an essay on love poetry

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10 Greatest Love Poems Ever Written

by Conrad Geller

People are always asking “What are the best love poems?” or “Where can I find something beautiful to say to the woman I love?” or “…to the man I love?”

If you are looking for love poems in more modern language, you will probably find the 10 Best Love Poems of 2022 or 10 Best Love Poems of 2021 useful. If you like a more classical style, well, here I am again, unbowed by the heartfelt, sometimes urgent suggestions for altering my recent “ 10 Greatest Poems about Death .” This time I choose a topic—love—less grim if equally compelling. These should quench your thirst for the best love poems, but don’t take these as some kind of how-to manual in your relationship. Like death, love seems to be something most poets know little about; for evidence, see their biographies. The poems I have chosen this time cover the full spectrum of responses to love, from joy to anguish, and sometimes a mixture of both. As befits the topic this time, the list is a bit heavy on Romantics and light on those rational Enlightenment types. Here, with a few comments and no apologies, is the list:

Related Content 10 Best Love Poems of 2022 10 Best Love Poems of 2021 10 Greatest Poems Ever Written

10. “Since There’s No Help,” by Michael Drayton (1563-1631)

It may be a bad augury to begin with a poem by a loser, but there it is. Drayton, a contemporary and possible acquaintance of the Bard, evidently had come to the unhappy end of an affair when he penned this sonnet.  He begins with a show of stoic indifference: “. . . you get no more of me,” but that can’t last. In the last six lines he shows his true feelings with a series of personifications of the dying figures of Love, Passion, Faith, and Innocence, which he pleads can be saved from their fate by the lady’s kindness.

Michael Drayton

Since There’s No Help

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part; Nay, I have done, you get no more of me, And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart That thus so cleanly I myself can free; Shake hands forever, cancel all our vows, And when we meet at any time again, Be it not seen in either of our brows That we one jot of former love retain. Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath, When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies, When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death, And Innocence is closing up his eyes, Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over, From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.

9. “How Do I Love Thee,” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

If poetry, as Wordsworth asserted, is “emotion recollected in tranquility,” this sonnet scores high in the former essential but falls short of the latter. Elizabeth may have been the original arts groupie, whose passion for the famous poet Robert Browning seems to have known  no limits and recognized no excesses. She loves she says “with my childhood’s faith,” her beloved now holding the place of her “lost saints.” No wonder this poem, whatever its hyperbole, has long been a favorite of adolescent girls and matrons who remember what it was like.

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

8. “Love’s Philosophy,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

In spite of its title, this very sweet sixteen-line poem has nothing to do with philosophy, as far as I can see. Instead, it promulgates one of the oldest arguments of a swain to a maid: “All the world is in intimate contact – water, wind, mountains, moonbeams, even flowers. What about you?” Since “Nothing in the world is single,” he says with multiple examples, “What is all this sweet work worth / If thou kiss not me?” Interestingly, the lover’s proof of the “law divine” of mingling delicately omits any reference to animals and their mingling behavior. In any case, I hope it worked for him.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Love’s Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine?—

See the mountains kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What is all this sweet work worth If thou kiss not me?

7. “Love,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Here we have another bold attempt at seduction, this one much longer and more complicated than Shelley’s. In this poem, the lover is attempting to gain his desire by appealing to the tender emotions of his object. He sings her a song about the days of chivalry, in which a knight saved a lady from an “outrage worst than death” (whatever that is), is wounded and eventually dies in her arms. The poet’s beloved, on hearing the story, is deeply moved to tears and, to make the story not as long as the original, succumbs.

As with his most famous poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge employs the oldest of English forms, the ballad stanza, but here he uses a lengthened second line. Coleridge, by the way, could really tell a romantic story, whatever his ulterior motives.

All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame.

Oft in my waking dreams do I Live o’er again that happy hour, When midway on the mount I lay, Beside the ruined tower.

The moonshine, stealing o’er the scene Had blended with the lights of eve; And she was there, my hope, my joy, My own dear Genevieve!

She leant against the arméd man, The statue of the arméd knight; She stood and listened to my lay, Amid the lingering light.

Few sorrows hath she of her own, My hope! my joy! my Genevieve! She loves me best, whene’er I sing The songs that make her grieve.

I played a soft and doleful air, I sang an old and moving story— An old rude song, that suited well That ruin wild and hoary.

She listened with a flitting blush, With downcast eyes and modest grace; For well she knew, I could not choose But gaze upon her face.

I told her of the Knight that wore Upon his shield a burning brand; And that for ten long years he wooed The Lady of the Land.

I told her how he pined: and ah! The deep, the low, the pleading tone With which I sang another’s love, Interpreted my own.

She listened with a flitting blush, With downcast eyes, and modest grace; And she forgave me, that I gazed Too fondly on her face!

But when I told the cruel scorn That crazed that bold and lovely Knight, And that he crossed the mountain-woods, Nor rested day nor night;

That sometimes from the savage den, And sometimes from the darksome shade, And sometimes starting up at once In green and sunny glade,—

There came and looked him in the face An angel beautiful and bright; And that he knew it was a Fiend, This miserable Knight!

And that unknowing what he did, He leaped amid a murderous band, And saved from outrage worse than death The Lady of the Land!

And how she wept, and clasped his knees; And how she tended him in vain— And ever strove to expiate The scorn that crazed his brain;—

And that she nursed him in a cave; And how his madness went away, When on the yellow forest-leaves A dying man he lay;—

His dying words—but when I reached That tenderest strain of all the ditty, My faultering voice and pausing harp Disturbed her soul with pity!

All impulses of soul and sense Had thrilled my guileless Genevieve; The music and the doleful tale, The rich and balmy eve;

And hopes, and fears that kindle hope, An undistinguishable throng, And gentle wishes long subdued, Subdued and cherished long!

She wept with pity and delight, She blushed with love, and virgin-shame; And like the murmur of a dream, I heard her breathe my name.

Her bosom heaved—she stepped aside, As conscious of my look she stepped— Then suddenly, with timorous eye She fled to me and wept.

She half enclosed me with her arms, She pressed me with a meek embrace; And bending back her head, looked up, And gazed upon my face.

‘Twas partly love, and partly fear, And partly ’twas a bashful art, That I might rather feel, than see, The swelling of her heart.

I calmed her fears, and she was calm, And told her love with virgin pride; And so I won my Genevieve, My bright and beauteous Bride.

6.  “A Red, Red Rose,” by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Burns’ best-known poem besides “Auld Lang Syne” is a simple declaration of feeling. “How beautiful and delightful is my love,” he says. “You are so lovely, in fact, that I will love you to the end of time. And even though we are parting now, I will return, no matter what.” All this is expressed in a breathtaking excess of metaphor: “And I will love thee still, my dear, / Till a’ the seas gang dry.” This poem has no peer as a simple cry of a young man who knows no boundaries.

Robert Burns

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve! And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile.

5. “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Poe shows off his amazing talent in the manipulation of language sounds here, perhaps his best-known poem after “The Raven.” It’s a festival of auditory effects, with a delightful mixture of anapests and iambs, internal rhymes, repetitions, assonances. The story itself is a Poe favorite, the tragic death of a beautiful, loved girl, died after her “high-born kinsman” separated her from the lover.

Edgar Allan Poe

Annabelle Lee

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea: But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Laughed loud at her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went laughing at her and me— Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the laughter in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

4. “Whoso List to Hunt,” by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

Supposedly written about Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII, this bitter poem compares his beloved to a deer fleeing before an exhausted hunter, who finally gives up the chase, because, as he says, “in a net I seek to hold the wind.” Besides, he reflects, she is the king’s property, and forbidden anyway. The bitterness comes mainly in the first line: “I know where there is a female deer, if anyone wants to go after her.” Some of the tougher vocabulary is translated below. As the history goes, she could not produce the male heir Henry wanted and he (probably) wrongfully accused her of incest and adultery just so he could have her executed. This love, hijacked by higher forces, painfully elusive, and wildly tempting is exquisitely real and compelling.

Whoso List to Hunt

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, But as for me, alas, I may no more. The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, I am of them that farthest cometh behind. Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, Since in a net I seek to hold the wind. Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, As well as I may spend his time in vain. And graven with diamonds in letters plain There is written, her fair neck round about: “Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am, And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”

Whoso list: whoever wants Hind: Female deer Noli me tangere : “Don’t touch me”

3.  “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Yet another seduction attempt in verse, perhaps this poem doesn’t belong on a list like this, since it isn’t about love at all. The lover is trying to convince a reluctant (‘coy”) lady to accede to his importuning, not by a sad story, as in the Coleridge poem, or by an appeal to nature, as in Shelley, but by a formal argument: Sexuality ends with death, which is inevitable, so what are you saving it for?

. . . then worms shall try That long preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust.

and it ends with the pointed suggestion,

Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life.

This is one of the ten best poems in the English language, so I’ll include it here, whether it can be strictly pinned down with a label like love or death or not.

To His Coy Mistress

Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust; The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

2. “Bright Star,” by John Keats (1795-1821)

Keats brings an almost overwhelming sensuality to this sonnet. Surprisingly, the first eight lines are not about love or even human life; Keats looks at a personified star (Venus? But it’s not steadfast. The North Star? It’s steadfast but not particularly bright.) Whatever star it may be, the sestet finds the lover “Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,” where he plans to stay forever, or at least until death. Somehow, the surprising juxtaposition of the wide view of earth as seen from the heavens and the intimate picture of the lovers works to invest the scene of dalliance with a cosmic importance. John Donne sometimes accomplished this same effect, though none of his poems made my final cut.

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors— No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

1. “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” (Sonnet 116), by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Shakespeare

This poem is not a personal appeal but a universal definition of love, which the poet defines as constant and unchangeable in the face of any circumstances. It is like the North Star, he says, which, even if we don’t know anything else about it, we know where it is, and that’s all we need. Even death cannot lord itself over love, which persists to the end of time itself. The final couplet strongly reaffirms his commitment:

If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

The problem is that if Shakespeare is right about love’s constancy, then none of the other poems in this list would have been written, or else they’re not really about love. It seems Shakespeare may be talking about a deeper layer of love, transcending sensual attraction and intimacy, something more akin to compassion or benevolence for your fellow man. In this revelation of the nature of such a force, from which common love is derived, lies Shakespeare’s genius.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand’ring bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Post your own best love poem pick or list in the comments section below.

Conrad Geller is an old, mostly formalist poet, a Bostonian now living in Northern Virginia. His work has appeared widely in print and electronically.

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.

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47 Responses

Love your list – some great stuff here!

Me too, i love it and will add one poem, Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats

I like the Wyatt, but no “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day”? No “I Knew a a Woman” (“I knew a woman lovely in her bones…” by Theodore Roethke? None of Swift’s great birthday poems to Stella? None of Hardy’s guilt and grief stricken poems after his first wife died?

And again with the Poe? Please!

Give him some slack Robert! It’s always tricky with top 10s and what you miss out. For me one of the greatest love poets of all is WB Yeats – so I could have said, What, no Yeats??? But hey – some good stuff here. And sometimes the sentimental can top even the brilliant. And by the way, love your mention of Burns’ John Anderson, my Jo – there’s a wonderful sung version of this by Eddi Reader, a superb Scottish singer on her album of Burns’ poems only – a masterpiece – called Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns. You’ll love it!

A wonderful full version of “John Anderson…” by Sileas, a two women Scots group, from back in the 80s.

Innit Robert needs to learn his stuff can’t be dissing people top tens like that not on robert

P.S. If you’re going to pick a Burns poem, “John Anderson, My Jo,” the unexpurgated version is far superior and deals with the whole heartbreak of old age and impotency, though the one you have is pretty nice too.

Love it!! Full version of “John Anderson”.

Interesting choices, and of course there’s always going to be some debate when the word “Greatest” gets applied to anything, especially poetry…

It’s too bad that this list is resticted to pre-1900, because most (well, actually all, if I were perfectly honest, which of course, I am not) of my favorite love poems were written after 1954.

We crave for it, when young, in rage. Scared of it, when wise, to divulge. Love, the undeterring vice of any age underlines our life at every stage!

What an onus laden on man Since the “Adam”antine sin?! Is it a curse or a boon? He delivered to the whole clan!

At dawn fills your bosom to the brims of thrills. But anon, drills your heart to a well of tears! Culprit the love…the Cupid’s scourge… always difficult to interpret it’s maze!

It’s a wonderful list to make one’s weekend. The essay included some of my personal favourite love poems. Further, I would recommend some more from my own list. 1. Love Me Little, Love Me Long by Robert Herrick 2. Love and Age by Thomas Love Peacock 3. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe 4. A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover by John Wilmot 5. ‘The Sorrow of Love’ by W. B. Yeats 6. ‘A Valediction- Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne

Thank you for this.

I have read with interest and growing concern, firstly, the list of ten poems, then the list of comments and replies. How can lovers of poetry even consider a list that does not include the greatest love poet of all, John Donne. For example, The Good-Morrow: ‘I wonder by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then? But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the seven sleepers’ den? ‘Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be. If ever any beauty I did see Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.’

Or, The Extasy: ‘Where, like a pillow on a bed, A pregnant bank swelled up, to rest The violet’s reclining head, Sat we two, one another’s best.’

And if we don’t stop at love poetry, simply seeking ‘The Greatest’, then remember, all contributors, the same poet wrote: ‘No man is an Island, entire of itself.’ And, of course: ‘Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.’

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These are certainly some of the best poem I have read. Best part about this one is that all of them to love in a different way. Is there are some more love poems like these then please reply on this comment. I certainly like everyone on the phone I’m listed Above and I also like these two poems which I read previously.

#A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover by John Wilmot #‘The Sorrow of Love’ by W. B. Yeats

If you read them then please let know how you liked them?

A wonderful selection to expand the thinking capacity of young upcoming artists. I have a request;can you make a list of some of the best african poems.

To Love Unafraid Of all blue pools they say abound Or the grace of angel’s in heavenly choir None deep as thine eyes have I yet found Nor body and soul to stroke this desire. No man nor beast could avoid thy spell Compared to thee, the sun’s smile doth fade And legends not yet made, shall one day tell How thy changed the world to love unafraid. Copyright© 2018 Arthur Lamar Mitchell

Going back to number 8, “Love’s Philosophy,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). I think you are incorrect when you stated it is not relevant to philosophy at all. There has been many philosophical ideas about how all the people and the Earth are connected and I think this poem reflects that idea very well. Science, Philosophy, and spirituality are very connected with each other.

Well stated Isabel. Love indeed has no bounds and its force reaches both the barren and the fruitful, often simultaneously.

Thank you, Isabel, and I agree. The underlying philosophy of Shelley’s poem is, I believe, based on Plato’s “Symposium”, and especially the philosophy of love expounded to Socrates by Diotima Mantinike.

Best wishes Robert

all i can say is wow,did it best heights hope they are deserving the award more shakesperean poetry

Hi there friends, its great paragraph on the topic of cultureand entirely defined, keep it up all the time.

I love your insight. Poetry says a lot about the person. I would appreciate constructive criticism.

great stuff… something about them that make me believe in LOVE all over again!!! its no wonder that these are the greatest of all time… respect to the wonderful men and women behind these… thank you

Why? Why oh why have you not included Naruda?

Sonnet XVII – cliché, but I don’t care

From my book – Our Seasons of Ardent Love

Our Seasons of Ardent love brings forth all our desire, Throughout our lives, we live on a Loving enchanted isle. Far beyond, long, amorous nights with our souls set afire, We bonded as one, remaining forever, for it is our style.

From our first chance meeting to the lives we are sharing, We have been as one united with each other, inseparably. We love each other for who we are, and all we are baring, Not by any wealth can we tithe our love incomparably.

Our love can not be doled out, as money is for a favor, Nor can our love be judged by where, or how we reside. Our love for each other is truly the only love we savor, For our love comes from the depths of our hearts, inside.

We are not just empty shells pretending to be unspoiled. We are both halves of a love united, and totally fulfilled.

This poem said it all the love that me and my husband had for each other its a beautiful poem I had to write it down

Thank you, Conrad Geller, for an excellent selection. I confess I would have left out Burns, who is a most unpolished and mediocre poet, and perhaps Poe, whose Annabell Lee has been overshadowed by Nabokov’s Lolita.

Perhaps add a couple more Elizabethan contributions: Spenser’s “Whilst it is Prime”, and of course Sidney’s famous “With how sad steps, o Moon …”

Keats’s “bright star”, I believe was Vega (Alpha Lyrae), which he perhaps knew was once our Pole Star.

And Marvell’s “To his coy Mistress” is a matchless poem that belongs in every library.

Paradise On Earth! Mr.V.Muthu Manickam

The Sun shines as gold, down the west Full moon is on the move, to rise in the east

When one gets to set, The other begins to get

Birds are settling, into the nest Courteous caress of the breeze, is the best!

Sky is colorfully painted Many themes, this has hinted!

Stars are peeping up to glow Passage of time, added to their flow!

Strained soul sets to solace Stirred senses, suggests the romance!

I desire here, forever to stay As the mind fails, words to say!

When the lap of my love is lent as berth, This place becomes, a paradise on earth!

Above poem is adapted from the eBook “FIRE WITHOUT FIRE IS ETERNAL! AND OTHER POEMS ON HAPPY LOVE ” by Mr.V.Muthu manickam.

You are incorrect in saying EBB was Robert Browning’s “groupie”! In fact, he fell in love with her through her writing and insisted on meeting her. You’ve got it backwards.

Thank you very much

THY DEATH WILL CRAWL

The drooping willow Nature’s scarf The groan and creak of wind on stone A thousand legs of crawl and laugh And wilted grasses cry alone

A thousand legs and yet unseen So too unheard upon their walk They whisper where their thoughts have been And unto me I hear them talk

They sliver in the skulls of Man Eaten flesh of long ago And not a thought of how they can Consume the Life from Death so slow

Wriggling bodies underground The slime of soil laden thick Moving living without a sound Regurgitate the living sick

A thunder when it claps the sky A sudden death is made again Legs a thousand mute they lie Until the lightening brings it’s rain

And rise once more thy twitching knee Beneath the roof of sodden Earth Dripping wet the soul of thee To join the terrors of new birth

For now the scratch of noiseless howl It is within the moon I die Humanity it does not scowl Those thousand legs to join have I.

So glad to see A Red, Red Rose in the list. Such a beautiful poem with hardly any words of more than one syllable. Shows the genius of the man.

Also love Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss, which is about lovers parting and is heartbreaking.

I agree with you about Burns, his genius is in his simplicity and authentic language. Even when not sung, his poetry reads like a song. I fell out of my chair to read the comment above by Robert Firth, that Burns is an “unpolished and mediocre poet”. What a load of codswallop! I’ll take unpolished all day long for Ae Fond Kiss…

But to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love forever. Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met—or never parted— We had ne’er been broken-hearted.

John Ciardi – Most Like an Arch this Marriage

The writing of the love poem is a unique art. Not everyone can write best love poems. This article is great and provides best love poems.

What a great collection of love poems. I love Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley; they offer beautiful vivid spectacles that animate through the mind. I noticed these poems are all from a past that predates this century. Have you got a collection of favourite modern poems?

I never find such awesome work, very good and precious words here I found thanks admin for creating this post for us.

I love itt lived to become a poet

I really love this collection, gave me a better idea of how to write my own with a little inspiration! here’s one of my own here for you guys to hear! give me any tips or kreteks to it that I should do please! Hearts don’t break, it’s just another thing the poet says, hearts are not made of glass or bone, or any material that could splinter, or fragment, or shatter, they don’t crack into pieces, they don’t fall apart, hearts don’t break, they just stop working. like an old watch from another time and no parts to fix it.

This is fantastic… There’s something about them that makes me believe in LOVE once again!!! It’s no surprise that these are the best of all time… Respect to the amazing men and women that put this together… Thank you very much.

Umm those all really lack any real love or true passion. It’s strange how literature considered the best ever really can’t compare to that which is true and real. Try this one:

I’m greeted by the light of the stars but it’s not as bright as you. For the glimmering glow of your smile shines brighter than morning dew. The emptiness of infinite space mirrors that which is in my heart. For the most glorious nebula and galaxies can’t fill the voids of when we are apart. If you are as far away as the moon or light-years to another world you are in; the distance leaves the same longing and desire for us to be skin to skin. I see the silhouette of the mountains as a shooting star streaks by but the pristine beauty only reminds me of the twinkle in your eye. Thinking of gravity or forces or black holes where time bends, folds or rips; only makes me remember the force of my hand on the back of your head as I press against your glimmering lips. Planets of gold or crusted with diamonds or riches to make ones mind twirl; if I had only one wish to ask God for anything it would be for Siri to be my girl.

Or how about this one:

I’ve searched for love in beautiful faces for over 40 years. I never expected to find an angel’s love; so pure it brings forth tears. It’s sad to see so many faces empty and without your light. So many times I struggled to hope but didn’t give up the fight. To look into your eyes and see the glowing smile on your face; to hear you say how much you love me and feeling my heart race; You wake up thinking of me and I wake up thinking of you; we share I loves you’s over and over vowing there is nothing we wouldn’t do. I cry thinking how much I love you and you do the same for me; We message each other earnestly hoping the other is free. My life and heart is in your arms my place is by your side; You make me blush and turn bright red until my face I have to hide. Your hand in mine our souls entwined our lives are linked together; The love in me from before time started is for you until forever.

Great poems, Thank you so much

The poem is heart tuching. I fall in love with this.

I love these collections of poems

This indeed is beatuiful, in particularly “I never expected to find an angel’s love; so pure it brings forth tears.”

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• Exploring the Beauty of Platonic Love Through Poetry

Love, in all its forms, has been a common theme in poetry for centuries. While romantic love often takes center stage, the profound beauty of platonic love deserves its own spotlight. Platonic love, characterized by deep affection and a strong bond between individuals with no romantic or sexual involvement, is a powerful and enduring connection. In this article, we will delve into the world of poetry that celebrates the essence of platonic love.

1. "To My Best Friend" by Lang Leav

2. "friendship" by henry david thoreau, 3. "a dedication to my mother" by alice meynell.

"To My Best Friend" by Lang Leav masterfully captures the essence of platonic love. Leav intertwines the emotions of friendship and love, highlighting the depth and significance of these connections. The poem paints a vivid picture of the profound impact a best friend can have on one's life, emphasizing the unwavering support and understanding they provide.

"You have always been there for me, Through the laughter and the tears, The good times and the bad, You have been my constant, My rock, my best friend."

Henry David Thoreau's poem "Friendship" delves into the complexities of platonic love, emphasizing the importance of genuine connections. Thoreau beautifully expresses the power of true friendship, emphasizing the need for authenticity and vulnerability in these relationships. The poem reminds us that platonic love can be a source of strength and solace in times of need.

"I value more the presence of a sincere friend than wealth and luxury's empty show, And—oh! by what a thousand tender ties Our hearts are bound, how dear, dear friends we grow!"

While platonic love is often associated with friendships, it can also encompass the profound bond between a child and their mother. In "A Dedication to My Mother" by Alice Meynell, the poet pays tribute to the unwavering love and support of a mother. This touching poem beautifully captures the essence of platonic love between a child and their caregiver.

"And love, I know, is long, And, knowing, long endureth. Each hour is strong to keep. And yet I know not how Thou hast such strength to go So far, so far, from me, Thy child, thy love most dear."

Poetry has the remarkable ability to capture the essence of complex emotions, including the pure and profound love found in platonic relationships. Whether it's the bond between best friends, the strength of genuine connections, or the love between a parent and child, these poems beautifully celebrate the beauty and significance of platonic love. Through the power of words, these poets remind us of the invaluable role these relationships play in our lives, filling our hearts with joy, support, and understanding.

• Poems That Capture the Essence of Gym Class
• The Divine Beauty of Long Christmas Poems about Jesus

Entradas Relacionadas

The Joy of Friendship in Limerick Poems

Russian Poems about Friendship: Celebrating Bonds that Transcend Time and Distance

The Beauty of Free Verse Poems Celebrating Best Friends

Poems about Friends Growing Apart: Navigating the Bittersweet Reality

Poems Celebrating the Deep Bond of Friendship Between Women

The Beauty of Non-Famous Poems about Life

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Romantic Poetry

Romantic Poetry

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on February 16, 2021 • ( 0 )

The classic essays on romanticism tend not to define the term but to survey the manifold and unsuccessful attempts to define it. In English poetry, however, we can give a more or less historical definition: Romanticism is a movement that can be dated as beginning with William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge ’s Lyrical Ballads of 1798 and that is still continuing today, despite reactions and countermovements which begin almost immediately and which are highly relevant to any consideration of Victorian and modern literature. (Although romanticism includes all of William Blake’s major poetry, beginning more than a decade prior to Lyrical Ballads, Blake’s obscurity limited his influence on other major writers for a good half century.)

Paradoxically, though, these reactions can themselves be regarded as highly romantic in nature— partly, perhaps, because one very general but still useful early (1825) definition of romanticism is, in the words of the French dramatist and politician Ludovic Vitet (1802–73), “Protestantism in arts and letters” (quoted in Furst, European Romanticism ). Protestantism was a protest against the fetters of the past (even romanticism itself)—against rule and convention, as Vitet realized—and therefore was also an analogue to the Protestant Reformation. In this sense, romanticism is the analogue in the literary sphere of the freedom brought by the Enlightenment in the political, moral, and philosophical world—according to Vitet, “the right to enjoy what gives pleasure, to be moved by what moves one, to admire what seems admirable, even when by virtue of well and duly consecrated principles it could be proved that one ought not to admire, nor be moved, nor enjoy.” Wordsworth, too, spoke of his object in Lyrical Ballads as giving pleasure to his readers, rather than conforming to rules: “There will also be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic diction . . . because the pleasure which I have proposed to myself to impart is of a kind very different from that which is supposed by many persons to be the proper object of poetry.” That pleasure is Protestant in its deference to the judgment and poetic conscience of the individual soul: “[T]his necessity of producing immediate pleasure . . . is an acknowledgment of the beauty of the universe, an acknowledgment the more sincere because it is not formal, but indirect; . . . it is a homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, and moves” (preface to Lyrical Ballads , 1800).

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818

Romanticism is therefore to be defined negatively, perhaps, as a principled protest against classicism. Since the French were the earliest to identify it as a movement, we can recur to the incisive definition one of the great French romantics, Victor Hugo, who (in the preface to his 1830 play Hernani ) wrote, “Romanticism, so often badly defined, is . . . viewed wholly under its militant aspect, nothing but liberalism in literature . . . a literary liberty [which] is the daughter of political liberty.” The philosopher John Stuart Mill was one of the earliest purveyors of the term in English, but again he was describing French literature when he wrote in 1837:

The stateliness and conventional decorum of old French poetic and dramatic literature, gave place to a licence which made free scope for genius and also for absurdity, and let in new forms of the beautiful was well as many of the hideous. Literature shook off its chains, and used its liberty like a galley-slave broke loose; while painting and sculpture passed from one unnatural extreme to another, and the stiff school was succeeded by the spasmodic. This insurrection against the old traditions of classicism was called romanticism: and now, when the mass of rubbish to which it had given birth has produced another oscillation in opinion the reverse way, one inestimable result seems to have survived it—that life and human feeling may now, in France, be painted with as much liberty as they may be discussed, and, when painted truly, with approval.

Mill’s account shows the extent to which romanticism was central to Victorian literary attitudes, even as the heyday of what came to be called high romanticism came to an end in England with the beginning of the Victorian period. Indeed, the Victorian parody of the continued influence of romanticism identified what it called the “spasmodic school” of poetry.

These quotations show the extent to which romanticism is regarded as a revolutionary rejection of the past—of Mill’s classicism—which might be regarded as the literary equivalent of the French Revolution. Indeed, the first generation of English romantics were admirers of the French Revolution before its descent into destruction and terror. For this reason as well, the romantics saw Napoleon Bonaparte as a Promethean figure who promised liberty but ended up besotted with despotic power. Wordsworth, who celebrated the death of the French revolutionary Robespierre in The Prelude, nevertheless began that work with an ode to liberty. For the English romantics, that liberty was at once a break with Enlightenment rationalism and (as we have seen) a continuation of the Enlightenment’s intensely humanistic project of rejecting religious superstition and arbitrary law on behalf of the human soul’s freedom and primacy.

It is important not to make the mistake that some critics fall into of thinking of romanticism as essentially an irrational egotism. Romanticism is far more the inheritor of Enlightenment ideas than their displacer. It shares with the Enlightenment an intense focus on the powers of the human mind. For Enlightenment philosophers, that focus was often on its rational and analytic powers, whence the flowering of modern science. But such Enlightenment figures as the philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau paid equal or greater attention to the mind’s subjective experience. Rousseau’s Confessions (1769) as well as his novel Julie (1761) were forerunners of intense influences on (respectively) such works as Wordsworth’s The Prelude , Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage , and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s T he Triumph of Life . In Immanuel Kant and the German idealists, and in Coleridge, much of whose work is uncomfortably close to plagiarism of the idealists, the relationship between its objective and subjective powers is central to a philosophical account of the mind. Kant saw that relationship forming in the faculty of judgment, of which aesthetic judgment was the most vivid example. The half-creation, half-perception of the world which takes place in judgment is the theme of romanticism, explicitly in such poems as Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and Shelley’s “Mont Blanc.” Sometimes the difference between subjective and objective attitudes manifested itself as a sense of self-division within the soul, a sense that could be traced back to the philosophy of John Locke (1632– 1704), which was repugnant but therefore powerfully influential, to such figures as Blake and Wordsworth.

Self-division, solitude, subjective longing—all of these are aspects of the subjectivity which romanticism took as its starting point and theme (in part inheriting it from the more sentimental mode of 18th-century sensibility, though sensibility was far more an overtly social phenomenon than romanticism). Because of its intense interest in subjectivity as well as its rejection of superstition, it is possible to see romanticism as a kind of religious sensibility without religious belief. The soul, or self, experiences itself as fallen in a fallen world (often represented as the world of childhood or the world most closely present in childhood). In Romanticism, by rejecting the doctrines of religion—that the biblical Fall is punishment for some derogation from a state of grace—the soul also rejects the consolations of religion; accordingly, it has no hope of salvation except within itself and its own experience. That salvation is therefore primarily aesthetic and philosophical (the distinction between the two is one of emphasis, which is why so many romantic poems are so intensely philosophical). The romantics took to heart Satan’s claim in John Milton’s great 17th-century work Paradise Lost (the poem most essential to the English romantics) that “The mind is its own place and in itself / Can make a Heaven of hell, a Hell of heaven (1, l. 254).” Our sense of ourselves as fallen, as having a destiny and home “with infinity,” as Wordsworth says, makes the finite world a negative measure of our own subjective intensity. When this intensity is represented as a claim to greatness of soul, it can look egotistical; but what counts is the intensity of experience measured by the failure as well as by the intermittent success of the outside world at matching it.

This intermittent success tends to come with a sense of the grandeur of nature, which is why so much great romantic poetry is about nature in its most intense aspects: those of beauty, solitude, and most of all, the sublime. Nature’s wildness, partly imaged in ruined castles and abbeys, which had been a staple of gothic fiction in the 18th century were particularly appropriate settings for romantic thought. But nature is itself a projection—it is the place the mind makes of it, as in the last two lines of Shelley’s “Mont Blanc,” where it is the human mind’s imaginings that transfigure vacancy into silence and solitude.

The general mode of a romantic poem is one of crisis—a crisis that leads to its own solution. The very fact of crisis is a sign that the intensity of feeling and thought at risk is still there. Romantic poets worry about the loss of intensity that seems the inevitable course of human experience, but they reimagine that loss of intensity as the intensity of loss. Loss becomes, as the 20th-century literary critic Paul de Man put it somewhat skeptically, “shadowed gain.” The gain for the soul is in its apprehension of its own capacity to measure its losses, and therefore to rise above them. Loss within the soul comes to be figured as the loss of poetic vocation. The poetry inspired by this loss is a sign that poetic vocation is intensified in its own undoing, rather than dissipated— for a while at least. Romanticism reimagined poetry as an intense analysis of human subjectivity, and in doing so it lent splendor to the universal human experience of loss and decline. What more can poetry do?

Bibliography Abrams, M. H. Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. New York: Norton, 1973. Bloom, Harold. The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961. ———, ed. Romanticism and Consciousness: Essays in Criticism. New York: Norton, 1970. Brown, Marshall. Preromanticism. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991. Deane, Seamus. French Revolution and Enlightenment in England, 1789–1832. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988. De Man, Paul. The Rhetoric of Romanticism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. Furst, Lilian, ed. European Romanticism: Self-Definition: An Anthology. London: Methuen, 1980. Lovejoy, Arthur. “On the Discrimination of Romanticisms.” PMLA (journal of the Modern Language Association) 39, no. 2 (June 1924): 229–253. McGann, Jerome. The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Mill, John Stuart. “Armand Carrel.” In Dissertations and Discussions. Vol. 1. 237–308. Boston: Holt, 1882. Quinney, Laura. The Poetics of Disappointment: Wordsworth to Ashbery. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999.

Romanticism in England

Romanticism in France

Romanticism in America

Romantic Literary Criticism

Literary Criticism of William Wordsworth

Literary Criticism of S.T. Coleridge

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How to write a poetry essay

• August 26, 2023

Whether you love literature or are just curious, this guide will help you understand, enjoy, and talk about poetry. So, let’s start exploring the world of lines and symbols, where each one tells a story to discover.

Here are the steps on writing a poetry essay.

Choose a poem

The first step is, of course, to choose a poem to write your essay . 

It should be one that you find interesting, thought-provoking, or emotionally resonant. It’s important to select a poem that you can engage with and analyze effectively.

• Choose a poem that genuinely captures your interest. Look for poems that evoke emotions, thoughts, or curiosity when you read them.
• Consider the themes addressed in the poem. It should offer ample material for analysis.

When choosing a poem

So for this guide, let’s choose Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” You’ll see a short excerpt of this poem for your understanding. 

Poem example for poetry essay

Because i couldn not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

       Because I could not stop for Death –        He kindly stopped for me –        The Carriage held but just Ourselves –        And Immortality.        We slowly drove – He knew no haste        And I had put away        My labor and my leisure too,        For His Civility –        We passed the School, where Children strove        At Recess – in the Ring –        We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –        We passed the Setting Sun –        The poem continues....

This poem is intriguing due to its exploration of mortality, the afterlife, and eternity. The imagery and language in the poem provide ample material for analysis, making it a suitable choice for a comprehensive essay.

After carefully choosing the poem that interests you, understanding the poem is the biggest key to writing an effective and nice poetry essay.

Understand the poem

Reading the poem several times to grasp its meaning is the most important part of a good analysis. You must first analyze the structure, rhyme scheme , meter and literary tools used in the poem.

For a solid understanding, you should:

• Read the poem multiple times to familiarize yourself with its content. Each reading may reveal new insights.
• Identify the central themes or messages the poem conveys.
• Study the rhyme scheme and meter (rhythmic pattern) of the poem.
• Consider how the structure, including its stanzas, lines, and breaks, contributes to the poem's meaning and impact.

For example

Remember, understanding the poem thoroughly is the foundation for a well-informed analysis. Take your time to grasp the poem’s various elements before moving on to the next steps in your essay.

Now that we have a clear understanding of the poem, let’s move into writing the introduction. 

Write a catchy introduction

• Begin with an attention-grabbing hook sentence that piques the reader's interest.
• Provide the necessary information about the poem and its author. Mention the poet's name and title of the poem.
• Offer some context about the poem's time period, literary movement, or cultural influences.
• Present your thesis statement , which outlines the main argument or focus of your essay.

Poetry essay introduction example

Introduction

Thesis statement for poetry essays

A thesis statement is a clear and concise sentence or two that presents the main argument or point of your essay . It provides a roadmap for your reader, outlining what they can expect to find in your essay.

In the case of a poetry essay, your thesis statement should capture the central message, themes, or techniques you’ll be discussing in relation to the poem.

Why is the thesis important for a poetry essay?

By reading your thesis statement, your audience should have a clear idea of what to expect from your poem analysis essay.

When creating a thesis statement, keep these in mind: 

• Start by identifying the key elements of the poem that you want to discuss. These could be themes, literary devices, emotions conveyed, or the poet's intentions.
• Based on the key elements you've identified, formulate a central argument that encapsulates your main analysis. What is the poem trying to convey? What are you trying to say about the poem?
• Your thesis should be specific and focused. Avoid vague or broad statements. Instead, provide a clear direction for your analysis.

Poetry essasy thesis statement example

....(introduction starts) ....(introduction continues) ....(introduction continues) In "Because I could not stop for Death," Emily Dickinson employs vivid imagery, personification, and an unconventional perspective on mortality to explore the transcendence of death and the eternity of the soul. Thesis statement, which is usually the last sentence of your introduction

Analyze language and imagery

Language and image analysis in poetry involves a close examination of the words, phrases and literary devices used by the poet. In this step you must uncover the deeper layers of meaning, emotion and sensory experiences conveyed by the poet’s choice of language and imagery.

Why language and imagery?

• Start by identifying and listing the literary devices present in the poem. These could include metaphors, similes, personification, symbolism, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and more.
• For each identified device, explain its significance. How does it contribute to the poem's meaning, mood, or tone?
• Analyze how the literary devices interact with the context of the poem. How do they relate to the themes, characters, or situations presented in the poem?
• Discuss how the use of specific language and imagery influences the reader's emotional response and understanding of the poem.

Continuing with Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death,” let’s analyze the use of imagery:

Language and imagery analysis example

Lines chosen for analysis

Discuss themes in body paragraphs

Exploring themes helps you grasp the deeper meaning of the poem and connect it to broader human experiences. Understanding the themes allows you to uncover what the poet is attempting to convey and how the poem relates to readers on a universal level.

In this step, you will likely dedicate multiple body paragraphs to the analysis of various aspects of language and imagery. Each body paragraph should focus on a specific literary device, phrase, or aspect of language and imagery.

Here’s how you can structure the body paragraphs.

Poetry essay body paragraphs example

Body Paragraph 1: Identify and Explain Literary Devices

Body Paragraph 2: Context and Interaction with Themes

Body Paragraph 3: Reader's emotional response and understanding

Provide evidence from the poem

Providing evidence involves quoting specific lines or stanzas from the poem to support the points you’re making in your analysis. These quotes serve as concrete examples that demonstrate how the poet uses language, imagery, or literary devices to convey specific meanings or emotions.

• Select lines or stanzas from the poem that directly relate to the point you're making in your analysis.
• Introduce each quote with context, explaining the significance of the lines and how they contribute to your analysis.
• Use quotation marks to indicate that you're using the poet's language.
• After providing the quote, interpret its meaning. Explain how the language, imagery, or devices used in the quoted lines contribute to your analysis.

Providing evidence example

In your essay, you should include several quotes and interpret them to reinforce your points. Quoting specific lines from the poem allows you to showcase the poet’s language while demonstrating how these lines contribute to the poem’s overall expression.

Write a conclusion

Conclusion paragraph is the last sentence of your poem analysis essay. It reinforces your thesis statement and emphasizes your insights.

Additionally, the conclusion offers a chance to provide a final thought that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. In your conclusion, make sure to:

• Start by rephrasing your thesis statement. Remind the reader of the main argument you've made in your essay.
• Provide a concise summary of the main points. Avoid introducing new information; focus on the key ideas.
• Discuss the broader significance or implications. How does the poem's message relate to readers beyond its specific context?
• End with a thoughtful reflection, observation, or question that leaves the reader with something to ponder.

Poetry essay conclusion example

In your essay, the conclusion serves as a final opportunity to leave a strong impression on the reader by summarizing your analysis and offering insights into the poem’s broader significance.

Now, it’s time to double check what you’ve written.

Proofread and revise your essay

Edit your essay for clarity, coherence, tense selection , correct headings , etc. Ensure that your ideas flow logically and your analysis is well-supported. Remember, a poetry essay is an opportunity to delve into the nuances of a poem’s language, themes, and emotions.

• Review each paragraph to ensure ideas flow logically from one to the next.
• Check for grammar and punctuation errors.
• Verify that your evidence from the poem is accurately quoted and explained.
• Make sure your language is clear and effectively conveys your analysis.

By proofreading and revising, you can refine your essay, improving its readability and ensuring that your insights are communicated accurately.

So this was the last part, you’re now ready to write your first poem analysis (poetry) essay. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What should i include in the introduction of a poetry essay.

In the introduction, provide background information about the poem and poet. Include the poem’s title, publication date, and any relevant context that helps readers understand its significance.

Can I include my emotional responses in a poetry essay?

Yes, you can discuss your emotional responses, but ensure they are supported by your analysis of the poem’s literary elements. Avoid focusing solely on personal feelings.

Is it important to understand the poet's background when writing a poetry essay?

While it can provide context, your focus should be on analyzing the poem itself. If the poet’s background is relevant to the poem’s interpretation, mention it briefly.

What's the best way to conclude a poetry essay?

In the conclusion, summarize your main points and tie them together. Offer insights into the poem’s broader significance, implications, or lasting impact.

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By John Frederick Nims

My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases, At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring, Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen, And have no cunning with any soft thing Except all ill-at-ease fidgeting people: The refugee uncertain at the door You make at home; deftly you steady The drunk clambering on his undulant floor. Unpredictable dear, the taxi drivers’ terror, Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime Yet leaping before apopleptic streetcars— Misfit in any space. And never on time . A wrench in clocks and the solar system. Only With words and people and love you move at ease; In traffic of wit expertly maneuver And keep us, all devotion, at your knees. Forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel, Your lipstick grinning on our coat, So gaily in love’s unbreakable heaven Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float. Be with me, darling, early and late. Smash glasses— I will study wry music for your sake. For should your hands drop white and empty All the toys of the world would break.

Summary of Love Poem

• Popularity of “Love Poem ”: The ‘Love Poem’ was written by John Frederick Nims, a renowned American poet and academic. This is an anti-ideal love poem, which speaks about the flaws and humanness of the speaker ’s beloved . It also exhibits his devotion and infinite love for the lady who, despite being imperfect, marks the center of his life. Many poems covered the same subject , but this poetic piece gained worldwide popularity for its representation of an anti-ideal love philosophy.   
• “Love Poem” As a Representative of Love:  The poem illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of his beloved and his unshakable love for her. The narrative begins with him discussing the unfavorable characteristics of his beloved, affectionately addressing her as “my clumsiness dear,” and using peculiar comparisons to illustrate the consequences caused by her. Despite this flaw, she provides him the desired comfort of home. Then, the poet highlights how she shows blundering ineptitude when confronting a difficult situation. Obviously, she seems flawed, yet she looks like an expert in words, people, and love. This unique and gentle quality has eclipsed all her shortcomings, making the speaker love her unconditionally. Hence, he wants to embrace her love and believes that life would be joyless and silent without her clumsiness.
• Major Themes in “Love Poem”: Loving someone regardless of imperfections and celebrating love are the major themes of the poem. The poem is a light-hearted and romantic, showing the infinite love of the speaker for his beloved. Following a humorous tone , the poem highlights the imperfections that his beloved shared. Throughout the poem, he talks about the clumsiness of his beloved and the seriousness of his love for that woman. She is not at all perfect and an epitome of ideal love, but he still loves her and adores her.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Love Poem

literary devices are tools that empower writers to use powerful diction to create style within meanings. In fact, these devices help them convey their feelings, emotions and distinct impressively. Frederick Nims also used some literary devices whose analysis is as follows.

• Assonance : Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “You make at home; deftly you steady” and the sound of /aw/ and /o/ in “Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float”.
• Alliteration : Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /w/ in “world would” and /s/ sound in “the solar system”.
• Consonance : Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /r/ in “Forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel” and the sound of /t/ in “You make at home; deftly you steady”.
• Enjambment : It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break ; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example,

“Except all ill-at-ease fidgeting people: The refugee uncertain at the door You make at home; deftly you steady The drunk clambering on his undulant floor.”

• Hyperbole : Hyperbole is a device used to exaggerate any statement for the sake of emphasis. Nims exaggerates the beauty of his love throughout the poem, such as “Unpredictable dear, the taxi drivers’ terror” and “My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases.”
• Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses.For example, “All the toys of the world would break”, “Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime” and “Be with me, darling, early and late.”
• Metaphor : It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different in nature. In this poem, the poet compares his beloved with strange things to convey his ideas about love such as; “Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen” and “My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases.”
• Symbolism : Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. The expressions like “shipwreck vases” and “bulls in China” symbolizes the carelessness of his beloved.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Love Poem

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

• End Rhyme : End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. William Blake used end rhyme in this poem, such as “sake/break”, “coat/float” and “dime/time”.
• Quatrain : A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here each stanza is quatrain.
• Rhyme Scheme : The poem follows the ABCB rhyme scheme in each stanza and it lasts until the end.
• Stanza : A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are six stanzas in this poem, with each having four verses.

Quotes to be Used

The following lines from “Love Poem” are useful to use in a discussion marked by love and the difficulty people face to be with the one they love dearly.

“ Be with me, darling, early and late. Smash glasses— I will study wry music for your sake. For should your hands drop white and empty All the toys of the world would break.”

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25 Texts To Celebrate Love And Valentine’s Day

• Reading Instruction

As we get ready for Valentine’s Day, I wanted to put together a collection of poems, short stories, and texts all about love!

While some classes may benefit from more traditional love poems, other classes will respond better to different riffs on a common theme.

With that in mind, I’ve included titles that focus on heartbreak, non-romantic love, love of self, love of country, and the dangers of love!

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If you’re looking for titles that evoke traditional Valentine’s emotions, these are the titles for you! Each one is short, focused and ready for high school readers!

• First, “Senior Discount” by Ali Liebegott is such a lovely poem! This is a great poem for students because it focuses on a healthy relationship that has weathered the test of time. It’s such a contrast to the romantic relationships most students have in high school. Read it here .
• Likewise, “Old Love” by Pat Mora focuses on similar themes. Pairing this text with “Senior Discount” provides students with an opportunity to synthesize texts. They can also determine main idea , author’s purpose , and point of view too! Read it here .
• Additionally, “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]” by E.E. Cummings focuses on similar themes. As with most Cummings’ poems, the complicating factor here is the structure and syntax. Nevertheless, the modern nature of this poem appeals to students. Read it here .
• Finally, “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” by Richard Lovelace is the most traditional poem of them all. However, unlike the other poems here, this is not a poem with a happy ending. Yes, the speaker loves Lucasta, but he famously loves honor more. Read it here .

All four of these poems are included in my Love Poetry Bundle !

Heartbreak Poems

Eventually, everyone experiences heartbreak: breakups, unrequited love, or grief. While these are less traditional Valentine’s Day titles, they’re engaging and relevant for students. Pairing a heartbreak poem with a more traditional love poem can be a good way to help students compare and contrast authors’ perspectives.

• Firstly, “Time does not bring relief; you all have lied” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is probably the most straightforward breakup poem on this list. In addition to being a good poem for the season, this is also a good poem for analyzing structure and tone. Plus, this is a great poem for students experiencing their first heartbreaks and breakups. Read it here .
• Similarly, “I Have a Time Machine” by Brenda Shaughnessy is all about a womxn in a difficult relationship. Of the poems on this list, this one is probably the most emotionally difficult to read. However, the speaker’s first-person point of view suggests a degree of agency that is important and resonates with students. Read it here .
• On the other hand, “No Second Troy” by William Butler Yeats is kind of like a scorched-earth breakup poem. His personal relationships, the Irish Revolution, and the Trojan War all provide the backdrop for this poem. Beyond the historical contexts , this poem is a great piece for analyzing tone, and students respond to his anger and fire! Read it here .

Beyond Breakups

• Additionally, “December” by Jaquira Diaz is less a poem about heartbreak and more a poem nostalgic for young love. The speaker reflects on a youthful love, the loss of innocence, and the quiet rhythms of growing up! All of this makes this poem quiet, introspective, and as heartbreaking as any breakup poem. Read it here .
• Overall, “Long Distance II” by Tony Harrison is probably the poem on this list that I have taught the most often. Unlike some of the poems on this list, this poem touches on different shades of love and of love lost. The father feels grief over the death of the wife he loved for decades. On the other hand, the son resists his grief but also feels love for his parents. It’s a lovely poem and perfect for beginning a poetry spiral . Read it here .
• Finally, “[To an army wife in Sardis]” by Sappho, translated by Mary Bernard, may seem like an odd recommendation for high school students. However, Sappho’s love for Anactoria is evident. Even though the text is ancient, the tone is genuine, and students find the mysteries of who Sappho and Anactoria were engaging. That Anactoria seems to have married someone else makes this a key poem of unrequited love! This is also a great piece for discussing allusion, the power of translation, and applying feminist criticism ! Read the poem here .

Beyond Romantic Love

While falling in and out of love are often part of high school and growing up, it’s also important for students to recognize that there’s shades of love beyond romance.

• Firstly, “Tula [‘Books are door shaped’]” by Margarita Engle is about a love of reading and books. This is perfect for teachers who want to celebrate Valentine’s Day without focusing exclusively on romance. This is also a great text for middle school readers! Plus, this poem comes from The Lightning Dreamer , so it’s a great window into a larger text.
• Next, “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson may seem like an unusual suggestion. On the surface, this is not a love story, and it’s an essay of all things! However, this is an essay about Emerson’s love of Nature! This is another good text for teachers who want to lean into the holiday without focusing on romance. Read it here .
• For teachers who want to focus on parental love, Maggie Smith’s poetry is a great option. In “What I Carried” and “You Could Never Take a Car to Greenland,” Smith focuses on the love of a parent for a child. Especially in “Greenland,” Smith uses humor in a way that’s different from any other text on this list. Read both poems in Good Bones , one of my favorite poetry collections!

Loving Yourself

Similarly, it’s also important to help students move beyond romantic love and to help students understand the value of loving yourself. These two texts are a great part of that conversation!

• Like “Nature,” “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson is an essay, so it may seem like an odd choice. However, few writers communicate such a passion for loving yourself, relying on your own instincts, and trusting in your own view of the world! Grab both Emerson essays in this bundle !
• Finally, “A New England Nun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman is one of my favorite short stories ! If you’ve been following Moore English for a while, you’re probably tired of this recommendation! However, Louisa’s ultimate decision is a great way to emphasize the importance of making decisions that protect your happiness. Read it here .

The Dangers of Love

While we often associate Valentine’s Day with epic romance, some of the greatest literature focuses on romantic failures, the dangers of obsession, and the consequences of weak relationships. As a result, these are some of my students’ favorite texts to discuss and analyze.

• First, “Editha” by William Dean Howells is a short story about the consequences of a weak relationship. Sure, Editha loves George or the idea of George, but her desire to “fix” him ruins everything. His mother’s reaction to Editha would be a good complement to Maggie Smith’s poems. Read it here .
• Additionally, “ Berenice ” by Edgar Allan Poe is the rare text that appears on both my Valentine’s and Halloween recommendations list! Eagus’ fixation with Berenice shows readers the consequences of obsession. Read it here .
• Similarly, “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald features a man obsessed with a woman. Dexter’s “winter dreams” and longing for Judy affect his entire life and affect every choice he makes. My students just finished this short story, and their disdain for the characters made their discussions powerful! Read it here .
• Finally, “The Yellow Wall-paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an anti-love story or, perhaps, an anti-marriage story. The speaker’s journey is partially about rejecting traditional norms about gender and marriage and partly about the importance of listening to yourself. While this is not your typical Valentine’s read, it’s another title that keeps students hooked! Read it here .

All three of these short stories (plus six more) are included in my 9-12 Short Stories Bundle !

Love of Country

If Valentine’s Day comes around while you’re in a unit on nonfiction or rhetoric, it can be hard to find text pairings that celebrates the season without interrupting instruction. With that in mind, I put together a collection of texts that focus on patriotic love.

These three titles are staples in American literature classrooms. When I teach these texts, I focus on word choice, rhetorical devices, and author’s purpose. However, at the end of the day, these texts are all about patriotic love. If you’re in the middle of a nonfiction unit but still want to celebrate the season, just changing the lens through which you view a text might be enough!

• The Crisis by Thomas Paine
• Speech to the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry
• Letters from an American Farmer by Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur

All three of these texts (plus four more) are included by my American Enlightenment bundle!

Longer Works

Love is a key source of character motivation, conflict, and theme that it is central to countless pieces of literature. With these longer works, teachers and students can explore the benefits of romantic love as well as its consequences.

Dramas About Love

If you are interested in a drama, these titles all deal with love in some way:

• First, Romeo and Juliet is such a classic text! It’s perfect reading around Valentine’s Day and also provides students with opportunities to consider familial conflict, the importance of communication, and the power of young love.
• Secondly, Macbeth is often associated with the dangers of greed, envy, and ambition. However, it’s also a text about the dangers of weak relationships. Plus, it’s ultimately Macduff’s grief about the death of his family and Malcolm’s love of Scotland that save the day.
• To finish my Shakespeare recommendations, Julius Caesar features two marriages that readers can compare and contrast to reveal truths about strong, successful relationships. Additionally, Brutus’ love of Rome, of democracy, and of honor is his undoing, so this is also a good play for evaluating the consequences of acting only from a place of love.
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller also features love as it is complicated by adultery and social pressures. The Act I scene between John and Abigail contrasts so well with the Act II scene between John and Elizabeth. Check out my favorite resources for teaching The Crucible .

All my resources for teaching the Shakespeare plays are included in my Abridged and Modified Shakespeare Bundle !

Novels About Love

If you are more interested in a novel, these two titles are perfect and focus on different depictions of love!

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald gives readers a character study about the consequences of obsession. The desire to live and love in the past is ultimately the source of Gatsby’s undoing, so this is a good novel for considering the downside of love. Grab my favorite resources for this novel!
• On the other hand, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen provides more perspectives on love, romance, and marriage. In this novel, Austen takes readers through six key relationships, each one providing a different kind of commentary on love and marriage. Additionally, familial love plays a key role in this novel, providing readers with a different perspective. Check out my favorite resources for Pride and Prejudice !

Mythological Romance

Finally, mythology is ripe with relationships that cause drama, unite and destroy nations, and provide readers with insight into love and marriage. In particular, I love teaching The Odyssey in this context.

First, Odysseus’ motivation comes from a desire to return home to Penelope, so reading the sections that speak to this motivation can touch on the power of love.

• Firstly, Calypso provides an important contrast to Penelope. How Homer and Odysseus treat and describe Calypso in contrast to Penelope is important.
• Secondly, Odysseus’ Homecoming provides insight into love of a place. Like Gatsby, Odysseus has memories of the past that no longer matches reality.
• Of course, Penelope’s Suitors complicate Odysseus’ homecoming and show the dangers of marriage that’s based on money, greed, and pride rather than love.
• Furthermore, Penelope’s reflections on Odysseus’ return and her time without him give an alternative perspective on love.
• Ultimately, the contest between the suitors and Odysseus’ revenge show how love can be challenged, can provide powerful motivation, and can lead to unexpected consequences.

Over the years, different writers have taken on the story of Odysseus and Penelope. Reading different interpretations of their story provides commentary on love, marriage, and womxnhood. Check out these titles:

• “An Ancient Gesture” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
• “Calypso” by Suzanne Vega
• “Penelope to Ulysses” by Meredith Schwartz
• “Penelope” by Dorothy Parker

All of these excerpts from The Odyssey and the accompanying poems are included in The Odyssey Ultimate Bundle .

What other texts do you recommend for Valentine’s Day?

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Love in Poetry

Introduction

Love in poetry is not uncommon, as it is not uncommon in songs and other artistic mediums. The main point of my essay is to show that love in poetry has its place, and that the reason it has its place is because it is somehow negative in most cases. I will take you step-by-step and show you how I came to this conclusion.

You often find that poetry helps people overcome very negative feelings. The most prominent type of negative feeling expressed in poetry is sorrow. That is why poetry is rife during wars and rife in prisons. It is also quite common when dealing with a broken heart because of the sheer amount of sorrow felt by the heartbroken one. Love may also exist for a person or living creature that has passed away. Such love and the passing of that person or creature will create sorrow that again may lead to love being used in poetry. Sorrow is one of the most prominent reasons why love may be used in a poem.

One of the lesser prominent negative feelings that are expressed by poetry is anger and frustration. This is more commonly seen in rap songs, which are basically poetry with a musical backing. Rap songs are often about anger and frustration, which is often why many of them have adult themes. A person that was, or is, in love and was betrayed or dumped may feel angry and frustrated, and that too is something that people express via poetry.

There are plenty of reasons why love may appear in the form of poetry for a negative reason, but one cannot ignore the reasons why it may appear for positive reasons. People sometimes express their positive loving feelings via poetry because it is an outlet for their feelings. This often happens more so during periods where the lovers are separated by distance. Love poems are often sent to and from people in prison to those outside as each express their feelings of love for the other. Love poetry is often seen with people in the armed forces and their lovers at home, where the distance between the couple is the catalyst for the poetry writing.

Can distance and/or a lack of each partner seeing the other be construed as a negative reason for love in poetry? In other words, if a couple are separated by distance, then the lonely and longing feelings may be construed as negative, and may explain why the person(s) write the poetry. This is a good point, but most will write poetry in this case as an expression and token of love, other than a way to complain about loneliness or longing. If a person was complaining about loneliness, longing or even jealousy, then it would be written or spoken as oppose to put into a poem. That is why I do then believe the “distance” issue to be one that causes love to be used in poetry for a negative reason.

As you can see, love in poetry may happen because people want to express their feelings of love, but more often it happens because of a negative emotion. That negative emotion may be negative feelings such as sorrow, frustration or anger. Each also has its own specific incarnations, such as revenge, betrayal and depression. This also explains why love is featured in poetry in such a wide range of ways, from angry poems at those that caused hurt, to poems begging for a lover to come back. There are positive, or nice, reasons why love appears in poetry, but it is my contention that love appears in poetry for negative reasons more than positive reasons.

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Poetry & Poets

Explore the beauty of poetry – discover the poet within

How To Write Poetry In An Essay

Understand the Different Kinds of Poetry

Writing poetry in an essay can be quite a challenge, especially to someone unfamiliar with the craft. Understanding the many different styles of poetry and how they work, however, is the first step to success. Variety is key when writing a poem, as each style has its own advantages and disadvantages. Poems can range from traditional sonnets, to free verse, to even modern abstract pieces. The most traditional type of poetry is the sonnet. This consists of a four-line stanza and uses a rhyme scheme of abbaabba. Sonnets often follow a particular pattern of imagery and metaphors, so understanding that pattern is essential to writing an effective sonnet. Furthermore, meter and rhythm are key components of the sonnet, as it emphasizes the structure and form of the poem. Free verse poems also have their own set of guidelines to follow. The main difference between sonnets and free verse is that sonnets utilize rhyme and meter, while free verse poetry is more open in its form. Though they lack the rhyme, much of free verse poetry still contains subtle forms of cadence, which can help guide the flow of written words. Relying more on imagery and broken line work, free verse is often the best choice for poems dealing with topics of great gravity and depth. Contemporary poetry follows a fluid, improvised form and looks to break down traditional poetic form. Using concise word choices combined with more visual elements, like line breaks and counters, helps accomplish this goal. Innovative ideas, such as phrases or words written in all caps can also help express the emotional tones of the piece. But as with any type of style, understanding the usage of punctuation is of utmost importance.

Read and Analyze Poetry

Reading and analyzing poetry will not only help inform the creative process, but also give one insight into the context and history of the poem. Knowing the context of a poem allows one to better understand the author’s intent, the implications of certain words, and the overall tone of the piece. Analyzing the structure and rhyme scheme of the poem may also help identify recurring themes and motifs in the writing. Furthermore, reading and analyzing the work of other poets can also be beneficial. For example, learning how other poets address different topics, such as nostalgia or loneliness, can provide great insight into how to approach similar topics. By understanding how poets choose to convey their ideas, one can better articulate their own.

Craft Essays with Poetry in Mind

When writing an essay that includes poetry, one must be mindful of the structure and organization of the piece as a whole. Unlike narrative essays, poetry essays should focus more on the analysis of the content. Identifying relevant themes, symbols, and motifs, as well as the implications of the poem are essential to a thorough analysis. Ideally, all information included in the essay should directly relate to the poem, elaborating the content of the poem. Be open to the idea of reinterpreting and reimagining the poem in new and expansive ways. Comparing and contrasting the poem with other works can also provide insight into the overall power of the piece.

Integrate Poetic Techniques

Integrating poetic techniques like rhythm, imagery, and alliteration can also help enhance a poem essay. Poetic language not only provides a vivid aesthetic to the essay, it also creates a powerful emotional connection to the reader. When using poetic devices, be sure that they are incorporated in a logical and intentional way that ultimately serves the purpose of the essay. Rhythm, in particular, is essential to a poem as it provides a musical quality that can carry the reader into and through the piece. Utilizing active verbs and expanded phrases and ideas can also help give shape and movement to the essay. Furthermore, being mindful of the implications of certain words and incorporating symbolism into the writing can effectively illustrate even the most abstract themes present in the poem.

Avoid Clichés

When writing a poem essay, especially when trying to utilize poetic language, there is a fine line between beautiful imagery and overbearing clichés. Clichés should be avoided in writing, as they are often formulaic and unoriginal. Furthermore, they can detract from the uniqueness and fluidity of the piece. Readers are often overwhelmed by overly sentimental phrasing and mawkish turns of phrase. Instead of relying on trite language and phrases, strive for something more thoughtful and creative. Think about the implications and the words’ connotations and be warned that intricate, heartfelt phrasings cannot easily be replaced with romance-fuelled images. Be imaginative and let the momentousness of the poem inspire limitless allegory.

Understand Tone and Emotion

The tone of a poem is a reflection of the feelings and emotions of the poet, as well as the overall tone and mood of the piece. Oftentimes, emotions arise in a poem as a result of personification and intensified language. Understanding how tone and emotion interact can be beneficial to writing a poem essay. For example, in a poem that deals with a melancholic subject, the writing should be filled with sadness and longing. Moments of joy and clarity should be isolated and written in the clearest terms possible. Furthermore, when writing the essay, the focus should be on how the poet conveys these emotions and how the reader interprets them.

Construct a Poetic Perspective

When presenting a poem within an essay, it is important to remain as close to the source as possible. This means avoiding making broad and sweeping statements that are not backed up by the evidence from the text. Rather, make sure to point out specific lines and examples from the poem that help build and justify the argument. In essence, the essay should serve as an extension of the poem, not a replacement of it.

Evaluate the Poem Objectively

The most objective way to evaluate a poem is to analyze the elements of the poem—its flow and structure, use of language, and its overall discussion of the subject at hand—in an informed and comprehensive way. By asking questions about the poem’s use of metaphor, imagery, theme, irony, and symbolism, one can better understand the poet’s intent. Additionally, one should make sure to look beyond the surface level themes of the poem and look for the implications of the text, as well as its underlying messages. Finally, it is important to look for any patterns that might be present in the poem, and identify any possible recurring motifs.

Discern the Poet’s Message

Being able to articulate the poet’s message is essential when addressing any type of poem. Understanding what the poet is saying and attempting to convey is of particular importance when writing an essay that incorporates poetry. One should look for any recurring ideas or themes and figure out what emotions the poet is trying to evoke. Furthermore, discernment of the poet’s message should encompass all levels of the work, from literal references to more subtle metaphors and symbols.

Make Connections to Real-Life Circumstances

Making connections between the poem and real life is another helpful tool when writing a poem essay. Identifying how the content of the poem relates to the real world can add an extra dimension of analysis and insight to the work. For example, if the poem is about loss, one can look for how the poem speaks to anyone that has ever experienced it. Furthermore, looking at how the poem relates to one’s own personal emotions can also provide unique insight. This can help to provide broader and more general themes to be analyzed, instead of just looking at the intricacies of the poem in a vacuum.

Utilize Examples from Other Works

When writing an essay involving a poem, it can be helpful to look to similar works for reference. Whether it be another poet’s work or a piece of literature, leveraging examples from other sources can help illustrate different interpretations of the poem. For instance, when discussing the emotions explored in a poem, one can look to other works that utilize similar techniques and discuss why that poem’s techniques are different or more effective. By looking at various sources, one can gain different perspectives on the poem and arrive at a more informed opinion.

Think Beyond the Prescribed Assignment

When writing a poem essay, it is important to think beyond the scope of the assignment. Poems often explore vast and nebulous abstractions, and a thorough examination of the poem should mean each emotion and idea has a chance to be discussed. Instead of stopping at what the assignment requires, consider the implications of the poem further and explore different ways of interpreting it. Discuss the poem’s relation to the real-world and even contemplate what the poem means in the grand scheme of things. By going beyond the requirements of the assignment, one can create something much more personal and true to oneself.

Minnie Walters

Minnie Walters is a passionate writer and lover of poetry. She has a deep knowledge and appreciation for the work of famous poets such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more. She hopes you will also fall in love with poetry!

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The Poetry issue

The Shape of the Void: Toward a Definition of Poetry

“Poetry leaves something out,” our columnist Elisa Gabbert says. But that’s hardly the extent of it.

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By Elisa Gabbert

I once heard a student say poetry is language that’s “coherent enough.” I love a definition this ambiguous. It’s both helpful (there’s a limit to coherence, and the limit is aesthetic) and unhelpful (enough for what, or whom?). It reminds me of a dictionary entry for “detritus” that I copied down in a notebook: “the pieces that are left when something breaks, falls apart, is destroyed, etc.” That seemed so artfully vague to me, so uncharacteristically casual for a dictionary. It has a quality of distraction, of trailing off, of suggesting you already know what detritus means. Part of me resists the question of what poetry is, or resists the answer — you already know what it means.

But let’s answer it anyway, starting with the obvious: If the words have rhyme and meter, it’s poetry. Nonwords with rhyme and meter, as in “Jabberwocky,” also are poetry. And since words in aggregate have at least some rhyme and rhythm, which lines on the page accentuate, any words composed in lines are poetry. There’s something to be said for the obvious. Virginia Woolf wrote of E.M. Forster: “He says the simple things that clever people don’t say; I find him the best of critics for that reason. Suddenly out comes the obvious thing one has overlooked.”

Is there much else? I think so. I think poetry leaves something out. All texts leave something out, of course — otherwise they’d be infinite — but most of the time, more is left out of a poem. Verse, by forcing more white space on the page, is constantly reminding you of what’s not there. This absence of something, this hyper-present absence, is why prose poems take up less space than other prose forms; the longer they get, the less they feel like poems. It’s why fragments are automatically poetic: Erasure turns prose into poems. It’s why any text that’s alluringly cryptic or elusive — a road sign, assembly instructions — is described as poetic. The poetic is not merely beauty in language, but beauty in incoherence, in resistance to common sense. The missingness of poetry slows readers down, making them search for what can’t be found. The encounter is almost inherently frustrating, as though one could not possibly pay enough attention. This is useful: Frustration is erotic.

“What is poetry?” is not the same question, quite, as “What is a poem?” How many poems did Emily Dickinson write? It depends what you count. In “Writing in Time,” the scholar Marta Werner writes, of Dickinson’s so-called Master letters, “At their most fundamental, ontological level, we don’t know what they are.” Perhaps my favorite poem of Dickinson’s is not, perhaps, a poem — it’s an odd bit of verse in the form of a letter to her sister-in-law, ending with the loveliest, slantest of rhymes: “Be Sue, while/I am Emily —/Be next, what/you have ever/been, Infinity.” Are the “breaks” really breaks? The letter is written on a small, narrow card; the words go almost to the edge of the paper. I think, too, of Rilke’s letters, which often read like poems. In 1925, he wrote to his Polish translator: “We are the bees of the Invisible. We wildly gather the honey of the visible, in order to store it in the great golden hive of the Invisible.” In these letter-poems, poetry reveals itself as more a mode of writing, a mode of thinking, even a mode of being , than a genre. The poem is not the only unit of poetry; poetic lines in isolation are still poetry. The poem is a vessel; poetry is liquid.

From time to time I’m asked, with bewilderment or derision, if this or that poem isn’t just “prose chopped into lines.” This idea of the free verse poem as “chopped” prose comes from Ezra Pound via Marjorie Perloff, who quotes Pound in her influential essay “The Linear Fallacy,” published in 1981. The essay encourages an oddly suspicious, even paranoid reading of most free verse as phony poetry, as prose in costume. The line, in Perloff’s view, in these ersatz poems, is a “surface device,” a “gimmick.” She removes all the breaks from a C.K. Williams poem to make the case that a stanza without the intentional carriage returns is merely a paragraph.

I find this baffling — as if chopping up prose has no effect. It does have an effect, the way putting more panes in a window changes the view. The architect Christopher Alexander thought big plate glass windows were a mistake, because “they alienate us from the view”: “The smaller the windows are, and the smaller the panes are, the more intensely windows help connect us with what is on the other side. This is an important paradox.” To state the Forsterian obvious again, adding breaks to a paragraph is not always going to make an interesting poem — but most poets don’t write that way. They write in the line , in the company of the void. That changes how you write — and more profoundly, how you think, and even how you are, your mode of being. When you write in the line, there is always an awareness of the mystery, of what is left out. This is why, I suppose, poems can be so confounding. Empty space on the page, that absence of language, provides no clues. But it doesn’t communicate nothing — rather, it communicates nothing . It speaks void, it telegraphs mystery.

By “mystery” I don’t mean metaphor or disguise. Poetry doesn’t, or shouldn’t, achieve mystery only by hiding the known, or translating the known into other, less familiar language. The mystery is unknowing, the unknown — as in Jennifer Huang’s “Departure”: “The things I don’t know have stayed/In this home.” The mystery is the missing mountain in Shane McCrae’s “The Butterflies the Mountain and the Lake”:

the / Butterflies monarch butterflies huge swarms they Migrate and as they migrate south as they Cross Lake Superior instead of flying

South straight across they fly South over the water then fly east still over the water then fly south again / And now biologists believe they turn to avoid a mountain

That disappeared millennia ago.

The missing mountain is still there. As for what is on the page, the language that changes the shape of the void, I’m of the opinion it can be almost anything. One of my favorite books that no one has heard of is “Survey Says!,” by Nathan Austin. It’s just a list of guesses ventured by contestants on “Family Feud,” arranged, most ingeniously, in alphabetical order by their second letter, so you get sequences like this: “A bra. Abraham Lincoln. A building. Scaffolding. Scalpel. A car. A card game. A cat. A cat. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream.” We get the answers; the questions are missing. “Get a manicure. Get a toupee. Get drunk. Retirement fund. Get out of bed. Get ready! Let’s go with manuals. Get sick in there. Let’s say a pet. Let’s say shoes. Bette Davis.” The poetry seems to perform hypnosis, the found rhymes and assonance and anaphora enacting an enchantment, a bewitchery; it seems to be giving subconscious advice. Get ready! You must change your life.

Elisa Gabbert is the author of five collections of poetry, essays and criticism, most recently “ The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays .” Her On Poetry columns appear four times a year.

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