1. "Speech" -- is a prank of Parliament -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2161 times on American Poems.

"Speech" -- is a prank of Parliament --
"Tears" -- is a trick of the nerve --
But the Heart with the heaviest freight on --
Doesn't -- always -- move --(Read full poem)

Speech is one symptom of Affection
And Silence one --
The perfectest communication
Is heard of none --

Exists and its indorsement
Is had within --
Behold, said the Apostle,
Yet had not seen!(Read full poem)

3. I fear a Man of frugal Speech -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2505 times on American Poems.

I fear a Man of frugal Speech --
I fear a Silent Man --
Haranguer -- I can overtake --
Or Babbler -- entertain --

But He who weigheth -- While the Rest --
Expend their furthest pound --
Of this Man -- I am wary --
I fear that He is Grand --(Read full poem)

Of Silken Speech and Specious Shoe
A Traitor is the Bee
His service to the newest Grace
Present continually

His Suit a chance
His Troth a Term
Protracted as the Breeze
Continual Ban propoundeth He
Continual Divorce.(Read full poem)

5. The Silence - written by Wendell Berry
From The Country of Marriage. Read 2862 times on American Poems.

Though the air is full of singing
my head is loud
with the labor of words.

Though the season is rich
with fruit, my tongue
hungers for the sweet of speech.

Though the beech is golden
I cannot stand beside it
mute, but must say

"It is... (Read full poem)

The Rose did caper on her cheek --
Her Bodice rose and fell --
Her pretty speech -- like drunken men --
Did stagger pitiful --

Her fingers fumbled at her work --
Her needle would not go --
What ailed so smart a little Maid --
It puzzled me to know... (Read full poem)

7. The Well Dressed Man With A Beard - written by Wallace Stevens
Read 4728 times on American Poems.

After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.
No was the night. Yes is this present sun.
If the rejected things, the things denied,
Slid over the western cataract, yet one,
One only, one thing that was firm, even
No... (Read full poem)

I was just turned twenty-one,
And Henry Phipps, the Sunday-school superintendent,
Made a speech in Bindle's Opera House.
"The honor of the flag must be upheld," he said,
"Whether it be assailed by a barbarous tribe of Tagalogs
Or the... (Read full poem)

9. What Were They Like? - written by Denise Levertov
Read 8343 times on American Poems.

Did the people of Viet Nam
use lanterns of stone?
Did they hold ceremonies
to reverence the opening of buds?
Were they inclined to quiet laughter?
Did they use bone and ivory,
jade and silver, for ornament?
Had they an epic poem?
Did they... (Read full poem)

“I like dappled hats,” she said
as she lit the incendiary device.

He enjoyed her wet diphthongs
on her nape, his frequency
modulator, his frenulum.

“You must warn me,” she said
as she manipulated the milibars.

He was engulfed by the... (Read full poem)

11. A Warning To My Readers - written by Wendell Berry
From The Country of Marriage. Published in 1973. Read 1388 times on American Poems.

Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I 
may have spoken... (Read full poem)

Gratitude -- is not the mention
Of a Tenderness,
But its still appreciation
Out of Plumb of Speech.

When the Sea return no Answer
By the Line and Lead
Proves it there's no Sea, or rather
A remoter Bed?(Read full poem)

13. Francesca - written by Ezra Pound
Read 3407 times on American Poems.

You came in out of the night
And there were flowers in your hand,
Now you will come out of a confusion of people,
Out of a turmoil of speech about you.

I who have seen you amid the primal things
Was angry when they spoke your name
IN... (Read full poem)

Prayer is the little implement
Through which Men reach
Where Presence -- is denied them.
They fling their Speech

By means of it -- in God's Ear --
If then He hear --
This sums the Apparatus
Comprised in Prayer --(Read full poem)

15. Give little Anguish - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1851 times on American Poems.

Give little Anguish --
Lives will fret --
Give Avalanches --
And they'll slant --
Straighten -- look cautious for their Breath --
But make no syllable -- like Death --
Who only shows the Marble Disc --
Sublimer sort -- than Speech --(Read full poem)

It has happened suddenly,
by surprise, in an arbor,
or while drinking good coffee,
after speaking, or before,

that I dumbly inhabit
a density; in language,
there is nothing to stop it,
for nothing retains an edge.

Simple ignorance... (Read full poem)

17. The Lightning playeth -- all the while -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1397 times on American Poems.

The Lightning playeth -- all the while --
But when He singeth -- then --
Ourselves are conscious He exist --
And we approach Him -- stern --

With Insulators -- and a Glove --
Whose short -- sepulchral Bass
Alarms us -- tho' His Yellow feet
May pass... (Read full poem)

What care I, so they stand the same,—
Things of the heavenly mind,—
How long the power to give them fame
Tarries yet behind?

Thus far to-day your favors reach,
O fair, appeasing Presences!
Ye taught my lips a single speech,
And a... (Read full poem)

19. Forbearance - written by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read 3615 times on American Poems.

Hast thou named all the birds without a gun;
Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk;
At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse;
Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust;
And loved so well a high behavior
In man or maid, that thou... (Read full poem)

How does it happen, tell me,
That I who was the most erudite of lawyers,
Who knew Blackstone and Coke
Almost by heart, who made the greatest speech
The court-house ever heard, and wrote
A brief that won the praise of Justice Breese--
How does... (Read full poem)

21. As far from pity, as complaint - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1367 times on American Poems.

As far from pity, as complaint --
As cool to speech -- as stone --
As numb to Revelation
As if my Trade were Bone --

As far from time -- as History --
As near yourself -- Today --
As Children, to the Rainbow's scarf --
Or Sunset's Yellow play

To... (Read full poem)

I AM a copper wire slung in the air,
Slim against the sun I make not even a clear line of shadow.
Night and day I keep singing--humming and thrumming:
It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and the
tears, the work and want,
Death and... (Read full poem)

23. Faith Matheny - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 780 times on American Poems.

At first you will know not what they mean,
And you may never know,
And we may never tell you: --
These sudden flashes in your soul,
Like lambent lightning on snowy clouds
At midnight when the moon is full.
They come in solitude, or... (Read full poem)

THITHER, as I look, I see each result and glory retracing itself and nestling close,
    always
	obligated; 
Thither hours, months, years—thither trades, compacts, establishments, even the most
    minute;
	
Thither every-day life, speech,... (Read full poem)

25. Upon the road of my life - written by Stephen Crane
From The Black Riders & Other Lines. Published in 1905. Read 5297 times on American Poems.

Upon the road of my life,
Passed me many fair creatures,
Clothed all in white, and radiant.
To one, finally, I made speech:
"Who art thou?"
But she, like the others,
Kept cowled her face,
And answered in haste, anxiously,
"I am good deed,... (Read full poem)