Where to Find Poems to Analyze

My main priority is that you find a poem on your own – maybe one that someone in your family really likes, or one that was featured in one of your favorite movies… the possibilities are wide open. But I also understand that not everyone has a go-to favorite poem or poet. So here are some resources to help you find a poem that you might enjoy unpacking…

There is a substantial collection of excellent poetry you can peruse at www.poetryoutloud.org

Many of the poems listed below are pretty famous. I strongly discourage you from looking up some website’s interpretation of your poem. That’s plagiarism, as it consists of you writing someone else’s interpretation of what really matters in your poem. Remember, what matters is that you come up with your own interpretation – I’d rather read an interpretation that doesn’t quite work, or that misses some significant parts, but is definitely yours. Turning over someone else’s thoughts adds nothing to your ability to think critically.

POEM	POET	# of lines	It is “about”…
All You Who Sleep Tonight	Seth, Vikram	8	Ode to Life
Anthem For Doomed Youth	Owen, Wilfred	14	War and Youth
Annabel Lee	Poe, Edgar Allan	41	Creepy love
Another Feeling	Stone, Ruth	18	Regret
Archaic Torso of Apollo	Rilke, Rainer Maria	14	What we know
Argument in a Restaurant	Rathburn, Chelsea	32	Trials of love
Death, Be Not Proud	Donne, John	14	Mortality
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night	Thomas, Dylan	19	Father’s death
Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep	Frye, Mary	14	Death/Immortality
Domestic Violence	Boland, Eavan	48	Silence & Guilt
Dover Beach	Arnold, Matthew	37	Eternity
Dulce Et Decorum Est	Owen, Wilfred	28	War is Hell
Emperor of Ice-Cream, The	Stevens, Wallace	16	Weird
Funeral Blues	Auden, W. H.	16	Mourning / Loss
God’s Grandeur	Hopkins, Gerard Manley	14	Piety
Hand That Signed The Paper, The	Thomas, Dylan	16	Fate & Power
Ice	Mazur, Gail	24	Love and Youth
If	Kipling, Rudyard	32	Life Advice
Invictus	Henley, W. E.	16	Self-pride
Irish Airman Forsees his Death, An	Yeats, W. B.	16	War / Mortality
Jabberwocky	Carroll, Lewis	28	Nonsense / Heroes
Jenny Kissed Me	Hunt, Leigh	8	Cute
Kubla Khan	Coleridge, Samuel T.	36	Trippy / Paradise
Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds	Shakespeare, William	14	Eternal love
London	Blake, William	16	Life is horrible
Man He Killed, The	Hardy, Thomas	20	War/Circumstance
Miniver Cheevy	Robinson, E. A.	32	Chivalry / Sadness
mother, the	Brooks, Gwendolyn	32	Motherhood /Loss
My Last Duchess	Browning, Robert	56	Revenge & Hatred
My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun	Shakespeare, William	14	Individual Love
Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments	Shakespeare, William	14	Immortality
Not Waving But Drowning	Smith, Stevie	12	Misunderstanding
On the Eve of His Execution	Tichborne, Chidiock	18	Facing death
On My First Son	Jonson, Ben	16	Mourning & Loss
Orange, The	Cope, Wendy	12	Being in love
Oxen, The	Hardy, Thomas	16	Faith
Passionate Shepherd to his Love, The	Marlowe, Christopher	24	Love / Persuasion
Pied Beauty	Hopkins, Gerard	11	Religion
Poison Tree, A	Blake, William	16	Vengeance
Psalm of Life, A	Longfellow, H. W.	28	Inspirational
Red, Red Rose, A	Burns, Robert	16	Scottish
Road Not Taken, The	Frost, Robert	20	Choices
Second Coming, The	Yeats, WB	22	Things fall apart
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways	Wordsworth, William	12	Death / love
She Walks in Beauty	Lord Byron	18	Love / Worship
Soldier, The	Brooke, Rupert	14	War / Patriotism
Sorrows of Werther	Thackeray, William	16	Dry Humor/Death
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening	Frost, Robert	16	Nature / Death?
Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever, A	Keats, John	13	Beauty
To An Athlete Dying Young	Housman, A. E.	28	Fame and Death
To Celia	Jonson, Ben	16	Love
Unknown Citizen, The	Auden, W. H.	30	Bureaucracy
We Wear the Mask	Dunbar, Paul	15	Image & Honesty
What We Might Be, What We Are	Kennedy, X. J.	16	Foolish / Love
When I Was One-and-Twenty	Housman, A.E.	16	Love / Youth / Irony
When You Are Old	Yeats, W.B.	12	Beauty / age

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