1. Night Funeral In Harlem - written by Langston Hughes
Read 27619 times on American Poems.

Night funeral
     In Harlem:

     Where did they get
     Them two fine cars?

Insurance man, he did not pay--
His insurance lapsed the other day--
Yet they got a satin box
for his head to lay.

     Night funeral
     In Harlem:

     Who was it... (Read full poem)

The day is ending,
The night is descending;
The marsh is frozen,
The river dead.

Through clouds like ashes
The red sun flashes
On village windows
That glimmer red.

The snow recommences;
The buried fences
Mark no longer
The road o'er the... (Read full poem)

3. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 20194 times on American Poems.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading -- treading -- till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through --

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum --
Kept beating -- beating -- till I thought
My Mind was... (Read full poem)

Upon Concluded Lives
There's nothing cooler falls --
Than Life's sweet Calculations --
The mixing Bells and Palls --

Make Lacerating Tune --
To Ears the Dying Side --
'Tis Coronal -- and Funeral --
Saluting -- in the Road --(Read full poem)

5. 'Tis good -- the looking back on Grief -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2506 times on American Poems.

'Tis good -- the looking back on Grief --
To re-endure a Day --
We thought the Mighty Funeral --
Of All Conceived Joy --

To recollect how Busy Grass
Did meddle -- one by one --
Till all the Grief with Summer -- waved
And none could see the... (Read full poem)

This is a Blossom of the Brain --
A small -- italic Seed
Lodged by Design or Happening
The Spirit fructified --

Shy as the Wind of his Chambers
Swift as a Freshet's Tongue
So of the Flower of the Soul
Its process is unknown.

When it is found, a... (Read full poem)

7. L'Envoi - written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
From Earlier Poems. Read 3042 times on American Poems.

Ye voices, that arose
After the Evening's close,
And whispered to my restless heart repose!

Go, breathe it in the ear
Of all who doubt and fear,
And say to them, "Be of good cheer!"

Ye sounds, so low and calm,
That in the groves of balm
Seemed to... (Read full poem)

This air is flooded with her.  I am a boy again, and my mother
and I lie on wet grass, laughing.  She startles, turns to
marigolds at my side, saying beautiful, and I can see the red
there is in them.

When she would fall into her thoughts,... (Read full poem)

9. Graves - written by Carl Sandburg
From Chicago Poems. Read 2879 times on American Poems.

I dreamed one man stood against a thousand,
One man damned as a wrongheaded fool.
One year and another he walked the streets,
And a thousand shrugs and hoots
Met him in the shoulders and mouths he passed.

He died alone.
And only the... (Read full poem)

I went up and down the streets
Here and there by day and night,
Through all hours of the night caring for the poor who were sick.
Do you know why?
My wife hated me, my son went to the dogs.
And I turned to the people and poured out my love to... (Read full poem)

11. No. 6 - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 2116 times on American Poems.

I'll settle for the 6 horse
on a rainy afternoon
a paper cup of coffee
in my hand
a little way to go,
the wind twirling out
small wrens from
the upper grandstand roof,
the jocks coming out
for a middle race
silent
and the easy rain... (Read full poem)

The good gray guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.

Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of... (Read full poem)

13. The Arrival Of The Bee Box - written by Sylvia Plath
From The Collected Poems. Published in 1962. Read 8592 times on American Poems.

I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.

The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I... (Read full poem)

All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre of the olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.

All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past... (Read full poem)

15. Clocks - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 2928 times on American Poems.

HERE is a face that says half-past seven the same way whether a murder or a wedding goes on, whether a funeral or a picnic crowd passes.
A tall one I know at the end of a hallway broods in shadows and is watching booze eat out the insides of the man... (Read full poem)

DID you ask dulcet rhymes from me? 
Did you seek the civilian’s peaceful and languishing rhymes? 
Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow? 
Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now; 
(I have... (Read full poem)

17. A Fantasy - written by Louise Gluck
From Ararat. Published in 1990. Read 2062 times on American Poems.

I'll tell you something: every day
people are dying. And that's just the beginning.
Every day, in funeral homes, new widows are born,
new orphans. They sit with their hands folded,
trying to decide about this new life.

Then they're in the... (Read full poem)

THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear; 
But now the chorus I hear, and am elated; 
A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of day-break I hear, 
A soprano, at intervals,... (Read full poem)

19. Dream Song 46: I am, outside. Incredible - written by John Berryman
From 77 Dream Songs. Published in 1964. Read 962 times on American Poems.

I am, outside. Incredible panic rules.
People are blowing and beating each other without mercy.
Drinks are boiling. Iced
drinks are boiling. The worse anyone feels, the worse
treated he is. Fools elect fools.
A harmless man at an intersection... (Read full poem)

To Certain Poets About to Die

TAKE your fill of intimate remorse, perfumed sorrow,
Over the dead child of a millionaire,
And the pity of Death refusing any check on the bank
Which the millionaire might order his secretary to
scratch off
And get... (Read full poem)

21. The Whip - written by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Read 499 times on American Poems.

The doubt you fought so long 
The cynic net you cast, 
The tyranny, the wrong, 
The ruin, they are past; 
And here you are at last,
Your blood no longer vexed. 
The coffin has you fast, 
The clod will have you next. 

But fear you not the... (Read full poem)

Child of a line accurst 
And old as Troy, 
Bringer of best and worst 
In wild alloy— 
Light, like a linnet first,
He sang for joy. 

Thrall to the gilded ease 
Of every day, 
Mocker of all degrees 
And always gay,
Child of the Cyclades... (Read full poem)

23. Eleventh Hour - written by David Lehman
Read 1104 times on American Poems.

The bloom was off the economic recovery.
"I just want to know one thing," she said.
What was that one thing? He'll never know,
Because at just that moment he heard the sound
Of broken glass in the bathroom, and when he got there,
It was dark. His... (Read full poem)

nobody loses all the time

i had an uncle named
Sol who was a born failure and
nearly everybody said he should have gone
into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could
sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which
may or may not... (Read full poem)

25. The Eagle That is Forgotten - written by Vachel Lindsay
Read 5156 times on American Poems.

Sleep softly ... eagle forgotten ... under the stone.
Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own.

"We have buried him now," thought your foes, and in secret rejoiced.
They made a brave show of their mourning, their hatred... (Read full poem)