1. Friendship After Love - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 2304 times on American Poems.

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)

There are some nights when
sleep plays coy,
aloof and disdainful.
And all the wiles
that I employ to win
its service to my side
are useless as wounded pride,
and much more painful. (Read full poem)

3. Platonic - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 1333 times on American Poems.

I knew it the first of the summer, 
I knew it the same at the end, 
That you and your love were plighted, 
But couldn’t you be my friend? 
Couldn’t we sit in the twilight, 
Couldn’t we walk on the shore
With only a pleasant friendship
To bind... (Read full poem)

To Ezra Pound;With 
much friendship and admiration and some differences of opinion(Read full poem)

5. An Hymn To Humanity (To S.P.G. Esp) - written by Phillis Wheatley
Published in 1773. Read 1988 times on American Poems.

O! for this dark terrestrial ball
Forsakes his azure-paved hall
    A prince of heav'nly birth!
Divine Humanity behold,
What wonders rise, what charms unfold
    At his descent to earth!

II.

The bosoms of the great and good
With wonder and delight... (Read full poem)

E v'ry grace in her combine,L ove and truth and friendship join,I n one source without reserve,Z ealous all her friends to serve,A nd diffuse true harmony. H appy nymph of chaste repose,U nsullied as the vernal rose.G ay -- majestic -- yet serene,H... (Read full poem)

7. To the East and to the West. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 2284 times on American Poems.

TO the East and to the West; 
To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania, 
To the Kanadian of the North—to the Southerner I love; 
These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men; 
I believe the main... (Read full poem)

AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats! 
Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me! 
(For what is my life, or any man’s life, but a conflict with foes—the old, the
	incessant
	war?) 
You degradations—you tussle with passions... (Read full poem)

9. After Spanish Proverb - written by Dorothy Parker
From Death and Taxes. Published in 1931. Read 8655 times on American Poems.

Oh, mercifullest one of all,
Oh, generous as dear,
None lived so lowly, none so small,
Thou couldst withhold thy tear:

How swift, in pure compassion,
How meek in charity,
To offer friendship to the one
Who begged but love of thee!

Oh, gentle word,... (Read full poem)

(For Louise Imogen Guiney)

There is a wall of flesh before the eyes
Of John, who yet perceives and hails his King.
It is Our Lady's painful bliss to bring
Before mankind the Glory of the skies.
Her cousin feels her womb's sweet burden... (Read full poem)

11. The Day Is A Poem (September 19, 1939) - written by Robinson Jeffers
Published in 1941. Read 1846 times on American Poems.

This morning Hitler spoke in Danzig, we hear his voice.
A man of genius: that is, of amazing
Ability, courage, devotion, cored on a sick child's soul,
Heard clearly through the dog wrath, a sick child
Wailing in Danzig; invoking destruction and... (Read full poem)

We have a name for it 
in the South: 
asshole buddies. 
It means we've known 
each other so long 
it doesn't matter 
that he's an asshole 
in my opinion 
or I'm an asshole 
in his opinion 
or whatever 
And I want you to know 
I'm not from the South... (Read full poem)

13. Are You the New person, drawn toward Me? - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 6554 times on American Poems.

ARE you the new person drawn toward me? 
To begin with, take warning—I am surely far different from what you suppose; 
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? 
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? 
Do you think the... (Read full poem)

Napoleon's hat is an obvious choice I guess to list as a famous
hat, but that's not the hat I have in mind. That was his hat for
show. I am thinking of his private bathing cap, which in all hon-
esty wasn't much different than the one any jerk... (Read full poem)

15. Sorrow's Uses - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 777 times on American Poems.

The uses of sorrow I comprehend
Better and better at each year’s end.

Deeper and deeper I seem to see
Why and wherefore it has to be

Only after the dark, wet days
Do we fully rejoice in the sun’s bright rays.

Sweeter the crust tastes... (Read full poem)

Ye aspiring ones, listen to the story of the unknown
Who lies here with no stone to mark the place.
As a boy reckless and wanton,
Wandering with gun in hand through the forest
Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfield,
I shot a hawk perched on the... (Read full poem)

17. Refuted - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 525 times on American Poems.

‘Anticipation is sweeter than realisation.’

It may be, yet I have not found it so.
In those first golden dreams of future fame
I did not find such happiness as came
When toil was crowned with triumph. Now I know
My words have recognition, and... (Read full poem)

This is the year the old ones,
the old great ones
leave us alone on the road.

The road leads to the sea.
We have the words in our pockets,
obscure directions. The old ones

have taken away the light of their presence,
we see it moving away... (Read full poem)

19. Provide, Provide - written by Robert Frost
From A Further Range. Published in 1936. Read 11771 times on American Poems.

The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag,
Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood.
Too many fall from great and good
For you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.
Or if... (Read full poem)

My wedding-ring lies in a basket 
as if at the bottom of a well. 
Nothing will come to fish it back up 
and onto my finger again. 
                    It lies 
among keys to abandoned houses, 
nails waiting to be needed and hammered 
into... (Read full poem)

21. Anthony Findlay - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 418 times on American Poems.

Both for the country and for the man,
And for a country as well as a man,
'Tis better to be feared than loved.
And if this country would rather part
With the friendship of every nation
Than surrender its wealth,
I say of a man 'tis worse to... (Read full poem)

Since the fern can't go to the sink for a drink of
water, I graciously submit myself to the task, bringing two
glasses from the sink.
  And so we sit, the fern and I, sipping water together.


  Of course I'm more complex than a fern, full of... (Read full poem)

23. Springfield Magical - written by Vachel Lindsay
Read 786 times on American Poems.

In this, the City of my Discontent, 
Sometimes there comes a whisper from the grass, 
"Romance, Romance — is here. No Hindu town 
Is quite so strange. No Citadel of Brass 
By Sinbad found, held half such love and hate; 
No picture-palace in a... (Read full poem)

You never understood, O unknown one,
Why it was I repaid
Your devoted friendship and delicate ministrations
First with diminished thanks,
Afterward by gradually withdrawing my presence from you,
So that I might not be compelled to thank... (Read full poem)

25. Robert Davidson - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 463 times on American Poems.

I grew spiritually fat living off the souls of men.
If I saw a soul that was strong
I wounded its pride and devoured its strength.
The shelters of friendship knew my cunning,
For where I could steal a friend I did so.
And wherever I could... (Read full poem)