1. Friendship After Love - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 2298 times on American Poems.

After the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires, 
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he... (Read full poem)

I knew it the first of the summer, 
I knew it the same at the end, 
That you and your love were plighted, 
But couldn’t you be my friend? 
Couldn’t we sit in the twilight, 
Couldn’t we walk on the shore
With only a pleasant friendship
To bind... (Read full poem)

3. Astigmatism - written by Amy Lowell
From Sword Blades & Poppy Seed. Read 3009 times on American Poems.

To Ezra Pound;With 
much friendship and admiration and some differences of opinion(Read full poem)

O! for this dark terrestrial ball
Forsakes his azure-paved hall
    A prince of heav'nly birth!
Divine Humanity behold,
What wonders rise, what charms unfold
    At his descent to earth!

II.

The bosoms of the great and good
With wonder and delight... (Read full poem)

5. Acrostic -- Eliza Hughes - written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr.
Read 1126 times on American Poems.

E v'ry grace in her combine,L ove and truth and friendship join,I n one source without reserve,Z ealous all her friends to serve,A nd diffuse true harmony. H appy nymph of chaste repose,U nsullied as the vernal rose.G ay -- majestic -- yet serene,H... (Read full poem)

TO the East and to the West; 
To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania, 
To the Kanadian of the North—to the Southerner I love; 
These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men; 
I believe the main... (Read full poem)

7. After Spanish Proverb - written by Dorothy Parker
From Death and Taxes. Published in 1931. Read 8637 times on American Poems.

Oh, mercifullest one of all,
Oh, generous as dear,
None lived so lowly, none so small,
Thou couldst withhold thy tear:

How swift, in pure compassion,
How meek in charity,
To offer friendship to the one
Who begged but love of thee!

Oh, gentle word,... (Read full poem)

We have a name for it 
in the South: 
asshole buddies. 
It means we've known 
each other so long 
it doesn't matter 
that he's an asshole 
in my opinion 
or I'm an asshole 
in his opinion 
or whatever 
And I want you to know 
I'm not from the South... (Read full poem)

9. Are You the New person, drawn toward Me? - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 6548 times on American Poems.

ARE you the new person drawn toward me? 
To begin with, take warning—I am surely far different from what you suppose; 
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? 
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? 
Do you think the... (Read full poem)

The uses of sorrow I comprehend
Better and better at each year’s end.

Deeper and deeper I seem to see
Why and wherefore it has to be

Only after the dark, wet days
Do we fully rejoice in the sun’s bright rays.

Sweeter the crust tastes... (Read full poem)

11. The Unknown - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 885 times on American Poems.

Ye aspiring ones, listen to the story of the unknown
Who lies here with no stone to mark the place.
As a boy reckless and wanton,
Wandering with gun in hand through the forest
Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfield,
I shot a hawk perched on the... (Read full poem)

‘Anticipation is sweeter than realisation.’

It may be, yet I have not found it so.
In those first golden dreams of future fame
I did not find such happiness as came
When toil was crowned with triumph. Now I know
My words have recognition, and... (Read full poem)

13. Provide, Provide - written by Robert Frost
From A Further Range. Published in 1936. Read 11657 times on American Poems.

The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag,
Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood.
Too many fall from great and good
For you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.
Or if... (Read full poem)

My wedding-ring lies in a basket 
as if at the bottom of a well. 
Nothing will come to fish it back up 
and onto my finger again. 
                    It lies 
among keys to abandoned houses, 
nails waiting to be needed and hammered 
into... (Read full poem)

15. Anthony Findlay - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 417 times on American Poems.

Both for the country and for the man,
And for a country as well as a man,
'Tis better to be feared than loved.
And if this country would rather part
With the friendship of every nation
Than surrender its wealth,
I say of a man 'tis worse to... (Read full poem)

Since the fern can't go to the sink for a drink of
water, I graciously submit myself to the task, bringing two
glasses from the sink.
  And so we sit, the fern and I, sipping water together.


  Of course I'm more complex than a fern, full of... (Read full poem)

17. Springfield Magical - written by Vachel Lindsay
Read 781 times on American Poems.

In this, the City of my Discontent, 
Sometimes there comes a whisper from the grass, 
"Romance, Romance — is here. No Hindu town 
Is quite so strange. No Citadel of Brass 
By Sinbad found, held half such love and hate; 
No picture-palace in a... (Read full poem)

You never understood, O unknown one,
Why it was I repaid
Your devoted friendship and delicate ministrations
First with diminished thanks,
Afterward by gradually withdrawing my presence from you,
So that I might not be compelled to thank... (Read full poem)

19. Robert Davidson - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 463 times on American Poems.

I grew spiritually fat living off the souls of men.
If I saw a soul that was strong
I wounded its pride and devoured its strength.
The shelters of friendship knew my cunning,
For where I could steal a friend I did so.
And wherever I could... (Read full poem)

NOT heat flames up and consumes, 
Not sea-waves hurry in and out, 
Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe summer, bears lightly along white
	down-balls of
	myriads of seeds, 
Wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may; 
Not... (Read full poem)

21. At This Moment Of Time - written by Delmore Schwartz
Read 1197 times on American Poems.

Some who are uncertain compel me. They fear
The Ace of Spades. They fear
Loves offered suddenly, turning from the mantelpiece,
Sweet with decision. And they distrust
The fireworks by the lakeside, first the spuft,
Then the colored lights,... (Read full poem)

Was ever a maiden so worried?
I’ll admit I am partial to Jim,
For Jimmie has promised to wed me
When I’m old enough to wed him.

But then I love teacher, too, dearly,
She’s always so lovely to me,
And she’s pretty and kind and... (Read full poem)

23. Widow McFarlane - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 374 times on American Poems.

I was the Widow McFarlane,
Weaver of carpets for all the village.
And I pity you still at the loom of life,
You who are singing to the shuttle
And lovingly watching the work of your hands,
If you reach the day of hate, of terrible truth.
For... (Read full poem)

Industrious, affable, having brain on fire,
Henry perplexed himself; others gave up;
good girls gave in;
geography was hard on friendship, Sire;
marriages lashed & languished, anguished; dearth of group
and what else had been;

the splendour... (Read full poem)

25. By A Swimming Pool Outside Syracusa - written by Billy Collins
Read 3507 times on American Poems.

All afternoon I have been struggling
to communicate in Italian
with Roberto and Giuseppe, who have begun
to resemble the two male characters
in my Italian for Beginners,
the ones who are always shopping
or inquiring about the times of trains,
and... (Read full poem)