1. The Well upon the Brook - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1211 times on American Poems.

The Well upon the Brook
Were foolish to depend --
Let Brooks -- renew of Brooks --
But Wells -- of failless Ground!(Read full poem)

Simon Zelotes speaking after the Crucifixion.
Fere=Mate, Companion.

Ha' we lost the goodliest fere o' all
For the priests and the gallows tree?
Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O' ships and the open sea.

When they came wi' a host to take Our... (Read full poem)

3. The Ballad Of A Bachelor - written by Ellis Parker Butler
From Century Magazine. Read 1832 times on American Poems.

Listen, ladies, while I sing
The ballad of John Henry King.

John Henry was a bachelor,
His age was thirty-three or four.

Two maids for his affection vied,
And each desired to be his bride,

And bravely did they strive to bring
Unto their feet John... (Read full poem)

The Bee is not afraid of me.
I know the Butterfly.
The pretty people in the Woods
Receive me cordially --

The Brooks laugh louder when I come --
The Breezes madder play;
Wherefore mine eye thy silver mists,
Wherefore, Oh Summer's Day?(Read full poem)

5. Never for Society - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 5403 times on American Poems.

Never for Society
He shall seek in vain --
Who His own acquaintance
Cultivate -- Of Men
Wiser Men may weary --
But the Man within

Never knew Satiety --
Better entertain
Than could Border Ballad --
Or Biscayan Hymn --
Neither introduction
Need You... (Read full poem)

Oh for a poet—for a beacon bright 
To rift this changless glimmer of dead gray; 
To spirit back the Muses, long astray, 
And flush Parnassus with a newer light; 
To put these little sonnet-men to flight
Who fashion, in a shrewd mechanic way,... (Read full poem)

7. My River runs to thee - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 4535 times on American Poems.

My River runs to thee --
Blue Sea! Wilt welcome me?
My River wait reply --
Oh Sea -- look graciously --
I'll fetch thee Brooks
From spotted nooks --
Say -- Sea -- Take Me!(Read full poem)

It makes no difference abroad --
The Seasons -- fit -- the same --
The Mornings blossom into Noons --
And split their Pods of Flame --

Wild flowers -- kindle in the Woods --
The Brooks slam -- all the Day --
No Black bird bates his Banjo --
For... (Read full poem)

9. Distrustful of the Gentian - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3459 times on American Poems.

Distrustful of the Gentian --
And just to turn away,
The fluttering of her fringes
Child my perfidy --
Weary for my ----------
I will singing go --
I shall not feel the sleet -- then --
I shall not fear the snow.

Flees so the phantom meadow
Before... (Read full poem)

I speak of love that comes to mind:
The moon is faithful, although blind;
She moves in thought she cannot speak.
Perfect care has made her bleak.

I never dreamed the sea so deep,
The earth so dark; so long my sleep,
I have become another child.
I... (Read full poem)

11. As Watchers hang upon the East, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1811 times on American Poems.

As Watchers hang upon the East,
As Beggars revel at a feast
By savory Fancy spread --
As brooks in deserts babble sweet
On ear too far for the delight,
Heaven beguiles the tired.

As that same watcher, when the East
Opens the lid of Amethyst
And... (Read full poem)

To learn the Transport by the Pain
As Blind Men learn the sun!
To die of thirst -- suspecting
That Brooks in Meadows run!

To stay the homesick -- homesick feet
Upon a foreign shore --
Haunted by native lands, the while --
And blue -- beloved... (Read full poem)

13. Song Of A Second April - written by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Read 2017 times on American Poems.

April this year, not otherwise
Than April of a year ago,
Is full of whispers, full of sighs,
Of dazzling mud and dingy snow;
Hepaticas that pleased you so
Are here again, and butterflies.

There rings a hammering all day,
And shingles lie about the... (Read full poem)

(For Aline)

From what old ballad, or from what rich frame
Did you descend to glorify the earth?
Was it from Chaucer's singing book you came?
Or did Watteau's small brushes give you birth?
Nothing so exquisite as that slight hand
Could... (Read full poem)

15. Hyla Brook - written by Robert Frost
From Mountain Interval. Published in 1916. Read 7793 times on American Poems.

By June our brook's run out of song and speed.
Sought for much after that, it will be found
Either to have gone groping underground
(And taken with it all the Hyla breed
That shouted in the mist a month ago,
Like ghost of sleigh-bells in a... (Read full poem)

Sang from the Heart, Sire,
Dipped my Beak in it,
If the Tune drip too much
Have a tint too Red

Pardon the Cochineal --
Suffer the Vermillion --
Death is the Wealth
Of the Poorest Bird.

Bear with the Ballad --
Awkward -- faltering --
Death twists... (Read full poem)

17. Sweet -- safe -- Houses - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3141 times on American Poems.

Sweet -- safe -- Houses --
Glad -- gay -- Houses --
Sealed so stately tight --
Lids of Steel -- on Lids of Marble --
Locking Bare feet out --

Brooks of Plush -- in Banks of Satin
Not so softly fall
As the laughter -- and the whisper --
From their... (Read full poem)

When I died, love, when I died
my heart was broken in your care;
I never suffered love so fair
as now I suffer and abide
when I died, love, when I died.

When I died, love, when I died
I wearied in an endless maze
that men have walked for... (Read full poem)

19. Making The Lion For All It's Got -- A Ballad - written by Allen Ginsberg
From Journals Mid Fifties 1954-1958. Published in 1955. Read 5565 times on American Poems.

I came home and found a lion in my room...
[First draft of "The Lion for Real" CP 174-175]


A lion met America
in the road
they stared at each other
two figures on the crossroads in the desert.

America screamed
The lion roared
They leaped at each... (Read full poem)

The first flower of the spring is not so fair 
Or bright, as one the ripe midsummer brings. 
The first faint note the forest warbler sings 
Is not as rich with feeling, or so rare 
As when, full master of his art, the air 
Drowns in the liquid... (Read full poem)

21. Historion - written by Ezra Pound
Read 2120 times on American Poems.

No man hath dared to write this thing as yet, 
And yet I know, how that the souls of all men great 
At times pass athrough us, 
And we are melted into them, and are not 
Save reflexions of their souls. 
Thus am I Dante for a space and am 
One... (Read full poem)

Heart, not so heavy as mine
Wending late home --
As it passed my window
Whistled itself a tune --
A careless snatch -- a ballad -- A ditty of the street --
Yet to my irritated Ear
An Anodyne so sweet --
It was as if a Bobolink
Sauntering this... (Read full poem)

23. Masks - written by Ezra Pound
Read 5600 times on American Poems.

These tales of old disguisings, are they not
Strange myths of souls that found themselves among
Unwonted folk that spake an hostile tongue,
Some soul from all the rest who'd not forgot
The star-span acres of a former lot
Where boundless mid... (Read full poem)

As we the withered ferns 
By the roadway lying, 
Time, the jester, spurns 
All our prayers and prying -- 
All our tears and sighing, 
Sorrow, change, and woe -- 
All our where-and-whying 
For friends that come and go. 

Life awakes and... (Read full poem)

25. Children - written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
From Birds Of Passage. Read 3384 times on American Poems.

Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning... (Read full poem)