Poems

This page is about specific quotations from poetry.  You might be asked who wrote the line(s), or the title of poem that they come from.

For questions of the type "Who wrote such–and–such a poem?", and other stuff about poets (including poets laureate), see Poets.

For anything else that you might get asked about poetry (including terminology, poems and collections of poetry, and details of the contents of poems), see Poetry.

Quotation			Title		Poet
I sit in one of the dives On Fifty–second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade:			September 1, 1939		W. H. Auden
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone			Funeral Blues		W. H. Auden
This is the night mail crossing the border Bringing the cheque and the postal order			The Night Mail		W. H. Auden
Within the woodlands, flow'ry gladed, By the oak tree's mossy moot,			My Orcha'd in Linden Lea		William Barnes
And there for me the apple tree Do lean down low in ...
Red hair she had and golden skin Her sulky lips were shaped for sin			The Liquorice Fields at Pontefract		John Betjeman
Come friendly bombs, and fall on Slough It isn't fit for humans now			Slough		John Betjeman
Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun			A Subaltern's Love Song		John Betjeman
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old Age shall not wither them, nor the years decay			For the Fallen		Lawrence Binyon
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour A Robin Red breast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage			Auguries of Innocence		William Blake
Tyger! tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry			The Tyger		William Blake
Stands the church clock at ten to three, and is there honey still for tea?			The Old Vicarage, Grantchester		Rupert Brooke
An unofficial English rose ...
If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England			The Soldier		Rupert Brooke
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.			Sonnet 43		Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Oh, to be in England / Now that April's there			Home Thoughts, from Abroad		Robert Browning
Hamelin Town's in Brunswick, By famous Hanover city; The river Weser, deep and wide Washes its walls on the southern side ... (opening lines)			The Pied Piper of Hamelin		Robert Browning
Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats And bit the babies in the cradles ... (second verse)
Come in, the Mayor cried, looking bigger And in did come the strangest figure! His queer long coat from heel to head Was half of yellow and half of red ... (verse 5)
The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven– All's right with the world!			Pippa Passes		Robert Browning
O, my luve's like a red, red rose			A Red, Red Rose		Robert Burns
Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie (first line)			To a Mouse		Robert Burns
The best–laid schemes o mice an men Gang aft agley
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold			The Destruction of Sennacherib		Lord Byron
The mountains look on Marathon And Marathon looks on the sea			Don Juan		Lord Byron
And then there was champagne with foaming whirls As white as Cleopatra's melted pearls			Don Juan		Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies			She Walks in Beauty		Lord Byron
Where were the rapture then to clasp the form From this lewd grasp and lawless contact warm?			The Waltz		Lord Byron
So we'll go no more a–roving, so late into the night Though the heart be still as loving, and the Moon be still so bright			Well go no more a–roving		Lord Byron
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe			Jabberwocky (from Through the Looking Glass)		Lewis Carroll
All mimsy were the borogroves And the mome raths outgrabe …
… the jaws that bite, the claws that catch … and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!
The sun was shining on the sea Shining with all its might (opening lines)			The Walrus and the Carpenter
With monstrous head and sickening cry / And ears like errant wings, / The devil's walking parody / On all four–footed things. (Second verse)			The Donkey		G. K. Chesterton
White founts falling in the courts of the Sun (First line)			Lepanto
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, / The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road. (First lines)			The Rolling English Road
By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?			The Rime of the Ancient Mariner		Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water every where, Nor any drop to drink
Alone, alone; all, all alone
He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us He made and loveth all
At Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure–dome decree Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea			Kubla Khan		Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid And on her dulcimer she played Singing of Mount Abora
O for a closer walk with God A calm and heavenly frame			Olney Hymns, 1		William Cowper
God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform			Olney Hymns, 35		William Cowper
All hope abandon, ye who enter here			Inferno		Dante Alighieri
What is this life if full of care We have no time to stand and stare			Leisure		W. H. Davies
Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me The Carriage held but just Ourselves And Immortality			Because I Could not Stop for Death		Emily Dickinson
Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful …			Holy (Divine) Sonnet X		John Donne
Go, and catch a falling star / Get with child a mandrake root			Song
I am the love that dare not speak its name (last line)			Two Loves		Lord Alfred Douglas
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then / I haven't wished him dead			Havisham (1993)		Carol Ann Duffy
Go placidly amidst the noise and haste (first line)			Desiderata		Max Ehrmann
Let us go then, you and I When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table (opening lines)			The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock		T. S. Eliot
In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo
April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain. (Opening lines)			The Waste Land		T. S. Eliot
I will show you fear in a handful of dust
Shantih shantih sahntih (last line; shantih is Sanskrit for "inner peace")
The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on			The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam		(Edward Fitzgerald)
The curfew tolls the knell of passing day The lowly herd winds slowly oer the lea The ploughman homeward plods his weary way And leaves the world to darkness and to me			Elegy written in a Country Churchyard		Thomas Gray
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife …
The paths of glory lead but to the grave …
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise			Ode on a Distant Prospect		Thomas Gray
The boy stood on the burning deck Whence all but he had fled.			Casabianca		Mrs. F. D. Heman
My head is bloody, but unbowed			Invictus		William Ernest Henley
I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul (last two lines)
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may: first line of			To the Virgins, to make much of Time		Robert Herrick
His death, which happened in his berth At forty–odd befell; They went and told the sexton, and The sexton toll'd the bell			Faithless Sally Brown		Thomas Hood
I remember, I remember The house where I was born The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn			I remember, I remember		Thomas Hood
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds – November!			No!		Thomas Hood
Glory be to God for dappled things For skies of couple–colour as a brinded cow (first line)			Pied beauty		Gerard Manley Hopkins
Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? This is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.			A Shropshire lad		A. E. Housman
But since the man that runs away Lives to die another day, And cowards' funerals, when they come, Are not wept so well at home
Clunton and Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun, Are the quietest places Under the sun.
Drink to me only with thine eyes			To Celia		Ben Johnson
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness Close bosom friend of the maturing sun			Autumn		John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy forever (first line)			Endymion		John Keats
Deep in the shady sadness of a vale ... Sat gray–hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone (first and fourth lines)			Hyperion		John Keats
Souls of poets dead and gone What Elysium have ye known Happy field or mossy cavern Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?			Lines on the Mermaid Tavern		John Keats
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness Though foster–child of Silence and slow Time			Ode on a Grecian Urn		John Keats
Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know			Ode on a Grecian Urn		John Keats
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense As though of hemlock I had drunk (opening lines)			Ode to a Nightingale		John Keats
Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird
O for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cool'd a long age in the deep–delvèd earth
Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep? (ending of)
I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree			Trees		Alfred Joyce Kilmer
O East is East and West is West And ne'er the twain shall meet.			The Ballad of East and West		Rudyard Kipling
A woman is always a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke			The Betrothed		Rudyard Kipling
The Female of the Species is more deadly than the Male			The Female of the Species		Rudyard Kipling
Gentleman–rankers out on the spree Damned from here to eternity			Gentlemen–Rankers		Rudyard Kipling
Though I've belted you and flayed you By the living Gawd that made you You're a better man than I am …			Gunga Din		Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you …			If		Rudyard Kipling
If you can meet with triumph and disaster Ant treat those two impostors just the same ...
If you can fill each unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of battle run Yours is the world, and everything that's in it And what is more, you'll be a man my son.
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea There's a Burma girl a–settin' an' I know she thinks o' me			Mandalay		Rudyard Kipling
Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst; For the temple–bells are callin', and it's there that I would be – By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea
Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty–three (which was rather late for me) Between the end of the Chatterley ban And the Beatles' first LP			Annus Mirabilis		Philip Larkin
Last verse: So life was never better than / in 1963 ... (etc.)
They (mess) you up, your Mum and Dad They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.			This Be the Verse		Philip Larkin
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free			The New Colossus		Emma Lazarus
I shot an arrow in the air It fell to earth, I knew not where			The Arrow and the Song		Henry W. Longfellow
On the shores of Gitchee Gumee, On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo			Song of Hiawatha		Henry W. Longfellow
Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands			The Village Blacksmith		Henry W. Longfellow
There was a little girl And she had a little curl Right in the middle of her forehead.			There was a little girl		Henry W. Longfellow
Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere			Paul Revere's Ride		Henry W. Longfellow
Into each life some rain must fall			The Rainy Day		Henry W. Longfellow
Stone walls do not a prison make Nor iron bars a cage			To Althea, from Prison		Richard Lovelace
I must go down to the seas again To the lonely sea and the sky			Sea Fever		John Masefield
Quinquereme of Nineveh, from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine			Cargoes		John Masefield
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row (opening lines)			In Flanders Fields		John McCrae
James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree Took great care of his mother, though he was only three			Disobedience		A. A. Milne
Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new ...			Lycidas		John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent ...			On his Blindness		John Milton
They also serve who only stand and wait
Wherefore with thee Came not all Hell broke loose?			Paradise Lost		John Milton
Eyless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves			Samson Agonistes		John Milton
Candy is dandy But liquor is quicker (later added Pot is not)			Reflections on icebreaking		Ogden Nash
There's a breathless hush in the close tonight Ten to make and the match to win A bumping pitch and a blinding light An hour to play and the last man in			Vitai Lampada		Henry Newbolt
Refrain: Play up! Play up! And play the game!
Drakes in his hammock, till the great Armadas come Capten, art thou sleepen there below?			Drakes drum		Henry Newbolt
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock–kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge ... (opening lines)			Dulce et Decorum Est		Wilfred Owen
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor ... (opening lines)			The Highwayman		Alfred Noyes
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— (opening line)			The Raven		Edgar Allan Poe
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd...			Eloisa to Abelard		Alexander Pope
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread			An Essay on Criticism		Alexander Pope
A little learning is a dang'rous thing
To err is human; to forgive, divine
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man			An Essay on Man		Alexander Pope
Hope springs eternal in the human breast
Better by far that you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad			Remember		Christina Rossetti
Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!			Marmion		Walter Scott
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May ...			Sonnets, 18		William Shakespeare
I summon up remembrance of things past			Sonnets, 30		William Shakespeare
How wonderful is Death Death, and his brother Sleep!			The Daemon of the World		Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hail to thee, blithe spirit! (first line)			Ode to a skylark		Percy Bysshe Shelley
O wild West wind, thou breath of Autumn's being (first line)			Ode to the West Wind		Percy Bysshe Shelley
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (last line)
I met a traveller from an ancient land ... (first line)			Ozymandias		Percy Bysshe Shelley
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
I come from haunts of coot and tern			The Brook		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league, half a league, half a league onward All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred …			The Charge of the Light Brigade		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die ...
Into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred
'tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all			In Memoriam		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
… Nature, red in tooth and claw
Kind hearts are more than coronets, / And simple faith than Norman blood.			Lady Clara Vere de Vere		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
On either side the river lie / Long fields of barley and of rye … (opening lines)			The Lady of Shalott		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The mirror crack'd from side to side ...
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love			Locksley Hall		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story			The Princess		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Now as I was young and easy, under the apple boughs			Fern Hill		Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light			(Same as first line)		Dylan Thomas
And for that minute a blackbird sang / Close by, and round him, mistier, / Farther and farther, all the birds / Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire (last verse)			Adlestrop		Edward Thomas
For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world (refrain)			What Rules the World		William Ross Wallace
Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. (Opening lines)			Solitude		Ella Wheeler Wilcox
He did not wear his scarlet coat For blood and wine are red (opening lines)			The Ballad of Reading Gaol		Oscar Wilde
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note As his corpse to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried			The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna		Charles Wolfe
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils			I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (a.k.a. Daffodils)		William Wordsworth
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky			My Heart Leaps Up when I Behold		William Wordsworth
The child is father of the man
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!			The Prelude		William Wordsworth
I've measured it from side to side 'Tis three feet long and two feet wide			The Thorn		William Wordsworth
Shall I call thee Bird / Or but a wandering Voice?			To the Cuckoo		William Wordsworth
Earth has not anything to show more fair			Upon Westminster Bridge		William Wordsworth
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty
Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you, and I sigh.			A Drinking Song		W. B. Yeats
I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love			An Irish Airman Foresees His Death		W. B. Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree			The Lake Isle of Innisfree		W. B. Yeats
That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees (opening lines)			Sailing to Byzantium		W. B. Yeats

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23