1. Snow Day - written by Billy Collins
Read 11068 times on American Poems.

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows

the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the... (Read full poem)

AN old man’s thought of School; 
An old man, gathering youthful memories and blooms, that youth itself cannot. 
  
Now only do I know you! 
O fair auroral skies! O morning dew upon the grass! 
  
And these I see—these sparkling eyes,
These... (Read full poem)

3. The Suitor - written by Jane Kenyon
Read 2003 times on American Poems.

We lie back to back. Curtains
lift and fall,
like the chest of someone sleeping. 
Wind moves the leaves of the box elder; 
they show their light undersides,
turning all at once
like a school of fish. 
Suddenly I understand that I am happy.... (Read full poem)

Calmly we walk through this April's day,
Metropolitan poetry here and there,
In the park sit pauper and rentier,
The screaming children, the motor-car
Fugitive about us, running away,
Between the worker and the millionaire
Number provides all... (Read full poem)

5. What Fifty Said - written by Robert Frost
From West-Running Brook. Published in 1928. Read 12039 times on American Poems.

When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.

Now when I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be... (Read full poem)

'Tis One by One -- the Father counts --
And then a Tract between
Set Cypherless -- to teach the Eye
The Value of its Ten --

Until the peevish Student
Acquire the Quick of Skill --
Then Numerals are dowered back --
Adorning all the Rule --

'Tis... (Read full poem)

7. Gee, You're So Beautiful That It's Starting To Rain - written by Richard Brautigan
Published in 1950. Read 3478 times on American Poems.

Oh, Marcia, 
I want your long blonde beauty
to be taught in high school,
so kids will learn that God
lives like music in the skin
and sounds like a sunshine harpsicord.
I want high school report cards 
to look like this:

Playing with Gentle Glass... (Read full poem)

In January everything freezes.
We have two children. Both are she'ses.
This is our January rule:
One girl in bed, and one in school.

In February the blizzard whirls.
We own a pair of little girls.
Blessings upon of each the head ----
The one in... (Read full poem)

9. September, The First Day Of School - written by Howard Nemerov
From The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov. Read 6867 times on American Poems.

I

My child and I hold hands on the way to school,
And when I leave him at the first-grade door
He cries a little but is brave; he does
Let go. My selfish tears remind me how
I cried before that door a life ago.
I may have had a hard time letting... (Read full poem)

(For My Mother)

The halls that were loud with the merry tread of 
young and careless feet
Are still with a stillness that is too drear to seem like holiday,
And never a gust of laughter breaks the calm of the dreaming street
Or rises to shake... (Read full poem)

11. Taken from men -- this morning - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3656 times on American Poems.

Taken from men -- this morning --
Carried by men today --
Met by the Gods with banners --
Who marshalled her away --

One little maid -- from playmates --
One little mind from school --
There must be guests in Eden --
All the rooms are full --

Far... (Read full poem)

(After Rilke)


Spring has returned! Everything has returned!
The earth, just like a schoolgirl, memorizes
Poems, so many poems. ... Look, she has learned
So many famous poems, she has earned so many prizes!

Teacher was strict. We delighted in the... (Read full poem)

13. The Hills in Purple syllables - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1676 times on American Poems.

The Hills in Purple syllables
The Day's Adventures tell
To little Groups of Continents
Just going Home from School.(Read full poem)

When I was ten (no, younger
than that), my mother tried
to kill herself (without the facts
there can't be faith). One death
or another every day, Tanqueray bottles
halo the bed and she won't wake up
all weekend. In the myth book's... (Read full poem)

15. End Of The World - written by Robinson Jeffers
From The Beginning and the End & Other Poems. Read 3347 times on American Poems.

When I was young in school in Switzerland, about the time of the Boer War,
We used to take it for known that the human race
Would last the earth out, not dying till the planet died. I wrote a schoolboy poem
About the last man walking in stoic... (Read full poem)

I often passed the village
When going home from school --
And wondered what they did there --
And why it was so still --

I did not know the year then --
In which my call would come --
Earlier, by the Dial,
Than the rest have gone.

It's stiller... (Read full poem)

17. A Negro Love Song - written by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Read 3198 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)

Goodbye, lady in Bangor, who sent me
snapshots of yourself, after definitely hinting
you were beautiful; goodbye,
Miami Beach urologist, who enclosed plain
brown envelopes for the return of your very
Clinical Sonnet; goodbye, manufacturer
of... (Read full poem)

19. It was given to me by the Gods - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2245 times on American Poems.

It was given to me by the Gods --
When I was a little Girl --
They given us Presents most -- you know --
When we are new -- and small.
I kept it in my Hand --
I never put it down --
I did not dare to eat -- or sleep --
For fear it would be gone --
I... (Read full poem)

Knows how to forget!
But could It teach it?
Easiest of Arts, they say
When one learn how

Dull Hearts have died
In the Acquisition
Sacrificed for Science
Is common, though, now --

I went to School
But was not wiser
Globe did not teach it
Nor... (Read full poem)

21. When they come back -- if Blossoms do -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2540 times on American Poems.

When they come back -- if Blossoms do --
I always feel a doubt
If Blossoms can be born again
When once the Art is out --

When they begin, if Robins may,
I always had a fear
I did not tell, it was their last Experiment
Last Year,

When it is May, if... (Read full poem)

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)

23. Recovering Amid The Farms - written by Jack Gilbert
From The Great Fires. Published in 1994. Read 1070 times on American Poems.

Every morning the sad girl brings her three sheep 
and two lambs laggardly to the top of the valley, 
past my stone hut and onto the mountain to graze. 
She turned twelve last year and it was legal 
for the father to take her out of school. She... (Read full poem)

Dust of my dust, 
And dust with my dust, 
O, child who died as you entered the world, 
Dead with my death! 
Not knowing breath, though you tried so hard, 
With a heart that beat when you lived with me, 
And stopped when you left me for Life.... (Read full poem)

25. An Instructor's Dream - written by Bill Knott
From The Unsubscriber. Published in 2000. Read 2991 times on American Poems.

Many decades after graduation
the students sneak back onto
the school-grounds at night
and within the pane-lit windows
catch me their teacher at the desk
or blackboard cradling a chalk:
someone has erased their youth,
and as they crouch closer to... (Read full poem)