The answer to most of these questions is yes. And no. And even maybe. They need to be monumental in some way, sparking the flames of revolution and imagination, possibly at the same time. And ultimately, since this is my list, there’s subjectivity to it. There are some ground rules to this list. Any poet only gets one poem on this list. This makes for some difficult decisions picking which poem to include from many great poets. This also isn’t just a giant list of classic poems from dead white guys. They made some great poets and one day I will be one, but there is so much amazing poetry from people of all genders and races and eras that deserve inclusion on any list. So they’re definitely on this one. At least one of those questions has a definite answer: the greatest poems of all time do not need to rhyme, but they’re certainly welcome to.
The Best Poems of the 17th Century
The Best Poems of the 18th Century
The Best Poems of the 19th Century
The Best Poems of the 20th Century
The Best Poems of the 21st Century
Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list. From top to bottom, though, it’s filled with many of the best poems of all time. Whether you’re new to poetry or an old hand, these should all be on your reading list. Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven. Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Read the rest here. And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne! Read the rest here. In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Read the rest here. He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality. Read the rest here. 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. Read the rest here. The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! Read the rest here. And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Read the rest here. I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. Read the rest here. Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Read the rest here. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Read the rest here. Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” Read the rest here. In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. Read the rest here. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. Read the rest here. Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Read the rest here. Our dark fathers gave us The gift of shedding sorrow In a song. Read the rest in Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes. they go where they want to go they do what they want to do. Read the rest here. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, Read the rest here. climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, Read the rest here. his warriors to burn the sleeping villages and kill the sick and old and lead the young in coffles to our factories. Read the rest here. It is these flowers lighting the yard. Read the rest here. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in it after all, a place for the genuine. Read the rest here. is being ready to kill yourself instead of your children. Read the rest here. Color mahogany center. Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. Loveliness extreme. Extra gaiters. Loveliness extreme. Read the rest here. You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Read the rest here. And why are you pointing upwards? Read the rest here. As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, Afar o’er life’s turrets and vales does it roam In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home. Read the rest here. I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. Read the rest here. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Read the rest here. The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, Read the rest here. Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Read the rest here. There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; Read the rest here. Left school. We Lurk late. Read the rest here. every step to class, a step into the firing-line. Here is the target, fine skin at the temple, cheek still rounded from being fifteen. Read the rest here. the tears from my birth pains created the nile I am a beautiful woman Read the rest here. When I am so small Da’s sock covers my arm, we cruise at twilight until we find the place the real men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool. His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we Read the rest here. Gotta love us brown girls, munching on fat, swinging blue hips, decked out in shells and splashes, Lawdie, bringing them woo hips. Read the rest here. Promises to explore distant lands on a trip Lying back slowly to relax and be easy Drinking clear fluids not to feel queasy Read the rest here. The rape joke is that you were 19 years old. The rape joke is that he was your boyfriend. The rape joke it wore a goatee. A goatee. Read the rest here. But in all the bridges we’ve made, that is the promise to glade, the hill we climb.
