1. Nothing Gold Can Stay - written by Robert Frost
From New Hampshire. Published in 1923. Read 65825 times on American Poems.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.(Read full poem)

The lost can stay lost down here,
in laurel slicks, false-pathed caves.
Too much too soon disappears.

On creek banks clearings appear,
once homesteads. Nothing remains.
The lost can stay lost down here,

like Tom Clark's child, our worst... (Read full poem)

3. A man saw a ball of gold in the sky - written by Stephen Crane
From The Black Riders & Other Lines. Published in 1905. Read 5639 times on American Poems.

A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he achieved it --
It was clay.

Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to the earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Now this is the strange part:
It... (Read full poem)

Within the gold square of the proscenium arch,
A curtain of orange velvet hangs in stiff folds,
Its tassels jarring slightly when someone crosses the stage behind.
Gold carving edges the balconies,
Rims the boxes,
Runs up and down fluted... (Read full poem)

5. Fame is the one that does not stay -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1506 times on American Poems.

Fame is the one that does not stay --
Its occupant must die
Or out of sight of estimate
Ascend incessantly --
Or be that most insolvent thing
A Lightning in the Germ --
Electrical the embryo
But we demand the Flame(Read full poem)

Dust always blowing about the town,
Except when sea-fog laid it down,
And I was one of the children told
Some of the blowing dust was gold.

All the dust the wind blew high
Appeared like god in the sunset sky,
But I was one of the children told
Some... (Read full poem)

7. Gold in the Mountain - written by Herman Melville
Read 1932 times on American Poems.

Gold in the mountain,
And gold in the glen,
And greed in the heart,
Heaven having no part,
And unsatisfied men. (Read full poem)

Not One by Heaven defrauded stay --
Although he seem to steal
He restitutes in some sweet way
Secreted in his will --(Read full poem)

9. She Didn't Mean To Do It - written by Daisy Fried
From She Didn't Mean to Do It. Published in 2000. Read 2360 times on American Poems.

Oh, she was sad, oh, she was sad.
She didn't mean to do it.

Certain thrills stay tucked in your limbs,
go no further than your fingers, move your legs through their paces,
but no more. Certain thrills knock you flat
on your sheets on your bed in... (Read full poem)

MONEY is nothing now, even if I had it,
O mooney moon, yellow half moon,
Up over the green pines and gray elms,
Up in the new blue.
  
  Streel, streel,
White lacey mist sheets of cloud,
Streel in the blowing of the wind,
Streel over the... (Read full poem)

11. Letter S - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1828 times on American Poems.

THE RIVER is gold under a sunset of Illinois.
It is a molten gold someone pours and changes.
A woman mixing a wedding cake of butter and eggs
Knows what the sunset is pouring on the river here.
The river twists in a letter S.
  A gold S now speaks... (Read full poem)

I'm the little "Heart's Ease"!
I don't care for pouting skies!
If the Butterfly delay
Can I, therefore, stay away?

If the Coward Bumble Bee
In his chimney corner stay,
I, must resoluter be!
Who'll apologize for me?

Dear, Old fashioned, little... (Read full poem)

13. The Wind didn't come from the Orchard -- today - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1270 times on American Poems.

The Wind didn't come from the Orchard -- today --
Further than that --
Nor stop to play with the Hay --
Nor joggle a Hat --
He's a transitive fellow -- very --
Rely on that --

If He leave a Bur at the door
We know He has climbed a Fir --
But the... (Read full poem)

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pur whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and... (Read full poem)

15. Coleur de Rose - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 444 times on American Poems.

I want more lives in which to love 
This world so full of beauty, 
I want more days to use the ways 
I know of doing duty; 
I ask no greater joy than this 
(So much I am life's lover,) 
When I reach age to turn the page 
And read the story... (Read full poem)

O I will walk with you, my lad, whichever way you fare, 
You'll have me, too, the side o' you, with heart as light as air; 
No care for where the road you take's a-leadin' anywhere,-- 
It can but be a joyful ja'nt whilst you journey there.... (Read full poem)

17. The Great Figure - written by William Carlos Williams
Read 8905 times on American Poems.

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.



Click here to view a painting inspired by this poem:
"I Saw The Figure 5 In Gold"... (Read full poem)

A GOLDWING moth is between the scissors and the ink bottle on the desk.
Last night it flew hundreds of circles around a glass bulb and a flame wire.
The wings are a soft gold; it is the gold of illuminated initials in manuscripts of the medieval... (Read full poem)

19. Smoke Rose Gold - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1706 times on American Poems.

THE DOME of the capitol looks to the Potomac river.
  Out of haze over the sunset,
  Out of a smoke rose gold:
One star shines over the sunset.
Night takes the dome and the river, the sun and the smoke rose gold,
The haze changes from sunset to... (Read full poem)

not much chance,
completely cut loose from
purpose,
he was a young man
riding a bus
through North Carolina
on the wat to somewhere
and it began to snow
and the bus stopped 
at a little cafe
in the hills
and the passengers 
entered.
he sat at the... (Read full poem)

21. The Guest is gold and crimson - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 6893 times on American Poems.

The Guest is gold and crimson --
An Opal guest and gray --
Of Ermine is his doublet --
His Capuchin gay --

He reaches town at nightfall --
He stops at every door --
Who looks for him at morning
I pray him too -- explore
The Lark's pure territory... (Read full poem)

I was wrapped in black
fur and white fur and
you undid me and then
you placed me in gold light
and then you crowned me,
while snow fell outside
the door in diagonal darts.
While a ten-inch snow
came down like stars
in small calcium fragments,
we... (Read full poem)

23. Harvest Sunset - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 2839 times on American Poems.

RED gold of pools,
Sunset furrows six o’clock,
And the farmer done in the fields
And the cows in the barns with bulging udders.
  
Take the cows and the farmer,
Take the barns and bulging udders.
Leave the red gold of pools
And sunset furrows... (Read full poem)

Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple
Leaping like Leopards to the Sky
Then at the feet of the old Horizon
Laying her spotted Face to die
Stooping as low as the Otter's Window
Touching the Roof and tinting the Barn
Kissing her Bonnet to the... (Read full poem)

25. The Sacrifice - written by Li-Young Lee
Read 1928 times on American Poems.

We come to each other
exactly at the center,
the spine of ample fire, and suffer
to be revised.
Stay with me. 

Weren't we promised
the sheer flame, bright change
so clean even our clothes wouldn't smell of smoke,
not one hair of our... (Read full poem)