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Subject: WORDS
Matches Found: 480

UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` "DIRGE (TO THE MEMORY OF MISS ELLEN GREE, OF KEW ...)", by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Peerless yet hapless maid of q!
Last Line: Her dirge and leg
Subject(s): Alphabets;bees;death;funerals;insects;language; "beekeeping;dead, The;burials;bugs;words;vocabulary;


A CERTAIN SWIRL, by MARY RUEFLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The classroom was dark, all the desks were empty,
Subject(s): Schools; Language; Students; Words; Vocabulary


A DAY DREAM, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My eyes make pictures, when they are shut
Last Line: Murmur it to yourselves, ye two beloved women!
Variant Title(s): Eye
Subject(s): Dreams; Language; Nightmares; Words; Vocabulary


A DEFENSE OF POETRY, by CHARLES BERNSTEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: My problem with deploying a term liek
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Language; Words; Vocabulary


A DESCRIPTION OF SUCH A ONE AS HE WOULD LOVE, by THOMAS WYATT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A face that should content me wondrous well
Last Line: And knit again the knot that should not slide.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wyat, Thomas
Variant Title(s): Epigram;epigram: 29
Subject(s): Faces; Grief; Language; Sorrow; Sadness; Words; Vocabulary


A DREAM-POEM, by ANTOINETTE DE COURSEY PATTERSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Lost in a dream one night
Last Line: Lyrical word!
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


A FALSE GALLOP OF ANALOGIES, by WARHAM ST. LEGER    Poem Text                    
First Line: There is a fine stuffed chavender
Last Line: Stuff'd chavender, or chub.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


A GREAT SQUARE HAS NO CORNERS, by ARTHUR SZE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: "writes with a mop, ""a great square has no corners."
Subject(s): Time; Language; Words; Vocabulary


A LANCASHIRE DIALOGUE, OCCASIONED BY A PREACHER WITHOUT NOTES, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Wus yo at church o' sunday morning, john?
Last Line: James. If onny comes, I'll tak it; john,—good bye!
Subject(s): Clergy; Lancashire, England; Language; Preaching & Preachers; Speech; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops; Words; Vocabulary; Oratory; Orators


A LANGUAGE, by SUSAN STEWART    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: I had heard the story before
Subject(s): Language; Teaching & Teachers; Miscarriage; Words; Vocabulary; Educators; Professors


A LITTLE LANGUAGE, by ROBERT DUNCAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I know a little language of my cat, tho dante says
Last Line: As if crouching, springs / to life
Variant Title(s): A Little Language
Subject(s): Animals; Cats; Dante Alighieri (1265-1321); Language; Words; Vocabulary


A LITTLE WORD, by WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY    Poem Text                    
First Line: I spoke a word
Last Line: Be such as bring forth noble deeds.
Alternate Author Name(s): Oxenham, John
Subject(s): Language; Religion; Words; Vocabulary; Theology


A MARTIAN SENDS A POSTCARD HOME, by CRAIG RAINE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
Subject(s): Books; Civilization; Language; Reading; Words; Vocabulary


A MEDITATION, by AGNES LEE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rome has been dead these many hundred years
Last Line: Rome still rules.
Alternate Author Name(s): Freer, Otto, Mrs.
Subject(s): Government; Language; Latin; Law & Lawyers; Legacies; Roman Empire; Rome, Italy; Words; Vocabulary; Attorneys


A MINOR CANON, by ROWLAND EYLES EGERTON-WARBURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: New phrases daily on our ears are prest'
Last Line: "a minor canon,"" said the quiet dean."
Alternate Author Name(s): Egerton-warburton, R. E.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


A NEW SONG OF NEW SIMILES, by JOHN GAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My passion is as mustard strong
Last Line: And mute as any fish.
Subject(s): Language; Metaphor; Words; Vocabulary; Similes


A PATHETIC APOLOGY FOR ALL LAUREATS, PAST, PRESENT, AND TO COME, by WILLIAM WHITEHEAD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ye silly dogs, whose half-year lays
Last Line: —ye silliest of all silly dogs.
Subject(s): Language; Poets Laureate; Words; Vocabulary


A PROJECT FOR FREIGHT TRAINS, by DAVID YOUNG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sitting at crossings and waiting for freights to pass, we have all noticed
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Railroads; Words; Vocabulary; Railways; Trains


A SEASON IN HELL: THE ALCHEMY OF WORDS, by ARTHUR RIMBAUD    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Listen. The tale of one of my follies
Last Line: That is over. Now I know how to greet beauty.
Subject(s): Dreams; Language; Nightmares; Words; Vocabulary


A SONG OF PATERNAL CARE, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A lithuanian lithographer
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


A TEST OF POETRY, by CHARLES BERNSTEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What do you mean by rashes of ash? Is industry
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Language; Words; Vocabulary


A VIOL'S PLAINT, by ALBERT SAMAIN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My heart that dreads what time may bring
Last Line: And on thy soft glove left a stain.
Subject(s): Language; Man-woman Relationships; Pain; Words; Vocabulary; Male-female Relations; Suffering; Misery


A VULNERARY, by JONATHAN WILLIAMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: One comes to language from afar, the ear
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


A WORD THAT MAKES US LINGER (WRITTEN IN VISITOR'S BOOK AT GOPSALL), by FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Kind hostess mine, who raised the latch
Last Line: But I can't write that dreadful word.
Alternate Author Name(s): Locker, Frederick
Subject(s): Farewell; Language; Parting; Words; Vocabulary


ADAM'S TASK, by JOHN HOLLANDER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted
Subject(s): Adam & Eve; Animals; Bible; Language; Mythology; Eve; Words; Vocabulary


ALICE DU CLOS: OR THE FORKED TONGUE. A BALLAD, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sun is not yet risen
Last Line: Lies bleeding on the glade.
Subject(s): Language; Lies; Words; Vocabulary


ALPHABET OF MOTHER LANGUAGE, by ANNE WALDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If kali were a car, what kind of car would she be?
Subject(s): Alphabets; Language; Words; Vocabulary


AMERICAN POETRY, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whatever it is, it must have
Last Line: Uttering cries that are almost human.
Subject(s): Language; Men; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


AN ABBREVIATED HISTORY OF SIGNS, by REGINALD SHEPHERD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And not to be removed
Subject(s): Language; Signs & Signboards; Words; Vocabulary


AN EPIGRAM ON SCOLDING, by JONATHAN SWIFT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Great folks are of a finer mould
Last Line: For whore and rogue; and dog and bitch.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


AN IMAGINABLE CONFERENCE, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Exchanging gentle grips, the men retire
Last Line: Vistas of lilac weighted their shrewd lids
Subject(s): Language; Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955); Words; Vocabulary


ANAGRAMS, by DAVID WAGONER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Many have rearranged their names
Subject(s): Names; Language; Words; Vocabulary


AND MOST OF ALL, I WANNA THANK ?Ǫ, by JOHN HOLLANDER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Patient language, always waiting to be
Last Line: Me there, ring true and truly ring me there
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


AND SOMETIMES, by CHRISTIAN BOK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Syzygy pyx
Last Line: Hhh my zzz
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ANGEL WINGS, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: High / on the great
Last Line: Utah
Subject(s): Creeley, Robert (b. 1926); Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


ANOTHER TRANSLATOR, by RICHARD HOWARD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The first one just happened to be there, a little like
Last Line: Ma cherie, is pronounced “hap-pi-ness”
Alternate Author Name(s): Howard, Joseph
Subject(s): De Gaulle, Yvonne (1900-1979); Language; Translating & Interpreting; Words; Vocabulary


ANTHOLOGY OF OOM, by ISIDOR SCHNEIDER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Make you mouth a cavern
Last Line: A wave of oblivion.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ANY LIT, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You are a ukulele beyond my microphone
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


APPLES FOR SALE, by LEWIS MANSFIELD KNAPP    Poem Text                    
First Line: In youthful days I saw old orchards bloom
Last Line: I too, my friend, am polished and for sale.
Subject(s): Apples; Fruit; Language; Orchards; Words; Vocabulary


ARBEIT MACHT FREI, by DAVID LEHMAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Work shall set you free:' a sensible sentiment
Last Line: Pain to the piano with you, this quiet cry.
Subject(s): Auschwitz, Poland; Language; Truth; Words; Vocabulary


ARCANA GARDENS, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The cat's apprehensive inside her head
Last Line: "time for your van morrison sir"
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


AREITO, by JAY WRIGHT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is my mitote,
Subject(s): Language; Relationships; Nature; Words; Vocabulary


AT NIGHT, by ALICE MEYNELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Home, home from the horizon far and clear
Last Line: Your words to me, your words!
Alternate Author Name(s): Meynell, Wilfrid, Mrs.; Thompson, Alice Christina
Variant Title(s): To W.m.; Thoughts At Evening
Subject(s): Birds; Language; Night; Words; Vocabulary; Bedtime


AT THE SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT, by YVOR WINTERS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the terminal: the light
Last Line: In light, and nothing else, awake.
Subject(s): Air Travel; Language; Words; Vocabulary


BAIT GOAT, by KAY RYAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a / distance where
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


BALLADE OF THE STRANGE WORD, by THOMAS AUGUSTINE DALY    Poem Text                    
First Line: These warm spring days
Last Line: "but ""apricate."
Alternate Author Name(s): Daly, T. A.
Subject(s): Language; Life; Youth; Words; Vocabulary


BALLADE: 33, by THOMAS WYATT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Since that my language without eloquence
Last Line: And I mine own, that yours may not.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wyat, Thomas
Subject(s): Friendship; Language; Words; Vocabulary


BEYOND HIS JURISDICTION, by HENRY (HARRY) HARBORD MORANT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was a western manager, and a language-man was he
Last Line: "that narks yez,"" michael answered—""he's a cocky down in vic."
Alternate Author Name(s): Breaker, The; Lumpkin, Tony
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Language; Sheep; Work; Workers; Words; Vocabulary


BEYOND WORDS, by ROBERT FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That row of icicles along the gutter
Last Line: You wait
Subject(s): Hate; Language; Words; Vocabulary


BITCH, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now, when he and I meet, after all these years
Last Line: "saying, ""good-bye! Good-bye! Nice to have seen you again."
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Ill-tempered; Language; Love; Women; Women's Rights; Words; Vocabulary; Feminism


BLUEPRINT, by TOM SLEIGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I had a blueprint
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


BOWLS, by MARIANNE MOORE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On the green / with lignum vitae balls and ivory markers
Last Line: In nothing so much as in a letter.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


BRIGHT SINGING WORDS, by HARRY R. TRUSLER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Bright singing words may take a dull
Last Line: Grow dark -- you are the sun!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


BRIGHT WORDS, by ERIS GOFF    Poem Text                    
First Line: They floated through a purple haze of light
Last Line: A bright wing like his word upon the ground.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


BROTHER GIAN, by CALE YOUNG RICE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear jesus christ, I'm brother gian
Last Line: From eve his sins forever rise!
Subject(s): Jesus Christ; Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


BY A SWIMMING POOL OUTSIDE SIRACUSA, by BILLY COLLINS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All afternoon I have been struggling
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CANADA IN ENGLISH, by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mrs. Tinko says canada
Last Line: Skulls – are for us
Subject(s): Language; Chicanos; Words; Vocabulary; Mexican Americans


CANTICLES 5:6, by ELIZABETH SINGER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Oh! How his pointed language, like a dart
Last Line: Do the vain world no form or beauty see.
Subject(s): Beauty; Hearts; Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


CANTO 36, by EZRA POUND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A lady asks me
Subject(s): Desire; Man-woman Relationships; Social Commentaries; Language; Male-female Relations; Words; Vocabulary


CEDES COEMPTIS SALTIBUS ..., by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This phrase of 'riches built on high'
Last Line: Give us a better if you can.
Subject(s): Horace (65-8 B.c.); Language; Latin; Universities & Colleges; Words; Vocabulary


CELTIC SPEECH, by LIONEL PIGOT JOHNSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Never forgetful silence fall on thee
Last Line: Remains wild music, even to the world's end.
Subject(s): Language; Patriotism; Words; Vocabulary


CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF SOUND, by WALLACE STEVENS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The cricket in the telephone is still
Subject(s): Language; Sound; Words; Vocabulary


CHANSON INNOCENTE: 1, FR. TULIPS, by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In just - / spring - when the world is mud-
Last Line: Wee
Alternate Author Name(s): Cummings, E. E.
Subject(s): Balloons; Language; Mythology - Classical; Pan (mythology); Spring; Words; Vocabulary


CHANSON WITHOUT MUSIC, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You bid me sing, - can I forget
Last Line: "dum ille clamat, ""dos pou sto!"
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CHAPTER 1, by CHRISTIAN BOK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Writing is inhibiting. Sighing, I sit, scribbling in ink this pidgin
Last Line: Finish writing this writ, signing it, kind sir: nihil, dicit, fini
Subject(s): Language; Vowels; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


CHRIST'S WORDS, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The words of christ are fruitful seeds
Last Line: Here and through eternity.
Subject(s): Jesus Christ; Language; Words; Vocabulary


CHRISTIAN BERARD, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Eating is her subject.
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Language; Words; Vocabulary


CIPHERS, by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, to be a wonder-child
Last Line: Nature's old rosetta stone!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CLASSIFICATION, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I think that love's a proper noun,' said miss angelia gay
Last Line: "their grammar's not my grammar,"" said miss matila prim."
Subject(s): Grammar; Language; Words; Vocabulary


CLEAR WATER 3, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, yes. Fame never got anyone
Last Line: Awhile. My words kill, killed, me, my lord. Yes.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CLOSING HOURS, by ANN LAUTERBACH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This trace, if it exists, is alms for delusion.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


COAL, by AUDRE LORDE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I / is the total black, being spoken / from the earth's inside
Alternate Author Name(s): Adisa-warrior, Gamba
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Language; Words; Vocabulary


COMING TO THAT, by DOROTHEA TANNING    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If it comes to that,' he said, 'there'll be no preventing it.'
Subject(s): Language; Mind, The; Words; Vocabulary


COMPANY OF MOTHS, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We thought it could all be found in the book of poor text
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


COMPULSIVE QUALIFICATIONS, by RICHARD HOWARD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Richard, may I ask a question? What is an episteme?
Last Line: A god being crucified
Alternate Author Name(s): Howard, Joseph
Subject(s): Writing & Writers; Language; Words; Vocabulary


CONCEPTS AND THEIR BODIES (THE BOY IN THE FIELD ALONE), by PATTIANN ROGERS                        Poet's Biography
First Line: Staring at the mud turtle's eye
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CONSIDERED SPEECH, by JOHN HOLLANDER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Strictly speaking' (he insisted) 'these are not - '
Last Line: But grave accentuations cut in the rind of the earth
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CONVERSATION AMONG THE RUINS, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Through portico of my elegant house you stalk
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


CREOLE, by ROBERT PINSKY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Roman Empire; Names; Ancestors & Ancestry; Language; Creoles; Heritage; Heredity; Words; Vocabulary


CRIB, by KAY RYAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: From the greek for / woven or plaited
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DANGEROUS AGE, by F. W. VAN EMDEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: I cannot dance, I cannot sing
Last Line: To bring you to my arms.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DARK HARBOR: 29, by MARK STRAND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The folded memory of our great and singular elevations
Subject(s): Language; Self; Words; Vocabulary


DARLING, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I break this toast for the ghost of bread in lebanon
Last Line: "the word ""together"" wants to live in every house."
Subject(s): Language; Lebanon; Mothers; Words; Vocabulary


DEAD HOUSE SONNET, by BRIAN TEARE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: House of each sentence endlessly hinged, house of each phrase
Subject(s): Language; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


DEATH, by DONALD REVELL    Poem Text                 Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Death calls my dog by the wrong name.
Subject(s): Death - Mothers; Language; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


DEEDS, by MOTHER GOOSE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A man of words and not of deeds
Last Line: You're dead, and dead, and dead indeed.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DEMARCATIONS, by KARL CURTIS ELDER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Had you a whole line
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DIALOGUE BEFORE SUNRISE, by JULES LAFORGUE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I'd like to live; but truly
Last Line: Go ajourneying with the moon.
Subject(s): Conversation; Dawn; Language; Sunrise; Words; Vocabulary


DISCUSS YOUR CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE WITH LANGUAGE: 2. FATHER, by RICHARD JONES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I lay in fields of clover
Last Line: Love with nothing but air.
Subject(s): Fathers; Language; Words; Vocabulary


DISGUST, by LIAM RECTOR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was well towards the end
Subject(s): Middle Age; Language; Words; Vocabulary


DISILLUSION, by AMY LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A scholar / weary of erecting the fragile towers of words
Subject(s): Language; Suicide; Words; Vocabulary


DIVERSITY OF CREATURES, by CORINNE HUNTINGTON JACKSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: The huntingtons within me stand aloof, and coldly distant
Last Line: But—ah, the phinneys hearken, puckish-wise, their celtic tongues in cheek.
Subject(s): Immigrants; Language; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration; Words; Vocabulary


DO WORDS OUTLAST, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DOMESTIC INTERIOR: 6. THE MUSE MOTHER, by EAVAN BOLAND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My window pearls wet
Last Line: From this rainy street
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DON'T SILENCE YOUR SELF, NO TE CALLES, by JEAN VALENTINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: He took some words from the bowl
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DUE RESPECT, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Come moo, dear moo, let's you and me
Last Line: And that's the way it shapes up, moo
Subject(s): Language; Mothers; Words; Vocabulary


DUMBNESS, by THOMAS TRAHERNE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sure man was born to meditate on things
Last Line: And penetrate the heart, if not the ear.
Subject(s): Babies; Freedom; Language; Infants; Liberty; Words; Vocabulary


EACH SOUND, by DORIANNE LAUX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Beginnings are brutal, like this accident
Last Line: Unspeakable light.
Subject(s): Language; Primitive Man; Progress; Words; Vocabulary; Cavemen


ECHO & ELIXIR 2, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Cairo’s taxi drivers speak to me in english
Last Line: The wicked binds, the cataclysmic fares
Subject(s): Language; Cairo; Taxis; Relationships; Social Commentaries; Enemies; Words; Vocabulary


EJACULATION, by ELINOR WYLIE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In this short interval to tear
Alternate Author Name(s): Benet, William Rose, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Feathers; Words; Vocabulary


ELLIPTICAL, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Failure; Language; Relationships; Words; Vocabulary


EMBARAZAR, by DENISE DUHAMEL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dairy association's huge success with the campaign got milk? Prompted them to expand
Subject(s): Miscommunication; Language; Words; Vocabulary


EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 15. RATHER DEEDS THAN WORDS, by PHILIP AYRES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You say you love, but I had rather see't
Last Line: But doing, doing, that's the proving part.
Subject(s): Activity; Language; Love; Exercise; Words; Vocabulary


ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE, by APRIL BERNARD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ENGLISH FLAVORS, by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I love to lick english the way I licked the hard
Last Line: Flavored and sharp -- to the ambiguities of meaning.
Subject(s): English Language; English Language; Language; Mouths; Nuns; Pleasure; Taste (sense); Words; Vocabulary


ENIGMA: 2, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A whimsical set we must often see
Last Line: Yet us at this moment, fair reader, you see.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ENIGMA: 5, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A term for autumn leaves when all their lovely tints are fled
Last Line: Now, reader, I shall like to see this mystery unsealed.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ENIGMA: 7, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: If you get into me, I have no sort of doubt
Last Line: You're myself, if you practice unnatural graces.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


EPIGRAM ON A LATE CATTLE-SHOW IN SMITHFIELD, by THOMAS HOOD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Old farmer bull is taken sick
Last Line: He's had a fit of cattle-epsy!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


EPIGRAM: EHEU FUGACES, by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What horace says is / eheu fugaces
Last Line: Sighing I murmur, 'o mihi praeteritos!'
Alternate Author Name(s): Ingoldsby, Thomas
Subject(s): Horace (65-8 B.c.); Language; Old Age; Words; Vocabulary


ERRATA, by CHARLES SIMIC    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where it says snow
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ERRATA, by KEVIN YOUNG    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Baby, give me just
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ESTATE SALE, by WAYNE KOESTENBAUM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On igavel I bought
Subject(s): Language; Fathers; Words; Vocabulary


ETYMOLOGICAL DIRGE, by HEATHER MCHUGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Calm comes from burning
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


ETYMOLOGY, by OLGA BROUMAS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I understand her well because I too practice love
Last Line: That is a larger that.
Subject(s): Faith; Language; Love; Mythology - Classical; Violence; Women's Rights; Belief; Creed; Words; Vocabulary; Feminism


EXTENT AND ROOT OF (1). ELSEWHERE, THINGS TEND, by CLAUDIA RANKINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As each syllable leaves these lips as touch, feel how onerous
Subject(s): Despair; Language; Self; Words; Vocabulary


FAILURES IN INFINITIVES, by BERNADETTE MAYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Why am I doing this? Failure
Subject(s): Failure; Language; Conduct Of Life; Words; Vocabulary


FAIR WORDS, by JOHN HENRY NEWMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Thy words are good, and freely given
Last Line: A sin against the light.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


FAMILIAR EPISTLES ON A SERMON, 'OFFICE & OPERATIONS OF HOLY SPIRIT': 4, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The gospel's simpler language being writ
Last Line: Of brisker tempers—let us next enquire.
Subject(s): Bible; Bible, N.t. Gospels; Books; Language; Religious Education; Writing & Writers; Reading; Words; Vocabulary; Sunday Schools; Yeshivas; Parochial Schools


FAREWELL, by BERT LESTON TAYLOR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Farewell!' another gloomy word
Last Line: Without it?
Alternate Author Name(s): T., B. L.
Subject(s): Farewell; Fate; Language; Poetry & Poets; Parting; Destiny; Words; Vocabulary


FATHER MERCY, MOTHER TONGUE, by LINDA GREGERSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If the english language was good enough for jesus
Subject(s): Language; United States; Words; Vocabulary; America


FIDO: AN EPISTLE TO FIDELIA, by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643)    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sitting one day beside a silver brook
Last Line: That you intend to work no miracles.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, William Of Tavistock
Subject(s): Love; Writing & Writers; Language; Words; Vocabulary


FINELY WRITTEN LABELS, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It isn't enough we knolw these pains
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


FIRE EXIT: 78, by ROBERT KELLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The woods green moveless sea
Last Line: Rebuking every image.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


FIRST WORDS, by WILLIAM SHARP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How can I tell thee, dear, what never words
Last Line: The shifting of the changeful lights of fate.
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Fate; Hearts; Language; Love; Pacific Ocean; Destiny; Words; Vocabulary


FOR ?Ç£FIDDLE-DE-DE?Ç¥, by JOHN HOLLANDER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What’s the french for “fiddle-de-dee”?
Last Line: —I think I know. But the word’s still mum
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


FOR REBECCA, FOR WHOM NOTHING HAS BEEN WRITTEN PAGE AFTER PAGE, by MILLER WILLIAMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We have a language that serves us more, or less
Subject(s): Grandchildren; Language; Grandsons; Granddaughters; Words; Vocabulary


FORTY YEARS, by MARY OLIVER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: For forty years / the sheets of white paper have
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


FOUR EPISTLES: MIRACLE AT THE FEAST OF PENTECOST: 1, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Our folks gone a visiting, reverend sir
Last Line: Was all by one language,—as clear as the sun.
Subject(s): Holy Ghost; Language; Miracles; Religion; Spiritual Life; Holy Spirit; Words; Vocabulary; Theology


FOUR EPISTLES: MIRACLE AT THE FEAST OF PENTECOST: 2, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Many thanks have been order'd this day to attend
Last Line: Excuse the presumption.—dear vicar, adieu!
Subject(s): Apostles; Baptism; Bible; Language; Prayer; Religion; Spiritual Life; Disciples, Twelve; Christenings; Words; Vocabulary; Theology


FOUR VARIATIONS ON THE HISTORY OF SPEECH, by IRA SADOFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have seen the sabotage of the body
Subject(s): Speech; Language; Oratory; Orators; Words; Vocabulary


FOURTH BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 18, by THOMAS CAMPION    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Think'st thou to seduce me with words that have no meaning?
Last Line: But alas! Who less could do that found so good occasion!
Variant Title(s): "think'st Thou To Seduce Me Then"";
Subject(s): Courtship; Language; Seduction; Words; Vocabulary


FREE, by VIRGIL SAUREZ    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When we first arrived in the united states
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


FRIENDSHIP, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear friend, I pray thee, if thou wouldst be proving
Last Line: To satisfy my mind.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Faith; Friendship; Language; Love; Belief; Creed; Words; Vocabulary


GENTLE COMMUNION, by PAT MORA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Even the long-dead are willing to move
Last Line: Our own private green honey
Subject(s): Language; Memory; Spirituality; Words; Vocabulary


GERTRUDE AND LUDWIG'S BOGUS ADVENTURE, by CHARLES BERNSTEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As billy goes higher all the balloons
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


GETTING A HOLD, by MARTHA RONK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The foreign objects are related to the accent
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


GETTING A WORD IN, by JAMES GALVIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Very sad
Last Line: Come out of nowhere) / very sad
Subject(s): Grief; Language; Rain; Trees; Sorrow; Sadness; Words; Vocabulary


GHAZALS: 20, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Some sort of rag of pure language, no dictums but a bell
Last Line: Be needed, the sibyl will return as an undiscovered lover.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Despair; Dreams; Language; Travel; Nightmares; Words; Vocabulary; Journeys; Trips


GLUKUPIKRON; TO SAPPHO, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Word you created / which we translate
Last Line: Your word for love.
Subject(s): Language; Love - Nature Of; Pain; Pleasure; Words; Vocabulary; Suffering; Misery


GLYPHS, by ANNE WALDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: & the code / public record stopped midsentence
Subject(s): Language; Native Americans; Poetry & Poets; Tongues; Words; Vocabulary; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


GOLDEN WORDS, by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Some words are played on golden strings
Last Line: Shall answer when you call.
Alternate Author Name(s): Berwick, Mary
Subject(s): Honor; Language; Love; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


GOSPEL, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The new grass rising in the hills,
Subject(s): Landscape; Language; Words; Vocabulary


GRANDGOUSIER, by RANSOM. JOHN CROWE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dry bones, / dry brains
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


HAPPINESS, by EDITH WHARTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This perfect love can find no words to say
Last Line: The sound of deep that calleth unto deep.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


HARSH WORDS, by JOHN FREEMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Harsh words too cruelly sped, yet thoughts / unspoken
Last Line: This is love's poor heaven. Yet not to love is hell.
Subject(s): Language; Love - Complaints; Words; Vocabulary


HE DID NOT KNOW, by GERTRUDE STAHLE VAN ERDEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Her words as light as snow flakes
Last Line: They melted into tears.
Subject(s): Indifference; Language; Words; Vocabulary


HE SAID, SHE SAID, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Is it something I said
Subject(s): Language; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Words; Vocabulary; Male-female Relations


HOLY LAND, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Over beds wearing thick homespun cotton
Last Line: Of their shoes.
Subject(s): Israel; Language; Palestine; Women; Words; Vocabulary


HOTEL FRANCOIS 1ER, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was a very little while and they had gone in front of it. It was that they had liked it
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Friendship; Language; City & Town Life; Art & Artists; Social Commentaries; Male-female Relations; Words; Vocabulary


HOW PALESTINIANS KEEP WARM, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Choose one word and say it over
Last Line: And when your shawl is as thin as mine is, you tell stories.
Subject(s): Heat; Language; Palestine; Story-telling; Words; Vocabulary


HOW ZEN RUIINS POETS, by CHASE TWICHELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Before I knew that mind
Subject(s): Language; Thought; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary; Thinking


HOWYOUBEENS', by TERRANCE HAYES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mostly people talk to people, holding
Last Line: Wasting it. Dumb. Whining about the wind
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


I BROOD ABOUT SOME CONCEPTS, FOR EXAMPLE, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A concept like 'I,' which I am told by many
Last Line: To disclose. The thing itself ...
Subject(s): Language; Philosophy & Philosophers; Thought; Words; Vocabulary; Thinking


I CAN'T SPEAK, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It's hopeless. Our heads are full of television
Subject(s): Conversation; Language; Words; Vocabulary


I DO NOT, by MICHAEL PALMER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: I do not know english
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


I WAVE GOOD-BYE WHEN BUTTER FLIES, by JACK PRELUTSKY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


IAMBICUM TRIMETRUM, FR. LETTER TO HARVEY, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Unhappie verse, the witnesse of my unhappie state
Last Line: "and I dye, who will saye"" this was, immerito?"
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


IF I TOLD HIM, A COMPLETE PORTRAIT OF PICASSO, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him.
Subject(s): Portraits; Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973); Language; Napoleon I (1769-1821); Words; Vocabulary


IMAGE OF A SAINT, by JANE MILLER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Many favor sunflowers seeding
Last Line: You walk in sandals unimpeded
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Saints; Words; Vocabulary


IMITATIONS OF HORACE: EPISTLE 2.2, by ALEXANDER POPE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear col'nel, corbham's and your country's friend
Last Line: Whom folly pleases, and whose follies please.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


IN A HOSPITAL CORRIDOR, by ANNE-ELISE ROANE WINTER    Poem Text                    
First Line: She was an alien. Her large sloe- black eyes
Last Line: Forgetting all her agony -- she smiled!
Subject(s): Hospitals; Language; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration; Words; Vocabulary


IN ANSWER TO QUESTION FROM GREEK GRAMMAR: WHAT FUTURES SPEAK, by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They speak of never withering shades
Last Line: Yet are believed again.
Alternate Author Name(s): Aikin, Anna Letitia
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


IN EVERY LANGUAGE, by E. ETHELBERT MILLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Remind me (again) how beautiful you are
Subject(s): Love; Language; Words; Vocabulary


IN MY TONGUE, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O the words in my tongue
Last Line: In the heart of my lord!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


IN THE ALLEY, by TED KOOSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: N the alley behind the florist's shop
Subject(s): Refuse And Refuse Removal; Language; Words; Vocabulary


IN THE HEART, by LOUISE DOUGLAS    Poem Text                    
First Line: A scholar's words could not define the curve
Last Line: Curves sing in the heart and baffle sages.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


IN THE MUSEUM OF THE WORD (HENRI MATISSE), by ANN LAUTERBACH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There was the shield of another language
Subject(s): Travel; Language; Journeys; Trips; Words; Vocabulary


IN THIS LIGHT, by CARL PHILLIPS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sure, I used to say his name like a truth that, just
Subject(s): Language; Grief; Words; Vocabulary; Sorrow; Sadness


IN THIS SENSE, BEYOND, by CLAUDIA RANKINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I apologize, but I do not apologize
Last Line: But if grief needs to be it is in the end, anyway
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


INCOHERENCE, by BERNICE LESBIA KENYON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We that are swift with words
Last Line: Is trembling more than mine!
Alternate Author Name(s): Gilkyson, Walter, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Silence; Words; Vocabulary


INCOMMUNICADO, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The groundhog on the mountain did not run
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Groundhogs; Language; Woodchucks; Words; Vocabulary


INFLUENCE, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We know not what mysterious power
Last Line: May, for a time, remember me.
Subject(s): Language; Life; Love; Tears; Words; Vocabulary


IT ALL STAYS OPEN, by ROBERT KELLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Merchandise mind / middleman personality
Last Line: That isn’t (entirely) me
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


IT WAS, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: He seized her in the dark and kissed her
Last Line: "he cried. She laughed and said, ""it is"
Subject(s): Language; Words;vocabulary


JABBERERS, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I rise out of my depths with my language
Last Line: As the shower at a scissors grinder's wheel....
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


JAZZ FANTASIA, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Drum on your drums, batter on your banjos
Subject(s): Jazz; Language; Music & Musicians; Words; Vocabulary


JUST WORDS, by TILLA FERGUSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Words, just little things are they
Last Line: Of the words that do no wrong.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IN OUTER SPACE, by RON PADGETT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is my philosophy
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LANDED: A VALENTINE, by RICHARD HOWARD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: See how the brown kelp withers in air
Alternate Author Name(s): Howard, Joseph
Subject(s): Kelp; Language; Words; Vocabulary


LANGUAGE, by FRANCES MARY FROST    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This is a country of little rivers
Last Line: Inarticulate heart.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, by MARIE PONSOT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Burn, or speak your mind. For the oak to untruss
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LANGUAGE LESSON 1976, by HEATHER MCHUGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When americans say a man
Subject(s): Americans; Language; Play; United States; Words; Vocabulary; America


LANGUAGE OF MUSIC, by ESTHER EUGENIA DAVIS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Two open windows where I went to sing
Last Line: But music just begins where language ends.
Subject(s): Language; Music & Musicians; Sound; Words; Vocabulary


LANGUAGES, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are no handles upon a language
Last Line: Blowing ten thousand years ago.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LAST WORDS, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It wasn't oscar wilde who said, die my dear
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Language; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


LAUREL'S EYES, by CHARLES BERNSTEIN            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LETTER 7, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: But the buried walls and our mouths of fragments
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LEVIATHAN, by GEORGE OPPEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Truth also is the pursuit of it
Subject(s): Relationships; Reality; Language; Words; Vocabulary


LIFE GOES ON, by MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Over the dulling years you write
Subject(s): Love; Language; Words; Vocabulary


LIP-SERVICE, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Julia once and once again
Last Line: Perfect adoration!
Subject(s): Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


LITTLE ERRAND, by BRIAN TEARE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I gather the rain
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LOGICAL ENGLISH, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "I said, 'this horse, sir, will you shoe?'"
Subject(s): Animals;horses;language; Words;vocabulary


LOGOS, by MILLER WILLIAMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This is not the place I would like to start
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LOSING A LANGUAGE, by WILLIAM STANLEY MERWIN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: A breath leaves the sentences and does not come back
Alternate Author Name(s): Merwin, W. S.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LOUISIANA PERCH, by RON PADGETT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Certain words disappear from a language
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LOVE SONNET OF A PLAYER, by WILLIAM A. PHELON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Say, kid, d'you know, I just can't understand
Last Line: I'll kill three baseball scribes by monday night!
Subject(s): Athletes; Baseball; Language; Sports; Words; Vocabulary


LOVE'S LANGUAGE, by FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Their little language the children
Last Line: Which is hidden with love and thee.
Subject(s): Language; Love - Nature Of; Words; Vocabulary


LOVELILTS, by MARION HILL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Thine eyes, dear one, dot dot, are like, dah, what?
Last Line: Dash, god! Dot stars, keep thou our secret dark!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LUCAS A NON; EPIGRAM, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You'll oft find in books, rather ancient than recent
Last Line: That desunt means simply not decent to print!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


LYRICK FOR LEGACIES, by ROBERT HERRICK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Gold I've none, for use or show
Last Line: As my last remembrances.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MAGISTER LINGUISTICUS, by FRANCIS CLAIBORNE MASON    Poem Text                    
First Line: His feet became too feeble for the stair
Last Line: "he strove with bits of words until he died."
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MANIFEST DESTINY, by JORIE GRAHAM    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Northbound, on the way to the station, through the narrow rutted
Subject(s): Rome, Italy; Prisons & Prisoners; Language; Reality; Convicts; Words; Vocabulary


MARRY AT A HOTEL, ANNUL ?ÇÖEM, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Hotels; Words; Vocabulary; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses


MARSH LANGUAGES, by MARGARET ATWOOD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dark soft languages are being silenced
Last Line: The one language that has eaten all the others.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MEDITATION AT LAGUNITAS, by ROBERT HASS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All the new thinking is about loss
Subject(s): California; Deconstructionism; Language; Longing; Words; Vocabulary


MESSAGES AS TRANSLATION, by MICHAEL S. HARPER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With all of sterling's poems in spanish
Subject(s): Language; Spain; Translating & Interpreting; Words; Vocabulary


MILLENNIAL POLKA, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Using words this way
Last Line: Among the bloody berries
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MISUNDERSTOOD, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: People do not understand me
Last Line: And you will be understood.
Subject(s): Knowledge; Language; Schools; Words; Vocabulary; Students


MONOSYLLABIC, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Let me be monosyllabic today, o lord
Last Line: Enjoy slow-pacing clocks.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MORE BEST JOKES OF THE DELPHIC ORACLE, by BILL KNOTT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I vow to live always at trash point: to
Last Line: To the inchworm's socialization progress.
Alternate Author Name(s): Saint Geraud; Knott, William
Subject(s): Dictionaries; Language; Lips; Progress; Words; Vocabulary


MOTHER AND DAUGHTER; AN UNCOMPLETED SONNET SEQUENCE: 21, by AUGUSTA DAVIES WEBSTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hardly in any common tender wise
Last Line: So gives back such a meaning in her own.
Alternate Author Name(s): Home, Cecil; Webster, Mrs. Julia Augusta
Subject(s): Language; Mothers & Daughters; Words; Vocabulary


MY LIFE: REASON LOOKS FOR TWO, THEN ARRANGES IT FROM THERE, by LYN HEJINIAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where I woke and was awake, in the
Last Line: Duration. Language makes / tracks
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MY NAME, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A child saw my name passing into
Subject(s): Self; Names; Language; Words; Vocabulary


NATURE AND LANGUAGE, by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oft, when some happy thought for song is found
Last Line: While all our sweetest thoughts go safe to heaven.
Subject(s): Language; Nature; Words; Vocabulary


NAVIGATION, by JAMES GALVIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Evergreens have reasons
Subject(s): Language; Mountains; Mouths; Nature; Navigation; Sky; Trees; Words; Vocabulary; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


NERVES: TERRORIST FOR LANGUAGE, by ANNE WALDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Nerves, blind / attraction to
Subject(s): Language; Literary Form; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


NEUTRA'S WINDOW, by MARTHA RONK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Behind the glass barrier by moving her lips
Subject(s): Children; Obedience; Language; Childhood; Words; Vocabulary


NEW, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We knew./anne to come
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NIEGE FONDANT, by BARBARA GUEST            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Seen on the whimpering screen the white ruff a tongue wags out numbered
Subject(s): Weather; Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOT KNOWING THE LANGUAGE, by MARTHA RONK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A tendency towards mannerism and widening the streets
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE 1, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE 4, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who did he talk to
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOVEL CONVERSATION, by MAXWELL BODENHEIM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Men believe that I can speak
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOYTA CCCP, by CHRISTIAN BOK            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


O, by RITA DOVE            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Shape the lips to say an o, say a
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


O-U-G-H. A FRESH HACK AT AN OLD KNOT, by CHARLES BATTELL LOOMIS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I'm taught p-l-o-u-g-h
Last Line: And killed him wiz a rough.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


OF BEING NUMEROUS, 3, by GEORGE OPPEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: The emotions are engaged
Subject(s): Language; New York City; Words; Vocabulary; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


OF CERTAIN ADJECTUIVES, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A 'generous' liquor! Ah, if generous
Last Line: God for the right!
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Language; Words; Vocabulary


ON RHYME AND BLANK VERSE, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What a deal of impertinent stuff at this time
Last Line: All the bus'ness he knows is—to execute well.
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Rhyme; Singing & Singers; Words; Vocabulary; Songs


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


ON THE DISPOSITION OF MIND, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To hear the words of scripture, or to read
Last Line: To seek the truth, receive it, and retain.
Subject(s): Bible; Books; Language; Reading; Words; Vocabulary


ON THE DISPOSITION OF MIND (2), by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We ought to read, my worthy friend ponthieu
Last Line: The book of books is ev'ry man's own heart.
Subject(s): Books; Language; Religious Education; Reading; Words; Vocabulary; Sunday Schools; Yeshivas; Parochial Schools


ON THE ROAD TO LARRY ROBIN'S BOOKSTORE, by ELEANOR WILNER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Are many monsters -- the ashes of the members
Last Line: 100 poets reading for robin's
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilner, Eleanor Rand
Subject(s): Booksellers; Language; Literature; Pornography; Bookstores; Words; Vocabulary


ON THE WORDS IN POETRY, by DYLAN THOMAS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You want to know why and how I just began to write poetry
Last Line: Ephemeral lives dangerous, great, and bearable
Subject(s): Language; Men; Words; Vocabulary


ON THOUGHTS, by MARGARET E. HENDRICKSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Busy with thoughts
Last Line: That go ever astray.
Subject(s): Language; Mankind; Thought; Words; Vocabulary; Human Race; Thinking


OUR LADY OF CONGRESS, by PRIMUS ST. JOHN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The opposition likes dry poems
Last Line: But the luck we have left.
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Slavery; Words; Vocabulary; Serfs


OUT OF A WAR OF WITS, by DYLAN THOMAS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of a war of wits, when folly of words
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PALIMPSEST, by BERNICE LESBIA KENYON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Is it not strange to think that you alone
Last Line: Now it were better if you had not read?
Alternate Author Name(s): Gilkyson, Walter, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


PAN-AMERICA, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Pan-america, glorious name!
Last Line: But -- who holds the handle and what's in the pan?
Subject(s): Language; South America; Words; Vocabulary


PANAMA, by E. ETHELBERT MILLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the early twenties
Subject(s): Immigrants; Language; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration; Words; Vocabulary


PARADISE LIGHTNING DAZZLE: 8. EQUIVALENTS, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here's `bride' and `bridge,'
Last Line: The crashing cataract spews.
Subject(s): Equality; Heaven; Language; Paradise; Words; Vocabulary


PARADOXES AND OXYMORONS, by JOHN ASHBERY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


PARSLEY, by RITA DOVE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a parrot imitating spring
Subject(s): Dominican Republic; Language; Parsley; Racism; Trujillo, Rafael (1891-1961); Words; Vocabulary; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


PARTING CONEY ISLAND, by KENNETH PATCHEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We had so much to say; we had no faith in words
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PASSAGE, by BARBARA GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Words/after all
Subject(s): Language; Nature; Words; Vocabulary


PASSIVE PARTICIPLE'S PETITION, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Urban, or sylvan, or whatever name
Last Line: Of preter tense, and participle too.
Subject(s): Language; Magazines; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


PERMANENTLY, by KENNETH KOCH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: One day the nouns were clustered in the street
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PERSIMMONS, by LI-YOUNG LEE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In sixth grade mrs. Walker / slapped the back of my head
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Education; Exiles; Language; Marginality, Social; Persimmons; Schools; Estrangement; Outcasts; Words; Vocabulary; Students


PICKING BLACKBERRIES WITH A FRIEND .. READING JACQUES LACAN, by ROBERT HASS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: August dust is here. Drought
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PIED BEAUTY, by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Glory be to god for dappled things
Last Line: Praise him.
Subject(s): Beauty; Christianity; Environment; Fields; God; Language; Men; Nature; Religion; Worship; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas; Words; Vocabulary; Theology


PITCHER, by ROBERT FRANCIS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: His art is eccentricity, his aim
Subject(s): Baseball; Language; Men; Sports; Words; Vocabulary


POEMS, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When you come back to me / it will be crow time
Last Line: The madness of my tongue.
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


POEMS FROM LEFT, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There's something wrong that can't be salved
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Language; Human Behavior; Words; Vocabulary; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


POETIC MUSE, by OLIVER MURRAY EDWARDS    Poem Text                    
First Line: With rhythm true the heart doth beat
Last Line: And words, like music, then escape.
Subject(s): Language; Muses; Music & Musicians; Words; Vocabulary


POETRY, by JANE MILLER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Invited onto the grounds of the god
Last Line: Being made into words even as we speak.
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


POETRY IS A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE, by WALLACE STEVENS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That's what misery is
Last Line: It can kill a man
Subject(s): Language; Men; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


POETRY: WHAT IS IT?, by LEVI BISHOP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What is poetry? This question has been often propounded
Last Line: Rank and character of a true poet.
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


PONDYCHERRY, by BRENDAN GALVIN    Poem Text                 Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: The way some people sing for themselves
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


POOEM, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I, too, once hoped to have a hoopoe
Last Line: (sighed) your far-off friend, u.E.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


POSITED, by JAMES MCMICHAEL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: That as all parts of it
Subject(s): Water; Language; Words; Vocabulary


PRETTY, by FLORENCE MARGARET SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why is the word pretty so underrated?
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Stevie
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PRETTY WORDS, by ELINOR WYLIE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Poets make pets of pretty, docile words
Last Line: Gilded and sticky, with a little sting.
Alternate Author Name(s): Benet, William Rose, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION: PROBLEMS OF LANGUAGE, by JUNE JORDAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I turn to my rand mcnally atlas
Last Line: Por la mañanita
Subject(s): Language; Social Commentary; Words; Vocabulary


PROMISCUOUS, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mixes easily, dictionaries
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Language; Human Behavior; Words; Vocabulary; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


PROSE 31, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A logical principle is said to be an empty
Subject(s): Philosophy & Philosophers; Language; Words; Vocabulary


PROVERBS 25, SELECTION, by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE    Poem Text                    
First Line: A word fitly spoken
Last Line: Is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


PURSUIT OF THE WORD, by ROBERT FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What, shall there be word single to express
Last Line: Over the blackened hills that hid the sun?
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


QUESTIONNAIRE, by CHARLES BERNSTEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Directions: for each pair of sentences, circle the letter, a or b, that best
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Language; Words; Vocabulary


READING HENRY FOWLER'S MODERN ENGLISH USAGE IN SALT LAKE CITY ..., by NATASHA SAJE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You note the one 'r' in iridescent
Subject(s): Fowler, Henry (1858-1933); Language; Words; Vocabulary


REASON AND SONG, by MAY FOLWELL HOISINGTON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Priestess ordained of the high god of speech
Last Line: But not more heartbreaking.
Subject(s): Language; Reason; Words; Vocabulary; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


RECURSUS, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The voice, because of its austerity, will often cause dust to rise.
Subject(s): Voices; Language; Words; Vocabulary


REMEMBERING WILD WORDS, by REX HUNTER    Poem Text                    
First Line: I remember the wild words, the drunken words, the boast-
Last Line: Before the smirking bully knocked them flat with his bony fist.
Subject(s): Death; Language; Memory; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


REPETITION OF WORDS AND WEATHER, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A basket of dirty clothes
Subject(s): Words; Weather; Washerwomen; Poetry & Poets


REPROACH TO DEAD POETS, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You who have spoken words in the earth
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


RESERVE, by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Keep back the one word more
Last Line: Lacking that word, you shall be poor indeed.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


RHETORIC, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is man's noblest edifice. All else
Last Line: Beats futile hands on vague, invisible walls.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


RIDDLE: WORDS, by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: From rosy bowers we issue forth
Alternate Author Name(s): Aikin, Anna Letitia
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


RIGORISTS, by MARIANNE MOORE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We saw reindeer
Subject(s): Language; Men; Reindeer; Words; Vocabulary


ROMANCE, by REBECCA WOLFF    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sometimes even now I get this feeling
Subject(s): Hitchhikers; Loneliness; Language; Words; Vocabulary


RONDEAU, by AMELIA WOODWARD TRUESDELL    Poem Text                    
First Line: O jack, don't tease me every day
Last Line: "that little word, ""I love."
Subject(s): Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


SAMOVAR LOVE COMPONENT, by KHALED MATTAWA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I love the word samovar, and I love
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SAYING NOT MEANING, by WILLIAM BASIL WAKE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Two gentlemen their appetite had fed
Last Line: "sir, I meant -- capers!"
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS SWEPT CLEAN, by ERIC PANKEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Words are but an entrance, a door cut deep into cold clay
Subject(s): Graves; Language; Tombs; Tombstones; Words; Vocabulary


SERMON ON LANGUAGE, by ROBERT KELLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: But in my heart
Last Line: Quench my thirst!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SESTINA: AS THERE ARE SUPPORT GROUPS, THERE ARE SUPPORT WORDS, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When visiting a distant (and imponderable) shire,
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SF, by DAVID LEHMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sf stood for sigmund freud, or serious folly
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SHIFT, by KAY RYAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Words have loyalties
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SHORT NOTE ON THE SPARSENESS OF THE LANGUAGE, by DIANE DI PRIMA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Wow man I said
Last Line: And my two books and cut and that was that
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SHORT WORDS, by GERALD STERN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Some dried-up phlox so old the blue was white
Subject(s): Death; Language; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


SI, SI, E.E., by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Warm legend, blue shadow
Last Line: (& yes, they wore great big hats, size extra large
Subject(s): Books; Cummings, E. E. (1894-1962); Language; Poetry & Poets; Reading; Words; Vocabulary


SIMILIES, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: As wet as a fish - as dry as a bone
Subject(s): Language;metaphor; Words;vocabulary;similes


SINCE YOU ASKED ME ...., by MONA VAN DUYN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: For the sweet sake of inscapes
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 50, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A pin has a head, but has no hair
Last Line: And baby crows, without being a cock.
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Variant Title(s): A Pin
Subject(s): Language; Nonsense; Words; Vocabulary


SIX FROM ARNO HOLZ'S ?Ç£PHANTASUS?Ç¥, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I want to know all the secrets!
Last Line: Into a golden chamber pot
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Language; Words; Vocabulary


SIX WORDS, by LLOYD SCHWARTZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Yes / no
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I beg to dicker with my silver-tongued companion
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SMALL TALK, by JOANIE MACKOWSKI    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Someone pours more wine. A black moth opens
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SO I KNOW, by HICOK. BOB    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He put moisturizer the morning he shot
Last Line: Of this word, / suddenly
Subject(s): Language; Social Commentary; Words; Vocabulary


SOME WODS INSIDE OF WORDS, by RICHARD WILBUR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If you've washed your clothes, and they are still wringing wet
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SONG, by WINIFRED LUCAS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Hast thou gems for men to see
Last Line: "than of thee."
Alternate Author Name(s): Le Bailly, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Thought; Words; Vocabulary; Thinking


SONG: 97, by THOMAS WYATT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Madam, I you require
Last Line: Ye get not that ye lack.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wyat, Thomas
Subject(s): Language; Truth; Women; Words; Vocabulary


SONGS FOR MY MOTHER: 3. HER WORDS, by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother has the prettiest tricks
Last Line: How beautiful they are.
Variant Title(s): Her Words
Subject(s): Language; Mothers; Words; Vocabulary


SONNET, by BERNADETTE MAYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Name address date
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SONNET: 41, by THOMAS WYATT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: By bolstered words I am borne in hand
Last Line: Is my 'no fears' of your 'no faith'.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wyat, Thomas
Subject(s): Faith; Fear; Language; Belief; Creed; Words; Vocabulary


SONNET: 65, by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
Last Line: That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Variant Title(s): "time And Love (2);""since Brass, Nor Stone, Nor Earth, Nor Boundless Sea"";
Subject(s): Beauty; Language; Men; Time; Words; Vocabulary


SOON, by CHASE TWICHELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I say the word walk, or even spell it,
Subject(s): Language; Dogs; Words; Vocabulary


SOONEST MENDED, by JOHN ASHBERY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Barely tolerated, living on the margin
Subject(s): Language; Time; Words; Vocabulary


SOUND-POSTURE, by ROBERT FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What we do get in life and miss so often in literature
Last Line: And concrete symbol of communication in language
Subject(s): Language; Men; Words; Vocabulary


SPANISH LESSON, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We look down into a garden
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SPECIAL WORDS, by BURGES JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother she has special words
Last Line: Don't really mean so awful much.
Subject(s): Children; Language; Mothers; Childhood; Words; Vocabulary


STEPS, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A man letters the sign for his grocery in arabic and english
Last Line: Making the shadows that cross each other's smiles.
Subject(s): Advertising; Children; Language; Letters; Signs & Signboards; Childhood; Words; Vocabulary


STILL THERE ARE WORDS, by MINNIE MARKHAM KERR    Poem Text                    
First Line: Still there are words that never will be said!
Last Line: Have almost captured them and made them mine.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


STUDY NATURE, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I do. / victim.
Subject(s): Nature; Language; Words; Vocabulary


SUGAR, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A violent luck and a whole sample and even then quiet
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SUN, by MICHAEL PALMER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Write this. We have burned all their villages
Subject(s): Language; Sun; Words; Vocabulary


SWEAR IT, by MARGE PIERCY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother swore ripely, inventively
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


SWEATER WEATHER: A LOVE SONG TO LANGUAGE, by SHARON BRYAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Never better, mad as a hatter
Subject(s): Language; Rhyme; Words; Vocabulary


SYMBOLS, by CHARD POWERS SMITH    Poem Text                    
First Line: It has been hard to learn that hair
Last Line: He sits his throne. I climb to mine.
Subject(s): Hair; Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


SYMPHONY NO. 3, IN D MINOR, by JONATHAN WILLIAMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Nature; Writering & Writers; Animals; Words; Vocabulary


SYMPOSIUM, by PAUL MULDOON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it hold
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TAKING A WALK WITH YOU, by KENNETH KOCH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My misunderstandings: for years I thought muno bello meant
Subject(s): Language; Knowledge; Words; Vocabulary


TALENT, by MARION D. KENDALL    Poem Text                    
First Line: I am a namer of words
Last Line: I am a poet.
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


TALKING TO THE MOON, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A defeated politician is in circulation
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Language; Moon; Words; Vocabulary


TENDER BUTTONS: A SUBSTANCE IN A CUSHION, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The change of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar is not a
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE, by MARTHA RONK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When having finished .....The
Subject(s): Writing & Writers; Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE ABRACADABRA BOYS, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Social Classes; Words; Vocabulary; Caste


THE ADJECTIVE, by WILLIAM WATSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Look not too coldly or too proudly down
Last Line: Won him salaams who else had noteless passed.
Alternate Author Name(s): Watson, John William
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE ADMISSION, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: If you love me
Last Line: To you.
Subject(s): Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


THE ADMONITION BY THE AUCTOR TO ALL YONG GENTILWOMEN, by ISABELLA WHITNEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ye virgins that from cupid's tents
Last Line: I live this hundred yeares.
Subject(s): Language; Love - Nature Of; Words; Vocabulary


THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE, by ALFRED FRANCIS KREYMBORG    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: One by one, the scholars come to learn the puritan tongue
Last Line: The thirteen parallel pioneer stripes, justified and multiplied.
Subject(s): Language; New England; Puritans; Words; Vocabulary


THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#13): 1. ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND THUNDER, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When the dead man hears thunder, he thinks someone is speaking
Last Line: The dead man speaks god's language.
Subject(s): Death; God; Language; Religion; Speech; Spirituality; Thunder; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary; Theology; Oratory; Orators


THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#63), by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dead man has up-the-stairs walking disorder
Last Line: The dead man stands for living anyway.
Subject(s): Death; Language; Love; Sickness; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary; Illness


THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#65), by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dead man struggles not to become crabby, chronic or hypothetical
Last Line: When the river met the shore.
Subject(s): Death; Keller, Helen (1880-1968); Language; Poetry & Poets; Reason; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#68), by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The dead man likes it when the soup simmers and the kettle hisses
Last Line: Some say the dead man was miserable to be so happy.
Subject(s): Death; Language; Happiness; Story-telling; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


THE BREEZE, by TOM SLEIGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Wnd; Words; Vocabulary


THE CARELESS WORD, by CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH SHERIDAN NORTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A word is ringing through my brain
Last Line: Dwell weeping on a careless word.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Pearce; Stirling-maxwell, Lady; Norton, The Honourable Mrs. Caroline
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE CHURCH WARDEN AND THE CURATE, by ALFRED TENNYSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Eh? Good daay! Good daay! Thaw it bean't not mooch of a daay
Last Line: Fur they leaved their nasty sins I' my pond, an' it poison'd the cow.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tennyson, Lord Alfred; Tennyson, 1st Baron; Tennyson Of Aldworth And Farringford, Baron
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE CLUE, by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, frame some little word for me
Last Line: Save hers for whom thou makest it.
Alternate Author Name(s): Roge, Mme.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE COMING OF THE WORDS, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wistful words, singing words, come to me at times
Last Line: Of love, and give my longing a presence and a name!
Subject(s): Language; Life; Love; Soul; Tears; Words; Vocabulary


THE COOL WEB, by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Children are dumb to say how hot the day is
Subject(s): Heat; Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE COUNTRY OF BOUNDERS, by ERNEST FRANCIS O'FERRALL    Poem Text                    
First Line: The coach was creaking up the hill, the straining nags were nodding
Last Line: "then drawled, ""hey, boss! Them blankers there is native 'boundahs' bounding!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Kodak
Subject(s): England; Kangaroos; Language; English; Words; Vocabulary


THE DREAM REALM; WRITTEN WHILE HEARING ONE SINGING IN A FOREIGN TONGUE, by MAE BAKER HENLINE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Dear mona, asleep by the wonder well
Last Line: Singing no more, you have left me ... A rose.
Subject(s): Language; Singing & Singers; Words; Vocabulary; Songs


THE EAR IS AN ORGAN MADE FOR LOVE, by E. ETHELBERT MILLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was the language that left us first
Subject(s): Language; Love; Music & Musicians; Words; Vocabulary


THE EMPRESS HOTEL POEMS, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Just get up / and sit down again. Then
Last Line: In the other poem.
Subject(s): Hotels; Housekeeping; Language; Rooms; Tourists; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses; Words; Vocabulary


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 1, CANTOS 1-3, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Lo! I the man, whose muse whylome did maske
Last Line: More mild, in beastly kind, then that her beastly foe.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 2, CANTOS 1-3, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Right well I wote most mighty soueraine
Last Line: And to be easd of that base burden still did erne.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 3, CANTOS 1-3, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It falls me here to write of chastity
Last Line: The redcrosse knight diverst, but forth rode britomart.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 4, CANTOS 1-3, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The rugged forhead that with grave foresight
Last Line: That since their days such lovers were not found elswhere.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 5, CANTOS 1-3, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So oft as I with state of present time
Last Line: We on his first adventure may him forward send.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 6, CANTOS 1-3, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The waies, through which my weary steps I guyde
Last Line: That in another canto shall to end be brought.
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FAERIE QUEENE: BOOK 7. TWO CANTOS OF MUTABILITY, by EDMUND SPENSER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What man that sees the ever-whirling wheele
Last Line: O that great sabbaoth god graunt me that sabaoths sight!
Alternate Author Name(s): Clout, Colin
Subject(s): Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400); Country Life; England; Fables; Knights & Knighthood; Language; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Sleep; Virtue; English; Allegories; Words; Vocabulary; Ethics


THE FATALIST: THE BEST WORDS, by LYN HEJINIAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The best words get said frequently—they are like fertile pips
Last Line: For whom r would have released a flock of red canaries
Subject(s): Language; Books; Words; Vocabulary; Reading


THE FENCE OF THE TEETH, by RACHEL HADAS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Not the burgeoning season (late may, early june) nor the centry fast
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE FLYING WORDS, by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now through the skies do come impetuous messengers
Last Line: In the staring terrible hours when sleep is slow.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE FORGOTTEN DIALECT OF THE HEART, by JACK GILBERT    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: How astonishing it is that language can almost mean,
Subject(s): Language; Ancestors & Ancestry; Words; Vocabulary


THE GIFT OF TONGUES, by JOHN HENRY NEWMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once cast with men of language strange
Last Line: And then flits back to heaven?
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN ADJECTIVE, by W. T. GOODGE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The sunburnt - stockman stood
Last Line: "_____!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Goodge, William Thomas
Subject(s): Language; Obscenity; Words; Vocabulary


THE HEART, by FRANCIS THOMPSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The heart you hold too small and local thing
Last Line: The grandeurs of his babylonian heart.
Variant Title(s): All's Vast
Subject(s): Criticism & Critics; Hearts; Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE HOLE IN THE SEA, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It's there
Last Line: The driest thing there is.
Subject(s): Courage; Language; Religion; Sea; Secrets; Spirituality; Story-telling; Valor; Bravery; Words; Vocabulary; Theology; Ocean


THE ILLITERATE, by WILLIAM MEREDITH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Touching your goodness, I am like a man
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Morris
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE INARTICULATE, by LELIA S. MARSTALLER    Poem Text                    
First Line: We are the inarticulate who know
Last Line: Who have no language save to curse our fate.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE INVADERS, by ROBERT KELLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Given: / when he saw the shape of the cloud
Last Line: All I could do was say them so I did
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE KING'S HORSES, by HERBERT H. LONGFELLOW    Poem Text                    
First Line: I have been thinking about the sensibilities of a word
Last Line: I must wait.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE LANGUAGE, by ROBERT CREELEY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Locate I / love you some- / where in
Subject(s): Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


THE LAST WORD, by TOM SLEIGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As if your half-witted tongue
Subject(s): Death; Language; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


THE LATIN TONGUE, by JAMES J. DALY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Like a loud-booming bell shaking its tower
Last Line: Ran straight for comfort up to god.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE LOVE POEMS OF MARICHIKO: 26, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is the time when
Last Line: Brant write the character “heart”
Subject(s): Hearts; Language; Nature; Words; Vocabulary


THE MAN WHOSE VOICE HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM HIS THROAT, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Remains all supple hands and gesture
Last Line: Like an answer
Subject(s): Language; Silence; Words; Vocabulary


THE MASK, by KAREN SWENSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In open palm the old man cradles his
Last Line: I leave with her naked countenance.
Subject(s): Language; Travel; Words; Vocabulary; Journeys; Trips


THE MESSENGER, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In a wild merriment of wind and bird
Last Line: "blind to our agonies of death and birth!"
Subject(s): Death; Language; Life; Messages & Messengers; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


THE MUNICH MANNEQUINS, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Silence; Language; Munich, Germany; Words; Vocabulary


THE MUSE, by ELEANOR WILNER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There she was, for centuries, the big
Last Line: The writer.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilner, Eleanor Rand
Subject(s): Alexander The Great (356-323 B.c.); Language; Muses; Poetry & Poets; Psychoanalysis; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary; Psychoanalysts; Psychotherapy


THE NEED FOR DICTIONARIES II, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What is named
Last Line: By its disguises.
Subject(s): Dictionaries; Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE NURSERY SAGE, by RAY CLARKE ROSE    Poem Text                    
First Line: I know a quaint philosopher
Last Line: That fond expression—dad!
Subject(s): Babies; Fathers; Language; Mothers; Infants; Words; Vocabulary


THE OBSOLETION OF A LANGUAGE, by KAY RYAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: We knew it / would happen,
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE OFFERING, by ANITA GRAY CHANDLER    Poem Text                    
First Line: If I could change these words to flow'rs
Last Line: May never reach your heart.
Subject(s): Language; Singing & Singers; Words; Vocabulary; Songs


THE ORGY ON PARNASSUS, by WILLIAM WATSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You phrase-tormenting fantastic chorus
Last Line: And here was a bard shall outlast you all.
Alternate Author Name(s): Watson, John William
Subject(s): Language; Life; Love; Muses; Parnassus (mountain), Greece; Words; Vocabulary


THE P.R.B.: 2, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The p.R.B. Is in its decadence: / for woolner in australia cooks his chops
Last Line: And so the consummated p.R.B.
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Subject(s): Hunt, Holman (1827-1910); Language; Millais, Sir John E. (1829-1896); Pre-raphaelites; Rivers; Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882); Smoking; Words; Vocabulary; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes


THE PIG IN THE SPIGOT, by RICHARD WILBUR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Because he swings so neatly through the trees
Last Line: An ape feels natural in the word trapeze
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE POEM OF THE LITTLE HOUSE AT THE CORNER OF MISAPPREHENSION AND MARVEL, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE POET, by MARIAN PHILLIPS JOHNSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: The poet reads and lives - and learns to feel
Last Line: Do blend -- escaping not -- save through his pen!
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


THE POWER OF WORDS, by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis a strange mystery, the power of words!
Last Line: A word is but a breath of passing air.
Alternate Author Name(s): L. E. L.; Maclean, Letitia
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE PUZZLED CENSUS-TAKER, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Got any boys?' the marshal said
Last Line: The lady from over the rhine.
Variant Title(s): Nein' Boys And Girls
Subject(s): Census; Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE RED WHEELBARROW, by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: So much depends
Subject(s): Language; Wheelbarrows; Words; Vocabulary


THE SAXON LEGEND OF LANGUAGE, by MARY WESTON FORDHAM    Poem Text                    
First Line: The earth was young, the world was fair
Last Line: To mate or man, or beast or bird.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE SONGS OF MAXIMUS: SONG 1, by CHARLES OLSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Colored pictures
Subject(s): Language; City & Town Life; Words; Vocabulary


THE TIME OF OUR LIVES, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Not sated first, then sad (the two words branch
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE TRADE-OFF, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Words make the thoughts.
Subject(s): Language; Knowledge; Words; Vocabulary


THE TWO, by PHILIP LEVINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When he gets off work at packard, they meet
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Restaurants; Language; Past; Grief; Male-female Relations; Cafes; Diners; Words; Vocabulary; Sorrow; Sadness


THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The wise men ask, 'what language did christ speak?'
Last Line: Christ spoke the universal language—love.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Jesus Christ; Language; Words; Vocabulary


THE WHALER'S ODYSSEY, by C. H. WINTER    Poem Text                    
First Line: I met him on the lachlan side
Last Line: When he pursued that gundaroo!
Alternate Author Name(s): Riverina
Subject(s): Language; Story-telling; Travel; Whales; Words; Vocabulary; Journeys; Trips


THE WHOLE WORLD'S SADLY TALKING TO ITSELF - W. B . YEATS, by JAMES TATE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hands full of sand, I say
Subject(s): Language; Farewell; Words; Vocabulary; Parting


THE WORD (1), by CHARLES BUKOWSKI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The word has no legs or eyes
Last Line: Getting it / down
Subject(s): Language; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


THE WORD (2), by CHARLES BUKOWSKI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There was auden, I don't remember
Last Line: After we are / not
Subject(s): Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973); Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


THE WORDS OF BELIEF, by JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Three words will I name thee -- around and about
Last Line: Till in those three words he believes no more.
Alternate Author Name(s): Schiller, Friedrich Von
Subject(s): Faith; Language; Belief; Creed; Words; Vocabulary


THE WORDS-AND-MUSIC MEN, by DAVID WAGONER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They said they could make up songs
Subject(s): Language; Music & Musicians; Words; Vocabulary


THEIR LONELY BETTERS, by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As I listen from a beach-chair in the shade
Alternate Author Name(s): Auden, W. H.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THERE IS NO WORD, by TONY HOAGLAND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There isn’t a word for walking out of the grocery store
Last Line: I have willingly poured into it
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


THESE DAYS, by CHARLES OLSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whatever you have to say
Subject(s): Language; Men; Words; Vocabulary


THREES, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was a boy when I heard three red words
Last Line: Ham and eggs -- how much? -- and -- do you love me, kid?
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TIE-DOWN OF A BONSAI, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A ladder propped against a rainbow
Subject(s): Bonsai; Language; Music & Musicians; Rainbows; Words; Vocabulary


TO -, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As, in lone fairy-lands, up some rich shelf
Last Line: Far from all words where love lies fathomless.
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert
Subject(s): Love; Language; Words; Vocabulary


TO A THESAURUS, by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O precious codex, volume, tome
Last Line: Farewell! Adieu! Good-by! So long!
Alternate Author Name(s): F. P. A.
Subject(s): Language; Thesaurus; Words; Vocabulary


TO A THESAURUS, by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O precious code, volume, tome
Last Line: Farewell! Adieu! Good-by! So long!
Alternate Author Name(s): F. P. A.
Subject(s): Language; Thesaurus; Words; Vocabulary


TO HELEN KELLER, by CRAVEN LANGSTROTH BETTS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Out from the dark leaved life, bloomed hope, riped love
Last Line: Thus one brave heart ten thousand souls can stay.
Subject(s): Faith; Hope; Keller, Helen (1880-1968); Language; Love; Belief; Creed; Optimism; Words; Vocabulary


TO HIS FRIEND TO AVOID CONTENTION OF WORDS, by ROBERT HERRICK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Words beget anger: anger brings forth blowes
Last Line: Then for to murder friendship, by dispute.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TO IGNACE PADEREWSKI, by THOMAS AUGUSTINE DALY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Not yours? The softly spoken word
Last Line: The country of the heart?
Alternate Author Name(s): Daly, T. A.
Subject(s): Language; Nations; Poland; Words; Vocabulary


TO MRS. GOODCHILD, by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The night-winds shriek is pitiless and hollow
Last Line: Send the beforenamed book -- and am yours most sincerely.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TO NO ONE IN PARTICULAR, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whether you sing or scream
Last Line: To no one in particular.
Subject(s): Language; Murder; Poetry & Poets; Singing & Singers; Words; Vocabulary; Songs


TO ONE WHO SCANTS WORDS, by IRENE M. MORSE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Love me, my dear, and tell me that you do
Last Line: Love me, my dear, and tell me that you do.
Subject(s): Hearts; Language; Love - Nature Of; Passion; Romance; Words; Vocabulary


TO THE READER: IF YOU ASKED ME, by CHASE TWICHELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I want you with me, and yet you are the end
Subject(s): Language; Books; Words; Vocabulary; Reading


TO WALT WHITMAN, by TOM MACINNES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hello there, walt!
Last Line: Forever on their own!
Subject(s): Admiration; Language; Poetry & Poets; Praise; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. NOT OF MYSELF, by EDWARD CARPENTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not of myself - I have no power over myself
Last Line: Those who do not read them.
Subject(s): Language; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


TOWARDS THE DAY OF LIBERATION, by ROBERT KELLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It doesnt matter what we see there
Last Line: The shadow's own
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TRANSLATION, by DEIRDRE O'CONNOR    Poem Text                    
First Line: Though there's no such thing as a 'self,' I missed it
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TWO DEFINITIONS, by HELEN FIELD WATSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Adaptability is constant willingness
Last Line: To take detours. But purpose means a forward press.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


TWO PARTS, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Listen to me
Last Line: Puking long streams of it
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


TWO ST. PETERSBURGS, by HEATHER MCHUGH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The statue turned
Subject(s): Language; Saint Petersburg, Florida; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Words; Vocabulary; Leningrad; Petrograd


TWO STONES WITH ONE BIRD, by CHARLES BERNSTEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


UNSPOKEN WORDS, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: The kindly words that rise within the heart
Last Line: Will strike another when in turn you seek
Subject(s): Kindness;language; Words;vocabulary


UP FROM SLOBBERY, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): African Americans; Language; Social Commentaries; Negroes; American Blacks; Words; Vocabulary


USELESS WORDS, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So long as we speak the same language and do not understand each other
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


VENTRILOQUISM, by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You girls by moonlight lovered
Subject(s): Language; Flirtation; Words; Vocabulary


VERBA DE VERBO VITAE, by ARMEL O'CONNOR    Poem Text                    
First Line: How vain, the world's artillery of words
Last Line: And bless a poet's singleness of heart.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


VERBAL CALISTHENICS, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My love for you is more
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


VERBUM INDICTUM, by EDITH FOLWELL HUDSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Words are hid in the depths of me
Last Line: But the spoken word is master of me!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


VERSES ON DANGER OF ATTACHING WRONG IDEAS TO WORDS OR EPITHETS, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis not to tell what various mischief springs
Last Line: Resolv'd to post him for an arrant cheat.
Subject(s): Idealism; Language; Words; Vocabulary


VIGILS, by JOSEPHINE MILES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We are talking about metaphor
Subject(s): Language; Metaphor; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary; Similes


VIRGIDEMIAE: BOOK 1: SATIRE 6, by JOSEPH HALL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Another scorns the home-spun threed of rimes
Last Line: New coyne of words neuer articulate.
Subject(s): Language; Virgil (70-19 B.c.); Words; Vocabulary; Vergil


VOCABULARY OF DEARNESS, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How a single word
Last Line: And where is the rake?
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


VOLAPUK, by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN KING    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When I can speak
Last Line: Volapuk.
Alternate Author Name(s): King, Ben
Subject(s): Language; Travel; Words; Vocabulary; Journeys; Trips


VOWELS, by CHRISTIAN BOK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Loveless vessels
Last Line: We lose
Subject(s): Language; Vowels; Words; Vocabulary


W (A USER'S MANUAL), by CHRISTIAN BOK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is the v you double, not the u, as if to use
Last Line: At a vowel at a powwow in between sawteeth
Subject(s): Language; Vowels; Words; Vocabulary


WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE, by KAY RYAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That's water under
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WAY OPPOSITE, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The opposite of walk?
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WELLS II, by MICHAEL ONDAATJE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The last sinhala word I lost
Subject(s): Language; Childhood Memories; Farewell; Loss; Water; Words; Vocabulary; Parting


WHAT THE TEACHER LEARNS, by RUTH STONE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The student from taiwan,
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WHAT'S HERE, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Idaho potatoes have made it to honolulu
Last Line: I'll go soon. And, don't remember me.
Subject(s): Honolulu; Language; Travel; Words; Vocabulary; Journeys; Trips


WHEEL, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You can say the broken word but cannot speak
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WHEN HELEN KELLER SPOKE (WALT WHITMAN DINNER, 1918), by GEORGE JAY SMITH    Poem Text                    
First Line: After others had said their say
Last Line: Which she could not hear.
Subject(s): Keller, Helen (1880-1968); Language; Life; Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Words; Vocabulary


WHEN I WROTE A LITTLE, by HAYDEN CARRUTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Poem in the ancient mode for you
Last Line: The dark sure sea of our existence
Subject(s): Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


WHEN THE WORD 'BALSA: BECOMES ART, by VIRGIL SAUREZ    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Makeshift / is a word
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WHO IS TO SAY, by PALMER. MICHAEL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WHO SHAPES THE CARVEN WORD, by DAVID MORTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who shapes the carven word, the lean, true line
Last Line: And footprints that no mortal feet had made.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WHY NOT?, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "if bet bedecks herself with gems, bestirs herself when bid"
Last Line: "herself with food, and feel beglad a nice book to beread?"
Subject(s): Language; Words;vocabulary


WIPE THAT SIMILE OFF YOUR APHASIA, by HARRYETTE MULLEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As horses as for
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WOMAN, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Give us that grand word 'woman' once again
Last Line: And leave the lesser word for lesser praise.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Women; Words; Vocabulary


WORD DRUNK, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I think of the twenty thousand poems of li po
Last Line: Suffused with light.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary


WORD MADE FLESH, by KATHLEEN JESSIE RAINE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Word whose breath is the world-circling atmosphere
Last Line: A spirit clothed in world, a world made man?
Subject(s): Language; Religion; Words; Vocabulary; Theology


WORD PARK, by MATTHEA HARVEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Proper nouns are legible in any light and like to stay near their
Last Line: The photograph the water is bluer than blue
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORD POWER, by KAREN SWENSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: First doll, I rocked her blue-eyed blink in my lap
Last Line: "I proclaimed, ""dirty."
Subject(s): Dolls; Language; Names; Toys; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds
Last Line: But god himself can't kill them once they're said
Subject(s): Finality;language; Words;vocabulary


WORDS, by SAMUEL ALFRED BEADLE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Words are but leaves to the tree of mine
Last Line: Or the cindered dross of hell.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by LAURA M. BRADLEY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Oh, what are words? And what can words convey?
Last Line: To catch our swift emotions on the wing.
Subject(s): Language; Sonnet (as Literary Form); Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by GLADYS CROMWELL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Words are the stones I use in building
Last Line: I know the worth of your words to you!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by HAROLD CALEB DALTON    Poem Text                    
First Line: If music could be loosened from its bars
Last Line: When she stood white, above her wordless dead.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dalton, Power
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by ROBERT FINCH    Poem Text                    
First Line: There are words that can only be said on paper
Last Line: And the undetectable words used in their stead.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by BARBARA GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The simple contact with a wooden spoon and the word
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by CHARLES HARPUR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Words are deeds. The words we hear
Last Line: A nobler feat than inkerman.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by JOHN MILTON HAY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When violets were springing
Last Line: Though all the trees are bare.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by ELLA LOUISE LUICK    Poem Text                    
First Line: Not enough sweet words of love
Last Line: When you no longer live.
Subject(s): Language; Love; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by GRACE MANSFIELD    Poem Text                    
First Line: Our words are flame and ashes, fleet
Last Line: The coin we used along the way we went.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by SYLVIA PLATH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Axes / after whose stroke the wood rings
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Ted, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Words are lighter than the cloud-foam
Last Line: Echoes in god's skies.
Alternate Author Name(s): Berwick, Mary
Subject(s): Death; Hearts; Language; Life; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by BENJAMIN ROSENBAUM    Poem Text                    
First Line: I have known words as swift shod as the wind
Last Line: "words said with quiet thanks before ""amen."
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by LEW SARETT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He never flickered a muscle, never stirred
Last Line: And flood-tides find release.
Subject(s): Language; Passion; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by KATHERINE SEDGWICK    Poem Text                    
First Line: Words are coverings. - weddings
Last Line: From her bleak caverns to the sky.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Drudging democracy of words, alert
Last Line: All lips that move not to their maker's praise!
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, by LILLIAN E. ZELTZER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Words are so futile
Last Line: Words are so futile ...
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS ARE NEVER ENOUGH, by CHARLES TORY BRUCE    Poem Text                    
First Line: These are the fellows who smell of salt to the prairie
Last Line: These are the fellows who keep the salt in the blood.
Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Language; Nova Scotia; Anglers; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS INTO WORDS WON'T GO, by CLARENCE MAJOR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are no things rain is like
Last Line: There are no things change is like
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS O' CHEER, by ELIZABETH DOTEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Although not present to your sight
Last Line: Of heaven on ony.
Alternate Author Name(s): Doten, Lizzie
Subject(s): Language; Speeches & Addresses; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS OF PARTING, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The words of parting in our english tongue
Last Line: Farewell, -- our very souls are in that cry!
Subject(s): Farewell; Language; Life; Love; Soul; Tears; Parting; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS THE DREAMER SPOKE TO MY FATHER IN MAINE, by ROBERT BLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ocean light as we wake reminds us how dark
Last Line: We could be there if we could lift our eyes
Subject(s): Conversation; Language; Maine (state); Sea; Words; Vocabulary; Ocean


WORDS WHEN WE NEED THEM, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Before this early moment
Last Line: We could still say.
Subject(s): Dawn; Language; Morning; Silence; Sunrise; Words; Vocabulary


WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, by MARGARET WADE CAMPBELL DELAND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: I loved a maid (oh, she was fair of face!)
Last Line: I learned the maiden some one else had married!
Subject(s): Courtship; Language; Loss; Love - Loss Of; Time; Words; Vocabulary


WRITING IS AN AID TO MEMORY: 17, by LYN HEJINIAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The bird carries its peck up the branch
Last Line: " lighting by trees is beautiful
Subject(s): Nature; Language; Words; Vocabulary


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


YET DISH, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Put a sun in sunday, sunday.
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary