-20th-century setting reveals how commercialization—referenced by "book sales in Europe"—infiltrates personal identity. The fear of exposure is not just emotional but professional, tying authenticity to marketability.

Less-Discussed Angle: Rather than reading the bluebird solely as hope or creativity, it may represent the impossibility of full self-concealment. The bird’s persistence isn't redemptive but existential—it cannot be erased, only managed. The final question ("do you?") implicates the reader in the same concealment, turning confession into shared complicity.

(hide)

Like (4640) 1285 Enjoyed it Lovely job Great! Like (4640)

Dylan Thomas Follow

DT's father was going blind when DT wrote this poem. The dying of the light is a reference to darkness and being blind.

Listen to this poem

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Analysis (ai): The poem follows a strict villanelle structure with repeating refrains and a tightly controlled rhyme scheme, aligning with 20th-century uses of traditional forms to grapple with emotional intensity.

Tone and Theme: A commanding tone underscores the central theme of resistance to death, framed not as fear but as an affirmation of life’s vitality, even in the face of inevitability.

Address and Intimacy: While universal in scope through its portrayal of different men, the direct address to “my father” personalizes the poem, creating emotional immediacy uncommon in Thomas’s otherwise mythic or surreal works.

Contrast with Other Works: Unlike his earlier, more obscure and imagistic poems, this one balances lyrical density with accessibility, showing a shift toward emotional clarity without abandoning linguistic force.

Engagement with Modern Concerns: Written in the mid-20th century, it reflects modern preoccupations with individual agency and existential resistance, particularly resonant in a post-war context obsessed with mortality and meaning.

Representation of Aging: The poem rejects passive decline, instead presenting aging as a stage for defiant expression, contrasting with contemporary cultural tendencies to marginalize the elderly.

Typology of Men: The categorization of wise, good, wild, and grave men serves as a catalogue of lived experiences, each regretting unrealized potential, suggesting that limitation defines human life regardless of path.

Role of Language: Phrases like “forked no lightning” imply that intellectual or moral achievement may still fall short of impact, introducing a critique of legacy often overlooked in favor of the surface-level call to rage.

Emotional Duality: The speaker’s plea for both curse and blessing from the father introduces a psychological complexity—desire for connection even through pain—distinguishing it from simpler readings of filial duty.

Place in Author’s Oeuvre: Among Thomas’s later works, it stands out for its emotional directness and structured form, a departure from the ecstatic obscurity of poems like "Fern Hill" or "A Winter’s Tale."

Reception and Interpretation: While commonly read as a universal anthem against death, a less-discussed angle is its implicit critique of masculinity—men measured by productivity, light, and fire, with grief expressed through rage rather than vulnerability.

Cultural Afterlife: Its popularity has sometimes overshadowed its nuances, yet its repetition in film and public discourse reflects enduring resonance with audiences confronting mortality in an age skeptical of grand narratives.

(hide)

Like (2600) 766 Enjoyable Good poem Inspired Like (2600)

Billy Collins Follow

Listen to this poem

Anton Jarvis · Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Analysis (ai): The poem critiques rigid literary analysis by contrasting playful, sensory engagement with forceful interrogation. Metaphors like holding a poem up to the light or listening to its hive suggest intimacy and curiosity, while the violent imagery of torture and beating underscores the frustration with reductive interpretation.

Tone and Voice: A conversational, almost ironic tone dominates, using wit to expose the disconnect between students' mechanical reading habits and the speaker’s advocacy for openness. This lightness tempers the poem’s critical edge, avoiding didacticism.

Form and Structure: Free verse with short, irregular stanzas allows a casual rhythm, mimicking speech. Line breaks enhance surprise, as when “hose” ends the poem, underscoring abrupt violence.

Historical and Literary Context: Unlike mid-20th-century formalism or confessional poetry’s emotional intensity, this work aligns with late-20th-century efforts to democratize poetry. It resists New Critical tendencies to mine texts for unified meaning, favoring exploration over explication.

Relation to Author’s Oeuvre: Typical of the poet’s accessible style, it reflects a consistent interest in how people encounter art. Less noted is its subtle meta-commentary on teaching: it reveals not just how poems are misread, but how educators may fail to model receptivity.

Modern Engagement: Written post-1900, it anticipates contemporary debates about interpretation in education. Its skepticism toward single “correct” readings resonates with current interdisciplinary and reader-response approaches. The poem's resistance to coercion echoes modern concerns about authority and meaning-making in texts.

(hide)

Like (2330) 835 Good work Clever piece Fantastic! Like (2330)

William Shakespeare Follow

Sonnet 116: '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 wandering 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.

Listen to this poem

Analysis (ai): The poem asserts love’s permanence, rejecting change due to circumstance or time; it defines love as unwavering and immune to physical decline or external pressures.

Structure and Form: A standard Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, with three quatrains and a concluding couplet, using ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme; the form reinforces logical progression toward a conclusive assertion.

Historical Context: Written in the early 17th century, the poem aligns with Renaissance Neoplatonism, which idealized spiritual over physical love, a common intellectual framework among Elizabethan sonneteers.

Linguistic Features: Utilizes nautical metaphors (“ever-fixed mark”, “wandering bark”) and legal diction (“admit impediments”) rooted in the Book of Common Prayer’s marriage liturgy, reflecting contemporary cultural lexicons.

Philosophical Position: Positions love as a metaphysical constant, comparable to celestial bodies, resisting the era’s frequent poetic tropes of love as fleeting or bound by mutability.

Contrast with Other Sonnets: Unlike many of Shakespeare’s sonnets that explore jealousy, infidelity, or aging, this one offers a rare abstract and idealized vision, functioning more as a philosophical declaration than personal confession.

Comparison to Contemporaries: While poets like Sidney and Spenser often portrayed love as torment or divine aspiration, this poem diverges by emphasizing stability and resistance to time, avoiding Petrarchan extremes of suffering or worship.

Less-Discussed Angle: The final couplet’s self-referential claim (“I never writ, nor no man ever loved”) ties the validity of human love to the existence of poetry itself, suggesting literary creation as proof of enduring passion.

Place in Author’s Oeuvre: Among the non-procreation sonnets, it stands out for its impersonality and universal tone, lacking references to the Fair Youth or Dark Lady, functioning instead as a standalone doctrinal statement.

Cultural Function: Frequently used in marriage ceremonies today, its modern reception contrasts with likely original contexts—private literary exchange rather than public ritual—highlighting shifts in textual utility over time.

(hide)

Like (1046) 329 Nice share Fantastic Enjoyed it Like (1046)

Denise Levertov Follow

About Marriage

Don't lock me in wedlock, I want
marriage, an
encounter --

I told you about
the green light of
May

(a veil of quiet befallen
the downtown park,
late

Saturday after
noon, long
shadows and cool

air, scent of
new grass
fresh leaves,

blossom on the threshold of
abundance --

and the birds I met there,
birds of passage breaking their journey,
three birds each of a different species:

the azalea-breasted with round poll, dark,
the brindled, merry, mousegliding one,
and the smallest, golden as gorse and wearing
a black Venetian mask

and with them the three deuce hen-birds
feathered in tender, lively brown --

I stood
a half-hour under the enchantment
no-one passed near,
the birds saw me and

let me be
near them.)

It's not irrelevant:
I would be
met

and meet you
so,
in a green

airy space, not
locked in.

Analysis (ai): The poem centers on intimacy without constraint, framing marriage as an open, natural encounter rather than a binding institution. It rejects possession in favor of mutual presence, likening loving relationships to fleeting, unguarded moments in nature.

Imagery and Setting: The detailed natural scene—May light, birds, grass, and shadows—functions not as mere backdrop but as a model for relational freedom. The birds are presented distinctly, underscoring individuality within connection, a motif less emphasized in Levertov’s earlier, more politically charged poems.

Structure and Form: Enjambment and line breaks create a hesitant, observational rhythm, mimicking the speaker’s careful attention. The fragmented layout mirrors mid-century free verse norms but avoids the rigid lineation seen in some of her anti-war poems.

Relation to Author’s Oeuvre: Unlike her later overtly spiritual or activist works, this piece emphasizes personal epiphany through nature, aligning more closely with her transitional phase in the 1970s where self and environment merge without didacticism.

Engagement with Contemporary Concerns: Written in a period of shifting gender roles and redefined domesticity, the poem subtly challenges traditional marriage norms without explicit polemics, favoring metaphor over declaration—a hallmark of postwar feminist reimaginings.

Uncommon Interpretation: Rather than reading the birds solely as symbols of beauty or transience, they may represent marginalized voices or outsider identities that coexist temporarily without merging—an implicit commentary on chosen community over enforced union.

(hide)