1. My first well Day -- since many ill -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1837 times on American Poems.

My first well Day -- since many ill --
I asked to go abroad,
And take the Sunshine in my hands,
And see the things in Pod --

A 'blossom just when I went in
To take my Chance with pain --
Uncertain if myself, or He,
Should prove the strongest... (Read full poem)

Of so divine a Loss
We enter but the Gain,
Indemnity for Loneliness
That such a Bliss has been.(Read full poem)

3. Dreams in the dusk - written by Carl Sandburg
From Chicago Poems. Published in 1900. Read 6926 times on American Poems.

DREAMS in the dusk,
Only dreams closing the day
And with the day's close going back
To the gray things, the dark things,
The far, deep things of dreamland.

Dreams, only dreams in the dusk,
Only the old remembered pictures
Of lost days when the... (Read full poem)

When this world's pleasures for my soul sufficed, 
Ere my heart's plummet sounded depths of pain, 
I call on Reason to control my brain, 
And scoffed at that old story of Christ.

But when o'er burning wastes my feet had trod, 
And all my... (Read full poem)

5. Does It Pay? - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 4340 times on American Poems.

If one poor burdened toiler o’er life’s road, 
Who meets us by the way, 
Goes on less conscious of his galling load, 
Then life, indeed, does pay.

If we can show the troubled heart the gain
That lies always in loss, 
Why, then, we too are... (Read full poem)

When I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with what attained,
Little room do I find for pride.

I am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good intent
Has fallen short or been... (Read full poem)

7. Mother's Loss - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 2634 times on American Poems.

If I could clasp my little babe
Upon my breast to-night, 
I would not mind the blowing wind
That shrieketh in affright.
Oh, my lost babe! my little babe, 
My babe with dreamful eyes; 
Thy bed is cold; and night wind bold
Shrieks woeful... (Read full poem)

Removed from Accident of Loss
By Accident of Gain
Befalling not my simple Days --
Myself had just to earn --

Of Riches -- as unconscious
As is the Brown Malay
Of Pearls in Eastern Waters,
Marked His -- What Holiday
Would stir his slow conception... (Read full poem)

9. A loss of something ever felt I -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2492 times on American Poems.

A loss of something ever felt I --
The first that I could recollect
Bereft I was -- of what I knew not
Too young that any should suspect

A Mourner walked among the children
I notwithstanding went about
As one bemoaning a Dominion
Itself the only... (Read full poem)

Let no man pray that he know not sorrow,
Let no soul ask to be free from pain,
For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,
And the moment's loss is the lifetime's gain.

Through want of a thing does its worth redouble,
Through... (Read full poem)

11. Rain In My Heart - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 2737 times on American Poems.

There is a quiet in my heart
Like on who rests from days of pain.
Outside, the sparrows on the roof
Are chirping in the dripping rain.

Rain in my heart; rain on the roof;
And memory sleeps beneath the gray 
And the windless sky and brings no... (Read full poem)

After the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires, 
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he... (Read full poem)

13. Pain has but one Acquaintance - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1991 times on American Poems.

Pain has but one Acquaintance
And that is Death --
Each one unto the other
Society enough.

Pain is the Junior Party
By just a Second's right --
Death tenderly assists Him
And then absconds from Sight.(Read full poem)

Pain -- has an Element of Blank --
It cannot recollect
When it begun -- or if there were
A time when it was not --

It has no Future -- but itself --
Its Infinite contain
Its Past -- enlightened to perceive
New Periods -- of Pain.(Read full poem)

15. Pain -- expands the Time -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1976 times on American Poems.

Pain -- expands the Time --
Ages coil within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain --

Pain contracts -- the Time --
Occupied with Shot
Gamuts of Eternities
Are as they were not --(Read full poem)

of all the blessings which to man
kind progress doth impart
one stands supreme i mean the an
imal without a heart.
   
Huge this collective pseudobeast
(sans either pain or joy)
does nothing except preexist
its hoi in its polloi
      
and if... (Read full poem)

17. Dream Song 127: Again, his friend's death made the man sit still - written by John Berryman
From His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Published in 1968. Read 1013 times on American Poems.

Again, his friend's death made the man sit still
and freeze inside—his daughter won first price—
his wife scowled over at him—
It seemed to be Hallowe'en.
His friend's death had been adjudged suicide,
which dangles a... (Read full poem)

A few long-hoarded pennies in his hand
Behold him stand;
A kilted Hedonist, perplexed and sad.
The joy that once he had,
The first delight of ownership is fled.
He bows his little head.
Ah, cruel Time, to kill
That splendid thrill!
Then in... (Read full poem)

19. Fitter to see Him, I may be - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1228 times on American Poems.

Fitter to see Him, I may be
For the long Hindrance -- Grace -- to Me --
With Summers, and with Winters, grow,
Some passing Year -- A trait bestow

To make Me fairest of the Earth --
The Waiting -- then -- will seem so worth
I shall impute with half... (Read full poem)

Eighty

Lonely in his great age, Henry's old friend
leaned on his burning cane while hís old friend
was hymnéd out of living.
The Abbey rang with sound. Pound white as snow
bowed to them with his thoughts—it's hard to know them... (Read full poem)

21. An Abandoned Factory, Detroit - written by Philip Levine
From On The Edge. Published in 1963. Read 766 times on American Poems.

The gates are chained, the barbed-wire fencing stands, 
An iron authority against the snow, 
And this grey monument to common sense 
Resists the weather. Fears of idle hands, 
Of protest, men in league, and of the slow 
Corrosion of their minds,... (Read full poem)

The hallowing of Pain
Like hallowing of Heaven,
Obtains at a corporeal cost --
The Summit is not given

To Him who strives severe
At middle of the Hill --
But He who has achieved the Top --
All -- is the price of All --(Read full poem)

23. Had this one Day not been. - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1941 times on American Poems.

Had this one Day not been.
Or could it cease to be
How smitten, how superfluous,
Were every other Day!

Lest Love should value less
What Loss would value more
Had it the stricken privilege,
It cherishes before.(Read full poem)

There is a pain -- so utter --
It swallows substance up --
Then covers the Abyss with Trance --
So Memory can step
Around -- across -- upon it --
As one within a Swoon --
Goes safely -- where an open eye --
Would drop Him -- Bone by Bone.(Read full poem)

25. Are Friends Delight or Pain? - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 4621 times on American Poems.

Are Friends Delight or Pain?
Could Bounty but remain
Riches were good --

But if they only stay
Ampler to fly away
Riches are sad.(Read full poem)