Poetry Quotes
Poems are read, violets are blue.
ALL QUOTES POPULAR BROWSE BY AUTHOR BROWSE BY SOURCE BROWSE BY TOPIC BROWSE BY SUBJECT
Poetry Quotes
Looking for the perfect quote for your yearbook? Need a loving line to woo your new gentleman friend? There's nothing like a little poetry to set the mood. Click on any quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on Shmoop's pretentious scale. We'll give you details on who wrote it, when they wrote it, and in some cases, why on earth they thought it was okay to write it.
For more poetry quotes, head on over to our Poetry section, choose a poem, and click Quotes in the navigation.
"A bit of talcum is always walcum."Source: Reflection on Babies | Author: Ogden Nash
"All her hairSource: Porphyria's Lover | Author: Robert Browning
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around"
"And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand"Source: A Dream within a Dream | Author: Edgar Allan Poe
"and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the saddest smile I ever saw"Source: A Smile to Remember | Author: Charles Bukowski
"Because I could not stop for death — He kindly stopped for me —"Source: Because I could not stop for Death | Author: Emily Dickinson
"Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."Source: Digging | Author: Seamus Heaney
"Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—"Source: Bright Star, would I were stedfast as thou art | Author: John Keats
"Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise."Source: Still I Rise | Author: Maya Angelou
"But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it."Source: Introduction to Poetry | Author: Billy Collins
"But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out."Source: Casey at the Bat | Author: Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"Come to me in the silence of the night."Source: Echo | Author: Christina Rossetti
"have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it—"Source: Lady Lazarus | Author: Sylvia Plath
"He tells you when you've got on too much lipstick"Source: The Perfect Husband | Author: Ogden Nash
"Hope is the thing with feathers—That perches in the soul"Source: Hope Is the Thing with Feathers | Author: Emily Dickinson
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."Source: How do I love Thee (Sonnet 43) | Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"How dreary — to be — Somebody!Source: I'm Nobody! Who are you? | Author: Emily Dickinson
How public — like a Frog —"
"Hurt no living thing."Source: Hurt No Living Thing | Author: Christina Rossetti
"I heard a Fly buzz — when I died"Source: I heard a Fly buzz — when I died | Author: Emily Dickinson
"I love you more than a wasp can sting."Source: To My Valentine | Author: Ogden Nash
"I love you only because it's you the one I love"Source: I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You | Author: Pablo Neruda
"I might love the people upstairs more If only they lived on another floor."Source: The People Upstairs | Author: Ogden Nash
"I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys."Source: A Supermarket in California | Author: Allen Ginsberg
"I started Early—Took my Dog / and visited the Sea"Source: I started Early—Took my Dog | Author: Emily Dickinson
"I'm Nobody! Who are you?Source: I'm Nobody! Who are you? | Author: Emily Dickinson
Are you — Nobody — too?"
"If suddenlySource: If You Forget Me | Author: Pablo Neruda
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you."
"Into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred"Source: The Charge of the Light Brigade | Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson
"It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea"Source: Annabel Lee | Author: Edgar Allan Poe
"Long walks at night—that's what good for the soul"Source: And the Moon and the Stars and the World | Author: Charles Bukowski
"My soul has grown deep like the rivers."Source: The Negro Speaks of Rivers | Author: Langston Hughes
"O my Luve's like a Red, Red Rose That's newly sprung in June"Source: A Red, Red Rose | Author: Robert Burns
"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."Source: Marginalia | Author: Billy Collins
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light"Source: Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night | Author: Dylan Thomas
"so much depends upon a red wheel barrow"Source: The Red Wheelbarrow | Author: William Carlos Williams
"So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away"Source: Television | Author: Roald Dahl
"Tell all the truth but tell it slant"Source: Tell all the truth but tell it slant— | Author: Emily Dickinson
"That's my last Duchess painted on the wallSource: My Last Duchess | Author: Robert Browning
Looking as if she were alive."
"The Brain—is wider than the Sky—"Source: The Brain—is wider than the Sky— | Author: Emily Dickinson
"The caged bird sings of freedom"Source: Caged Bird | Author: Maya Angelou
"The neighbors' dog will not stop barking."Source: Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House | Author: Billy Collins
"The trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry."Source: The Trouble with Poetry | Author: Billy Collins
"There is a place where the sidewalk ends."Source: Where the Sidewalk Ends | Author: Shel Silverstein
"there's a bluebird in my heart that/ wants to get out/ but I'm too tough for him"Source: Bluebird | Author: Charles Bukowski
"There's a light on in the attic."Source: A Light in the Attic | Author: Shel Silverstein
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."Source: The Second Coming | Author: William Butler Yeats
"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper."Source: The Hollow Men | Author: T.S. Eliot
"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."Source: In Memoriam | Author: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"To the rolling of the bells- Of the bells, bells, bells"Source: The Bells | Author: Edgar Allan Poe
"Tonight I can write the saddest lines"Source: Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines | Author: Pablo Neruda
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."Source: The Road Not Taken | Author: Robert Frost
"Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink."Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner | Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"we are all trapped by a singular fate"Source: Alone with Everybody | Author: Charles Bukowski
"Whenever you're wrong, admit it Whenever you're right, shut up."Source: A Word to Husbands | Author: Ogden Nash
"You must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it."Source: Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer | Author: Ogden Nash