1. A Negro Love Song - written by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Read 3172 times on American Poems.

Seen my lady home las' night, 
Jump back, honey, jump back.
Hel' huh han' an' sque'z it tight,
Jump back, honey, jump back.
Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh,
Seen a light gleam f'om huh eye,
An' a smile go flittin' by --
Jump back,... (Read full poem)

If all the ships I have at sea 
Should come a-sailing home to me, 
From sunny lands, and lands of cold, 
Ah well! the harbor could not hold 
So many sails as there would be 
If all my ships came in from sea. 

If half my ships came home from... (Read full poem)

3. I learned -- at least -- what Home could be -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1764 times on American Poems.

I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --
How ignorant I had been
Of pretty ways of Covenant --
How awkward at the Hymn

Round our new Fireside -- but for this --
This pattern -- of the Way --
Whose Memory drowns me, like the Dip
Of a Celestial... (Read full poem)

They went home and told their wives,
that never once in all their lives,
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.

They said my house was licking clean,
no word I spoke was ever mean,
I had an air of mystery,
But... They went... (Read full poem)

5. Embarrassment of one another - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1928 times on American Poems.

Embarrassment of one another
And God
Is Revelation's limit,
Aloud
Is nothing that is chief,
But still,
Divinity dwells under a seal.(Read full poem)

The Wife
The house is like a garden,
The children are the flowers,
The gardener should come methinks
And walk among his bowers,
Oh! lock the door on worry
And shut your cares away,
Not time of year, but love and cheer,
Will make a... (Read full poem)

7. Summer - written by Amy Lowell
From A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass. Read 8883 times on American Poems.

Some men there are who find in nature all
Their inspiration, hers the sympathy
Which spurs them on to any great endeavor,
To them the fields and woods are closest friends,
And they hold dear communion with the hills;
The voice of waters soothes... (Read full poem)

A little Dog that wags his tail
And knows no other joy
Of such a little Dog am I
Reminded by a Boy

Who gambols all the living Day
Without an earthly cause
Because he is a little Boy
I honestly suppose --

The Cat that in the Corner dwells
Her... (Read full poem)

9. Poets - written by Joyce Kilmer
From Trees and Other Poems. Published in 1914. Read 997 times on American Poems.

Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells
That the wind sways above a ruined shrine.
Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells
Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine.
Light songs we breathe that perish with our breath
Out of our lips that have... (Read full poem)

I ate pancakes one night in a Pancake House
Run by a lady my age. She was gay.
When I told her that I came from Pasadena
She laughed and said, "I lived in Pasadena
When Fatty Arbuckle drove the El Molino bus."

I felt that I had met someone from... (Read full poem)

11. One Wants A Teller In A Time Like This - written by Gwendolyn Brooks
Read 4665 times on American Poems.

One wants a teller in a time like this

One's not a man, one's not a woman grown
To bear enormous business all alone.

One cannot walk this winding street with pride
Straight-shouldered, tranquil-eyed,
Knowing one knows for sure the way back... (Read full poem)

Back of my back, they talk of me,
Gabble and honk and hiss;
Let them batten, and let them be-
Me, I can sing them this:

"Better to shiver beneath the stars,
Head on a faithless breast,
Than peer at the night through rusted bars,
And share an... (Read full poem)

13. I never felt at Home -- Below - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2430 times on American Poems.

I never felt at Home -- Below --
And in the Handsome Skies
I shall not feel at Home -- I know --
I don't like Paradise --

Because it's Sunday -- all the time --
And Recess -- never comes --
And Eden'll be so lonesome
Bright Wednesday Afternoons... (Read full poem)

I went back to the clanging city,
 I went back where my old loves stayed,
But my heart was full of my new love's glory,
 My eyes were laughing and unafraid.

I met one who had loved me madly
 And told his love for all to hear --
But we talked of a... (Read full poem)

15. An Ending - written by Philip Levine
Read 1331 times on American Poems.

Early March. 
The cold beach deserted. My kids 
home in a bare house, bundled up 
and listening to rock music 
pirated from England. My wife 
waiting for me in a bar, alone 
for an hour over her sherry, and none 
of us knows why I have to pace 
back... (Read full poem)

I Years had been from Home
And now before the Door
I dared not enter, lest a Face
I never saw before

Stare solid into mine
And ask my Business there --
"My Business but a Life I left
Was such remaining there?"

I leaned upon the Awe --
I lingered... (Read full poem)

17. On Being a Woman - written by Dorothy Parker
From Sunset Gun. Published in 1928. Read 10194 times on American Poems.

Why is it, when I am in Rome,
I'd give an eye to be at home,
But when on native earth I be,
My soul is sick for Italy?

And why with you, my love, my lord,
Am I spectacularly bored,
Yet do you up and leave me- then
I scream to have you back again?(Read full poem)

(For S. M. E.)

I take my leave, with sorrow, of Him I love so well;
I look my last upon His small and radiant prison-cell;
O happy lamp! to serve Him with never ceasing light!
O happy flame! to tremble forever in His sight!
I leave the holy... (Read full poem)

19. Personality - written by Carl Sandburg
From Chicago Poems. Published in 1912. Read 5734 times on American Poems.

Musings of a Police Reporter in the Identification Bureau

YOU have loved forty women, but you have only one thumb.
You have led a hundred secret lives, but you mark only
one thumb.
You go round the world and fight in a thousand wars and
win all the... (Read full poem)

I shall come back without fanfaronade
Of wailing wind and graveyard panoply;
But, trembling, slip from cool Eternity-
A mild and most bewildered little shade.
I shall not make sepulchral midnight raid,
But softly come where I had longed to be
In... (Read full poem)

21. Eleventh Avenue Racket - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 2222 times on American Poems.

THERE is something terrible
about a hurdy-gurdy,
a gipsy man and woman,
and a monkey in red flannel
all stopping in front of a big house
with a sign “For Rent” on the door
and the blinds hanging loose
and nobody home.
I never saw this.
I... (Read full poem)

I told you the winter would go, love, 
I told you the winter would go, 
That he'd flee in shame when the south wind came, 
And you smiled when I told you so.
You said the blustering fellow
Would never yield to a breeze, 
That his cold, icy... (Read full poem)

23. In Praise of Songs that Die - written by Vachel Lindsay
Read 470 times on American Poems.

AFTER HAVING READ A GREAT DEAL OF GOOD CURRENT POETRY IN THE MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS


Ah, they are passing, passing by,
Wonderful songs, but born to die!
Cries from the infinite human seas,
Waves thrice-winged with harmonies.
Here I stand... (Read full poem)

These fought in any case,
and some believing
pro domo, in any case .....

Died some, pro patria,
walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving
came home, home to a lie,
home to many deceits,
home to old lies and new... (Read full poem)

25. Tho' I get home how late -- how late - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2409 times on American Poems.

Tho' I get home how late -- how late --
So I get home - 'twill compensate --
Better will be the Ecstasy
That they have done expecting me --
When Night -- descending -- dumb -- and dark --
They hear my unexpected knock --
Transporting must the moment... (Read full poem)