Poetry Explorer

Search Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Search Results

Back to search

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Searching...
Subject: RELATIVES
Matches Found: 525

UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` "BEHOLD, O LORD, THY FAITHFUL PEOPLE!", by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
Last Line: "as free-will gifts, as bonds of love"
Subject(s): Family Life;jews;love;parents;togetherness; Relatives;judaism;parenthood


A BALLAD IN BLANK VERSE, by JOHN DAVIDSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: His father's house looked out across a firth
Last Line: Women to love are waiting everywhere.'
Subject(s): Aphrodite; Atheism; Christianity; Death; Family Life; Fathers & Sons; Mythology - Classical; Paganism & Pagans; Parents; Pride; Dead, The; Relatives; Parenthood; Self-esteem; Self-respect


A BALLAD OF A COWARD, by JOHN DAVIDSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The trumpets pealed; the echoes sang
Last Line: And happy and amazed fell dead.
Subject(s): Cowardice; Death; Family Life; Redemption; War; Dead, The; Relatives


A BEAR FAMILY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Wunzt, 'way west in illinoise
Last Line: Ferever an' ferever!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Animals; Bears; Family Life; Mountains; Relatives; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


A BOY GOES INTO THE WORLD, by JANE KENYON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My brother rode off on his bike
Last Line: I at last can claim them as my own
Subject(s): Brothers & Sisters; Family Life; Childhood Memories; Relatives


A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN GEORGIA. 1953, by WYATT PRUNTY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Marching through georgia to bed, he stopped, listened,
Subject(s): Georgia (state); Christmas; Family Life; Childhood Memories; Nativity, The; Relatives


A CHRISTMAS MEMORY (2), by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ma she's home - an' I'm 'way here
Last Line: I ist only want my ma!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Christmas; Family Life; Nativity, The; Relatives


A DEFECTIVE SANTA CLAUS, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Allus when our pa he's away
Last Line: "trip bark' two times 'fore it's ""a-men!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Christmas; Family Life; Santa Claus; Childhood; Nativity, The; Relatives; Nicholas, Saint


A DOMESTIC STORM, by PRISCILLA JANE THOMPSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I'm going to whoop you, sammy taylor
Last Line: Guess you will, you rascal, you.
Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


A DUBIOUS 'OLD KRISS', by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Us-folks is purty pore - but ma
Last Line: "him skite out -- an' it wuz her pa."
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Christmas; Family Life; Childhood; Nativity, The; Relatives


A HAPPY CHILDHOOD, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother stands at the screen door, laughing
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Childhood; Relatives


A HIDDEN LIFE, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Proudly the youth, sudden with manhood crowned
Last Line: Arose and died upon the listener's ear.
Subject(s): Christianity; Death; Education; Family Life; Farm Life; God; Love; Quiet Life; Dead, The; Relatives; Agriculture; Farmers


A HOLIDAY, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The house is like a garden
Last Line: Some women are like that, do what you may.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Family Life; Holidays; Home; Labor & Laborers; Love; Relatives; Work; Workers


A HOUSE IN THE HEDGE, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: All architecture done, / and housekeeping begun
Last Line: God's smile come radiant through.
Subject(s): Birds; Family Life; Home; Relatives


A LETTER FROM HOME, by MARY OLIVER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She sends me news of bluejays, frost
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


A MARRIAGE, by ANNE STEVENSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When my mother knew why her treatment wasn't working,
Subject(s): Marriage; Family Life; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives


A MARRIAGE POEM, by ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Morning: the caged baby
Subject(s): Marriage; Family Life; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives


A MONTH IN SUMMER, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Several years ago, I wrote haiku in this way
Last Line: "is that what is meant by dwelling in unreality? And here too I end my words."
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Family Life; Japan; Love Affairs; Poetry & Poets; Solitude; Summer; Women; Women's Rights; Relatives; Japanese; Loneliness; Feminism


A NEW YORK CHILD?ÇÖS GARDEN OF VERSES, by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In winter I get up at night
Alternate Author Name(s): F. P. A.
Subject(s): Youth; City & Town Life; Family Life; Relatives


A PLACE IN MAINE, by SHEROD SANTOS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Mothers & Sons; Disappointment; Time; Family Life; Absence; Relatives; Separation; Isolation


A POET'S HOUSEHOLD, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: The stout poet tiptoes
Last Line: Is chanting words to himself.
Subject(s): Family Life; Poetry & Poets; Roethke, Theodore (1908-1963); Women; Women's Rights; Relatives; Feminism


A PRAYER FOR BROKEN LITTLE FAMILIES, by VIOLET ALLEYN STOREY    Poem Text                    
First Line: God, pity broken little families
Last Line: Growing, day by day, more closely into oneness with each other.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Dead, The; Relatives


A QUESTION, by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Can't the child yet walk alone?'
Last Line: "smiling, not repining!"
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


A REAL STORY, by LINDA PASTAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sucking on hard candy
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


A ROOM IN THE PAST, by TED KOOSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: It's a kitchen. Its curtains fill
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


A STORY OF DOOM: BOOK 4, by JEAN INGELOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now while these evil ones took counsel strange
Last Line: Shall bless me also. Sir, I love you well.'
Subject(s): Family Life; Love; Relatives


A SUNSET OF THE CITY, by GWENDOLYN BROOKS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.
Subject(s): Aging; Family Life; Relatives


A TIME PAST, by DENISE LEVERTOV    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The old wooden steps to the front door
Subject(s): Marriage; Family Life; Relationships; Past; Human Behavior; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


A TOAST FOR LITTLE IRON MIKE, by PAUL MARIANI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Having come in out of the unrelenting
Subject(s): Amniotic Fluid Embolism; Babies; Family Life; Infants; Relatives


A VINE-ARBOUR IN THE FAR WEST, by JEAN INGELOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Laura, my laura! Yes, mother! I
Last Line: "but I'll say to him, ""o my poor father, we wait you, come in.""'"
Subject(s): Arbors; Family Life; Gardens & Gardening; Hearts; Mothers; Sun; Relatives


A VISIT, by JACK MERTEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: As she stirred her coffee at dinner in our house
Last Line: Whereupon I went out in the garden and threw stones at the hens.
Subject(s): Aunts; Family Life; Guests; Relatives; Visiting


A WAR STORY, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): World War Ii; Guests; Family Life; Second World War; Visiting; Relatives


A WOMAN WAKING, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She wakens early remembering
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Family Life; Relatives


AFTER, by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, the littles that remain!
Last Line: Oh, the scent of mint was plain!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AFTER DEATH, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I heard the front door close
Last Line: Was a kind of steady weeping.
Subject(s): Brothers; Death; Death - Children; Family Life; Mourning; Half-brothers; Dead, The; Death - Babies; Relatives; Bereavement


AFTERNOON, by DONALD HALL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mouse, my girl in gray, I speak to her
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AGAINST PLURALISM, by DONALD REVELL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who will you point to? In the needle's eye,
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Disappointment; Relationships; Divorce; Half-siblings; Relatives


AL AND BETH, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My uncle al worked in a drugstore
Subject(s): Immigrants; Patriotism; Family Life; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration; Relatives


ALBANY, by RON SILLIMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: If the function of writing is to 'express the world.' my father withheld child
Subject(s): Family Life; Conduct Of Life; Social Commentaries; Language Poetry; Relatives


ALCESTIS: SCENE 1, by EURIPIDES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Natheless before these gates mine eyes do mark
Last Line: Down to the lord of hell.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Death; Family Life; Household Employees; Marriage; Mourning; Mythology - Classical; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Dead, The; Relatives; Servants; Domestics; Maids; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Bereavement


ALDERMAN, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One year the town republicans
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


ALL LIFE IN A LIFE, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: His father had a large family
Subject(s): Family Life; City & Town Life; Wealth; Social Protest; Capital Punishment; Conduct Of Life; Relatives; Riches; Fortunes; Hanging; Executions; Death Penalty


ALL SUMMER LONG, by CAROL FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dogs eat hoof slivers and lie under the porch.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


ALL'S WELL, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: The cat has her milk
Last Line: All's well with his life.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


ALLEGORY OF DEATH AND NIGHT, by FRANK STANFORD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When he comes home from work
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


ALMOST BEYOND ENDURANCE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I ain't a-goin' to cry no more, no more!
Last Line: I ist ain't goin' to cry no more, no more!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Family Life; Tears; Relatives


ALONE WITH JANE, by RAY CLARKE ROSE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Jane, in a suit of cameron plaid
Last Line: I wish I were n't alone with jane!
Subject(s): Courtship; Daughters; Family Life; Parents; Relatives; Parenthood


AN ALBUM FAMILY, by RANDY BLASING    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A good-time charlie from the start, my father
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AN INSINCERE WISH ADDRESSED TO A BEGGAR, by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are not near enough to love
Last Line: And truth reveal herself to you!
Alternate Author Name(s): Anodos
Subject(s): Brothers; Deception; Family Life; Wealth; Half-brothers; Relatives; Riches; Fortunes


AN OLD LIFE, by DONALD HALL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Snow fell in the nght
Subject(s): Family Life; Poetry & Poets; Relatives


AND NOW THE HOUSE-DOG STRETCHED ONCE MORE, by EMILY JANE BRONTE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Ellis
Subject(s): Shepherds & Shepherdesses; Family Life; Relatives


ANDRE, by GWENDOLYN BROOKS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I had a dream last night. I dreamed
Last Line: They were the ones I always had!
Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


ANNUNCIATION, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Like holes punched in a tin roof, thinks diverne
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


APPARITION, by TESS GALLAGHER            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Ghosts; Death - Children; Family Life; Death - Babies; Relatives


ARMAZINDY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Armazindy;-- fambily name
Last Line: Though I'm 'lectioneerin' still.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Family Life; Names; Relatives


ARMED MEN, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ray teaches at the boley baptist school
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AS CHILDREN TOGETHER, by CAROLYN FORCHE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the sloped snow
Alternate Author Name(s): Sidlosky, Carolyn
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Childhood; Relatives


AT HOME IN WINTER, by EAMON GRENNAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We sit across from one another
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AT LENGTH, by RANDY BLASING    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Grounded, I watched late-breaking spring take off
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AT SEVENTY-THREE, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, let us face things as they are
Last Line: For I am over seventy-three!
Subject(s): Aging; Family Life; Life; Mankind; Tears; Youth; Relatives; Human Race


AT THE FUNERAL OF GREAT-AUNT MARY, by ROBERT BLY            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here we are, all dressed up to honor death!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AT THE IGA: FRANKLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, by JANE KENYON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is where I would shop
Last Line: Never enough in the bank
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AUNT ANNIE'S PRAYER, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Her magnified voice reverberates
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AUNT SELINA, by CAROL HAYNES    Poem Text                    
First Line: When aunt selina comes to tea
Last Line: I hope she would not come again!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


AUNT SUE'S STORIES, by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Aunt sue has a head full of stories
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Langston
Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL, by ABRAHAM MOSES KLEIN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of the ghetto streets where a jewboy
Last Line: Delighting in the sobbed oriental note.
Alternate Author Name(s): Klein, A. M.
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Jews; Relatives; Judaism


BACKYARD SWING SET, by THOMAS LUX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Splayed, swayback, cheap pipe
Subject(s): Home; Family Life; Relatives


BALANCE, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He watch her like a coonhound watch a tree.
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Literary Form; Relatives


BALI HAI CALLS MAMA, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As I was putting away the groceries
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Mothers; Babies; Family Life; Infants; Relatives


BANKING POTATOES, by YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Daddy would drop purple-veined vines
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, James Willie, Jr.
Subject(s): Family Life; Potatoes; Relatives


BE GLAD AND SING, by BELLE RICHARDSON HARRISON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Have you a band of little ones
Last Line: To him who doeth all things best.
Subject(s): Blessings; Family Life; Home; Relatives


BENEATH THE SHADOW OF THE FREEWAY, by LORNA DEE CERVANTES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Across the street -- the freeway
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


BIOGRAPHY, by ROBERT PINSKY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Stone wheel that sharpens the blade that mows the grain,
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


BIRKHILL: A MEMORY, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O'er thy lone beauty, sweet birkhill
Last Line: "but faith and hope say, ""not for ever."
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Family Life; Memory; Relatives


BLACK PIONEERS, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There, we'll put the chickens
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


BOTH MY GRANDMOTHERS 1. MY POLISH GRANDMA, by EDWARD FIELD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Grandma and the children left at night
Last Line: To go to a new country
Alternate Author Name(s): Elliot, Bruce
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Immigrants; Relatives


BREAKFAST IS MY BEST MEAL: OVERHEARD AT CARLSBAD, by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Breakfast is my best meal, and I reckon it's always been
Last Line: But it fairly makes me sick! Breakfast is my best meal.
Alternate Author Name(s): Howells, W. D.
Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Family Life; Food & Eating; Cookery; Relatives


BROTHER, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I could not tell you though I were crucified
Last Line: Aye, and when my need was, brother through the night!
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Family Life; Love - Nature Of; Men; Relationships; Relatives


BROTHER AND SISTER, by MARY ANN EVANS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I cannot choose but think upon the time
Last Line: I would be born a little sister there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Eliot, George; Cross, Marian Lewes; Evans, Marian; Ann, Mary
Variant Title(s): "i Cannot Choose But Think Upon The Time"";
Subject(s): Adolescence; Brothers & Sisters; Evans, Isaac; Family Life; Maturity; Memory; Teen Agers; Relatives


BROTHERLY LOVE; OR, THE SITE OF KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, by GEORGE MURRAY (1830-1910)    Poem Text                    
First Line: There is a sweet traditionary tale
Last Line: Each with the golden sheaves within his arms.
Subject(s): Brothers; Churches; Family Life; Harvest; Love - Nature Of; Half-brothers; Cathedrals; Relatives


BUCOLIC COMEDY: EN FAMILLE, by EDITH SITWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In early spring-time, after their tea
Last Line: "as greenwich, or as bath, or joppa!"
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


BUMS AT BREAKFAST, by DAVID WAGONER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Daily, the bums sat down to eat in our kitchen.
Subject(s): Begging & Beggars; Family Life; Food & Eating; Morning; Relatives


BUTTER, by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother loves butter more than I do
Last Line: Out, one hundred megawatts of butter
Subject(s): Butter; Family Life; Relatives


CASA WAPPY; THE CHILD'S PET-NAME, CHOSEN BY HIMSELF, by DAVID MACBETH MOIR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And hast thou sought thy heavenly home
Last Line: Casa wappy!
Alternate Author Name(s): Delta
Subject(s): Children - Lost; Death; Family Life; Grief; Mothers & Sons; Dead, The; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


CHAMBERS OF THE HEART, by RANDY BLASING    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Since I know by heart the floor plan
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


CHARADE, by ROWLAND EYLES EGERTON-WARBURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have loved, through years of happiness
Last Line: Of my whole another gain.
Alternate Author Name(s): Egerton-warburton, R. E.
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Marriage; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


CHARADE, by ROWLAND EYLES EGERTON-WARBURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My first and my second, united, display
Last Line: And his successor came into office next morning.
Alternate Author Name(s): Egerton-warburton, R. E.
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Marriage; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


CHILD ON THE MARSH, by ANDREW HUDGINS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I worked the river’s slick banks, grabbling
Last Line: And heard the earth’s voice under me
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


CHINESE SPACE, by MEI-MEI BERSSENBRUGGE            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Houses; Beijing. China; Ancestors & Ancestry; Relatives; Heritage; Heredity


CHOPIN, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It's sunday evening. Pomp holds the receipts
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Literary Form; Relatives


CHOSEN, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Diverne wanted to die, that august night
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Literary Form; Relatives


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE:FALL RIVER HISTORICAL MUSEUM, by JAN HELLER LEVI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You know how it is: august, the pears
Subject(s): Family Life; Murder; Relatives


COAL, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He made a living selling land and coal
Last Line: He made a living
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Business; Fathers; Relatives


COMMENCEMENT, PINGREE SCHOOL, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Among these north shore tennis tans I sit
Last Line: Up pops a daddy with a nikon. Click
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


CONCEIT, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My brother's afraid to get angry
Subject(s): Brothers; Anger; Letters; Family Life; Half-brothers; Relatives


CORNELIA'S REPLY, by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Cornelia, a matron of ancient rome
Last Line: The pure quenchless light of a mother's love!
Subject(s): Family Life; Housewives; Love; Mothers & Sons; Rome, Italy; Wealth; Relatives; Riches; Fortunes


COUNTRY MARRIAGE, by CAROL FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They married out of school
Subject(s): Marriage; Family Life; Poverty; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives


COYOTE CREEK, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was a small canyon, very small
Last Line: While the sun sank all at once behind him.
Subject(s): Family Life; Gifts & Giving; Nature; Prayer; Relatives


CURRICULUM VITAE, by LISEL MUELLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was born in a free city, near the north sea
Alternate Author Name(s): Muller, Lisel
Subject(s): Birth; Family Life; Parents; Child Birth; Midwifery; Relatives; Parenthood


DAILY, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These shriveled seeds we plan
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


DANIEL AT BREAKFAST, by PHYLLIS MCGINLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: His paper propped against the electric toaster
Alternate Author Name(s): Hayden, Charles, Mrs.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


DANSE RUSSE, by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If when my wife is sleeping
Last Line: The happy genius of my household?
Subject(s): Family Life; Men; Solitude; Relatives; Loneliness


DAUGHTERS, 1900, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Five daughters, in the slant light on the porch
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Literary Form; Relatives


DAWENDINE, by EMILY PAULINE JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There's a spirit on the river, there's a ghost upon the shore
Last Line: And the shadows of the shore.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tekahionwake
Subject(s): Family Life; Ghosts; Hate; Legends; Love; Supernatural; Vendetta; Relatives; Feuds


DEAREST, by JEAN VALENTINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This day broke
Subject(s): Family Life; Disappointment; Relatives


DELIVERED, by A. ANDERS GRAFSTROM    Poem Text                    
First Line: The night was chilly -- home gunnar sped
Last Line: The deliverer came—it was death!
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; God; Hunger; Poverty; Salvation; Dead, The; Relatives


DIPPING CANDLES IN VERMONT, by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A-dipping candles used to be
Last Line: Can turn no tastier trick today.
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandchildren; Vermont; Relatives; Grandsons; Granddaughters


DIVERNE'S HOUSE, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The house of myth
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


DIVERNE'S WALTZ, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Diverne stands in the kitchen as they dance
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Literary Form; Relatives


DOMESDAY BOOK: HENRY MURRAY, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Henry murray, father of elenor murray
Last Line: The while she spoke:
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Marriage; Youth; Dead, The; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


DOMESDAY BOOK: MRS. MURRAY, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I think, she said at first / my daughter did not kill herself. I'm sure
Last Line: And talk about the case.
Subject(s): Daughters; Family Life; Life; Marriage; Suicide; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


DOMESTIC, by CARL PHILLIPS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If, when studying road atlases
Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Love; Family Life; Travel; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men; Relatives; Journeys; Trips


DOMESTIC HAPPINESS, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Away: let nought to love displeasing
Last Line: And I'll go wooing in my boys
Subject(s): Family Life;happiness;love - Marital; Relatives;joy;delight;wedded Love;marriage - Love


DOMESTIC SCENES, by CHARLES REZNIKOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was nearly daylight when she gave birth to the child,
Subject(s): Family Life; Stillbirth; Marriage; Death; Fights; Murder; Poisons & Poisoning; Relatives; Death - Childbirth; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Dead, The


DOROTHY Q; A FAMILY PORTRAIT, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Grandmother's mother: her age I guess
Last Line: Through a second youth of a hundred years.
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Quincy, Dorothy; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


DUCKS, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In her first home each book had a light around it
Last Line: The ducks were building a nest.
Subject(s): Culture Conflict; Ducks; Family Life; Iran; War; Mallards; Drakes; Relatives; Persia


DUH, by BOB HICOK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My father is silent and distant
Last Line: From rolling over my head one day
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Memory; Relatives


DUTY CALL, by BURGES JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: On sundays I jus' love to dine
Last Line: An' gives me heaps o' things to eat.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Mothers; Pity; Sabbath; Temperance; Childhood; Relatives; Sunday; Prohibition


EAST OF CARTHAGE: AN IDYLL, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Look here, marcus aurelius, we’ve come to see
Last Line: Ts tentacles sewing a rupture I had nursed for too long
Subject(s): Coming Of Age; Middle Age; Aging; Libya; Ancestors & Ancestry; Family Life; Mythology; Heritage; Heredity; Relatives


ECLOGUE: FATHER COME HWOME, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O mother, mother! Be the teaties done?
Last Line: Zoo I shall goo up out o' the waÿ o' the waggon.
Subject(s): Family Life; Farm Life; Fathers; Food & Eating; Homecoming; Winter; Relatives; Agriculture; Farmers


ELEGY A LITTLE, by DONALD REVELL    Poem Text                 Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Linoleum and half a dozen eggs
Subject(s): Family Life; Sisters; Relatives


ELMER BROWN, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Awf'lest boy in this-here town
Last Line: "here's the way you look!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Boys; Family Life; Towns; Relatives


ELOPEMENT, by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN KING    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I'm out at the home of my mary
Last Line: Well -- none of the family is there.
Alternate Author Name(s): King, Ben
Subject(s): Elopements; Family Life; Relatives


ESTHER: 19, by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You know the story of my birth, the name
Subject(s): Birth; Family Life; Fthers; Death; Child Birth; Midwifery; Relatives; Dead, The


EVERYBODY AND HIS UNCLE, by RON PADGETT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was waiting to happen.
Subject(s): Family Life; Driving & Drivers; Relatives


EXTENDED FAMILY ROMANCE, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was so fat my kids couldn't wrap their arms around
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


FALL JOURNEY, by WILLIAM EDGAR STAFFORD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Evening came, a paw, to the gray hut by the river
Subject(s): Family Life; Memory; Relatives


FALL RIVER, by DAVID RIVARD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Basketball; Family Life; Anger; Relatives


FAMILY CARES, by ANNETTE WYNNE    Poem Text                    
First Line: I have but one child-cora ann
Last Line: That, really, I should like to know.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; January; Mothers; Childhood; Relatives


FAMILY GROUP, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That's my younger brother with his navy wings
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Brothers; World War Ii; Family Life; Half-brothers; Second World War; Relatives


FAMILY PORTRAIT, by KENNETH PATCHEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Great tarry wings splatter softly up out of the rotting yolk of sun. In the
Subject(s): Family Life; Portraits; Story-telling; Relatives


FAMILY QUARRELS; EPIGRAM, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A fool,' said jeanette, 'is a creature I hate'
Last Line: "to be found in a family quarrel!"
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


FAMILY REUNION, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Outside in the street I hear
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Reunions; Family Life; Relatives


FAMILY ROMANCE, by LARRY LEVIS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sister once of weeds & a dark water that held still
Subject(s): Family Life; Marriage; Failure; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


FAMILY STORIES, by DORIANNE LAUX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I had a boyfriend who told me stories about his family
Subject(s): Family Life; Story-telling; Women; Relatives


FAMOUS MAN, by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Fluttered across his face
Last Line: Of his father.
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Family Life; Parents; Heritage; Heredity; Relatives; Parenthood


FAREWELL TO FARGO: SELLING THE HOUSE, by KAREN SWENSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Olivia is dying. Bring your best black dress
Last Line: Its spring and slams.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Property; Dead, The; Relatives; Possessions


FATHER'S JEWELRY BOX, by HENRI COLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Home for a weekend retreat
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


FIFTH GRADE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, by RITA DOVE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was four in this photograph fishing
Last Line: But I remember his hands
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Hands; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


FIRST PASSION, by MARY KINZIE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Running there I am at fourteen
Last Line: Golden gossip of the afternoon
Subject(s): Teenagers; Family Life; Relatives


FIRST SURF, by EMANUEL DI PASQUALE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A little sparrow / attempting his
Last Line: Fearful for my children
Alternate Author Name(s): Pasquale, Emanuel Di
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


FLAMENCO, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Leave her alone, dad said. She's learning something this time.
Last Line: Goes off like this, when I have to prepare myself for another rescue
Subject(s): Family Life; Singing & Singers; Relatives; Songs


FLESH, by JOAN LARKIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hooves were forbidden, but she fed us
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Family Life; Relatives


FLYING INTO ST. LOUIS, by HAYDEN CARRUTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is socked in. Can't see a thing. Nor have I ever
Last Line: And boarded the plane to san francisco.
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Parents; St. Louis, Missouri; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers; Parenthood


FOR MOHAMMED ON THE MOUNTAIN, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Uncle mohammed, you mystery, you distant secretive face
Subject(s): Uncles; Family Life; Relatives


FREEMAN FIELD, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was a cool evening
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Family Life; Relatives


FRIDAY WAITING FOR MOM, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I am seven
Last Line: Says so too
Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


FROM A DAY-BOOK OF A FORGOTTEN PRINCE, by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My father is happy or we should be poor
Subject(s): Fathers; Family Life; Relatives


FROM PRADO ROTUNDA: THE FAMILY OF CHARLES IV, AND OTHERS, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Francisco jose de goya y lucientes
Last Line: Which demands, like everything alive, / love
Subject(s): Family Life; Paintings And Painters; Prado (museum), Madrid; Relatives


GATHERING THE BONES TOGETHER; FOR PETER ORR, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When all the rooms of the house
Last Line: That arches toward the other shore.
Subject(s): Brothers; Death; Family Life; Fathers & Sons; Fratricide; Hunting; Half-brothers; Dead, The; Relatives; Hunters


GENEALOGY OF FIRE, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My sister held an old piece of bread
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Arabs; Family Life; Heritage; Heredity; Relatives


GENRE: INTERIOR, by ROYALL HENDERSON SNOW    Poem Text                    
First Line: Some day I shall hope to come again and find / you
Last Line: Light at the chatter of your youngest boy.
Subject(s): Absence; Family Life; Love; Marriage; Separation; Isolation; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


GIANT NIGHT, by ANNE WALDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Awake in a giant night
Last Line: Just like what is here one minute and not the next.
Subject(s): Christmas; December; Family Life; Holidays; New York City; Nativity, The; Relatives; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


GILBERT: 2. THE PARLOUR, by CHARLOTTE BRONTE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Warm is the parlour atmosphere
Last Line: "above its threatened shame."
Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Currer
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


GIRL AT THE PIANO, by JORIE GRAHAM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It begins, what I cn hear, with the rain withdrawing from itself
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


GOLDEN STATE, by FRANK BIDART    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To see my father
Subject(s): Family Life; Death - Fathers; Divorce; Relatives


GOOD TIMES, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My daddy has paid the rent
Subject(s): Family Life; African Americans; Family Life; United States; Relatives; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives; America


GOOD TIMES, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My daddy has paid the rent
Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; United States; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives; America


GOODBYE, by GALWAY KINNELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother, poor woman, lies tonight
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


GOODNESS, by ANDREA HOLLANDER BUDY    Poem Text                 Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: As my husband set the table for breakfast
Subject(s): Family Life; Transcience; Relatives


GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN, by GEORGE MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Heigh, boys!' cried grandfather bridgeman, 'it's time before dinner today'
Last Line: The old man fails never to tell you: 'you've got the french general's there!'
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; War; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


GRANDFATHER'S HEAVEN, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My grandfather told me I had a choice
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


GREEN APPLES, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In august we carried the old horsehair mattress
Subject(s): Apples; Summer; Family Life; Relatives


HANNAH, by LLOYD SCHWARTZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I walk on hooked rugs; my beds are covered with
Subject(s): Homecoming; Family Life; Conduct Of Life; Relatives


HANS READING, HANS SMOKING, by LIAM RECTOR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother, poised around behavior, would say
Subject(s): Reading; Smoking; Human Behavior; Family Life; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature; Relatives


HAPPY AND UNHAPPY FAMILIES: 1, by LISEL MUELLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If all happy families are alike
Alternate Author Name(s): Muller, Lisel
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HAPPY AND UNHAPPY FAMILIES: 2, by LISEL MUELLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: According to the director
Alternate Author Name(s): Muller, Lisel
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HARD TIMES, by MICHAEL RYAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The lousy job my father lands
Subject(s): Family Life; Food & Eating; Relatives


HAZARD FACES A SUNDAY IN THE DECLINE, by WILLIAM MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We need the ceremony of one another,
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Morris
Subject(s): Aging; Family Life; Cats; Dogs; Food & Eating; Relatives


HELP ME TO SALT, HELP ME TO SORROW, by JUDY JORDAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the moon-fade and the sun’s puppy breath
Last Line: Give them to me
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Relatives


HERBERT WHITE, by FRANK BIDART    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I hit her on the head, it was good
Subject(s): Family Life; Grief; Divorce; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


HIGH AND HAUGHTY, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ray, almost a spinster, gave up
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HIPPOLYTE AT BREAKFAST, by LINDA PASTAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She has forgotten
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Family Life; Relatives


HIS FATHER CARVED UMBRELLA HANDLES, by CHARLES REZNIKOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Ghettos; Teaching & Teachers; Family Life; Poverty; Despair; Educators; Professors; Relatives


HIS HERITAGE, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My son, you'll soon be leaving
Last Line: And a little of his dad.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HIS MOTHER STERPPED ABOUT HER KITCHEN, by CHARLES REZNIKOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Jews; Friendship; Bullies; Jobs; Relatives; Judaism


HISTORY OF MY HEART, by ROBERT PINSKY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One christmastime fats waller in a fur coat
Subject(s): Family Life; Childhood Memories; Mothers; Accidents; Sex; Coming Of Age; Relatives


HOMAGE, by ROBERT WRIGLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The three-bladed, dunce-capped agitator pulsed
Subject(s): Laundery & Laundering; Family Life; Relatives


HOME MOVIE, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At the other end of a telescope, a long way
Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Family Life; Movies; Cinema; Relatives


HOME-FOLKS, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Home-folks! - well, that-air
Last Line: But you invite him, and he'll come.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Relatives


HOUSEWORK, by JOAN LARKIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Through this window, thin rivers
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HOW JOHN QUITE THE FARM, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Nobody on the old farm here but mother, me and john
Last Line: As you'd admit, ef you could see the way the crops turns out!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Family Life; Farm Life; Seasons; Relatives; Agriculture; Farmers


HURRAH, HURRAH, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A full moon rises
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


I AM ALWAYS, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I sit on the toilet, the lid down
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


I GENITORI PERDUTI, by LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dove-white gulls
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


I LEAVE HER WEEPING, by LIZ ROSENBERG    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I leave her weeping in her barred little bed,
Subject(s): Daughters; Crying; Family Life; Relatives


IN MEMORY, by ANNE STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Long summer shadows calm the grass
Variant Title(s): The White Room
Subject(s): Family Life; Past; Relatives


IN THE HOME, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Nothing in thick clothes is
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


INSECT LIFE OF FLORIDA, by LYNDA HULL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In those days I thought their endless thrum
Last Line: And dangerous as the human heart
Alternate Author Name(s): Wojahn, David, Mrs.
Subject(s): Florida; Family Life; Insects; Animals; Relatives; Bugs


INSOMNIA AND THE SEVEN STEPS TO GRACE, by JOY HARJO    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At dawn the panther of the heavens peers over the edge of the world
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


INSURED, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When I come home at close of day
Last Line: If I some night should not come home.
Subject(s): Family Life; Insurance And Insurance Agents; Relatives


JANUARY, by ALICE NOTLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mommy what's this fork doing?
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


JOHNNY-BOY, by BELLE RICHARDSON HARRISON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ive sixteen sisters more or less
Last Line: "but a ""johnny-boy""—he counts a heap."
Subject(s): Boys; Brothers; Family Life; Youth; Half-brothers; Relatives


JUNETEENTH, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With her shiny black-patent sandals
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


KEEP EACH OTHER YOUNG, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The wife and I have kept our youth and kept it / pretty well
Last Line: The way that we have kept so young is keeping young each other.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


KEY, by EMILY BLANCHE MANN GROBY    Poem Text                    
First Line: They who have old houses should save the keys
Last Line: Going in and out; -- as it was long before.
Subject(s): Family Life; Houses; Keys; Relatives


KIN, by MICHAEL S. HARPER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When news cane that yiour mother'd
Last Line: As your own birthmark of his scream
Subject(s): Family Life; Death – Mothers; Relatives; Dead, The


KINDNESS, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Kindness glides about my house.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Kindness; Family Life; Relatives


KINGDOM COME, by RANDY BLASING    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I held my breath
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


KINSHIP, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Great-uncle wilhelm, mennonite, patriarch
Last Line: Curse them but don't die.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Aging; Family Life; Food & Eating; Uncles; Relatives


KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, by YOLANDE CORNELIA GIOVANNI    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I always like summer / best
Last Line: And sleep
Alternate Author Name(s): Giovanni, Nikki
Subject(s): African Americans; Americans; Appalachia; Family Life; Knoxville, Tennessee; Summer; United States; Women; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives; America


LAMENT TO THE MAKERS, by FRANK BIDART    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not bird not badger not beaver not bee
Subject(s): Dunbar, William (1465-1520); Family Life; Relatives


LAST MONTH, by JOHN ASHBERY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


LATE, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Your street was named for berries
Last Line: Today I would answer for all those other things.
Subject(s): Aunts; Childlessness; Family Life; Houses; Memory; Regret; Relatives


LEAVING CHURCH EARLY, by JOHN UPDIKE            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What, I wonder, were we hurrying to do
Subject(s): Churches; Family Life; Forgiveness; Worship; Cathedrals; Relatives; Clemency


LETTER TO THE FRONT, 2, by BARBARA RAS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When it is still, I listen for your voice.
Subject(s): War - Home Front; Absence; Longing; Family Life; Letters; Separation; Isolation; Relatives


LETTERS FOR THE DEAD, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The air darkened toward morning
Subject(s): Family Life; Travel; Death; Conduct Of Life; Relatives; Journeys; Trips; Dead, The


LEX TALIONIS, by FRANCIS MYERS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The boy crept out of the old box log
Last Line: "and his hate kept hot, as it ought to have done."
Subject(s): Aborigines, Australian; Boys; Family Life; Murder; Revenge; Relatives


LIBER QUARTUS, SELECTION, by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Nor will ingenious women, free from pride
Last Line: That parents nature is most prevalent.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lucretius
Subject(s): Family Life; Pride; Women; Relatives; Self-esteem; Self-respect


LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The trees paint their reflections
Last Line: In a little yellow book
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Mississippi River; African Americans; Relatives


LINES ON SEEING MY WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN SLEEPING IN THE SAME CHAMBER, by THOMAS HOOD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And has the earth lost its so spacious round
Last Line: Together pant in everlasting life!
Subject(s): Contentment; Family Life; Relatives


LIVING, by FRANK STANFORD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I had my quiet time early in the morning
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Country Life; Relatives


LIZARDS AND SNAKES, by ANTHONY HECHT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On the summer road that ran by our front porch
Last Line: And swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail
Subject(s): Lizards; Snakes; Family Life; Serpents; Vipers; Relatives


LONELINESS, by LEE ANN RORIPAUGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My father made me keep
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


LONELY EAGLES, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Being black in america
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Aviation & Aviators; Air Warfare; World War Ii; African Americans - Military; Family Life; James, General Daniel 'chappie' (1920-78); Airplanes; Air Pilots; Second World War; Relatives


LONELY EAGLES, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Being black in america
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Family Life; James, General Daniel 'chappie' (1920-78; Relatives


LOSS OF CONTROL, by PAT MORA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: For me it was an adventure
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


LOVE BETWEEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS, by ISAAC WATTS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whatever brawls disturb the street
Last Line: Fall out and chide and fight.
Subject(s): Family Life; Mnemonics; Relatives


MAKE YOURSELF INVISIBLE, by CHARLES SIMIC    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Drew islands with palm trees
Subject(s): Seashore; Family Life; Beach; Coast; Shore; Relatives


MEETING THE DEAD, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If we've loved them, it's what we want, and sometimes
Last Line: The orderly gardens and homes of the living
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Peace; Dead, The; Relatives


MEMORY, by ABRAHAM LINCOLN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My childhood's home I see again
Last Line: And feel I'm part of thee!
Subject(s): Family Life; Grief; Home; Memory; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


MICHAEL FLYNN AND THE BABY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Luk at 'ere, ould baby, - who
Last Line: Don't yez know yer feyther -- boy?
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Babies; Family Life; Infants; Relatives


MIDNIGHT IN THE PANTRY, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You can boast your round of pleasures, praise
Last Line: Just the joy of pantry-prowling in the middle of the night.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MIND, by HEATHER MCHUGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A man looks at his watch to see
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Youth; Schools; Family Life; Students; Relatives


MIRANDA MORGAN, by QUEENE B. LISTER    Poem Text                    
First Line: She listened to the click
Last Line: Who whistled like a bird.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ryan, E. P., Mrs.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MONGREL HEART, by DAVID BAKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Up the dog bounds to the window, baying
Subject(s): Family Life; Dogs; Relatives


MOON OF HUNGER, MOON OF COYOTE HOWL, by JUDY JORDAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Heat waves rose with gas fumes from the pump
Last Line: Earth this dark, dark star
Subject(s): Automobiles - Service Stations; African Americans; Family Life; Poverty; Gasoline Stations; Filling Stations; Automobile Repair Shops; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


MOTHER, by HENRY CHAPPELL    Poem Text                    
First Line: There's a hand so firm and tender
Last Line: Is burnt in mother's heart.
Subject(s): Caregivers; Family Life; Home; Love; Mothers; Relatives


MOTHER'S CURSE; FOR DIANE DI PRIMA, by ANNE WALDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of my pen: curses ride down
Last Line: To meet the faces of women who take the words out of my mind.
Subject(s): Babies; Birth; Breast Feeding; Family Life; Life; Mothers; Infants; Child Birth; Midwifery; Nursing (infants); Relatives


MOTHERS, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh mother / here in your lap
Subject(s): Family Life; God; Religion; Relatives; Theology


MR AND MRS MARTIN, by H. HEAD    Poem Text                    
First Line: Some time in the month of october
Last Line: "maybe they will think it his son."
Subject(s): Aborigines, Australian; Crime & Criminals; Family Life; Relatives


MRS. LING, by SUSAN N. PULSIFER    Poem Text                    
First Line: In my father's house is a very large family
Last Line: Mrs. Ling.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MUSIC, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When you wanted a piano
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MY AUNT ELLA MAE, by MICHAEL S. HARPER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She was the first to tell me of juneteenth
Subject(s): Aunts; African Americans; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


MY CHILDHOOD'S HAPPY DAYS; TO MY PARENTS, by DANIEL WEBSTER DAVIS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Many poets great and gifted whom the muse's touch had blessed
Last Line: When at last our bark is anchored there to spend our happiest days.
Subject(s): Family Life; Parents; Relatives; Parenthood


MY CHILDREN, by HAROLD CRAWFORD STEARNS    Poem Text                    
First Line: The stars-did you ever see stars
Last Line: "yes, madam, to the sea."
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Stars; Childhood; Relatives


MY FATHER IN THE NIGHT COMMANDING NO, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MY FATHER KEPT A HORSE, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: My father kept a horse and my mother kept a mare
Last Line: "had a nip from the flea, had a bite from the louse"
Subject(s): Animals;family Life;horses; Relatives


MY FATHER'S GHOST, by DAVID WAGONER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I counted them, and now I look through the door
Last Line: My father's ghost in my arms in his dark doorway
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Relatives


MY FATHER'S LEAVING, by IRA SADOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: When I came back, he was gone.
Subject(s): Fathers; Mothers; Abandonment; Family Life; Desertion; Relatives


MY GRANDFATHER DYING, by TED KOOSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I could see bruises or shadows
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MY GREAT UNCLE PATRICK HENRY, by JAMES TATE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There's a fortune to be made in just about everything
Subject(s): Family Life; Disappointment; Ancestors & Ancestry; Relatives; Heritage; Heredity


MY JOB, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I wonder where's a better job than buying cake and meat
Last Line: Than serving day by day the needs of little girls and boys.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


MY LAST AFTERNOON WITH UNCLE DEVEREUX WINSLOW, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I won't go with you. I want to stay with grandpa!'
Variant Title(s): Life Studies: My Last Afternoon With Uncle Devereux Winslow
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


MY MOTHER'S HANDS, by ANDREW HUDGINS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Yawning, she yanks the shuttle through the frame
Last Line: Stuck motionlless and never moved
Subject(s): Mothers; Family Life; Hands; Relatives


MY POOR NEIGHBOR, by RAY CLARKE ROSE    Poem Text                    
First Line: My neighbor hath a lordly pile
Last Line: While I have home—and you, my dear!
Subject(s): Blessings; Family Life; Fathers; Happiness; Neighbors; Poverty; Wealth; Relatives; Joy; Delight; Riches; Fortunes


NEEDFIRE, THIS LOW HEAVEN, by ALICE FULTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Noticing a snow-filled shopping cart
Last Line: The sockets of flowers
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


NEW ENGLAND PORTRAIT, by KATHRYN WORTH    Poem Text                    
First Line: She faces life across a willow plate
Last Line: Who rings herself with aureoles of race!
Subject(s): Family Life; New England; Relatives


NEW ENGLAND, AUTUMN, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Our daughter dreamt of magnolias
Last Line: I woke with a start as if we had set an alarm.
Subject(s): Blood; Dreams; Family Life; New England; Nightmares; Relatives


NEXT OF KIN, by CALVIN FORBES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Your name the one
Subject(s): Relatives


NO CHANCE, by WALT MASON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The man who never had a chance, the victim
Last Line: Same old whine—because he hadn't any spine.
Subject(s): Family Life; Men; Pity; Relatives


NO TIME, by BILLY COLLINS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In a rush this weekday morning
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Family Life; Death; Parents; Graveyards; Relatives; Dead, The; Parenthood


NOT LEAVING THE HOUSE, by GARY SYNDER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When kai is born
Subject(s): Family Life; Birth; Relatives; Child Birth; Midwifery


NOTEBOOK OF A RETURN TO THE NATIVE LAND, SELECTION, by AIME CESAIRE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At the end of daybreak
Subject(s): Family Life; Negritude (literary Movement); Relatives


NOTES TO MY DAUGHTERS, by SHIRLEY KAUFMAN    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You were the reason for staying
Last Line: Washing it away.
Subject(s): Abandonment; Children; Family Life; Israel; Mortality; Mothers & Daughters; Parents; Desertion; Childhood; Relatives; Parenthood


NURSERY REMINISCENCES, by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I remember, I remember
Last Line: Must be whipp'd and sent to bed!'
Alternate Author Name(s): Ingoldsby, Thomas
Subject(s): Family Life; Childhood Memories; Punishment; Relatives


OBSESSIVE, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It could be a clip, it could be a comb
Last Line: The father of a friend just sickened and sickened.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Games; Obsessions; Childhood; Relatives; Recreation; Pastimes; Amusements


OCTOBER, by MAY SWENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A smudge for the horizon
Subject(s): Family Life; Autumn; Childhood Memories; Nature; Relatives; Fall


OLD-FASHIONED LADIES (TO THE MEMORY OF MY GREAT-AUNT, MADAME K-), by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: An ample hall, a stair with wide
Last Line: That quaintness, calm and fine, god knows!
Subject(s): Aunts; Family Life; Maturity; Relationships; Relatives


ON AN UNSOCIABLE FAMILY, by ELIZABETH HANDS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O what a strange parcel of creatures are we
Last Line: For to please ourselves, truly, is more than we can.
Alternate Author Name(s): Daphne
Subject(s): Family Life; Indifference; Relatives


ON PLOUGHING, by EVELYN D. BANGAY    Poem Text                    
First Line: The slow shuttle of husbandry
Last Line: Sweating for daily bread.
Subject(s): Family Life; Plowing & Plowmen; Relatives


ON THE ARROW TRACK, by J. H. G.    Poem Text                    
First Line: Coming from the arrow, I / with my empty dray
Last Line: "ta-ra-ra boom-dee-ay!"
Subject(s): Aborigines, Australian; Family Life; Language; Singing & Singers; Relatives; Words; Vocabulary; Songs


ONE DAY, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Everyone knows that the trees will go one day
Variant Title(s): This Day
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


ONE MINUS ONE MINUS ONE, by JUNE JORDAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is a first map of territory
Last Line: In this loneliness
Subject(s): Family Life; Solitude; Relatives


OTHERWISE, by JANE KENYON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I got out of bed
Last Line: It will be otherwise
Subject(s): Family Life; Mortality; Relatives


OUR BE'THPLEACE, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How dear's the door a latch do shut
Last Line: Our own vorelivers dead an' gone.
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Memory; Relatives


OUR BICYCLES, by JAMES LAUGHLIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My brother being the eldest had
Subject(s): Bicycles; Family Life; Cycling; Relatives


OUR FAMILY TREE; ON THE DEATH OF MY SISTER CECILIA, by JOSEPH CEPHAS HOLLY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Our family tree is in the sear
Last Line: Our names shine bright as day.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Sisters; Dead, The; Relatives


OUR ROMANCE, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The road is narrow which leads to that house
Last Line: And saved the parents, being children.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Home; Parents; Childhood; Relatives; Parenthood


PAJAMA QUOTIENT, by LINDA GREGERSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Coinage of the not-yet-wholly-
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


PALM ENDING IN WINTER, by IRA SADOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Something simple, something clear
Subject(s): Winter; Family Life; Relatives


PERIANDER, by GEORGE MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How died melissa none dares shape in words
Last Line: How black his gods behind their marble screens.
Subject(s): Family Life; Murder; Revenge; Tyranny & Tyrants; Relatives


PHYSICAL UNIVERSE, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He woke at five and, unable
Last Line: From the depths of sleep.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


PLACE AND TIME, by LISEL MUELLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Last night a man on the radio
Alternate Author Name(s): Muller, Lisel
Subject(s): War; Transience; Family Life; Impermanence; Relatives


PLASTIC BEATITUDE, by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Our neighbors, the pazzotis, live in a long
Last Line: To their last temptation.
Subject(s): Blessings; Electricity; Extermination & Exterminators; Family Life; Insects; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Neighbors; Toys; Women In The Bible; Relatives; Bugs; Virgin Mary


PLAYING DEAD, by ANDREW HUDGINS    Poem Text                 Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Our father liked to play a game.
Last Line: I’m way too young to quote ’em
Subject(s): Fathers; Family Life; Death; Relatives; Dead, The


PLOW CEMETERY, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The plow: one of the three-mile inns that nicked
Last Line: Plow cemetery, downhill from the church
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Family Life; Grandparents; Homecoming; Graveyards; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


POEM FOR MY FATHER'S GHOST, by MARY OLIVER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now is my father
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Relatives


POLITICS, by WILLIAM MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Morris
Subject(s): Politics & Government; Marriage; Lust; Family Life; Mcgovern, George (1922-2012); Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives


POLYHYMNIA: DEDICATION TO THE COUNTESS OF LINDSEY, by WILLIAM BASSE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This laureat nymph, one of the daughters nine
Last Line: While fame has breath her ivory trump to sound.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Daughters; Family Life; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Relatives


POOR NORTH, by MARK STRAND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is cold, the snow is deep
Subject(s): Cold; Family Life; Relatives


PORTER, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Suddenly / when I hear airplanes overhead
Last Line: He looks down. Then he looks at me and grins. / I took it, too!
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Family Life; Aviation & Aviators; Relatives


PORTRAIT BY PICHER, by FRANCES BAKER    Poem Text                    
First Line: There are not many leaves
Last Line: Bend wearily above the earth.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


PRACTICING, by LINDA PASTAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My son is practicing the piano.
Subject(s): Family Life; Conduct Of Life; Relatives


PREPARATION, by ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The bone-man lives in a stucco
Subject(s): Family Life; Dogs; Death; Relatives; Dead, The


PRIOR TO MISS BELLE'S APPEARANCE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What makes you come here fer, mister
Last Line: Ist fly-an' ever-thing! . . . I wisht I'd die!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Childhood; Relatives


QUARREL, by ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Since morning they have been quareling
Subject(s): Quarrels; Family Life; Arguments; Disagreements; Relatives


QUARRIED STONE, by ALICE MONKS MEARS    Poem Text                    
First Line: He who lay on rock
Last Line: The sun on quarried stone.
Subject(s): Abandonment; Family Life; Sleep; Desertion; Relatives


RADIO SKY, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The blue house at mills cross
Last Line: Drifting under the familiar worn sheet.
Subject(s): Comfort; Cruelty; Family Life; Infertility; Relatives


RAIN SONG, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The radio blares “dialogue of souls
Last Line: Those who despair
Subject(s): Rain; Despair; Youth; Family Life; Coming Of Age; Relatives


RAW SILK, by MEENA ALEXANDER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Open the door or I'll faint hearing amma's voice
Last Line: Raw silk turned to smoke in the night's throat
Subject(s): Children; Death; Family Life; Memory; Poetry Readings; Childhood; Dead, The; Relatives


READING AFTER A CALL FROM MY EX-WIFE, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I read a novel in which the main character used etcetera
Subject(s): Divorce; Family Life; Marriage; Relationships; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


RECAPITULATIONS, by KARL SHAPIRO    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was born downtown on a wintry day
Subject(s): Birth; Family Life; Jews; World War Ii; Coming Of Age; Youth; Blacks; Divorce; Christianity; Conduct Of Life; Child Birth; Midwifery; Relatives; Judaism; Second World War


RECOLLECTION, by CONRAD CHITTICK    Poem Text                    
First Line: My mother used to seat me by her side
Last Line: "thumb in my fist, and -- ""sh-h my sleepy child."
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


REJECTED ADDRESSES: CUI BONO, BY LORD B., by JAMES SMITH (1775-1839)    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sated with home, of wife, of children tired
Last Line: And moody madness laughs and hugs the chain he clanks.
Subject(s): Byron, George Gordon, Lord (1788-1824); Family Life; Home; Poetry & Poets; Soul; Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron; Relatives


RELATIVES, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Just the thought of them makes your jawbone ache
Last Line: To love one's self is to love them all
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


REMEMBERING, by VIRGINIA TAYLOR MCCORMICK    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rosana was our mammy's niece
Last Line: When we were gone.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


REQUIESCAT IN PACE!, by JEAN INGELOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O my heart, my heart is sick a-wishing and awaiting
Last Line: And veil thy breast with icicles, and thy brow with snow!
Subject(s): Family Life; God; Hearts; Kisses; Love; Mountains; Relatives; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


RESURRECTION OF THE DAUGHTER, by NTOZAKE SHANGE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The family had been ill for some time
Alternate Author Name(s): Williams, Paulette
Subject(s): African Americans; Daughters; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


RIDER, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This time we are getting drunk on retsina
Subject(s): Family Life; Divorce; Relatives


ROADSIDE POEMS: AN OLD SERMON WITH A NEW TEXT, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My wife contrived a fleecy thing
Last Line: That holdeth fast thy life.
Subject(s): Children; Education; Family Life; God; Sermons; Sewing; Childhood; Relatives


ROADSIDE POEMS: LITTLE ELFIE, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have a puppet-jointed child
Last Line: Sleep shining through the dark.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Innocence; Childhood; Relatives


ROBINSON, by WELDON KEES    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: The dog stops barking after robinson has gone
Last Line: Where trees are actual and take no holiday
Subject(s): Family Life; Relationships; Relatives


ROBINSON AT HOME, by WELDON KEES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Curtains drawn back, the door ajar
Last Line: And the long curtains blow into the room
Subject(s): Family Life; Relationships; Disappointment; Relatives


ROMANTIC SONNET, by CHARLES SIMIC    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Childhood Memories; Relatives


ROOM FULL OF USED BABY FURNITURE FOR SALE, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The scolic scabs have been pried off
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Furniture; Family Life; Relatives


RUMOR AT TWILIGHT, by ROBERT PENN WARREN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rumor at twilight of whisper, crepuscular
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


RUNNED AWAY, by BURGES JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear sis: I wrote this noat to say I've been an
Last Line: Hiding in the stable.
Subject(s): Brothers; Children; Escapes; Family Life; Letters; Sisters; Half-brothers; Childhood; Fugitives; Relatives


RUSH HOUR, by BRUCE A. JACOBS    Poem Text                    
First Line: My honda drops
Subject(s): Automobiles; Escapes; Family Life; Racism; Cars; Fugitives; Relatives; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


SALT, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This one woman has been sobbing
Subject(s): Air Travel; Family Life; Love - Loss Of; Relatives


SCENE OF A SUMMER MORNING, by IRVING FELDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Scene of a summer morning: my mother walking
Last Line: Drifting, the ten tribes there, gone forever
Subject(s): Family Life; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Relatives; Shoah; Judaism


SEIZURE, by LYNN EMANUEL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This was the winter mother told time by my heart
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SELF-PORTRAIT, by LLOYD SCHWARTZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was sitting in her living room
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Family Life; Relatives


SELF-STORAGE, by ALICE FULTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Doesn't that feel great?
Subject(s): Gifts & Giving; Family Life; Relatives


SENSES OF HERITAGE, by NTOZAKE SHANGE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My grandpa waz a doughboy from carolina
Alternate Author Name(s): Williams, Paulette
Subject(s): Race Awareness; African Americans; Ancestors & Ancestry; Trees; Moon; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Heritage; Heredity; Relatives


SESTINA, by ELIZABETH BISHOP    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: September rain falls on the house
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SHELVES ON THE CLARK FORK, by DAVID BOTTOMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I know you're restless
Last Line: And across these stones.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SIETE ROBLES, by THERESA M. MCLEAN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Beyond a mountain trail
Last Line: Than health, and these.
Subject(s): Brothers; Family Life; Half-brothers; Relatives


SINCE NELLIE GOT THE HOOK, by WILLIAM A. PHELON    Poem Text                    
First Line: A cloud of sorrow darks the house
Last Line: (chorus)
Subject(s): Family Life; Grief; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


SIR GUY THE CRUSADER, by WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sir guy was a doughty crusader
Last Line: Grew bulky and quitted the stage.
Alternate Author Name(s): Gilbert, W. S.
Subject(s): Crusades; Family Life; Knights & Knighthood; Relatives


SMOKE, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Can you imagine the air filled with smoke?
Last Line: From poetry
Subject(s): Family Life; Smoke; Relatives


SNAKES, by EILEEN MYLES    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was 6 and
Last Line: From the massachusetts review
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Telephones; Childhood; Relatives


SNOWBANKS NORTH OF THE HOUSE, by DONALD HALL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Those great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly six feet from the house...
Subject(s): Death - Children; Family Life; Death - Babies; Relatives


SNOWBOUND, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: The sun that brief december day / rose cheerless over hills of gray
Last Line: The benediction of the air.
Variant Title(s): New England In Winter;a Winter Idyl;snow-bound;snow-bound: A Winter Idyll
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Massachusetts; Memory; Religion; Snow; Winter; Relatives; Theology


SOMEBODY'LL HAV' TO SHOOT YA DOWN', by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Charlie parker running a tow-line / from a red barge
Last Line: That is beyond the grave like a great granite keep.
Subject(s): Aviation & Aviators; Family Life; Life Change Events; Loss; Parker, Charlie ('bird') (1920-1955); Peace; Airplanes; Air Pilots; Relatives


SONG OF SOCIAL DESPAIR, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ethics without faith, excuse me
Last Line: Inevitably on the wrong side looking out.
Subject(s): Faith; Family Life; Morality; Belief; Creed; Relatives; Ethics


SONG OF THE SCUTTLE (AFTER EUGENE FIELD), by THOMAS AUGUSTINE DALY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Oh, ye who are fond of music
Last Line: The rattle of coal in the scuttle that mom drags up the stairs.
Alternate Author Name(s): Daly, T. A.
Subject(s): Family Life; Field, Eugene (1850-1895); Relatives


SONGS OF LOVE AND YOUTH: PROLOGUE, by AUSTIN PHILIPS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Even as one who finds his face
Last Line: But ever battling upwards,—battling towards the light.
Subject(s): Family Life; Hearts; Love; Mothers; Youth; Relatives


SONNET: 6, by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, many a time our memory slips aside
Last Line: And crowned our nights with coronals of dreams.
Subject(s): Family Life; Games; Memory; Relatives; Recreation; Pastimes; Amusements


SONNET: ON A FAMILY PICTURE, by THOMAS EDWARDS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When pensive on that portraiture I gaze
Last Line: Single, unpropped, and nodding to my fall.
Subject(s): Family Life; Portraits; Relatives


SORT OF TIMID LIKE, by OLIVER MURRAY EDWARDS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Once I loved a maiden
Last Line: Sort of timid like.
Subject(s): Family Life; Love - Marital; Relatives; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love


SOUTHERN GOTHIC, by NATASHA TRETHEWEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have lain down into 1970, into the bed
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SPENDING THE DAY ON A SLEEPING PORCH, by REBECCA WOLFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the enclosure my family
Last Line: At every opportunity
Subject(s): Day; Family Life; Sleep; Relatives


SPIRITS AT HOME, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There was father, and mother. And emmy, and jane
Last Line: "for we live in the ghost of the old house now!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Home; Spiritual Life; Dead, The; Relatives


SPRUNG, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: The ministerial shapes of / chinese women
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Family Life; Relatives


SPUNKIE, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, what's come o' spunkie?
Last Line: In the darkest o' nichts it shines on the way.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SQUARE PEGS, by CLIFFORD BAX    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What's that? The taximeter points, you day
Last Line: That all men share, the world for man is one.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


STAR-FIX, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At his cramped desk
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Family Life; Relatives


STILLORGAN, by JAMES MONAHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This house that is not old or beautiful
Last Line: Deeper than words, and words can never say.
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Relatives


STUDIES STATIC AND ECSTATIC, by EDWARD RALPH CHEYNEY    Poem Text                    
First Line: In the house of my fathers
Last Line: And goes on its way, whistling.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cheyney, Ralph
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Home; Self; Soul; Relatives


SUBURBAN IDYL, by POLLY CHASE    Poem Text                    
First Line: They are clearing ground to build a house
Last Line: And children's arms around us like a wall!
Subject(s): Calm; Family Life; Flowers; Suburbs; Placid; Undisturbed; Tranquility; Relatives


SUMMER KITCHEN, by DONALD HALL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: In june's high light she stood at the sink
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SUMMERTIME CAVATINAS, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The general's wife came
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SUNDAY, by TIMOTHY LIU    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And when they sat down in the morning
Subject(s): Family Life; Relationships; Relatives


SUNDAY AFTERNOONS, by YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: They'd latch the screen doors
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, James Willie, Jr.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SUPPER AT THE MILL, by JEAN INGELOW    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, frances / well, good mother, how are you?
Last Line: The supper's ready.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Food & Eating; Mills & Millers; Plays & Playwrights ; Childhood; Relatives; Dramatists


SUPPLE CORD, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My brother, in his small white bed
Subject(s): Brothers; Family Life; Half-brothers; Relatives


TAKING DOWN THE TREE, by JANE KENYON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Give me some light! Cries hamlet's
Last Line: We're having, let it be extravagant
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


TAKING THE TRAIN HOME, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Dusk grew on the window.
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Railways; Homecoming; Family Life; Fathers; Death; Relatives; Dead, The


TALKNG AMONG OURSELVES, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the rental cottage it comes to me,
Subject(s): Brothers; Family Life; Divorce; Grief; Half-brothers; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


TESTIMONY, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Today I learned 'gomez' meant ox urine
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Relatives


THANKSGIVING, by OLIVER MURRAY EDWARDS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Thanksgiving day is set apart
Last Line: "praise father, son, and holy ghost!"
Subject(s): Family Life; Holidays; Nations; Praise; Prayer; Thanksgiving; Turkey; Relatives


THAT KIND OF POEM', by KAREN SWENSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He called our son to ask if he
Last Line: "of poem"" to keep her alive."
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Women; Dead, The; Relatives


THE ARK UPON HIS SHOULDERS, by FORREST GANDER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My husband did all this. - we used to live
Subject(s): Family Life; Marriage; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE BALLAD OF AUNT GENEVA, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Geneva was the wild one
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Literary Form; Racism; Relatives; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


THE BALLAD OF THE THREE SONS, by AMANDA BENJAMIN HALL    Poem Text                    
First Line: A rich man is a man
Last Line: But I have none.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brownell, John A., Mrs.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE BLACK MAMMY, by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O whitened head entwined in turban gay
Last Line: That it some day might crush thine own black child?
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Babies; Family Life; Infants; Relatives


THE BLOODY SON, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O where have ye been the morn sae late
Last Line: "o dear mither."
Subject(s): Family Life; Morning; Relatives


THE BLUE-GRASS PLOT, by JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O the blue-grass plot, the blue-grass plot
Last Line: The grass-plot over the river.
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Relatives


THE BOARDER, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The time is after dinner. Cigarettes
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND EYES: I LOVE, by LYN HEJINIAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I love says the acrobat
Last Line: And the dirty glass of the jugs of the juggler
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: ABSALOM, by MURIEL RUKEYSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I first discovered what was killing these men.
Subject(s): Family Life; Labor & Laborers; Death; Relatives; Work; Workers; Dead, The


THE CHARCOAL PAN, by H. HEAD    Poem Text                    
First Line: Though huts like ours were rather scarce
Last Line: Whose names were scarcely known.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Fire; Tents; Dead, The; Relatives


THE CHILDREN, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was the first wednesday of a scarcity of candles
Last Line: That evening in a coffin.
Variant Title(s): Psalm 23
Subject(s): Animals; Bombs; Family Life; Horses; Sweden; World War Ii; Relatives; Second World War


THE COMING DAY, by EAMON GRENNAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Up as usual in the dark
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE CONTRAST, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: See yonder wretched little girl
Last Line: "we'll pray, ""god bless the temperance dwelling."
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Family Life; Temperance; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Relatives; Prohibition


THE CRUEL BROTHER (1), by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: There were three ladies played at the ba'
Subject(s): Brothers & Sisters;family Life;marriage;murder; Relatives;weddings;husbands;wives


THE DAY THAT WAS THAT DAY, by AMY LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The wind rose, and the wind fell
Subject(s): Women; Despair; Loveless; Poisons & Poisoning; Family Life; Relatives


THE DOLL, by AGNES LEE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There's something strange about the child tonight
Last Line: When she comes looking, and it isn't here!
Alternate Author Name(s): Freer, Otto, Mrs.
Subject(s): Dolls; Family Life; Poverty; Toys; Relatives


THE DOODLE-BUGS'S CHARM, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When uncle sidney he comes
Last Line: "come up an' git some bread!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Family Life; Gardens & Gardening; Insects; Relatives; Bugs


THE END, by MARGUERITE WILKINSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My father got me strong and straight and slim
Last Line: "I am the end."
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY, by ROBERT CREELEY            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY, by KATHERINE MANSFIELD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hineoa, tui, maina, / all of them born together
Last Line: "get them!"" but I wouldn't let you."
Alternate Author Name(s): Murry, John Middleton, Mrs.; Beauchamp, Kathleen
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY FOOL, by WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh! A private buffoon is a light-hearted loon
Last Line: They don't blame you—so long as you're funny!
Alternate Author Name(s): Gilbert, W. S.
Subject(s): Family Life; Fools; Humor; Relatives; Idiots


THE FAMILY LARAMIE, by WILLIAM HENRY DRUMMOND    Poem Text                    
First Line: Hssh! Look at ba-bee on de lettle blue chair
Last Line: Will help bring dem back to me.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY MEETING, by CHARLES SPRAGUE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are all here
Last Line: We 're all — all here!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY'S HOMELY MAN, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There never was a family without its homely
Last Line: To smooth the little troubles out and drive the cares away.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 1. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: High as my heart! The quip be mine
Last Line: My solace and its ornament!
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Mothers & Daughters; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 2. THE DAUGHTER, TEUILA, NATIVE NAME FOR ADORNER, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Man, child, or woman, none from her
Last Line: Matron and child, my friend and scribe!
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Daughters; Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 3, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: About my fields, in the broad sun
Last Line: And digs like a demented beast.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 4, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tall as a guardsman, pale as the east at dawn
Last Line: -- and for his music, too, exacts applause.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 5, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The adorner of the uncomely - those
Last Line: Raise my dictating voice on high.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 6, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What glory for a boy of ten
Last Line: Rides off downhill into the wood.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 7, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The old lady (so they say) but I
Last Line: In roaring tree, round whistling clift.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 8, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I meanwhile in the populous house apart
Last Line: That pipes in the grey eve.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FAMILY: 9, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These rings, o my beloved pair
Last Line: It I have kissed and blessed you both.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Family Life; Jewelry & Jewelers; Relatives


THE FARMER'S WIFE, by BERTON BRALEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My husband is a good, hardworking man
Last Line: "and john's come in. ""yes, I'll have supper soon!"
Subject(s): Family Life; Freedom; Love - Marital; Marriage; Relatives; Liberty; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE FEARFUL CHILD, by CAROL FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As a child I parleyed with animals, stuffed and real.
Subject(s): Children; Pets; Family Life; Fear; Childhood; Relatives


THE FINGER, by ROBERT CREELEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Father/and mother
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE FIRESIDE, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "the hearth was clean, the fire clear"
Last Line: I ask no more of heaven
Subject(s): Family Life;happiness; Relatives;joy;delight


THE FLAT-HUNTER'S WAY, by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: We think we'll stay another year.
Alternate Author Name(s): F. P. A.
Subject(s): Family Life; City Snd Town Life; Wity And Humor; Apartments; Central Park, New York City; Relatives


THE FOOTSTEPS, by DONALD HALL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the kitchen of the old house, late
Subject(s): Fathers; Past; Family Life; Relatives


THE FORTUNATE SPILL, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Well! Johnnie thinks. He has his nerve!
Last Line: As they fall for each other, and for me
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; African Americans; Courtship; Luck; Love; Relatives


THE FOUNDRY GARDEN, by STANLEY PLUMLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Fathers; Family Life; Relatives


THE FREEBORN, by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: God made the man and bid him multiply
Last Line: When this free man comes forth, what must he do?
Alternate Author Name(s): Sigerson, Dora; Shorter, Mrs. Clement
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Family Life; Fathers; Hunger; Poverty; Relatives


THE GARDEN, by MARK STRAND    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It shines in the garden
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Family Life; Relatives


THE GEATE A-VALLEN TO, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the zunsheen ov our zummers
Last Line: The geäte a-vallèn to.
Subject(s): Children; Country Life; Family Life; Fences; Childhood; Relatives


THE GHOST, by BLANCHE C. HARDY    Poem Text                    
First Line: The poor ghost stood by the window
Last Line: "shut that door,"" said the master."
Subject(s): Family Life; Ghosts; Supernatural; Relatives


THE GLASS HAMMER, by ANDREW HUDGINS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother's knickknack crystal hammer
Last Line: Who hammered me – goddamn 'er
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE GLASS HOUSE, by JANE MILLER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I enter at dusk
Last Line: Not that, she says, anything but that.
Subject(s): Family Life; Houses; Modern Man; Relatives


THE GOLDEN SHOVEL, by TERRANCE HAYES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Of hunger, we end too soon
Subject(s): Family Life; Youth; Relatives


THE GONE YEARS, by ALICE FULTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Night pockets the house
Last Line: Swith his long wool arms
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE GOOD OLD DAYS AT HOME SWEET HOME, by MARGE PIERCY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On monday my mother washed.
Subject(s): Family Life; Mothers; Relatives


THE GOSPEL WOMEN: 1. THE MOTHER MARY, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mary, to thee the heart was given
Last Line: His life from hers he drew.
Subject(s): Bible; Drinks & Drinking; Family Life; Grief; Jesus Christ; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Mothers; Women - Bible; Wine; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness; Virgin Mary


THE GRAVE OF A NIGGER, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "'yes, it's true that's the grave of a nigger"
Last Line: Where foam-waters gurgled their way.'
Subject(s): "aborigines, Australian;death;family Life;heroism;horse Racing;" "dead, The;relatives;heroes;heroines;


THE GREAT AUNTS OF MY CHILDHOOD, by ALICE FULTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Buns harden like pomanders
Last Line: With harsh yellow soap
Subject(s): Family Life; Aunts; Relatives


THE GROSS CLINIC, by CAROL FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have a sister who takes care of animals, whose artistry is flesh
Subject(s): Gross, Samuel D. (1805-1884); Surgery; Family Life; Relatives


THE HAPPIEST DAY, by LINDA PASTAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was early may, I think
Subject(s): Family Life; Happiness; Relatives; Joy; Delight


THE HIVE, by ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: To do something with it: to make something of it
Subject(s): Family Life; Human Behavior; Relatives; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


THE HOLE WE'VE BEEN DIGGING, by MICHAEL TEIG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Since I've come home, put on all my shoes,
Subject(s): Homecoming; Family Life; Relatives


THE HOMESTEADER, by ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wind-swept and fire-swept and
Last Line: "I've found a bigger meaning for the little word called ""home."
Subject(s): Family Life; Homesteaders; Relatives


THE HOUSE, by GENEVIEVE BUCKLEY STARR    Poem Text                    
First Line: When mother looks at me and says
Last Line: And not mom's little son.
Subject(s): Family Life; Mothers; Relatives


THE HOUSE AT EVENING, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Across the school-ground it would start
Last Line: Dim worlds aflame.
Subject(s): Family Life; Houses; Relatives


THE HOUSE IN WHICH WE NOW LIVED WAS OLD, by CHARLES REZNIKOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Youth; Fear; Household Employees; Relatives; Servants; Domestics; Maids


THE HOUSE ON MOSCOW STREET, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It's the ragged source of memory
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Family Life; Minorities - United States; United States - Race Relations; Relatives


THE HOUSE WAS JUST TWINKLING IN THE MOONLIGHT, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Babies; Family Life; Infants; Relatives


THE IMPRISONED INNOCENTS (OR THE COMPLAINT OF A PHILOSOPHER OF FAMILY), by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One morning I said to my wife
Last Line: Of heirs to adam's sin!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE INVADERS, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Through dim mysterious, darkened halls
Last Line: You cannot keep the children out.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Childhood; Relatives


THE INVESTMENT, by ROBERT FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Over back where they speak of life as staying
Subject(s): Family Life; Marriage; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE JOURNEY AND OBSERVATIONS OF A COUNTRYMAN: A DEATHBED, by JOHN HAWTHORN    Poem Text                    
First Line: A little house there stood within a glen
Last Line: Before a wretch that used his parents ill....
Subject(s): Family Life; Ingratitude; Poverty; Relatives; Ungratefulness


THE KEEPER'S SON, by ANDRE THEURIET    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Black is the night and as though in fight
Last Line: The son of the keeper had breathed his last!
Subject(s): Death - Children; Family Life; Fathers & Sons; Poaching; Death - Babies; Relatives


THE LABORER, by RICHARD DEHMEL    Poem Text                    
First Line: We have a bed, and a baby too
Last Line: Only time!
Subject(s): Family Life; Fields; Harvest; Labor & Laborers; Time; Relatives; Pastures; Meadows; Leas; Work; Workers


THE LAST OF THE FAMILY, by ROBERT SOUTHEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What, gregory! You are come, I see, to join us
Last Line: God make us ready, gregory, when it comes.
Subject(s): Aging; Faith; Family Life; Funerals; God; Belief; Creed; Relatives; Burials


THE LEAF PILE, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now here is a typical children's story
Last Line: The mark of my hand a blush on my son's cheek
Subject(s): Family Life; Mothers; Sons; Relatives


THE LESSON, by ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The earnest are the easiest deceived
Subject(s): Tadpoles; Family Life; Truth; Relatives


THE LIBRARIAN, by CHARLES OLSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: The landscape (the landscape!) again: gloucester
Subject(s): Gloucester, Massachusetts; Librarians & Libraries; Poetry Readings; Homecoming; Family Life; Library; Librarians; Relatives


THE LITTLE BROTHER POEM, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I keep seeing your car in the streets
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE LITTLE THINGS AROUND THE HOUSE, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The little things around the house are what will / hurt the most
Last Line: The little things around the house are what will help the most.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Dead, The; Relatives


THE LOEHRS AND THE HAMMONDS, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hey, bud! O bud!' rang out a gleeful call
Last Line: Taffy and pop-corn -- so with cheers they went.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Childhood; Relatives


THE LOVE POEMS OF MARICHIKO: 3, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh the anguish of these secret meetings
Last Line: Words with not connection
Subject(s): Family Life; Fear; Man-woman Relationships; Secrets; Relatives; Male-female Relations


THE MARRIED MAN, by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR.    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There's an old pard of mine that sits by his door
Last Line: When I'm tired from the wind and the sun.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clark, Badger
Subject(s): Cowboys; Family Life; Relatives


THE MARTYR, by WALT MASON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My wife and seven daughters,' said g
Last Line: Gravel carters, that girls may have a treat!
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers & Daughters; Relatives


THE MCCARTHY HEARINGS, by IRA SADOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Everything's under suspicion
Subject(s): Army-mccarthy Hearings (1954); Family Life; Relatives


THE MEAL, by SHARON OLDS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mama, I never stop seeing you there
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Mothers; Family Life; Relatives


THE MELON, by CHARLES SIMIC    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There was a melon fresh from the garden
Subject(s): Melons; Death; Hornets; Family Life; Dead, The; Relatives


THE MESSAGE, by MATHILDE BLIND    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: From side to side the sufferer tossed
Last Line: Fell back, sir, and was dead.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lake, Claude
Subject(s): Mothers; Homecoming; Dreams; Family Life; Longing; Death; Nightmares; Relatives; Dead, The


THE MILLENNIUM, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the basement
Subject(s): Christmas; Family Life; Holidays; New Year; Nativity, The; Relatives


THE MINIATURE CITY, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The aging family life fades out, subsides
Subject(s): Family Life; Transience; Relatives; Impermanence


THE MOONLIGHT'S DREAM, by ROBERT PENN WARREN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Why did I wake at night, all the house at rest?
Subject(s): Family Life; Sleep; Dreams; Night; Relatives; Nightmares; Bedtime


THE MYSTERY OF THE CAVES, by MICHAEL WATERS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I don't remember the name of the story
Subject(s): Caves; Child Molesting; Danger; Family Life; Heroism; Parents; Caverns; Child Abuse; Relatives; Heroes; Heroines; Parenthood


THE OLD BARK HUT, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: In an old bark hut on the mountainside
Last Line: And broken a woman's heart
Subject(s): Crimes & Criminals;death;family Life;fathers & Sons;hunting;waiting; "dead, The;relatives;hunters;


THE OLD MASS SHANDRYDAN, by P. J. HARTIGAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I can see it in my dreaming o'er a gap of thirty years
Last Line: When I saw it o'er the tail-board of the old mass shandrydan.
Alternate Author Name(s): O'brien, John+(2)
Subject(s): Christianity; Family Life; Mass; Relatives


THE OLD-TIME FAMILY, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It makes me smile to hear 'em tell each other
Last Line: I never heard my father or my mother wish for less.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE ORDEAL, by JOHN DAVIDSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Between the golden city and the sea
Last Line: Across the sounding threshold of the sea.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Family Life; Justice; Longing; Love; Marriage; Rites & Ceremonies; Torture; Tragedy; Unfaithfulness; Violence; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy


THE PATCHWORK QUIZ, by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In sheen of silken splendor
Last Line: When mother dear was there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Clothing & Dress; Family Life; Fashion; Mothers; Quilts; Relatives


THE PENTECOSTAL, by DAVID BOTTOMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A few miles north of thompson falls
Last Line: Their twelve-year-old witness, their runaway daughter.
Subject(s): Family Life; Hallucinations & Illusions; Montana; Relatives


THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He isn't a religious man
Subject(s): Neighbors; Family Life; Fatners; Transience; Mortality; Happiness; Relatives; Impermanence; Joy; Delight


THE PHOTOS, by DIANE WAKOSKI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My sister in her well-tailored silk blouse hands me
Subject(s): Family Life; Photography & Photographers; Relatives


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 123, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wealth and position attract distant kin
Last Line: Even leather shoes wear thin
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Chinese Literature; Family Life; Poverty; Wealth; Relatives; Riches; Fortunes


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 21, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My parents stayed busy enough
Last Line: Woodcutters often stop by
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Chinese Literature; Family Life; Idleness; Relatives; Laziness; Sloth; Indolence


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 240, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have six brothers
Last Line: Everybody praises
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Brothers; Chinese Literature; Family Life; Punishment; Shame; Half-brothers; Relatives


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 241, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I see people everywhere
Last Line: End your attachment to form
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Buddhism; Chinese Literature; Family Life; Parents; Buddha; Buddhists; Relatives; Parenthood


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 31, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A mountain man lives under thatch
Last Line: A shelf full of nothing but books
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Books; Chinese Literature; Family Life; Mountains; Reading; Relatives; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


THE POEMS OF PICKUP: 11, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A son demands a wife
Last Line: But not in your book of crimes
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Chinese Literature; Family Life; Marriage; Wealth; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Riches; Fortunes


THE PORTSMOUTH SAILOR, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Come back, o magical evenings
Last Line: To stories of over sea!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Family Life; New Hampshire; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Sailing & Sailors; Story-telling; Relatives


THE RAINS, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The river rises / and the rains keep coming.
Subject(s): Rain; Fear; Family Life; Relatives


THE RIGHT FAMILY, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With time our notions allus change
Last Line: She'd vow her fam'ly was jus' right!
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE RUNAWAY BOY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Wunst I sassed my pa, an' he
Last Line: I won't run away no more!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Family Life; Punishment; Wandering & Wanderers; Relatives


THE SADNESS OF PARENTS, by BARBARA RAS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sadness of fruit is like the sadness
Subject(s): Mothers; Family Life; Grief; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


THE SEAGULL; CHEKHOV AT YALTA, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A winter evening at the cottage by the bay
Last Line: "I will write that we have departed for france, for italy."
Subject(s): Chekhov, Anton (1860-1904); Family Life; Funerals; Gardens & Gardening; Graves; Tuberculosis; Relatives; Burials; Tombs; Tombstones; Consumption (pathology)


THE SECOND CONCESSION OF DEER, by WILLIAM WYE SMITH    Poem Text                    
First Line: John tompkins lived in a house of logs
Last Line: Of his own domain in deer.
Subject(s): Change; Family Life; Houses; Old Age; Relatives


THE SELF-UNSEEING, by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is the ancient floor
Last Line: Yet we were looking away!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE SINGING SCHOOL, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: First they asked you to step through the many rooms
Last Line: Your own story
Subject(s): Family Life; Schools; Singing & Singers; Relatives; Students


THE SKY, by JOSEPH ENZWEILER    Poem Text                    
First Line: The screen door closes at 2 a. M
Subject(s): Family Life; Memory; Relatives


THE SPANISH GYPSY: BOOK 3, by MARY ANN EVANS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Quit now the town, and with a journeying dream
Last Line: Where we have found each other, my fedalma.
Alternate Author Name(s): Eliot, George; Cross, Marian Lewes; Evans, Marian; Ann, Mary
Subject(s): Christianity; Family Life; Inquisition; Man-woman Relationships; Moors (land); Moors (people); Spain; War; Relatives; Male-female Relations


THE SPOILED CHILD, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Cause herbert graham's a' only child
Last Line: "wuz I there, ma? Wuz I there, ma?"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Childhood; Relatives


THE STEIN FAMILY, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "there's a wonderful family, called stein"
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE STEPMOTHER, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: First she come to our house
Last Line: She's purt' nigh good as mother was!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Love; Mothers; Stepmothers; Dead, The; Relatives


THE STICK-TOGETHER FAMILIES, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The stick-together families are happier by far
Last Line: Come you back unto the fireside and be comrade with your kin.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE STORY AFTER THE STORY, by MARIE PONSOT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: N bubbles to the elbow, on my knees
Subject(s): Story-telling; Family Life; Children; Absence; Disappointment; Relatives; Childhood; Separation; Isolation


THE STRENGTH OF THE WEAK, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Last chris'mus, little benny
Last Line: "you skeer me thataway!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Christmas; Family Life; Gifts & Giving; Childhood; Nativity, The; Relatives


THE STWONEN STEPS, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Thease stwonen steps a-zet so true
Last Line: O' veet trod vu'st the steäirs?
Subject(s): Family Life; History; Mortality; Stairs; Time; Relatives; Historians


THE SUBJECT MATTER, by IRA SADOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How elusive - what we want
Subject(s): Family Life; Childhood Memories; Relatives


THE SWING, by JOHN FREEMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was like floating in a blessed dream to roam
Last Line: So wide a sky, so great a tree.
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Fields; Home; Trees; Relatives; Pastures; Meadows; Leas


THE TEA-PARTY, by JULIA WARD HOWE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am not with you, sisters, in your talk
Last Line: Turned as they fled, and left me charity.
Subject(s): Family Life; Food & Eating; Life; Parties; Sisters; Tea; Relatives


THE TENTH MUSE: THE FOUR AGES OF MAN, by ANNE BRADSTREET    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Lo now four other act upon the stage
Last Line: And in that hope I bid you all farewell.
Variant Title(s): The Four Ages Of Man
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Home; Life; Marriage; Middle Age; Old Age; Puritans; Sickness; Childhood; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Illness


THE THREAT, by DENISE DUHAMEL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother pushed my sister out of the apartment door with an empty
Subject(s): Family Life; Drugs & Drug Abuse; Relatives; Narcotics; Opium; Cocaine; Crack; Heroin


THE UNKNOWN BROTHERS, by LOUIS V. LEDOUX    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Singing band by song united
Last Line: But they triumph though they fail.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE UNVEILING, by JANE MILLER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wind stirs the gauze from the stone
Last Line: The thing you find so precious is all over town
Subject(s): Family Life; Funerals; Mourning; Relatives; Burials; Bereavement


THE VACANT LOT, by GWENDOLYN BROOKS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: And letting them out again.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THE WANDERER, by LLOYD SCHWARTZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I'm talking about what isn't there anymore,
Subject(s): Friendship; Family Life; City & Town Life; Farewell; Love; Relatives; Parting


THE WRITER, by RICHARD WILBUR    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: In her room at the prow of the house
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers & Daughters; Relatives


THE YOUNG OLD MAN, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mamma is a widow: there's only
Last Line: "good morning!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Christmas; Family Life; Mothers; Widows & Widowers; Nativity, The; Relatives


THIRTY SENTENCES FOR NO ONE, by PETER GIZZI            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


THOMAS THE PRETENDER, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tommy's alluz playin' jokes
Last Line: "an' grease the welts, ""pore pa! Pore pa!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Jokes; Childhood; Relatives


THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS, by ROBERT EARL HAYDEN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sundays too my father got up early
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Fathers; Home; Men; Sabbath; Winter; Childhood; Relatives; Sunday


THOUGHTS UPON A WALK WITH NATALIE, MY NIECE, by HAROLD TROWBRIDGE PULSIFER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is the same familiar land
Last Line: On this frail ship forevermore?
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Relatives


THREE KITCHENS, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I pace a friend's house. On the walls,
Subject(s): Kitchens; Family Life; Relatives


THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY; AFTER INGMAR BERGMAN, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They are out bathing in the sea at night
Last Line: Who escort us to and from shock therapy...
Subject(s): Bergman, Ingmar (b. 1918); Family Life; Happiness; Night; Sea; Relatives; Joy; Delight; Bedtime; Ocean


THURSDAY EVENING BEDTIME, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Afraid of the dark / is afraid of mom
Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; Negroes; American Blacks; Relatives


TIME AS MEMORY AS STORY, by SIMON J. ORTIZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Time; Native Americans; Family Life; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America; Relatives


TIMES AIN'T WHAT THEY WAS, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: When pa an' ma was married in the days long gone and dead
Last Line: An' boys an' girls grow bigger - an' I'm glad to see the day
Subject(s): Family Life;modern Man;time;west (u.s.); Relatives;southwest;pacific States


TO BETTY LEE, by OLIVER MURRAY EDWARDS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Dear betty lee, my thought for you
Last Line: "to pen this sentence, ""I love you."
Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Love; Relationships; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


TO MARKET, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All the long way from jamaica
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


TO MY CHILDREN, FEARING FOR THEM, by WENDELL BERRY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Terrors are to come. The earth
Last Line: Though the pain of them is on me
Subject(s): Family Life; Parents; Relatives; Parenthood


TO THE BUST OF MY SON CHARLES, by DAVID MACBETH MOIR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fair image of our sainted boy
Last Line: Farewell!—dear boy, farewell!
Alternate Author Name(s): Delta
Subject(s): Boys; Children - Lost; Death; Family Life; Farewell; Heaven; Dead, The; Relatives; Parting; Paradise


TONIGHT THE HEART-SHAPED LEAVES, by JAN HELLER LEVI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I've smoked thirteen cigarettes today: I'm breathless
Subject(s): Italy; Family Life; Italians; Relatives


TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE BABE, by EDWARD CARPENTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The trio perfect: the man, the woman, and the babe
Last Line: And herein all creation.
Subject(s): Babies; Creation; Family Life; Love; Infants; Relatives


TRAVEL ALARM, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Because everything still bears
Last Line: Of green.
Subject(s): Clocks; Family Life; Time; Travel; Relatives; Journeys; Trips


TRISTAN, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In all sorts of weather tristan
Subject(s): Sea; Children; Desire; Friendship; Family Life; Ocean; Childhood; Relatives


TRUANTS, by CARMELITA A. LECLAIR    Poem Text                    
First Line: The moonbeams live, pulsate, and dance
Last Line: To a punishment they had earned.
Subject(s): Absence; Babies; Family Life; Separation; Isolation; Infants; Relatives


TUSKEGEE AIRFIELD, by MARILYN NELSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These men
Alternate Author Name(s): Waniek, Marilyn Nelson
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Family Life; Relatives


TWILIGHT TIME, by MILDRED SOUTHWORTH BRYAN    Poem Text                    
First Line: When the sun has gone behind the hill
Last Line: When we can all be together!
Subject(s): Evening; Family Life; Sunset; Twilight; Relatives


TWO-RIVER LEDGER, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Joke used to be: / if you don't like it
Subject(s): Rivers; Pollution; Houses; Family Life; Relatives


UNCLE WILLIAM'S PICTURE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Uncle william, last july
Last Line: Smile, and wipe my eyes.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; July; Uncles; Dead, The; Relatives


UNHAPPY FATHER, by WALT MASON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It makes poor father's spirit sad, when he
Last Line: "thy victory, oh, death, where is thy sting?"
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Grief; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


VIOLIN SONGS: BEDTIME, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Come, children, put away your toys
Last Line: Coming to carry us to bed.
Subject(s): Children; Family Life; Sleep; Childhood; Relatives


WAKE, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A casket that couldn't care less
Subject(s): Family Life; Funerals; Relatives; Burials


WASHING THE ELEPHANT, by BARBARA RAS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Circus; Confession; Religion; Family Life; Elephants; Theology; Relatives


WHAT ARE WE RAISING, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You know how it is, what with children around
Last Line: But what are we raising here? Children, or grass?
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


WHAT GRIEVING WAS, by LYNN EMANUEL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That was not the summer of aspic
Subject(s): Family Life; Grief; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


WHAT WE HAVE, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On the mountain / the neighbor's dog, put out in the cold
Last Line: That I think, when looking back, was happiness.
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Happiness; Poverty; Retrospection; Relatives; Joy; Delight


WHERE DREAMS COME FROM, by MARGE PIERCY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A girl slams the door of her little room
Subject(s): Universities & Colleges; Ambition; Family Life; Relatives


WHERE WE LIVE NOW, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We live here because the houses
Subject(s): Home; Family Life; Relatives


WHITE EYES, by ANNE WALDMAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Friends & relatives
Last Line: & everybody was watching.
Subject(s): Ancestry & Ancestors; Canada; Family Life; Travel; Canadians; Relatives; Journeys; Trips


WHY DON'T YOU GET TRANSFERRED, DAD?, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Family Life; Likes & Dislikes; Moving; Relatives


WILD MAY, by CLAUDE MCKAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Aleta mentions in her tender letters
Alternate Author Name(s): Edwards, Eli
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


WORKS AND DAYS: NEIGHBOURS AND KINSFOLK, by HESIOD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Call him who loves you to your feast
Last Line: But kinsmen dawdle o'er their gear.
Subject(s): Family Life; Neighbors; Relatives


WRIT IN A BOOK OF WELSH VERSE, by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the house where I was bred
Last Line: Old wars, old hungers, and old tears!
Subject(s): Family Life; Home; Wales; Relatives; Welshmen; Welshwomen


WRITIN' BACK TO THE HOMEFOLKS, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My dear old friends - it jes' beats
Last Line: And madaline and mother.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): April; Family Life; Letters; Love; Relatives


YESSIR MISTER, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Yessir mister mystery dwells in dese dose dem
Subject(s): Family Life; Language; Relatives; Words; Vocabulary


YONOSA HOUSE, by RODNEY THEODORE SMITH    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: She stroked molten tones
Last Line: Hear her chants in the thrush's song.
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, R. T.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


YOU HUM, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My parents sleep with a flashlight
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


YOUNG, by ANNE SEXTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A thousand doors ago
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Relatives


[IF MAMA / COULD SEE], by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Mothers; Family Life; Relatives